Page 139 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

“It’s complicated little brother,” Domencio stammered.

“Did he kill our father? Release the Supreme Draca? Bring on the prophecy with my tools and weapons!! Mine!” Marcello shouted enraged.

Domencio remained silent, his jaw tight. He did not want to add to his brother’s pain. Marcello was the best of all of them and loved without judgement. He didn’t deserve this level of betrayal. So, he remained silent. But his silence was answer enough.

“No. No. No,” Marcello stepped back, refusing to believe.

The courtyard fell deathly quiet. The sound of an approaching whistle cut through the air like a blade. Everysupernatural being froze, their senses attuned to the change in the atmosphere. A presence—dark and all-encompassing—descended upon them, it sent a sliver of dread through the night.

Dolly experienced a warming sensation throughout her body, as if she were being embraced. Her heart hammered in her chest. She knew that presence. She felt it in her bones.

“Lucio,” she whispered, her voice quivered.

Darlene stiffened beside her. Her hand slipped into Dolly’s and the sisters stood—united.

Out of the shadows, a figure emerged, cloaked in darkness, his silhouette unmistakable. The night seemed to bend around him, an aura of power so suffocating that even the strongest among them hesitated to breathe.

“Lucio,” Dolly sobbed, her voice croaked. All the suppressed emotion over the loss of him over the past forty-eight hours hit her like a jet stream. Her body ignited. It glowed with her uncontrollable light, pushing away the guardians behind a force field, barring anyone from coming close to him, Darlene, or her. It was as if her soul had reached out to him and pulled her closer to her one true love.

Come to me,Lucio whispered through the darkness, seductive and powerful.I’ve missed you… Come to me…It was Lucio, but not. His voice, deep and familiar, coiled around both twins, intoxicating them both. Dolly’s glow intensified. Her skin shimmered, and she lifted a few inches off the ground, being pulled toward him.

“Dolly, no!” Darlene yanked her sister back with her own power. “It’s not him. Can’t you feel it? That’s not what Lucio would do to you, or me. He never used his power like that on us. He never had that kind of power over us.”

But Dolly couldn’t hear her. Lucio’s call was too strong, too compelling. The love she felt for him—the love that once defined her—swallowed her whole. She shook off her union with hersister and floated toward him; her eyes glowed as her power surged to be siphoned.

Domencio’s voice cut through the haze of resistance. “Darlene!”

He ran to her side, but a blast of unseen force grown by Dolly’s power threw him back. Marcello and Sebastiano experienced the sensation of being seized by invisible hands, which lifted them into the air while their pain reverberated across the courtyard. Tristan and Shakespeare writhed in pain, suspended by a power greater than their own as well.

The shadow approached. With every step, Lucio’s power rippled through the air like a storm.

“Dolly, resist!” Darlene pleaded, her voice breaking. “It’s not him! Stop it, Lucio! Stop! You’re taking too much from her!”

But Dolly didn’t stop. She glowed so bright, that almost everyone had to close their eyes. It was as if she would implode soon.

“It’s him,” Dolly groaned in evident pain. “I can feel him. He’s all over me. He misses me. He loves me.”

Darlene turned to Domencio, desperation in her eyes and tears in her voice. “What’s happening to her? Why is he doing this? Why is he hurting her like this? Make him stop!”

Domencio staggered to his feet, his body shook, but he could feel it—the resistance. Something within him fought back against Lucio’s pull. And then he understood. The gem, the jewel that had saved him and Darlene from Vittorio and his Draca, protected him now.

He reached Darlene. He grabbed her face and forced her to look at him. “Don’t go. Focus on me. Don’t look at her. Just focus on me. Stay with me, Darlene.”

“I can’t,” she said. “He can’t stop it. Can he? He’ll take her, he’ll drain her. She’s my sister, she’s a part of me. I can’t… let her die for him.”

Domencio nodded. They understood the bond the sisters shared. He looked at what was left of Lucio and suffered his own pang of guilt.

“Okay,” He kissed her brow and pressed the gem into her hand. He put his lips to her ear. “Use it to save them both. Take them somewhere the Draquria can’t reach and I will find you.”

Her gaze dimmed. The gem grew hot in her clutched fist. She tilted her face to kiss him. And Lucio snarled a lethal warning behind them. Domencio had to let her go.

“I’ll come back to you,” Darlene whispered telepathically. “You’ll find us and we’ll come back. Promise.”

“I swear it on my life,” said Domencio.

Before Domencio’s love could change her mind she stepped away and went toward Lucio. Dolly, already in his arms, rested her head against his chest, her body shivered with devotion, her light absorbed by the darkness.

The Supreme Draca smirked, his eyes blazed with malevolent triumph.

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