Page 16 of Taming Darkness

“Let's go,” I tell Kalen before taking off in Darius’ direction. Four measly wolves were no match for Lycus, so I did not fear for his life. I did fear for Darius, however, especially since he sent off a magic flare. It wasn’t just a couple of wolves he faced, but a whole damn army of power hunters.

However, what I am not expecting is the crater I nearly fall into as I rush out of the alleyway. My hand grabbing Kalen’s shirt is the only thing that stops him from falling in as I rip him backward.

Across the other side is Darius standing out the front of the old council building on the steps while hunters surround him. Magic flies everywhere, the energy rippling and surging is intense, the air feels electrified and charged.

Kalen tries to open a portal, but it shatters instantly. “Go, I will find another way,” Kalen tells me, and I nod. I didn’t really want to leave him, but Darius is in a very precarious position and backed into a corner. Backing up, I run, tapping into my vampiric abilities to jump over the huge crater.

As soon as I cross, I am chucked directly into the fray and only just see Kalen disappear as he tries to find another way across. Now we just had to hope Aleera’s Phoenixes could break this damn dome to help us. If not, we may have finally just met our end.

Chapter7

~Aleera~

The memories wouldn’t stop. I come to learn, through them, that the so-called plague was never meant to be a plague at all. It was supposed to be a cure for Harmony-Fae who were dying off from some virus that spread like wildfire. Darius, being a Demonic Harmony-Fae, was not affected by this virus.

They couldn’t explain why Darius was immune, but they think it was because of him being an elemental Demonic Harmony-Fae, because Molly was Harmony-Fae but not an elemental and it affected her. That is why Xandrious started hunting for a cure, they needed to replicate the gene that created Darius.

So they spent months hunting down others like him, only they never found any and my father’s intentions were kept secret. Grayson betrayed Xandrious, my father claimed to want to help, but his true intention was to take over the world, by creating something deadlier. The plague that wiped out all the White-Fae.

What my father created was never a cure for the mysterious virus, it was a mutated version of the virus that turned into the plague. Xandrious ordered him to destroy it when they realized what they created. After all the things I saw him do, I wasn’t sure how someone like him wanted to stop the unpredictable epidemic outbreak until I learned of Molly. Xandrious truly loved his daughter.

Xandrious was hoping to find a cure because the virus that infected the Harmony-Fae he knew would affect his daughter if she became infected. However, my father was scheming behind Xandrious’ back, plotting a way to take down the Demonic Kingdom and the Vamperic Kingdom. From what I saw, he was adamant to destroy everything, sacrifice as many lives as needed if they got in his way just to get closer to his goal.

My father became the very definition of a mad scientist with a god complex. All of his plans and doings were hidden right under the council’s nose. Hidden under the guise of looking for a cure when really he was creating something far more sinister. He wanted to infect the world, yet his reasoning still was not all that clear to me. I saw the money side by infecting them, people would pay for the cure. There was just one issue, there wasn’t one. But initially that wasn’t his goal by the looks of Darius’ memories, something else was.

When Xandrious learned of my father’s betrayal he could do nothing to prove it without implicating himself. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t stop my father, it was too late to act once he found out what was happening behind his back.

Through Darius’ memories, I also learned why the first plague existed. The same as why Darius' mother was also immune.

When the Harmony-Fae started getting this mysterious virus, and it proved to be not only dangerous but also deadly, cord blood was taken right after Darius was born. By none other than my father, of course. So I had no doubt he was the one who was responsible for creating the first original strain and I wouldn’t doubt he created the initial virus.

But now, I also knew what Darius meant about him being responsible for the plague being set free. What he meant when he claimed it started with him.

His cord blood created the plague, and that wasn’t all - my father tricked him when he was a child into doing his bidding. Darius was so blinded by his hate for his father that it was easy to coax him into teleporting into the lab, and retrieve the vials his father ordered to be destroyed.

And my father was there, with a friendly smile on his lips, claiming that Darius was doing the right thing and helping save the world. He told Darius that if he did that, he would be able to put a stop to his father’s vile doings. Darius was fooled into believing that he could stop his father, not realizing he was giving the virus to the very man his father was trying to stop and that was when the second wave was unleashed.

To my horror, I realized that the full extent of my father’s evil plan was now revealed. He had managed to dupe Darius into believing his father was responsible for the plague, when in reality it was my father who started it. Not only that, but he also released it into the world knowing full well how destructive and deadly it could be.

I couldn’t believe what I had found out. Knowing the truth about my father's actions shook me to the core.

So, Darius did what my father asked - he retrieved both vials and then burned the place to the ground out of anger. Darius hated that place with passion. He was convinced if he did what my father told him to, he would never be strapped to that chair again, that the world wouldn’t have to fear another wave of the plague.

But Darius was wrong.

When the second wave hit, Darius knew it was his fault, he knew my father used him. The second wave of the plague had spread throughout the world like wildfire, and it seemed like there was no stopping it. And when the council ordered my father to find a cure, once again, Darius found himself becoming another casualty to those experiments. Until one day he had enough.

The guilt Darius felt for unleashing this virus onto the world made me feel sick, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him and everything he had gone through.

And again, I watch the world through Darius' eyes. This time he’s barely a teenager.

He had spent all day at school and was now getting changed to meet his father, so he can go to the newly built lab.

His father scrutinized every move made by my father. There were cameras set up on every desk, notetakers stood close by and copied down every move my father made, Xandrious knew it was my father but he had no way to prove it.

So, Xandrious was trying to catch him red-handed and have justice served for the vile crimes he committed. He knew my father let off the second wave, but the council believed all evidence was destroyed in the fire, believing the lies my father told, and as far as the council was concerned Greyson could do no wrong.

My father had them wrapped around his finger because no one was hated more than Xandrious, the Demonic King. And after the building burned to ashes, nothing could be retrieved or taken in as a proof to point fingers at the guilty one.

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