“We’re here. It’s ok.” As the black mist faded away from them in the foyer of their home and the smell of his mother’s rosemary plants filled his nose again, Teddy held Tessa close to his chest and spoke softly to her. Not so much to reassure Tessa, but so he knew that he was able to save at least one member of his family tonight. “I got you Tess. We made it.” 

Trembling in his arms, Tessa pushed away from him and squeaked out, “Momma’s dead. They killed them.”

Teddy gritted his teeth and blinked up to the ceiling to halt the sting of his tears and hide them from Tessa. They were twin fires and when one lost control, the other followed along until the spark became an Armageddon.

He bent down to look in her eyes and put his hands on her shoulders as he spoke calmly to her. Tessa was prone to go diving off the deep end when she was stressed, and he needed her to stay calm right now or they’d both be too far gone to control. “Go get our bugout bags then meet me right here. Get Momma and Daddy’s too. Go on! Be quick.”

As Tessa ran up the stairs to her room, Teddy rubbed his neck and took a deep breath through his nose. They had practiced for this kind of thing at least a hundred times and Teddy knew the script by heart. “First, get your fucking bags. Second, get the servants to safety.” 

While the young man walked swiftly to the kitchen where the staff were still having dinner, one could see Teddy quickly becoming his father along the way as his usually kind and charming face became stern and demanding. He squinted his eyes and clenched his jaw like he’d seen his father do when he was delivering bad news.

As he sauntered across the threshold like the Lord of the house, it was just like Jasper was standing there confidently handing out orders to them. 

“Listen to me. It’s time, you have to go now. You’re in danger. You know what you’re supposed to do.” He glanced to the floor and shook his head. “Don’t come back here until we send for you. You can’t trust anyone in Savannah anymore.” As he nodded to the basement door, he demanded, “Go on, get out of here.”

As they left through the basement door to the secret tunnel in the wine cellar, Teddy turned to the caretaker, Oliver, the only witch amongst the servants. Teddy crossed his arms as he stared down the bigger man. “When Haldir gets here, if you can stay that long, tell him that my parents are dead. He knows where we’ll be.” 

Grabbing Oliver by his shirt, Teddy shook his head. “If anyone but Haldir shows up here tonight, you mist out of here immediately. They will kill you, Oliver. They’re here to take us all out.”

When Teddy let him go, Oliver scratched the curly black hair on top of his head. “Do you want me to come with you until Haldir finds you?”

Shaking his head, Teddy swallowed the reality of it all down hard. “They’ll be coming for us no matter where we go, Oliver. They’ll never stop until we’re dead. You don’t need to go getting mixed up in this. I don’t expect we’ll ever be coming back here again, so go be with your family and be safe. Stay the hell out of Savannah.”

Teddy felt his heart pause as he heard Tessa’s muffled scream from the foyer. “Teddy help me!” A cold chill ran through Teddy as he felt his twin bond with his sister slipping away suddenly. 

As he and Oliver ran into the foyer, Teddy saw Tessa with blood dripping from her nose and mouth. She stumbled towards them as she looked at her blood covered hands then fell to her knees. Tessa gurgled as she tried to speak to him while fresh blood replaced that which fell from her mouth. 

“He killed me Teddy.” As her weak body finally gave up, Tessa fell forward into Teddy’s arms. Trying desperately to stand again, Tessa’s whole body trembled and twitched. “Why did he kill me?”

All his life, Teddy had been taught to protect his sister. She was a loose cannon with a bad temper, and only he knew how to bring her back from the edge of the cliff she was always teetering on. 

“No, no, no. You’re alright, Tessa.” Teddy spoke calmly to her as he lowered Tessa to the floor and pulled her up in his arms. His lips quivered as he pushed her sticky hair off her face. “You’ll be ok. I got you. We’re a package deal, you can’t go anywhere without me and I’m not ready yet, so just hold your damn horses and wait for me.” 

While Tessa gasped and choked on the blood as she tried to swallow it away, her angelic face pulled down into a pouty frown like a toddler who just got scolded by their mother. Laying there in her brother’s arms, she finally showed him the scared little girl she never showed anyone. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen to Momma.”

Shaking his head, Teddy blew out a breath through his mouth as he softly caressed her messy face with his fingers. “No Tess. It wasn’t your fault. You were just doing what the Fates made you do. They can just be cruel bitches sometimes.” 

As he brought Tessa up to meet his face, Teddy kissed her cold, blood stained cheek. Without his sister, there was no reason for him to even try to escape. He’d just sit there and wait for his turn to die. “I love you. Wherever you go, I’ll find you. Don’t be afraid of what’s coming. When you get there, just sit tight and wait for me, Tess. I’ll be there soon enough. We’ll all be together soon.” 

Tessa nodded in understanding, then she closed her eyes and went limp in Teddy’s arms.

While Oliver tried to keep up with the blood draining from her body as he wiped her face with his handkerchief, he broke Teddy from the shock he found himself spiraling into. “Teddy! You can’t fall apart yet. She needs you. Take her to the human hospital outside town, Teddy. The one we visited when we took flowers to that shopkeeper.”

Teddy looked up into Oliver’s eyes as the fight in him started to fade away like Tessa’s bond with him was. He knew there was nothing that anyone could do for her now. “They can’t help her. They won’t know what to do.”

Oliver shook his head. “You can make them do whatever you want. You need to let the warlock come through Teddy, call on him. Go get her help. I’ll wait for Haldir. I’ll tell him where to find you. Go!” 

Being so preoccupied with his dying sister, Teddy and Oliver never even heard the front door open until they felt the cool breeze sweep across them and caught the earthy whiff of fresh rain on the ground. 

When the crack of the lightning flashed behind his dark form coming through the doorway, Teddy looked up to see Rafik standing there soaked by the storm now raging outside. His chest and shoulders heaved up and down as he clutched at his chest. When he saw Tessa for the first time in the ballroom, the spark of her lifeforce was like an arrow in his heart that he couldn’t pull away. Now that it was slipping away from her, his heart ached for the thrill of the sweet agony again. 

Seeing Tessa bleeding on the floor, Rafik gasped in a breath and staggered towards them. Tessa was the most rare and wild creature he had ever met, like a unicorn, and it seemed especially cruel to see such a precious being dying in front of him in such a shabby way.

As the blood pooled on the black and white checkered marble floor around them, Teddy glanced down at his sister. “You killed her Rafik! Why? She was so in love with you.” Teddy sniffed back his tears and looked at Rafik as he knelt down in front of Teddy and put his fingers to Tessa’s lips.

As his pained face turned into an ugly angry scowl, Rafik sobbed back his father’s betrayal. “Forgive me.”

Teddy looked around the boys look of horror and regret and shook his head. They were still just children caught up in an ancient war that they didn’t understand, after all. “You didn’t know he was going to kill her. Did you?”

Shaking his head slowly, Rafik put his fingertips to his mouth and rubbed the sweet metallic essence of Tessa’s life onto his lips and tongue. He would savor the memory of her taste all his life.

As she started to gurgle and choke back her last breaths, Rafik leaned in and kissed her then licked her blood from his lips as he looked over to Oliver. “I can save her. Get me a knife.”

Oliver ran to the kitchen and took a knife from the wooden block. As he walked back to the foyer, he contemplated just sinking it into the traitors back as he knelt over his mate…but he may be the only chance Tessa had left. 

Taking the knife from Oliver when he returned to them, Rafik blew out a breath then gritted his teeth as he sliced deeply into his arm. As the hot blood poured from the wound, Rafik said, “Tilt her head back.”

Rafik had been inoculated against every poisonous substance on the planet little by little since he was born. It was a common practice in the secretive potion making societies of the witching world. His blood was the only antidote to the poison pulsing through Tessa’s failing body.

As Teddy readjusted Tessa in his arms and her head fell backwards, Rafik held his arm over her parted lips and delivered his gift of salvation to her mouth as he spoke in the old Realm language of their ancestors. “Le do thoil cinniúint bheannaigh cibé cairde a thugtar dom, le do thoil a thabhairt di. Taimid ar ceann de na.”

The squelch of blood between his fingers echoed through the foyer as Rafik wrapped his wet hand around Tessa’s jaw. He shoved her mouth closed to force her to swallow then he smashed his lips onto hers. As he slowly left her face, Rafik whispered to Tessa. “We are bound now, my love. Forever. Until the end of all things, we belong to each other.”

Rafik took her hand and pressed his soft lips onto her skin then placed it on her chest as he backed away. “Give her burdock root. As much as you can for the next few days. It will help her liver get rid of the poison more quickly.” He searched his mind for more as he smeared their joined blood across his forehead. “Fluids. She needs fluids. As much as her body will allow.”

Standing up again, Rafik looked down to his blood-stained hands as rage built inside him. “Take her now. Go far away from here. Don’t ever come back. Tell her I will find her when it’s safe again. Fate will always bring us back together.”

Teddy grunted as he pulled Tessa into his chest and stood up. Rafik helped Oliver as he wrapped the straps of their bags around Teddy’s neck and shoulders then he kissed Tessa’s forehead and slowly backed away. Pausing at the door, he put his hand to his heart then kissed his fingertips. “Until the Fates reunite us Rohi.”

As Oliver put his hand on Teddy’s shoulder, he said, “Go now before they come for you. Go!”

Teddy closed his eyes and held tightly to his sister, the last connection he had left to this world. He looked Rafik in the eye and said, “I won’t forget what you’ve done for her. I won’t let anyone forget that,” then he and Tessa misted into the uncertain darkness.