Chapter 29 — Another Attack
Chris has returned from subsequent scouts and this time he had better news.
"How is the situation now?" Salvatore asked him immediately.
"They're done talking. Now most of them are scattered around the house and garden." Chris replied.
"So, who's attacking now?" Johann asked, looking at each of them in turn.
"I'll go." Salvatore replied first.
"What? Why? You've already been there lately." Chris said, frowning, for he was very eager to fight.
"Don't you dare to argue with me." Salvatore replied in an indignant voice and scowled at him.
Chris was about to cut in on his word, but seeing Salvatore's expression, he fell silent immediately. Johann looked down, and although wanted to say something, he skipped any further comments. Johann knew his brother very well and knew there was no point in arguing with him.
Salvatore crossed the wall to the other side and immediately jumped on a tree branch, looked around as he checked the area, then jumped onto the lawn and dashed across the garden, deftly avoiding Marco, who was patrolling the house on the other side. Damon was not present anywhere close.
"He's probably with that beloved sorceress of his," thought Salvatore, smiling mockingly, and he moved further, knowing exactly who he was looking for. He scoured the garden, then looked through the windows of the house for his victim. Maybe Salvatore shouldn't be dealing with his private affairs from the past now, but killing this sorceress will only help them later, because it will be one less protector of the "chosen" one.
Deborah was in her room at the time, sitting cross-legged on the bed, reading a book. Suddenly she looked up to the window, feeling someone's eyes on her. A shiver ran down Deborah's body, but she saw no one, only the branch of the tree that lightly touched the window frame swayed steadily. She got up from the bed and walked over to the window. Deborah looked outside to be sure no one is there and closed it with a slight thud, but then she felt watched again. Deborah turned in opposite direction slowly, but saw no one. Suddenly Salvatore fell from the ceiling and immediately straightened, standing on his feet. A soft groan escaped from Deborah's chest at the sight.
"I see that you missed me." he spoke up in that impudent tone of his, full of confidence and a hint of mockery.
"Go away if you don't want to die. I remind you that I'm not alone in this house." Deborah replied, wanting to sound scary, but her voice trembled.
"Don't make me laugh, my dear. I don't like having unfinished business, so you will die today as you were supposed to back then and you will pay me for your mother, who dared to drive me away." as Salvatore said this, a flaming ball appeared in his hand. Paralyzed by fear, Deborah wanted to use her gift, but he anticipated it and immediately hypnotized her with his gaze, then launched a fireball.
~~~~~~
Damon, Selene, Alice, and Teresa were just sitting in the living room talking. Suddenly, Teresa was absent and her eyes blurred, which meant she had another vision. Alice, who was just focused on her thoughts, stared at Teresa more and more terrified.
"Deborah!" they both exclaimed almost simultaneously, then jumped up from the couch. Selene wanted to go with them, but Alice turned to her.
"You can't go, it's too risky. Damon, keep an eye on her, there may be more of them here." she said, of course referring to the demons. At that time, Teresa was already upstairs.
"Ah, and one more thing. Look for Maria, she might be useful." Alice added, before she got up the stairs.
Teresa ran into Deborah's room, lunging at Salvatore, but nonetheless the fireball struck right at Deborah, throwing her aside, where she struck the wall with great force. Salvatore struggled with Teresa for a while, then hit her with all his strength on the floor so that she passed out.
At the same moment Marco burst into the room, breaking the glass to the smallest pieces. Seeing the unconscious Teresa, he was overcome with rage and lunged at Salvatore with great fury. In the meantime Alice burst into the room and ran to Teresa in horror, awakened her, and together they moved to the wall where Deborah lied down. Salvatore escaped through the window and Marco flew right behind him.
When Maria ran into the room, she stopped as if rooted to the spot, but soon found herself next to Deborah, examining her wound and checking if she was alive.
"And how is she?" Alice asked, looking at her panicked and, at the same time, Teresa, too, though she was still a bit dull.
"She's alive." Maria replied, then proceeded to heal Deborah. Her wound was enveloped in a light that was shining from Maria's hands. She closed eyes and breathed slowly to heal her friend quickly, with full concentration.
~~~~~~
As Selene and Damon sat in the living room, staring at the glass door leading to the front of the garden, something suddenly flashed right in front of their eyes, behind the glass. Damon immediately jumped up from the couch.
"Where are you going?" Selene grabbed his hand, clearly concerned.
"It was Chris and Johann." Damon replied, releasing himself gently from her grip. "Don't worry and stay here, I'll be right back." he promised and ran outside.
At the same time, Marco fought extremely fiercely with Salvatore. After about fifteen minutes, they demolished a large part of the garden, knocking some trees to the ground and breaking bushes. When they reached the end of the garden, Salvatore threw Marco against the garden wall with such force that the rubble fell, then climbed the wall himself and jumped outside. When Marco woke up, his enemy was already gone, so he headed towards the house and there found Damon fighting against Johann and Chris, who, impatiently waiting for Salvatore, wanted to investigate the situation.
"I'll help you." he shouted at him.
"Take care of Chris." Damon replied, lunging at Johann and Marco obediently obeyed his command.
~~~~~~
As Selene sat in the living room worrying about Damon, Alice, Rita, Elisabeth, Meredith, Johnathan, Isabelle, Tess, and Teresa came downstairs after they had all taken care of Deborah.
"Where's Damon?" Alice asked, and read the answer in no time from Selene's thoughts. "Has he been fighting with them long?" she asked then.
"About half an hour... I'm really worried." Selene replied.
"They've demolished almost the entire garden." Rita remarked, looking through the glass door at the fallen boughs of trees.
"Oh, no, I've took care of this garden for five years..." Meredith looked in horror at this work of destruction.
"I will help you, aunt, rebuild everything... But now I am most worried about Damon." Selene replied, also staring at the same point as everyone else.
"I still don't know what's going on with Marco." Teresa sighed, sitting down next to Selene.
"Marco is with Damon." Alice suddenly said. "I can hear Damon thinking about him. They fight together with Johann and Chris." she added, trying to focus more.
"Then what about Salvatore?" Rita asked worriedly.
"He probably got away from them." Tess said, sighing slightly disapprovingly.
"What about the rest?" Selene asked.
"Eleazar and Maria stayed with Deborah. She's still very weak, just fell asleep recently." Alice said, following the thoughts of everyone in the house.
"Maybe we should help them, don't you think?" Isabelle suddenly proposed, and everyone looked at her genuinely surprised. Nobody was able to get used to her sudden change.
"This is a very good idea. We shouldn't just sit here and watch until they will kill each other." Teresa revived instantly.
"But you won't come with us." Johnathan turned to his wife with apparent concern.
"Selene, you're staying here too." Meredith said firmly.
"Exactly. Teresa and Alice will also stay with the "chosen one", after all, someone has to protect her." Elisabeth announced. "You, Johnathan, could be useful too, as if anything goes wrong, you can take Selene to parallel worlds. Besides, you'll be calmer if you stay near your wife, right?" she turned to him. "The four of us can handle it easily," Elisabeth added at the end, and then along with Tess, Meredith, and Rita, she went outside.
~~~~~~
Maria sat by Deborah's bedside, occasionally using her powers to restore her strength faster. Eleazar stared at the broken window, ready to attack at any moment. He also looked at Maria from time to time. Eleazar felt a great deal of remorse. He had hurt her so much with his behavior, treated as a "substitute" until Selene decided to be with him. But even so, this beautiful girl, half sorceress, half angel, was still standing by his side. Only now did he realize how Maria must have loved him to forgive all of this. Only now Eleazar noticed how much of an angel his girlfriend had inside of her. He approached Maria slowly and knelt in front of her.
"Maria, my dearest angel, will you ever forgive me for hurting you so much?" Eleazar whispered so that she could hear him and not wake Deborah, who was asleep.
"Ah, Eleazar... I forgave you a long time ago, after all, you did it all because you loved Selene, and I know what it feels to love someone like crazy." Maria replied, leaning slightly over him.
"You're my angel. I feel like we'll be as happy as ever from now on. Promise I will never hurt you again..." Eleazar stood up, sat down beside her, hugged tightly and kissed gently.