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Piper's P•O•V

Watching as Alec tore up his room was almost as painful as watching him die. His rage towards DeMalo and the pain of losing of his soulmate (once again) was something he understandably didn't have control over. My heart broke when Alec suddenly stopped and picked up a piece of clothing off of his wardrobe. I instantly recognized it as Raven's silk robe.

I pitied his pain as he stared at the robe with such raw emotion. When he turned his head, his facial expression was quite different as opposed to the one he had originally expressed. He looked flat out cold, like all the worry and pain had shifted into a bitter wrath.

"You just left my Soulmate to be taken?" Alec asked in a low tone, as he stared at our Father in disbelief.

"I wasn't about to let you die when we had the cure in our hands and Raven had clearly asked us not to look for her-" Father tried to explain himself, but of course, Alec wasn't having it.

"Bull-shit! She just believed whatever DeMalo had foolishly threatened. You had no right to think of her life as collateral damage! You could've done something; you should've done something!" Alec snapped and sent the whole room into silence. His eyes flared bright red with rage. I nearly smirked, glad that Alec had the courage to test our father's authority, while I on the other hand did not have such courage.

"You're my only son, my heir to the throne! My responsibility is to prepare you to take over in my place. I can't do that if you're dead!" Father snapped back at him. Mother opened her mouth and in a moment, closed it again as she gave a second thought to what she was going to say.

"I'd rather be dead than to be your perfect heir. And without Raven, I wish you had let me die." Alec seethed and sent the room into a shocked silence, only until Mother's sobs broke the silence.

Raven's P•O•V

LasttimeIhad been in New York, I had chosen to come back. And that day, I came to terms with living in a kingdom full of Vampires who may or may not kill me at any moment when their hunger overpowers them.

Why?

Truth is, coming home was my closure. I had wanted to go back to find opening arms and a family who had then experienced some sort of epiphany and came to realize I was actually important. I had actually hoped that they were torn apart by my disappearance. I wanted to find my brother, a detective with the NYPD, searching every nook and cranny of this immense city in order to find me.

But I came home and found them all sitting around a table, looking happy as could be, almost as if I was a ghost the whole time and I never truly existed.

At that moment, I never wanted to come back again. I never wanted to walk the streets of the city that I had grown up in. To be honest, I feared the slightest chance of ever seeing my family again. Not after I realized that I was nothing but a nuisance to them.

I didn't want to be reminded of the city that had all but given me twenty years of failure and disposition. And maybe deep down, a little part of me felt rejected and heart broken by how happy my family had seemed without me.

That's how I chose to leave and not look back.

But here I was, waking up to find myself in a car, looking out the window to recognize the streets of the very same city, DeMalo by my side, reminding me of the deal I had made with him.

I picked my head up off the inside of the door swiftly, instantly regretting it as I felt dizziness consume me. My head felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.

I laid my head back against the window and grimaced. Suddenly the car came to a stop and I felt the need to throw up. When the driver started to rattle off the bill, I pulled the door open and fumbled out of the expensive car, hunching over and spilling my guts onto the dimly lit sidewalk.

The car drove away and I could hear DeMalo walk over to me. He went to hold my hair back and I smacked his hand away in disgust, the bitter emotion causing me to heave dryly.

"What did you give me?" I growled, the words thick as they struggled out of my strained throat.

"Nothing but some herbs Akantha had stored away. I must admit, they do a fine job, but the side effects are quite discomforting." DeMalo observed, making a growl rumble through me.

"You think?" I deadpanned and stood up straight, surprisingly feeling much better after emptying my stomachs contents onto the cement.

I stumbled back when I was faced with the stone steps and the gray row-house that stared back at me.

A moment of surprise caused me to keep my mouth shut until I turned to DeMalo.

"Why did you take me back here?" I asked in a thick tone, void of emotion, just a prominent distrust dwelling deep in me towards his unknown intentions.

"I thought you'd like to come back home. I wondered if a small bit of you still wanted to return to your past life." DeMalo replied, walking past me and going up the stairs. He looked over his shoulder to see if I'd follow.

I walked up the stone stairs, feeling unstable but kept my composure, not willing to show any weakness to him.

DeMalo stood by my door and waited for me to trudge up the final stairs. I went over to the dead potted flowers I had beside my door and pushed them to the side. I picked up the spare key and unlocked my front door. I sighed before opening it and looked inside to be faced with an empty darkness.

I walked inside, DeMalo following behind me. I flicked the light switch beside my door and took in how untouched everything was. I didn't say anything as I walked into the kitchen and found the paperwork I had been filing for my office on the island and my empty coffee mug sitting beside it.

Then I thought back to the front door, how there had been no mail slid in through the mail slot. I looked back to the door and furrowed my brow.

"Who's been paying the bills?" I asked, looking over to DeMalo who had found a seat in my living room.

"Your brother. He thought that one day you'd just show up." DeMalo explained blandly, running his hand down the leather armrest absentmindedly.

"How do you..." I started to ask, curious as to how he knew this, but trailed off.

"I've been keeping tabs on the place. I wanted to know that we'd have somewhere to hide away for a while." DeMalo explained. "Luckily for me, no bills are in my name."

"Don't you think this will be the first place Alec will look?" I raised my right eyebrow, confident of my Alec being able to put the obvious pieces together. I walked over to the mirror I had placed on the wall, and pulled off the to do list I had stuck to it.

"Well you see, I don't worry about my brother coming after us. If he does so, he'd only be handing me his crown." DeMalo smirked, furrowing my brow and turned to look at him, wondering what he meant by this. He saw my look of confusion and stood, walking over to me. I froze, not stepping away in fear like my mind warmed me to do.

DeMalo didn't say anything as he stood behind me, both of us looking into the mirror. My body buzzed, dread flooding through my nerves as I could feel his chest nearly touching my back.

DeMalo pulled my left sleeve down, exposing my collarbone and shoulder. An etched-in design was charred into the skin above my collarbone. A circle with two dots, horizontal from each other.

I didn't say anything as I touched the skin, snapping my hand away immediately as it burnt to the touch. I was reminded of the heat that radiated from Alec's wound. Black magic...

"You see, Alec will never touch me," DeMalo smirked wickedly,

"Not as long as the life of his precious Soulmate is bound to mine."

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