The forces all paused outside of The Forest of the Damned, taking in the thick air that smelled rotten. Most of the trees were dead, black and gray husks ready to teeter over at the next sharp wind, and the few large pines that stood firmly had branches that drooped like wilting flowers, as if the very bark had been poisoned. Lightning roared above the mess of long-dead trees, but it wasn't anything new to Bruce and Silvana, who had been fighting these evils since they had returned. What hit them both differently, though, was that ghastly, heavy air, and with each breath they took it was like swallowing toxins. Everybody felt it, from the witches to the werewolves to the vampires. It was a smell of sour blood that tainted the very grass beneath the snow they all stepped on. Angus held a hand before his mouth and tried not to cough in front of Amelia for fear of seeming weak, but as he plugged his nose, she turned away and hacked into her folded elbow. Even Solaris struggled t

Duponte walked forward leaving fiery steps behind her. A curtain of black and red lightning crackled around her skin, and her smile was both wicked and wide, as if all of Silvana's efforts were nothing more but mere entertainment. Silvana, though, could barely move; she tried to bring herself from her knee to no avail, and with one eye shut and the other squinted, she hazily watched as Duponte smacked away Bruce and Amelia, sending the two barreling into the forest. As much as she wanted to retaliate, Silvana was depleted of energy, and sealing the spirits away had drained her of any remaining magic. Duponte clutched Silvana's face with a single hand, and Silvana felt a burning that was completely unique and unlike anything she ever experienced. The pain was not like when she burned her hands ripping the bindings off of Bruce's arms when he was in her father's basement, but the burning caused by Duponte's touch was raw, unnerving, and rattled her from head to toe. Duponte glared

"Don't you see," Duponte said to Silvana with outraised, welcoming arms, "That I'm not your enemy."Duponte pointed to the goopy mess that was the remains of Kurt. "He, now he, was your enemy. He wanted nothing more but your blood and your father's blood."Getting even closer, Duponte pounded a palm to her chest and continued, "I, your family, want you to thrive." Silvana breathed deeply at the sight of the horrible fate that had befallen Kurt. Her heart was heavy with guilt, and for all the troubles that Kurt's mischief and sin had caused her, she still felt a sense of regret that she was not able to save him when he was in a state of delusion and pain. She stepped away from a small collection of bright orange sludge oozing towards her. Kurt hadn't been a good or decent man, but he didn't exactly deserve this. "Don't feel sympathy for this beast," Duponte said, as if reading Silvana's mind, or perhaps her crestfallen face. "Feel sympathy for your mother, for her sacrifice. For

Solaris grabbed the vampire's wrist and stopped her sword from decapitating Duponte. "This woman," Solaris said very seriously, "Is not the same demon who has caused us all great strife." "You speak nonsense, old man!" the werewolf next to the vampire roared. His claws dripped with Duponte's blood, staining the snow at his hind legs red. "Just because you do not have the strength to finish her does not mean I won't.""Stand down," Bruce said with a chill to his voice. He and Silvana ran over. Silvana knelt and observed Duponte's wounds. "They're bad, but she'll live," she determined. "This woman here is my family," Solaris confirmed to the werewolf and vampire, who looked dubiously at one another. "Any ill intent has been removed from her because of these two talented," Solaris paused for a moment, then addressed both Silvana and Bruce as he said, "children of mine."Bruce smirked, as he'd finally gotten the approval of the father of the woman he loved. On the snowy floor,

A cooling, tropical breeze blew the leaves of the palm trees overhead, and Silvana stuck her toes in the warm sand as the sun beat down on her. Waves slapped the shoreline several feet ahead of her, and she reclined into her comfy beach chair. "I can't tell you all how happy I am," she said, "to be away from the snow and the cold." She sipped from a giant margarita that had been put inside a hollowed-out coconut with a large pink straw. "I'll stick to the shade," the pale Angus said, hiding underneath the large, canopy-style leaves from the trees. He was working shirtless at a grill, spreading out lemon slices on top of freshly caught fish. "Oh my god," Amelia said, a cocktail shaker in her hands. "Can you imagine my big Angus with a tan?" Angus peppered some potato salad, laughed, and said, "You all enjoy the sun. I'm hot enough as is at the grill. Amelia pulled down her oversized purple sunglasses, observed Angus's tight rows of abs and murmured, "Hot is right."She gave