Shadows and Light Ch. 16

Hi fearless readers - Sorry that this chapter is a short one. I have been trying to lengthen them but this one had such a natural chapter break there just wasn't really any other choice. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote!!!

Chapter 16 The past that haunts the future

John moved as quickly and quietly as he could over to the open trap door. He descended into the flickering light and took a second to adjust to the flicker from what seemed like hundreds of candles. Finn was lying in the pentagram, unmoving. The slow rise and fall of his chest the only evidence that he was still alive. Next to him were the withered, black robed remains of Cullen.

Pru, wearing black robes was sitting with her back to him, rocking slowly back and forth as an odd chanting filled the room. The book she held in her arms was large and she was obviously reading from it.

"Enter John," came her low voice seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, "I am glad you could make it for the last part of my revenge on you."

John came to a dead stop, "On me?"

Prudence laughed, a high pitched, mirthless laugh that sent shivers down his spine.

"All these years and you never recognized me. Stupid man. I subverted Cullen long ago, under your very nose and you were blind as the proverbial bat. Even after what happened with Richard."

She turned to face him, her angular face hard. "I will have to punish you for that, too. Although it was fun watching you torture yourself over it. I spent a lot of time on him only to have you finish him off and ruin my plans."

"Who are you?" John demanded. He had meant to sound harsh, but instead it sounded frightened.

She laughed again, deep in her throat. "Don't you remember fat, awkward little Pru? Always saying the wrong thing, always clumsy and graceless when you were around. I lived under your nose for the hundred years or so you were married to Rebecca. Obviously I've changed a good deal since you've seen me last."

His mouth opened in shock. Prudence, the younger sister of Rebecca, his first wife. Originally his father had betrothed him to Prudence, only to change his mind when Rebecca was widowed.

"Precious Rebecca, she got everything I ever wanted. Well I took care of her years ago and now it is time for you and your little family. Obviously you found what is left of Ian upstairs, not that you ever gave a shit about him. Poor little boy, always following you with his eyes, practically begging for your attention." Pru snorted. "I thought about leaving him alone but why leave loose ends? It was fun to see how far I could push Simon, even into raping and killing his best friend. He struggled a while before I broke him. And poor Finn, to see his lover tortured and mind wiped. He was very upset with me. Nothing like adding a little spice to my revenge."

John went numb. All these years she had been waiting, lurking. "Richard," he said out loud.

"Yes," Pru rose and placed the book reverently back into its leather wrap. "Richard hated Anne. He hated you for loving her more than him. It was easy to work on him. I was new to my magic then. 'Auntie Pru' was his solace and then his lover, and then his master. It was delicious, watching him with Anne. He was so tender, extracting every scream, every bit of pain, so carefully. I lost Richard, but now I will have Cullen back. The spell is finished. When the moon is finished rising over the horizon the switch will be complete. Cullen will live again."

"And Finn?" said John, already knowing the answer.

"Cullen will be alive again, that is all that matters," she said with grim finality. "Watching you suffer, knowing what he is capable of will be delicious. The perfect revenge and you unable to do anything about it. Unless you want to try killing another son of course," she laughed, shrill and grating.

John just stared at her. He would have Cullen back or rather the monster that he had become. He would loose Finn. Pushing Prudence aside he stepped firmly into the circle and grabbed a hold of the manacle holding Finn at the wrist.

Realizing that he was attempting to remove Finn from the circle, Pru shrieked and with a shove that had far more force than John had expected, she pushed him hard enough to knock him off his feet and out of the circle on the other side.

By the time John had pulled himself to his feet she had armed herself with what looked like a wand in one hand and a nasty looking ceremonial blade in the other. She hissed at him exposing lengthening teeth.

"Did you think that you could stop me? You pathetic idiot," she hissed. "I am almost as old as you are and a practicing Master Mage as well. Cullen is mine. I have been his Master for over a century. Together we can accomplish more in a day than you have in a lifetime."

John looked at her in shock. She was far stronger than she should have been. With a quick step and feint to the left he grabbed her left hand and tried to knock the wand out of her hand. Slashing and shrieking fiercely she drove him back. Bleeding from his left arm now, John was completely unprepared when she struck him across the face with the wand. What felt like an electric shock threw him across the room and he found himself lying on his back, Pru on top of him trying to stab him with her blade.

Screaming with maniac rage she used her bodyweight to push the blade closer until it wavered barely and inch above his throat. From his prone position he kneed her hard in the ass, the blade she held dragging along his face as she flew over his head, landing face first into the cement. He rolled and got to his feet, only to realize that Pru was already up. Her face was bloody and distorted with rage as she swung at him with the wand and followed up with the blade.

John sidestepped and sidestepped again. Staying on the defensive he maneuvered himself closer to the wall rack that held blades of all varieties. He snatched up a knife long enough to be a short sword and a machete and with Pru's next swing he met her blade for blade and drove her back.

"Forgetting, aren't you," he grunted as he parried, "I was a knight for well over three hundred years." Long unpracticed moves came almost unconsciously as he met her blade to wand. "I spent all most all of my time in combat or fending off assassins, bitch. Did you think that I would just stand here and let you take another son?"

Unseen by either of them, Isabelle had quietly entered the basement and was moving quietly along the wall, headed for the collection of keys. Cullen was at least consistent with his manic obsession for everything being in its own place. While John and the woman he was fighting were across the room by the two smaller back rooms, Isabelle tried to move as quietly as she could, not drawing attention to herself. Reaching the collection of keys she hesitated for a minute. She had never been in that particular set of locks and she didn't know for sure what was what. Guessing, she grabbed three keys that looked like they could be manacle keys and on her hands and knees, slid across the floor to where Finn lay.

Finn lay on the floor. He had heard his father come down the stairs and Pru's conversation with him although not much of it registered. He was far past the point of tears and felt empty. Ian had been screaming. Simon must be dead. From the noise upstairs that had filtered down, there had been a fight. His father was here, Isabelle was here, Ian was not, God, was he dead too? Isabelle reeked of Simon's blood, even at this distance. Simon, his heart wailed, Simon. Their connection had been severed earlier but that didn't stop his repeated attempts to reach out for him. He could see Isabelle working the locks on his ankles, trying what looked like different keys to get them open. Did it really matter, he wondered. Did he really want to live if Simon was gone?

Even he jumped at the scream and the explosion that roared in his ears, leaving them ringing and his face and body hurting as they were peppered with small rocks and pieces of debris. He could smell smoke. One foot free, and then two as he could hear his father and Prudence screaming at each other. The wall in between the two smaller rooms had been completely destroyed and the floor to the upstairs bedroom was half gone, with some of the furniture smashed to bits on the basement floor. He could smell smoke and hear the crackle of flames.

Coughing hard, Isabelle scooted up to his right wrist and began fumbling at the lock. A second later she screamed as she was grabbed by an unseen force and flung across the room, into the shelves where the collection of Cullen's skulls had been kept. Several of the shelves were on fire, having been covered with burning candles that had been knocked about. When Isabelle hit them they collapsed into a pile of smoldering lumber, Isabelle at the bottom.

Rage seized Finn, absolute rage. Prudence would kill them all and by God he was going to take her with him. He began to work at the loosening left manacle furiously. Pru and his father were grappling now and close enough that he could almost touch them. Prudence was backing up, step by step. Gauging the distance carefully, Finn lashed out with both free legs, wrapping them around Prudence's knees, knocking her over and sideways to the floor, half on top of him, half beside him. Using his lower body as leverage he pulled again, and the twisted spike that had cemented the manacle in place pulled out of the floor.

Seizing the opportunity John lunged in bodily with the knife, simultaneously stabbing and being stabbed. Finn twisted his wrist and holding the twisted metal spike precariously in his hand lashed out viciously at her. John's blade had passed through her chest, narrowly missing Finn's leg; the spike caught her in the back of her head, the bloody point erupting from her face.

Rolling her body off of his Finn screamed at his father, "Get Isabelle!" He rolled up on his knees and grabbed for the key that still lay on the floor. He could barely hear himself over the roar of the flames. His father hesitated. "I've got the key, go!" he screamed.

Holding his side, John stayed on all fours as he crawled to where Isabelle lay. The room was rapidly filling with smoke now. There was only about three feet of clear air near the floor. The rest of the room was lost in billows of flame and black smoke. Ignoring the agony in his side he used both hands on the burning boards to get enough of them off that he could drag her out. She was dead weight as he crossed the few feet to the stairs. Glancing back to Finn he was just in time to see the beam supporting the ceiling come crashing down, creating a wall of debris and flame between them. Dropping Isabelle he tried to cross the barrier of flames and was driven back by the intense heat and smoke. Again and again he tried, screaming Finn's name, his lungs on fire from the acrid smoke. Hands grabbed him from behind and he fought them as they struggled to drag him backward. His last conscious thought was one of absolute agony; he had never had a chance to tell Finn that he loved him.