Chapter thirty two

Sean and Steven fell on the ground as soon as the smoke released them and Malachi and Damien picked themselves up. Damien shook himself, freeing his furs of dirt and Irene finally put down her shield.

Edward's eyes stopped burning and returned to their natural midnight blue as he rushed Rasmus who was holding an unconscious Aliyah. He took her from Rasmus and cradled her face and for the first time since that night, his face revealed warmth as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. However, he sensed something ruining his sweet reunion with her, a flicker of energy on his mating mark which was always a sign that a mate is dying. His eyes turned urgent immediately as he glanced at the sleeping girl and started shaking her to wake her up.

"Oh no," Irene screamed and rushed to them, "what have they done?" she picked Aliyah's hand as she knelt beside her. "They have numbed him," she said and turned to Edward, "they have numbed his powers. His heartbeat is slowing and if he dies, Aliyah will die too just like he would if she dies. In otherwise we can't save one without saving the other, both of them must live for one cannot and will not survive without the other, the cord is binding them and it's strong. It's the reason he can send his powers to her to protect her because protecting her means protecting himself."

"What are we to do?" Edward asked.

"I can wake his powers up but he needs to be birthed for that. So if we can stimulate Aliyah to start having contractions once more, it would help greatly. Only that," she sighed.

"Only that what?" Damien asked, they have all shifted into humans and had crowded Irene and Edward.

"She is too weak to push, she would need strength otherwise she would die giving birth and like I said, if she dies, the little prince will as well."

"So what must be done?" Malachi asked, everyone knows that the only way to calm the prince would be to make sure that nothing happened to his family. If anything happens to Aliyah or his son, he fear that the dark woman's words would get to the prince and what would keep him from becoming a villain after that?

"Just give him your blood, Dark prince," a voice said and they turned to see the white-haired witch from the Westwood Mountain. "Your son is a demon and his demon powers are still intact, a little of your blood would energize him and so would he energize his mother."

Hearing that, Edward wasted no time in cutting open his wrist with his teeth and placing the bleeding hand on Aliyah's mouth.

"It is nice to see you dark prince," the woman said. "I am Hephzibah, the third pure blood witch that ever graced this earth. I had a vision of your revival, in as much as I don't understand how that could be possible, I have always trust my vision and now, here you are," the woman smiled.

"Does that mean you knew he would come back that day but you didn't tell us?" Damien asked.

"Clothe yourself my dear leaders, I'm an old woman," Hephzibah chuckled and with a wave of her hand, clothes appeared on Damien, Steven and Sean. The men glanced at themselves but they really appreciated the kind gesture. "You returned as the demon King, it is by right that you sit on the throne."

"I don't want anything to do with any throne," Edward replied.

"Oh but you must my dear prince, you will the eternal fire and eternal fire loves its throne, it would drag you to it someday and that not being all, being the demon king would ensure that you can protect her."

"I can protect her without a damned throne," Edward said and his eyes flashed blue but Hephzibah didn't flinch or cower.

"Dear prince Edward, you are not going into a little fight. You need help and the only people that can help you are the demons. The nightwalkers' and the night howlers' race are already short in numbers, if you force them to fight your brother and his supporter, not only would you lose but you would be the only being alive by then. I have tried to have a vision about his supporter but all I can tell you is that she is a being that even you dear dark prince, can not afford to offend. You are strong but to her, you are not and therefore you shall need all the help you can get. We witches will arise and support when that time comes but if you want to protect yours and your mate's race, you have to include the demons and the only way you can do that is by being their king so that they would bow to you. Failure to do that, you won't be saving the world, just yourself."

No one said a word as they all watched Edward who was still busy pressing his wrist to Aliyah's lips.

"Think about what I said dark prince and yes, you should know that the eternal fire would be to it's highest when you sit on its throne. Do think about what I just said and you can finally give your mate and son the free and peaceful world you want," and with that, she disappeared.

No one said a word and Edward got up eventually while carrying Aliyah. "I'm going to the palace, my palace," he said and leapt up, vanishing from the room.

Irene sighed and turned to Rasmus, "we have to go, I need to get the ingredients for the little prince and the one I would use to stimulate Aliyah into labor."

Rasmus nodded and went to her side. "What about us?" Malachi asked.

"Yes, should we be going to the palace to wait for you?" Damien added.

"The choice is yours, just stay out of his side, it's clear that he doesn't care about any of us for now."

"What happened to him?" Sean asked, pointing at the empty carcass of Cedric.

"I don't know," Damien shrugged, "I have never seen such a corpse before."

"Neither have I," Malachi concurred, staring at the corpse. "That's a nightwalker, look at the fangs."

"Really?" Damien bent over to inspect the body then his eyes caught the two bite marks on the neck, "is it possible that a creature feeds on Nightwalkers?"

"Hell no, we are the predators out there," Malachi said.

"Well, something fed on this nightwalker, draining it of everything liquid," Damien said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You don't think it was the demon king?" Steven suggested, looking at the carcass and feeling the fear rise in him if he had to end up like that.

"No, this nightwalker clearly works for him, my bet is that this was done by our prince," Malachi said, realization downing on him. "Only he is the suspect."

"So if he feeds on nightwalkers, where does that leave the nightwalker's race?" Sean asked and everyone shuddered at the very thought.

"Let's just forget about that, the most important thing is making sure that Aliyah gives birth soon and that she and the little prince would be okay," Irene said, even she could feel the dreading fear with the new incident but she would rather think about it all another day than now. "Let's go, Rasmus."

"Yes," Rasmus nodded and followed her out of the hole on the wall that was now serving as a door. "By the way, let me say that I am really happy that you are finally awake."

"I am too," Irene responded.

"So, we going to the palace?" Sean asked.

The older men glanced at each other and shrugged, "I think it would be best if we come tomorrow, you younger ones can go ahead and you can pass us the news of what happened. I still have a park to clean even if Ethan is already on it," Damien said.

"I have a council to settle, we still need to address the news of the prince's sudden emergence," Malachi said.

Steven and Sean knew that the older men were feeling guilty being near Edward, after all, they had teamed up to kill him and Malachi had willed the tree bark. So they nodded and let them do what they want for now.

"And Steven," Damien called while they were leaving, "I will be leaving the news in your pack that you are still the future alpha. You did something that even I wouldn't have done, you took the alpha code to the core and not only did you protect Aliyah, you saved the entire werewolf race from being wiped away by taking her in and looking after. You are an alpha through and through and your pack shall know that tonight, well, this morning," he shrugged, realizing that the fight had lasted all night and it was only a few hours till sunrise.

Steven smiled and felt the joy in his heart before kneeling and bowing to Damien, "thank you, High alpha."

Damien nodded and smiled before walking away with Malachi.

"I told you, you would get your title back," Sean teased the boy and helped him up.

"Yeah, but I also lost something," Steven said while Sean frowned but right before he could ask what he meant, he figured it out himself. With Edward back, Aliyah won't need a new mate.

Author's note!

And this is Edward. I guess you are familiar with the picture because its the cover of the book 1. I just want you to know that that is how Edward looks, which made me use the cover immediately.