Poison Of Power ( Book One)

^ This is a real abandoned mansion in New York. You can look it up.

*

Rex

Rex borrowed Vera's motorcycle even though he hated the damn thing. It was fast and he had no time to waste.

When he got to the Schwarz mansion, Rex forced his unwilling legs to carry him forward. It wasn't the first time he was knocking on the door of this house but this time it was different.

This time he was drenched in cold sweat, and could barely breathe, fear coating his lungs like balckthorns.

To the human eye or someone who didn't know what they were looking for, the mansion looked like an unnoticable, abandoned ruin. Even if you could see it but you were not welcome, the protective spells wouldn't let you get in.

But Rex was different.
Or at least he used to be. When the door opened everything got worse.

"It's you." Rex whispered.

"Yes it is me." Said Friedrich Schwarz, Artemis's father.

The bastard who had sent his men to kill Rex and Vera and their parents. The man who had been like a father to him. Who had helped him more than his own sperm donor.

Friedrich looked almost the exact same as fifty years ago. His beautiful, delicate face was intact. His auburn hair was still hiding from old age. The only difference was evident in his gray eyes. They held so much pain.

A memory flashed in front of Rex's eyes. Friedrich sitting beside him in the library, a glass of burbon in hand and an encouraging smile on his lips, discussing Dante's inferno with him.

Friedrich saw Rex as an equel, not a freak or an embaressment. Not somone who he needed to beat to knock some sense into. He saw Rex's potential instead of his shortcomings.

The first memory was followed by another. Rex crying because his father had shouted at him and beat him after he'd had a panic attack in a meeting his father had made him attend and Friedrich trying to calm him down.

Friedrich telling him he was smart and there was nothing wrong with him. That he was made for greater things than rotting away in his father's boring office and that his father was a jerk for not appreciating his son.

"Come in Rex. Let's talk in the library." Friedrich filled the awkward silence, holding the door open for him.

Rex gritted his teeth. "No. I just need some of your blood and..."

"Ok." Friedrich interrupted him, a pleasant smile stuck on his face.

"Ok?" Rex repeated. "You don't want to know why?" He was prepared for either a verbal or physical fight and now he felt unbalanced.

"I already know." Friedrich told him.

Rex tried to hide his irritation. "How? Can you somehow read minds now?" The possibility was unsettling.

Friedrich chuckled softly. "No son but I know people who owe me."

"Don't call me that." Rex snapped, digging his short nails into the palm of his hand. "You lost that right when you sent your men to kill us."

He wanted to leave. Standing in this house was far more painful that he had imagined.

Friedrich's smile vanished, replaced with sorrow. "Not a day goes by that I don't regret what I did. After Artemis... I was hurt and angry and I wanted you to feel the same. I was extremely petty and I'm so sorry for that."

"Save your lies for someone who believes them." Rex spat.

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"It doesn't matter. You're the reason we died." He shouted, pressing his fingers against his temple. "I'm not here for your bullshit. Give me your blood already."