The Dragon Brothers
Chapter 61 - The Cave of the Apocalypse

* Patmos; The Cave of the Apocalypse * Queen Maeve POV

"Lord Marduk, They have left Drakur early this morning and are on their way here. They should arrive sometime between this afternoon and this evening so they can attack as early as tomorrow morning. I must call on the demon fleet now and then we need to leave as soon as we give them instructions." I explain to the dragon.

I put a large caldron filled with water, quicklime, honey, lava rocks, chicken bones, crows feet, and rosemary over a flaming fire. Then after the mixture began to boil I began singing the incantation to bring forth the demon fleet. The clouds overhead turned dark, thunder, lightning, and rain began to fall from the heavens, while the mixture in my cauldron turned blood red. The earth beneath our feet began to shake as a large split was created in the ground. Then the creatures from the underworld began pouring forth. I lifted up my hands and laughed. Nothing can stop me now.

As soon as my fleet appeared. I picked out fifteen to take with me and Lord Marduk and the rest will stay here.

"Company of demons, many if not all of you will not live through tomorrow but will be sent back to Hades. I know this may seem harsh but consider your sacrifice to be well worthwhile. Fight with everything you have and don't stop fighting until the last ounce of energy has left your body. Then stand up and fight some more. I know you will make me proud. Goodbye my warriors. One day I will see you again." I wave my hand to them as I climb on Lord Marduke's back and we take flight. The fifteen demons are high class demons and therefore have wings to fly with as well. All we have to do is stay out of the dragon brother's sight while we are flying.

The Castle at Drakor; The Capital the Chromos *

I see Drakur beneath us and Lord Marduk starts to circle over the castle before landing. It was late afternoon and the guards were changing shifts. One of the guards noticed us circling and pointed up at us. I'm sure they could tell we weren't one of the dragon brothers but their uncle had been staying here so maybe he thought we were with him. I'm unsure of what our welcome will bring.

We gracefully land in the courtyard and as the first round of guards meets us Marduke breathes out huge flames and reduces them to complete ashes. Then as the royal army gets into position to fight us I send out a binding spell that encapsulates each of them with stone. They won't be going anywhere anytime soon. I wonder if any of the guards have had time to warn the royal families.

I enter the castle and start searching each floor. Thankfully, I have super hearing skills due to being half demon and I can hear children playing on the top floor, the king's floor.

"Come out, come out wherever you are. Come to see the young lady that fell from a star." I sing out in a soft voice.

"Lord Marduke, walk through the gardens and see if you can find any women. We'll meet back in the downstairs small dining hall." I commanded him.

I make it to the King's floor and as I step onto the hallway that has the bedrooms in it I see two children with a ball while chasing the other. I guess they're playing some sort of keep away game. I hear a baby's cry from another room and I remember the prophecy of Ambrose's baby girl and assume that must be her. I slide down the hallway and into the baby's room. A nanny is sitting in a rocking chair holding her. I creep up on the nanny and jab my knife against her throat. "Get up nice and slow with the baby like a good nanny and get the other children. Then we're going to walk downstairs to the small dining hall and sit down." I use a sing-song but soft type of voice. The nanny gets up and gets the children together and we all walk down to the dining hall.

Lord Marduke POV

I start to make my way around the castle looking at all of the gardens and when I come near the southern gardens I can hear the women chatting. I recognize one of the women from a brothel that I used to frequent but there's another that I simply cannot take my eyes off of. She has bright red hair, sea green eyes, her skin looks like it was bathed in milk, and she has an abnormally tiny figure. I want this girl. I want to make her mine. I have to have her. I don't want anyone else. I can't wait to taste her, feel her squirming underneath me, and crying out my name.

I step forward suddenly and grab the girl's throat in front of me as I jab a knife against her back. She has ivory skin, with long ebony hair, and I can tell by the way she is sitting that she comes from a family of wealth. "What's your name love?" "Viola and who might you be?" She answers me back rather coldly.

"Well, I'm not sure if I'm ready to give that information out quite yet. Why don't you lovely ladies stand up and I'll follow you to the small dining hall." I can't take my eyes off of my little redhead.

The Castle at Drakor; The Capital the Chromos * Lucian POV

I see everyone lined up in front of the castle. As far as anyone knows there is only one way in or out of the cave so this time we are splitting in halves. One half is attacking from the south and then on my command the other half will rush into battle and attack from the north. Hopefully, the northern companies will be able to either capture or kill Queen Maeve and Lord Marduke before they are able to flee again. So, under my command with Quentin as my second will be the werewolves, gnomes, unicorns, fairies, witches, and Elena. The northern company will be under Cyprian's command with Wolf as his second with vampires, dragons, elves, centaurs, bear shifters, and Gabe. So, we each have a fair amount of healers and fighters.

We begin our trip to the Cave of the Apocalypse and I notice that Cyprian is in an unusually jolly mood considering he's away from Molle. He's typically only this happy when she's near enough to him so that he can play with her hair, touch her hand, or his favorite is when she's sitting in his lap so considering that she's nowhere around his demeanor is strange.

"Cyprian, you seem awfully happy today. Is there a particular reason why?" I ask giving him a sideways glance.

"Well, Molle decided to give herself to me fully last night. I was most pleased to say the least. We definitely enjoyed ourselves." His grin grows even bigger and I can't stop from laughing at my younger brother's happiness.

* Patmos; The Cave of the Apocalypse *

As we come closer to the Cave of the Apocalypse I notice that something seems to be off.

"It's too quiet here and all I smell is demon blood. I don't smell any human, dragon, or anything that would recognize Queen Maeve or Lord Marduke." King Justus said while sniffing the air.

"Well, Queen Maeve has basically sold her soul to the devil so she is half demon hence the black horns, and she could mask Lord Marduke's dragon's scent with the help of a simple potion. What we do know is that there are demons inside this cave. I say let's split into our groups and proceed with our attack." I make my case since we really don't have any other evidence and we've come all this way it would be a shame to turn back now. "I've got a bad feeling about this. I say if we're going to attack we do it now instead of waiting." Cyprian commented.

"You know that I don't like attacking without giving the men a chance to rest but if you insist we can attack now." I replied. Everyone fell in agreement as many of the people that had sympathies towards clairvoyance were also feeling uneasy and that danger lay ahead.

We split into two companies and the plan worked well. We quickly Vanquished the demons. But once we searched the cave there was no one in it and it had obviously been abandoned for at least two days, maybe three. "Why draw us all the way here and then leave? Where would she go? Did they go to Marduke's manor to make their final stand there?" I ask completely dumbfounded. I really expected a large show with Maeve and her powers. "No, there's something missing here. While Maeve stayed here she never tried to hurt us, send any of her minions after us or our lands, or show us her superiority. That is what Maeve does: she wants to hurt us and show us her superiority and that is completely missing from this equation." Cyprian takes a moment to breathe before continuing. "But what she's done is pull us away from who we all love the most, our women, except for Quinten and Elena. But Viola, Sia, Angel, Eve, Emily, and Molle are all there. She's lured us here, left enough demons to keep us preoccupied, and flew to Drakur on top of Marduke to take over the castle and keep our women hostage." Cyprian looks at me as he drops his sword and falls to his knees thinking of Molle once again being in Maeve's arms.

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