"I hereby sentence you to death." Those cruel words echoed in Lucien's head over Castor's screams as Charlotte ravaged him. How dare that sick bastard try to pin all of this on him. He wanted to fight. He wanted to claw Rishon's eyes out and spill his blood across the ground for the rotters to feast upon. Yet his body had already given up on him.

Darkness blurred Lucien's vision, but the sounds of those rotters tearing into flesh and slurping on blood echoed in his ears. He tried not to imagine Castor's beautiful face ravaged by that monster. Castor was strong. Although extraordinarily rare, he knew it was possible for a wizard to survive a fatal death curse, and he knew Castor wouldn't go down without a fight.

At the sound of Castor's raspy voice screaming Sebastian's name, hope blossomed in his chest. If they worked together, they could end this. They'd survive.

"Save Lucien! Forget about me. Get the hell out of here!" Those words shattered Lucien's heart. He didn't beg for his own life or plead for someone to end his misery. He just wanted Sebastian to take him and flee. As if Lucien could ever leave him behind like that.

By some miracle, Lucien regained an iota of control over his body as he inhaled a sharp breath of fresh air. Some spark of magic somehow kept his body alive, and he strained to turn his head in Castor's direction as his vision slowly returned, blinking in the penetrating moonlight. He didn't even care if he snapped his own neck in doing so.

Unbeknownst to him, the green grasses beneath their feet had turned to lifeless, brittle brown. Flowers wilted and died as if suddenly blighted.

Charlotte had pinned Castor against a tree, gnawing into his chest like a buffet of flesh and blood. He no longer screamed or cried for help. His body laid limp against the trunk while Charlotte savored her meal, and Lucien couldn't do anything other than watch in horror.

Sobs rose in his throat. The muscles in his face were taut and painful from the magic that had held him back, but when he moved to stand, his body betrayed him. His fingers sunk into the soil beneath him, trembling legs refusing to move.

There was nobody to comfort him like there had been with Charlotte. Nobody held him close or tried to reassure him that he'd be okay. Nobody to turn to when he needed them the most. Tears rained down Lucien's face as he screamed to the heavens like his soul had been ripped from body, because a part of it had.

The earth shook beneath them, trees fluttering as birds and other nocturnal creatures flew far up into the sky as if they had warned them to flee. Vines shot up from the ground and wrapped tightly around the two rotters, until each one was forced back down into the soil where they belonged. Lucien's screams only stopped when his voice had gone hoarse and raw, unable to rasp a mere word or incantation.

Somehow, Lucien clambered to his feet, but the world slowed around him. Memories bled through his mind of all the nights they'd shared together, and all the dates they would've gone on. The ring on his finger was merely a painful reminder of the future Rishon had stolen from them, but Lucien knew he'd never take it off.

Lucien's veins had turned a dark shade of green, as if the forest itself ran through his blood. Two long silver antlers sprouted from the top of his head as newfound power pulsed through his veins in undulated waves.

Rishon's eyes widened as he gripped his precious crimson gem and summoned flames that did not belong to him. How dare he use such magic like he owned it. Every wizard cherished the element the Gods bestowed to them at birth, and while Lucien wasn't quite sure how such a cursed object worked for him, he didn't dare let that pitiful excuse for hellfire he summoned do a lick of damage.

"You-" Rishon was cut off by a potent gust of magic that swept across the air, and blood oozed from the stump of his left arm. Lucien had turned it into a literal limb that sprouted foliage. Rishon dropped to his knees with a horrified cry. Tears spilled from his eyes as Lucien made a slender vine wrap around his neck and penetrate down his throat, until it suffocated all his desperate pleas.

Lucien's eyes glowed with malice, but there were no words to describe the agony within his heart. All he could think of was Castor trying everything to save them, then in his last breaths he had begged for Sebastian to save Lucien. Not himself. Even while on the verge of death, he'd only been concerned for Lucien.

Vines violently impaled Rishon from his torso. Yet the man no longer begged for mercy or freedom, his head dropping to a lull. There was a noticeable dark stain in the front of Rishon's trousers, and the miasma of black magic and urine was quite overwhelming. Despite how Rishon appeared dead, Lucien could still feel his pulse and pounding heart.

Revenge had tangled itself around Lucien's heart so painfully like a vine of thorns, he conjured ancient, forbidden plant magic that made blood ooze from Rishon's nose and ears. His skin peeled away, bones quite literally breaking, to warp his entire body into a giant Voodoo lily plant.

No trace of Rishon remained. Only the giant, odorous plant sprouted in the place the man once stood. Despite the horrendous smell, Lucien still detected a tepid heart and pulse within. He hadn't fully killed Rishon. Parts of him still lived within it, suffering.

Once turned with such heinous magic, one could never return or fix their old body. Not even the most skilled wizard or witch could undo Lucien's spell. If they tried, it would only kill him. But putting him out of his mercy would be too kind.

"Lucien." Sebastian approached him with wary steps, careful not to get too close. "What did you do?"

Lucien looked down at his shaky hands, where his fingers had darkened to a shade that resembled the bark of the trees around them. The stench of death overwhelmed his senses as he scanned the mist-covered area for Castor. He didn't even bother to respond to Sebastian as he rushed to the tree he slumped against, dropping down to his knees.

"Castor?" Lucien cupped his face between his hands, and they warmed against his tender skin as magic flowed freely from his fingertips. "No," he whimpered. "Please, no." The jagged wound on his neck slowly healed, replaced by a soft, glistening sheen of green like fresh foliage. Yet despite the dealing, Castor remained motionless beneath him, offering no sign of life.

"Lucien!" Over the roaring wind and thunderous pounding of his heart in his ears, he barely heard Sebastian shouting his name.

"Come on, Castor," Lucien whimpered, letting one hand fall to Castor's chest. There were no spells to bring life back to him, but that did not stop Lucien from trying anything he could think of to make his heart beat again. "Please. I-I'll do anything," he voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, begging for the Gods or the devils to bargain with him just this once. He'd never ask for anything ever again.

It shattered his heart enough to lose Charlotte, but now... How was he supposed to go on without Castor by his side?

Lucien screamed until his throat ached and burned, until his voice nearly gave out as magic spilled from his body in undulated waves that should not have been physically possible. He clung to Castor's dying body as if he had the powers to bring him back and cursed the Gods above for stealing such a precious soul from their earth.

"I'm sorry, Castor." Lucien cried as tears streamed down his reddened cheeks.

"Lucien!" Sebastian's stern voice rang out again like a siren, cold hands roughly gripped his shoulders to yank him away but roots surged from the ground and secured his legs to the dead strands of grass all around them. "You have to let him go. You're killing the forest."

Lucien blinked away the tears, head tilting up in bewonderment at the towering tree that once held up so lively was nothing but a rotted husk behind them. The grass beneath them had turned a brittle, lifeless brown and what few flowers survived Sebastian's ice, were nothing but wilted petals. "Bring him back to me."

"I can't, Lucien. I'm sorry. He's gone."

"Please, try." Lucien sniffled, and a thin trail of blood seeped from his nostril. Not only had his magic killed the grasses around them and the tree, but it was siphoning from his own lifeforce too. If Lucien kept holding on, Castor would pull him into death's embrace alongside him.

Sebastian crouched down beside them, examining Castor's arm with a deepening frown. A very faint trace of green glowed beneath his pale skin. "His pulse is very weak. From the looks of it, you're harvesting life from the forest itself and pushing it into his dying body. But he's bleeding into his lungs. You could kill all our trees, and it still won't bring him back. Soon enough, you'll start pushing dead energy into him and his body will begin to rot. Trust me, you don't want that."

"You're a doctor, you're supposed to save lives! Not give up on them!" Tears clouded Lucien's vision, his shaky hands not daring to move away from Castor.

"Help me get him inside the clinic." Sebastian rose to his feet, crimson eyes glowing as he flashed his fangs. "I can't make any promises, but I'll do everything I can. Do you need to directly touch him to keep the magic flowing into him?"

"Yeah, I think so," Lucien rasped.

~They move Castor toward the clinic building~

Sebastian retrieved a bat-shaped key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock until it gave way with a soft click. Potent energy pulsed around the mechanism as they dragged Castor inside, and Sebastian shouted for his nurses to come aid them.

Bright light flooded Lucien's vision as he blinked fiercely, keeping his trembling hands pressed close to Castor as his energy siphoned away without the help of the forest he'd taken from. Sebastian gently moved his hands away with reassurances he could handle it from there as a vampire lady handed Sebastian some sort of tube.

"Please, don't let him die," Lucien whimpered.

The room around Lucien spun as he staggered against the front desk, bracing it for support. He tried to focus on Sebastian and what he was doing to save Castor, but his vision flickered like a candle in the wind, and his chest tightened in painful knots. He'd used the tube to connect his arm with Castor's, somehow exchanging blood, maybe? Lucien wasn't sure how that would help him, but maybe vampire blood contained healing properties he wasn't aware of.

The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was Sebastian leaned over Castor, biting the side of his neck.