Title: Dark Bride: The Choice (Part 8B)
Author: Love In Vein

Alternate Ending

Then something began to happen. The flames around the circle swirled and started to encircle Damien. He howled in surprise pain and tried to fight but the flames just swirled tighter and became more and more dense. But there was something wrong, something very wrong. Lilli’s eyes snapped open and she looked into Damien’s pain filled ones.

"Please," he whispered to her.

It seemed then as if the darkness came flooding back into her and she wrenched her hands free from her parents. With one movement she toppled the candles and the circle was broken with a ‘whoosh.’ The flames around Damien instantly dissipated and he smiled a dark and utterly evil smile. "My Lillian," he murmured.

She smiled back at him, ignoring her parents’ terror-stricken faces. "My love," she purred.

Damien held out a clawed hand and she gracefully stepped out of the ruined circle. When she reached him she slid her own delicate hand into his and he pulled her to him. "I knew that you would be mine," he said with a smirk.

"Oh, how cocky of you darling. And for at least a second there I could have sworn you were positively terrified," Lilli replied with a smirk of her own.

Damien growled and dipped his head to ravish her mouth with a deep and rough kiss. She gripped the back of his neck hard to pull him closer and she dug her nails into his scalp and he moaned in painful pleasure.

Light footsteps interrupted them and Damien looked at Evelyn and Victor, who were trying to reach Joshua quietly, with annoyance. "Excuse me, but were you trying to do something?" he asked.

"This isn’t over, you bastard! We’ll have her back if it kills us!" Evelyn screamed at him.

"Famous last words," Damien replied with one eyebrow raised. He looked down at Lilli. "Now?" he asked, recalling her words of ‘not yet’ just a few days ago.

Lilli smiled indulgently up at him. "Now, my darling. Now," she whispered.

"I do what the lady tells me," he said with mock resignation. Without a moment’s hesitation he fixed his gaze onto the three and their bodies became consumed in flames. The flames in which they themselves had tried to imprison him.

"What goes around, comes around," Lilli remarked as she and Damien stood watching her former loved ones slowly disintegrate to ashes.

"Baby when you’re right, you’re right," Damien agreed with a deep laugh.

Just then they heard a soft cry coming from the room in which Damien had imprisoned May. "What should we do about her?" he asked his new bride.

"Leave her. Maybe one day she’ll join us...or we’ll destroy her. Either way it’ll be great fun," Lilli replied glibly.

"I do love the way your mind works, Lillian," Damien said and once against kissed her, this time more gently. He pulled away and smiled. "Shall we go home?"

"Always, lover."

The smoke swirled up around them and then they were gone.