Chapter 3

It was a slow and arduous escape from the cottage which lead them deep into the woods. Eliza seemed to know exactly where she was going as she walked with a purposeful step, so Marcus followed quietly behind her. They walked for what felt like hours until they eventually came upon a road. Eliza crouched down, keeping to the dark shadows of the trees and Marcus followed suit. They both listened intently for any sounds of approaching cars or voices, and once satisfied all was quiet they quickly made their way across the road and into the trees on the other side. Eliza took the lead again, and as Marcus fell in step behind her he suddenly noticed they were approaching an outcrop of rock sitting amongst the trees.

Eliza glanced at him and a small smile came to her weary face.

"Welcome home." She said in a quiet voice.

He paused momentarily to examine his surroundings, then to his surprise he saw a door open that was embedded in the rock and Eliza about to step through it. Realizing they had finally reached their destination a big sense of relief flooded over him quickly followed by overwhelming exhaustion. He made his way through the door, then down the stairs to an underground room.

Before he had time to examine his surroundings she took his hand in hers and said, "Come, we need our rest."

She lead him through a door into a bedroom which contained a huge four poster bed. They both felt numb from exhaustion, so with some effort they pealed off their clothes and crawled into bed, instantly falling into a very deep sleep.

It was almost midday by the time they both awoke. They spent a few moments savoring the warmth of the bed, then reluctantly crawled out from under the covers. They walked around the bed and met in a tight embrace, he then took a step back from her and with a voice full of emotion said, "How I've missed being in your arms!"
"And I you!" She replied and embraced him again, this time even tighter.
He held her for a moment then pushed her back gently and put voice to the question that was burning in his mind, "It feels like an eternity since I was banished to the underworld, how long has it been since I was imprisoned there?"
A look of sadness came to her face as she answered, "You have been gone from me for almost twenty years and it grieves me deeply that it took so long for me to gain the power and strength to break through the barriers that bound you there."
A look of rage suddenly twisted his face and he spoke through clenched teeth with his chest heaving, "All these years have been stripped from us and kept us apart! They shall know the fury of my wrath! Together we shall wreak vengeance upon these people..."
She put her hand on his arm which silenced his outburst and spoke in a calming voice, "Vengeance shall be ours but first we need to regain our strength and power if we wish to succeed. Come, lets break our fast, then I'll show you around this home I created for us in preparation for your return."

They made their way to the kitchen and satisfied their hunger with some plasma juice. Once Marcus had finished his he screwed his face up in distaste and commented, "I had forgotten how much I hated drinking this cold vile stuff! We're going to need some real food if we want our strength and power to return."

Eliza nodded in agreement then said, "It hasn't been easy mostly surviving on this juice, but with you gone I had to be very careful not to attract too much attention to myself, since by being alone I am very vulnerable and my power has dwindled very low. We need the life essence from our victims to increase our power, but as you know a persons soul only becomes accessible to us through love, for it is though love that a person allows themselves to be completely open to others which makes their soul vulnerable. Due to this it has been very dangerous and difficult to acquire."

He nodded his understanding as she gestured towards the door.

"Come, I'll give you a tour of our home while we talk some more." She said and lead the way out of the kitchen.

As they walked past a quaint little entertaining area she continued, "Since it has been such a time consuming and often unsuccessful endeavor to find someone suitable that will fall in love to the point where they will freely give of their soul, I have only just been able to sustain just enough power to assist me in creating this home for us then eventually free you."

They were now walking past a cozy looking living area with a very welcoming looking open fireplace. A smile came to Marcus's face as he nodded in approval. The sofa looked so comfortable and inviting that he was almost tempted to light the fire and sit himself down. His whole body still ached from last night. As tempting as that was though he was eager to see some more of his new home that Eliza had created, so he continued towards the door that they were approaching.

As soon as Marcus opened the door the hugest smile came to his face when he saw it was a workout room fitted out with exercise and martial arts equipment.
"I thought you would like this room." Eliza said with a smile.
Marcus looked around, fixing his attention on each piece of apparatus, flexing his muscles in the anticipation of the rigorous workouts that he was going to put himself through.
"This is perfect!" He said to her, the huge smile still on his face, as he looked around.
"I know how much you love to unwind with a hard workout," she said, her eyes going involuntarily to his rippling muscles for an instant, then continued, "and we're both going to need to improve our strength and agility for what we soon shall be facing."
He looked at her quizzically, pondering what she meant by that, but she just turned on her heels with a smirk and headed out the door. 

She lead them back down the way they had come and through a door they had previously passed. It was a bedroom done in the style of a vampire tomb, it wasn't to Marcus's taste as he noted all the little feminine touches, and quite frankly he preferred the space of the big luxurious bed, but he knew Eliza had created this room for her own indulgence as he knew this type of decor was a passion of hers.
He turned his attention back on to her and inquired, "What did you mean before when you said 'for what we shall soon be facing'?"
Her face turned from admiring her room and she met his eyes. "In the years of your absence I've had a lot of time to dwell upon our plight of never being able to fully enhance our power to it's full potential, by being limited to one life essence that had been too time consuming to acquire, and nearly always we had to share that life essence between the two of us, and despite our power being much stronger when we are together, we are still too weak against our foes that stand against us." She paused momentarily as her mind drifted back to the past, then continued. "Despite our combined power, Mathias still overpowered us and succeeded in banishing you to the underworld, and I just barely managed to escape the same fate."
"Mathias was young and got lucky!" Marcus spat out with a growl.
"That may be so," She replied, then continued with the slightest hint of worry in her voice, "but he knows I escaped him and would be anticipating your return. He would have been preparing for this eventuality and may be a lot stronger now."
Marcus was by now only half listening to her final words. Hearing Mathias's name made all those memories come flooding back, of when Mathias had captured and tortured Eliza and had her held in a binding spell, using her as bait to lure him out, being left defenseless in order to save Eliza's life, feeling the excruciating pain as the banishing spell started dragging him down to the underworld, in those last seconds seeing the binding spell break around Eliza as Mathias concentrated all of his energy on banishing him, the look of dread on Eliza's face as she used the last of her strength to drag her self to safety while seeing him sinking down...
Marcus, suddenly filled with rage stormed out of the room spitting out vile curses while declaring vengeance for what Mathias had done.

Eliza stepped out of the room just in time to see Marcus slam through the bathroom door. She ran in after him and grabbed a hold of his hand in an attempt to calm his temper. He glared at her with a menacing grimace on his face, but when he looked into her eyes and saw her love for him there mixed with a hint of concern, he relaxed a little.

"Enough of this talk now." She said to him in a calming voice. "We had a difficult and exhausting night and we are both weary. I think we both could use a bit of relaxation."

He followed her line of vision to the hot tub, his tense stance relaxed a little more and a small smile came to his face.

Eliza turned on the hot tub and the water began to churn and steam started to rise from the surface. They both got undressed and eased themselves into the water. The swirling hot water felt so good on their aching muscles, they sat back and relaxed in silence for some time.
Feeling totally at ease and relaxed Eliza suddenly remembered she had a surprise waiting for Marcus, and although she didn't want to break the tranquil mood and get out of the hot tub, her excitement of seeing his reaction when he saw what she had waiting for him made her break the silence. "As much as I'd love to stay here relaxing there's something I must show you." She said with poorly concealed excitement in her voice.
He could tell that she was up to something and a smile came to his face as he said, "Oh!, and what might that be?"
"You'll just have to follow me and find out!" She replied as she was climbing out of the hot tub while glancing over her glistening wet shoulder with a mischievous smirk.

Marcus followed her back to the bedroom and this time the mischievous grin came to his face. Eliza saw the expression on his face and said tauntingly, "You might want to put some clothes on, it gets pretty cold down below." And with a chuckle started getting dressed herself.
Marcus gave her a playful grimace, and seeing she was getting dressed, grabbed his clothes and got dressed too while he wondered what she could be up to now. She lead the way out of the bedroom and he followed her into the elevator. The doors to the elevator closed and with a gentle lurch they felt it start to descend.

When the elevator doors opened and they stepped out Marcus let out an exclamation of shock and surprise. Up against the far wall was his prized pipe organ, assembled in all it's shining glory. He just stood there wide eyed with his mouth agape, then turned and gave Eliza a huge bear hug. There was only one thing in this world that he loved more than his pipe organ and that was Eliza. He would spend hours some nights playing beautiful haunting music on it.
When he released her from the bear hug he was clearly overcome with emotion. He had been so sure his pipe organ had been forever lost when Mathias had tracked them down twenty years ago to their old home, and they had to flee leaving it behind. Now here it is, in all it's majestic glory, waiting for him in their home that Eliza had created for them!
Before Marcus could put voice to the multitude of questions stampeding through his mind Eliza spoke up, "I thought you may like this welcome home present. I have so longed to hear you play it again, will you do me the honor?"

"As you wish, my Lady." He said with a grin as he done a ceremonious bow. He walked up to the pipe organ and sat himself down. He sat still for a moment with his eyes closed gathering his thoughts, then began to play.

Press play here  to listen to Marcus play the pipe organ.

When Marcus had finished playing he turned around looking at her with such an expression of gratitude and a huge smile beamed on his face.
Eliza's smile matched his as she said, "It's been so long that I have waited to hear you play again, that sounded even better than I remember!" She turned and grabbed her guitar, then added, "Now that you are warmed up why don't you jump on the drums so we can play something together."
"I always enjoyed us playing together all those years ago." He said with a smile as he sat himself behind the drums. "What shall we play?"
"Just follow my lead and try an keep up." She replied with a sly grin as she turned her guitar amp all the way up.

Press play here  to listen to Eliza and Marcus rock the room.

They jammed well into the evening, and as much as they would have loved to keep going all through the night Eliza turned her amplifier off and put her guitar down. Marcus got up from behind the drums and walked around to her.

"It sounds like you've been practicing in my absence." He said with a smile. "That was incredible. I feel so energized!"

She smiled back and replied, "I'm glad you noticed. I have spent a lot of time playing, at first it was just to help get me through the agony of losing you. After a few years it became more than just a way to console myself, an idea had begun to form in my mind that perhaps we could use our music to aid us once you return, so driven with a new purpose I have practiced whenever I could."

He looked at her with a puzzled expression so she preceded to explain, "As you know we are at a great disadvantage trying to get a person to fall in love with one of us so their soul becomes vulnerable and we can then use it, it is far too time consuming and our power remains weak as the time between souls is too great. Over the past few years I have been to a few music concerts and have seen how much the fans idolize and love the bands. The thought had occurred to me that if we could start a band once you return and become famous enough then we would have all the souls we would ever need to grow our power to it's full potential from our fans who love and idolize us."

She paused, trying to decipher what was going through his mind. He pondered it for a moment longer then responded, "It all sounds too easy, granted it would solve our problems if we could succeed in doing this, but to get fame takes time too and there will be huge risks involved."

"Of course there will be risks, but there is also risks involved with how we have had to do it up until now." She reasoned, then continued, "Our power has always been weak which nearly resulted in our demise, this is our opportunity to grow our power to it's full potential and stand against our foes, and this time be victorious!"

He could see the sense in her reasoning and a flashback of Mathias banishing him to the underworld made him shudder with a grimace.

"I trust you," he said with conviction, then added, "and if you think we have a chance of doing this then lets do it."

Eliza was overjoyed by his agreement to her idea and threw herself onto him giving him a tight hug, thanking him profusely.

"The hour is getting late and I'm hungry." She said to him. "Perhaps we should go up and have something to eat, I'm too wound up to sleep yet so would you like to watch a movie before we call it a night?"

He nodded in agreement and they headed for the elevator. 

Eliza whipped up a quick little plasma fruit salad in the kitchen which they both hungrily ate. As they ate their conversation went back to the band they wished to form, and in particular what they should call their band. Marcus came up with the idea that since their last name was Minion they could call it DoMinion. Eliza instantly fell in love with the band name, so they both agreed upon it. Once they had finished eating they both grabbed a plasma juice each and then went out and sat themselves in front of the TV. Marcus turned it on and flicked through the channels until he came across a horror movie that was showing. With a satisfied smile he put the remote on the coffee table and they both sat back and started to watch the movie, sipping occasionally on their plasma juice.

Not much attention was paid to watching the movie though. After being apart for so long Eliza couldn't concentrate on the movie. Sitting so closely cuddled together her attention kept being drawn to him. She could feel his body move as he breathed and out of the corner of her eye she could see his bare chest rise and fall with each breath. Not being able to resist any longer she put her finger on his chest and lightly ran it down from his chest to his abdomen. He looked at her and saw the passionate hunger in her eyes, her smooth skin was aglow in the dim red light, and her blood red lips beckoned to be met with his. He lent over and kissed her very slowly and tenderly on her lips.

Their attention was suddenly snapped back to the TV as they realized a news update had just come on and the news presenter was talking about the cottage they had destroyed.
["Last night in the Surrey Hills woods a small unoccupied cottage exploded sending echoes that could be heard through most of the town. By the time the fire crew arrived on the scene there was nothing they could do except prevent the fire from spreading to the woods, due to the inaccessible location of the cottage they were unable to get any fire trucks in to try and extinguish the cottage, and were limited to using fire extinguishers. They had gotten the blaze under control in the early hours of this morning. Police and fire inspectors have been on the scene most of today and believe the explosion was deliberately done."]
Marcus and Eliza continued to watch the report as a picture of a man came up on the top left corner of the screen and the news presenter continued.
["A local paranormal investigator, Mathias Black also arrived on the scene today and was taking special interest in a small blackened crater found next to the cottage. He is currently assisting police in their investigation..."]
Marcus turned the TV off and slammed the remote onto the coffee table with a growl.

End Of Chapter

Credits;

The Minion's underground home was created by me.

Click this picture if you would like to download it from the exchange.