by P. A. Warren
“Calm down, Claire,” he says, stopping to wait for me to catch up again. “I can feel the anger seeping out of you.”
“I don’t understand how you could watch him being tortured and just leave him there. Frankly, it astounds me.” Exasperated, I look anywhere but at him. How can he think my life is more important than Riley’s?
“I’m not sure what’s happening, but Riley is not the good guy you think he is. Trust me when I say that you are the reason I live, so I will protect you, even if it means Riley dies.”
Shaking my head in anger, I continue walking, leaving him there.
“I didn’t tell you the worst part of it though. Anya’s with him,” he says as he catches up with me.
“Wait, the Anya we let go? My sister Anya?”
Nodding grimly, he points toward a cluster of trees that we make our way through and with that last thought we lapse into silence, making our way toward the clearing.
Chapter 42
Riley
When I wake, the first things I feel are extreme hunger and pain. I keep my head down and open my eyes. I then slowly lift my head, moving it back and forth. I try to stand up only to realize that I’m chained to something as my body is jerked back down. Feeling the burn of silver against my skin, I hiss and shake it. I lift my arm and it doesn’t move. I look down and realize my arms are immobilized by the silver. As I look up again, I’m alarmed to see the eyes of both my brother and Anya staring back at me.
“Jason,” I say, my voice hoarse. “If you’re going to kill me, just kill me.” I look him in his eyes, pleading with him to kill me.
Pulling out a knife, he winks over at Anya and then turns his head to look at me as he takes slow yet forceful steps toward me. His smile pulls into the evilest of grins.
“You really should have killed Anya when you had the chance,” he says in a singsong voice. “The best part is, I was dead until Claire brought me back. I was out of your way, and then she accidently brought me back, ah the irony. Tsk, tsk, brother. It was worst thing she could have ever done, because I’m not dying again, and, well, you’re not going to see Claire again. You aren’t going to have whatever happy life you’ve been dreaming of without daddy dearest,” he says smugly, glancing over at Anya.
Jason gives her a nod as she grabs a rod out of a bag and hands it to Jason, who takes it, rubbing his fingers up and down it while walking towards me.
“You and father always had such a good connection, and I was left out in the cold. You both underestimated me, though. There’s more of our father in me than you know,” he says, tossing the rod from hand to hand in front of me. He grips it, looking me in the eye, and slams it into my knees. I can’t help but cry out as it slams into my right knee and then my left, breaking them.
Hanging my head limply, I wrack my brain trying to understand why my own brother would do this to me. It’s then that I look up and stare into his eyes. I see nothing of the brother I used to know. I see a blank soul, an evil soul. One who should have stayed dead.
He pulls a knife from his belt loop, and as he pulls it out, it glints in the light sharply, catching my eye as the he positions the knife at my chest. I swallow hard as it makes its way down my chest, and my only thought as it’s jammed into me repeatedly is how much regret I have that I never told Claire that I love her. Now I’ll never get the chance to tell her.
My screams resonate through the air and fill the room as the blade enters my skin over and over again until it’s as if an invisible wall has been placed between us, and no matter how many times he tries cutting through it, it doesn’t give.
I let me eyes wander the room carefully until my eyes hit the window and I see a brown head move on the other side of it. My heart swells in my chest knowing that has to be Claire. I see a second head leaning next to hers and recognize it as Mikail’s. My eyes close as I let out a small thank you, and then I hear whispering.
I strain to hear Jason tell Anya to go check outside. I jump as I the door slams and flinch as Jason walks up to me still holding the knife. Glaring at me, he tries to jam it through the wall and is only met with resistance. He screams in fury as the shield doesn’t give.
Anya returns, only this time she’s forcing Claire and Mikail into the room. Jason stares silently at Claire. I watch as his eye twitches when he sees her. It’s at that exact moment I realize that the shield is going to be down since Claire and Mikail aren’t working the spell together, and it’s then that he plunges the knife into my chest as Claire screams in horror. Gasping, I look down at the knife protruding from my chest and back up into Jason’s smiling face as he pulls it out. Wincing, I fight the chains that tether me to the chair and end up tipping the chair over, with me still trapped in it, with blood pouring out of me. It’s through hazy eyes that I watch as he walks over to Claire with the bloody knife. I try calling out to her, but it only comes out as a whisper as I pass out from the loss of blood.
Chapter 43
Claire
It takes Mikail holding both of my arms back to keep me from rushing into the house when I see Riley through the window.
“You won’t be any use to either of us dead,” he hisses in my ear, holding me firmly from behind. Taking a deep breath, I lift my head slightly and peer back into the window. It’s hard to see what’s happening in the room. Riley’s tied to a chair with what I assume are silver chains. His head is just hanging down in defeat. My heart leaps into my throat as I watch Jason walk over to him, and then I see the sharp glint of the knife. My heart leaps into my throat as I watch Jason slam it into Riley’s chest repeatedly.
Each time the knife is stabbed into him, it’s as if I can feel it myself. Turning around, I slide down the wall and grasp Mikail’s hand, pulling him down with me. I close my eyes and something takes over my body. I sit there envisioning a brick wall between Riley and Jason. I’m in such a concentrative state that I fail to hear footsteps approaching. Mikail yanks me up so suddenly that I lose my concentration and drop the wall. Opening my eyes, I see Anya of all people, standing in front of us with a gun pointed at us.
“Hello, sister dearest,” she says, smirking at me and waving the gun around wildly, tsking, “You really shouldn’t have let your guard down. Bad for you, good for me. Follow me,” she commands, waving the gun at our heads. “Walk!” she orders, pushing her gun into my back and causing me to trip up the stairs.
Falling forward, I’m angry at myself that I am so new to my powers that I can’t use them on a whim. I turn my head to look at Mikail and watch his face getting angrier by the minute. He bites his lip as he gives me his hand, pulling me to up my feet. I wonder why he’s letting himself be overpowered by Anya.
Anya shoves me through the door, pushing me forcefully forward, causing me to almost lose my balance. I look over at Mikail and wonder why he doesn’t do something until I notice that she has another gun shoved in his back in addition to the one shoved in mine. Flinching at the metal as it presses against me, the silver burns against my skin. I put one foot forward and enter the living room that I once considered a safe place.
Looking around, you would never know it was once nice. It’s completely and utterly destroyed. My eyes meet Mikail’s before I turn to my right, and what I see stops me in my tracks. Jason is stabbing Riley over and over again; the sounds of his harsh breathing and the knife sliding through flesh are the only sounds that I can make out over the screaming. Mikail knocks Anya away and grabs me and clamps his hand over my mouth. It’s then that I realize the screaming is coming from me. Mikail pulls me to his chest and proceeds to shield me from what’s happening. I look down at my arms in silence as I see droplets of blood covering them.
I lift my head away from Mikail's chest and stare in fear as Jason stabs the knife one final time into Riley’s chest. He grins savagely as he jerks the knife out of Riley’s chest. The chair, with Riley still attached to it, falls to the floor. Mikail lets go of me, shoving me behind him when Jason approaches us, looking at Mikail.
/> “I never liked you,” Jason taunts at Mikail, waving the knife wildly around in the air. “Wherever you go you are always the best. Why is that?”
“It’s because I have someone to fight for,” Mikail says gritting his teeth.
He pushes past Mikail, still carrying the bloody knife and looks down at me, smirking as if I was going to question his authority.
“You know, you were supposed to be mine,” he says softly, running the knife down my cheek, leaving a trail of Riley’s blood. “I saw you first. I protected you first,” he shouts in my face, causing me to shake in fear. Mikail’s hand grips me tightly and keeps me from doing something stupid. He slips the knife down to my shirt and slices it open. He points his knife to where my breast is. His face lights up, and he starts laughing crazily. “Look, Anya, I can do anything I want to the new queen!”
Looking down, I put my hand to where my shirt is torn in half, my hand gripping the torn material together. Jason walks around me, his nose presses into my hair as he does so. My head is violently yanked back by a harsh grip on my hair.
“I could slit your throat so easily,” Jason whispers in my ear. “So easily. It’s very tempting.” He presses a kiss to my shoulder. Leaving me, he walks over to Riley, lifting his head and whispers in his ear.
It’s then that I feel something leave my body in a wave; the feeling of sadness is so strong. It’s overwhelming. Stumbling, I fall into Mikail and grab my chest as the pain increases. I gaze up at him helplessly.
“It’s the bond breaking,” he says with his mouth against my ear.
Pulling myself away from Mikail, I run past Jason, disregarding my safety. I drop to my knees beside Riley, disregarding the sound of Mikail and Jason fighting. I gently shake him, only he doesn’t move. I press my hands harder on him, shaking him even more, sobbing noises coming from my throat. The tears running down my face are making it hard to see. I no longer care who is in the room. I mourn for my once bond mate, Riley, who is lying there dead. Unaware of the hours that pass or whatever happened to Jason or Anya, I lay with Riley’s body when Mikail comes up, sitting next to me and presses his hand against my back.
“You know you can bring him back to life,” he says softly with his arm on my shoulder.
Looking at him, I wipe my nose. “And have him become like Jason?” Shaking my head, I wipe my eyes with the heels of my hands “No way. You saw the effects it had.” I say solemnly, running my hands through my hair.
“Can you give me a few minutes?” I ask him not able to tear my eyes away from Riley’s body. He nods quietly, standing up, and leaving me alone.
“You weren’t supposed to die, Riley.” I angrily say to his body, swiping tears off my cheeks. “You weren’t supposed to die.” I choke out, hitting his chest and watch him lying there still as stone.
Finally, I stand and walk outside to the porch. I almost run into Mikail as he’s coming in with his head down, covered head to toe in blood.
“What happened to you?” I look him over and there is blood dripping from his hands. As I go in for a closer look, he holds two round things in his hands up toward me. Peering down at them, I gasp in surprise as I see that it's two hearts.
“Jason and Anya will never be a problem for you again,” he says resolutely, looking me straight in the eyes for the first time today. My mind tells me I should be shocked at his words, but my heart clenches.
“Thank you.”
Nodding, he walks through the front door and stops, staring at Riley’s limp body that still hasn’t been moved. Following him into the house, I look down to his bloody clothing. “You know when we met back at the college?”
“Yes?”
“This is not how I envisioned anything happening,” I say truthfully.
“What do you mean?” He looks up from toweling off.
“I don’t know,” I tell him as I turn around to watch him rub a towel over his face. “Last week I didn’t know my world would be irrevocably changed.”
“Well, I think it’s time I enlightened you on a few things,” he says gruffly, sitting in the chair, still holding the bloody towel. “The biggest thing is Riley, he isn’t your true mate. If he was, you would be inconsolable right now and unable to function due to his death. I think someone put you both under what I assume is a mating spell, and it created an illusion of being a mated couple.”
My mouth agape, I stare at him, unable to slow the thoughts that are slamming into my brain right now. I was attracted to him like no other, and he saved my life. “But…but how can that be? Riley saved my life and the attraction was there.” I shake my head. “I’m not sure I follow you.”
He runs his hands on the scarred table before looking up at me. “If you were true mates, you wouldn’t have slept with me. A true mate never looks at another of the opposite sex for pleasure. You remember your grandmother right?”
“Vaguely.”
“Well, she’s not quite as dead as everyone thinks. In fact, she’s alive and kicking. She’s the one who found out you were being held captive and put the spell on the two of you. She is that powerful,” he says, emphasizing the last part.
“What do you mean, alive and kicking?”
Coughing into his hand, he nods to the door and quickly stands up as I turn I see the elegantly dressed woman, my grandmother, standing there, not at all dead. She looks exactly the same as the one time I met her.
“He means I’m not dead, dear,” she says regally, walking into the room, scoping it out and looking down at Riley’s body. “Really, Mikail, you couldn’t find a better house, or clean up the mess? I know I’ve taught you that reincarnation spell before.”
“No, you thought you taught me the spell, but it was the wrong one. We’ve had this talk about you and not using spells.”
She shushes him and starts talking as if this wasn’t a major upheaval in my life yet again.
I throw my hands up in the air. Is nothing about my life normal anymore?
I’m sure I’m taking the easy way out of dealing with everything right now, but at this point I don’t care. I leave out of the room, without looking back, and stomp into the bedroom. I lock the door and bang my head against it. Looking towards the bed, I shudder at the memories I made in it with someone that had a spell put on them to make them think they were in love with me. What a fool I’ve been, and what a freaking messed up situation this is. Groaning, I sit on the bed and stare at the wall solemnly, wondering where I’m going to go from here.
Chapter 44
Mikail
Everything pulls at me to follow her as she walks out of the room, defeated. It pulls at every layer of emotion that I have and didn’t know I was capable of. “Look, Augustine, I’ve done everything you asked me too, but I did take out Jason and Anya, and I have no regrets. They were in the way and caused Claire a lot of pain. I don’t know how many people I’ve double crossed for Claire, but the list is long. She needs to know that her grandmother loves her and is doing this for her; right now she is probably in that room wondering what the hell is going on. Imagine being in her or my shoes for two seconds, Augustine.” I angrily look around the room that has been the center of so much conflict.
“You of all people know how much of my life has been spent protecting Claire and watching over her,” I say to her. “I love her with everything that I am, and you haven’t allowed me to tell her, or to show myself to her up until now?” I raise my hands up in an air quote, “’You’ll scare her away’. I can respectfully say that when you put a spell on her and a guy to create a fake bond is the topping on the cake. My telling her would have been nothing compared to what you did. I’m not even sure how exactly you managed to do it.” Pacing the floor, I turn the dining room table upside down, not caring as everything spills to the floor.
“How is that fair to her? How is any of this fair? I had to watch her with Riley and watch them think they were in love with each other, and it tore my heart out a little at a time. What have I ever done to you that would
provoke you to do something like this? I’ve been loyal to you, and I put my life on hold to protect Claire, and this is how I’m repaid?”
She meanders through the house, disregarding my anger and ranting, by periodically rubbing something, checking for dust, and by the expression on her face I know she wants to leave. This is just the way she is. She disregards people’s emotions. Walking over to Riley, she motions to the guards and they pick him up as she says a few words over him, and with the flick of her wrist, Riley takes in a deep breath, opening his eyes and looking around in fear. I stare at her, unsure of what I’ve just seen. Last time I checked Augustine couldn’t do these spells. Shaking my head, I watch as Riley takes another deep breath.
“What happened? Who are you?” He looks bewildered around the room before landing on Augustine’s face.
“What am I doing here?” he yells at us.
I walk over to him, holding my hand up, mentally calming him so that I can talk to him. “What is the last thing you remember?”
He stares at me blankly before answering, “I was setting up to torture a new girl my dad just brought in and had just killed a girl in front of her. I remember putting blood on the new girl’s lips, and then I kissed her.” Rubbing his forehead in concentration, he adds, “After I kissed her, I had to own the girl, make her mine, and then it all went black. Where did the girl go? What happened to my prisoner?”
This is worse than I thought. Augustine’s going to need to compel him or something and do it quickly because if Claire walks out to see a Riley alive and well, who knows what’s going to happen. This might be the thing that could put her over the edge. I don’t want to see what happens if she were to go over the edge with her powers.
Running my hands over my eyes and still kneeling in front of him, my stomach churns with the knowledge of how this might destroy Claire, with her remembering everything.