Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 5

by Jones, L. A.

  "Oh that might be because of the drug," Saul reasoned.

  "What?"

  "The drug Rage," he clarified, "Aradia has been taking it. It's making her more vulnerable and more dependent on me which fits in perfectly with our plan."

  Morgan didn't say anything while Saul hurried on to say, "but don't worry I haven't been neglecting my duties. I paid off Hesper like we agreed and dropped off the drugs to the supplier."

  "How is that going by the way?" asked Morgan.

  Saul couldn't help but grin. "Marvelous! The Alpha died just as we predicted so that leaves the rest of the leaders of the wolf packs of Salem in the Sovereign's pocket. The majority of both their packs has rallied to the Sovereign's cause. The vampires are a certainty so theres no doubt that when we finally make our move they will be at our side. Keon told me that Brannon has agreed to our terms as well."

  "How could he not?" Morgan muttered, "when all his people have already been turned to the Sovereign's side how could he do anything else but agree with them?"

  Saul smirked. Morgan's face was still hidden by her hood so he couldn't see if she was smirking as well.

  "Either way," Morgan went on, talking to no one in particular. "The Silver Moon pack is the one pack in Salem that is unaware of the deals being offered by the Sovereign. Such a shame that Adrain refused our offer and neglected to tell his family."

  "Well," Morgan admitted rather slyly, "shame for him but not really for us."

  Saul couldn't help but chortle at that.

  "According to Keon the tournaments are progressing rapidly," said Morgan, "the Silver Moon pack is becoming weaker by every passing day."

  "How fitting that in their efforts to chose a new leader they will be making themselves more vulnerable to our attacks." Saul chuckled.

  Morgan didn't laugh but said, "they won't expect the other packs turning against them that's for sure. However, by then they will be too weak to fight and more than willing to negotiate with us."

  "Not that it really matters," Saul inquired.

  Morgan didn't encourage the intimate tone. "Not in the slightest. When the time comes, the Silver Moon pack of Salem will join us or be exterminated."

  "Either way we win," Saul concluded.

  "We always do," said Morgan.

  A long pause passed between them before Morgan spoke. "So the progress with the witch?"

  Saul awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Like I said I have gained her trust..."

  Morgan waved away the rest of his justification. "It matters not just so long as the girl joins us in the end. Remember you have only three months time until the deadline. The Sovereign's plan is already set in motion but if we were to have the last witch on our side victory would be an absolute certainty. You have until the end of this very summer to have her join us Saul. If not, she will be killed by your hand or another. The war we are about to wage is something we have been planing for over eight hundred years. Failure at this point is neither an option nor a possibility. The allegiance of the last witch is not absolutely vital but it would make things easier. It doesn't matter though because with or without her the war will be waged according to schedule."

  "We won't fail Morgan," Saul said.

  "Oh believe me we won't," Morgan stated firmly before closing her own box thus ending the transmission.

  Saul stared at the box before closing it. He threaded his fingers together and laid his head against them. He knew the deadline was approaching and he could not afford to make such slow progress. He had to get Aradia to join the Sovereign's side! He had thought that by sleeping with her he would have gained her trust and earned her loyalty completely. Alas, that had not happened because she was still doing whatever she wanted ignoring everyone else's instructions but her own. This could not be allowed! Obedience of all his subjects was expected in the Sovereign's regime and despite her special abilities Aradia could not be any exception. Time was running out, he had to make Aradia join them!

  He had tried the wooing tactic but that was taking too long. Now he was going to have to do something more. He shot out off his seat and slammed his fist into his palm. If kindness will not make her join us then I guess aggression will have to do. I have already isolated her from her friends and family but there is still the possibility she might go back to them. However, if I scare her enough into believing that leaving me would cost her her life then she will have no choice but to stay. If I use intimidation, I will able to break her spirit completely. She will not be defiant at all and more than willing to follow orders. Thus making her mine forever and the Sovereign' s willing puppet.

  She didn't know how but eventually Aradia was able to find the hotel where they were staying. Must be luck I guess, She thought as she took out her key card but she had barely opened the door before Saul seized her forearm and yanked her inside. He threw her to the floor and slammed the door behind him.

  "Saul?" Aradia said feebly. "What's wrong?"

  "What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong?! I will tell you what is wrong Aradia. I go out of my way to take you on a nice vacation and to a concert to see a band you love and what do you do? You ditched me dammit! You ditched me!"

  "No I..." Aradia tried to say.

  "Silence!" Saul shouted before seizing her by the throat.

  Aradia's feet dangled above the ground.

  "Saul please!" She tried to gasp.

  Saul gripped her throat tighter. "You will not speak unless I tell you to, you will not go anywhere without asking me, you will not do anything without my permission."

  He then threw her onto the bed.

  Aradia massaged her throat. "Saul, you can't treat me like this..."

  "Oh yeah?" Saul demanded, "you live off my money, you live in my home, and you eat the food I buy."

  "If you don't want me," Aradia said through gritted teeth. "I will be more than willing to go."

  Saul threw his head back and laughed. "Oh really? And where would you go huh? Do you honestly believe that your parents would take you in? You punched your father for Christ's sake, and you ditched school. Hell, you have probably been kicked out of school by now! Do you honestly believe you can just go back to Salem and undo all the damage you have done? Do you honestly believe your friends and family would take you back? Do you?"

  Aradia didn't say anything. She just kept massaging her throat and stared at the ground.

  Saul, however, just smiled.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The fight at the hotel had been just the beginning Saul had started hitting her even before they got back to Salem. At first, it was just little things like being pushed around and slapped but inevitably the abuse escalated. It didn't matter what she did or said if it made Saul angry he would hit her. Whether she was just accepting change from a waiter on Saul's instructions or just reading one of his books Saul would explode with anger. He would then proceed to spend the next hour smacking Aradia around.

  She had seen this stuff on TV, but Aradia still couldn't believe this was happening to her. Abusive relationships happen to other people not to me. This was what she kept repeating to herself in her mind. She wanted to deny that Saul and her's relationship was an abusive one but she couldn't. What she also couldn't do was fight back. The partying, the drugs, the booze had taken their toll on her health. If her health was not a hundred percent then neither was her energy and no energy meant no power. This left her completely vulnerable to Saul's frequent beatings.

  Two agonizing weeks had gone by with Saul limiting Aradia's freedom more and more. Sometimes he would even boldly padlock the fridge and hang the key around his neck so she couldn't eat anything without his permission. He would also lock the loft door so during the daytime Aradia couldn't even leave. He made it so that she was basically a starving prisoner at the mercy of his will.

  By the end of the month, Aradia was desperate to escape somehow. She wanted to run back to her home but she didn't know if they would help her. She didn't know whether they still cared abo
ut her or if they hated her. With her former friends not an option, Aradia tried to go for the next best thing. She knew it was risky to talk to the friends she and Saul had made but what choice did she have?

  "Aradia?" Shayde declared in astonishment. "What are you doing here?"

  Aradia didn't say anything. She just lifted her head and pulled off her hood. Shayde gasped the moment she saw Aradia's face. Her left eye was eclipsed with a shiner, her lip was cut, three bruises were on her cheek, and dried blood was on her nose. Shayde saw all this in addition to the slightly concealed bruises on her neck.

  "What's going on?" Whisper shouted as she hastily pulled on a robe and her glasses. She then went to stand beside Shayde at the door. She also gasped the moment she saw Aradia.

  For one long moment the three women just stared at each other.

  Aradia opened her mouth to say something when Whisper cut her off. "Come inside quickly."

  Aradia hesitated, they were after all Saul's friends and for all she knew Saul could be in there waiting for her.

  Shayde stepped outside and put her hands on Aradia's arms.

  She looked her straight in the eye and said, "it's alright. You are safe here."

  At this point, Aradia's resistance and strength left her and she collapsed weeping into Shayde's arms.

  "How did you get away?" Whisper asked as she put an ice cube on Aradia's lips.

  She couldn't pull away immediately but once Whisper took the ice cube away Aradia was able to answer. "Saul did a pretty good job of nailing and sealing up every possible exit in the loft. He kept beating me up so much that there was no way I would have the strength to get out on my own. Since he hasn't been feeding me lately my injuries haven't been able to heal themselves."

  "So what did you do?" Shayde asked as she brought over the hot steaming tea.

  Aradia inhaled and exhaled a long breath. "Luckily, in spite of the malnutrition and abuse my brain was still working fine. I knew that there was no way I would be able to sneak out on my own."

  "So what did you do?" Shayde repeated. She sat on the table staring at Aradia fixated.

  Aradia chuckled and then groaned from instant pain. Nevertheless, she continued with her story. "I knew there was no way to sneak out on my own so if I wanted to escape there was only one thing to do."

  "What?" asked Shayde.

  "I had to make him let me go."

  Shayde's mouth dropped open.

  Whisper also looked stunned. "How did you manage to accomplish that?"

  Aradia exhaled a breath through her nose. "I hid in his closet so the smell from his clothes would disguise my scent. He came out of his coffin expecting to find me. When he couldn't, he panicked and stormed out of the loft leaving the door wide open."

  "How did you find us?" Shayde asked.

  Aradia shrugged. "You told me your address and I looked it up on Thorne's phone."

  "How did you get a hold of Thorne's phone?"

  Aradia hung her head. "I stole it."

  Whisper and Shayde narrowed their eyes.

  Aradia lifted her head up almost automatically and said, "but I swear I had no choice! I didn't want to steal his phone but I had no choice. My phone got broken and Saul would never let me use his!"

  She hung her head again. "I had to get away. I had no choice. I had to get away from him."

  "So why come to us?" Whisper demanded.

  Aradia kept her head bowed. Whether it was in humility or not, Whisper and Shayde couldn't tell. "I had no choice. I had no money so even if I wanted to I couldn't go home. I had to go somewhere. I had to get away from him."

  She then burst into tears and buried her face in hands. Wincing slightly from the injuries on her face.

  Whisper groaned and got up while Shayde took her spot on the couch. She quickly hugged Aradia and started whispering, "shhhhh! It's okay sweetie. It's okay. You're safe now. You're safe."

  After devouring an entire Benagli dish complete with curry Aradia fell into a deep sleep on the couch.

  "We can't let her leave without nowhere to go," Shayde argued.

  "Well what do you want us to do?" Whisper demanded.

  Shayde exhaled through her nose. "I want to help her."

  Whisper's eyes widened. "Are you crazy? We can't do that!"

  Shayde pointed to Aradia's sleeping form. "Look at her face! Did you see what he did to her? It's a miracle he didn't kill her! Saul is a hundred year old vampire. I know he's strong but that gives him no right to hit such a young girl. He has no right to treat her like this. He has no right!"

  "Shayde..." Whisper began.

  "We have to help her Whisper! We have to keep her safe from Saul. We can't let her go back to him. God only knows what he would do to her."

  "But honey..." Whisper tried to argue, "he's one of the Sovereign's soldiers."

  "Exactly!" Shayde stated.

  Whisper raised her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean 'exactly'?"

  Shayde ran her fingers through her hair and turned her head to stare at Aradia. After staring at her for a few moments she turned back to look at Whisper. "The Sovereign is basically the supreme dictator of all the vampires in the world right?"

  Whisper nodded.

  "His predecessor took over a thousand years to organize and unite the vampires. He was the one who helped the vampires become their own virtual nation and government."

  Whisper shrugged casually that clearly said, "yeah so?"

  Shayde rolled her eyes. "That vampire was able to turn a power hungry people into one nation. It took him over a thousand years or maybe more. Yet in the last century the current Sovereign was able to dethrone him and install his own policies."

  "The first," Shayde dropped her voice dramatically, "being the exposure of the witches as traitors to the hidden race. Mind you, none of us had actual proof that the witches betrayed us not even to this day. However, it cannot be ignored that they were the first hidden race exposed to the humans but at the same time it's awfully suspicious."

  "What are you saying?" Whisper's voice was barely over a whisper.

  "There have been rumors going around for over three hundred years that the witches were innocent of treason and that the Sovereign used them to show everyone the power of the vampires. By killing off all the witches, it proved how deadly the vampires are to the other races. I mean if one race could be slaughtered others could be as well. After the witches were exterminated, no other hidden nation dare raise their hand or even so much as a word against the vampires."

  "Sure there have been a few spats here and there," Shayde admitted with a shrug. "But nothing too serious. They daren't because if the Sovereign felt threatened god only knows what he would order the other vampires to do."

  "We are also his subjects you know," Whisper pointed out and then folded her arms.

  Shayde shrugged. "True. I also cannot deny that if the Sovereign ordered us to do something we would not do it."

  "And that," Shayde added as she turned back to look at Aradia, "is what concerns me a little."

  "What?"

  Shayde rolled her eyes at her bride's ignorance. "The Sovereign does not do anything unless it's a calculated move. He is not the type to act recklessly," She hissed, "he plans everything out. Most of all, he keeps order in his household and in his army."

  Whisper readjusted her glasses. "What are you saying exactly?"

  Shayde snorted. "He is not the type of person to let his soldiers stand idly by. He would specifically station them with specific assignments with specific targets in mind."

  "Oh I am sure he would allow his soldiers to take women sometime," Whisper said sarcastically and shrugged.

  Shayde shook her head fervently. "His predecessor would have but not this one even the most lowly of his soldiers say that he is the biggest control freak in the world. He masterminds everything. His platoon leaders are not allowed to do anything without specific instructions from him. Whether its moving to a new place or taking a new mate if it is a
vampire who serves the Sovereign then they must ask for his permission. He knows everything about the vampire world including the vampires who do not serve in his armies."

  Whisper's eyes widened as if her awareness had finally kicked in.

  Shayde noticed. "What?"

  Whisper ran her fingers through her hair. "About a week ago Eventide was bragging about being asked to join the Sovereigns army."

  Shayde gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

  Whisper went on. "I asked why weren't we asked to join? He laughed and said eventually I would be. Right now Keon is asking all the male vampires in Salem to join the Sovereign's army. He said that asking all of them would take about a month or two. He then presumed that afterwards Keon would move on to the females."

  Shayde stared at the ground in panic. "Is this true? I mean do you know if this actually true?"

  Whisper's shoulders sagged. "I think it is because about a week ago I saw one of our mates, Larista, sporting a new belt with a very weird symbol on it. It looked like a rose. How do I know that it isn't just a fashion statement you ask? The fact that I have seen every other vampire wearing the same symbol one way or the other is a clue."

  Shayde gasped again. "You mean they are recruiting?"

  Whisper nodded. "Most likely."

  Shayde's eyes grew wide and frightened. "But that would mean that they are planning to wage a war."

  Whisper's expression now matched Shayde's.

  "Don't you see?" Shayde hissed. "Why else would they want more soldiers? Why else would they spreading a symbol around like a banner to a cause?"

  "More importantly," Shayde added, "why would one of the Sovereign's top solider spend his time wooing a high school girl? Time that he should be spending recruiting more soldiers and formulating a plan."

  "Unless of course," Whisper concluded, finally following her bride's logic, "wooing the high school girl is already part of their plan!"