“That won’t work,” said Andre.
Aaron glanced at her. “Why not?”
“Because these shackles are resistant to mortal magic.”
“How are we going to free ourselves, then?” Courtney wondered.
Andre shrugged, saying nothing. She recognized this situation, for she remembered experiencing something like it previously. Before she could control herself, she felt herself slipping into a flashback…
I will use magic, she thought as she stared at the recipe that was in front of her. Just this once, and Dad will never know.
That day, she felt herself staring at a recipe—and saw a piece of paper that was written in some sort of cryptic code with numbers next to bizarre abbreviations. She had never seen a recipe before; most of what her mother made for dinners had been transformed based off the ingredients that were in front of her, never made by hand. Yet, her father gave her instructions to prepare it while he was out—and they would have it when he got back.
He had left over a couple of hours ago and was due to return any minute.
All over the house, she knew there were hidden cameras to watch her. That was why she refrained from using her magic. Yet, she knew the cameras would also show her staring at the same recipe for the past two hours without trying to make the dish.
Just then, her father returned, scanning the kitchen. “Did you make what I asked you to make?” he asked her, seeing an empty kitchen.
She shook her head. “This recipe,” she said. “I don’t understand it.”
In that moment, her father reached for her and pulled her out of the kitchen. “You made it,” he spat as he pulled her into a closet. On the wall were shackles that she had seen many times—and he secured her in them, something he did plenty of times whenever she did something that wasn’t to his liking. But what did I do this time?
“Stay here while I check the footage!” he commanded, slipping the key into his pocket before leaving the closet and shutting the door behind him.
She struggled against the shackles like she did plenty of times before. There was a camera in that room, but at that point, she didn’t care. She needed to get out of there; she wasn’t about to be trapped in there for hours on end like the previous times.
She stared at each of the shackles and willed for them to break, but nothing happened. In that instant, she realized the shackles were immune to her magic. But why would my father have these?
Then, she thought of something else. She remembered the key her father had when incarcerating her—the key to the shackles. She knew exactly where it was and therefore could summon it. Doing just that, the key appeared in her hand, and she instantly dropped it so she could levitate it. Then, she commanded it to unlock the shackles—and she fell to the floor.
And her father burst into that room—and what happened after that, she didn’t remember.
It was well into the evening by the time Andre had been pulled out of that flashback, suddenly realizing she had actually fallen asleep. It had been over a week since she slept last, and exhaustion was starting to take its toll on her.
The others were still awake, with the exception of Olivia, and all eyes were on Andre.
“You’re awake,” Courtney noted.
Andre nodded in acknowledgement. “Did Melissa return while I was asleep?”
Courtney shook her head. “We need to discuss how we’re going to get out of here.”
“Obviously, we can’t open the bindings magically,” said Aaron.
“I know what we can do,” Andre said upon noticing that the shackles could be manually unlocked. “I’ve been in this situation before.”
The others looked at her curiously as she tried to summon the key to the shackles—something she knew Melissa would have. Yet, she didn’t know exactly where it was and therefore had to concentrate a little more before finally letting it appear in her hand. Then, she dropped and levitated it like she had done previously, letting her magic act like physical hands as the key was shoved into each of the locks of the shackles—and then, the shackles released her.
Once she was free, she proceeded to manually free the others, and soon, no one except for Olivia’s corpse remained shackled to the wall.
“Smart,” said Courtney to Andre before turning to the others. “We need to move!”
“What about Olivia?” asked Reilly. “We obviously can’t leave her corpse here to rot!”
“There’s no time! We’ll…summon her later,” said Courtney. “Right now, we need to get the Foreseer and then get back to the facility before the Massacre begins.”
The four of them barged out of the room, scanning up and down the hallway for any sign of the rebels. Instead of seeing something, they began to hear screaming within a room that was a little ways up the hallway. After racing in that direction, they broke the door of the room down…
…and came face-to-face with Melissa holding a knife to Mandy’s throat. The other three rebels stood behind her, and Andre’s eyes briefly made contact with Kat’s.
“Somehow, I knew you’d find a way to free yourselves. You always do. It’s a shame your friend had to go the way she did,” said Melissa, “and it’s a shame you will not be able to save the Foreseer.”
Courtney took a careful step forward. “Melissa, please lower the knife,” she said.
“What’s the fun in that?’ responded Melissa. “With one cut, she could be on the floor, bleeding—and you would have to watch as the life slowly left her eyes.”
As Courtney stopped approaching Melissa, Andre gazed at the corner of the room. There, she conjured a small fire and allowed it to grow in size until it started to consume the room.
“Melissa,” Kat said as she pointed towards the growing fire.
Melissa glanced back in shock—letting go of Mandy, and Aaron quickly pulled her to their side.
“Let’s go,” said Courtney, and the five of them left the burning room.
As fire shot out of the room, igniting flames in the hallway as well, the immortals barreled out of the room and charged after them.
Then, Andre felt herself fall to the floor as the others continued to run until they were out of her sight. Someone pounced on her, and it took her a few seconds to realize it was Melissa.
“Stop resisting!” Melissa commanded as the other three approached them.
Without responding, Andre shoved Melissa off her and pushed herself off the floor. Then, she began to run again before being thrown against a wall that had not yet caught on fire.
“Stop!” Melissa said again. “We need you alive!” Then, she released Andre, who fell to the ground.
“For what purpose?” Andre spat, catching her breath.
“Cody wants you,” said Melissa with no hesitation.
“My father? You’re working for my father?!” Andre was both angry and flabbergasted. Her eyes flashed with anger as she commanded a wall of fire to appear in front of her. After pushing it towards the immortals, she teleported out of the hotel and into the parking lot. From outside, she stared at the burning building, realizing only afterwards that the parking lot was full of those who had evacuated the hotel.
She had just teleported in front of hundreds of people.
Luckily, they all seemed hypnotized by the fire that they weren’t paying any attention to her. Turning away from the burning hotel, she scanned the parking lot for the car. Her eyes instantly saw it, and she went towards the vehicle, still in shock.
“Drive,” she commanded when she slid next to Courtney in the passenger’s seat.
“What happened in there?” Courtney questioned. “You disappeared on us!”
“Drive!” Andre repeated. “I’ll tell you on the way.”
Courtney quickly complied, and soon, the burning hotel was behind them as they began to make their way back to the facility.
“What happened in there, Andre?” questioned Courtney when they were a safe distance away from the hotel.
“They caught up to me
and attempted to restrain me,” Andre explained. “Melissa claimed they needed me alive.”
“Why?”
“Ava once mentioned the rebel base was in Barcelona, but it wasn’t until now that I realized why that was,” she said. “They’ve somehow managed to make an alliance with my father.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Courtney’s widened eyes.
Aaron leaned forward in his seat. “Why would they make an alliance with Cody Robinson?”
“So they can use his technology against Henri Anderson,” said Mandy suddenly.
All eyes except for Courtney’s turned towards her.
“How do you know?” demanded Andre.
“Because Melissa took me to his prison in Barcelona, and I overheard them discussing that subject at one point before she brought me here,” explained Mandy. “He’s the one who explained to me that a Spy is someone who hunts magic users.”
“There’s more to them than that,” explained Andre. “In short, the Spies are immortal humans who develop overtime a never-ending craving for the blood of magic users. There’s a certain property our blood contains they had extracted a long time ago in order to create an immortal gene for themselves and their children.”
“That’s insane!” said Mandy.
“The concept of immortality makes most people go insane,” replied Courtney.
“Wait, so you’re half-immortal?” inquired Mandy.
Andre nodded. “Yes, but that part of me isn’t dominant.”
After that, silence spread throughout the car ride as the sun had set completely.
Mandy curled up between the two warlocks. “Thanks for saving me.”
Instead of responding, they just nodded.
“I hope we’ll be back in time,” Courtney said after a while. “Who knows what damage Henri could inflict on the facility when Jason’s numbers are not at its fullest?”
Andre continued to stare out the window as the moon began to rise. Off in the distance, she saw a thick line of smoke waft up into the sky, instantly thinking it was the fire that engulfed the hotel. Yet, she quickly shook off that idea when she realized they were heading towards the smoke, not away from it.
“Something tells me the Massacre beat us to the facility,” Andre stated.
“What makes you say that?” questioned Aaron.
Andre pointed to the smoke, and all eyes followed. As the car moved closer to the facility, Andre was able to make out the building’s general shape—and the flames that nearly swallowed it.
“Oh, shit,” Courtney breathed as she pulled into the building’s parking lot. “Are we too late?”
“Let’s hope not,” Andre said, turning to Mandy. “You stay here.”
“No,” Mandy refused. “I’m as much a part of this as you!”
Courtney parked the vehicle. “Let her come,” she declared.
“Why?” Andre questioned. “Especially with the threat of losing her again?”
“There’s the threat of losing all of us today,” Courtney said. “I’d rather her be with us than waiting out here alone, wondering when and if we’ll return.”
“Fine!” Andre snapped. “Mandy, you’re with me.”
The five of them sprung out of the car and raced to the entrance of the ICW facility, expecting to find the floor littered with charred bodies.
There was nothing. Aside from the raging fire, there wasn’t a sign that a battle had taken place here. The place was too quiet.
With Courtney in front, they went a little ways into the facility in an attempt to find someone. Anyone. Just to prove there were people still alive.
“I’m going to check the Eternal Division room,” Andre announced, taking Mandy with her. “The rest of you, stay here and see what else you can find.”
The others nodded in agreement—and surprisingly, Courtney was among them—and Andre slipped away from them with Mandy.
After going upstairs, they reached the hallway that Eternal Division’s room was on. The fire was still prominent, protruding from the walls, and Andre only hoped the room wouldn’t have caught fire yet.
She threw open the door with Mandy trailing behind her—only to be met with many pairs of eyes staring at her. Most had belonged to the four members of Eternal Division with one that belonged to Aspyn.
“Where the hell were you?!” she shrieked. “And where’s Courtney?!”
“We thought you all were dead somehow,” said Andre quietly, avoiding Aspyn’s question. “Where’s Holly? And Rebekah?”
“Holly’s with the Speirs family; she was the one who saw the immortals appear outside and warned us,” explained Aspyn. “Since you and Courtney weren’t back yet, Jason told me to make sure no one leaves this room. But when I got here, Rebekah wasn’t here. I don’t know where she is.”
Andre couldn’t say anything else. Leaving Mandy in the room, she took off with the intent of finding Holly before searching the entire building for Rebekah.
The battle had begun.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
Rebekah: Munich, Germany
“T
hey’re not back yet,” Holly noted.
Rebekah took one look outside, noticing that the sun was starting to set. Currently, she sat on her bed, and Holly was next to her. “Should they be back by now?”
“Unless something happened to them,” Holly said. “Maybe they ran into some sort of complication.”
Rebekah turned away from the window. “How many went to find Mandy? Four?”
“I think five,” Holly corrected.
“Then, we’re five people short in a battle where the immortals were already going to outnumber us,” Rebekah concluded. “Hopefully, they’ll get here in time.”
More time passed before the sun finally set, and Holly refused to turn on any lights in the bedroom. “They’d be able to see us if we turned on the lights,” was her reason.
Rebekah moved towards the door. “They’re not coming yet, are they? We still have time.”
“Yeah, I…” Holly never finished her thought.
“Holly, what is it?” questioned Rebekah as she moved to where Holly was. At that point in time, she knew she didn’t need an answer. Splotches of black smoke appeared below on the grass, and Rebekah knew they belonged to the immortal magic users.
The Massacre had officially begun.
And the five who went to rescue Mandy hadn’t returned yet.
“I have to warn Jason,” Holly said as she bolted out of the room.
“Holly!” Rebekah called out, but she didn’t hear a response back. She tried again. “Holly!” Taking one last look outside, she ran to the edge of her bedroom and glanced into the living room.
Holly wasn’t there.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rebekah noticed the appearance of a speaker on the ceiling. Once it had finished manifesting, Jason’s voice rang from the speakers. “This building is officially on lockdown. Please get to your rooms immediately, and stay there.” Then, as quickly as the speaker appeared, it disappeared.
The other bedroom doors flew open as the other Eternal Division members stumbled out of them, but Rebekah didn’t wait for them to emerge. In an attempt to follow Holly, who she knew was now with the Speirs family, she left the Eternal Division room.
The hallway was relatively quiet, and she started to run down its length, hoping to not run into anybody. In front of her, black smoke blocked her only pathway—and she instantly ran in the opposite direction. Shit, shit, shit!
As she scrambled to make it back into her room before the immortal magic users saw her, she kept thinking that curse over and over again. She knew she should have never left the room, but she wanted to find Holly and to be in a place with those that could protect her from the immortals.
An invisible force then wrapped around her legs, pulling them tightly together and forcing her to fall to the floor.
The two immortal magic users—who were both female and who had obviously seen her—walked towa
rds her, saying nothing. In seconds, one of them, who resembled Rhiannon slightly, appeared in front of her while the other one grabbed her shoulders and yanked her off the floor.
“You’re coming with us,” said the one who looked like Rhiannon.
As they began to hoist her off to wherever they were taking her, she struggled against their grips. But she was unsuccessful.
“Elyse, she’s resisting,” the other one commented—and it took her a while to realize the second one was Rhiannon.
The other one whose name was Elyse didn’t respond to Rhiannon. Instead, she violently threw Rebekah into the nearest wall. “Rhiannon says you’re not complying with us, and frankly, I have to agree with her.”
Rebekah didn’t know what to do. When dealing with two immortal magic users, she knew she was virtually powerless. Yet, she knew she had to try something, anything, in order to free herself.
She needed to hurt the one who was holding her—Elyse. And then, she needed to make a run for it.
Quickly, she kicked Elyse in the stomach, which made the immortal witch stagger backwards, letting her go. Then, she took off as fast as she could towards the Eternal Division room, an attempt that would have been successful if Rhiannon hadn’t been right there.
Something intangible grabbed a hold of her torso and threw her backwards towards Elyse and Rhiannon. Once again, her back slammed into a wall, and Rhiannon approached her with glowing, yellow eyes.
“Perhaps you will be more agreeable when you fall unconscious,” said Rhiannon.
Before Rebekah had a chance to respond, she felt Rhiannon’s gaze on her as her own vision faded.
Then, she slumped to the ground as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
~~~
Rebekah awoke to the aroma of a strange concoction. Then, she regained the other five senses: her taste as the bitter flavor of sleep enveloped her entire mouth, followed by her hearing, her touch, and eventually, her vision.
She found herself in a strange room, shackled to the wall, imprisoned like a caged animal. In front of her was the concoction that she had been smelling earlier. There was a black cauldron, and inside the cauldron was a boiling, green-tinted liquid. Next to the cauldron stood Elyse and Rhiannon as well as someone she least expected to see.
Bleeding Misery (Threatening Souls Book 2) Page 39