JAVIER“There she goes again,” Ivan said.“She looks so peaceful with her eyes closed,” I replied.“Until she wakes up screaming and the whole cycle of what just played out today repeats itself,” Ivan added.I sighed, he wasn’t wrong, it was clockwork at this point.I took her out of the tub, dried her off, and then wrapped her in a pink robe and carried her downstairs.“Why not go to her room?” Ivan asked.“I want us to be the first thing she sees when she wakes up so she won’t have to be scared all alone,” I replied.“Hmmm,” he nodded and followed me down, “what’s the plan?”I placed her gingerly on the sofa then joined him at the min-bar, “I know Bastien is cooking up something on his end but we also have to think of a plan ourselves, we can’t leave everything up to him.”“When will you start calling him dad again? We have established at this point that our anger towards him was misplaced and it was Harold’s fault,” Ivan questioned.I looked at him, “Honestly Ivan, I don’t know, ev
MIAI looked into this strange man's eyes and it felt like there was nothing there. They usually said that the eyes were the window to the soul, well, if that's the case, whoever this was, he was soulless. I backed away from him and scurried off the sofa, my hands were up in a defensive position and my heart was beating heavily."Who are you and what have you done to Javier and Ivan?" I asked him, my eyes darting from his face to the unconscious bodies of my mates. How did this guy get in here and manage to overpower both Javier and Ivan, that was just not possible, was it?He slid back the hood of his cloak in a dramatic fashion to reveal his face fully, "Hello, Mia, nice to meet you again, I'm Killian."Killian? He said that like it was supposed to mean something to me."I don't know who the hell you are. What are you doing here and what did you do to Javier and Ivan?"He looked at Javier and Ivan who were sprawled on the ground, out cold. He seemed to be admiring his handiwork, t
MIA“Javier!” I yelled at the top of my voice as he and the mysterious Killian fellow seemed to vanish into thin air.“No, no, this cannot be happening,” I muttered to myself as my panic reached new heights.I got off the sofa and ran to Ivan and rocked him viciously, “Ivan, get up, get the hell up, right now!”I pleaded and shouted but he remained unresponsive, he just lay there, like a log of wood.I ran upstairs to my room, took my phone and dialed Bastien’s number, he answered on the first ring.“Mia?”“Come over right now!” I screamed into the receiver and hung up.My heart was going crazy in my chest and my head was spinning. I couldn’t think straight, who was that guy and what had he done to Ivan. Where had he taken Javier? Was I truly never going to see Javier ever again?‘Calm down, Mia, you are spiraling out of control, try to get a grip on your emotions,’ Lynn tried to advise.‘How, get a grip how? My mates are dead because of me,’ I said sobbing.‘Your mates are not dead y
MIA“What?” I muttered, my jaw dropping in shock. What the hell was Leo saying now? This made no sense.“What? That’s not possible, how is that possible?”“I have no idea,” Leo replied, still breathing hard, “All I know is that, when we got there, she wasn’t there.”“Could it be that you guys just went to the wrong location?” I asked.“Was it not the same location that both you and Rylee saw in her mind?” Leo asked back.“Yes, it was,” I replied,“Then, there goes your answer. There was no one there.”What Leo was saying did not make any sense to me, there was no way that he, Olivia, and Rylee went to the location I saw in Rylee’s mind and were unable to find my mom. Something was amiss; I just could not accept this, given the fact that I had seen that same location when I just had my vision. In my vision, my mother reached out to me and asked me for help in rescuing her. There was no doubt in my mind that she was still stuck there in the Elder forest. As to why Leo and his group cou
MIA“What in the hell are you saying, Leo?” Bastien exploded. “Are you out of your mind? Ask Rylee for help. What a joke.”“Hear me out,” Leo protested.“Rylee just tried to kill me and my mates by trapping me in her mind and immediately after that, she went on a vindictive mission to kill my mother, that’s the Rylee you want me to ask for help?” I exploded too.How unbelievably bold of Leo to come into my house and suggest that I go crawling to Rylee of all people for help, was he insane?“I know but…” I cut Leo off.“Do you, Leo? Are you sure you do?”“My son’s life is at stake damn it, I don’t make this suggestion lightly,” Leo shot back. “I am very confident that Rylee will help us.”“Yeah? And what makes you so sure of that?” I questioned.“Power… Rylee is obsessed with it, if there is someone else out there who is more powerful than she is, trust me, she would want to know. From what you have told me about this strange man, he just might be.”“What makes you think we want her he
MIAWhat the hell had just happened? One minute we were walking into the Elder forest together, and Leo was telling me that no matter what, we should not get separated, and now, I was standing all by myself. How the hell did that happen?Where were Bastien and Leo? “Bastien! Leo!” I called out but all I got back was the echo of my voice, nothing more.This was beginning to become scary, the whole idea was to go with Leo who knew his way around the forest, he was able to go in with Rylee and Olivia and even after getting separated from them, he was able to escape unscathed.I, on the other hand, knew nothing about this place, how I was supposed to find my way, and talked less about finding Rylee. This was bad, this was a terrible situation.How was I going to see myself out of this one? I needed to think, Lynn always told me that I was too impulsive and that was why I always got myself into trouble and made the wrong decisions.I won’t do that this time around. I would calm down and co
MIAAt the cry for help, I felt a buzzing inside my chest, it felt like something that had been bound was getting set free. Like some unseen door had just opened and something inexplicable was about to come out of the doorI could feel it all over my body, my skin was tingling, my veins were pulsating and my eyes were ablaze like a fiery pit as a boatload of power surged through me.It was like I was getting overloaded with more power than I could handle as the energy in me continued to build up and build up until I could not contain it within myself any longer and I let out a scream.My voice tore through the forest with a force that shook the place and it echoed across every corner of the ancient forest causing leaves to fly about and birds to flee from their nests.As I screamed, I released the power that had built up within me, it felt hot, like a flame that needed to be set free and I just set it free.At first, nothing happened after I screamed and then, steam began to rise from
JAVIERI woke up with a splitting headache that made my head feel as if it was going to explode. I was not used to this, we wolves healed very quickly from all physical ailments.The fact that I had such a serious migraine was proof that whatever it was that was done to me was very serious.My eyes blinked open and I took in my environment, I was in a very different place from where I was last.The last thing I remembered was being at home with Ivan, waiting for Mia to wake when a strange man came to the door and told us he was a friend of Sarcana – Mia’s mother.I sighed in regret, why did we fall for his cheap trick and open the door for him, letting him in was our biggest mistake because he sprayed something in the air and the last thing I remembered was trying to attack him before passing out.I had no idea how much time had passed if it was even still the same day. What about Ivan and Mia, where were they? Where was I?I sat up without making a noise and adjusted my sight to see
MIAThe next few days were all dark and gloomy, we had won the war but the cost was heavy and it was felt by everyone of us, most of all was Javier.For the first few days, we just holed up in the isolated house that Leo had found and there we passed days as we all tried to come to terms with what had just happened. But today was the day, the day we said goodbye for good.Ivan and Leo had decided that we would all mourn our dead on the same day. Leo handled all the preparation, that was the least that he could do, he said.The first few days were the worst, Javier blamed himself for everything even though we told him that it was Rylee’s fault that he had that evil put in him in the first place and even though he knew this himself, he still blamed himself.How could he not? I sympathized with him and as he hurt, we hurt too. He killed Olivia and then also went ahead to kill Bastien when trying to kill my mom who was protecting him from killing his own brother.It was a very horrible ex
MIAWhat was going on? I was supposed to be dead was I not? Instead, everywhere seemed bright and happy.Not the dark and cold embrace of death that took hold of me earlier, what was going on? I could feel the sunlight on my face and I could hear birds chirping happily in the distance.My hands went to my chest, to where the blade was plunged into me, I felt around the skin frantic, there was no scar, no depression, no sign that I had sustained any injury of any kind at all.I opened my eyes and looked around, I had to blink to adjust my eyes to the brightness that was all around me.I was lying in a field and I was wearing a short rosy gown as opposed to the dark blouse and the tight jeans I had on when I was stabbed.I sat up, the grasses were about two feet high and they were swaying in the soft breeze that was blowing, it was all I could see for miles, a field covered in green grasses and hills all around.I got up and walked through the grasses bare-foot, there was just something
IVANWith Mia captured, it was different, we were able to track her thanks to her mother, things were happening so fast that it felt like I would not even be able to keep up.Mia had been sent away by her mother and then Javier had attacked us and defeated all of us easily, he was about to end my life, my brother, and that was when Olivia stepped in.Why did she step in? Maybe she felt responsible somehow and was trying to make amends but that didn't work, she just ended up getting killed by the man she called her bestie, it was tragic.Now we were all in Bastien's car heading towards the site of the ritual. Sarcana had been able to track Mia to where she was being held.All that was on my mind at this point was to kick down the front door and rush in to rescue her, but I knew deep down we didn't have the strength to stop our adversaries, we were most likely going for a suicide mission."How are we going to take down all those guys and free Mia?" Leo asked.That was when Sarca
JAVIEREverything was dark all around me, I was wrapped up in a cocoon of darkness and I did not know what was happening in the world around me.Then without any warning, a powerful shockwave hit me and put a crack in my cocoon, a ray of light filtered in and I reached for it immediately and tore at the cocoon until there was a hole big enough for me to climb through.It then felt like I was slowly rising to the surface after being submerged in a deep dark liquid for too long, it took me a while to fully return to my senses and when I did, I was overwhelmed and confused.The first thing I noticed was all the chanting and screaming, there were a lot of people around, wolves, I could tell and then something else, I could smell death in the air, vampires too.I had never been in the company of so many of them before then I locked eyes with Mia and I remembered what I had done to her.Not just to her, to Olivia, to my brother, to her mother, to Bastien, and Leo, oh my goodness, I was such
MIASo the ritual was going to happen in an hour, which meant that was exactly how long I had left to live. I turned my gaze to Javier with pleading and tears in my eyes.He just stood there like a robot or a statue, looking past me and not seeing anything at all.Was I really to take the words of the high priest Antonio? Was Javier lost to me? A part of me still felt that he was my last hope, that somehow he was the solution to solving the problem that was right in front of me.The wolf bane in my system made me suddenly groggy, I was afraid that if I fell asleep now, it would be my last slumber. I had to find a way to fight this feeling, I needed to be awake for my remaining time on the planet.The more that I tried to fight the sleep, the more it attacked me until I had no choice but to close my eyelids and succumb to it.As soon as my eyes closed, I realized that I was indeed in a vision. This one was different in the sense that it forced itself upon me, usually, when I fell aslee
MIA"How can you say such a thing about my mate, Javier? He is not cursed!" I countered the high priest Antonio."I did not mean to offend you, chosen one, I was just saying things as I saw it. Javier Romanov is cursed by the prophesy, he is the harbinger of doom and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to change that.""No, you are wrong, there is always a way and I will find it," I said stubbornly.The high priest shook his head at me, "There are far more precious things for the chosen one to be doing than fixating over a lost cause.""He is not a lost cause, stop calling him that."He got up from his meditative stance, "We have waited for the chosen one for a while now and here you are finally. You have a lot to learn, you need to learn how to use your powers to stop the forces of darkness that are converging. Only you can do it.""I don't care about any of that," I snapped, "I only care about saving Javier."Antonio sighed, "I have told you, it is a lost cause.""Then I have
IVANMy heart felt bad for Mia, having to swap her out in the middle of a serious fight like this but I was totally on board with my dad's reasoning.We could all think better and work better without Mia here, if she was not around for us to worry about, we could focus on the task of getting my brother back."Where did you send her?" I asked her mom."I..." Bastien cut her off."Don't tell him," he commanded."What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I said, anger rising in my chest."It's not what you think son, better if only she knew exactly where Mia is, for security reasons.""You think that I would rat out my mate's location if I get tortured or something like that?""You might not have a choice, Rylee is a powerful psychic. The only one among us here that can counter her mental prowess is Sarcana. So it is best if only she knew where Mia was and besides," he looked at Leo, "You might not rat her out but someone else here might.""Great, keep treating me like a criminal wh
MIAMy mother's words filled me with a sense of doom and gloom and made me sick to the stomach. How could she say something like that? Did she not know what Javier meant to me? How could she say that there was nothing we could do about it?We just got him back after he had been on the brink of death for so long, and now we were losing him again to some strange curse that I had never heard of.Was it not possible for us to catch a break? "Mom, c'mon, you can't say that there must be something we can do to help him."She shook her head sadly at me, "I am sorry dear but this situation is out of our hands, all we can do now is take precautions."Leo was not having any of that, "Maybe you might have hit your head a little too hard because I think you said that Javier cannot be helped. Or am I the one who did not hear you right?""I'm sorry, Leo, this is dark magic, there is no way out of it," Sarcana said to him. She was more apologetic than usual."Like hell, there is nothing we can do? W
JAVIERIt was a shock to me that I was standing right there, so close to her. I wanted to reach out and rip out her throat but my body would not let me do that.I cussed inwardly, this was bad, by the looks of things she was the one responsible for what was happening to me, if I could just take her out, the spell or whatever the hell this was would be broken.She was still smiling and had not yet answered the question I asked her earlier, I repeated it with much difficulty, the dark liquid that I was drowning in made talking very difficult.“What the fuck do you want from me?” I said baring my teeth.“There is no point in a puppet asking its master what the goals of the master are. Its job is just to obey wordlessly and move as the master pulls its string.” She said and laughed hoarsely.I took another step forward, “I am not your damn puppet you sick witch, tell me how to break this spell.”She stopped smiling and locked eyes with me, “Why the hell would I do something like that? I c