MIAThe torment seemed never-ending, and the magical power that helped me keep it a bay for a while was gone. It was me with the voices all over again and it was a losing battle just like before.They were laughing, jeering, and taunting me and I was slapping at the mist and shouting, trying to drive them all away, there was no end to them, no reprieve, the images kept coming, the voices kept coming and I felt like I was going insane.The voices kept quiet for a bit and I saw my opening, the images were just beginning to reform into another sad and painful memory from my past but I was not about to allow it to finish forming.I forced myself to my feet and took off running, I ran without caring what direction I was heading in, I just wanted to put as much distance as possible between me and the phantoms that were tormenting me.“Where the hell do you think you are going, come back here,” the voices commanded.I shook my head, trying to drive them out.“Come back Mia, we will miss you.
MIAThe sound of the inhuman voice I heard sent a chill running down my spine, what the hell was that? I wondered."Oh no!" my mom exclaimed, "He has found us Mia, we have to run now.""Mom, you are confusing me, who has found us?" I queried.She grabbed hold of me, there was a wild fearful look in her eyes, "I have always dreaded this day darling, the day that he would come looking for you.""Mom, you are beginning to scare me. Just tell me what the hell is going on, what is that voice?""I had always known that you would be meant to do great things. Ever since I was pregnant with you, I could feel it but the problem was, many dark entities could feel it too. He is one of those dark entities that want our powers - yours and mine all for himself.""Who exactly is he, Mom?" I asked her. The way she was trembling with fear was starting to get me scared more and more.I hoped deep down that whoever it was she was talking about was not the same person who drugged Javier and Ivan and asked
BASTIENThe swirling trees and the beautiful landscape were all made unappealing by the mist and the memories it threw at me.“Why, how could you do such a thing?” I saw myself asking my wife.I felt afresh how it was that I felt when I had first learned of her heart-breaking betrayal, how could she have done something so horrible as to cheat on me with none other than my half-brother, Leo?The mist captured the memory perfectly and did not miss a thing, it lingered on all the painful memories, making them last as long as possible, drawing them out to achieve maximum effect.I just stood resting on a tree as the voices spoke to me and the mist showed me images of my past.“You have to understand, Bastien, I did not do what I did because I wanted to hurt you. That was never my intention,” my wife replied to me. She was sitting at the bedside, looking up at me.I was standing and bearing down on her, I could not believe that the mate that I had marked and loved would even hurt me like t
LEOI had experienced this before but not to this extent, now it was far worse than I could ever imagine. The first time I came here with Rylee and Olivia, she used her magic to shield us from the adverse effects, and all I heard were tiny whispers that I couldn’t make out and shapes that held no meaning.When the three of us got separated, I was able to get out of the forest before the spell that Rylee cast on me broke. That was how I was able to get away the first time and go to find Mia and Bastien. This time around, I did not have Rylee’s magic to count on.“Shut up!” I yelled, “We both know that that is not what happened.”“Hahahahaha, did you and Harold not go on a power trip only to end up killing the woman you claimed you love? Making your son motherless?”“That was not supposed to happen, her dying was never part of the plan,” I confessed bitterly.“But fucking her behind your brother’s back and having a child… that was part of the plan?”The mist was showing me a picture of
JAVIERThe last thing I remembered was being in a room and fighting the cloaked figure that was surprisingly much stronger than I thought and he handed me my ass. I remembered running into a maze that he told me I would never be able to escape from but now, suddenly, I found myself in a forest.Was it all an illusion? Was it some sort of ancient teleportation spell, I couldn’t tell, what was real and what was not.The forest was eerie and I couldn’t help the feeling that some entity or danger was lurking just out of sight in the darkness that surrounded me. I had to get out of here, I had to get back to Ivan and Mia, I looked around the forest and I could not tell anything, and couldn’t smell anything useful either.How the hell was I going to escape from here? My eyes darted to the side to see some mist approaching me and immediately, I got a weird feeling.I ran forward, away from the mist but that didn’t help matters, it was coming from every direction now, it was unavoidable.I br
MIAWe kept running and plowing through the obstacles that were coming at us out of nowhere, a spiky vine snaked out of nowhere and wrapped itself around my mother and dragged her away from me.“Mom,” I yelled and tried to go after her when a pointy branch came flying in my direction from behind and stabbed me in the back.The impact drove me to the ground and I gritted my teeth in pain, it was my mom’s turn to yell.“Mia,” she ripped the spiky vine apart with her bare hands and rushed towards me, her palms were bleeding but she didn’t care about that. Her focus was on me.Without wasting any time, she dragged the branch out from my back causing me to feel a fresh round of pain.“Get up,” she said and reached out her hand for mine, I took her hand and she dragged me upright, “how’s your wound?” she asked, her face twisted in worry and panic.“It’s okay,” I said reassuring her, “it’s already starting to heal.”“Good we need to keep moving,” she said and without waiting for me to respon
MIAHow was any of this possible? I thought he had been kidnapped by that terrifying figure in the hood but here he was before my very own eyes running towards me along with Bastien and Leo.“Javier!” I screamed in excitement, “Get us out of here, hurry!” at this point, I wished that this was not another wicked illusion conjured by the forest to further torment us, I hoped that the three men rushing towards my mother and I with concerned looks on their faces were really here and not also lost in the forest, dealing with different nightmares of their own.They all caught up with us, Javier was in the lead, and without hesitation, he ran across the quicksand and reached me.“Be careful, it will trap you too!” I shouted in warning but it was too late, he had already reached me and what was more surprising, he wasn’t sinking either.“What are you people experiencing right now?” Bastien asked heading cautiously for Sarcana.“We are being pulled into a batch of quicksand. The fact you have
RYLEE I could feel the protective magic that covered me was starting to lose its efficacy. I had to make a choice, if I decided to make it stronger, I would lose stamina due to continuous usage and who knew what else might be lurking in this forsaken forest. I decided that it would be safer at the moment to drop my protective magic and save my energy. The elder forest was indeed a formidable enemy, it was tougher to get through than I originally thought. I thought it would be very easy to get in, find Sarcana, and finish her off but instead, here I was standing all alone, lost. Olivia and Leo got separated from me earlier, whatever protective magic there was around them would have long disappeared since they were no longer with me. I didn't care much about Leo. He could take care of himself and if he couldn't then he was never fit to run in my inner circle anyway. My major concern was Olivia. That kid was useless without me around. I had to find her and make sure that she wa
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