MIABastien got up from his seat, a look of unfiltered horror on his face, “Rylee, this is unbelievable, how are you here?”Rylee cackled wickedly as she looked around the sitting room, “Is that how you say hello to an old friend whom you haven’t seen in a long time, Bastien?”“Impossible, you died, you are supposed to be dead.”“You should know, something as trivial as death cannot hold me back.”Ivan and Javier also had the same shocked looks on their faces, the resemblance between Rylee and Olivia was uncanny.Rylee and her entourage consisting of Olivia and Leo walked into Bastien’s house. Every one of us exchanged glances.Leo and Javier had a face-off with Javier looking ready to descend to violence at any time.Olivia glared at me and I returned the favor. I would love nothing more than to rip out her heart right now after the stunt she played with Javier but I stay calm. Ivan stepped in front of me, his protective instincts kicking it. The atmosphere in the room was very tens
MIAMy voice cut through the air silencing everyone as a chilly wind blew into the sitting room through an open window, only adding to the thick tension that was in the room.Javier burst out laughing, “Don’t be ridiculous Mia, how can that possibly be true?”He was greeted with silence still, he looked around, at all the faces, at mine first.I was almost shedding tears for him, I could only picture what type of turmoil he was going through right now.I remembered how I felt when my mom told me that she was not my mom. It was as if my whole world was shattered before my eyes in a minute.I could relate to how he felt, but this was worse… his dad turned out to be the person he hated most in the world. “Javier…” I tried to speak but the word stuck in my throat.His gaze went to Ivan who looked down at the floor avoiding him, then he looked at Bastien and Leo.They both averted his gaze and instead looked at each other and then at me with anger in their eyes.“You just could not keep y
JAVIERMy head was spinning, I was still finding it impossible to believe what I had just heard, Leo was my real father? How? Why? The worst part about it was that everyone knew, except for me.I was so angry that I had to leave and go to the office. I was afraid of what I would do to Leo and Bastien if I stayed there any longer.How could Ivan, Ivan of all people keep such a huge thing from me? So this was what he had been hiding ever since he met my dad – Bastien, I corrected. After all, he wasn’t my father anymore and neither was Leo.Mia was trying to mind-link me but I blocked the connection. I was angry with all of them, Mia even more but at the same time I missed her and longed for her. Was this all because of the mate bond? Was it impossible for me to stay angry at her?My phone buzzed, I checked the caller ID, it was Mia, I declined the call.‘Go to her, soldier boy,’ Ace coaxed.‘She lied to us, Ace. How can we ever trust her again?’‘Stop talking rubbish and go to her, she
MIAI awoke with a start, it was like someone shook me suddenly causing me to wake up, I sat up in bed, feeling a bit out of place, things did not look right. This wasn't the same house that I slept in, how did I suddenly end up somewhere else? ‘You are not awake, Mia, you are in another one of your visions,’ Lynn warned me. I gasped, was this going to be another nightmare like the one I had before? ‘I have to get out of here, Lynn. Get me out of here, now!’ I whispered into the night at Lynn, my voice shrill with panic. ‘Lady, calm yourself down. You will not achieve anything by panicking,’ Lynn admonished, ‘Calm down, let's figure out where we are.’I slid out of bed and quietly tiptoed to the door and drew it open softly, the door opened without making a sound and I peeped outside, nothing familiar, as soon as I stepped out the door, it was like I walked through a mist and next thing I knew, I found myself back where I was last time. ‘This was where I saw that woman carrying m
"Mia, Mia, wake up! " Javier was shaking me roughly when my eyes flew open and I screamed, tears spilling down my cheeks and my heart beating hard against my ribs. What type of horrible vision was that? I had no idea that I had been crying, screaming, and tossing about in bed."Hey, hey, shuuuuu, it's okay, you are away now. I am here now. It's okay, no one is going to hurt you," Javier cooed, reassuring me. I fell into his chest and hugged him tightly as I continued to cry and sob, "It was so terrible, Javier, so terrible," I said amidst sobs. "Shuuuuu, love. Everything is going to be fine," he said reassuringly, stroking my hair softly. I hugged him tighter, not wanting to let go. I finally pulled away and then looked at his face, my eyes all watery and puffy. Javier tried to hide it but I could tell, something was seriously bugging him. "What is it?" I asked. "Uhmm, I'm sure it can wait until the morning, try to get some sleep," he said. I was not convinced. I sat up, "wha
Bastien, Bastien, Bastien. Why did everything seem to revolve around him? First, it was him in my dream and now he was the last person to see my mom before she was attacked. There was no way that was just a coincidence.I remembered back when I first met him in the hospital, my mom was asking him about a baby he came looking for about twenty-one years ago and he was quick to hush her up. Now he was visiting her just shortly before she was attacked?"You have got to be kidding me," Javier blurted out."Calm down, I am sure there is a perfectly good reason for this, we just need him to clarify," Ivan said to his brother."Clarify what? Are you forgetting it is Bastien we are talking about? This is just going to be another one of his secrets he never talks about," Javier fired back.The sudden silence from the ICU ward caused all of us to fall silent. I noticed with dismay that the EKG machine was no longer beeping, which was not good.To make matters worse, the glass door slid open and
My heart was already doing backflips in my chest but I quickly calmed down when I saw that it was Javier. I frowned, "What do you think you are sneaking on me?"It was Javier's turn to frown, "I wasn't sneaking up on you Mia, just came in to see how you were doing, you were yelling in your sleep again.""How did I get back here?" I asked."You fell asleep the moment we started our journey back, we didn't want to disturb you when we reached so Ivan carried you inside to bed," he replied, coming to my bedside and sitting down, a look of worry on his face, "Are you okay Mia? That's a stupid question, you can't be okay. Not after what just happened. I am worried Mia, you were screaming in your sleep again, what was it this time?""I had another one of my visions, Javier... it was Rylee."His frown deepened, "Rylee? what did she do this time around?""That's the thing, she did not do anything. She only told me that if I wanted answers to all my questions, I needed to come and meet her.""
MIAThe rogue said to me from up close and I caught a whiff of his bad breath, it smelled like rotten meat.I jumped back and tried another direction but another one popped up in front of me. I turned again but it was already too late.I was surrounded by all twelve of them, every single one of these men looked vile and evil and they were smiling wickedly at me."Stay away from me," I warned them.They laughed and jeered at me."Make this easy on yourself, come with us. it is one against 12, there is no way you can win. You are too weak to even try." the rogue with the yellow teeth and bad breath said, still flashing his teeth."I am warning you, stay back," I replied."You must be so scared, I bet you want to ask for your mommy," he jeered and the others laughed as they closed in on me.Without warning, I let out a powerful growl, and all of the rogues jumped back in panic. The sight of this gave me a bit of my confidence back and I growled again, causing them to panic once more and
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