Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ivy started crying again, but she knew… She always knew what would happen if she betrayed me. “Why… Why did you have to do this? Why did you have to force me into this?!” I yelled. 

I snapped my fingers, instantly binding Ivy with rose gold rope so she couldn’t move. I let go of her neck and she fell to the floor in a mess of tears. I put my thumb and forefinger against the bridge of my nose. 

I paced in my study with only the sounds of her cries echoing through my mind, before I finally spoke again. “I don’t want to fucking do this, you know that right? You forced my hand, Ivy. Kendy... Whatever the fuck your name is.” I snarled. 

I looked at her but she was looking at the floor crying. I bent down and pulled her chin up so I could look her dead in the eyes. I could see the fear on her face. 

“Please, Rowen. I love you, honey. Please, we can fix this… I... I can fix this.” She begged. “No one can fix this.” I mumbled, dropping her chin and continuing to pace in front of her. I was fighting an internal battle. 

I wanted so badly for this to have another outcome, any fucking other outcome. 

I loved her so much I wanted to find a reason to let her go, any reason to leave her alive. I even thought as far as having a Witch enchant her to forget any of this even happened. How selfish of me though... She made her fucking bed, and it was time to lie in it. 

I walked over to her, snapped to release her from the ropes, and then held my hand out. She grabbed my hand and I helped her up. I tried to hide my anguish. 

“Why do you want this amulet?” I asked her. “I don’t want it, but they need it.” She said. “They? Who are they?” I asked. “The Others.” She said. “I swear, that's all I know.” She said meekly. 

Vampire’s didn’t lie, so I knew she was telling the truth. But she knew very little about what she was willing to give her whole entire life up for… “How long? How long have you been working with The Others?” I asked. 

“Please, don’t make me answer this question…” She begged. I took a breath in. “How long?” I asked again, enunciating every word through gritted teeth. She started crying again and I waited for her to regain what was left of her composure, before asking for a third and final time. 

“Ivy, how fucking long? I will not ask you again.” I growled. She looked at me and I could see the regret swimming on her face. 

“The entire time. I have been working for The Others this entire time.” She said. I couldn’t hide my hurt this time, it clouded my face and burned in my heart. 

Viper was an agony in my mind, and I knew I couldn’t push him out, not at this crucial of a time. I let him mourn her and tried to do my best to calm him while still dealing with my own agony. 

“So you becoming my assistant? It was all part of the plan?” I asked her. “Yes, it was.” She said. “You better start talking, Ivy.” I snarled. I was overwhelmed with hurt at this point but I had to know more, I had to know why. 

“Will you spare me if I talk?” She asked with tears in her beautiful eyes. Vampire’s don’t lie, but I wasn’t a Vampire… “I will consider it.” I said, knowing this was a lie. This type of betrayal could never be spared. But if this would get her to talk, then I would say whatever she wanted to hear. 

“I was tasked to get close to you, and your brothers, in order to get close to the Keepers. The Others wanted eyes on the Amulet and only the Keepers knew where it was hidden. Katrina is a Keeper. One of the only few Keepers left now. The Others knew you and your brother Ramses were close to her. It was easier for me to get close to you since I wasn’t able to get to her, but when you came home with the amulet on your neck… It was almost like fate.” Ivy explained. 

“Why didn’t you just take it from me? You had 176 years…” I said, and my heart ached at the thought of how much time I wasted with her. How much of my life I gave to someone who was only here on a fucking mission. Someone who never even wanted to love me... 

“I never took it because The Others told me to leave it right where it was until the right time. It just so happened they didn’t need it until now. They only reached back out to me recently, within the last month. I had forgotten all about them after all these years… And honestly, I did fall in love with you. I am still in love with you.” She said and burst out into tears again. 

I took a deep breath in. This fucking mark, it was sure doing its job. I wanted nothing more than to wrap her in my arms and comfort her. Tell her everything was going to be ok. But no, I wouldn’t do that. In fact, I would never say those words to her again. 

“I tried to tell them to find someone else, to get someone else to do their bidding. But I was binded by a contract, sealed in blood. I had no choice, Rowen.” She said. 

“What did you get in return?” I asked her. “Rpwen, please…” She tried to say. “Ivy…” I growled. “My Immortality... They turned me into a Vampire in return.” She said. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, trying to conceal the pain I was feeling. 

“Ivy, you know I would have turned you… All you would have had to do was ask me, you didn’t need to do this.” I said. “I know, but it was too late. I signed the contract before I met you, before I had my assignment. Had I known what the next 176 years with you would have been like, I never would have agreed to their terms. I never would have signed the contract. I truly did love you, but that amulet was more important than my feelings.” She said. 

I almost felt bad for her, but I couldn’t forget her betrayal. Amongst the hurt was a raging hellfire, and I was at its mercy. I nodded to her and I sat there looking at the most important person in my life. My mate, my one and only. The woman I devoted years of my life to. The woman I truly loved... 

I pulled her into my arms and just hugged her while she wept. I held onto her tightly because this would be the last time I ever touched her. The last time I ever looked at her, tasted her… 

I pulled away enough to put my lips to hers softly, and committed her taste of sugarcane and vanilla to memory. I whispered… “I loved you.” Against her lips. 

But before she could respond I forced my hand into her chest and ripped her heart out, letting her lifeless body fall to the floor in a puddle of blood at my feet. 

I fell to my knees, holding Ivy's heart in my hand as it beat its last beat. I felt the agony of our mate bond shattering as the eight pointed star slowly faded from her beautiful, treacherous, face. 

Viper was howling in my mind as a piece of him was taken too. In a fit of anger and pain I crushed her heart in my hand tossing it aside. I then pulled her lifeless body into my arms and held her as I wept. 

The loss of the mate bond caused by my mark, made a hole in my heart that I didn't know if I could ever fill. It was a fate worse than death to lose your mate, and now I understood how it felt. 

I could also feel the mark she had given me, burning on my neck. A Vampire's mark didn't disappear upon death right away like a Reaver’s mark did… Instead it turned black and caused discomfort until it slowly faded away, days later. 

As upset as I was, as betrayed as I felt, I still loved her. I took my time mourning her before I alerted anyone. When I was ready, I mind linked Aries, my second in command. 

“I need you, bring the cleanup crew.” I said and I closed the mind link. When Aries arrived moments later he took in the sight. “Burn her.” Is all I said. My face was solemn but I didn’t shed another tear… I would never shed another tear over her. 

Aries nodded to me, and started cleaning up the mess I had made with no questions asked. I wandered into my kitchen in a daze. Snapped to produce a glass of brandy but I didn't even turn it rose gold. I just swallowed it all in one gulp  slamming the glass to the counter so hard it shattered. 

In an instant I had literally lost my entire life. I pulled the necklace from under my blood stained suit and looked down at it. This was the reason, this necklace Katrina had given me so many years ago… 

It had blood on it as well, it must have soaked through my suit, but I didn't even care. The pieces fit… Ivy called it an amulet. Katrina had to retrieve it from a spring in the middle of the forest. She made me promise to protect it with my life... 

It definitely wasn't a normal necklace. And now, whatever the fuck it was, is the reason why I'm sitting here covered in blood, mourning my mate who I had to kill with my bare hands. 

The hellfire that was raging inside me was like an inferno, boiling to the top. I didn't even bother to clean up, I was in a blind rage and without thinking I just materialized to Katrina. 

I didn’t care where she was or who she was with, but I found myself in her backyard at her altar. 

She was setting some stones on it, no doubt getting ready for a ritual of some kind. She heard me and turned to look at who it was. “Rowen?” She questioned softly.

One look at her and the hell fire in my veins instantly cooled. But every memory I had buried of her, of us, so long ago, came crashing back to the surface like a tidal wave. The pain of losing her soon followed. 

It had been 176 years since I left her house and never looked back. I don't know what I expected her to look like or how I expected her to act. I was only here to find out about this amulet but it was like I lost all my inhibitions the second I saw her. 

“Rowen, oh my god, what happened to you?” She cried, realizing that I was covered in blood. I instantly had her by the neck forcing her up against a tree that was near us. “This is all your fault, Katrina.” I snarled. 

“What is? Rowen, you’re hurting me.” She cried. I fought back the tears that I promised I wouldn’t cry. I wanted so badly to be furious with her. To just tell her how she ruined my entire life. How because of her I had to kill my mate... 

But I couldn't, I couldn't bear to burden her. Instead I just grabbed the amulet, and was about to rip it from my neck but I couldn't bring myself to do it. 

I hadn't taken this necklace off since she gave it to me. Trying to take it off now was next to impossible. I released my grip on her, letting her down from the tree. 

“I’m sorry.” I mumbled but she didn’t move away from me like I expected after that. She just stayed put and her proximity was affecting me, calming me down. I didn’t want to be calm, I was enraged. 

She reached up and grabbed her neck where my hand was. She looked up at me with fear and worry in her eyes. I saw her gaze avert to my neck as she took in my Vampire mark, and then I saw her facial expression fall as she realized it was black… Meaning my mate was dead. 

I took the amulet in my hand. "The Others were looking for this. ‘I truly did love you, but that amulet was more important than my feelings.’ Those were the last things Ivy said to me before I ripped her heart out for her treachery." I said to Katrina. 

Her eyes widened in horror as she took in what I said. “As you can see, I am in a very fragile state right now… So you’d better start fucking talking, doll." I growled. Then took a few steps back before I did something else I was going to regret.