The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series)

by Racquel Kechagias

  "Answer the question, Skin-walker. How did you get into the castle undetected?" Victor says again, his sneer still present and just as vicious as ever.

  "Well, first off I was 'rescued' by you," He says pointing at Kayden and continues on quickly "then I was brought here, by him again, then brought before the female," he says pointing at me before continuing on again "with whom I had a vicious, but fun banter with, before she sent me down here to rot. I think that just about answers your question. Now if you'll leave me to rot as you were planning to do I'll be quite content," He says smiling viciously at us.

  "Meg asked me to come down here to see if you are willing to change your fate, to change your loyalty from your own race to the vampires. Would you actually want to do that? Or were you simply telling her what she wanted to here?" I ask him, he cocks his head to the side, a crease in between his knotting brows. He seems thoroughly confused.

  "Who's Meg again?" He asks, a slight smile on his lips. "Wait isn't that the blond with the purple eyes?"

  "Yeah that's Meg. So your answer is?" I ask, trying to keep my patience with the Skin-walker.

  His thunderous laughter echo's around the hallow dungeon and becomes eerie as it resounds around us. "Well aren't you all screwed, and even dumber then we first thought. You all have failed to notice that the female that was with me when I arrived is missing," The Skin-walker says, his smile is vicious. He gets up from his position on the ground, and walks over to where we are, wrapping his hands firmly on the steel bars, pressing his face up close so that he and I have a connection with our eyes.

  "None of you are safe. Not with the female Skin-walker out. She has taken the place of her victim; living the life of her prey. She is a cunning, vicious little wench. You ought to get your brains in gear, and figure out whose face she wears before she slaughters the lot of you." His breath is ranched, and it makes me choke when he breathes into my face. I step away from him backing up into Victor's chest. His hand finds mine in the dim light and he squeezes it gently.

  "We're not going to get much else out of him. Let's go," Victor says pulling me along with him. Kayden and Shade follow along behind us. We leave the Skin-walker, he screams out to us as we walk away "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, She'll have your heads and she’ll have your hearts too!"

  We don't discuss anything until we get out of the dungeon altogether. We pass the guard on our way out, and it isn't until we reach a small side room a few corridors down that we stop within it. Victor locks the door behind us, and we all study each other carefully.

  "The female could be anyone. If we are to go off of the theory that she changed appearances the moment after she was sent down to the dungeon, which was the first day that she arrived. She couldn't be Victor or Shade," Kayden says, already eliminating two possibilities.

  "Tell me something that's happened between us after I arrived Anna. So that we know that you aren't the Skin-walker," Kayden says to me, his eyes are focused on me, and as I look up, my eyes instantly connect with him.

  "We were out in the garden's looking at the midnight blooms. I recall that you were telling me that you created them, and you were soothing my fears, of not being good enough to lead here, of not being good enough for Victor," I say and from the corner of my eye I see Victor flinch, as if he has been physically slapped by my words. "I remember you telling me that there are three different types of people, those born into privilege, those born into a mediocre life, and those born into suffering. I remember you telling me that those who are born into suffering are the people who are the strongest, the bravest, that they are the type of people that legends are made of," I say grinning at the memory, and how everything had changed for us since that moment.

  "Well you're definitely not the Skin-walker as that was after your "Mother" and "Father" had arrived. I suppose it's my turn. I remember the first night of my return. We had all gone back to the study to have a few drinks, and you had fallen asleep. We all left a little while later, and I went back to my room but I couldn't sleep. So I came back to the study to make sure that you were alright. You were having a nightmare, one so bad that it was making you scream and thrash about in your sleep. I tried to wake you up, but it was as if you were locked inside of your mind, because no matter what I did you wouldn't wake up. I took you in my arms, and you calm down instantly, you were still shaking slightly and whimpering so I sat down with you in my arms. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remember from there is that you woke me up because you moved out of my arms," Kayden says, his eyes are intense as they watch me. He is completely still, and for a moment we both allow that first morning to wash over us.

  After a long pause I pull my gaze away from Kayden to Victor "Well it's obvious that none of us is the Skin-walker. If we were we would have made a break for it by now," I say to my fiancé, he nods his head in agreement.

  "So if none of us is the Skin-walker, then who is?" Shade asks, he has this harsh look on his face, and I'm not sure if it's because he wants to kill the Skin-walker, or because of the memories that Kayden and I had just shared in front of him and Victor.

  "That's just it. It could be anybody, Kayden you need to give orders to your men that we are on a man-hunt. That there is a Skin-walker within the castle and that they need to keep their eyes open." Kayden nods his head and goes to inform whomever that is still here of the orders they now have.

  "I'm going to go inform Astoria, Augustus and Baron. They need to know of this as well. Shade make sure that Anna stays here. I don't want her getting messed up in this," Victor says before leaving the room as well.

  I turn to Shade; he seems upset to have to babysit me. It is clear that he wants to be out there where the action is. "Shade, I think I know who it is. I mean why else would she tell me about the Skin-walker downstairs?"

  "Who is it Anna?" He asks me moving closer towards me, a grin tugging at his lips. His eyes are focused and clear, watching every little motion that is happening around him.

  "I think its Meg. She sent me down to the Skin-walker in the first place to discard any suspicion on herself," I say, wrapping my arms around myself.

  "Anna, if the woman has disguised herself as Meg, than it is most likely that the Meg you used to know is dead. You need to lay the memory of your friend to rest before we go and seek her out, I don't want you to hesitate when you have to kill her," Shade says, resting his hand on my shoulder, perhaps to give me some kind of comfort.

  "I know, that's what I'm afraid of," I say softly. I step away from Shade and place my hand upon the door handle. "Come on Soldier, we've got a serpent to hunt down," I say, as I open the door. I wait for Shade to catch up before we go hunting down the Skin-walker who has taken the place of my best friend.

  Finding Meg isn't a hard thing, she hadn't listened to me when I asked her to remain in her room, instead I find her in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables obviously meant for dinner tonight. The first thing I notice is the butcher knife in her hands, moving with a speed that I never thought that Meg would be able to posses.

  "Oh, hello Anna, I wasn't expecting to see you here," Meg says, waving the massive knife in way of greeting.

  "Yes, well I just came back up from visiting your boyfriend," I say and this makes her pause for a moment, her knife hovering slightly over the vegetables. She only pauses for a fraction of a second, barely long enough for her slip-up to be noticed but I hadn't missed it.

  "And what did he have to say for himself?" She asks, faking the concern in her voice.

  "Well he definitely didn't deny his race. He told me something interesting though. He said that when he arrived that there was a woman skin-walker with him. He also said that she escaped, and is now someone very close to us, living the life of her prey. Do you know anything about this?" I ask, Meg turns around with an incredulous look on her face.

  "And you think it's me? Anna think about what you're saying. You've known me your entire life! We grew up together. You really think that I would be the Skin-wa
lker in the castle," Meg says pleadingly, begging me to think about what I am saying, but however much I want to believe that this is Meg before me, my Meg asking me not to do this, I know that it is all fake, and that my Meg is gone forever.

  "My Meg would never haven forgotten her first love, Simon. Nor would she be holding a knife in that fashion. I know that you're not Meg, your real name and face I'm not sure, but I don't particularly care either," I say venomously, indicating towards the knife that "Meg" is pointing directly at me. Meg would have had put the knife down before engaging in a conversation with anyone.

  "You're right, I'm not Meg. Meg's in that crystal box that you were admiring before up in her old room. She's been in that little box since my arrival here," The Skin-walker woman says, she still looks like Meg but now that she has agreed to the fact that she isn't, I no longer have any doubts. I reach for the table behind me as the Skin-walker's words sink in. The box was crystal not ruby, the glass should have been clear, not red, and it makes me sick to think of Meg being murdered, and butchered, and then stored away in that box.

  "Oh God," I whisper clutching to my heart. I have no time to grieve Meg not with a murderous, carnal Skin-walker before me, but I am overcome with sorrow. My Meg is gone! "You killed her," I say, my words only repeating the single thought within my mind.

  "Yes, but first I chopped her up into tiny pieces, whilst she was still alive of course. I had to cut out the tongue first you see, that way she wouldn't make a sound when she screamed." Meg's face is twisted into a vicious sneer, her purple eyes burning with the woman's hatred.

  "Oh God," I say again, imagining the torture that Meg went through at this women's hands. I feel as if I am going to be sick. I can't allow myself to dwell on what happened to Meg. I have to be strong for her. I have to conquer what she could not, overcome the demon that she had to face down and lost to. I had to kill the Skin-walker woman for Meg; so that her death may not have been in vain.

  "You're sick." I say, venom beginning to fill my words. Meg simply smiles at me, running her thumb and index-finger over the butcher's knife that she still clutches onto.

  "Yes, I suppose you can look at it that way. Then again my king gives honour and nobility to those who are loyal to him. Rotting in that cell I would have been of no use to him, as you're friend I have learned far much more than I would have as you're mother," She sneers, she is inching closer towards me, that knife poised to strike. The bitter bite of the venomous serpent.

  "Of course your precious little Meg wouldn't stop crying, even though she couldn't scream. She put up a good fight as well, but I guess I'm better with my knife than she was with her fists," She says again, twirling the knife in between her fingers to make her point even clearer.

  "Any last words before you met your death?" She asks, her knife once again poised to strike. She has me backed up into a corner and I cannot see Shade anywhere. Had he gotten lost on the way? Was I truly alone with this woman?

  "Shade," I scream begging for him to come to my rescue but there is no answer, and the woman is coming ever closer. She stops before me, the edge of her knife digging into my neck, poised to slice the life out of me.

  "Seems you have no one to rescue you. Just like your precious Meg, you're alone with me, and my knife. How very ironic." Her smile is vicious, and as a last resort I tap into the dark energy that is within me. I have used it before to torture, to use as a weapon of pain, but never have I used it to murder. However, to get out of this situation that is what I have to do.

  Tapping into the dark energy I pull at it until I know that my hands are deep within it. I look up into her eyes and think only of death, of her dying before me from the sting of the Death Wish. She drops the knife and I feel a trickle of blood flow freely from my neck. The woman before me is backing away clutching at her head before she drops to her knees in the middle of the room. I feel as if I have lost control, but I cannot stop, I can feel blood foaming in my mouth, pouring out from the inner corner of my eyes.

  Subconsciously I reach for the knife, and crawl over to the woman. I turn her over and I can see that she is still alive, whimpering from the pain that I am causing her. I straddle her waist, the knife in my hands raised above my head. I can see myself within her eyes, for a moment I can even see some sort of humanity in her eyes, but as the knife drops and plunges through her heart whatever I see within them disappears as does the life in her eyes. The female changes form, from being short beautiful Meg to a tall woman, with bronze skin and dark locks of hair.

  I scatter away from the body, trying to ignore the knife that now protrudes from her chest. After a while Victor, Kayden and Shade come into the room. They take in the body first, and they are quite surprised, that their task has already been done. They notice me next, I cannot understand their expressions, nor can I make sense of the words that they are saying, shouldn't they be running, I just killed someone? I had lost control for a moment and someone had died because of it. I can feel my body beginning to shut down, beginning to not respond to the things around me. All I want to do is sleep, but I cannot for I know that if I do I will never want to wake.

  My thoughts revert inward, away from myself, and what I just done, and towards the girl that I grew up with, that protected me and hid me from my father and the world, the girl who had been my strength and safe-harbor when I was weak and lost, the girl who would have been better off if I had left her in our old world, the girl who would have been still alive if I had left her behind. I stay within my mind, but I know that I am being moved, most likely by Victor. I lose track of the world as I mourn the loss of my best friend. I mourn for Meg and her untimely death. I mourn for hours, all through the night and all through the next day, until I am strong enough to get up and move on with life. However for now I simply mourn as the grief consumes me.

  Chapter 23 – A Predefined Path

  Anna's P.O.V

  It's hard to get up and moving again. All I want to do is lay in bed until the heartache and sorrow is gone. However, I know that I need to be strong; after all it is what Meg would have expected of me. Three day's have passed since I learned of Meg's death, and killed the Skin-walker woman. Three days of mourning have passed. I awake to the morning light shining through my room, my bed empty once more. I sit up and pull my legs over the side of the bed, holding my head in my hands. I try to figure out if I am really up to doing this, if I really am up to facing the world again. I think of Meg, I think of what she would do if the situation was reversed, what she would say if she was here right now, and I know that I need to go on. I do it, for Meg, I get up and go through the morning routine. First I get dressed, simple clothing for I have not the patience or energy to go over board, so I put on a corset and a simple dress, I put on a pair of briefs and a pair of boots. I pull out my hair brush and stand before the mirror, and I run the brush through my hair as I consider my red eyes, and the blotches on my skin around my eyes. I try a smile, and as I realize how fake it appears it falters. I try again, and this time it seems more real, although it's not completely there. I know that this will have to be good enough, and so I make my way downstairs, to the dining room in hopes to find breakfast.

  I find Victor, Kayden, Shade, Astoria, Augustus and Baron sitting at the dinning table. Victor, Kayden and Shade are sitting together and looking like a couple of school boys as they whisper to each other across the table. Augustus, Astoria and Baron are in their own conversation, they too are whispering although they look more like old housewives than young school boys. Victor is the first to notice me. His words falter and he stares at me in abandon. We haven't seen each other for days, and although he checked up on me constantly, he never stopped to chat.

  "Morning," I say to the three boys and I take my seat beside Victor. I am sitting across from Kayden, so I try to avoid his eyes. I don't want him to see me in this state; I do not want any of them to see me in this state. The vampires pride themselves on strength, on feeling nothing. Must I too try to accomplish the very thing
they pride themselves on? Must I too abandon my heart in hopes to feel nothing at all? If I felt nothing it would make this pain so much easier to bare.

  I barely eat anything, though I feel as if I have already had my fill by the third bite. No one says a word to me, and I prefer it that way. The memory of Meg would have been tainted, and I cannot taint her memory. I think this too soon as I am caught between thoughts by a hand resting upon my own. I look up to find that the hand belongs to Astoria.

  "Anna, I've been discussing with my husband, and Lord Baron that your friend Meg deserves a funeral. However not just any funeral. She died a warrior's death, and we will honour her memory with a warrior’s funeral. With your blessing of course."

  I smile, or at least try to at the woman who has been like a mother to me. "Astoria I appreciate your offer. Meg deserves the best; she died protecting me, serving me. You have my blessing to prepare the funeral for her. I request that you collect her, as I doubt that I will be able to go into the room myself," I say my voice wavering. I choke on the words as I think of Meg in the crystal box, and I hold back the tears that long to be shed at her death.

  "Alright sweetheart; her funeral will take place this afternoon, and we will all be present to say farewell to the warrior that is Meg." This I think is meant for everyone, and after a few moments they all nod their heads in consent. My eyes drift for a moment and they stop upon Kayden, he is the only one who hasn't nodded his head like the others, the only one who is truly watching me. We just sit there for a moment, watching each other. There is such a broken look in Kayden's eyes, as if he can feel my sorrow and loss. He looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn't utter a word to me.