Sacrifice (Scarlet Dawson Book 2)

by Nicola Chadwick

  “We at the council like to think of it as a time-out, where they can think about what they’ve done wrong. Usually, a few days in a cell and they’re back on duty and less likely to violate their orders.”

  Silas doesn’t say anything. I know she’s keeping her mouth shut so she can get out and see her sisters again.

  Vex waves his hand at the damp wall and a wooden bench appears, it’s only a few feet away from the cells so I can clearly see the leather cuffs that are meant to strap feet and hands to the table.

  Vex then flashes inside my cell. I back off, but he flashes behind me and grabs me from behind. He then whispers in my ear.

  “Do you like what I’ve done to your precious brother. You can thank Silence’s father for that one. He had the gift of coercion, it wasn’t powerful magic, but I compounded it by making him believe he never had a sister.”

  “Wiping his memory didn’t work last time, and it won’t work this time,” I say through gritted teeth, then I’m suddenly standing in front of the wooden bench.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Don’t do this, Jared, please. You know me!” I shout at him as he grabs me around the waist and forces me to the table.

  I struggle, flailing my good arm around so he can’t get enough purchase to strap it down. I catch a glance of Vex smirking as Jared manages to grab my arm and secure it to the bench. It is still disconcerting to see him as my father, knowing he’d killed him and claimed his body and soul.

  I scream as Jared grabs my injured wrist and shoves it into the leather strap, tying it down. The agony short-circuits my brain for a short time, and I stop struggling as the wave of pain crests and dies down. Jared takes advantage and quickly straps my legs to the table almost completely immobilizing me.

  I eye Jared warily, as he moves around the bench towards my head. He flicks his eyes to mine and I see something there. It isn’t recognition, it is distaste or disgust. Does that mean he is still himself, even though he was practically brainwashed? Would the Jared I know torture someone for information, just because the orders came from the council?

  “Well then, Son, what are you waiting for?” Vex says to Jared.

  Jared grabs my throat and leans in to my ear, as he does, I see a glint of metal as he removes something from his waistband. His hand wraps around my throat, so I buck my hips in an attempt to dislodge him.

  In a very low whisper Jared says to me, “Scarlet, I have to make this look real, I’m sorry.”

  He leans back, and I realize he’s only holding my throat not choking me. I then notice his hand hovering near my side, and I see the silver gleam of a knife. My eyes widen and, just as I’m about to start thrashing my head about, he thrusts the blade into my side.

  I scream as he pulls it out. I feel warm liquid seeping out, soaking my clothes. I’m not sure how much more damage my body can take now it isn’t healing. I’d lasted three weeks in the caves but, at this rate, I wouldn’t last three hours.

  I’d actually thought for a moment he wasn’t under Vex’s spell. How could he do this to me?

  Jared wipes the blade on his trouser leg as Vex moves over to grasp him on the shoulder.

  “We’ll leave her here for a while to think. If you’re a good girl, Scarlet, and you tell us what you did with the stone, I’ll make sure your wounds are treated so you don’t die just yet,” Vex says.

  They blink out of the room seconds later.

  “Scarlet,” Silas calls to me.

  I try to move my head to the side, but I barely have the energy. After a few waves of almost crippling dizziness, I manage to angle my head towards her cell.

  “Remember what you told me, Scarlet. You can’t let him have the stone,” Silas tells me.

  Is she actually with me on this? Does she realize we can’t let him tap the power contained inside it? He will destroy the world and then remodel it in his image. I’ve already lost a lot from his psychotic games, but there is one more thing I can forfeit to grind his plans to a halt. My life.

  “Scarlet, listen to me, whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it,” Silas shouts at me.

  I look away from her. She saw too much, she already knew too much.

  “Promise me, Silas, that you won’t tell them I had the stone,” I croak out.

  “I’ll try, if they threaten my sisters though, I can’t promise I won’t eventually crack,” she says.

  I just hope my little hiding place is enough.

  I strain my hand against the table. I know if my body takes much more damage it likely won’t last until they come back. I am healing like a Human. I pull my arm up hard against the strap which fully snaps my wrist. I feel the bone tear through the skin before I lose consciousness. This time, I welcome the pain-free darkness.

  I open my eyes to the orange glow of the chamber; the pain is gone, and I feel slightly euphoric. Someone is unfastening the leather straps. I can’t see clearly who it is because their face is in shadow, but I recognize the bulky shape. I only know one guy with shoulders that wide.

  The Wrath has me again, I am definitely dreaming.

  Bastian looks up and barks an order at someone else. I turn my head to look and the worlds spins as my vision dips in and out. When I can focus again, I see someone teleport into Silas’s cell, grab her, and then teleport out.

  Bastian gently grabs my arms and folds them across my body, I don’t seem to be able to even lift them to help him. He then hooks his arms under my legs and lifts me so my head rests against his chest. I look up and see his eyes are completely black, that’s when I know something is wrong.

  “This isn’t real!” I scream as the world once again goes dark.

  “Drink, Scarlet, if you don’t, you’ll die,” I hear a deep rumbly voice.

  “Just open her mouth and pour it down,” another familiar voice says.

  I move and feel pain cleave my side and arm. Then I feel other things, like the sun on my face, skin brushing against my lips. So, I open my eyes to a blinding light. Once my eyes adjust to the light, I see Bastian’s head hovering inches from my own.

  His arm is cradling my head and he is brushing his wrist against my lips. I angle my head away.

  “Scarlet, if you don’t take my blood you’ll die,” he says to me again.

  His eyes are still black, I don’t trust where this is going. The dreams are starting to feel a lot more realistic. Can you feel in dreams?

  I watch as Bastian transforms a finger into a talon and slices his own wrist. Someone else holds my mouth open, but I can’t see who it is as Bastian’s body blocks it from my sight. I feel the drops of blood slide down my throat as I watch him repeatedly slice his skin.

  Hands press against my side, but I can’t feel the pain anymore, just the pressure of their touch.

  “It’s not working,” I hear Aylesbury say. He is in this one too, maybe I’d kill him again.

  “You died,” I whisper. “You’re not really here.”

  A small hand slaps my cheek and I feel the sting as my skin smarts from the touch.

  “Scarlet, this is real, you idiot. You aren’t sleeping, the Wrath aren’t feeding from you. These brutes have rescued us. Now tell them to send me back!” Silas shouts at me as her face hovers in my view.

  Bastian growls and grabs her wrist before she can connect her hand again.

  “Please, Scarlet! Tell them to put me back. He will kill them!” She sobs as Steve grabs her around her waist then pins her arms with his own, so she can no longer lash out.

  “We need to get Scarlet to Gerry, now! She’s still bleeding,” Bastian barks at someone.

  I hear another voice but its muffled, and my vision is beginning to fade again.

  Epilogue

  I open my eyes to the crisp whiteness of the Manor’s hospital wing. I wince as I push myself up on the hospital bed, the wires that attach me to a bleeping machine catch on the safety rail at the side of the bed. I look around and see I’m alone, so I reach down and pull out the needle from the back o
f my hand.

  I then pull the remainder of the wires from my chest and lift up the hideous, backless, medical gown, so I can see my side. Its covered in a thick crepe bandage, just like my hand and forearm. I glance further down, relieved to see I’m at least still wearing panties.

  I hear Bastian clear his throat and look up to see him leaning against the door frame, arching a brow at me as I sit there flashing my panties at him. I scowl back at him and quickly drop the gown as a grin spreads across his face.

  He saunters over to me with the grace of the animal I know is trapped inside him. Then he turns slightly so he can sit down on the bed, his leg brushes my own and he looks at me with eyes that are completely black.

  “Why are your eyes black?” I ask him, my voice a little hoarse. He reaches over to the counter at my side and pours me a small glass of water. I take a sip, then another, then pass it back.

  “The same reason you’re now healing like a Human, our incomplete mating bond. The minute you were taken again, they turned, and they haven’t turned back since,” he tells me as he grabs my chin and looks in my eyes. “This is the third time since we met you’ve been kidnapped.”

  I ignore the statement and ask, “How did you find me?”

  He smiles, and his finger trails down my neck, making me shiver, to lift the necklace he’d given me from my skin.

  “When I decided to turn this stone into a necklace for you, I had a tracking device sandwiched between the gold and the stone. I knew you wouldn’t accept it if I told you the truth, which is why I had Raven give it you.” He drops the stone, it falls back against my chest, nestled just above my cleavage.

  I lift my hand up to grasp the chain. “Please don’t take it off, it saved your life once and, so long as no one knows what’s in it, I’ll always be able to find you,” he says, grabbing my hand.

  I sigh and drop my hand when he releases it. “If I wear this, does that mean you’re going to stop being a dick about me leaving the Manor alone?” I ask, flashing him a weak smile.

  “Doubtful. I wish I’d have gone with my first instinct and chained you up downstairs. Then none of this would have happened”

  “Trust me, he would have found a way to get to me no matter where I was.”

  “Why would you think none of this is real? You should know I’ll always come for you.”

  I break down then and cry, he pulls me onto his lap and holds me until the sobs subside. I try so hard to be strong in that moment, but everything that has happened comes rushing back to me, a part of me wonders if Vex has finally broken me.

  Gerry walks in and makes Bastian leave, so he can check me over one last time before letting me dress. He tells me I can go to the lounge, or my room, so long as I rest. I smile and agree, knowing I won’t rest until Vex has been dealt with, and I have Jared back.

  I make my way, on wobbly legs, into the lounge and find the place full. Aylesbury is sat at the table with Silence. The whole Guardian team is there, including Cage and Denver, who I haven’t seen since we rescued them from the caves. Raven waves at me from the kitchen, and then relief hits as I see Jessica reach the top of the stairs. She quickly moves over to envelop me in her arms.

  “I didn’t think you’d made it,” I say to her as she pulls away.

  “It wasn’t a bad wound, it just bled a lot before it started to knit back together. I woke up just in time to watch you disappear in front of my eyes with a male and Silence,” she tells me.

  As I look around the room, I realize, no matter what happens between me and Bastian, the people in this room are my friends. I smile and move over to the sofa and lower myself slowly to the cushions, Quinn rushes over to help lower me the last few inches. Once I’m there, it’s easy enough to cross my legs underneath me and recline against the back cushion.

  “Tell us what happened, Scarlet,” Quinn asks, taking the seat at my side. “Silence has already told us some of what happened, but we need to hear the rest from you.”

  I glance across the room and see Silence, a blank expression on her face. I turn back to Quinn and tell them what happened from the minute I was taken, until the minute I realized I wasn’t dreaming again.

  “Can you see now why I wasn’t sure what was real?” I say, looking at Bastian perched on the arm of the sofa opposite me. “Between the Wrath and Vex, I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. I even believed at one point you were Vex. Knowing my whole life has been manipulated, so I can potentially wield a magic stone, is hard to get my head around. My whole life hasn’t been real.”

  I stop talking as I see Harris come rushing up the stairs holding a cardboard box. “This was left downstairs for Scarlet,” he says, placing it on the table in front of me.

  I eye the box warily. Steve notices and says, “It doesn’t smell dangerous.”

  Deciding to trust his instincts, I pull open the flaps and find a piece of parchment paper nestled inside. I pull it out of the box and make sure there is nothing else inside before I read it.

  Scarlet

  You have something I want. I have something you want. Meet me at the factory in three days at first light where we can discuss a trade.

  V

  I crumple the paper in my hand. “You have to take me back,” I say to Bastian.

  He moves over to me, pushes the box onto the other side of the table, and sits on it, facing me. “I can’t, we bombed the place on the way out, it’s now just a crater in a field.”

  “Why would you do that?” I ask him. I’d throw my hands up in the air if I thought I could lift them both.

  “The place was a prison, we made sure no one else could be held there against their will. Unable to escape.” I can hear the violence in his voice.

  I look away from him as he grabs the note from my hand and reads it aloud. Silas stands up at the words and starts grinning.

  “Scarlet, I know you can use the stone, and you were right, we can’t let him have it.” She walks over to me and holds out her hand. “When you were passed out I found where you hid it and put it in my pocket. I knew he’d never think I would withhold something like this from him.

  She passes me the diamond wrapped in black cloth, then continues, “Don’t you see, if you can truly use the stone, then you can destroy Vex.”

  I unwrap the stone and hold it in my hand. It’s cool surface colder than that of a normal stone. I stare into its depths and feel the cold grip of death magic claw at my skin. Its power tearing at me until I feel myself succumbing to the darkness clouding my vision.

  The End… for now.

  Acknowledgments

  As always, this book would not have been possible without my mum and dad. Without them both I wouldn’t have a passion for reading, which has fueled my imagination and belief in the things that some people think don’t exist. Also, to my sister Angela and the adventures we made up as children, while simply playing outside.

  A big thanks to my love Lee, he doesn’t mind that I ignore him sometimes (most times) when I’m in the zone.

  Words cannot express my gratitude to my beta readers Rachel Wilkinson and Sherralee Hughes, your opinions mean a lot to me when I’m getting ready to publish.

  A huge thank you to Jessica Allain at Enchanted Whispers Art, your work is always epic and the cover art for my books is fantastic.

  Another huge thank you to Graham Toseland at Fading Street Publishing for his lengthy checks, I’m sure it was a gigantic task.

  To all my peeps at work for keeping me sane and supporting me on this adventure, especially Penny Burnell, Lisa Fowler, and Sharon Dudley for keeping me grounded and for your constant wit.

  Finally, thank you to all the people who are reading this novel, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have writing it.

  Thank you for reading!

  I hope you have enjoyed reading this book, if you can spare a minute I would really appreciate a short review. Your reviews can help new readers discover independent authors like myself.

  For updates and teas
ers on the third instalment of the Scarlet Dawson Series please visit my Facebook page, search @NicolaChadwickNovels

  About the Author

  Nicola lives in Derbyshire, England with her love Lee and cat, Honey. When she’s not at work or writing her own stories, you can find her buying copious amounts of reading material to enjoy in the bath, but most of the time you’ll find her away with the Faeries or living in her own little fantasy world.