Spellbound (Immortal Love Series Book 3)

by Anna Santos

  "So, why the grudge towards me?"

  "I've already told you that I don't hate Isobel. We were friends."

  "I'm sorry, but that is not entirely true. You were trying to convince me to go to my former son's lair to kill an innocent girl and end his life. So, what the hell did he do to you?"

  "I was happy. I was. But I was also broken, feeling used and wanting revenge. I wanted to get back at Francesco. I wanted him to suffer as much as I had suffered. I wanting him to pay for all the lies he told me. I was a witch, so I studied every spell I could find, and there were a lot of spells in Isobel's library. I wanted to find one that I could use to make Francesco pay. There was nothing in white magic so I turned to black magic. I studied, I made spells, and I created my own spells. Soon enough I was dealing with black forces that took away all my innocence and all my moral standards."

  "Again, what has my son to do with that?"

  "Alaric was away, fighting in some useless war. Did you know that he was Isobel's favorite son?"

  I shook my head.

  "He was. She loved him and always defended his reckless actions. He also loved his mom. He could be crazy and he was against his family’s established rules on feeding. But he loved his dear mother. And by the time I got finished with him, he loved me. He is a handsome man. Have you seen him?" she asked, wicked smile drawn on her lips. I shook my head and then I nodded because I had seen him. Anna had a tape of him, killing her parents. I guessed he was handsome if one liked twisted, sick, vampire killers. "He is extremely good-looking. And the only one that was not blonde like the rest. He had green eyes like Francesco. And when he tried to seduce me into his bed, I couldn't help but see the irony in that. I was no longer a helpless and naïve young girl. I had grown up and I knew I could control him and make him my lover, puppet, and weapon."

  "So, you were the one that made my son a psycho," I declared, sitting upright and getting mad with her cruel words. She was confessing.

  "Oh no. That was not me. That was all the blood he drank. The last thing I wanted was for him to turn out to be a vicious and crazy murderer. I just wanted him to be my new mate. Because you see, I also fell in love with him. I found out that we were alike. We had the same grand ideas and plans for changing the world. And he pleased me in bed, satisfied all my curiosity, and all my erotic fantasies. He was also willing to get me the human sacrifices I needed to perform my black magic. Together we could conquer the world and end the council’s sovereignty. Ending the killing of mates. Ending the dominance of vampires over the other races. Witches are more powerful, they shouldn't be enslaved by vampires."

  "So, you had a crazy plan to rule the world. How cliché of you," I declared with sarcasm, crossing my arms and staring coldly into her eyes. All empathy I had felt for her was long gone.

  She shook her head and raised her chin. "Not to rule the world. Just balance the powers among races."

  "Well, you have to explain to me how Alaric went from being your puppet and wanting to end the vampire’s domination to being a crazy pureblood radical? What did you do, you mixed up the potions?" I asked, arching an eyebrow and then smirking, making her growl. Tough audience, because I thought I was funny. In a twisted and morbid way.

  "He was a fucking liar as all men in my life were. He just used me to get the spells he needed to make himself stronger. He never intended to be my mate. He just wanted to be the next king, kill his dad in the process, rule an army so he could defeat the other kings, and be proclaimed Emperor of the vampires."

  "What books were you two reading?" I asked, sighing with disgust. I didn't know who the craziest was, her or my ungrateful son.

  "Don't patronize me with sarcasm. My intentions were noble, his weren't. He never intended to be my mate. He just wanted my spell so he could break your bond with Marcus."

  "My bond?" I asked, blinking at her words. "Why my bond?"

  "Because you were the only person he loved. He loved you and he didn't want you to die after he killed his dad. He wanted the bond to be broken so that didn’t happen. Without a bond with Marcus, you wouldn't age and you wouldn't die. I also think that he had a weird obsession for you, more than the son kind of thing, but I'm not here to judge, and I sure don't want to suggest an Oedipus complex was in your twisted relationship. But he loves you and I really doubt that he would kill you if he knew that you were Isobel. So I was hoping that Isobel would come back to her body, so he could be convinced that she was who she was claiming to be. But you are still there, playing childish games and preventing my plan from working."

  "What plan?"

  "Make me his mate. What else?"

  "Why? Didn't you just say that he didn't love you?"

  "He will be forced to love me when I'm his mate."

  "Oh god," I whispered, wringing my hands and rolling my eyes with impatience. "You really need to see a doctor, a psychiatrist. A really good one, because you are out of your mind! You have a mate. He loves you! He is with you. Alaric is a twisted sick bastard. He wants to kill us all. He couldn’t care less about you. And still, you want to be his mate. What the hell have you been smoking?"

  "You couldn't possibly understand. Your mate isn't a bastard. And I can fix Alaric. I have the spell to fix him. He just needs to–be cured of all the blood he drank. He needs to be purged from other people's feelings, memories, and rage."

  "Does your mate know what you are planning?"

  "He has no clue. He thinks I have accepted him back. I've been waiting to get back at him. To get rid of him and of these unwanted feelings for him."

  I sighed. My head was killing me and knowing all the sick and twisted ideas Valentina had, was making me feel even sicker. They were all twisted. They needed to have some serious intervention! In a Jerry Springer kind of way. It would be an Emmy Award winning show! I would almost laugh if it wasn't such a damn serious matter I had to deal with.

  "Is your head hurting?" she asked, honeyed laced voice, concealing her happiness.

  "Yes, but not because of what you think. I had my daily dose of vampire blood. I just think you are freaking mad and I really need to get away from you for a while."

  Then I got up and walked away.

  "You can't keep me here forever. My mate will come for me!" she yelled before I could close the door behind me. "And he will kill you. I'll make sure of it. I'll tell him everything you did to me! You will start a damn war! And I'll be extremely happy when all your family is killed and I take you to Alaric."

  "Shut the hell up, bitch," I growled at her, sending a wave of wind in her direction.

  It hit her hard, smashing her chair against the wall and shaking the building. So I overdid it in the force I used. It was not intentional, but she shouldn't threaten my family. At least, it shut her up, because she passed out. I had probably broken her neck and it would take a while until she would heal and wake up from her temporary death. Meanwhile, I needed to think about what I was going to do with her and all the information I had just found out.

  Chapter Two—LOOKING FOR JESSIE

  ERIC

  Eric entered the palace only to be startled by his father’s voice. “Where were you? Don’t you know your mother is missing? What could be so important, you had to leave the palace and disappear?”

  The king’s voice was steady, but Eric could sense his annoyance and impatience.

  “What are you doing there, seated on the chair in the hallway?”

  “Thinking and waiting for you. So don’t deflect my questions.”

  “If you really need to know, I went to see Caroline,” Eric replied, walking to his father’s side and noticing his tired eyes. He hadn’t changed clothes or slept by the look of it. “When did you arrive home?”

  “A couple hours ago but I need to get out of here and do something useful.” Marcus got up, looking up at his son who was just a few inches taller than him. He furrowed his eyebrows and placed his hands behind his back. “And this is not the time for you to visit your mistress.”

&
nbsp; “She’s not my mistress. We have a no…”

  “Yes, a no strings attached sort of relationship. I’m familiar with the term. Still, your mom is missing and took hostages. Couldn’t that wait?”

  “It could,” Eric said, without breaking eye contact. “That is why I went there for an entirely different reason. Caroline is a powerful witch. She’s also our ally. I took her a piece of clothing from Jessica to see if she could perform a tracking spell.”

  Marcus arched his eyebrow because this information spiked his interest. “And?” The feeble glow of hope was soon shattered by Eric’s reply. “Jessica is too powerful. Caroline said that Jessica must have cast a powerful protection spell. She can’t track her. Though, she said she was going to ask for help from some of her sisters. Together, they may succeed, but Caroline looked drained when I left, so I think that we won’t be able to track Jessie by resorting to magic.”

  “Well,” Marcus said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “that was useless.”

  “What have you been doing and where are the others?”

  “I’ve been here trying to reach her with our mind-link. But she has blocked me and I have no way to find out where she is or to sense if she’s okay or not.” The king sighed deeply and closed his eyes momentarily. “I’ll keep trying, though.”

  “Shane and Anna?”

  “Shane is using his contacts with the Police to see if he can track the car they took. Anna is with him and she’s also calling all her contacts to see if Jessica asked them for help.”

  “It’s our fault,” Eric whispered, running a hand through his blond hair. “We nearly killed her with the memories. I can’t understand how we fell for that so easily and were so reckless!” Eric circled his father and sat down in one of the chairs.

  “It’s not your fault. It’s mine. You were a child, Eric. You barely remember Isobel. It was my memories of her, echoing inside Jessica’s mind that caused the stroke.”

  Marcus turned around to face his son, looking at the floor.

  “But why did she run away?” Eric fisted his hands. “Is she that mad at us?”

  “Now that we know that she left the clinic on her own accord, I must say that I’m baffled by the events. But we need to consider that Jessica may have lost her memories again. She may want to take revenge on Valentina for what she had done to her in the past. Jessica may be confused, or she may be mad at us. There are too many possibilities that make my head spin. But I won’t give up until we find her and understand what is going on. But we will find her and we will bring her back home where she’s safe.”

  “I hope so because if she lost her memories she might not know that Alaric put a prize on her head. She might not know where home is.”

  “Well, she will probably contact Anna or her prior team members. Kevin has left to Chicago to talk to his former boss. He’s planning to ask for all the locations for secret hideouts from New Haven to Boston and to New York.”

  “Why those locations?”

  “We must assume that she remembers the clinic as the place that Kevin had been hospitalized. Their previous headquarters was in Boston. She knows it well. Plus, New York is a big city and it’s easy to blend in and disappear.”

  “I think the big questions here are: why Giovanna helped her? And how long can we keep fooling King Francesco that the three of them weren’t kidnapped, but that Jessica has kidnapped his wife?”

  “Francesco has his girls searching the main roads to the main cities. The GPS tracker on Giovanna has been disabled. He knows less than we do and I made sure that the footage of Jessica’s actions was erased from the clinic’s database.”

  “Do you think Jessica will hurt Valentina?”

  “Well, if she does, that vixen deserves it.” The king pursed his lips and clenched his jaw. Purple flickered inside his eyes. “I’m sure that Valentina did it on purpose. She knew what would happen to Jessie if there was an overload of memories. I was a fool!”

  Eric got up and placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Jessica will come to her senses and come back to us…If she remembers…And if she doesn’t, we will find her and bring her back.”

  “She left her ring on the nightstand. If she remembers what happened and she’s mad at me because of it, she might not want to come back.”

  “Remembering or not, dad, we should increase security because if Jessica does something to Valentina, Francesco will start a war.”

  “I should have started a war for what Valentina did to Jessica!” the king paced around with his hands closed into a fist. “I was a fool. I should have sent them away and kept Jessica safe. Valentina is hiding something, and I’m sure Jessica will do something foolish to resolve a problem she didn’t create.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like try to find your brother. She may believe she can break his curse and get close enough to kill him.”

  “Alone?” Eric asked, his eyes opening wide in panic.

  “I’m sure that she’ll ask for Anna’s help.”

  “And is Anna going to call us if she does?”

  The king paused and looked at his son. “I believe that Anna is more loyal to Jessica than to us. They are both strong willed and hard headed. The two of them are seeking revenge from the same killer. They want to prove to us that they don’t need us.”

  “But they do!” Eric said, angry. “Alaric has men guarding him. Probably a small army. They need us and a lot more men if they are planning to take down Alaric.”

  “Well, Jessica is smart, but I’m not sure if she’ll be able to find Alaric’s hideout. We have been looking for ages. They have been tracking his men and they haven’t found him. Why would it be different this time?”

  “She took Valentina…”

  His father frowned. “Unless Valentina knows where Alaric is hiding…”

  “Alaric wants Valentina more than he wants Jessica. If what you told me is correct, it was her who cursed him in the first place.”

  The king nodded. “And Giovanna helped Jessica against all odds. There’s something going on. I can only hope that when the time comes, Anna will tell Kevin, and he will tell us. Kevin trusts us and he knows that we are here to help.”

  “You should sleep then.”

  The king tensed his jaw before questioning impatiently, “Do you think I can sleep?”

  Shrugging, Eric rubbed his temple. “I guess not.”

  His father narrowed his eyes. “Did the tracking spell take all night?”

  “She tried other spells and incantations.”

  “The only incantation that woman wants to use is one for you to share her bed on a daily basis, or should I say, nightly. Have you ever entertained the idea of taking a permanent lover? It has been a while since you’ve been waiting for your soul-mate to show up. Maybe you should consider the idea of finding company.”

  “Why are you saying this?” Eric asked, frowning.

  “Being lonely…can be torture.”

  “I’m not in love with Caroline. She’s an interesting woman, but I’m not going to lead her on when we both know we are destined to someone else.” Eric’s voice came out more angered than he intended.

  He shifted his eyes from his father, who put his hand on Eric’s shoulder. “I just don’t want the years to come making you more bitter and lonelier than you already are.”

  “I’m…We are not lonely anymore. We have Anna, Kevin, and Jessie. They are family and I’ll wait as long as I need to wait until destiny decides to bring my soul-mate to me.”

  “You should get out more, then.” His father smirked. “She won’t fall in your lap or knock on your door.”

  “I get out. I travel abroad, I go to reunions. You are the one who hasn’t gone out in a while. I’ve been managing all our family business.” Eric sighed deeply before continuing to talk.

  Then he frowned at his dad who arched an eyebrow. “What?”

  “You can’t mistrust destiny, dad. You used to spend your time inside your library, drawing, a
nd dreaming about mom. Jessie had to fall into your arms for you to see her, and inside your library, I might add.”

  Marcus smiled, treasuring the memory he had of their reencounter. “Your mom always knew how to make an entrance.”

  “We will find her and talk some sense into her.”

  “Maybe she lost her memories of us, of me. Maybe she doesn’t know that we are looking for her.”

  Eric nodded, trying to comfort him because he knew that it was too painful for his dad to think that Jessica had run away because of being angry.

  “Where are you going?” Eric asked when his father stomped his way towards the door.

  “Dulce caught one of the vampires who was sent here to track and kidnap Jessica. I’m going to speak to the girl and see if Jessica has contacted Sebastien. Sebastien and Jessie are good friends. We could use their help, too.”

  “I’m coming with you. I don’t like to feel useless by staying here.”

  “We need to have our best men at the ready to leave once we know where to look for Jessica. Alaric’s men may be already tracking her.”

  “Or she might be the one tracking and going for him. If so, she’ll be putting herself in danger and she’ll need saving.”

  “That too!” Marcus agreed, opening the door and letting the bright light of the day in.

  “I have to tell you, dad. There’s never a dull moment in this house since mom came back to us.”

  Marcus smirked while going outside and calling his men to arrange a car to leave.

  Chapter Three—TRACKING DOWN MYRA

  JESSICA

  Jessica came out of the room with her head pounding badly and her mind numb by all that Valentina had told her. She glanced around for Giovanna and found her seated on the couch, staring at a muted TV set.

  “Did you witness your mom’s confession?” Jessica asked her.