Tainted Heart (The Tainted Series Book 2)

by Marie, Tarisa

  I wonder if everything that Grey’s said is true. If so, could Mindy be as cold-blooded a killer as Daymon? Somehow I doubt it. She seemed perfectly like herself. She never attacked me while in wolf form. For a moment as I walk to my car I ask myself if I’m absolutely nuts for considering that Mindy might be a werewolf but then I shake it off because as strange as this knowledge would be, it would be nothing compared to the knowledge my mind has digested over the last year. If vampires and witches and warlocks and immortals and Tario can exist, then why can’t werewolves I guess. It seems silly but didn’t all of this sound silly when I was first being told about it?

  I take a deep breath and start the engine of the rental car. I need to tell Mindy about everything I’ve learnt. It may not really be much but the reason I came here was to confirm that shape shifters exist and I think I’ve done exactly that and she deserves to know what she is. Even if she won’t believe a word that I say, I have to try. I owe her that much.

  When I get back to my mother’s house in Georgia, Mindy is sleeping. Go figure. I shake her and try to wake her up but to no avail. I notice Tyler hasn’t gotten back yet which is really strange and kind of scares me. He shouldn’t have needed long to take the ball to Baylon and come back. Something is wrong but there is literally not a thing I can do.

  When Mindy finally wakes up she asks, “You’re back already?”

  “Yeah, I told you I would only be gone twenty-four hours,” I remind her.

  She looks at me confused. “You were gone like ten minutes, Ariella.”

  What is going on with her? “No, Mindy, I was gone a whole day.”

  She shakes her head and then I see her begin to panic. I’m confused by her panic and come to sit next to her on the couch. “What’s up with you?” I ask.

  “I feel like time is flying and I feel weird. Like I don’t know how to describe it. Do you think I could be pregnant?” she asks, looking terrified.

  She was sick but I have reason to believe that her strange behavior and illness was to do with her being wolf not her being pregnant.

  “No, I doubt it. It probably wouldn’t hurt to get checked, but I doubt it. I think something else is going on,” I admit. How am I going to tell her this? The whole plane ride home I was trying to think of what to say and I didn’t get any further than I was before I left Taverd.

  “What?” she asks, anxious for an answer.

  We’re interrupted by Tyler and my dad collapsing on the floor in front of us. Mindy screams bloody murder.

  Tyler stands upright, obviously alarmed by Mindy’s scream. My father groans and rolls over in pain.

  “Hey, Mindy, how are you?” my father groans through pain as if nothing is strange about this situation and winces while gripping his ribs.

  “What the fuck!” Mindy shouts alarmed and jumps up. She looks between the three of us. “I’ve seriously lost it.”

  “No, you haven’t lost it. We have some explaining to do,” I promise her softly and place my palm on her shoulder reassuringly.

  My dad stands up and collapses on the couch on the other side of Mindy.

  “You’re alive!?” she demands of him and pokes him as if to make sure she’s not dreaming.

  “Yeah, it was all a misunderstanding,” my father grunts and waves his hand in the air. Tyler approaches him, extending his hands towards his ribs. “I’m fine, Tyler, I will heal fast, save your strength. I might not be able to heal myself right now but I will eventually.”

  Tyler shakes his head as if my father is being ridiculous and then presses his hands to my father’s chest. A small light forms between my father’s flesh and Tyler’s hands. “You too, need to be strong, Theenis,” Tyler says. I wonder if he’ll ever be able to call him dad to his face.

  “We are supernatural beings. That’s all we have time to tell you, Mindy. We have a war to fight in about ten minutes so if you don’t mind we must be going,” Tyler apologizes and pulls my father up off of the couch.

  “A war?!” I demand. What do they mean in ten minutes?

  “The white witches have discovered the Daymon is working for Marco and they’ve somehow found where Marco is hiding. I have a feeling one of Marco’s men has disclosed this information to the white in order to begin the war. I think they are tired of waiting. They’re attacking right now and I’ve been called to duty by the light. I have no choice but to go. When an immortal is called to war, they must go to war. Tyler has offered to come and help so we can get this over with quicker and focus back on the bigger problem at hand,” my father explains and grabs a knife from a drawer in the coffee table. Did he place that there for emergencies or something?

  Now I’m suddenly worrying about Daymon’s safety although I know I should hate him and not care what happens to him.

  “We’ll be back later,” my father says and gives me a half-smile.

  This war between the light and the dark seems so ridiculous right now when there is a much larger problem—the Tario.

  Tyler nods in goodbye before him and my father disappear. I wonder where Jacob is. Baylon? How did Tyler get my father out?

  “Ariella…?” Mindy asks sounding petrified.

  I give her an apologetic smile. Where do I start?

  I begin by telling her what happened after she left my house and then hours later I’ve nearly caught her up on my life this last year.

  When I’m done, I think she is about to deny everything I’ve said but she nods.

  “So, I’m not crazy,” she states and seems to let out a breath she’s been holding in far too long. She scoops her black hair up and throws it over her shoulders. “I haven’t been completely truthful with you, Ariella. I remember more than what I told you about this past year. I couldn’t tell you because I thought you’d think I was nuts.”

  “What do you remember?” I beg, wanting to know who took her so I can kick their ass.

  “Well firstly, I remember being taken by that man in my house that I told you about. I think he was a vampire.” She struggles with the word and looks to me as if she’s waiting for me to take her to an insane asylum.

  When I smile compassionately and she seems to settle.

  “He took me to this cold, disgusting, dungeon-type place with cement flooring and metal bars. It was dark and I couldn’t see much of anything. It was terrifying. At one point I remember talking to…a ghost,” she continues.

  I’ve never heard of ghosts existing before but I mean if god damn vampires and shape shifters can exist, why not ghosts? I have so much to ask my father if and when I get the chance. Does he know anything about shape shifters? I wish Daymon was here to answer my questions like he used to be.

  “I was there for a long time. I think I started to hallucinate. One day, there was light and someone carried me out of the dungeon place and I passed out from how bright the light was. I just remember waking up in a small cottage-type place. I was lying in front of a fireplace. It was the first heat I’d felt in too long. I was just happy to be out of that dungeon place. Then I woke up outside of your house. Okay, Ariella, I know we’re in the middle of a really important conversation but I’m starving. Like I feel like my stomach is going to devour my intestines if I don’t eat something.”

  I giggle and roll my eyes. She was always one for the dramatics. I jump up to grab her something to from the fridge.

  “Um, Ariella?” she asks sheepishly.

  “Yeah?”

  “I ate everything,” she admits embarrassed.

  When I left for Taverd the cupboards were full. There is no way that she ate everything. I walk over to the fridge and pull the door open. It’s empty. The cupboards. Empty. Holy cow. What the hell…

  “I-I will walk down to the grocery store and get some stuff,” I promise and walk towards the porch. I wonder if being a wolf makes you super hungry or something.

  “Do you want me to come?” she asks, still sounding embarrassed.

  “No, no. I’ve got this,” I reassure her. “You stay here. I’ll
be ten minutes and then we can continue our conversation. You try to digest all this information,” I instruct her and take off out the door.

  I’ve come to really love Tyler’s car. It sits glimmering in the sunlight and I can’t help having the temptation to take it to the store so I don’t have to walk. It’s only a few block walk but the slick black automobile is basically calling my name. Why not, I decide and jump in the unlocked vehicle. I made sure to bring along the crystal ball that Tyler dropped off with me before disappearing with my father. I can’t bring myself to leave it anywhere.

  When I get to the store I basically just pile the cart full of cheap food. Then I pay using some more of my dad’s cash. God, I hate spending his money.

  Just when I walk out of the store, groceries in hand, someone grabs my shoulder and pulls me around hard and fast. I gasp and a bag of my groceries falls to the ground.

  I stare into the red eyes of no one other than Daymon.

  “What are you doing?” he demands roughly.

  “Getting groceries,” I answer rudely. What the hell does he think I’m doing at the grocery store? Swimming?

  “You need to come with me,” he demands.

  “How about no?” I ask, but it isn’t a question. I pull away from him and pick up my spilt groceries.

  “You don’t really have a choice. Either you come with me now and help my side of the war or you stay here and let the light side follow my essence trail right here to you and let them take you and torture you,” he says quickly and tugs on my arm.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I promise him sternly. Shit, I realize I left the ball in the car. How did I leave it there? Why? Why would I do something so dumb, Ariella? He can so easily just take me against my will now.

  “Is that your final answer?” he demands.

  “Yes. Why are you giving me a choice?” I ask, confused.

  He looks confused by this too and I think I see a flash of the old Daymon in his eyes. I use this hesitation to spring towards my car with my groceries. I make sure I grab the ball before anything else.

  Just as I touch it he grabs my shoulder again and whirls me around. Because my hand is now on the ball, he gets zapped and recoils from me immediately.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?!” he demands and I’m sure he says it to himself.

  He curses again and then he’s gone. I wonder if since giving into his darkness his IQ has dropped. As soon as he’s gone I panic and jump into my car. I have to get back to the protection of my mother’s home before a white witch follows his essence trail to me. How did he find me? That’s when I remember that I don’t have a protection spell on. How dumb am I? How stupid of me was it to leave the house? How dumb of me was it to leave the country to Taverd without the ball where Daymon could have swiped me or the white witches could have done the same?

  I have no doubt that Daymon is right and the white witches will follow his essence trail to me, because surely they’re watching him very closely now that the war has begun. They probably assume that I am also with Marco since apparently I’m ‘tainted’. I put the ball into my hoodie pocket. I hammer on the gas and pull into the busy streets of Savanna, Georgia.

  I’m nearly home. I’m going over the bridge just before the house when at the last possible minute I see someone standing in the middle of the road. Too late, I realize that I’m going to hit them and slam on the brakes, I crank the wheel trying to avoid them but crank it too hard and too fast and end up flying over the bridge railing towards water below.

  I swear loudly and scream. There’s nothing that I can do. It’s out of my hands. I realize I was in such a hurry trying to get home that I didn’t even bother with my seatbelt.

  When my brother’s car hits the water the impact is similar to that of hitting concrete. Pain immediately rushes up my spine, and the whiplash causes my head to smash into the driver window. Then as the car jolts to a stop I fly through the windshield and into the water.

  Chapter 15

  When I wake up I’m lying in dirt staring up at a tall blonde woman with green eyes. I immediately recognize her as the woman who made me drive off of the bridge.

  In her hand is the crystal ball.

  “What is this?” she asks. “What is it for?” Her voice is not at all friendly and I have no doubt that this a white witch.

  “A ball,” I answer truthfully, sounding silly.

  “For what use?” she demands, sounding like she has a very short temper and I’ve already almost pushed her over the edge.

  “It’s decorative,” I lie. She doesn’t seem to sense its power which makes me wonder if my assumption of what she is could be wrong. Is she only human? Or can only those with stronger Tario blood sense it?

  “Why was it in your pocket?” she wonders while inspecting it.

  “I must’ve put it in there while I was cleaning,” I attempt uncertainly.

  She laughs. “Do you know why you’re here, young girl?”

  Before I have the chance to answer she says, “You are an abomination. The light have sent me to exterminate you,” she informs me. Good luck. How do the light expect to kill me when they know I’m part immortal? Arianna is now dead, they can’t do anything to me. “Or at least torture you until you beg for death.”

  The woman grabs my forearm and pulls me up. Then she leads me into an old rickety building and throws me into a very small room, no bigger than the size of a closet and I don’t mean a walk in one. Then she tosses my crystal ball at me and slams the door. Great.

  I jump up and immediately try the door but it won’t budge. I wasn’t exactly expecting it to I must admit.

  A few minutes later the woman returns and leads me out of the room and down some stairs which look like they’re about to fall apart. I don’t feel safe walking down them.

  When we reach the bottom I see that there are multiple people tied to the walls with metal shackles. It’s like something out of a horror movie. Most are men but I see a couple women and all are bloody and look more like they’re more dead than alive. They are all unmoving expect for one and I wonder if they are all dead.

  The woman leads me over to an empty section of the wall and ties me up like the others. I strain against the woman and try to pull away but she only grips me harder.

  “Stop!” I cry as she grips my wrists and yanks me painfully upwards to the shackles.

  “If you think this hurts, darling, then you’re in for a whole world of pain when the pain actually begins,” the woman chimes as if she’s amused.

  “Why are you doing this?!” I demand angrily and use my left foot to ram into her chest. This surprises her and she stumbles back.

  “Do not fight, miss, it’ll only make things worse for you,” a young bloodied man advises from the shackles next to mine, he was the one I saw moving when I was brought down here.

  It’s true that this woman can’t kill me but she definitely can hurt me.

  I don’t listen to the man’s advice. Instead, I come at the woman again who grabs me and forces the most painful sensation I’ve ever felt through my waist and towards my heart. I feel like I’ve been electrocuted. I know I’m no match for any witch or warlock. At least not while my light side is in control. My body turns limp, I can’t move. The thin woman lifts me easily into the shackles.

  “I have to admit, I was expecting a lot more feistiness from a tainted like you,” she says grimly and spits on the floor beside me as if I’m some sort of trash.

  What the hell have I done to this woman to make her hate me so god damn much? Are all witches and warlocks such assholes? I have yet to meet a full witch who is not a complete dick.

  Just as I think the woman is about to leave, she lands a fist against my jaw. I feel it snap, I know it’s broken. Then she kicks in both of my knees. I scream in pain but it comes out as gurgle as I choke on my own blood. Please god, save me from this hell. I’ve only been here for seconds and I can already tell that this is going to be worse than death.

 
; The man beside me looks at me sadly with sympathy and empathy. His body is tattered as if he was attacked by an animal. I wonder how I look.

  Just as I start to wonder if the woman has left, she lands a hard blow to my stomach and I puke all over myself. Then she hits me one more time in the eye and turns to leave.

  “I’ll be back later,” she warns.

  I have trouble breathing, I choke on my own blood. My head throbs and tears run down my cheeks as I cry in pain.

  After she’s gone, the man beside me turns his head to face me. “What’s your name?” he asks in a whisper.

  “Ariella Malgrovech,” I mumble through my pained jaw.

  The man looks intrigued by this.

  “Any relation to Theenis Malgrovech?” he asks.

  “My father,” I confirm. I muster up enough strength to spit out some blood and wince when my jaw begins throbbing worse.

  “What did the daughter of the saint do to get herself thrown in here?” he asks amused. My dad is a saint? I know that he used to be Arianna’s right-hand man, but I never thought of my dad as a saint.

  “They think I’m part vampire,” I tell him with a pained eye roll.

  “But you’re not?” he wonders.

  “No.” I say this in a way signifying that I will not answer any more questions on this topic. “What did you do to wind up here?”

  “Oh, I’m just a black warlock. The white don’t take kindly to us folk. They found me wondering around alone,” he says with a sigh. I’ve never met a pure black witch but this wasn’t what I was expecting of one. The way I was told, they were mean creatures who sucked life out of others. “I won’t be here much longer, they’ll kill me like they have the others.” He looks down the rows of bodies.

  The man’s words sadden me. Like myself, he didn’t choose to be what he is. He seems like a pleasant man. Of course, I’ve only known him a couple minutes.

  “How old are you?” he asks, while trying to move around and reposition himself in the shackles.