Tainted Heart (The Tainted Series Book 2)

by Marie, Tarisa

  “I’m nearly nineteen,” I answer while spitting out another mouthful of blood.

  “Just young then like me. I’m 21,” he says. “You have a man?” I can’t tell if he’s hitting on me or if he’s just being friendly. I can’t imagine a man on death row hitting on someone. Wouldn’t you have far more other things to worry about? Maybe conversation distracts him from reality.

  “Not really,” I answer truthfully. What is Daymon to me? Even if him becoming human changed him and brought him back to his old self could I really love someone who killed so many innocent people? And would I really be able to scratch the image of him sleeping with another woman out of my head?

  “Not really?” he asks in a crisp voice. “Would I have heard of the guy?”

  I shrug. “Arianna’s grandson Daymon,” I answer, not sure what last name the guy would know for him as he seems to have more than one.

  The man’s eyes widen. “He’s been turned into a vampire. Word is, he’s been helping Marco train the vampires.”

  I nod.

  “Not good, anyone who gets messed up with that fool is a lost case. He seems to bring the evil out in everyone,” he says sadly, referring to Marco. This surprises me a little. Is he implying that he’s not a fan of Marco?

  “What? You don’t warship Marco?” I wonder.

  He chuckles deeply. “The only friends that man has are the vampires. He couldn’t make friends so he had to create them.”

  “If none of you like Marco then why would you fight with him against the white?”

  “Marco and the black witches and warlocks are not a team, Ariella. They are an alliance against the white. We both hate the white and so we would team up if it ever came to war,” he explains, sounding like this much is obvious. “The white think they are better than us because they do not have to pull their power from other living beings.”

  “Why do you hate the white?” I wonder. Surely, they can’t only hate them because they think they’re better.

  He glances up at his hands in shackles and then looks back to me. “We, black witches or warlocks hate them because they are constantly trying to kill us. I assume because we are Marco’s spawn is the only real reason besides that they think we’re trash for having to suck life out of others. Marco and his groupies hate the white because they’re power hungry and just dumb really. The white are cocky and always trying to make themselves feel like they’re doing some sort of good by hating us for what we are when really they’re just the same. Maybe they’re even worse than us because we just steer clear of them, I mean besides Marco and his groupies. I don’t think anyone knows what exactly the white want from us.”

  I’m surprised by all of this because I was under the impression that all of Marco’s line were some sort of evil. Since learning about everything a year ago, I’ve just assumed that they were the bad guys because of what the others told me but what if everyone was operating off of the same assumptions? Has no one from the light actually tried to befriend someone from the dark? This makes no sense. Surely there must be a better reason for all the hatred. I have a feeling that this stems from Marco. He seems to be portrayed as the poster child for the dark, but what if he’s just their big dictator-type figure and makes them all look bad?

  “Why haven’t you ever tried to form an alliance with the white?” I ask as though it’s obvious. Isn’t it obvious? Cough up some more blood, and nearly gag at the taste of it in my mouth.

  “We have, they won’t listen, and they just want to fight. They only wish for war. Ariella, there is no such thing as dark and light, not in the sense of darkness and light. If you believe that you are part evil, you will easily fall into the dark. If you believe that you are not evil and only light then you will not fall to the darkness. If a light witch was born but told that it was evil its entire life then it would grow up to be evil. This dark and light nonsense was something made up by Arianna’s line when it all began as an excuse to lock Marco up so he wouldn’t suck power from others. Vampires are more prone to give into the darkness because their first instinct is to kill and I mean I know if I killed someone I’d start thinking I was some sort of evil.”

  This makes me wonder about the Tario. If this man is right then what does that mean for their dark and light sides? Are they also moot? I remember being told that the Tario’s light and dark sides were different than what the descendants of the Tario considered dark and light. I was told that the Tario consider dark ones to have erratic power and the light to have controlled power. My wheels begin turning.

  What this man tells me makes sense to me because I’ve always wondered what made the light better than the dark when the light has been out to kill me and the dark has also been after me. To me they were both groups of people that I wouldn’t fight a war with but against.

  “The only technical difference between the light and dark is that the light pull power form the earth naturally while the dark must feed off power from plants and beings,” he continues. “What is that ball at your feet?” he interrupts himself and glances to my feet suddenly curious.

  I look down and realize that the woman left me with the ball.

  “Nothing important,” I brush it off.

  We’re interrupted by someone coming down the stairs. It’s another woman, this one with short black hair and glasses.

  “Good day, Beatrice,” the man beside me says pleasantly as if the two are friends.

  “Good day, Thomas,” she mutters and begins wiping down some of the blood that dripped from my mouth with a cloth.

  “How was your vacation?” Thomas asks casually.

  What the hell?

  “It was well. I visited some old rogue friends in Maui,” she continues as if this is as normal as could be. Is she going to beat us or what?

  “This is Ariella,” Thomas introduces me.

  I look down the wall at some of the other people here. They don’t seem too lively. They look almost dead, they’re unmoving. I decide they must be dead and this makes me sick to my stomach. I have a flashback from the other day when I watched D kill that girl. This makes me feel sicker to my stomach.

  “Nice to meet you, Ariella, though I wish it weren’t under such circumstances. I am Beatrice. I do the clean-up after the storm so to speak,” she tells me with what looks to be a permanent frown.

  I’m surprised by this lady’s kindness. She is unlike the other woman who was in here kicking my ass. I can tell that she is kind-hearted

  “This, Ariella, is an example of a kind white witch. Many white are darker than they are light due to greed or jealousy of some sort,” Thomas explains. “I’ve been here for eight months and I’ve come to really like Beatrice.”

  “Unfortunately, Thomas is right. The light side of things is far more corrupt and screwed up than the dark side of things ironic, huh? Though of course if you’re light you’re taught otherwise. You’re taught that you’re better than the dark in every way. You’re basically taught to hate them, it’s drilled into your head constantly,” she tells me sadly and then after a moment of silence and her scrubbing my face clean she asks, “What has such a small child, one not even fully matured, done to get herself wound up in a place like this? We don’t see too many children your age here. This is a maximum security building. Of course we get the odd man like Thomas in here who is being persecuted for merely living but having children in here is blasphemy.”

  This is maximum security? The walls are crumbling.

  She sees me look around and laughs. “This place is full of protection spells and things which make it impossible to use power. Have you not tried to use yours to escape?” she wonders, curiously while looking at me as if I might not be very smart.

  “Meet Theenis Malgrovech’s daughter, Beatrice,” Thomas interrupts and introduces me again. “For whatever reason, they think she’s part vampire, but she says she’s not and quite honestly, if she were, she’d probably be wild with bloodlust right now as there’s blood everywhere.”

 
The woman’s jaw nearly drops and all color fades from her face. “You’re Theenis’ daughter?”

  “Yes,” I whisper and again struggle to breathe through the blood filling my throat.

  “Ariella, my name is Beatrice Malgrovech, I am your grandmother, dear,” the woman says, sounding almost nervous. “I heard through the grapevine about my son having a tainted child but I didn’t believe it. I’ve been on vacation the last few weeks and I haven’t yet gotten any recent updates from any liable sources since my return. I never thought Theenis would break a single one of Arianna’s rules, he was always such a butt kisser. Though I did find it weird that he seemed to disappear about twenty years ago when he used to visit it me at least once a decade.”

  My father told me all our relatives on his side died. He lied. Why wouldn’t he tell me I had a grandmother? This woman seems far too nice to be working in a place like this.

  Chapter 16

  “I trust that you will get my granddaughter as far from here as possible,” Beatrice instructs Thomas. “This is no place for her. Everyone is busy at war and word has gotten out that she’s been found by us, light. I’ve been left to watch the prison on my own while the war is on because someone has to do it. No one will notice she’s missing until the war ends. No one will be looking for her until then.”

  “And when they do find out that she’s gone and you let both of us escape?” Thomas asks, sounding concerned for her.

  “Then I will tell them that she escaped and that you finally kicked the bucket. Don’t worry about me. I’ve survived this long, I have no doubt that I will survive this. Don’t forget this thing.” She mutters and hands me the ball.

  “Thanks.” I nod.

  “Where would you like to go, Ariella?” Thomas asks. “Before I go off to join the war and fight with my friends, I will take you somewhere safe.”

  When I arrive back at my mother’s house, the place is empty. That is for five seconds until Baylon shows up right in front of me and scares me half to death. Where is Mindy?

  “Ariella! There you are! We have to go!” she cries, she’s about to say something else when she takes in my condition. My grandmother healed me enough to function but I’m still covered in blood and not feeling my best.

  “How did you get out? Is Jacob with you?” I wonder and strip off my hoodie which is soaked in blood.

  “I’ve been out for a couple hours and looking for you everywhere. Jacob is busy kicking ass right now. We have to hurry. Most of the supernaturals are all in one place right now, the Tario sparked the war by giving away information on Marco’s whereabouts amongst other things to the light because they are pissed that they are being threatened by whoever has ahold of the knife. They’re rounding up all the surviving Tario and they’re going to kill all the people fighting in the dark-light war right now. I guess they decided that the other supernaturals are too much of a threat for them with the knife and the ball not being in their hands and they want to get rid of them right now and basically exterminate them all while they’re in one place and then afterwards slowly pick out the ones not at war. If we don’t destroy this ball soon then both the sides will die,” she explains. “The Tario abandoned the prison, there wasn’t enough of them to run it. I think Tyler managed to take out more than three quarters of the Tario population somehow, the Tario are freaking right out!” she rambles quickly and I hardly have time take in what she’s said.

  I don’t know what to say. She grabs the ball from me and then takes my hand.

  We are now standing in a large open field filled with people. I don’t see anyone I know.

  “How do they even know who is on what side?” I ask Baylon as I stare out into the massive swarm of people. They all look the same to me.

  “There’s not many witches and or warlocks, Ariella. They basically all know each other and they can sense each other remember? You need to stay out of the fight. They will be able to feel your power and will be drawn to you like any one of the others. I don’t have time to spell you a protection spell. Stay here, out of sight. I have to go find Tyler to help us destroy this thing because I don’t think I have enough juice on my own. I’ll need to channel both of you. Don’t move. This place is very unsafe for you but this has to be done. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she instructs and takes off into the swarm of people. I stay back behind a large fallen down building and hide.

  I take a quick peak around the corner at the disaster happening before me. I see men and women hurdling themselves at one another. I see blood. I see death everywhere. They are definitely causing a scene. This is a complete slaughter. I can’t tell which side is winning because I can’t tell the sides apart but I can tell one thing for sure. There are tons of vampires. I know they’re vampires because they’re ripping people’s throats out and their eyes glow red. Presumably the vampires are taking down the light side which means that a lot of the light men are going down.

  “Hello there, sweetie. What are you doing hiding back here?” a raspy voice asks and I turn to see a man in a complete tux standing behind me. Shit. What do I do now? Run? Like that’ll help me at all.

  “Trying not to die,” I admit truthfully, maybe if I hold a conversation with him, Baylon will be back to save me before he kills me.

  “Ah, you’re not doing a very good job,” he chuckles eerily. He leans against the building and looks to be inspecting his nails.

  “Well, are you going to kill me or what?” I ask him harshly as I begin shaking.

  Another chuckle. “No, since you’re apparently incapable of protecting yourself, I’m going to make sure you don’t die.”

  I have no idea what to say or think. Is he serious or is he trying to throw me off my game?

  “I’m an old friend of your fathers,” the man chimes as if he’s proud of this fact.

  Just as I’m about to ask how he knew who I was, a vampire slams into his back and tightens his jaw around the man’s neck. I immediately lunge at the vampire. I mean it’s not like it can kill me, right? Plus this man that the vampire is attacking hasn’t done anything to hurt me and if he’s truly a friend of my father’s then the least I can do is try to fight off the vampire which I know will probably just get myself hurt but I can’t just watch it kill this man.

  I manage to tackle him to the ground and off of the man. I land multiple punches into his jaw. Just as I’m about to think I’ve won the fight the vampire picks me up off the ground and throws me twenty feet through the air. I land right in front of another vampire who snarls and lunges at me. I miraculously jump up and run in the opposite direction of the two and into the crowd of death. Many people are on the ground bloodied and though I know many of them will eventually recover, a lot of them are witches and vampires who won’t. I half unconsciously scan the bodies for people I may know but see no one. I dodge through the people as I try to outrun the vampires which is impossible. Thankfully they are tall men and I’m just a small girl so I’m able to dodge the people easier and evade them to an extent. I notice many vampires eyeing me and I remember what Daymon said about my blood smelling sweeter because I’m more Tario than the regular supernatural being.

  “Ariella!” Baylon calls from a little ways across the clearing, Tyler behind her as they run towards me. I pick up pace and look back at my advancers just as a bright light like a lightening bold collides with their chests and sends them smoking to the ground. There was more than two maybe more like eight. I realize that Tyler’s done this and I’m both thankful and shocked. His use of so much power is noticed by a few others and they turn to look at him. I can tell by their gazes that they’re wondering who he is, who I am, and who Baylon is.

  A vampire lunges at Baylon, and then another as we try to distance ourselves a little from the crowd. With irritation, she twists their necks so they snap like twigs. I’m surprised by her violence as she comes off as such a soft person.

  Baylon grabs my wrist immediately and all three of us join hands. Baylon begins whispering under her breath
and I let my dormant power flow from me into her.

  I’m forced to open my eyes when something sharp collides with my shoulder.

  A tall, red-headed man has just hacked me with a knife. Bastard. I whirl around, completely done with all of this ridiculous fighting and kick him square in the chest. He flies backwards and into another man who then begins going at him and keeping him busy for the time being. We don’t have time for this. If only they all knew they were about to die.

  I rejoin my hands with the other two.

  My eyes spring open for a second time when everything begins shaking. I lose grip of Baylon and Tyler’s hands and fall to the ground on my butt. I watch as many others in the clearing do the same. Everyone looks at each other in confusion. Earthquake? Some people don’t seemed to be phased by the shaking and continue beating on the ones that are confused which snaps them back into battle mode.

  “It’s done,” Baylon announces, I wonder if that’s surprise I hear in her voice. Is she surprised that she destroyed the ball or surprised by the earthquake or what?

  A cool wind makes its way through the clearing. It’s icy cold and very uninviting.

  “Look, there’s the Tario,” Baylon points to the far end of the field where a bunch of short women a few men step out. She looks terrified and I know all three of us are wondering why nothing has happened yet if the ball has been destroyed. I pray to god that this wasn’t another trick of some sort because then we’re all dead except Baylon.

  “Do you feel any different?” I ask her.

  “No,” she shakes her head frightened. “You guys?”

  Both Tyler and I shake our heads.

  “Great,” she squeaks sarcastically, her voice full of nervousness as she continues to stare towards the Tario.

  Just as she finishes speaking the word, another rumble enters the clearing though this one isn’t positioned underneath the ground like an earthquake, this one goes through the air. As I inspect the crowd I make out my father throwing punches at a woman with green hair and a crop top. She looks like a hippy.