The Chosen Coven Series Box Set

by D L Blade

  “Goodbye, Dorian.”

  “Wait, you’re not driving, are you?”

  “No, I’m going to call a driver.”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ll drive you.”

  I wanted to leave and clear my head after our conversation, but he was being a gentleman, and with Dorian, I couldn’t argue with that.

  We drove to my place, and before I stepped out, I turned to him. “Thank you. And not just for the ride, but for everything.”

  He bit his bottom lip and placed his hand on mine. “Call me if you need us. I’m not texting you anymore, Mercy,” he said. “I’m in your life whether you like it or not. Noah and I live near Goddard Park.”

  “You moved here?” I asked, surprised.

  “We’ve been living here since Tatyana rescued us.”

  He had been living less than ten minutes from me this entire time, and I hadn’t had a clue. I never saw him in town, so he must have been going out of his way to hide from me.

  I nodded and exited the car, watching him drive away until he turned the corner at the end of the street. He was back in my life, and I wasn’t sure what to think of it. Did I want this? Sure, I was happy to see him today, but I didn’t know what that meant.

  “Another body,” Leah told me as I climbed out of the shower the next morning. I pulled my robe tight around my waist.

  “What?”

  “Another dead body in East Greenwich. This time, right in the middle of Main Street. It happened last night when you were out. We didn’t find out until this morning,” she explained.

  I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, and there weren’t any missed calls or text messages from Caleb. “Does Caleb know?”

  “He’s the one who told me.” She looked uncomfortable, not making eye contact with me. “He left early this morning to meet with Melissa.” She looked up when I crunched my face, and her shoulders slumped. “Sorry. I thought you knew until I realized you were taking a shower instead of joining him at the morgue.”

  “Thanks for letting me know.”

  Frustrated that I had been left in the dark, I grabbed my purse and drove to Lily’s.

  Once I reached a stop light, I grabbed my cell and found Sarah’s number.

  Me: Hey, I know we didn’t get to chat on the phone yesterday. I’m heading to Lily’s, then the morgue to see what information we have for this new body that was found on Main. Are you doing okay?

  The light turned green, so I put my phone down, but I heard a message come in a minute later.

  Once I reached another light, I looked down.

  Sarah: I’m still a bit shaken up, but I’ll be fine. Please tell Caleb thank you for helping us that night. Let me know what you find out.

  I sucked in a breath that she was okay and dialed Lily, who picked up on the first ring. “Mercy, did you hear what happened? There’s been another murder.”

  “I know. I’m almost to your house, then I’m going to the morgue. Are you even home?”

  “Yes, we’re here. Oh, Mercy, it was awful. Bradley and I were on our way to the post office this morning and we couldn’t get onto Main Street. We jumped out and walked over to a police officer on the scene, and it was just like last time, except the body had already been taken away. They were taking pictures and trying to clear the street of pedestrians lurking around,” Lily explained.

  “Who was the victim?” I asked, my stomach twisting in knots, praying it wasn’t someone I knew.

  “Miss Darla,” she answered.

  I instantly felt sick to my stomach. Miss Darla was a widow whose husband had died five years ago. She mostly kept to herself and would never utter a cruel word to anyone. Whoever was doing this was a sick bastard. They appeared to be picking people at random. Miss Darla and Tippy had no connection to each other whatsoever. They maybe waved at each other in the marketplace, but that’s it.

  “Mercy?” she asked. “Are you still there?”

  My attention snapped back to the call. “Yes. Sorry. I feel a little left in the dark this morning.”

  “I thought you knew, especially after I saw Caleb. He said you’ve had a hard couple of days.”

  She didn’t ask about the club, so I assumed he hadn’t told her what had happened the other night, for which I was grateful.

  “I’ll see you in one minute,” I said before hanging up.

  Though I was happy he hadn’t told her about the other night, I was furious that he was keeping me away from this case. I understood he was upset about what happened at the club, but he should have called me this morning.

  Bradley was washing the dishes while Lily was sitting at the table. I smiled at her, then at Bradley. “Man, you’ve got him whipped.”

  “I heard that,” Bradley shouted toward us, with his back to me, scrubbing a plate.

  I sat next to Lily and asked, “Are you doing okay? I know you knew Miss Darla.”

  “I’m sad, of course.” Lily scooted her chair closer to me and placed her hand on mine. “I just don’t understand why someone would want to kill her. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Bradley put the last plate down on the drying rack and joined us at the table. “You’d think a place like East Greenwich would be a safe haven for everyone who lives here,” he said, pushing up his glasses closer to his eyes. “Maybe you should buy a gun, Lily.” I looked at her and smirked, knowing she just needed the tips of her fingers to do some damage. It was beginning to be more difficult to keep this life away from Bradley, since he was always with her, but we knew we had to continue lying to him. The more we told our friends the truth, the more at risk it put them.

  I tried Caleb one last time, but after another failed attempt to answer the phone, I headed to the morgue.

  When I arrived, Caleb and Melissa still hadn’t responded to the text I’d sent them both to open the door for me. I saw Caleb’s car hidden near the back alley, so I assumed the cameras were already down. I placed my hand on the latch, and it clicked. I opened the back door and tiptoed as quietly as I could before reaching the autopsy suite.

  Caleb sat against Melissa’s desk, and they snickered about something. I stopped moving toward them when he placed his hand on hers, rubbing his thumb gently over her skin. She smiled and blushed. I steadied my breathing and scurried around the corner behind the wall. Though my feelings no longer existed, and I knew they were dating, since the rest of the coven told me everything, I hadn’t seen the two of them like this.

  I wasn’t jealous, it was just different seeing him with someone who wasn’t me, and it felt awkward to walk in on it. But I couldn’t stand in the hall like this, or I’d get caught.

  Walk in. Act cool.

  I cleared my throat, and Caleb retracted his hand from hers. “Hey, sorry I’m late to the party.” I glared at him, squinting my eyes. “Same killer?”

  “Yep.” Melissa pointed to Miss Darla’s neck. “Same two marks.” She parted Miss Darla’s lips. “Same tattoo of a black horse.”

  I over-exaggerated my glare at Caleb since he didn’t even tell me he was coming here when I awoke this morning. “Looks like I need to go back to the club.”

  “No!” Caleb snapped.

  My body tensed. I understood he was scared something bad would happen to me again, but this was my call, and I wasn’t going to be left in the dark because of one really bad night.

  Melissa looked down, averting her eyes from us. She covered Miss Darla’s face by zipping up the yellow bag and stepped back. “I need to go enter a few notes into the computer.” She walked out, leaving me and Caleb ready to argue again.

  “I’m going!” I was almost shouting this time.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “This is about the coven, Caleb. Someone is doing this to get to us, and you can’t just take over and leave me out of it.”

  The stubbornness of my own voice made me cringe, but Caleb was so infuriating sometimes, he brought it out of me. And I hated it.

  “Oh, yes, I will,” he threatened.
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  I felt the energy building up inside me. I couldn’t control it, I couldn’t conceal it.

  I slammed my hand onto the metal table next to me, and the energy that left my hands exploded through the room, causing every piece of glass to shatter around us and metal objects to rattle. The green energy leaving my fingertips blasted a second time without my control, shooting Miss Darla’s table across the room and almost knocking her body off the table. I quickly backed up, holding my trembling hands against my chest to help keep my powers concealed.

  “Holy shit, Mercy. What the hell was that?” Caleb gasped.

  Melissa quickly ran in and looked around. “You guys need to go. Now. My boss is going to fire me!”

  I looked at Caleb, who stood there with flared nostrils and cold eyes.

  As I averted my eyes from him, I saw the mess in the room and instantly felt sick. This was the first time I’d lost my temper like that with someone who wasn’t an enemy. It was as if I had no control over my powers. “I’m so sorry, Melissa. I’ll clean this up.”

  “No! Get out. This is why I hesitated to help you guys in the first place.” She pointed to the door. “Please leave.”

  I backed up as Caleb stared at me in disbelief. I didn’t recognize the girl that just destroyed an office by the tips of her fingers. I breathed in steadily as I backed toward the door and ran outside to my car.

  Though Cami was far from normal, she was still the most stable thing in my life, and I needed a refreshing dose of normalcy right now.

  When I walked through the door, I saw Cami sitting next to her mom.

  “Hey, Laurie.”

  Laurie had a bottle of vodka in her hand, rubbing the sides with her thumb, when she looked up. “Hi, Mercy. You ladies . . . going . . . out?”

  She was wasted.

  “Yeah, I’m going to take her to Main Street to get some breakfast. Cami needs some fresh air. Don’t you think?”

  Laurie looked at Cami, who sat cross-legged on the couch, looking down at her phone. Cami looked up for a second, then back down.

  “Cami, let’s go,” I said.

  Cami gripped her cell. She stood, placed it into her pocket, and kissed her mom on the cheek. She had no emotion on her face, she just stared at me, waiting for the next command.

  I stepped toward her and reached out my hand. She took it. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded as I escorted her out of the house.

  Her home was the most suffocating place I had ever been, even compared to the vampire lair I was held hostage in last year. Her mom stayed drunk, and the house was filthy. Before Cami was possessed by Kylan, she at least ran the household and took care of things. She put her mom to bed, helped her wake up in the morning, cleaned, and paid the bills. Now, I came there twice a week to sort through their mail, write and forge checks, and do some light cleaning to make sure the two of them could function. This was my obligation. I was the reason this happened to her. It was my responsibility now to make sure they were okay.

  Lily’s Café was only a few blocks from Cami’s home, so we went there before I helped manage the house. It was the only way I could get Cami to go outside.

  “I’ll go get us some food,” I said as we took a seat in the outside eating area.

  Cami sat there, looking out at Main Street, watching each car pass by the café. She just . . . stared.

  Lily had hired Jeff from my high school to run the café after my Awakening, since my focus was now on the coven.

  Jeff saw me enter and perked up. After all the events from last year had calmed down, I visited his home and we talked about what had happened on the field when I had healed his broken femur. I told him everything. He had witnessed something that was beyond impossible, so there was no way I could keep it a secret. It took him a while to grasp what I was saying, and to accept this new reality where witches, werewolves, and vampires roamed the streets, but in the end, he swore to keep it a secret, and I swore to protect him if he ever needed it.

  “Hey, Jeff,” I said as I reached the register. “Just two bagels. One with cream cheese and the other with strawberry jam. Oh, and a soy latte.”

  “Sure thing, Mercy.” His voice cracked and he averted his eyes and searched for our bagels in the glass case by the register. I didn’t think he meant to sound so nervous and on edge around me, but after everything I’d told him about what I could do with my powers, he still acted anxious when I came around.

  Jeff grabbed our bagels, and I waited while he brewed the shots for my latte. “Thanks, Jeff.” He handed me the bagels. “How are things?” I asked, hoping to help him relax. “Anyone need their ass kicked?”

  He laughed. “Not yet.”

  “Damn,” I cursed and grabbed my latte. “Talk to you later, Jeff. Good seeing you.” He reciprocated a nod and I went outside to join Cami.

  When I came outside, Cami wasn’t sitting at our table anymore.

  Great.

  My heart raced as I looked around. “Cami?!” I shouted, looking up both ends of the street.

  This isn’t good.

  Cami was unstable. She never left the house without me, and now I had lost her. I ran down the road and poked my head into every shop that was open. “Cami?” I called as I looked into Mario’s. I crossed the street to the other side and started with the shops.

  I looked over by the post office, then scanned the street, and there was Cami, standing in the middle of the road with her arms outstretched.

  Oh, my God.

  The post office was the first building on Main Street, which was near the front entrance of the shops. The street came to a peak, then declined until it hit the post office. If someone was tearing down the road, they wouldn’t see her until it was too late. I ran as fast as I could toward her.

  “Cami, get out of the road!” I shouted, waving my hands in the air, but she wouldn’t move or look my way.

  I was getting close, but not close enough. A black pickup truck appeared at the top of the street and came speeding down in her direction. They couldn’t see her. It would be impossible until it was too late. “Cami, move!” I yelled again.

  I didn’t have time. I wouldn’t make it. I stopped running and pulled my hands out to the side, thrusting them forward while releasing my powers at the truck. The green light hit the truck like a head-on collision, causing it to fly up into the air. He missed hitting her by only a few feet. I used my other hand to thrust the car to the right and into the pole. I slowed it down right before it collided, easing up on impact. Cami stood still. She didn’t even flinch.

  Once the truck was no longer a threat, I ran toward her as fast as I could, and pulled her out of the road.

  Cami had tears in her eyes but her face stayed emotionless. “I just want this nightmare to end, Mercy. Please make it stop.”

  She was so broken. Several people were coming out to see what had happened. An older man exited the truck, and he didn’t appear to have any visible injuries. He was just a little disoriented, probably wondering what the hell had just happened.

  I pulled Cami into my arms, gripping her shoulders tightly. Cami was like a rag doll in my arms, as if she wasn’t really there. Her mind was somewhere else. Somewhere dark and haunting. I wished I could see what was happening to her. I wished my healing powers could heal her mind, but they couldn’t. I tried. Even when I failed over and over again to heal her, I tried.

  What was happening?

  I can’t keep her in that house without someone watching her twenty-four-seven. Not now. She is way worse than she had been when we first brought her home.

  What did Kylan’s sick and twisted mind do to her? Caleb was possessed for only fifteen minutes, and he was an immortal witch. Even he had mentioned he felt off for several weeks. But Cami was a fragile human that had been corrupted by darkness for several days. I didn’t know how to fix this.

  “Cami, let’s go home,” I told her. I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the street.

  I have to admit her. We
don’t have a choice.

  I sat on Caleb’s bed, with my hands clasped together, waiting for him to come out of the shower and thinking about what happened with Cami.

  Caleb and I had called Leah’s family’s hospital in Salem, Raven’s Mental Institution, to have Cami admitted. She wasn’t a supernatural being, but her mental state had been caused by one. If any place could help her, it would be Raven’s.

  I let Cami’s mom know I would still go to her house and help take care of it, so she was fine with her daughter leaving. She may have been drunk half the time, but she was coherent enough to understand that her daughter needed help. After I told her what had happened on Main Street, she cried in my arms and begged me to get her help.

  Since we were the reason this had happened to her, Leah and her family were covering the cost, and we’d be sending her there tomorrow morning.

  I turned my attention toward Caleb’s bathroom door as it opened. Caleb emerged, steam from the shower crept into the bedroom, and Caleb, with just a towel around his waist, moved to the dresser to pick out his pajama bottoms. Water still beaded on his perfect body and dripped down onto the carpet. I averted my eyes for a moment, then looked up again at him. I hated when these feelings of lust took over, when I needed to think of him as only part of my coven to focus on working together.

  “Sorry about what happened this morning,” I said, breaking myself away from this uncomfortable feeling.

  He wouldn’t look at me as he shuffled through his top dresser, looking for a shirt.

  “I don’t know what happened,” I continued, though I didn’t deserve an apology. The truth was, I really should have been kissing up to Melissa. My actions could have gotten her fired, and she had been helping us for a year.

  He pulled a white t-shirt over his head. “I get it, Mercy. You’re used to running things. But as a coven, we’re also supposed to look after each other. Your dad being the leader of that clan complicates things. You can’t be involved.”