The Chosen Coven Series Box Set

by D L Blade

  I wondered if he could smell it through a sealed mason jar.

  He shook his head. “It’s sealed airtight. I’ll need to open it.”

  “No. Don’t. What about fingerprints?” I asked.

  “For one, if someone went to this length to send this to you, I guarantee they were wise enough to wear gloves. I would be careful about my own fingerprints, but you and I both know we aren’t giving this over to the police.”

  Okay, he was right. This was a situation only we could handle. The last thing we wanted was for the police to put themselves in danger because it led them to a supernatural creature they didn’t know how to take down. I walked over to the mason jar and grabbed the lid, gripped it tightly, and turned it until the sealed lid popped up, releasing the air inside. The strong aroma of copper and iron filled my senses, and I looked up at Dorian as his fangs protruded and his eyes turned as red as the liquid inside the jar. He backed up, composing himself, and let out the breath he had been holding in.

  “Yeah, that’s blood,” he affirmed.

  “Human?”

  He nodded.

  I grabbed the lid and sealed it back up. I placed it on the counter then pulled out the note from under it.

  St. Mary’s Cemetery. 9 P.M. Come Alone

  I looked up at Dorian. “This may be the only way to catch who’s doing this. I know it’s crazy, but I need to go.”

  “You don’t have to explain this to me. I’m not telling you to not go. I’ll go with you, though, and stay hidden.”

  I nodded and eyed the clock. It was eight thirty.

  “We have to go,” I said.

  I didn’t have a plan. All I hoped for was that whoever was after me wouldn’t be a coward tonight and that they would show themselves so I could take them out.

  We drove to Saint Mary’s Cemetery and parked a few blocks down the road. Dorian hid behind a large grove of trees as I scanned the grounds. I didn’t see or sense anyone.

  “Come out, you coward!” I screamed. I held my hands out, energy radiating from the tips of my fingers.

  I still didn’t see any movement, but I did see an object a couple hundred yards in front of me. It was hard to see exactly what it was because it was dark now, and the cemetery wasn’t lit up by street lights. I approached a large cement crypt, and my heart beat faster than it had ever done before when I was able to clearly see what was in front of me.

  A rush of adrenaline coursed throughout my entire body as the world around me spun. I had to pace my breathing to slow down my pulse as my heart pounded hard against my chest, feeling like my chest was going to explode.

  No . . . No! It can’t be.

  “Dorian?!” I yelled as I heard him speed up toward me. I felt the breeze from his movements caress my skin. He stopped and stared with me.

  “Oh, no,” he said.

  “Is it really her?” I asked. I looked at him. “I don’t understand. Where are her wings?”

  “She’s fallen,” he explained, still staring at her. I didn’t understand what he meant by “fallen.”

  I looked back to the crypt. Tatyana, the angel who had created me, was laying on her back across the crypt without her wings.

  She looked human.

  A sword pierced through her stomach, and blood was rolling down the cemented crypt onto the cemetery grounds.

  I turned away from her, and my legs buckled underneath me, causing me to fall to the floor. I couldn’t hold in the vomit that rose in my throat. After I stopped throwing up, I wiped my lips with my sleeve. I placed both my hands on the grass and dug my fingers deep into the soil while I gritted my teeth. I felt Dorian’s hand on my shoulders, and I squeezed my eyes shut. After a few minutes, I turned to face him and held out my hand so he could pull me to my feet. Tears poured down my face as I looked back at her.

  Someone had killed her. Why was she even here? And what the hell happened to her wings?

  Mercy

  The coven surrounded me as my hands trembled around a mug of tea. Leah rubbed my arm to try to calm me, but I couldn’t relax. I couldn’t get the image of Tatyana’s body lying there with a sword through her stomach, covered in a pool of her own blood, out of my mind.

  “She’s in shock,” I heard Dorian tell them, but I looked up toward Caleb.

  They can’t see me like this.

  “She’s dead,” I stated for the twentieth time.

  “We know,” I heard Caleb say as he sat down next to me.

  “How?” I asked, still not understanding what had happened. “She’s not mortal. She’s an angel.”

  I looked over at Dorian, who had his arms crossed over his chest. “She’s fallen.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “When she rescued me, she told me she couldn’t come back. She was only allowed to create the Chosen Ones. She was never supposed to help you beyond that. She said if she ever came back, she’d have to sacrifice her wings and become mortal,” Dorian explained. “She’s a fallen angel.”

  I looked at Caleb and the rest of the coven. “But why would she do that? Why was she even here?” Dorian shrugged, so I looked over at Caleb. “Why would she sacrifice her wings?”

  “I don’t know, either, Mercy,” Caleb said.

  My hands gripped into fists as the only obvious explanation hit me. “Maurice. It has to be Maurice.” I looked up. “She took down his clan to rescue everyone and took everything from him. Maybe she came to warn us about what he’s been doing, and he killed her to stop her.” I turned to Caleb again. “It has to be him.”

  Caleb placed his hand on mine and gripped it tightly. “Then we will find him and kill him.”

  The rest of the coven had been silent up until now. They joined him, agreeing with Maurice being the prime suspect in the murders in East Greenwich and of Tatyana, though Ezra brought up a good point. It could be two totally different killers. A vampire didn’t kill Tatyana. It was death by sword, not by a bite.

  The fury in the room from the coven gave me hope. I wasn’t alone in my anger and desire to find him and make him pay for what he was doing. What he had done to Tatyana, to the innocent victims in East Greenwich, all of it. It had to end now.

  “What do you want to do?” Caleb asked me.

  “I want to talk to Maurice. We can’t kill him just yet,” I said, knowing they would never be okay with that.

  “No.” This time, Leah stepped up. “No way. It’s too dangerous, and you know it.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Dorian said, stepping near me. “I know him.”

  “And you betrayed him. He’ll kill you,” Caleb added, but when he saw Dorian by my side and me not backing down, he said, “So the three of us will go.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Simon asked, moving toward Ezra and Leah.

  “I’d love to kick a vampire’s ass right about now. It’s been awhile,” Ezra added, pulling his lips into a grin.

  “No one is kicking anyone’s ass. I just need to talk to him and find out what he wants. My blood is of no use to him. He doesn’t want to be human. Do you think he’d really risk his life over taking down his lair? He knows I can’t be killed, unless . . .”

  I paused, looking up at Caleb. “Caleb, when was the last time you checked on the dagger?”

  “The dagger?” Leah squealed. “I thought Joel teleported it somewhere we weren’t supposed to know about?”

  Caleb turned to her. “Simon and I teleported to its location and retrieved it to protect Joel. He isn’t strong enough to defend himself against a witch trying to read his mind. I have it hidden in Abigail’s mansion.”

  Simon looked down and tried not to make eye contact with Leah and Ezra.

  Leah gasped and Ezra threw his hands up. “Gee, that would have been nice to know since our entire lives depend on if someone finds it.” His tone was full of both anger and panic. He turned to Simon. “I expected something like this from Caleb, but not you, man.”

  Simon shrugged.

  “Enough!”
I yelled. I was too exhausted for this. “Caleb, we need to go check on it. Now.”

  Dorian was still adamant about going with me to see Maurice, so it looked like Caleb, Dorian, and I were going on a little trip together after we made sure the dagger was exactly where Caleb had put it.

  We climbed into Caleb’s car and went to the mansion, walking up to the second floor and into Caleb’s room. He lifted the floorboard, opened the safe, and cracked open the lid. And we just stared. I felt like all the air left my lungs, and I had to steady my breathing so I didn’t pass out.

  “Caleb, how could this happen?” I asked him, while keeping my eyes on the empty safe in front of us.

  His mouth gaped open. He was just as in shock as me.

  “Caleb?”

  “Only a witch could have opened this,” he finally answered.

  “We are such fools,” I added. When I felt someone’s touch, I looked down to see Dorian’s hand wrapped around mine, gripping it firmly,

  “He won’t touch you,” Dorian said. “I’ll kill him myself.”

  Caleb narrowed his eyes down to where I was holding Dorian’s hand, but I didn’t care. I was angry at him for being so careless about hiding the dagger. I should have moved it somewhere safer the moment I found out it was only in a safe in the mansion.

  “Let’s go,” I said to them both.

  We drove toward Salem, where Noah had just reported having seen Maurice.

  Mercy

  This new lair was much different than the gothic mansion he’d lived in before. There was no security gate. It almost looked normal. Almost too normal. This thought didn’t sit well with me.

  Noah reported that he had spotted Maurice coming in and out of this two-story Victorian-style home several times a week since he started to trail him. We guessed this was his home.

  I could already feel my powers radiate inside me, but I had to take a few deep breaths to conceal it so I didn’t lose control. My father taught me how to subdue my powers when I’d get upset, while I stayed with him those few weeks. We found that any time my emotions took over, so did my powers. We believed that it was due to not gradually getting used to them over the course of eighteen years, which is why witches didn’t get all their powers at once. It was too overwhelming. The last year, I had not only learned what I was, but I’d gained all my powers and my mother’s, all at once. I thought I had control, but it was evident that I didn’t.

  “We should just knock,” I suggested. Dorian and Caleb looked at me like I was crazy. “If we threaten him, he will attack.”

  They must have known I was right because they didn’t argue.

  We walked up to the door and knocked.

  The feeling of butterflies fluttered in my stomach when Kyoko opened the door. She was quite loyal, I had to give her that.

  “Well, well, well,” she said. “Maurice?” She kept her eyes on me. “We sure have missed you. You have some guts coming here, but that’s to be expected. You were always so careless, Mercy.”

  I didn’t want to give her the impression that her words would faze or upset me, so I said nothing. She straightened out her pencil skirt and fidgeted with her fingers for a few seconds before we heard footsteps coming toward us. It was clear that I made her nervous, and that gave me great satisfaction.

  “Dorian, looking handsome as ever,” she added, right before Maurice stepped in front of me. My stomach churned, but I had to remind myself to be strong. The only thoughts going through my mind were the memories of every awful thing he had done to me a year ago.

  Dorian grabbed my right hand, and Caleb gripped my left.

  “Well, come on in, you three,” Maurice said, not taking his eyes off mine. He gave a sinister smile as I walked past him, and it felt like a hard lump was pressing against my throat.

  Dorian and Caleb stayed close to me while we walked in. I felt like I had two bodyguards I really didn’t need. I wondered if the protection was for me or Maurice and Kyoko. They knew I was on the verge of ripping off their heads, but we couldn’t take them out just yet.

  Kyoko stood by the fireplace while Maurice adjusted his silk, collared shirt and glared at me as if he wanted to devour every part of my soul. This feeling caused my powers to ignite beneath my fingertips.

  Relax, Mercy, or you’re going to lose control.

  “The dagger. Where is it?” I asked.

  He chuckled and turned to Kyoko. “Did you take their precious little dagger?”

  She shook her head and smirked. “No, Master. I did not.”

  Their behavior was strange, and it only made me more nervous to be here. As much as I wanted answers, I didn’t want to be around these two.

  Maurice didn’t move closer to me, though I could see in his eyes he was ready to strike. He wouldn’t while I had Caleb and Dorian on each side of me. I really wanted to kill this son of a bitch, but I needed answers.

  “Cut the crap, Maurice. Where is it?” Caleb asked.

  He laughed again but kept his eyes directly on me. “If I had the dagger, Mercy, I’d be using it to take out your coven.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Could it be someone else? Maurice was too much of a narcissist to not admit how “amazing” he was for being one step ahead of us.

  “The killings in East Greenwich? Is that you?”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t need to kill human scum to get to you. I’ve been watching you ever since you left my lair. If I wanted you dead, I’d come for you.”

  My stomach twisted again. He was so sick.

  “Tatyana?”

  He stood there, non-responsive, then a slow grin formed on his face. “Oh, yes, that one was me.”

  I pounced on him like a lion after a gazelle. Green energy flew not just from my fingertips, but from my entire body. I tackled Maurice to the ground. Then, I heard a commotion behind me. I used my human strength and punched him straight in the face, drawing blood from his lip. I punched him harder and harder as I used my powers to pin him to the ground with my other hand. I wanted to kill him, to rip his head off. I could have easily killed him right then and there, if I wanted to, but I needed to know why. Why did he kill her?

  I felt hands around my waist, then someone jerked me off him.

  It was Dorian.

  I looked back at Caleb, who had Kyoko in a chokehold. I knew it wouldn’t be enough to subdue her for long, unless we plunged a stake through her heart, but it was enough to freeze her where she stood. For now.

  Maurice stood in front of us, panting, his face covered in blood, while Dorian stood by my side.

  “Why? Why did you kill her?” I asked, adrenaline still coursing through my veins.

  Maurice laughed and glared at me with red eyes blazing. “I’d been following you for months, and just as I was about to take you again, the angel who destroyed everything I had, came to Salem looking for you. To my surprise, her wings were gone. I don’t know why she was there, but I wasn’t going to let her reach you. She had to pay for what she did.”

  My anger raged. “I hate you.”

  “Likewise, Akasha.”

  I cringed at the sound of the name he’d insisted on using a year ago. I hated that name and loathed the sound of it coming from his lips.

  “Keep him on the ground. I’m going to look around for the dagger,” Dorian said.

  Caleb remained where he was, gripping Kyoko’s arms and keeping her in place.

  Maurice didn’t take his eyes off me. The wounds from my bloodied fist had already healed, and Maurice wiped off his own blood with the bottom of his shirt.

  Dorian came in a few minutes later, shaking his head. “I don’t see it anywhere, but it doesn’t mean it’s not here.”

  Maurice laughed again. “Man, you three are something else. I don’t have your dagger. As I said, I would have used it to kill the coven already.” He glared back to me. “But not you, Mercy. I have other plans for you.”

  I gulped. I didn’t like the sound of that. Not one bit.
r />   Caleb released Kyoko but shoved her, causing her small frame to go flying forward.

  I stepped toward Maurice, kicking him in the face one more time because I could. He was still on his knees, and I had all the power right now. If I wasn’t ready to kill him, I was going to make him suffer just a little longer.

  He was up to something, and knowing Maurice, he never worked alone. He wasn’t smart enough to pull anything off without an army of followers.

  “I have a stake, Mercy. You can use it on him right now,” Caleb said.

  I shook my head as he handed it to me. “Not yet. Not until we find out what he’s hiding from us.” I turned to Maurice. “What are you not telling us?

  Maurice stayed silent.

  I walked over to face Kyoko, her eyes widening. “Drink from my wrist or die, Kyoko.”

  Her eyes grew even wider, and she looked at Maurice as if she hoped he would save her, but he wouldn’t move to her rescue. His eyes, however, were crimson red, and he showed his fangs, threatening me.

  “Answer, Kyoko, or I’ll answer for you,” I threatened .

  “I’d rather die than be a pathetic human,” she said.

  I stepped closer to her, and she didn’t move, but Maurice did. He ran toward me with lightning speed, but Caleb lifted his hands and blasted a flame at him. It hit Maurice hard against the chest, and Dorian was by his side, holding him down.

  “I’m sorry, but you and Maurice are too dangerous when you work together. But don’t worry, Maurice will be joining you very soon in whatever dark hell you guys go to after this life.”

  “Oh, Akasha, if you only knew your fate. You think this is over, but it’s not,” she said. I knew it was a real threat. They had something planned.

  “Goodbye, Kyoko,” I said as I plunged the stake into her chest.

  Maurice hissed behind me while trying to stand, but Dorian kicked him in the face so hard that this time, he blacked out. We knew it wouldn’t be long before he regained consciousness, so we left as soon as I picked up the stake and handed it back to Caleb.