The Chosen Coven Series Box Set

by D L Blade

  I now felt as if he was, indeed, hiding something. Though, not necessarily that he was the killer.

  The other unsettling thing was that it had been two weeks now, and no one from the coven had been attacked, and no dead bodies had come up, that we knew of, anyway.

  Yes, under normal circumstances, this would be a good thing, but it also created an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Every noise in or out of my house ignited my powers. It was as if I was always on. Always ready to strike.

  It was eight at night, and Joel had just finished clearing the dinner table. We stuffed ourselves with tacos and coconut milk ice cream.

  “Go see Dorian. I have watched the two of you text every night for the last few days. I know you want to see him,” Joel said, pushing my phone toward me.

  I shook my head. “I want to, but I don’t want to give him the wrong idea.”

  Joel sighed and rolled his eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. You know that, right?”

  I looked at my phone. I was being ridiculous. I decided that if he wanted to see me, then, okay, I would go. If not, I was having another taco and watching a show on Netflix.

  I texted him, and his reply came back a few minutes later.

  Dorian: We’re home. I’d love to see you.

  “Teleport?” Joel asked, once he saw me place my phone down with a grin on my face.

  “Dork, I have a car.”

  I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.

  Mercy

  Dorian and Noah were in the kitchen when I arrived. He had texted, telling me to just walk in, so I helped myself inside their house.

  “Aloha, my beautiful friend,” Noah said, kissing me on both cheeks.

  “Hey, Noah.” I looked at what they were doing and laughed. “You’re playing Candyland?”

  Dorian’s mouth curved at the corner of his lips. “We’ve never played.”

  “It’s a game for an eight-year-old, Dorian.”

  They both laughed. “We can always play it with booze,” Noah suggested, and I joined in on the laughter. I needed this. I needed this so badly.

  After playing Candyland for over an hour, while sober, and Dorian and I catching up on everything we’ve been doing this last year, I realized I hadn’t relaxed like this in months. In fact, I hadn’t had this much fun since before my mom attacked me over a year ago. Everything had been constant drama, and I had forgotten how to have fun.

  We cleaned up the game pieces, and I entered the kitchen to refill my water. When I turned around, Dorian was standing behind me, and I jumped slightly as it startled me.

  “Sorry,” he said. He lifted his hand to my cheek, but I didn’t flinch or pull away. I let his cold fingers linger on my cheeks, caressing my skin and trailing down to my neck. A chill from the coldness of his hands and the seductive touch caused a strong awareness of my heartbeat, and the hairs prickled on the backs of my arms.

  I quickly eyed the clock, pulling my gaze away from him. It read ten in the evening, and if I stayed too late, Joel would ask questions. I really didn’t want that. “I have to go,” I told Dorian. Noah was already asleep and snoring loudly on the couch.

  “I don’t want you to go,” he confessed, and butterflies hit my stomach again. He was so incredibly sexy, and though my romantic feelings were gone, I wanted him right now.

  I was also nervous. I had never been with anyone before. At least, not in this life.

  A kiss. Maybe just a kiss.

  No, stop, Mercy. You aren’t thinking straight.

  I looked back at Dorian, and his grin made me weak in the knees. If I didn’t leave, we were going to do something I would most likely regret in the morning.

  He inched closer to me, and without thinking, I stepped in his direction, closing the gap between us. I gulped. “Dorian—”

  His lips touched mine. The kiss was passionate, intimate, but also seductive.

  I won’t be able to stop. I can’t.

  I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled deeper into our kiss. Our tongues swirled around each other, and my body deceived me. I wanted him. I wanted him so badly.

  He lifted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He carried me to the bedroom and closed the door behind us. “Wait!” I gasped. “I’ve never . . . Dorian, I haven’t been with anyone like this.”

  His eyes widened. “You and Riley?”

  I shook my head and he paused, closing his mouth in a straight line but not pulling away. He brushed the side of my hair and tucked it behind my ears.

  “I don’t know if I’m ready, especially since this is a completely different life from before. I know we were intimate in my past life, but this body, this version of me, is afraid that if we go there . . . Dorian, I’m not sure about my feelings. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  He turned from me, wearing a side smirk, and pulled his shirt off. Then, he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of grey sweatpants. “How about we snuggle?”

  I giggled and felt my cheeks flush. “That sounds nice.”

  My eyes wouldn’t leave his body. Seeing him without his shirt on took my breath away. His gorgeous, perfect physique was the first to catch my attention. He handed me a long shirt to wear, and in his other hand were the sweatpants for him. The look he gave me melted my heart and crushed it at the same time. He cared so much for me that he wouldn’t push for us to do something I wasn’t ready for.

  I put on the shirt he handed me and crawled into bed with him. He wore only his boxers and grey sweatpants, and he inched closer to my back and wrapped his arms around me, spooning me closer to him. I shivered at first because his body felt ice cold, but the more we laid there, the warmer our touch became.

  “Can you even fall asleep, being that you’re a vampire?”

  He squeezed me tightly against his chest. “We don’t need sleep, but if we choose to fall asleep, we can. I want to sleep next to you tonight.”

  My cheeks flushed again. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, Mercy,” he whispered into my neck, nuzzling his mouth in my hair and kissing the top of my head.

  Mercy

  I slipped my clothes back on and crept down the stairs, hoping I didn’t wake Dorian or even Noah, who had crashed on the couch before we had gone upstairs.

  It was two in the morning, and I honestly didn’t think I’d fall asleep. I was going to let him hold me, which was nice, but I had to get out of there before morning. I didn’t want to talk about the kiss. I wasn’t ready to face what all this meant.

  “Don’t hurt him,” Noah said from behind me as I neared the front door. I crunched my face and turned around to face him.

  “That’s what I’m good at, Noah. Haven’t you heard?”

  “Not funny, Mercy. He loves you.”

  I rubbed my eyes and walked up to him, realizing I couldn’t walk out the door. Not with Noah. “Okay. But we didn’t sleep together. We just . . . cuddled.”

  “Cuddled?” His eyebrows arched. “That can be just as intimate.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It didn’t mean anything.”

  He huffed. “That’s the problem, though, isn’t it?”

  I didn’t respond to that.

  “Do you love him again?” he asked.

  “No,” I admitted too quickly. “I mean, I love him in a different way. It’s strange. There is a part of me that feels for Dorian and Caleb. I care about them both, and I would be devastated if something bad happened to them, but I’m not in love with them.”

  “Did the two of you kiss last night?”

  I plopped down on the couch in the living room and set my purse next to me. “A couple times, yes,” I admitted.

  He held up his hand. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “Did that ridiculous spell you cast prevent you from falling in love again, or did it just take away what you used to have?”

  His question caught me off guard. I had to think abou
t it for a minute. I didn’t know. Did it mean that I could fall back in love with them?

  I shrugged.

  He leaned back against the couch and grinned. “Don’t overthink it.”

  I wasn’t overthinking anything, and this conversation was going to frustrate me if I didn’t get out of this house. I didn’t owe Noah an explanation, especially since I wasn’t sure what it all meant myself.

  I grabbed my purse and left the house without saying goodbye to Dorian or talking any further with Noah about what last night meant or could mean. I was ready to get back to my coven.

  I didn’t get far before I heard Dorian’s voice behind me. “Where are you going?”

  I sighed deeply and turned around. “I need to get back to my coven.”

  He shook his head. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Please don’t do this right now.” I held up my hands. “Please, Dorian.”

  He stopped. He didn’t look mad, just hurt. “All right.” He relaxed his shoulders and nodded toward his car. “How about I drive you home?”

  “I have my car here, Dorian. That’s ridiculous.”

  “I don’t want you to leave like this. It’s late, and I just want to make sure you get back to your coven safely.”

  Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. I was hurting him. What the hell was wrong with me? He didn’t deserve this. He deserved so much better than this.

  So much better than me.

  “Fine, but what about my car?”

  “I’ll send Noah to return it in the morning, then he can just fly back as an eagle or something,”

  I burst into laughter, and he joined me. He wasn’t trying to be funny, but just thinking about Noah getting naked to drive my car so he could transform into a bird and fly back home was comical.

  We jumped in Dorian’s car, and after a few minutes on the road with neither of us speaking, I broke the silence that hung between us. “Okay. I feel something. I don’t know what, but I feel something. I think that, though I don’t have romantic feelings like I used to, I am attracted to you. Can we start there?”

  A huge grin pulled at his lips, then they immediately faded to a straight line. “Mercy, look.”

  I looked straight ahead and saw someone laying in the middle of the road. “Dorian, stop the car.”

  Dorian slowed down to a stop just in time to see a redheaded woman lying flat on her stomach. Dorian grabbed my arm when I tried to exit. “Don’t get out.”

  He locked the doors as a fist broke the window next to me. Someone grabbed me firmly by the arm and yanked me out. I tried to plant my feet on the ground and use my powers, but the stranger grabbed my head and pressed against my temples. I couldn’t see who it was. It was dark, there were no street lights, and their hold kept my head steady. I heard Dorian’s voice scream for me in the distance, but all I could focus on was the pain. The pain was so severe that I couldn’t move or think straight.

  Then I saw . . . darkness.

  “Oh, thank God. You’re awake,” I heard a man say before he knelt next to the couch where I lay motionless. I flinched.

  He had a handsome, kind face, but I didn’t recognize him. His skin was smooth, pale, and his eyes were brown. He grabbed my hand and kissed it gently. “I thought I had lost you.”

  I yanked my hand back and looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “What happened? Who are you?”

  His brows furrowed. “You don’t remember? We were attacked tonight.”

  I didn’t remember anything. I was confused about where I was, but most importantly, who I was. I looked down at my hands, examining my skin, then at my shirt. I knew what things were, but not how or why they were.

  “Do you know who you are?” he asked me.

  I shook my head.

  “Your name is Mercy, and we were attacked an hour ago in the middle of the road. It was an ambush. I tried everything I could, but I couldn’t get to you.

  “We saw someone lying in the street, and the next instant, someone’s fist broke the window of my car and pulled you out. Another person grabbed me, and it was like I had no control over my actions. I couldn’t save you. They were holding your head firmly, and when another car came around the corner, they let you go and took off. Whatever they did caused you to pass out.”

  “What did they do to me?”

  “From the looks of it, they took your memories,” he explained.

  My head pounded. “How could someone do that?”

  “They must have been a witch.”

  “A witch?”

  The moment that word left my lips, short clips of what I assumed were my life passed through my mind. I saw myself using my hands to levitate leaves that surrounded me as I stood in the middle of a grove of trees.

  I felt this man’s hand on my arm, and his touch pulled me out of my vision.

  His eyes went wide. “You really don’t know who you are?” the beautiful man asked.

  I looked at him, trying hard to remember more of what I had just seen in that vision, but I still didn’t know who he was. “Who are you?”

  He hesitantly grabbed my hand and smiled. “I’m your boyfriend,” he said. “My name is Maurice.”

  Mercy

  I blinked rapidly. “Boyfriend?” I searched my thoughts and tried to remember him. I tried to remember anything. I knew what a boyfriend was, and the concept of a relationship, but people, feelings, and memories were gone. I had a vague flash of being in my home with my mom, who I thought had brown hair. Or was her hair ashy blonde?

  I looked around the room. “What is this place?”

  He smiled. “It’s our home. Does anything here look familiar?”

  I looked around the room again, then back at Maurice. The home didn’t trigger any memories, but when I looked back at him, I saw a flash of the two of us holding each other on the beach at night, looking out at the ocean. His eyes alone were now familiar.

  “I remember something,” I said. A smile reached my face. “We were on a beach together at night. I felt your arms around me and the heat of your breath on my neck.”

  He smiled back. “This is good. This means whatever they did to you, you’re strong enough to fight it. Come here.” He grabbed my hand to pull me up, but my body tensed the moment he touched my skin. His touch was ice cold. I wasn’t sure if it was the coolness that made my body freeze or the fact that this was new and scary to me.

  “It’s okay. We love each other. I’m not going to hurt you.” He leaned into my space and planted his lips on mine. I froze again but let him kiss me.

  More memories came to me of the two of us meeting through a familiar face at a bar. I saw the two of us laughing and holding each other close. I felt safe with him in those memories. He cared for me.

  He removed his lips from mine. His touch was soft and gentle. It felt nice. A little cold, but nice. He smiled and squeezed my hand. “I’ll go get you some water.”

  I smiled back, but as soon as he walked away, I scanned the room again to see if anything in the home would trigger a memory. I eyed the bookshelf in the corner of the room and looked at the picture frames lining the shelf. I was in them, and so was he. We looked happy together. It was so bizarre to see myself in memories I couldn’t remember.

  “That was our trip to Italy last summer,” Maurice explained. His voice echoed behind me and he joined me at the bookshelf. He handed me the glass of water, and I thanked him. “You had never been outside the country, but you always dreamed of visiting Venice.”

  He placed his hand on my left hip, pulling me slowly toward him. “We can go there again, just you and me.” He tightened his grip, leaning toward my cheek and kissing it softly, gliding his lips across my skin. Goosebumps covered my body, and as amazing as it felt, I pulled away.

  “I’m sorry, I just . . .”

  “No, I’m the one that’s sorry. You don’t completely remember me, so you must be freaked out right now. We can take it slowly. I’m sure the memories will come back.”

  And w
ith that, one did.

  I looked back at one of the pictures. “A stranger took this right outside of a shop where you bought me a mask.” I paused as the memory became clearer. “The shop was called Ca’ Macana.”

  The name slipped off my tongue. Hopefulness bloomed inside me, and I could hardly contain my happiness. The more I remembered, the more I felt comfortable in this home and near Maurice.

  My excitement brought a smile to Maurice’s lips. I wished so badly I could remember everything.

  I looked around the room again and saw a pentagram plaque against the wall by the console table near a hallway. “I saw a vision when you first talked about what had happened to me,” I said. “I saw myself use magic. I can feel it radiate inside me, but I don’t know how to use it?” I lifted my hands, examining my fingertips. “I’m not afraid, just confused. Things are starting to make sense, but it’s still like a puzzle with missing pieces.”

  He walked up to me and grabbed my hand. “I can help you. You just have to focus on this green energy you can ignite from your hands. Focus on it reaching your fingertips,” he said. I looked down and did as he instructed. I thought about this green energy reaching my fingers, but nothing happened. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “Focus, Mercy!” This time, his voice was harsh and authoritative. It scared me. “I’m sorry,” he said in a softer tone as he grabbed my hand. “I’m overwhelming you. We can try this another day.”

  I frowned. “You look upset with me.”

  He took my fingers in his, intertwining them, and brought me closer to him. “I’m not.”

  He held me in place as he pressed his hands to my cheek, caressing my skin from my cheek bone down to my lips. Then, he let his finger slide down beneath my chin and lifted it. His lips touched mine again. The kiss was deeper this time, more sensual. My body ached for this kiss as if he were someone I had cared for, for years.