The Chosen Coven Series Box Set

by D L Blade

  Lily. It was a beautiful name. A familiar name at that. Maybe I had a friend back home by that name.

  I must remember to ask Maurice about it.

  Just as I made myself at home on the beach, Julian cleared his throat behind me, “We’ll come back. It’s nice out here, isn’t it?”

  “It’s beautiful. Have you been to a beach before?”

  He laughed. “Yes, Mercy. There are several beaches on the east coast. My coven had a beach house up at Cape Cod at one point, too.”

  “Did I have a coven?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “No.”

  His answer was so abrupt, and he reached out his hand. I took it.

  “Why not?”

  He crinkled his nose. “Mercy, I have business to attend. Let’s go.”

  I didn’t press the issue. He obviously didn’t want to answer me and was upset about me even asking. It was a logical question.

  “Ouch, Mommy. It hurts,” the same little girl cried, and I stopped to look back at them. Her mother held on to her daughter’s foot. There was blood.

  Oh, no.

  Her mother ruffled through her purse and looked scattered while her little girl screamed and cried, holding her bloodied foot.

  I didn’t hesitate before rushing toward them.

  “Mercy, stop. It’s not our business,” Julian warned, but I ignored him.

  He caught up with me and grabbed my arm, but I yanked it away. “What are you doing? Don’t touch me!”

  If looks could kill—that was how angry he looked. His eyes blazed and his hands were in fists.

  I looked back at the mom and daughter, not caring about Julian, and approached them. “May I?” Tears rolled down the mom’s face.

  “She stepped on broken glass. There’s so much blood, and I can’t find my Band-Aids.”

  “It’s okay,” I said as I grabbed the girl’s foot. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have any Band-Aids, either, but I felt like I could help her.

  I placed my hand on her foot and focused on the power I had ignited in the middle of the night. It was easier this time. I didn’t have to think about it. My powers came through and wrapped around her little foot, and when I removed my hand, the laceration was gone.

  Wow. Okay, now I know what that power does.

  The little girl stopped crying, and when I looked at the mom, her jaw dropped, and she began to shake.

  “It’s okay,” I said, but she quickly grabbed her daughter. She didn’t even thank me. She was scared of me. She stood up to run with her daughter in her arms, but Julian intervened, placing his hands on both their heads, causing her to fall to her knees. They both kicked and struggled with him, but he held to them firmly until they relaxed and went into a trance-like state.

  I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Everyone was so preoccupied with their own lives, no one saw what had happened.

  “What are you doing to them? Let them go.”

  He did, but then bent down, grabbed the beach bucket of ocean water, and poured it over the blood on her foot, washing it clean.

  When he finished cleaning her foot, they opened their eyes and looked at both of us. “Who are you guys? What are you doing here?”

  “Miss, your daughter was screaming. We came to make sure everything was okay.”

  “We’re fine!” she snapped as she pulled her daughter close.

  “We’ll leave. Sorry to bother you,” I said as I got up and walked away, Julian right behind me. He caught up with me and gripped my arm.

  “Don’t ever use your magic like that in public. I don’t care if someone is dying. You don’t do it.”

  I stopped walking. “Shouldn’t you be happy I have magic back?”

  Julian’s jaw tensed. “We’ll talk about it back at the house.” He stomped off, and this time, I staggered behind.

  “So, your power is that you can take memories away?” I asked, then stopped again. My feet wouldn’t move anymore as the realization of what the hell just happened hit me.

  I backed up and he knew. He knew that I knew.

  “It was you,” I gasped, backing up another foot. “You did this to me.”

  I held up my hands when he tried to approach.

  He chuckled, holding up his own hands in defeat. “Fine. Yes. I did this to you. You’re still coming back to the house with me. I think I’ll cut my errands short today.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  When I turned to run, he was at my back and fisted my hair, pulling me under the pier so no one could see. He slammed me against the wooden post holding up the dock. I placed my hands on his chest and blasted him across the sand until he hit the water.

  Alright. My powers also do that.

  What the hell was I doing? I needed to run, but I just stood there.

  Run, you idiot!

  But I didn’t. He was still knocked out, and the water covered his face. He’d drown if I didn’t pull him out.

  “Dammit,” I cursed out loud.

  I’ll pull him up to the sand then run.

  I grabbed his legs and pulled him farther onto the sand. I wasn’t going to be responsible for someone’s death, even if they were a lying creep.

  Once he was safe from drowning, I turned toward the parking lot to run, but I felt his grip on my ankle and he yanked, pulling me down on my stomach. I lifted my hands, but he was already at my temples, chanting.

  Caleb

  It had been a week since Mercy disappeared. A week where we could still feel her, but we didn’t know where she was. I cursed the spell Joel had cast that made her undetectable.

  Melissa squeezed her arms around me, her head lying on my chest. I turned our show off, which we weren’t really watching to begin with. Melissa had fallen asleep an hour in, and my mind had drifted to wondering where Mercy could be.

  Anger brewed inside me, and I wished to God I’d soon get the opportunity to take Maurice’s life.

  I rubbed Melissa’s arm, kissed her on top of her head, and slowly wiggled out of her grasp. Her head laid gently on the pillow next to us and I pulled the blanket over her before heading toward the liquor cabinet. After I poured myself a glass of whiskey, Simon walked into the kitchen.

  As a coven, we had decided to stay together at all times, given the circumstances. At Abigail’s mansion, there was plenty of room and a security system in place if anyone were to breach the walls again. I just had to remember to set the alarm.

  “How about one for me, too, yeah?” Simon asked. I was happy to oblige. I poured him a glass, and we clinked our glasses together. “Cheers, brother.”

  “I’m going by Melissa’s tomorrow to pick up a few more of her things. I’m not okay with her being alone until we’ve taken care of the Cami situation and the killer,” I explained.

  “It’s been quiet,” he reminded me.

  “Not always a good thing.” I looked toward the stairs. “Everyone else asleep?”

  He nodded. “I just can’t shut my mind off. It’s crazy that you lay your head down and your dreams appear, and the first thing you see is her face. Like, she’s here, but not.”

  I placed my glass on the counter and folded my arms across my chest. “I know what you mean.”

  “What time does Roland want us downstairs for the meeting?” he asked.

  “Nine.”

  Simon looked up at the wall clock, and my eyes followed. It was three in the morning, “All right, we need to crash.”

  He held up the last remaining drips of whiskey, chugged it, and left upstairs before me. I grabbed Melissa from the couch, cradled her in my arms, and carried her to my room.

  I tapped my coffee mug impatiently with my index finger as we waited for Roland to speak. He took a call right as we finally sat down for the meeting, so now, we had to wait even longer. Ezra was the most impatient one in the coven, so he made sure to tap his foot as loudly as he could against the floor so Roland would hurry up the call and get on with it.

  “Are you su
re he wants me here?” Melissa asked.

  “You have helped us out more than most. You’re a part of this as long as you want to be.”

  My words didn’t ease her discomfort. I wanted the coven to know that she wasn’t going anywhere. We had talked last night about being exclusive. I wasn’t going to date anyone else, and we cared about each other, but given the fact that she was sitting in a room with a coven of powerful witches, she wouldn’t truly feel welcomed, as much as I tried to make her feel like she was part of our family.

  Roland finished his call and stood. “Sorry about that. We have a lot to discuss, so I’ll get on with it.” He glanced around the table, probably taking note that everyone was accounted for. “When the vampires learned what Mercy’s blood would really do, Maurice orchestrated a team to find another solution,” he explained.

  I huffed, and Ezra joined me. “There isn’t another solution. It’s impossible.”

  Roland shook his head. “That we know of.”

  “What are you saying? That Maurice found a way to do what he thought Mercy could do?” Leah asked, looking around the table.

  “When he was here, he built a business supplying blood to vampires for profit. He’s gained quite a client list, and according to Alexander, he was working on locating a coven of witches, who aren’t the easiest to find, to help him create a potion that, when given to a vampire, would block the UV rays from the sun and prevent them from burning to ash.”

  My jaw dropped, and when I looked around, everyone else at the table looked just as dumbfounded. “How is it that I’ve never heard of a spell that has the power to do that? And how do you even know this information?”

  “Marcus. He heard Maurice talking about it before Maurice left the clan. Marcus brought it up to me a few months ago, but until I had more information, I didn’t want the coven involved.”

  I slammed my hands down on the table, and Melissa jumped beside me. “Are you serious? This could be the very reason he took her.”

  Roland shook his head at me. “Mercy can protect herself. There are more vampires and witches involved in this than we know. This is the only way to find the witches who have turned to the dark side and take them down. I’m confident Mercy will be able to escape and help lead us to where they’re at. We need to know what they’re up to. Perhaps she can even take them down from the inside.”

  I was about to punch my own father in the face. I stood up, balling my hands into fists. “So, you allowed her to be bait?”

  “I’ve always done what was best for the coven. Sit. Down.”

  Fire ignited in my hands, and I held my palms up.

  “Caleb, oh, my God. He’s your father. What are you doing?” Melissa cried as she placed her hand on my arm, trying to calm me, but I only brushed her hand away.

  “You’re a traitor,” I threatened. “Twice now, you’ve put Mercy’s life in danger. We can no longer trust you!”

  Ezra stood and pulled his hands out, and a light brown glow radiated from his palms. The trees rattled outside the windows surrounding us. “Traitor,” he said.

  Simon stood, a bit slower than Ezra, and pulled his hands out as a white glow radiated from them. A gust of wind whipped through the windows and into the kitchen.

  Leah remained sitting. She looked up at us with fear in her eyes, but she was loyal and would always have the coven’s backs, so she, too, stood and looked at Roland. She pulled her hand to her side. A light glow hovered over her fingertips.

  Melissa pulled her hands over her mouth and gasped. She didn’t get up and run. She must have been too terrified to move.

  “You have betrayed this coven,” I told my father. “We could have protected her and found another way to find where Maurice was creating this potion and those who have betrayed our kind. You are a traitor and no longer my father. Get out of this house.”

  I couldn’t stop those words, even if I wanted to. I had to protect our coven, and he couldn’t be trusted. I ached at the thought of losing my dad, but we had no choice. It was up to us to get her back.

  Roland gripped his phone and stormed out. He didn’t even defend himself. When he reached the courtyard, he lifted his phone to his ear and spoke to someone on the other line and looked at me one last time before leaving the grounds.

  Everyone lowered their powers, and I turned to Melissa. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that was going to happen.” I inched toward her.

  She lifted her hands, putting her palms out in front of her to stop me from moving any closer. “I can’t do this,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. She grabbed her purse from the back of her chair and ran out the door.

  Mercy

  “What time is your meeting?” I asked Maurice, who was adjusting the buckle to his suit pants. “You look sexy, by the way.”

  He smiled and leaned forward, kissing me passionately on the lips. “God, you’re gorgeous.” We released our kiss and I felt my cheeks grow red.

  After he adjusted his tie, he grabbed his keys and wallet from the dresser and inched toward me again. “Two hours, but LA traffic is a nightmare, so I’m going to head out now.” He leaned in again, kissed my neck, and dragged his lips under my ear, trailing his tongue up to my earlobe and nibbling slightly. “I’ll miss you,” he whispered.

  I smiled back and bit my lower lip. “Not as much as I’ll miss you.”

  After he left, I hurried to take a shower, taking my time as the warm water hit my skin. This week had been exciting but also exhausting. Julian had given me a tour of the city, and I’d spent most days and nights hanging out by the beach, and each night when I stood under the moonlight, I was drawn to the light that shined down on the ocean. It was as if the moon was pulling me in but was just out of reach.

  Jade kept her distance from me. I wasn’t sure what her problem was. It was as if she hated me, but I couldn’t figure out why. She watched me sometimes from the other side of the room, and every time Maurice put his hands on me, she’d scrunch her nose and walk out of the room. Did she not want me to be happy, or were her feelings more personal when it came to Maurice? Had she loved him?

  After a day at the beach, I met up with Julian for a smoothie on Main, and he took a call once we sat down at the outdoor tables.

  “Yes, I have her,” he told the caller on the other end, then paused. “Are you sure?” He pulled the phone away from his ear and muffled the bottom of his phone. “Will you be okay if I take you to Santa Monica with me? You can see the city on the drive and sit in the lobby while I take care of some business with Maurice.”

  This sounded exciting. I mean, not sitting in a lobby, but since I had been here, I hadn’t been to any other city. Los Angeles was where Hollywood stars lived, and maybe they’d take me to go see the Hollywood sign.

  “I’d love to!” I said with excitement.

  “Okay, see you in about an hour or so,” he said to the caller on the other end.

  “Was that Maurice?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  That was all he said. There was no explanation, no telling me who it was. Just, “No.”

  We drove for over an hour, and I peered out the window, watching the cars zoom past us and cut each other off. We reached an industrial building near the Santa Monica pier. I entered, staggering behind him, and I eyed the receptionist smacking gum with a wide-open mouth, and she stood when we approached the counter.

  “Julian, darling. It’s nice to see you,” she said, leaning in to kiss him on each cheek. She had a beautiful accent but I wasn’t sure from where. She had short, blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles on her nose, and crooked teeth.

  When he pulled away from her, Julian signaled for me to follow, but I stopped in front of her and held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Mercy.”

  She looked down at my hand and back at my face. She didn’t shake my hand, didn’t smile, but simply turned and walked back to her desk. I turned to Julian and shrugged my shoulders.

  She was so rude.

  He held out his
hand. “Don’t worry about her. Come.”

  I followed him down the hall, which was framed with glass windows, and through the glass, I saw beautiful purple plants growing inside a greenhouse. The plants lined several racks. Whatever they were growing, they needed plenty of it. We entered a spacious room with tall ceilings. The room was massive, but it wasn’t the size that caught my attention, but the equipment inside.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “This is where we work. We’ve been developing Freedom Corporation for a year now, and we are about to launch our first product. We’re still working out a few kinks and last-minute ingredients, but once we do—” He stopped as we both looked up at a large steel tank in front of us. “It will change their kind forever.”

  “Vampires?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Vampires never had to seek out the ability to walk in the light because they depended on a witch to save them from that curse. But when they learned that was a lie, the vampire race joined forces with my coven to create a spell, a potion that, when given to a vampire, will enable them to walk in the light, forever. Not just a temporary solution like I’ve been able to provide.”

  I placed my hand on the cold steel of the tank and looked back at him. “How?”

  This baffled me. From what I’d learned this last week, vampires were never able to walk in the light. Could it really work? Could Maurice finally join me on the beach during the day? That would be a dream.

  “Dark magic. It’s the only way, because witches are forbidden to help vampires. You were one of the smart ones, Mercy. You wanted to help. You knew there was good in them, and that’s what made you fall in love with Maurice. You understood each other.”

  I blushed when he said, “fall in love.” I surely felt a strong connection to him. Did I love him?

  “We are just short a few ingredients, then we can start testing it on vampire subjects.”

  Test trials. But what if it didn’t work? Would they die? No, Maurice wouldn’t put his own kind in danger like that.