Bleeding Misery (Threatening Souls Book 2)

by N. M. Lambert

  Ava turned to her. “She’s been talking to Melissa a lot,” she explained. “I think she may have turned on Henri as well.”

  “The rebellion’s been confirmed, then,” Rebekah said mainly to herself. “How are we expected to defend ourselves from two opposing sides?”

  “Rebellion?” Mandy questioned.

  “Melissa is planning a rebellion against Henri so she can become the new immortal ruler,” Andre started to explain.

  “But that’s insane!” Mandy commented.

  “Not to her,” Ava said while writing. “She’s very power-driven.”

  “And she’s probably an even bigger threat right now than Henri is,” Andre concluded.

  “But why?” Mandy questioned.

  “Because if she becomes the immortal ruler, she will combine the human world with the magic one.”

  To the two magic users, Ava said, “Now, Melissa is planning to begin her rebellion during the Massacre. Between her side and Henri’s side, you will be horrendously outnumbered. She and her followers have already informally broken away from their previous groups in order to form the Rebel Coven—whose base is located in Barcelona, Spain.”

  “Barcelona?” Holly reiterated, glancing at Andre.

  “Why the hell would they choose to make their base located in Barcelona?” demanded Andre.

  Ava shrugged. “Is there something bad about Barcelona?”

  “Spain in general is not safe for any of the magic users because the majority of the Spies live there, running their prisons,” Holly explained, “and Barcelona in particular is where Andre’s father chose to live.”

  “Your father is a Spy?” questioned Ava.

  Andre nodded slowly.

  Ava looked bewildered. “Then, you’re half-immortal!”

  “More or less,” Andre snarled, and Rebekah could sense there was still tension between the spirit and the witch.

  Ava flinched as if Andre had struck her. “There was no other way, Andre,” she began, and Rebekah had the distinct impression the two of them had had this conversation before.

  But Andre wasn’t having it. “You’re lucky Henri didn’t find out the truth about her.”

  Rebekah froze as she recalled her and Andre’s conversation on the way back from the forest. Andre claimed she was a diluted Foreseer, and now, Andre was about to make that fact known.

  Both Holly and Mandy looked dumbfounded, and Ava just looked confused. “What do you mean?” she said.

  But Andre’s focus was no longer on Ava. Instead, her eyes were trained on Holly. “You remember Paige?”

  “Of course! Reilly brought her to my house shortly after…” Holly’s face paled, and she violently shook her head. “No! She can’t be!”

  “Sense her aura if you don’t believe me,” Andre said.

  “What’s going on?” Mandy asked.

  But by that point, Holly’s eyes were already concentrating on Rebekah as she attempted to summon something, and within a moment, Holly’s eyes widened. “Holy shit!”

  “It seemed your tool, Ava, also happened to be a diluted Foreseer,” Andre explained.

  “That’s impossible,” Ava said adamantly at the same time Mandy said, “Rebekah’s a Foreseer?”

  “No, Rebekah’s an Innocent, but if she wasn’t, she would have been a Foreseer,” Holly said. “Andre and Reilly found this out when they discovered Paige is a carrier of the gene, and I—”

  “Wait, you knew?” Rebekah shouted. “And you didn’t tell me?”

  Holly held up her hands in surrender. “They told me not to! Not until they had more information!”

  Rebekah shook her head, bewildered. “So, let me get this straight. I spent months in Henri’s domain with this condition, and he could have found out anytime and used me!”

  “We didn’t know at the time, Rebekah,” Holly said, now close to tears. “We didn’t even suspect until—”

  But Rebekah held up a hand to silence Holly. “Your sister, Ava,” she said coldly. “Was she like this too?”

  “No,” Ava said. “Rebecca was just an Innocent.”

  “Then, why am I like this?”

  “Because the conditions for both have been met,” Andre said, “and because the Innocent characteristic is apparently stronger than the Foreseer characteristic.” Then, she paused as she eyed Holly, Mandy, and Ava. “This stays in this room. The only other two people who know about this are Reilly and Aaron.”

  “Why?” questioned Holly. “Rebekah needs protection!”

  “Right now, Rebekah is under my protection,” Andre said. “The less people that know about this, the less likely it will get back to Henri.”

  “But what if that’s not enough?”

  “It will have to be,” said Andre in a voice that oozed finality. “Because frankly, I don’t trust any of the members of the royal family.”

  Before Rebekah could question what Andre meant by that, the half-immortal witch stalked out of the room, and Ava disappeared in her familiar fashion of white smoke, leaving just herself, Holly, and Mandy.

  ~~~

  “How are we supposed to win if Henri’s going to outnumber us?” Rebekah asked the next day.

  Courtney and Andre stared at her as if she spoke a foreign language. Currently, the three of them were in the courtyard where no one was around. It was noon, and they had barely started the training session when Rebekah hit them with that question.

  “This isn’t about winning,” Courtney said matter-of-factly. “This is about survival and protection. The regular human participants are about to be exposed to the magic world for the first time on January twenty-fifth, and we need to make sure they remain calm and hidden. We’re trying to keep deaths to a minimum—as well as push Henri’s forces back. We’re fighting a defensive war.”

  “Okay,” said Rebekah. “How are we supposed to fight a successful defensive war if Henri’s going to outnumber us?”

  Courtney smiled a little. “That’s why we’re here, right? To make sure we can fight a successful defensive war.” Then, she said to the entire group, “Since we only have three weeks, which doesn’t give us a lot of time, I’m going to try something. If you succeed, we won’t have to do any more of this kind of training. For the time being, I’m immortal.”

  Rebekah felt confused by what kind of training Courtney was going to subject her and Andre to. Yet within a few seconds after Courtney had said that, Rebekah found she didn’t have much free time to think. Courtney flicked her eyes to Rebekah—who was instantly hoisted into the air and slammed into one of the walls. Glancing down, she realized how high she was—a distance that couldn’t kill her but could possibly knock the wind out of her—and she began to feel nauseous. Courtney held her in place, and for the time being, she was helpless.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Rebekah noticed Andre’s flabbergasted expression. Do something! she wanted to scream, but fear invaded her mind as her throat started to slowly close. In that moment, Courtney wasn’t the one who held her there. It was an immortal magic user.

  Then, she felt the spell deteriorate as Courtney flew into the wall like a ragdoll. Knowing that was Andre’s doing, she then fell to the floor—making sure she landed in a position where she wouldn’t break anything or get the wind knocked out of her. For a few seconds, she stared at the grass as she continued to cough and choke. When she looked up again as she struggled to focus her vision, Andre had Courtney physically pinned against the wall.

  “What did you hope to gain by this experiment?” Andre spat.

  Rebekah could tell Andre was furious, and yet, she had to admire how calm Courtney remained.

  “I think I’ve already made my intentions clear,” Courtney replied.

  In response, Andre slammed her back into the wall a second time—and Rebekah could hardly watch. To her, it was just like the incident with Dimitri all over again. This time, however, it involved Courtney. A mortal. Someone who was on their side and probably had good intentions for doing what she di
d.

  “You could have killed her!” came Andre’s booming voice. “You almost killed her!”

  “I knew what I was doing. I wouldn’t have let that happen nor would I have let significant harm come her way,” said Courtney as a smile crossed her lips. Before she could say anything else, her back was slammed into the wall a third time.

  “You started to choke her!” Andre stated plainly. “You let her get subjected to significant harm!”

  “And by doing so, I brought to the surface your desire to protect her,” Courtney said, causing Andre to loosen her grip. “You feel protective of her, don’t you? And anyone else who is a part of your cousin’s group.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  By this time, Andre let Courtney go. “My intention wasn’t to kill her or cause her harm. However, I knew that in order for you to attack me like you just did in an attempt to protect her, I needed to put her in some form of danger, so I picked a form that was easy for me to control.”

  Andre took a step back. “You wanted me to hurt you.”

  “I wanted you to do whatever you deemed was necessary to save her, and I am pleased to announce you passed.” Courtney then walked over to where Rebekah was and helped her off the ground. “Are you okay?”

  Rebekah nodded. “You’re not going to…do that again…are you?”

  Smiling, Courtney shook her head. “Do you have your knife? I suppose we should work on that next.”

  Reluctantly, Rebekah agreed, and for the rest of the training session, she worked with the knife.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY

  Melissa: Greenwich, England

  M

  elissa couldn’t help but stare out the window of the second-story room of the Greenwich castle that had been provided for her. Below her rested a thin layer of grass, and overhead were clouds that threatened to spill into the otherwise-blue sky. Squinting at the clouds, she noticed how dark, grey, and puffy they were—the characteristics of storm clouds. Even though they appeared to be rather far away, Melissa knew it was only a matter of time before the sun was concealed and the area surrounding the castle was consumed in darkness.

  Upon hearing someone enter her room, Melissa turned her back on the beauty of the scene that rested before her. At first, she expected it to be an intern. After all, interns did often go where they were not wanted—a characteristic about them that Melissa found rather annoying. Then, she remembered the use of interns was an outdated practice, and only one group still used them. The Night Cult. The group she used to be a part of.

  And their base was all the way in Seattle.

  Knowing the Dark Rulers and the Dark Guard preferred to keep the magic world and the human world separate, Melissa shrugged off the thought of an intern finding their way into her chambers. Why most of the immortals preferred to separate humans from magic was something Melissa was never able to understand—and she desired to change that.

  Instead, Kat stood before Melissa; her brown hair was neatly curled, and her yellow eyes glowed against the dark scenery of the interior of the castle.

  “Kat,” Melissa breathed, taking a step towards her. “What are you doing here? I mean, Henri gave you specific instructions to remain at the ICW.”

  “Henri doesn’t know I’m here, nor does he need to know.” Kat paused. “I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this rebellion, and while I was at the ICW, I realized I was technically serving two people. The first one, Jason, has always been on the opposing side, and the second one, Henri, is the one whom we’re betraying.”

  “So, you just…left?” questioned Melissa.

  “Look, we already have the information we need as well as a date when we’re going to carry out the rebellion,” Kat explained. “I don’t need to continue gaining Henri’s trust when there’s nothing else for me to know. If you’re willing, Melissa, we can leave this castle. Leave our groups officially and…start the Rebel Coven.”

  “Kat, you may not need his trust, but I still do,” said Melissa. “If I turn on him now, he may not go through with Rosalie’s transformation.”

  Kat scoffed at that. “You didn’t think we’d take Rosalie with us, did you?” she questioned. “Henri will transform her into an immortal witch regardless of whether or not we remain faithful to him.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Because this gives him an opportunity to show the mortals through demonstration what we’re capable of doing. That the immortals are capable of increasing their numbers at a much faster rate than the mortals,” Kat explained. “Even though that wasn’t your intention, you gave Henri a way to show the mortals it is more easy to replace our losses than it is for them to replace theirs.”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  Kat smiled slightly. “I know how his manipulative mind works after having worked with him for decades.”

  Melissa sighed. “Where’s Victoria and Rhiannon?”

  “They’re waiting downstairs for us. I’ve already talked to them before coming to you.”

  As Melissa began to follow Kat downstairs, she had one final question to ask: “How are we going to get Rosalie away from Henri after her transformation?”

  “When we start the rebellion, we hopefully won’t need to get Rosalie away from Henri,” said Kat. “However, if things don’t work out the way we planned, we can always take her by force.”

  Melissa nodded slowly, and she caught glimpses of Victoria and Rhiannon. Both of them met her gaze as she walked towards them, and without anyone noticing, they slipped out of the castle.

  As she inhaled deeply, Melissa caught the scent of rain. By that time, the clouds concealed the entire sky.

  “Cody’s waiting for us,” Kat announced.

  “Why?” inquired Melissa. “I thought we’ve already discussed the plan with him.”

  “We’re using his prison as a base,” Victoria explained as the four of them began the teleportation spell. Within seconds, they found themselves in front of the prison, and they didn’t hesitate to enter.

  “We’re planning on visiting the ICW facility soon,” Victoria explained as they wandered deeper into the prison. “During the last portion of the ICW—which I believe is their cheer portion—we’re going to make ourselves known.”

  “How?” questioned Melissa as they made their way down to the room where the cells were located. In the middle of the room was Cody Robinson.

  “That place isn’t as secure to outside presences as Jason may think,” Kat said. “Our target will consist of someone whom Henri used to have an interest in.”

  Mandy, Melissa quickly realized. “Our target is a Foreseer?”

  The other magic users nodded.

  “Why?” Melissa felt confused. Turning to Cody, she said, “I thought the target would have been Andre.”

  Victoria took a step forward. “We figured it would be better to go after someone who is human,” she explained. “That way, we can easily overpower her, and we can still get some use out of her.”

  “Okay,” Melissa reluctantly agreed. “The four of us are going to infiltrate the ICW facility and capture the Foreseer. But how are we going to go about doing that?”

  “I know the layout of the entire facility,” said Kat. “From the outside, I know where the ICW stadium is. We get in through those walls, grab the Foreseer, and quickly vanish. The ICW is broadcasted live on various television channels around the world. With something like that caught on camera, the merging of the two worlds—human and magic—will begin.”

  “You said the ICW facility still isn’t secure,” noted Melissa. “But hasn’t Jason tried to strengthen the security?”

  “Yes, he has. But he hasn’t done enough.”

  Melissa didn’t say anything else. She knew Kat, Victoria, and Rhiannon had put a lot of thought into this plan, but she felt left out. After all, she should be the one in charge, coming up with all the plans. This rebellion was her idea.

  But she decided to go along with it becaus
e she couldn’t think of something better. “Let this be the start of something new,” she said. “The day when we officially leave our separate groups and form one unified group. Let this day be the start of the Rebel Coven.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-ONE

  Andre: Munich, Germany

  O

  n her way to the cooking portion of the ICW, Andre’s mind was frazzled. She hadn’t meant to reveal what Rebekah was so soon after she had just found out, but Ava still infuriated her. She didn’t know a spirit, or anyone, could infuriate her as much as Ava did, but it was evident Ava still thought putting Holly and Rebekah in danger for her plan to succeed was right. And Andre found that thought inexcusable.

  Today, she decided to travel alone to the stadium despite Courtney beckoning her to join the other female members of the Royal Guard. Andre needed that time to think, and she thought long and hard about how much danger Rebekah was in. Protecting the Innocent-slash-diluted Foreseer wasn’t going to be an easy task, but she knew the main challenge would be trying to keep that knowledge away from Henri.

  By the time Andre arrived at the stadium, the other chaperones were already there, and she quickly started to help them set up for when the participants arrived. The cooking portion seemed to be more elaborate than the other previous portions, since it required more materials, and by the time they were done setting up, Andre was sweating bullets.

  Soon, the participants started to arrive. Harriet Michelle and Dominika Vasiliev were the first to arrive, followed by Misaki Kato, Valentina De Luca, Kerli Klavan, Trudy Krauthoefer, and Jade Vargas. Sabrina Adams also stumbled in with the herd, practically glowing with too much confidence.

  Soon, Jeffery entered the room and planted himself in front of the clique participants. Then, he began to explain the rules—they had thirty minutes to prepare something edible before their creations would be tasted and judged. Once again, the chaperones would be the judges, and Jason would award the points based off the average of the scores that he received from them.