Hermione dipped her head low, balling her hands into fists. “Please…” she pleaded as hot tears fell from her eyes. “She’s already in so much danger.”
“I’m sorry,” William repeated, leaning back in his seat. “I suggest you leave.”
Hermione knew better than to go up against William Cavanaugh, and even though by that point she was crying for Irena’s safety, she got up and left the room.
The sound of bells was what pulled Mandy out of her dream a second time, and as she awakened, she saw that a tray of food had been pushed into her cell.
And standing on the other side of her prison was Melissa.
“You need to eat,” Melissa said. “It will do you good.”
Mandy was hesitant to retrieve the food, and when she did, she didn’t eat it right away. All it consisted of was some sort of cold, soggy sandwich. “Where am I?” she asked.
“Barcelona,” Melissa said with no hesitation. “I saved your life.”
Mandy narrowed her eyes at Melissa as she shoved the sandwich aside. “You did no such thing,” she growled as she moved towards the bars of her cell.
“Henri would have liked nothing more than to kill you along with the others during his Massacre,” said Melissa coldly. “I did save your life, and you are going to repay me.”
“How?”
“It occurred to me that Jason had successfully blocked Henri from communicating with you, but he wasn’t successful in reversing Henri’s spell that blocked your visions in the first place,” Melissa mused. “I, however, was able to do so. I believe you already know how I want you to repay me.”
That explains the dream I just had, thought Mandy, even though she was sure that wasn’t a dream of the future. “I have nothing to tell you.”
“You will soon enough,” said Melissa, but instead of waiting for a response from Mandy, she turned and left.
When Melissa was finally gone, Mandy started to nibble on the sandwich, shuddering at how mushy it was. Gulping it down, she resisted the urge to immediately throw up. After all, she was rather famished—and she didn’t know when she would get more food.
Down in the cell, the atmosphere was eerily quiet, and Mandy had to find ways of passing the time by. Since she had no access to a window or a clock, she had lost all concept of time to the point where she couldn’t tell if it was day or night. In what felt like hours, she heard footsteps again—this time, two sets—and she slowly made her way to the bars. Expecting to get more food, she was saddened to see that one of her visitors, Melissa, had none. The other visitor, a man Mandy didn’t recognize, stood next to Melissa.
“Have you experienced a vision yet?” Melissa questioned.
Mandy shook her head. “I haven’t fallen asleep since you were here last.”
“That’s a shame,” noted Melissa as she motioned the man forward. “Anyway, there’s someone I’d like you to be acquainted with.”
Mandy waited for Melissa to formally introduce him to her, but she left as quickly as she came.
And the man continuously stared at her.
Mandy studied him briefly, taking note especially of his pale complexion. He was human, for his eyes were blue, not yellow. Yet, there was something about him that made her feel a little off.
“Melissa tells me you know my daughter,” said the man.
“Your…daughter?” Mandy questioned.
The man smiled slightly. “Yes. My daughter, whom I haven’t seen in years. Tell me, how is she?”
Mandy only stared confusingly at him—and his smile vanished.
“It appears as though you don’t know who I am,” said the man. “My name is Cody, and Melissa tells me you know Andre.”
At last, it finally clicked. Back when Ava had visited her group, she briefly remembered a time when the conversation was kept between Ava and the two magic users in which nothing had been written down for Mandy to understand the spirit’s half of the conversation. Yet, she remembered Holly mention that Andre’s father chose to live in Barcelona. She also mentioned the majority of the Spies lived in Spain—and Mandy finally made the connection. Cody Robinson was a Spy, but Mandy still remained clueless as to what a Spy was.
“What’s a Spy?” Mandy questioned, her voice barely above a whisper.
Cody smiled again. “So, she did mention me.”
“Indirectly,” stated Mandy.
Cody leaned closer to the bars. “The Spies hunt magic users,” he said.
“Then, Melissa and her group are exactly what you hunt,” Mandy said coldly.
“Melissa also promised me my daughter if I help her with her task,” Cody explained. “I’ve been trying to locate my daughter ever since she ran away. For years, I’ve been unsuccessful…except for now.”
Mandy backed away from the bars in shock.
“You see, you are being held in my prison,” continued Cody. “Melissa mentioned you could help me find my daughter.”
“No,” Mandy said.
Surprisingly, Cody didn’t press the matter further. “Melissa said she was going to take you and the others soon to Munich to prepare for the Massacre. Unfortunately, I have to stay behind, but I can guarantee you that when you return, you will tell me exactly what I want to know.” Then, he left the room.
And Mandy, who normally didn’t shed tears easily, began to cry.
~~~
Rosalie: Greenwich, England
Back in the Greenwich castle, Rosalie paced inside Henri’s chambers, finding herself thinking about the possible current date and time. She felt like she had been living there for months, and she guessed it was early February. Ever since Henri had forced her to torture both of Holly’s parents before he killed them, she was completely alone most of the time—and she started to lose it.
While she was on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried in her arms, Henri chose to visit her—and the sound of his voice startled her.
“Rosalie,” he commanded, seeming to ignore her tear-soaked face, “the time has come for me to take you to Munich…and for you to prepare for your transformation.”
Rosalie stood up and approached Henri. “You don’t even have all of the ingredients,” she spat. “I don’t want to become immortal. If you let me go, I won’t say anything about this.”
But Henri had other ideas. With no hesitation, he crossed the room in easy strides with his eyes still on her—and she flew backwards, landing supine on the ground.
Henri loomed over her, offering her his hand.
Refusing to take it, Rosalie attempted to scramble away from him, but he grabbed her shoulders and pinned her arms behind her back.
No matter how much she struggled underneath him as he positioned himself on top of her, she couldn’t free herself, for he overpowered her by a significant amount.
“You don’t have a choice,” he said. Then, he yanked her off the ground and pulled her with him into the empty void that was the product of his teleportation spell.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
Henri: Munich, Germany
O
nly five days remained until the Massacre was scheduled to take place. Five excruciatingly long days that were spent in preparation. When he ended up in a hotel in Downtown Munich, Henri spent no time wasting what he had to throw together an army of immortal magic users that would be enough to infiltrate the ICW facility and overpower the mortals.
After securing a suite on the fourth floor and locking Rosalie into the only bedroom of that room to ensure there were no possible escape routes for her, he prepared to reach his mind out to the other immortal groups, starting with the Dark Rulers, the Dark Guard, and the Night Cult. Then, he branched out to the other groups and the immortal nomads as well.
Rosalie continued to bang on the door and scream, demanding to be let out. With the excessive noise she was creating, Henri knew it was only a matter of time before someone noticed and reported this disturbance—so, he muted all sound that came from that room
. Then, he left the hotel room and made his way to the front, where he would greet his newly formed army.
As expected, the rest of the Dark Rulers and the Dark Guard were the first to arrive, followed by the Night Cult. Then, the other groups began to appear—groups Henri barely had any contact with previously but were still loyal to him. Lastly, a handful of nomads arrived, and Henri surveyed the numbers that were before him.
Yet, he noticed there were four absences. Kat was one of them, but he quickly passed her absence off as her having something important to take care of at the ICW.
“Where’s Melissa, Victoria, and Rhiannon?” he asked the group that was in front of him.
Someone began to speak, and it was Cameron who chose to give an answer. “Melissa’s gone,” he said matter-of-factly. “She’s been gone.”
“And so is Rhiannon,” said Elyse. “But she’ll return in time for Rosalie’s transformation.”
“What about Victoria?” questioned Henri, but their silence told him that she was missing too. “Where could they be?”
No one said anything in response.
“Remind me to have a talk with them when they return,” said Henri in a surprisingly calm tone. “Especially Melissa, since she asked me to do this favor for her.”
The immortals who stood before him nodded.
“Now,” Henri began, “I have summoned you all here to inform you of some very important information. I’m sure by now you have heard about Roseway and how Jason had recently stolen it from me after I had worked hard to run it for many decades. His act cannot and will not be without consequence. He’s waged war against us, and for that, we must act accordingly.”
The crowd was restless as murmurs broke out.
“Ultimately, he decided to meddle in human affairs by hosting a human competition: the ICW,” Henri continued. “In five days, we are going to storm the ICW facility in an event that I appropriately called the Massacre, where we will outnumber the mortals and leave no survivors.”
“Do you even know where the facility is?” questioned Cameron.
“Yes, I do,” said Henri. “The facility is actually not far from this hotel. You all are permitted to stay here until the Massacre is over. Use your time here wisely to prepare.” Then, he turned his back on them and walked back into the hotel. When he finally returned to the hotel room, he knew Rosalie was still banging on the door and trying to get out. Yet, someone else appeared in his hotel room: Rebecca.
“I heard you finally announced the Massacre to them,” she said. “They all seem on board with it.”
Henri sighed, frustrated. “When are you going to get the blood, Rebecca? Rosalie’s transformation is supposed to take place during the Massacre.” Because he knew he would be busy with other tasks, he put Rebecca in charge of obtaining the blood.
He should’ve known better than to rely on Rebecca for anything.
“I told you,” said Rebecca. “I was going to get it during the beginning stage of the Massacre. I have a plan, Henri, and Elyse and Rhiannon both agreed to help me.”
Henri didn’t say anything for several seconds. “I will be intrigued to see if this plan of yours works.”
“It will. I’ve filled hundreds of jars with blood,” said Rebecca. “Getting a little bit to put into a potion will not be difficult.”
At that moment, Henri watched Rebecca disappear, and he was left to wait the five days with Rosalie.
~~~
Melissa: Munich, Germany
Melissa, Kat, Rhiannon, Victoria, and Mandy arrived at the hotel right when Henri was finishing his speech. Quickly, they ducked out of his view with a hand clasped over Mandy’s mouth and waited for him to finish.
“Shit,” Melissa said. “I didn’t think Henri’s army would be waiting out the five days here.”
“That’s not a problem for us,” Kat said. “There’s another hotel that’s not too far from here.”
And that’s exactly where they went, quickly ducking into the building and securing a suite on the top floor.
Melissa was the first to enter the hotel suite, and she immediately made herself comfortable on the living room couch. Mandy was pushed into the one bedroom they had before the door was locked from the outside.
When Mandy was fully incarcerated, Victoria turned to Melissa and said, “What are we going to do with her when we leave for the Massacre in five days?”
“We bring her with us,” said Melissa. “You know, show Henri we got her. Make him surrender to us.”
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to work,” said Rhiannon. “Henri pretty much declared that she was of no use to him, and he stated he wasn’t going to leave anyone alive in the facility. That includes her, since he still thinks she’s there.”
“Then, I don’t know,” admitted Melissa. “We’ll bring her with us, anyway. It will do us no good to leave her alone in a hotel room where someone can easily find her.”
The others didn’t question her further. For the rest of the night, they left her alone, and she spent most of that night thinking about how she was going to succeed in this rebellion. She knew in order for the rebellion to be successful, she needed Andre to remain alive while also killing Henri. If Andre were to somehow die at the hands of someone who was not Cody, she knew Cody wouldn’t stop until he hunted down every single member of the Rebel Coven. That’s what I get for striking a deal with a Spy.
Before she left, Melissa had borrowed tools from Cody that would help her take down Henri. All of what she took used emerald to a certain degree, and she deemed all she needed Cody’s supplies for was to weaken Henri before she killed him with her own magic.
During that night, Mandy had made no sound, which shocked Melissa, who suspected the Foreseer would do anything in order to escape. She must have fallen asleep, she suspected.
Soon, morning came—and only four days remained before the Massacre was scheduled to take place.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
Holly: Munich, Germany
F
or days, the chaperones worked with the male members of the Royal Guard to try and locate Mandy—and each location that was searched came up empty. Hearing about the unsuccessful searches made Holly sink deeper and deeper into depression at the thought of having permanently lost Mandy to the immortal magic users.
She hated thinking like that, thinking about the Massacre and the possibility that she could die tomorrow as well as anyone else who remained in the facility. She hated the fact that Henri had already caused so much pain and death in her life, and if she was going to die, she didn’t want her death to be caused by him.
She was alone in the Eternal Division room; her face was red from crying. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to die like she was supposed to. At least that way, she would be free from the torture of Henri Anderson. She would be free from her own version of Hell.
Since she was alone, she ducked into the bathroom. On the sink rested one unused razor, and she didn’t hesitate to pick it up. Then, she went back into the bedroom, running her fingers along the blade and pricking them. As blood oozed out of her cuts, she began to cry some more. Not only were both of her parents dead, but there was a possibility that Mandy was dead as well—and Holly couldn’t take it anymore. She felt truly alone to face whatever else Henri chose to throw at her.
With no hesitation, she dug the blade into her left arm first, creating a deep and painful cut. She didn’t wait for the blood to surface before she made another one and then another one. Before she knew it, both of her arms were covered with deep, bleeding cuts—and she began to feel dizzy from the blood loss.
Instantly, she crawled into her bed and pulled the covers over her. It didn’t take her long before she fell unconscious.
~~~
Rebekah: Munich, Germany
In the ICW headquarters of the Speirs family, a meeting was being held. Those that chose to attend, which included the Speirs family, the remaining chaperones, and the mem
bers of the Royal Guard, all piled into the living room, where they could discuss their next tactic.
Rebekah was forced to attend such a meeting by Andre, who still felt the alarming need to protect her at all times. She didn’t complain, though, for she was curious to know how they planned on saving Mandy, and she made herself comfortable on the couch next to Andre, letting the magic users do most of the talking.
“I’m telling you, we searched all the usual places, including all of Spain,” said a warlock who was introduced to her as Aaron. “There was no sign of the rebels or the Foreseer.”
“She might not have been in one of those usual places, Aaron,” said Courtney. “They may have suspected we’re looking for her and therefore chose to hide her in a location we would never suspect.”
“And where do you propose we start looking?” Reilly inquired. “The Massacre is scheduled to take place tomorrow! We don’t have time to search every single place on Earth!”
Upon hearing this, Rebekah couldn’t help herself. The only place she could think of that matched the description of being the least suspected place was Munich itself. “Then, don’t,” she said, earning her surprised stares from all who were in the room.
“Rebekah,” Andre said calmly, “do you know something the rest of us don’t?”
“I’m just saying the least possible location we would suspect is Munich,” elaborated Rebekah. “It’s quite possible they never took her out of the city.”
“No,” said Reilly, instantly vetoing the idea. “Melissa wouldn’t be that smart.”
“But it’s worth a shot,” Jeffery said, defending Rebekah’s idea. “We’re in Munich, meaning searching this city will not take nearly as long.”
“It doesn’t amount to whether or not searching Munich will take less time,” Aspyn noted. “Right now, we have to worry about our security. We need to worry about the security of this facility so that it can withstand any attack Henri throws at it.”
Bleeding Misery (Threatening Souls Book 2) Page 37
