OLAMIDE
A fray of red swayed to the floor. My mother's threads. That was what they were. All my life, I had believed I was ordinary. I wanted to latch on to that fickle reality and it had only taken one sentence to shatter my entire world. The Silverlaws...Weren't those the same people I saw in Jason's memories? I plucked the thread from the ground and looked the witch straight in the eye.
"My mother..." I stammered. "Why is she behind me? Is she not safe?" I demanded with tears blinding me. "Don't tell me they are dead. Don't tell me her sacrifices were not worth it."
The door far from us opened and a young beautiful woman paced towards us. She did look elegant and she walked with an ethereal grace but the look in her eyes was menacing. She eyed me intently. Taking every inch of my existence. She was part of this. It was a wonder that such an innocent-looking being could be so evil. My heart sank admitting to that piece of truth. Her next words cemented my fears and made it clear that there was no escaping my fate. At least not with her in the mix.
"Start cutting them up, Yasmin."
My face tilted in the direction of the witch. There was an unmistakable hint of regret plaguing her face but it was not just that. It was coupled with motherly affection.
"Olamide, your mother is indeed dead. She probably didn't make it that night and cold as it might sound, you will be joining her today. That can at least be your closure." Her words were spoken gently but firmly. It reminded me that she was still a witch. A woman who wanted me dead. But they didn't make me feel dejected. For once in my life, I stopped fighting. I let the threads pave their own way for me. I had already tried to do it myself before. Then when all I feared was hell but now, things had changed. I feared nothing.
The witch took one last pitiful look at me before speaking to her accomplice. "I guess the time is upon us now Lilith. You can bring him out."
Lilith? Pain hammered in my brain as I forced myself to face the woman. This was Lilith. The famed vampire queen that Axel had spoken to me about. What did she want with me?
"Deji," She called out. "Come here."
The accent by which she called the name, the name itself, and the next individual that stepped into the room cemented my descent into insanity. What else were you supposed to do when the brother you believed was dead or was now a vampire walked up to you with dimpled cheeks.
"Yes, Wilhemina?" He answered, placing a kiss on Lilith's cheek. His eyes were oily black. My doubts stared me in the face like the finale of a series of unfortunate events. Except for the tragedies that befell me never seemed to end.
Let me help, the voice at the back of my head pleaded. It was probably Candice. All that selfish witch wanted to go do was save her own skin. I didn't mind relinquishing control. There was nothing I would have loved more than to fall into a trance and watch it all go to hell from a distance but I saw no use fighting for my frail existence. My mother was dead. My brother was dead. My father too. I was trapped in a world where power is life and loyalties swayed. There was nothing good coming from living. So I was ready to welcome death and the weight that followed suit. Something made me look at my brother for the second time. It must have been hope. But the way my brother stared down at me spoke in volumes. He didn't remember who I was. The gaze he sent my way was one of hunger. A monstrous one. Tears seeped from the corner of my eyes as I watched the loving, doting brother I was knew remain blissfully unaware of my existence. I wished it hurt. Heaven knows I wanted it to sting badly but I was comforted. He would never remember having a part in my death. He would be happy and I would have something I had forever longed for since his supposed death; peace. With a heavy heart, I shut out the pleading voice at the back of my head.
A chant echoed from all four corners of the room causing the room to strum. A peaceful hum emanated from the floorboards and as I opened my eyes to see what was transpiring, I noticed the bloody sigils on the floor began to transfigure. Yasmin the witch walked up to Satake who was now blanketed with a blue glow. Behind him were what looked like furry tails. All nine of them wiggled furiously. I watched as Yasmin raised a crystal-like sickle and whacked it to the floor. Thunder forked outside and windows around the house splintered. The almost incorporeal tails became material.
"What happens now?" Lilith demanded.
"I brew the tails, kill the relic, and harvest his heart to make a concoction. We feed the concoction to the girl and while she drinks, I devour her heart giving us the attribute of fate in nine folds." A smile lit up her face just saying those words. "We will be able to bring them back."
There was a deadpan expression on Lilith's face as she looked at me. "Say your final prayers, child."
Her words dealt Candice's hope a final crushing blow. I made it perfectly clear that whatever was coming, I accepted it with hysterical ecstasy.
***
JASON
If some seer had told me I would be roaming the street of Wentworth with my cum serving as a compass, I would have most probably gutted them but it was happening. I watched in disgust as two trails of my semen moved in sync. One crawled towards Crimson lane while the second one remained static. I thought a little about my predicament. The witches of primrose had done their digging. They had made their way to Yasmin's house where they had found her daughter, Ginger under the same sleep spell she had put my people in. Ginger had revealed most of her mother's plan. Apparently, Olamide had the ability to alter fate and Sofiane was truly a relic as David had revealed. My entire world was crumbling piece by piece. The larger chunk of it being because of the eye of Cassandra's prophesy. Was I going to lose myself if we were good late? Was losing my mate and my close friend going to be the trigger? Lightning flicked in front of us causing Sofiane to swerve roughly to the left. The car ran off the clear path just to slam into a tree. More lightning forked around us causing me to believe that the witch had put up a defensive spell against intruders.
"Where does it end?" I asked David, shoving the passenger seat open. I refused to play it safe. It would take more than hot lights from the heavens to put me out.
"Wait," David pleaded. He trailed a finger over the map, deftly avoiding touching my semen. He tapped on the aged paper twice before speaking. "Lilith's mansion." He informed. "But we cannot go there without a plan. It's suicide. The whole place is riddled with vampires and most probably magical bobby traps. It will take more than audacity and limited offensive power to pull this off."
"They already know we are here." I scoffed. "You do see the lightning. Don't you?"
David looked at the roaring skies. His eyes remained glued to the whirlwind of dark clouds, thunderclaps, and forks of lightning. "This isn't from the witch. It is Satake and this kind of response from his foxfire only proves my point. The last thing we want is to endanger both their lives and us."
I frowned. He was right and I hated that he was. It hurt my shallow pride even more that he knew things about Sofiane that I didn't know. I couldn't even sense my mate's dilemma but there was Sofiane, his claws protruding from under his fingers and pressed into the soft leather of the driver's wheel. A natural response to your mate being in mortal harm. I could smell the mix of hostility and anxiety that pumped through him like the blood in his veins but I felt nothing. Just emptiness. A vast desolate hole of darkness. It was like a rejection waiting to happen and the thought of it made my wolf erratic. I found it difficult to think straight.
"What is the plan?" I asked.
"Well... A linking spell should be succinct. I can make it so that the only way we die should the situation arise is only when three of us are killed at the same time. However, there is a shortcoming to the spell."
"Spill!" I probed.
"Any damage to the heart or brain of any of us means death for all of us."
"Now that is a risk I am not going to take." I retorted, stepping out of the car. I tossed a stake to both Sofiane and David. "You both can do your spell as a duo but I am going alone."
Sofiane clenched on the stake and threw. The wooden projectile fired past me, missing my face by just an inch. A cry broke out from behind me and I turned to look. A vampire stood just seconds away from me with his fangs exposed. Cracks of orange scattered across his body causing him to explode. In place of the flesh and blood, ash and dust remained. The stake that had once been in his heart clinked on the ground causing me to veer around to face Sofiane. He looked very smug about the whole thing.
"You could have died Jason." Sofiane admonished. "You are an Alpha. You of all people should know a werewolf needs his pack to survive."
"Fine then," I gave in. "Do the damn spell!"