Bleeding Misery (Threatening Souls Book 2) Read online

  Much to her surprise, Andre shook her head. “That man wasn’t Henri,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean that man isn’t working for him.”

  CHAPTER

  SEVEN

  Rebekah: London, England

  “W

  hat the hell?” Jamie demanded as soon as the car crashed, jerking everyone forward.

  Rebekah froze, paying no attention to Jamie. Off in the distance, two figures began slowly moving towards them. As Rebekah squinted at them, she realized that one of them was the same man who had appeared in the middle of the road mere seconds ago. The other one, who had a more slender build, was a woman with shiny, blonde hair and a complexion that was almost the color of snow.

  “Shit,” she heard Andre mutter under her breath. Then, the half-immortal witch addressed the rest of the group as she said,” Get down. Don’t let them see you.”

  “You’re not seriously going out there,” Holly questioned, “are you?”

  In response, Andre opened the door slightly. “I’ll see what they want.”

  Holly leaned forward in her seat. “Do you honestly expect you’ll be able to reason with them?” she inquired before moving forward and whispering so that Jamie could not hear her. “Especially with Jamie right here?”

  Rebekah heard Holly’s concern, knowing that as long as Jamie was with them, the use of magic was out of the question.

  “That’s why you’re going to make sure she sees nothing,” said Andre as she made a move to exit the vehicle.

  “I’m going with you,” Holly declared as she undid her seatbelt.

  “No!” Andre said rather quickly. “Might I remind you that you are wanted among them?”

  “So are you!” Holly protested, but her effort was futile. Whenever Andre made up her mind, there was no talking her out of it. Instantly, Holly stopped undoing her seatbelt as she sunk lower into her seat.

  “Don’t let them see you,” Andre repeated as she exited the vehicle, slamming the car door behind her.

  Rebekah sunk into her seat as well, hoping the others would follow. Yet, she also made it so that she could clearly see what was going on outside.

  The two immortal magic users approached their vehicle, and Andre left its side in order to meet them halfway. Then, she started to hear them talk to each other, and she stilled her breathing in the hopes that she would be able to understand their muffled conversation.

  “I know who those people are,” Holly said suddenly after getting a better look at them. Leaning forward, she began to whisper to Rebekah, “Do you see the guy?”

  Rebekah nodded slowly, suddenly annoyed by the fact that she couldn’t understand what they were saying.

  “That’s Dimitri Andreivich,” Holly replied, “and the girl is Rhiannon Hansen. Henri must have sent them here or something.”

  “For what purpose?” Rebekah whispered back.

  Holly shrugged. “We are in London, near Greenwich where Henri’s castle is located, and I’m sure he knew we would be here for the ICW meeting.”

  “It just doesn’t make sense why he would send a couple of people for us now when he’s planning something later in Munich for the ICW,” noted Rebekah.

  At this, Holly shrugged. “You’re right. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Rebekah turned her attention back towards Andre and the two immortal magic users. Then, she watched as Dimitri accosted Andre, slamming her back against a nearby tree. This mortified her.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jamie said suddenly, forcing Rebekah to remember that she was also there. Rebekah knew Jamie didn’t know about the magic world and therefore was ignorant as to what was truly going on. “Are they here to rob us or something?” When no one had responded to her, she declared, “I’m going out there.”

  “No!” Holly snapped, but Jamie had already exited the vehicle before she could be stopped.

  ~~~

  Andre: London, England

  Warm, sticky blood began to trail down her back as Andre yelped, more shocked than anything else. The last thing she expected an immortal magic user to do was manually push her into a tree. If anything, she expected Dimitri to use a spell of some sort on her, which she would have been ready to block.

  “Just give us what we came for,” Dimitri taunted as he took a step towards her. “You wouldn’t want to risk exposing yourself in front of your human pet, would you?”

  And then, it hit Andre. Dimitri and Rhiannon were immortal magic users, which meant they could clearly see the regular-human aura that belonged to Jamie. They knew she was traveling with someone who was unfamiliar with the magic world, and that was why they didn’t use any magic.

  Before she could respond, she heard a car door slam shut. At first, she thought it was Holly, who chose to come to her aid after being slammed into a tree by Dimitri, but the person she saw was an even greater surprise.

  Jamie.

  The regular human had also caught the attention of Dimitri and Rhiannon, and Andre stepped away from the tree, feeling her back to see if her shirt had ripped. It had.

  “And there’s the person who’s the center of our admiration,” Rhiannon said jokingly.

  A look of confusion stretched across Jamie’s face. “Did you stop us in the middle of the road to rob us?” she inquired, and Andre tensed.

  “Rob you?” Rhiannon turned towards Andre. “Is that what you told her? That we were here to rob you?”

  Dimitri didn’t give Andre a chance to respond. Instead, he turned to Rhiannon and said, “How would you feel if we made this one our newest intern? Of course, we would have to discuss it with the others first.”

  “I think the others would agree to it,” said Rhiannon before turning towards Jamie. “What’s your name?”

  “J-Jamie,” Jamie stammered, “Simpson. What is this about a possible internship?”

  “If you will come with us, I will gladly explain everything about the internship,” Rhiannon sneered as she extended her hand towards Jamie, and it was evident that Jamie hadn’t picked up on Rhiannon’s sarcastic tone.

  Yet, Andre knew what an intern was in the magic world, and she knew what Rhiannon’s and Dimitri’s intentions were. “Don’t touch her,” she warned in a low growl.

  Rhiannon seemed startled by this, and she quickly drew her hand away. “Why not?” she said as a look of amusement crossed her face.

  Jamie looked angrily at Andre. “They stopped us so they could offer me an internship,” she argued, smug. Jamie’s evident naivety and arrogance were not lost on Andre.

  “Listen to her,” Rhiannon told Andre. “She wants this.”

  Andre wasn’t oblivious to Jamie’s ignorance. “She doesn’t understand what you’re offering,” she said as she took a step forward.

  Just then, Dimitri ran towards Andre and pinned her arms behind her back. “Take the human, Rhiannon,” he ordered.

  “About the internship—”

  “I’ll…have to think about it,” Jamie said. “I mean, I have a competition to go to first, and I don’t even know what it’s for…”

  “Who says you have a choice?” questioned Rhiannon as she reached out once again to take Jamie’s hand.

  As she watched the entire scene play out, Andre struggled against Dimitri’s grasp, knowing she couldn’t use her magic to free herself lest she risk exposing the magic world to Jamie. When Rhiannon finally offered Jamie her hand again, Andre found the strength she didn’t know she possessed and, with her back, slammed Dimitri into the same tree that he had wounded her on. As she felt his grip on her arms loosen, she spun around and descended on him.

  She couldn’t control herself. As she stared into his eyes, there was an instant where Dimitri’s face turned into the face of her father, and her mind was consumed with what he subjected her to.

  Suddenly, her mind became clouded with the image of her father as she envisioned him hitting her repeatedly. A voice in the back of her mind ordered her to calm down, but she couldn’t.

  T
he image of her father continued to manifest in Dimitri, and she couldn’t take it anymore. With one hand on his shoulder and another on his head, she began to slam his head into the tree trunk.

  Blood gushed out of his freshly-made wounds, and Andre knew the impact of the tree hitting his skull left him in a daze. He didn’t say anything as he tried to comprehend his surroundings, and the blood became matted in his hair.

  As his head continuously hit the tree, the wounds became larger and deeper as a massive bloodstain was left behind on the tree trunk. By this time, she could sense that Rhiannon was watching her, not paying any attention to Jamie.

  After a few moments, Dimitri was losing consciousness, and Andre could hear the cracking of his skull. As she continued to bash his head into the tree trunk, the manifestation of her father slowly faded away, leaving behind a dazed immortal warlock. With one final bash, his skull cracked open, and more blood cascaded down the side of his head.

  Andre stopped bashing his head into the tree trunk as she studied what she had just done. Moving her hands to his neck, she noticed how red they were from his blood. Right before the memory of her father faded away, she snapped his neck and let his body slump to the ground.

  She had killed him.

  By that time, the memories of her father were gone as she took a step back, horrified by what she had just done. Slowly, she spun around and met the mortified gazes of Rhiannon and Jamie.

  By that time, Rhiannon forgot that Jamie was even there as she said, “You killed him.”

  Andre didn’t say anything to Rhiannon, for she was still trying to comprehend what she just did. “Jamie, get in the car,” she ordered, her eyes still on Rhiannon.

  Jamie didn’t move.

  “Now!” Andre added in a more threatening tone, and Jamie quickly complied.

  Rhiannon lunged at Andre, who stepped out of her way, and she crashed into a tree. “You bitch!” she said as she spun around. “You killed him!” Then, she began to chant in Latin.

  Andre threw up a shield at the last second, and the spell bounced harmlessly off the barrier and struck Rhiannon, sending the immortal witch flying. With a sickening thud, Rhiannon landed on the hard ground just a few paces away, and her glowing, yellow eyes were the only sign of her barely-controlled anger.

  And then, she began to laugh hysterically.

  Still painfully aware of Jamie’s presence, Andre took a hesitant step towards Rhiannon. The immortal witch was still laughing, though Andre didn’t know why.

  “You all will burn,” Rhiannon spat between fits of laughter. And then, she disappeared through the familiar black smoke.

  ~~~

  Rebekah: London, England

  Rebekah felt like she was going to throw up. Mere inches from the wrecked car was Dimitri’s body, the side of his head a mangled mess of blood and flesh. A hint of bone peeked out underneath raw muscle, oddly shimmering as the sun reflected off its white surface. She grimaced.

  It wasn’t that Rebekah had never seen death before. In fact, she had, up front and personal when Holly had killed Trisha Anderson and again with Jamie’s cat, not to mention the dying bodies that surrounded her in Roseway. But there was something different about Andre’s kill, something less purposeful than what she had seen before, that made this particular death that much more unbearable. Andre always gave off a strange, violent vibe; perhaps the half-immortal witch was more unstable than Rebekah initially thought.

  Behind her, Jamie returned to her seat, her body quivering. She said nothing as her eyes were cast downward, which was unusual for Jamie, who usually always had something snarky to say. Rebekah turned in her seat and against her better judgement laid a hand on Jamie’s thigh. “You okay?”

  Jamie didn’t answer right away. “She…she…” Her body tensed as she struggled to form words. “They were going to…”

  “It’s okay. They’re gone now,” Rebekah said in what she hoped was a comforting tone. “They can’t hurt you anymore.”

  At once, Jamie’s head jerked upwards, and there was a certain fire in her eyes Rebekah wasn’t used to. “Hurt me?” Jamie snapped, shoving Rebekah’s hand off her thigh with purposeful rage. “They were going to help me!”

  Rebekah scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

  “Of course you common folks don’t understand,” Jamie snapped bitterly. As if someone flicked a switch, the old Jamie was back. “They obviously knew who I was because of my mom, and they were going to offer me an internship!”

  “Internship in what?” Rebekah questioned, skeptical.

  Before Jamie could answer, Holly spoke in a small voice. “That’s not what they meant.”

  Jamie whirled on Holly, and soon, the mortal witch was at the forefront of Jamie’s anger. “Of course that’s what they meant!” she protested. “What else could an intern mean?”

  Holly glanced upward. However, her eyes didn’t settle on Jamie. They landed on Rebekah. “An intern is another word for a slave.”

  The car soon descended into an uncomfortable silence, and Rebekah glanced at each one of her companions. There was Jamie, loudly shimmering in her own arrogance; Holly, whose quiet eyes pleaded for Rebekah to understand; Mandy, who has been oddly silent throughout the entire ride, which was rare for her; and Andre, whom Rebekah presumed was scoping the area for more immortal magic users.

  Jamie shook her head. “I’ve never heard someone refer to a slave as an intern before,” she said. “They’re two different things.”

  But Rebekah understood. An intern meant something completely different in the magic world. Those immortal magic users were going to hurt Jamie.

  Before Holly could say anything else, Andre returned to the car. “Gather your things,” she demanded with her usual hint of authority. “We’re walking the rest of the way.”

  “What?” Jamie squeaked, and Rebekah shot a glare her way.

  “You heard me,” Andre said. Her voice was cold.

  “I’m not walking in the dirt!” Jamie protested. “We don’t even know where we are!”

  “We’re not that far from the hotel. We’re only a ten-minute walk away.” Andre turned in her seat and stared daggers at Jamie. “This car is totaled. But please, humor me on how else we’re going to get to the hotel with a totaled car in the middle of a forest.”

  Much to Rebekah’s amazement, Jamie shut up, seeming to wither under Andre’s stare.

  “We leave now,” Andre commanded, and soon, everyone scrambled outside and claimed their luggage from the popped trunk. Then, they began their journey to the hotel with Holly and Andre fronting the group. Mandy trudged a few feet behind them, still eerily silent, and Rebekah and Jamie made up the rear.

  The walk to the hotel was quiet as Andre’s kill was still fresh in everybody’s mind. Jamie made a conscious effort to look away from Dimitri’s body as they passed, and Rebekah did just the opposite, staring at the blood steadily trickling down the tree trunk like wet paint. She was reminded of Trisha’s brutal end, of the innards spilling out of Jamie’s cat, and of the jars of blood. She was told those jars had been destroyed, that Henri had shattered them in a fit of rage, and yet they were still imprinted in her mind, glistening and unbroken.

  Rebekah shook the thought of death from her mind as she left Jamie’s side and sidled up to Mandy. “Hey,” she said as if toeing the water.

  Mandy barely shot her a side glance. “Hey.”

  The two of them walked in uncomfortable silence for a bit. “Is everything okay?” Rebekah said after a while.

  Mandy met Rebekah’s gaze, though it might as well have been the gaze of a stranger. Her stare was blank, devoid of the very essence that made her Amanda Palmer, as if someone had cut out her soul but left her body as an empty shell. Rebekah nearly took a step back but fought against it so as not to draw attention to herself.

  “Did Holly or Andre set you up to speak with me?” Her voice sounded hollow and accusing, which fit with the rest of her demeanor.

>   “No,” Rebekah said, confused. “You’ve been oddly quiet this entire trip, and—”

  “Rebekah.” The way Mandy said her name was enough to send shivers down her spine. “Rebekah, I’m fine.”

  Rebekah didn’t think Mandy was fine, but she also didn’t want to press matters and potentially make things worse. “You know I’m here, right?” she said. “If you need anything.”

  Mandy practically waved Rebekah off. “I said I’m fine! See?” And then, she molded her mouth into the most unsettling smile Rebekah had ever seen. By that time, they had reached the hotel and were slowly approaching the front desk.

  And for the first time, Rebekah truly realized there was something horrendously wrong with one of her best friends.

  ~~~

  Andre: London, England

  Every mortal magic user seemed to know about Andre’s kill by the time she had reached the hotel. Unbeknownst to the humans with her—and Holly White—stares were shot her way as whispers were exchanged. And her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing with texts from Aaron, Reilly, and Arizona. She should have known word would spread as quickly as it did; both kinds of magic users had an uncanny ability to uncover any bit of news surrounding their kind mere seconds after it happened.

  Yet, this was different. Andre had assisted with death before, the most notable being when she and a small group of magic users led by Arizona went on a mediocre Spy hunt in Madrid that led to their capture and almost deaths. And yet, Dimitri was still her first official kill, the first time she coated her hands with immortal blood. Some, notably the Royal Guard members, looked at her with admiration, while some shied away from her. Killing was messy business, something she knew she would never get used to, and yet…a part of her hummed with the thrill of it. A trifling part of her was proud.

  Andre squashed that part of her as soon as she identified it. Her immortal side.