***LONG CHAPTER, THIS CHAPTER ALSO USES SOME STRONG LANGUAGE***
STILL FIVE HOURS AGO
(***A/N The time frame is matching the scene at the start of chapter 28 and all these scenes are leading up to that moment***)
The very first thought that popped into Jane's mind when they entered the Halloween party at Ronan's house was that for a hunter he sure knew how to throw a party. Everywhere she looked had her inner party girl shrieking with excitement and anticipation.
The mansion sized home was brimming with people all dressed in different colours and dancing to music vibrating from the jumbo speakers. Along with the strobe lights and overall atmosphere, Jane had a hard time remembering she was here to do something more important than party.
Turning around behind her she watched with hidden amusement at how serious the boys all looked, well mainly Peter, Luke and Levi. Tony looked like he was about to jump out of his skin and run screaming for the hills and Nate just looked... well she wasn't quite sure what his nervousness meant. If he was nervous about being discovered as the one being Ronan's insider or if he was nervous about the fact that we're a small group of werewolves in the territory of a little over a thousand or so hunters.
Jane's thought process was broke off by Luke's voice being raised over the music so that everyone within their small group could hear, "Everyone remember what they have to do?"
Luke received nods from anyone but Tony who just frowned from behind his fake moustache as part of his green and white, Super Mario Bros. Luigi costume.
"Wait," Tony burst out, as Luke started to move within the crowd, "I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do?!"
Jane just sighed at Tony and went to remind him what their part of Luke's rather elaborate strategy was until Levi beat her to it as he demanded, "Your job is to stay with her and keep the two of you out of trouble."
The newly made mark on her wrist tingled as a sign of her bodies awareness of her mate and not for the first time she found her fingers grazing over the mark Levi had given her. It wasn't temporary and by no means any declaration of affection, but she still couldn't help but feel insanely about the fact that she was still wearing his mark. Even if it was for only one night.
Tearing her gaze away from Levi, she reigned in her thoughts as she reminded Tony, "You and I, are going to see if we can find out why Ronan's so obsessed with this curse."
They'd had to fill Tony in on the car trip over here, but he wasn't the least bit surprised to learn that his aunt had cast yet another horrible curse. Apparently not even Vivian's own flesh and blood were surprised at how awful and damaging her curses were she literally was just that bad a person. And although still being a menace from the grave, Jane was relieved she was dead.
With a sigh, Tony turned to Jane giving her his full attention, "Lead the way."
Jane looked over at the space where, Levi had been standing with Luke merely a second ago but both of them had disappeared somewhere within the crowd. She found her finger tightening over the mark on her wrist before she gave Tony a firm nod, "A house this enormous has to have a library of some sort's right? My guess is we start there."
Tony laughed, "A library June? How cliché."
She shot him a murderous glare, "It's less than five hours before midnight, we better get moving."
***
4 HOURS AGO
LEVI POV
Trekking down yet another endless hallway in Ronan's family mansion, Levi was double checking each room for the three hostages he'd been put in charge of finding. Well, technically it was the responsibility of both him and Nate but Levi didn't trust the guy for a single second.
He looked guilty as anything, when Levi had found him hanging around his apartment building a few hours after his Tiny had left for work. Levi remembers seeing Nate a few times around his mate where Ronan was concerned and Levi didn't trust him for a second.
The stumbling fool tripped behind him again and Levi growled, "If you don't get it together and keep quiet I swear I will kick you out of the pack. Come to think of it I don't know why I haven't already done it."
Nate huffed, "You try being stealthy in a hot dog costume!"
"No one told you to dress as a hot dog." Levi shrugged inspecting another empty guest room, before closing the door and moving on to another.
"Your brother gave me two options, birthday suit or hot dog."
Levi felt the corners of his lips tilt up in a smile as he mused, "That sounds like something Luke would do."
Suddenly Levi found himself coming to a stop as he was overcome with an instant wave of fear that dissipated almost as quickly as it had appeared. Ever since he had marked his mate he'd been feeling her emotions so intensely they could've been his own.
He had thought he was doing the right thing by making sure she was okay, but knowing what she was feeling was messing with his head. Majority of the time she had a happy, energetic emotion but when that changed he found himself hyperaware of her.
Like now.
Levi could be miles away from her for all he knew, yet he could see her radiant smile from behind his closed eyes and feel her heat as though she was standing right in front of him. It was an insane feeling and he still couldn't decide if marking her had been a good decision or a stupid mistake.
Being this close to her on an emotional level, being this aware of her wasn't good for either of them. Like it or not, if he didn't find a solution to this family curse he was going to lose her in the blink of an eye and he couldn't allow that to happen. But the reality was, if Luke's plan didn't follow through tonight then he'd have to go back to his original plan of rejecting her.
He needed to stop being so careless and remember that they couldn't be so oblivious. He just needs to take a step back and take things back to the way they were, back when she hated him.
"Alpha?" Nate snapped demanding Levi's attention as he jiggled on a locked door asking, "Do you hear that?"
Focusing on the stillness around him, he could faintly hear above the vibrating baseline of the downstairs music, muffled noises from behind the door. Two voice that sounded kind of like... Levi shot Nate a glare as his tone took on one of disgust, "Why you perverted hot dog."
Nate's face flamed red in embarrassment and anger making him blend in with his costume before he quickly defended himself, "Not that door the other one."
Levi gave the humiliated boy a disapproving look, "Sure, whatever you say."
But upon closer inspection he did hear voices from the door a little further down and they didn't sound anything like the noises coming from the room Nate had just pointed out. Jiggling the handle a few times, Levi took a few steps back and raising his right leg, easily kicked the door down. Having kicked down a few in his life, Levi knew the most effective way to bring down a door and by the time it was echoing in a loud bang on the marble floors he was already emerging into the room. Tied up against the well was Mike, Elle and Anouchka and after seeing there was no security threat Levi started untying them.
He ran straight to his cousin, pulling out his mouth gag and doing only his hands as he instructed, "Untie Elle, then we'll go find Luke and Peter."
"Since when did you start trusting Luke?" Mike asked Levi yanking out of the well tied, thick ropes around him now that Levi had loosened them.
Levi had to think about that for a second, since when did he trust his brother. His insane, soulless brother that still had no real explanation for showing up here other than the fact that he was begging to see Anouchka. Speaking of which...
Levi looked over to see Anouchka struggling against her constraints and running over to her, Levi shot her a smile as he assured her, "Hey, it's okay, I'll get you out of here."
She shook her head and continued to pull against her restraints and with a frown, Levi took the gag out of her mouth right before Anouchka screamed out his name and he felt a sharp blow to the back of his head making the world turn dark.
***
2 HOURS AGO
LUKE POV
Standing amongst a sea of gyrating drunks, Luke was feeling more and more pissed off as the seconds passed. He and Peter have been scouring the place for hours now and still no sign of either Cassie or Ronan.
Craning his neck Luke looked past Peter searching for either Ronan or Cassie and not being able to find either of them had his wolf seeing red. Luke was barley in control of the creature as it was. Only having a tiny part of his humanity intact meant that most of the time he was a bit of a loose cannon.
"You sure she told you she'd meet you here?" Peter asked also surveying the area.
Luke dug his phone out of his pocket showing the text Cassie had sent him this morning demanding of him to be here at Ronan's house with the locket. He had no doubt that Cassie was attempting to use the home court advantage in an effort to get the grimoire for herself, but Luke wasn't going to let that happen.
Suddenly, his eyes stopped surveying the area as he spotted Cassie. She was in the middle of a throng of people throwing herself at all the men – no doubt hunters like Ronan – surrounding her. As her eyes landed on Luke she gave him a teasing smirk and continued to loose herself to the beat of the music.
Luke kept his eyes on Cassie as he Peter nudged him, "That's Cassie?"
Luke frowned at the scantily clad witch, hypnotizing every male in this room – including Peter. Luke turned to the awestruck, seventeen year old and Luke clicked his fingers in front of his face as he snapped, "Hey! No sleeping with the enemy Peter boy. Your sister would kill me if she knew I helped give your virginity to that slut."
Peter looked away from Cassie, his face flaming as he stuttered, "I-I'm not... I've done it before."
Luke just nodded with a knowing smirk on his face, "Sure you have, now let's get the book and save your sister from dying."
Weaving his way through the hyped crowd, Luke continued to shove people out the way until he latched onto Cassie's arm and pulled her away from those guards as he leaned close to her ear so she would hear him, "Enough of the dancing."
"It's a party honey," She tore her arm away, "People dance. What do you think of my costume? Sexy kitten too much?"
She did short twirl, with a teasing smirk on her face, but Luke wasn't interested. He had more important things to do tonight other then tell her how she does look annoyingly good in her sexy kitten costume.
"Where's your boyfriend?" Luke questioned, ignoring her flirting.
Cassie gestured to the guards around her, "He's got other engagements, but he left me well protected."
Knowing that Ronan wasn't here, gave Luke a bad feeling but ignoring it he gestured to the dazed Peter behind him, "Me and Peter here, won't have any problems with your sad excuse for security if you decide to do something stupid."
Peering around Luke, Cassie gave Peter a flirty wink and a wave as she cooed, "Hi Peter."
She was going to give the poor boy a heart attack and Luke didn't have time for that. Pulling Cassie back in front of him and away from Peter he demanded rather than asked, "You got somewhere a little more private that we can talk?"
She feigned shock as she held her hand over her chest, "Why Luke? How forward of you!"
His wolf already on the edge, pushed through and gave the irritating witch a menacing growl which only seemed to make her smile bigger as she mused, "Not very patient are we? Never mind, follow me."
Adhering her request, Luke followed the teasing party girl through the crowd till she reached a locked door. Cassie pulled a key from around her neck, the gold chain of her locket visible as she moved her hair aside. Luke followed her into the room and was taken aback to see even more guards in this room.
As he tried to work out just how many there were, Cassie opened up a box sitting on a table and pulled out a joint from the box. Lighting it she locked eyes with Luke and drew in a large inhale, "You got the locket?"
Catching the scent of the joint, the sharp smell that came with it was different than the scent that normally came off it. At a really bad point in his life, Luke had been around people that did joints religiously and the scent of it was unintentionally committed to memory. Whatever it was she was smoking was definitely not your average joint.
Getting back to the situation he pulled the gold chain out of his pocket, and let it dangle from his open fingers as he retorted, "Do you?"
He already knew the answer but was still relieved to see her pull the chain forward from underneath her low cut shirt an exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, "I guess only one question remains. Are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?"
For the first time since he saw Cassie a smile lit up his face as he pocketed the locket, "I've never been easy."
Cassie shrugged and with the joint still in her hands, motioned for the guards to advance on Luke and Peter. Having men, stalk towards him from all sides, had his wolf immediately jumping into action as he did the math. Eight guys for him and eight for Peter.
The first two that lunged towards him were easy to take out, as Luke used their momentum against them by sidestepping their wide thrown punches and sweeping out their legs. The sneaky one behind him tried to take him off guard, but Luke could see him coming from a mile away and flipped the guy on his back, breaking his opponents shoulder as he did so.
He missed this. The adrenaline he got from being in a life and death situation, the thrill, the hunt. It was the one time he didn't care if his wolf had full reign because it was moments like this that being an uncontrolled werewolf really helped.
But by the time, Luke had knocked out at least five of the guys, the three remaining advanced towards him and he had difficulty staying awake. Not from being hit... but there was something else. He was feeling like he was going to throw up and pass out, and for once Luke's wolf wasn't struggling to get to the surface. His wolf was slipping further within him.
As he stumbled forward, two of the guards held him from behind. Luke's eyes shot to Cassie and her stupid joint that now he concentrated on the smell, realized was Wolfsbane. Not enough to kill him or Peter but enough to leave them momentarily human.
Cassie sauntered over to him and retrieved the locket from Luke's pocket as she smiled triumphantly, "I win."
***
1 HOUR AGO
JANE'S POV
Jane had never been more thankful for her werewolf night vision than she had when she and Tony had discovered these underground catacomb in Ronan's home. Tony was blindly fumbling around by the light of his phone, while Jane was using her natural born sight.
When the pair came across this underground lair, they were both incredibly excited and creeped out. With the dark, stone walls, low lighting and dust everywhere it looked like something out of a horror movie. The age old books, mediaeval weapons and stone statues. The statues is what creeped her out the most.
She thought it was funny how Ronan Stone and all his Stone ancestors had all these stone statues, but of all the things to collect these were odd.
They weren't particularly artistic or even interesting but there had to be around fifty of them give or take. They were all men, that looked fairly similar and all to be around the same of age of their early twenties. They were positioned all in a line along the wall and made Jane feel like she was being watched.
Even now, as she skimmed through another aging book she felt like she was being watched by those stone statues and Tony was busying himself by observing the weapons and dead bodies he'd found earlier.
"June!" Tony yelled out excitedly, "This is disturbing, yet fascinating. All the dead bodies are preserved and they all have the same weapon still in them."
Jane shuddered from the mental image Tony just described for her, and going back to the book in front of her she called out, "Tony. Could you stop looking at the dead bodies and come help me please! I think I might've found something."
And she had.
Right here in front of her, in an old page of records and family traditions of hunters, was a page titled The Jackson Wolves Curse. Jackson was Levi and Luke's last name, so this had to be it, this had to be the reason why Ronan was so obsessed with their curse.
Reading the lengthy page, her eyes widened with each and every word on the page in front of her and she was so lost in thought that when Tony called out for her she jumped and dropped the book on the floor.
Tony ran over to her, helping her to her feet as he frowned, "You okay June? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Still in a state of shock, she blurted out the knowledge she'd just obtained as part of the curse, "Tony, Ronan's a werewolf."
Tony's eyes widened considerably as he questioned with confusion, "The hunter... is a werewolf?"
Jane nodded, "His family was cursed by Vivian as well, because they were killing too many werewolves nearly led us to extinction. She warned them to stop and they didn't listen. She put a curse on the family that by their twenty-fifth birthday, if the curse was not broken they would turn into stone..."
Jane looked up at the statues lining the walls and with sickening realization noticed the reason they all looked the same was because they were all related. All of Ronan's family that had been turned to stone by the curse that Vivian had put on them.
"That's not all," Jane admitted with worry in her voice, "So that the curse could be handed down and the lineage wouldn't end every Halloween on the sons twenty-fourth year he would go out and impregnate a werewolf female. Whether she was willing or not."
Tony frowned, "That's why Ronan wants you?! So he can knock you up? Tonight!"
Jane shook her head, "No. Not me. According to that book, I'm the dying mate- the chosen one. My blood is the cure to their curse. If Elle is betraying me, Ronan would probably get Elle to carry his child. God Tony, this is so messed up."
Tony let out a deep breath, as he muttered, "I hate my aunt."
"Get in line," Jane muttered as she watched Tony go back over to the dead bodies in their open coffins where he'd dropped his phone.
Walking over to him, she watched as Tony peered in at another deceased person. He peered in on the victims face closely as he motioned her over, "Hey this one looks like you."
Rolling her eyes, Jane shook her head, "I'm not going to look at a dead body Tony. That is where I draw the line."
Tony groaned, "Come on! One peak, I just want you to see how much the two of you look alike it's... uncanny."
"Last time I checked I didn't look like a dead person," Jane retorted but then came to a stop as she remembered. She did look like a dead person. Her dead mother to be exact.
Frowning she tried to remember who had killed her mother, it wasn't a werewolf, and even though she was told it was a human maybe that human had truly been a hunter. It never made sense to her to think that her vicious mother could've been taken down by a human, a hunter... not so impossible.
Walking over to where Tony was standing, she could hear her heart racing blocking out all the other sounds as she took a look at the one person she'd prayed she never had to see ever again.
Clare.
She looked just as she had the last time Jane saw her. Her mother was heartbreakingly beautiful which made what happened to her all the sadder, but beneath all that beauty lay the broken heart of a monster. Her mother was a vicious killer. Killing innocent humans, wolves and everything else in between.
Jane knew this, yet it still hurt to see her mother with a twelve inch dagger in the middle of her chest and put on display like she was some sort of conquest and not a person. She may not deserve much in the way of burial, but she deserved not to be treated like an artefact.
Without realizing she'd been subconsciously reaching for her mother and only when she cut her finger on the blade did she realize she had almost touched her dead mother. Pulling away she held her hand to her chest, noticing the blood pooling at the tip of her finger as Tony broke through her thoughts, "See. I told you, that you and her look alike. Freaky huh?"
"Yeah..." Jane agreed on a breathless whisper.
"Finally!" Came the familiar voice Jane had been dreading to hear and turning around she watched as Elle slowly walked towards them, "I was wondering how long it was going to take for you to find Clare. Or better yet your involvement in this whole Stone business."
Jane felt her defences go up as she looked at Elle and the gun in her hand, "You're the one, who's been helping Ronan. Not Nate."
"Surprise." Elle gave off a wicked smile, "Now before I kill you and use your blood to free all of Ronan's poor ancestors from their stone-like state, I need you to take this rope and tie up your little friend. Unless, of course, you wouldn't mind if I killed him either?"
Jane gritted her jaw and held out her hand for the ropes Elle had dropped at her feet, with the gun still pointed directly at Jane's head, "Smart girl, Janie."
"Why're you doing this," Jane begged her friend, not even believing that Elle had betrayed her like this, "If you're in some kind of trouble Elle, we can work it out! If Ronan got your pregnant..."
Elle shook her head, "Not Ronan. He can only impregnate a werewolf on Halloween, which is today and last time I checked it's pretty hard to knock up somebody who's already knocked up."
Does that mean that she's pregnant? Just, not from Ronan? Mike. But then who else would Ronan have to get carry his child, unless, he wasn't planning on the mother of his child to be a willing participant.
"I wasn't the only one Ronan kidnapped Janie," Elle reminded her, "There was another she wolf in the room, you know her. Ana... I don't know. You call her Erin, though."
Anouchka-Erin Bennett.
Luke's mate.
***
30 MINUTS AGO
LEVI POV
Regaining consciousness, Levi groggily sat up and looked around to find that he was still in the same room that he'd found Elle, Mike and Anouchka. Looking around now, he saw Anouchka frantically trying to untie herself. And when she saw that Levi was awake her face morphed into an expression of relief, "Thank God you're okay!"
Levi slowly stood up and stumbled over to her, noticing they were the only two left in the room. Mike, Elle and Nate were all gone. But focusing on Anouchka he took note of how afraid she looked, "Are you okay?"
She nodded, "Yeah. I had no idea why Ronan took me, but he just needed me as a reason to get Luke to come find me."
Levi grabbed the rope holding her hands behind her back and as he untied them Anouchka spoke, "It was Elle, in case you were wondering. She's the one who knocked you out. She took out Mike as well, but he woke up a little while ago and went to go find her. I don't think he knows about her being the betrayer."
Making quick work of the knots Levi moved onto her legs as he asked, "And what about the guy I came in with?"
"Elle took him as a hostage and went to find some girl called Jane."
Jane.
The mention of his name, stirred something within him and for a moment he wondered if that was his mate's name. But he didn't have the time to be thinking about her name, because from the temporary bond that was fading away he could feel that she was scared- terrified. And the fact that Elle was out there made him tense with worry.
"Erin. I'm going to find my mate. And you should find yours."
She laughed, "After all this time you still can't pronounce my real name?"
He helped her to stand and she shook her head, "Never mind. Where's Luke?"
"He's downstairs with Peter, they're going to give Cassie the locket and get the grimoire."
Anouchka smiled as she pulled out a simple, gold chain from under her shirt as she innocently asked, "You mean this locket?"
Levi smiled, "Luke didn't trust Cassie."
Anouchka nodded, "Yeah, he gave her a fake. I have a feeling Luke's in trouble, so I'll see you later- After we save our mates."
***
20 MINUTES AGO
LUKE'S POV
Luke couldn't believe how just a tiny amount of Wolfsbane in the air was enough to leave both him and Peter utterly useless. The little witch was even so sure of herself, that she'd ordered her guards to leave them whilst she tied both Luke and Peter to a chair, blowing the Wolfsbane smoke in the air.
How she even managed to smoke it for such a long time was beyond him, but he wasn't in the right headspace to really care. He was too busy trying not to laugh his ass off, as Cassie opened the fake locket he'd forged and glared at the Korean writing he'd taken the liberty of placing inside the dud.
Beside him Peter was silently laughing at the cussing witch who was glaring at them as though she wished she could finish them off. But he was the only one who knew where the other locket was, well, him and Anouchka.
"Okay Luke, very funny," Cassie glowered as she spoke to him, "But I really need the other half of that locket and so do you."
Luke shook his head, "No way, you can't...." he lurched in and out of consciousness, "You can't be trusted. Poisoning us with Wolfsbane- clever."
Cassie shrugged as she sauntered over to him and Luke sucked in a sharp breath in pain, as Cassie dug her nails into his arm enough to split the skin and draw blood. She chuckled sardonically, "A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, and I'm afraid if you don't tell me where that locket is. Peter here is going to die."
"The only person who's going to die is you."
Came the angered voice of his mate from the doorway. Even sounding like she was going to inflict some serious bodily harm, her voice was still the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. Luke's heart clenched as her scent overwhelmed him and through the haze of the Wolfsbane he saw her beautiful, pissed off face as she walked straight over to Cassie and through the witch off him.
Anouchka stood in front of Luke in a protective stance and he was confused and amazed at how his wolf hadn't taken control of him yet. Usually, his wolf would be in control doing anything he possibly could to get to Anouchka, but the Wolfsbane had his wolf sedated meaning that he was... human?
Hearing a sickening crunch he looked up to see that Anouchka had taken a firm grip on Cassie's head and snapped her neck. As the witch's body dropped to the ground, Luke sighed, "Did you really have to kill her?"
"She was touching what was mine," Anouchka growled and when she turned to look at Luke she nearly jumped out of skin in surprise as she murmured, "They're normal..."
Now that his wolf hearing was gone, he struggled to hear her, "What's normal?"
"Your eyes. Luke they're your eyes, not your wolfs."
Luke shrugged, "Don't get used to it."
He hated the sinking feeling that came on her face and he almost wanted to promise her that he'd stay this way forever, but he couldn't. This haze his wolf was in was only temporary, who knows how short of a time he had.
"The fact you're not dead, means there's still a soul in you somewhere Luke." Anouchka insisted as she went behind the chair he was tied to and loosened his bonds, "Once we find this book and end this curse, you'll get it back."
Wishful thinking. Somethings you couldn't get back no matter how badly you wanted to and Luke felt that just because he was sort of normal right now, didn't mean he had a soul it just meant he wasn't dead yet.
"You read out the spell and I'll finish untying Peter," Luke suggested, not really giving Anouchka much of an option to say no.
***
5 MINUTES AGO
JANE'S POV
In the past hour or so as Jane's blood had been slowly, torturously drained from her body she'd counted the statues and there were thirty-one. And according to the curse all of them dead at the age of twenty-five, and if Ronan was twenty-four that would mean that the curse is exactly eight hundred years old.
Jane's normally not a math wiz, but you have time to think about a lot when your so called best friend is draining you of your blood. Why she even allowed Elle to jab a needle in her vein and take every last drop of red fluid from her body was simply because her best friend had gone crazy and started swinging the gun around.
And if Jane had any hope of getting both her and Tony out of this mess, she'd have to knock that gun straight out of Elle's hand. Jane was weak, but there was no way she was going to die just to help Ronan.
God Vivian really wanted Jane dead, didn't she?
Making all these curses involve Jane's death. Message received loud and clear.
Jane was feeling weaker and weaker as every second passed on, but she wasn't going to miss her opportunity. Elle and the gun she held in her hand was coming closer and Jane had every intention of knocking it out of her grasp. What she'd do then... well, roll with it, she didn't have any other option.
Just a little closer.
And just as Jane reached her hand out to grab the gun a loud gasp, rang out through the mostly quiet catacomb and in complete and utter horror, Jane's eyes shot to the coffin that held the body of her dead mother. If she wasn't fighting to stay alive, she probably would've fainted from the shock of seeing her dead mother sitting up and gasping for breath, whilst pulling a twelve-inch dagger from her abdomen.
"What the hell...?!" Elle whispered almost in as much shock as Jane from seeing a woman who's been dead for over ten years suddenly start breathing again. Clare's dead eyes turned towards the girls, more specifically Jane and she gave her daughter a chilling smile as she gushed, "Thanks for the blood baby girl. Who knew you were such a special little thing."
The little blood still in her system was no doubt, ice cold from hearing Clare speak and she watched with utter horror as her mother stretched her arms above her head and climbed out of the coffin. Being smart, Elle swung the gun towards Clare who just laughed, "Pull the trigger sugar. I promise you I'll still be here."
Obviously scared out of her mind, Elle flipped off the safety and fired two shots at Clare. Watching her mother get shot, made Jane's stomach clench in both anguish and relief, but her heart nearly gave out when Clare came back up off the floor laughing. Her mother's bullet wounds healing right in front of her eye's quicker than any werewolf.
"My, my, my, Jane dear I thought I'd taught you better then to hang out with such rude girls. Letting them shoot at your poor, mother."
Jane couldn't respond.
She couldn't will her mouth to work, hell nothing moved. She was as still and lifeless as her mother had been only a moment ago. How is this possible? How the hell did Clare just wake up, like she'd been napping not decaying?! Did her blood really do this? She'd barley cut herself on the blood that was buried within her mother...
Frantic footsteps sounded out and Jane watched as Nate came running into the room as he yelled, "I told you not to shoot her Elle! We need to keep Jane alive until the very last drop."
Were Nate and Elle working together to kill her?!
When Nate saw the scene before him, he frowned at my mother as he asked, "Who're you?"
Clare just tilted her head as she analysed him, "Are you trying to kill my daughter?!"
Before Nate even got a chance to answer him, Clare crossed the room in a lightning fast pace and had him held up against the wall by his neck. When Clare got bored, of him not answering her, she threw him into a shelf, the crack of his bones echoing in the room followed by his agonized scream.
Not wanting to wait around, for her mother to finish off Nate and get bored she reached out to snag the gun from Elle. But ended up only latching onto her charm bracelet instead. Jane never remembered seeing Elle wear this, but as she held the small gold chain in her hand, it disappeared as though it was just dust.
Looking back at Elle, she saw her friend clutching her head and wincing as she muttered, "What the hell am I doing here..."
Did the bracelet have some kind of effect on Elle? Did Nate have one? Is that what Ronan was using to get them to do all his dirty deeds.
Jane saw, Elle black out and with her reflexes quickly reached out and stopped the loaded gun from falling to the gun and going off. Jane quickly pulled the needle out of her arm and with her weakened limbs, tried to untie the restraints Elle had done such a good job of keeping her in.
All the while she was trying to ignore the sickening sounds of her childhood occurring again right at this very moment. Her soulless mother, torturing Nate to the point that he was screaming and begging for Clare's mercy. Begging for his own death.
She didn't seem to be in the mood to play around with her prey today as the final snap rang out through the eerily quiet catacomb and, Jane saw as Clare dusted off her blood stained hands leaving Nate's mangled body in a heap on the ground. Nate looked like he was barely alive. Clare gave her daughter an innocent look as she asked, "Did you miss your mother?"
Jane didn't answer her, and Clare only chuckled into the deadly silent room, "You look so much older it was hard to recognize you sugar. But you're so pretty, just like your momma."
"I am nothing like you," Jane managed to say through her hoarse voice to which Clare only pouted and grabbed the bag of Jane's blood, "One day sugar you'll see how you and I are one and the same. Like the say Janie, they apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
Clare gave her daughter one last smile as she headed for the exit, "Bye for now baby girl, I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of each other."
As Clare left the room, Jane finally managed to untie herself and stumbling over to Nate dropping beside her friends mangled body as she gently lifted his head into her lap.
Jane looked into her friends eyes feeling sick to her stomach. How could the person she'd loved so deeply for all these years turn around and stab her in the back like this, her so called friend double crossing her and for what?
Jane had no idea how she had gotten herself into this situation in a matter of seconds everything had taken a turn for the worst and now here she was staring into the eyes of the one person she thought she could trust – her friend. And what's even worse, was not only did she have to deal with the hard, cold truth that one of her only friends had been her enemy, but she'd killed them as well.
Looking into her friends eyes, Jane watched as the life drained out of them, slowly but surely. The dark, red blood staining her hands forever. A murderer, she was a murderer no better than her real mother, who had gone crazy and killed people just for the heck of it.
Jane clutched the lifeless form of her friend close to her, tears streaming down her face as she whispered into the still, night air of the empty basement, "What have I done..."
It was her blood that reversed Clare's death and resurrected the one person she was hoping would stay dead. It was because of her that a senseless murderer had been unleashed upon society leaving her first victim cold in her hands.
Nate.
~*~
AUTHORS NOTE
So this is double the length of my regular chapters... and probably one of my most confusing chapters, hopefully there's at least a few of you out there who get what just happened.
For those of you who don't next chapter will be a lot more revealing.
Thankyou all so much for your patience and all of you who wished me well with my injury! It meant a lot to me to have people wishing me a good recovery.
Sorry if there's a few mistakes in this chapter as I'm still not feeling all that well at the moment but I needed to get this chapter out there and put you all out of your misery.
Song to the side is, "Crave You (Adventure Club Remix) by Flight Facilities" it's the song playing when Luke see's Cassie during the party.
NEXT UPDATE: Sometime next week, as I'm still in recovery mode J
Jasmine!