Recap:
"You're unlike anyone I've ever met. On the outside you're really nothing but special but I can feel an enormous amount of power within you. And I've only felt that sort of power around a select few, the heirs to be exact. You claim to be a royal and yet a single royal could ever match an heir's power and they were our own flesh and blood. So I find myself confused by you."
My eyes widened. He could feel my power? What? No one had ever mentioned that, that was a possibility. I took a step back. The feral look on his face sent shivers down my spine. Though I hated to admit it, he scared me more as a warlock than a vampire. The power he held was undeniable and I knew I couldn't match it in a fight.
"I wonder..." He murmured.
Our eyes locked. He stared at me in a way that made me think he was trying to look into my soul. I stared back but there was no soul to be found. A sick, smirk crawled onto his face. There must have been something that he saw within me, something that confirmed his suspicion. I only wish I knew what it had been.
Raising his hand in air, he curled his fingers and his power. I stood, rooted in place as I watched a ball of black fire form in his palm. In my own hand I had seen it as a beautiful thing. It was a glossy black flame, that danced and swayed to the whim of the wind. But in his hands it was a lethal weapon. A power that solidified his place as a monster.
My mouth formed an 'o' as he drew his arm back and propelled the ball forward. I was stuck between an impossible option of dying now or dying later. As the ball increased in speed, I closed my eyes, clenched my fists and waited for something to happen to me.
Looking back on that day, I wish I would have chosen differently.
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Caddie's POV:
I was so afraid.
Believe it or not, I was out of my mind terrified of what could happen in the next milliseconds. I had seen what black fire could do. One second a person could be alive, with functioning organs and a working brain- the next they're just a pile of dirt on the ground. And it always happened so fast. Staring at the pile of ash, it was hard to decipher if there ever was a person there. That was something Black fire was good for. It didn't just kill someone, it completely wiped them out of existence.
Perhaps I was a bit of a hypocrite but I didn't want to die that way.
Shutting my eyes, I wrapped my arms around my waist and forced a single coherent thought into my mind. Live. I wanted to live. A cold breeze whipped my hair around, as dark smoke cocooned my body. I didn't have any idea where I was going. As long as I was out of black fire's path of travel, I was happy. My pointy white boots, sank into a soft, grassy plain. It didn't feel much different from the spot I was standing in before. I opened my eyes, only to be met by a pair of onyx eyes.
"W-wha-" I stuttered.
My stare flickered around the landscape; I was still in the same sloping, valley of Venezuela. My subconscious moved me out of the fire's path, but only to the other side of the hill. Roberto stood in front of me, a devious smirk toyed with his lips. I hated that damn smirk. There was nothing funny about him trying to kill me. It was terrifying! If my entire life wasn't an horror movie, I probably would have quaking in my boots and begging for him to spare my life. But my life was a horror movie and I had learned one or two things from those horrific events. The most important thing I learned was, there was always going to be a victim and a monster. The second thing I learned was that, the victim barely won. It took a monster to destroy a monster.
"How remarkable!" Roberto exclaimed with an over exaggerated amount of happiness. "Little Caddie, practices dark magic. Don't you know that, that magic is illegal. It's very dangerous."
"I'm sure you know all about that," I said through gritted teeth.
Roberto had the audacity to keep his smirk in tact. My hostile stance and and shaking fists didn't phase him at all. He probably had thought I was cute or funny. He was wrong though. There was nothing cute or funny about me when my demons were threatening to break loose. The twisted, sick voices in the back of my mind had surged to the surface. They whispered how easily it would be to wipe him from earth. Once he was gone, we could go home. All I had to do was hand them the reigns and let my magic loose. I wanted to listen to the voices. But I kept glancing at the small clay house, at the edge of the Venezuelan town. In that small clay house, a little innocent boy had been raised. Roberto didn't talk much about his childhood but I had a feeling it was similar to mine. Without his crown or jewels he just an outcast.
"Everything I do is legal, Amiga."
That was a lie but I couldn't say anything. The little demons were all for putting him in his place and shutting him up but I needed to think about those that would be badly affected if something went wrong. Aleksander, Alix and Jaxon might be too worried about the prophecy to care about me but I wasn't going to let them die because of my inability to control my mouth. They could kill Roberto. They could save the day and be the hero. As long as no one got hurt, I would be happy.
"Normally, I would take a Dark One to the HeadMinister and council members but you're a special case. I think I need to deal with you, personally."
Personally. Who knew one word could sound so vile and disturbing. There were so many promises in his voice. None of them were similar to the suggestive tone the creepy Dark One I had met in the tunnels had used. That Dark One had made it clear he only wanted to defile body. Roberto's promises were much more sinister.
He took a step forward, setting my nerves on fire. Like any rational person, I backed away. My eyes were focused on his, my hands were kept balled at my sides. There was no place I could go. If I went back to Nox Haven he would expose me. There was a chance the HeadMinister would explain it all to him but that chance was slim. She had made it very clear she wanted to keep the truth hidden from the students. I couldn't trust her and I didn't even know if she had told the other council members yet. My only other choice was to flee to another country but even then he could find me with a tracking spell.
I had been backed into a corner, there was no way out.
"Roberto I-" I broke off mid-sentence. There had to be some excuse to save me. After everything that happened the world couldn't have possibly intended for me to die at the hands of Roberto.
"I what? I'm a criminal who's going to the dungeons, is that what you meant? If so, then I already know that."
"What? No! I'm a-um-a power replicator!" My face flushed furiously. A power replicator? Out of all of the dumb things I had done in my life, stealing Dmitri's secret power was one of the worst.
The smirk fell from Roberto's lips. His face twisted with confusion as he stopped walking and pondered my proclamation.
"A power replicator?" He repeated, "how is that even possible?"
I had no idea, I was just winging it so he didn't kill me. Of course, I couldn't tell him that. So I relayed the explanation Dmitri had told me. "Every witch and warlock has a special gift. Like mind reading or flying but my ability allows me to recreate other special powers. When you teleported us to Venezuela, I was able to copy it- but I'm not nearly as good as you."
Roberto pursed his lips. The cogs in his head started turning as he contemplated whether or not I was telling the truth. I most certainly was not telling the truth. The look on my face was the look of a inexperienced liar. My face was red, my lip was caught between my teeth. Sweat dripped down the side of my face. I was lucky he wasn't a vampire yet so he couldn't hear my erratic heart beat.
"If what you're saying is true, you truly are more powerful than I had ever thought," he said in an awed voice.
I released a sigh of relief. Somehow I had managed to trick the evil Roberto. The only thing that could have made that moment better, was if Aleksander was there to witness me lie and get away with it. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he wasn't the only manipulator in our relationship.
"But I have to know for sure," Roberto added at the end with an innocent smile.
What?
There was no possible way he could know 'for sure'. I was lying! Lying was when someone said something not true. It isn't possible to prove something that isn't true!
My relief was quickly replaced by a new wave of anxiety.
"Know for sure?" I asked, "What do you mean."
Shaking his ebony locks, Roberto closed the distance between us by taking three large steps and wrapped his arm around my waist. A light breeze circled around us as the dark smoke molded to our bodies. My stomach flipped in anxiety as we disappeared from Venezuela. I didn't trust him. With his cold black eyes and cruel smile, he looked like a living nightmare. One that I couldn't easily escape by waking up.
When we had landed in his desired destination Roberto removed his from my waist but kept a firm hand clamped around my arm. A shiver ran down my spine, as I took in my eerie surroundings. We were standing in the middle of an overgrown forest. The sky had turned orange and pink as the sun dipped behind the clouds. I hadn't realized how long we had been gone. The day was practically over. There wasn't an animal or person in sight. I could barely see the top of the spires on Nox Haven Academy.
In scary movies normally a bush rustles or a creepy crow flies by before the monster appears. I didn't get any sort of warning. One second I was standing beside Roberto, waiting for him to start leading me towards Nox Haven. And then the next second I was lying flat on the ground as a snarling beast pushed Roberto against a tree. It happened so fast both of us were shocked. I watched, my mouth gaping open, as a person pale as paper with pearly white fangs held a hand around Roberto's throat. He leaned forward and his fangs elongated- a slimy, clear substance coated them.
I shouldn't have done anything. I should have sat complacently and let history run its course but my better judgement got in the way. Without consulting myself first, my hand raised on its own. A blazing black ball fire materialized out of thin air. Reeling my arm back, I launched the ball forward. The vampire didn't have time to react before his entire being was erased from existence. Roberto watched with a shocked expression as the man's ashes fell to the ground. A very similar expression could be found on my face.
"Why did you do that?" He asked.
I had no idea.
**I am sorry guys, I've been so busy with family visits and school work. I'm not comfortable with this chapter, maybe I'm just in a funk but recently I haven't been very happy with my updates. I love this book series and I plan on continuing with it but I do have a few problems with my writing right now. I haven't had any time to work on my skills and I'm afraid I'm giving you guys very amateur work. I'm sorry if any of you guys agree with this, all I want to do is give you guys a good story to read.
Now onto the actual story, Caddie keeps on messing things up lol. She seems to be good at that. I hope she's able to figure out what she wants or Roberto might get his way. Without Roberto turning into a vampire, I wonder how the future has already changed... Please tell me what you think could be happening in the future and please comment below and tell me what you think of the story so far. I really take your comments to heart.
Thank you guys for always supporting me even when my updates aren't perfect and late!
XOXO,
Ro.**