Seduced by Innocence (19 page)

Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boist'rous; and it pricks like thorn."

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

NOTHING MADE SENSE.

Life. Love.

It didn't add up.

She'd saved me, after her family captured me.

She'd gone up against her mother to defend me, but she'd been the one to injure Dean.

I'd fed her power, but I also wanted to punish her for the pain she'd caused my family.

Running through the woods, down streets and through the town, I hid in the shadows, using what little magic I had left to cloak myself as I made the long trip home. My injuries burned and ached, and I knew I'd feel it tomorrow, but it wasn't the physical pain I feared.

In the morning I'd wake up and my whole life would be a lie. My heart would remember the pain it was in, and I'd lose everything I thought I'd gained.

A part of me didn't want to wake up, but I knew I had to.

When I got home and got dressed, I found my dad in the library. He wasn't working, just staring out the window. He rose and hugged me. "You made it home. I've been forming a plan of how to break you out, but you're here."

I told him everything.

Men cry.

People don't think we do, and usually we don't, but sometimes, we do.

That night I did.

I cried in front of my dad and showed him the tattered shreds of my heart as I pulled out the engagement ring I'd bought her with some of my trust money. I wanted to get her the best money could buy. Now, it served as a cruel reminder of the life that could have been.

My dad stared into the two-carat diamond, his eyes glazing over, and I knew he saw something I didn't.

"Son, not all is as it seems. You fell in love with her heart, and what you saw was her truth. There's more to this story than you know. Don't give up yet."

He gave the ring back to me. "Keep it safe. You'll need it someday."

The little moments of life are often the sweetest. It was all those little moments with Rose that ran through my mind as my father and I sat in silence.

How she looked as she ate her dreadful cereal.

The kindness she showed to everyone, people or animal.

The way she made me laugh with her understated humor.

I had to ask myself, could that woman I'd fallen in love with truly be my enemy?

"Dad, you said something before, about how there might be innocent people in the coven, people who don't know the truth of what's happening."

My dad nodded. "Yes. It seems especially likely now, under the circumstances."

"Could Rose be innocent, despite having been the one to injure Dean?"

"If someone or something attacked one of us, would you do everything in your power to stop them before they harmed us?"

"Of course," I said.

"And what if you later found out that we hadn't really been under attack, that you had harmed an innocent because you'd been misguided, or misinformed? Would that make you evil?"

I considered his question. "Not evil. Still in the wrong, but not evil. It would be a fatal mistake."

I got his point, so I had to determine how much Rose really knew about her coven and her family, and what she thought was happening that night when Dean was attacked.

And I needed to find out why Dean had gone there in the first place, but the only person I could ask couldn't respond.

"Dad?"

He turned to me. "Yes?"

"I've decided not to leave. You were right all along—this is my home and I'm needed here. I need to be here."

My dad smiled. "I'm glad to hear it, son."

"And I have a favor to ask."

"Anything," he said.

"Will you help me find the truth about what happened tonight? Will you help me get Rose back?"

My only love sprung from my only hate.

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Dear Diary,

When we see reflections of ourselves, do we see our true self? It's a question I've been pondering as I consider how to see the world for what it is.

The Great Mystery can never be unraveled, for with each layered uncovered, like an eternal onion, it reveals another. But what of the smaller mysteries? Those, I feel, must have answers, and I intend to find them.

I've sat for hours, staring out my window, replaying our week together in my mind. The way he laughed at my jokes and smiled so tenderly before he kissed me. The stories he told of his family. The many meals he cooked that didn't consist of food that looked like children's toys. The tales he told and secrets he shared and the truth he laid bare for me to see.

I saw him, I know I did. So if I saw him, and if he is the man I love, then I'm not seeing the truth of something else.

That is the mystery I must unravel, if I ever hope to bring him home to me.

And where two raging fires meet together, they do consume the thing that feeds their fury.

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

DARKNESS HID OUR
covert meeting. While everyone else slumbered, we embraced the night, throwing shadows into the wind with the candles we'd brought.

Rainbow paced the kennel, her leg already healed through magic.

I didn't know what had happened, but there'd been a shift in power and Rainbow didn't like it.

I'd found her tied up by roots and had cut her free. Everyone assumed she'd kick Rose out of community for her betrayal, but I knew she needed her eldest daughter for the power she wielded.

What would come next, I could only imagine.

Rainbow poked her finger into my chest. "Keep an eye on her. Watch her and make sure she doesn't have any contact with this Derek character. He's bad news for her. We need her to use her powers more if our plans are to succeed. Find ways to force her, to drain it out of her. Can you do that, Blake?"

I shrugged. "I'll try, but so far your plans haven't been working too well. The attack you staged with the Druid got her to use her gift, and she only hated it more. What's the point?"

Her eyes formed slits and tore into me. "The point, o cheeky one, is that if you want all the powers promised to you, you'll do as I say."

My legs shook in fear and excitement. I needed these powers to woo Rose and to become a man people would respect.

"Speaking of, I have your first reward." She held up her hand as if swatting a fly. "You will get your first fill of power tonight. It will help you keep Rose out of trouble and get her on board with our plan."

My heart beat through my chest. I'd waited for this day for years. "What do I need to do?"

She drew a pentagram into the snow and dirt and retrieved a covered bowl from her large bag. "Kneel before me."

I did as she said, palms slick with anticipation.

Sticking her fingers into the bowl, she trickled its contents over my head. Something sticky dripped down my face as she muttered words in another language.

A wave of energy forced its way into me, clawing painfully into my soul. I gripped my chest and fell to the ground. "What did you put on me?"

She loomed over me, her long hair swept up in a bun. "The blood of innocence. The puppies sacrificed themselves for your first taste of true power. To make it more permanent, we'll need pure blood from a human, but that will come later.

"Enjoy this while it lasts, Blake. If you fail to do as instructed, you will not be pleased with the consequences."

Death haunted me from all sides as I struggled to breathe. Puppy blood dripped in my mouth and eyes, stinging them.

The power that took me over felt foreign and invasive.

For the first time, I doubted my alliances, but I was in too deep to back out now.

Opening myself up as much as I could, I accepted this strange force and felt it remaking me into something much stronger.

Into a brand new me.

~TO BE CONTINUED~

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Seduced by Pain
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