Chapter twenty two

“From here on out, we should be careful. It’s no joke that the witches despise us, but we must show them that we come in peace and that we bare no ill will. We must buy their trust if we want them to listen to us so I say we refrain from engaging in any battle with them,” Damien said as they all gathered at the foot of the Westwood Mountain.

“So if I am to understand clearly, Alpha Damien, you are saying that if any witch comes throwing a deadly spell on us, we should just smile and welcome it?” Genevieve mocked.

No one replied to her as they have to come to understand that that was how she was and will be from now on. They all agreed to what Damien said and set off to climbing the mountain. Malachi pulled on Genevieve’s hand when she was about passing him, bringing her to a stop. He sighed when he saw the woman’s icy glare. “Genevieve, I understand that you don’t think this is a good idea but this is the only plan we have got. Give us a new plan and I will call back our chiefs and we would be done here. So tell me, is there anything you have in mind, something else you think we can do to avoid this impending calamity?”

“I do, we find that brat and kill her just like Melissa had said,” she replied.

“Fine then, how about you leave now to the human realm and alert us when you find her,” Malachi raised an eyebrow.

Genevieve frowned. “I don’t know where your loyalty lies anymore, Malachi, but you should never forget that those people killed our prince, always remember that.”

“No Genevieve, you are wrong. They didn’t kill our prince, we did, in fact, I did. I was the one who stabbed him and you played a roll in it. If you hadn’t gone after his mate, distracting him, I wouldn’t have had a clear shot at him. So if you want to blame and hate anyone, it should be the both of us. You and I killed Prince Edward and you know it. But unlike you, I am not blaming innocent people or being a shrew about it and just accepted it. Now, this meeting would tell me whether I was wrong in doing that or if it was the right thing. So you either calm this attitude of yours and follow us or please, be my guest and wait right here. The last thing we would want is you ruining whatever chance we might have with the witches.” With that, he let go of her hand and turned to join the rest.

Genevieve sighed and stomped her foot in anger. She remembers that day very clearly but she just doesn’t want to believe it. It haunts her every night and so she decided to stop sleeping entirely so that she would stop seeing Edward’s painful look and the way he fell. And now, having Malachi throw it to her in such harsh manner didn’t help her at all. However, after some seconds, she felt like a bucket of iced water was thrown at her and she shivered before going after the rest.

It came as a surprise to them on the fact that they climbed up the mountain but no single witch came out to meet them or attack them. Finally, they came face to face with the black doors of the coven and they all sighed relatively before Damien moved forward to knock on the doors. However, the doors opened on their own and they knew it was a sign of welcome from the witches and now they understand while none of them had come to meet them, turns out, they have been waiting for them.

They walked inside the dark hallway but the darkness was not a problem with them as they moved quietly and silently through the hallway. Finally, they met another door which opened upon their arrival as well and they entered it to find themselves surrounded by people dressed in black hoods. A woman stood in front of them and summoned them to come closer. She was old with wrinkles, but one could still see that she was a beauty. Her grey hair cascaded down her shoulders like waterfall and she seemed to be the only one that didn’t have a hood on.

The room was big and Malachi could count about a hundred witches from his peripheral vision and he knew they would be more of them if he should count well, making this the biggest coven he had ever stumbled upon.

“I never thought I would see the day,” the woman said, “Nightwalkers and Night howlers walking together.”

“Please, we bare no ill will,” Malachi said.

“I know, that is why our doors opened for you, if not, you would have never passed our runes and spells.”

Malachi and Damien shared a look before they nodded in unison and turned back to the woman. “I don’t know if you aware but a lot has been going on in these woods now. We are under attack these days and at this rate, we are afraid that soon, we would become history. We have come to know if there is anything you can tell us, anyway you can help us and how we can go about all these because honestly, we are tired of the endless fights. We are losing our people in each fight and…”

“There is only one thing I can tell you,” the woman interrupted with a raised of her wrinkly finger, “you made a very big mistake trusting Melissa, that and only that was the first and worst mistake you made.”

No one said anything, they just stood, staring at the woman as their mind ran wild. Eventually, Damien spoke up. “We were told that the union of the Vampire prince and my kind was an abomination and a chaos waiting to happen. We acted upon it because we were seeing signs and now you are telling us that we have made the biggest mistake of our lives?”

“Melissa was banished out of her coven nine hundred years ago. She had wanted to kill her adopted daughter who was a pure blood witch. We may not be getting along but surely you must know what a pure blood witch means,” she glanced at the two men she knew were the leaders.

“The strongest kind of witches, the one that sees vision,” Malachi whispered.

“Exactly. If a strong witch can kill a pure blood witch and cut out her heart to eat, her powers would be transferred to the witch. Melissa was the coven leader and when she found out that her fifteen-year-old adopted daughter was a pure blood, she wanted to kill her and take her powers. Fortunately, the girl was able to escape and therefore, every other coven leader agreed that Melissa should be ripped off her post as a leader. You see, in as much as it would be nice to have a pure blood witch power, you can never be the original. Sure your strength would increase ten folds and all but something must be missing to prevent you from a being a pure blood because you were not a pure blood in the first place. We value pure bloods a lot and they are hard to come by, very hard for a pure blood witch to be born and the one we were graced with was chased away by Melissa.”

“So, you are telling us that Melissa lied so that she can get the pure blood witch back?” Genevieve asked, she can’t seem to fathom how telling them the story of the witch is going to help them and she just wants to know why they are being told that.

“No, the girl has gotten stronger and Melissa can never handle her alone anymore,” the woman smiled. “Melissa teamed up with a dark man who promised to give her back her post as a coven leader if she works for him. He was the one that wanted your prince out of the way because your prince was the only one that could have challenged him.”

“Oh my God,” Damien whispered and the weight of it all caused the man to back step involuntarily in shock. A high howler helped to steady him and when he got a hold of himself, he thanked the man with a nod and turned to the woman, “so we are doomed?”

“Not just you but the entire race is doomed. You see, if that man get a hold on the princess and her unborn child, he would not only be the strongest demon but the strongest being on earth and with a heart as black as his, it is the end for all of us. Now, a darker soul is working with him and if the two of them get what they want…” the woman shook her head and they saw the fear flashed in her eyes. “All I can say is that you should find the princess, protect her at all cost till her son has come of age, only he can save us now with his father gone, so nothing, and I mean nothing must happen to him.”

“Who is this princess you keep mentioning?” Genevieve asked.

The woman’s stern gaze went to her, “the Dark prince’s mate.”

Author's note:

Happy weekend :)

For those of you that would love to know, this book is already 80 chapters long in other sites. So feel free to read ahead :)