Innocence - Chapter 22

I was in so much pain, I couldn’t breath. There was pressure on my arm that was maddening. My whole body ached, but I couldn’t see anything. I could just hear.

“So what happened?” Aden’s voice sounded panicked.

“That crazy chick…” Mike voice reverberated off the walls.

“Marissa.” Addison interrupted.

I tried to speak but nothing came out of my mouth.

“Yeah…her…she started to question Candace again and broke her wrist. Then she knocked me out so I don’t really know what happened much after that. I woke up and Candace was in worse shape. She was crumpled on the ground and Marissa cut her arm.
Then she passed out.”

“Why would she cut her arm open? I don’t see what she gained.”

“She had the new born.” Addison answered.

Aden swore.

“They wouldn’t let her though.” Mike reassured. “They wanted her to tell them were some stupid book was.”

“Did she tell them?” Aden’s voice sounded like he already knew the answer.

“No.” Addison replied.

“What is up with that stupid book anyways?” Mike asked.

“Not to be rude man but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Aden said lightly.

“I’m up for the challenge.”

Aden thought for a moment. “Well a long time ago a witch fell in love with an ordinary man. She wanted him to have powers to so she put some of her most powerful magic in that book. Whenever anyone would had it, he would have those powers. If a vampire gets it--” He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. “The book was said to have vanished over a hundred years ago so almost everyone forgot about it. A month ago Candace showed me the book and said she had found it in her library. I didn’t tell her want it was because she would have known she has powers because she owns it. If she tries hard enough, she could find them deep inside her self.

“The only way to get the powers for yourself is to find it when it was completely lost and no one knew where it was, or—if you kill the person that has it to begin with.”

“Wow.” Mike said, taken a back. “That is hard to believe.”

“I know.”

“And she doesn’t know any of this?”

“No, I don’t want her to know.”

“Well she does now. She can hear us.” Addison said.

“And what are you doing here?” Aden asked.

Their voices were getting louder and clearer.

“I didn’t help the right person--to Marissa anyways.”

“And why not?” Aden snapped.

“Aden I am so sorry.” pleaded Addison. “Marissa said I could die or join. I didn’t think I had a choice.”

Aden didn’t answer. The pressure on my arm tightened and I tried to tell the person holding it to let go, but again, I couldn’t speak.

“So what is going on up there?” Mike asked, trying to change the subject to something that he knew something about. So he thought.

“I have no idea.”

I finally broke the surface of the darkness. “Use your telepathic powers…” I mumbled.

Aden chuckled. “I knew you would come around.”

I opened my eyes but it looked the same as if they were closed. “My arm.” I mumbled, trying reach for my arm but a cold hand caught mine.

“We need to keep pressure on it or you will start to bleed again.” Aden’s soft voice said.

Even his soft gentle touch hurt my wrist. I winced.

“Sorry.” He said.

“Mike?” I called, wanting to hear his voice.

Something shifted to my right. “I’m here.”

I sighed, which hurt my ribs. I winced again. The pain was escalating every moment.

Suddenly there was two very sharp intakes of breath. One was right next to me on my left and the other was in the far corner. I could tell it was Addison and Aden.

“What?” I asked.

Neither answered.

“What?” I asked again.

A light out in the hallway went on and I saw that we were somewhere familiar. It was the same room that Trevor was kept in, in the basement of Aden’s house. I was lying on the bed. Mike was holding a rag on my right my arm, and Aden was on my left, inspecting my swollen wrist.

I tried to sit up, but my chest throbbed.

“It isn’t very smart to sit up.” Addison said.

I looked around and saw she was leaning against the wall in the far corner.

There was clank of chains as Aden moved and saw the chains that once held Trevor. They now held Aden. “What are those?” I asked.

“Chains.” Aden said, seriously.

“Well I know that, but what about them? Can’t you vampires just break through them?”

“No.”

“Well why not?”

“You see the crest on them?” He angled his ankle towards the little light that was seeping threw the small window in the door. The crest that was engraved in the metal shone. “It is a witch crest, which means anti-vampire.”

I looked more closely at the crest and saw it was the same one that was on the door. “That is on the door too.”

He nodded and set my wrist lightly on my stomach.

After a moment, Aden and Addison went closer together and talked in their fast hum that I couldn’t understand. They seemed to be discussing something that had to do with me because they kept looking at me.

There was a loud noise from upstairs. It sounded like someone was coming down.

“Don’t struggle or they will kill.” Addison said firmly to me and Mike.

We both exchanged looks. What were they talking about?

I sat up slowly, putting pressure on my arm by myself. Mike stood and limped over to the door, looking out the small, bared window. Immediately he back away, almost tripping on the large chain.

Two very large men with black cloaks on, entered the room. The larger of the two spoke. “Marissa would like to see all of you.”

The other one went over to Aden and unlocked the chain with a key. He took Aden by one arm and stirred him towards the door.

Aden didn’t say anything.

The larger one told me and Mike to head out after them, then he lead Addison out after us.
We were all lead into a very large room, filled with black clocked vampires and the rest of the Westcotts.

Mike was taken by one girl and I was taken by another.

Mike fell to the ground. His broken leg was hurting more than he made it seem. The woman left him there but stayed right by his side.

Marissa emerged from the middle of the crowd of people. It looked like she planned a great entrance or something. It seemed pretty stupid to me.

“What do you want?” I asked lazily.

Everyone looked at me, stunned.

“What do I want?” Marissa seethed, walking closer to me.

“Well you know I won’t tell you where it is, so what do you want now?”

I was surprised by my confidence. I knew she was going to kill me eventually, so why not have some fun. If she waited this long, she obviously didn’t want me dead that badly.

“Excuse me?” Marissa said, her confidence level decreasing. She only had fear on her side and now it wasn’t working.

I sighed.

Maybe if I could make her confused, Aden could do something. He would have at least a few second head start.

“Are we growing some confidence?” Marissa asked slyly. Her smile told me she had something up her sleeve. “I think I can change that.”

She walked over to one of the corners of the room. She moved people aside so I could see what she wanted me to.

There were two people on the ground lifeless, my mom and my dad. They were lifeless on the ground, crumpled and bruised.

My heart skipped a beat. I thought they were safe, going to Florida. I looked around for the people that were responsible for my parents and found them, Ryan and Clark, standing next to Aden.

Their faces were pleading. They seemed to be truly sorry but I didn’t care. They did this to them. They were supposed to get them out of the state, far away from here.

How did they know they were my parents? Didn’t they look like any ordinary couple?

“Do you feel confident now?”

This was a nightmare! How can every person she loved and cared about get dragged into this? This was not happening.

I heard a low growl and looked at Aden. He was almost in crouch but still up right. He was looking at the hallway behind me.

I quickly turned around to see what it was. There staring me in the face was a very thirsty vampire.