Bound By Blood

Chapter 3: No Rest for the Wicked

Amber’s POV:

“Hello?” The voice of the newest supernatural creature I’d managed to pull off the streets and use for a test subject. “Hello? Is anyone there?” I can hear them repeatedly banging against the bars of their cage amongst the moans they kept giving. “Hello?”

"Ugh, can she yell any louder?" Kali mumbles, banging her head against the wall. Laughing to myself, I lean against the wall, focusing on what I can hear beyond the girl’s panicked heart. She’s a pretty one, this new supernatural. "Aargh, can you stop smiling like that?" Kali mumbled where she’d rested her head in her arms. "It’s not like it’s annoying yet, Amber." Kali’s use of my full name tips me off that I may be pushing her too far. "What’s so funny? No, better yet what diabolical plan have you up your sleeve that’s got you smiling like that?" Her eye regards me warily. Best hope she doesn’t push me too far.

“Nothing just wondering what to do with our latest conquest,” I muse aloud, seeing the girl look around with a confused expression that has me feeling a certain kind of selfish joy at the pain I can cause the four that ruined my life. More than once. “After all she is a special friend to most of the ones on the other side of this ridiculous game that we’re still playing. One we should have won by now mind you.” I snort in amusement and roll my eyes when I see the witch in question try to fight her way out of the enchanted steel cage. Though to what end I don’t want to know since it would probably just provoke my ire. Something dangerous to do. “Maybe she’ll be the reason they c***k and come out of hiding after six months, who knows.”

This time it’s Kali’s turn to snort at me. “You and I both know it’s our side that’s been doing the hiding Amb since most of the weaker ones are still recovering from the accursed magic the four possess that can tip the scales into their favor if wielded right. Luckily for us though the combination of the chant being spoken with fewer people there than is optimum and that they’d been hurt - plus the two girls being pregnant - meant that we’re here and not rotting in the ground.” She groans and runs a hand through her thick hair, her eyes fixed on somewhere I can’t see. “That and you know they’re all at the palace in Aerilion since Hunter and Rosalia are the reigning monarchs there. Along with the knowledge that Asher is Hunter's brother and Leila is married to him so that offers her protection whilst she and Rosalia are unable to play since they're helping us hurry the game along past this stalemate. With them, both still pregnant though I don’t think they have long to go.”

I sat down and looked off into space when she mentioned my accursed slut of a half-sister’s happiness before something else took root in my mind. A dark and devious plan that would make me feel a hundred times better if we could enact it since it would hurt more than just the four who had physically attacked us. It would wound the whole lot of them and possibly cause their side to fall apart. Thus meaning we won both the game and the war without so much as lifting a finger. Let them do the work for us.

“How many of them are like that? Pregnant I mean, besides Rosalia and Leila? Are they the only ones or are there more that we didn’t know about?” I looked between Kali and the screens that showed me perfectly where all our hostages were. Including my newest addition, the witch Asica who I’d managed to save from when she’d attempted the k******e phoenix destruction spell years ago after trying and failing to save Rosalia. It was her we managed to torture the exact location of the lakehouse out of, meaning we were able to complete the plan I’d set out. “How many of those around the four are also like that, thus being in a compromising situation?”

Kali frowns, sitting up properly and pulling the front section of her hair back, securing it with an iron clasp that blended in seamlessly with her dark brown hair. “Why what diabolical plan do you have up your sleeve now sister?” She gives me one of her searching looks but I’d long since made myself immune to that kind of persuasion. Something she saw when I refused to respond to her. Sighing and rolling her eyes she closes them for a second before she starts talking. “The Lilias witches also seem to be expecting soon - around the same time as the other two, I think - a girl if I’m right. Oh, and also the Damaris vampires, again a girl. I think other than that.. no sorry one more. The Cassidy wolves as well seem to be expecting a child - no sorry triplets - but theirs I can tell the genders of despite them all being around the same maternity time. Perhaps because they’re using a spell to hide it since I can’t think it’s because they don’t know what with how far along the she-wolf is.” She opens her eyes again and looks at me with a puzzled expression, “Why? What were you planning?”

I pondered over the news Kali had delivered me for a few seconds. The Lilias witches are a new addition to Eris Murdock and Rosalia’s covens. They were close friends of the four, and the Damaris vampires had been close allies with the Ladouceur two long before they found their other halves. The Cassidy wolves were also important to Rosalia. Good for them in terms of safety in numbers… well, until they’re found.

“Any other names you feel like springing for me, Kals?” I ask her, calling her by a nickname I hadn’t used in decades but that still made her smile. “Like for example the name of the other halves of the two children my accursed slut of a half-sister and that Briar girl are carrying? Names? Packs? Families, I can haunt, hunt and destroy?” I give her a shrug and she returns it with a calculating look that speaks of years of cruelty and stored up abuse. “Anything at all that could be of use?”

“No nothing,” Kali responds, closing her eyes for a second time that day to try and figure out what I needed her to find. Eyes moving side to side under closed lids I can see her hunting methodically for a few minutes to try and see the connections between people who were already bound so tightly into the fabric of this game - their partners too who would be Bound and Mated to them - that their parents wouldn’t be able to delude themselves into thinking they had a chance to keep them out of is. “Wait,” Kali speaks up from where her eyes were still closed but I can see a cruel grin tipping up the sides of her mouth in a wicked smile. “I’m seeing three sets of names.” She frowns a little more to see if they get clearer but I’m just impatient to know who I can go kill. Or m**m and torture if that’s what it calls for.

“Which are?”

My ire seemed to have reached its limit for control given how I snap at Kali when she’s too slow to answer my questions. She rolls her eyes and shrugs, eyes still moving rapidly quickly to see if she could locate the deeper meaning behind the three elusive names she seemed to have found but aren’t able to tell me. Staring at her she flips me off and I huff an agitated sigh, dropping theatrically back onto the chair I’d vacated only seconds before when I’d stood to see if she could tell me anything of use. Something she does a second later, her eyes opening in a flash to reveal her unusual silver eyes that are alight with cruelty.

“I can get the surnames Chessler, Chelsea and Fidel. My guess is it’s one surname per family with a wolf child.” She shrugs, “The name I got of Chessler seemed to be a male descendant, possibly the son of an alpha, so I’m guessing that’s for either Kalliope or Edana - one of the royal children. The name Fidel gave me a male and female name - an older brother and slightly younger sister if you will but both the same age, just born a few hours apart - so that could be for the other royal family member and his sister or one of the Cassidy triplets. Either or.”

“And the name Chelsea? What does that have to do with it?” I give her a look to see if she’ll divulge any more secrets. “And what about the pack the three names belong to because I’m not usually led wrong by my feelings and this one says I can kill three birds with one stone. And easily as well.” I smile widely at the idea of causing torment and suffering to the future children on the other side of this pointless game. Kali gives me a teasing look and I stifle a groan of frustration. “Come on Kal don’t be a tease, just tell me who I can get to kill and let’s be done with it so I can torture our favourite witch about information before we round up a few other hapless lost souls who can be used the same way.” Memories of being able to secure and transfer a few come to my mind but my mood darkens when I remember losing the vampire-demon Aria, wolf Ava and angel-faery Cana to Rosalia and the others when they managed to find their way back and free as many of the children as possible before we moved the rest.

“The name Chelsea gave me two female names, sisters the same age as the Fidel two so maybe they’re related or something? Like cousins?” Kali tries to pass off her latest finds as a shrug but I get the feeling she knows more than she’s letting on, she just won’t tell me. At least not right now. “And as for their pack you were right,” Kali’s eyes had slipped shut again but I could tell she was looking and telling me what he found. “All three families - the Chessler family being the alpha’s and two other families - Fidel and Chelsea being betas - all belong to the same pack. The Litha Moon I believe.”

I smile widely at that but that’s still not enough names. I know the Cassidy’s children are triplets which could potentially take care of the remaining Fidel sister and two Chelsea girls - and that the Chessler boy was for Rosalia’s slut of a daughter. Just as I was aware that the Fidel boy would be for Leila’s skanky daughter. So what about the pregnant vampire who was having a girl? The Damaris child? Or the Lilias girl once she’s born? Or Eris’s daughter? Surely all had soulmate/Soulbound companions who would be dragged into this sooner or later due to their affiliation with the doomed lot.

“And what of the Lilias girl?” I ask with what I hope is a mildly interested tone. “Or the Damaris child? Or Eris’s daughter? Surely they also have soulmates or Soulbound companions who can be targeted if not at this stage in the game than another closer to the time we take out the original four.” I know the Cassidy triplets would be mated to the Fidel and Chelsea girls as much as I was sure the Chessler boy was for Rosalia’s daughter and the Fidel boy for Leila’s. “Surely you can do a little more digging for an old friend and find out a few more names.”

Kali laughed with a dark tone, saying, "You are devious, aren't you?" I shrugged and waited for her to find the names I needed to ensure my victory. "Ok, I’ll have another look, but I don’t know how accurate my information is… unless you’ve got a confirming feeling." I nodded, and she continued, "For the Lilias girl, I’m seeing the surname Daven. But I can’t see the first name, which could indicate that - like all the others - he hasn’t been born yet." She then mentioned the name Night for Eris’s daughter and Lazlo for the Damaris girl, an old and esteemed family. "Does that satisfy your urge to m**m and kill yet Amb?" she asked, cautioning me not to go after them all at once.

“Duly noted,” I reply, smirking deviously at that and standing up from the chair again, grabbing my leather jacket on the way out the door as I tied my long dark hair - the one trademark I shared with my sister - into a sleek high ponytail before turning my head towards where Kali had opened her eyes but not moved. Sighing and rolling my eyes I gestured for her to follow me and started out the door, my boots sounding on the stone floors like gunshots.

“Come on Kal, we have a witch to torture, families to discover and possibly m**m and a pack of wolves to murder,” I call back when she follows me out the door, “You wouldn’t want to leave me to do it all by myself would you?” I turn back to see her following me with a cruel grin on her face. “Ready or not, here we come,” I mumbled as I disappeared off into the darkness that had been my home for so long. Ready to cause a ripple. Though how deep it went - and when I completed it all - I had yet to decide. But that was the beauty of both you and your competition living forever. All you have is time.