Torn Between Souls

MAMA

MATTEOPOV

I was drumming my fingers on the table, over and over again.

Tap, tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap.

“Matteo!” Elisa hissed, loudly.

My eyes snapped up to hers, and the look in my eyes made her- my mother, so feared and respected, take a step back. She never backed down, but she had no choice but to back away. Elisa took me in.

I still had no shirt on, wearing the sweatpants I had crawled into bed next to Rose in over 26 hours ago. There was dried blood on my arms from when I splintered the door to the garden, racing out to where I heard Rose scream. I closed my eyes, reliving it, as I had been, over and over again.

I’m downstairs in a matter of moments, just in time to hear her scream.

Faster than possible, even for a vampire, I reach the door to the garden, but it’s as if there is an invisible wall up, not allowing me to open it.

“Rose!” I roar, as my hand beats and tears the door, the wood splintering in every direction.

I was crazed, like an animal, but I had to get to her. I had to get to Rose. The door finally gave way, and I broke into the garden, my eyes scanning the scenery frantically. I looked into the sky and caught a glimpse of fiery hair disappearing into the distance, behind a mountain. I roared again and began to run.

“Matteo!” Elisa’s voice echoed in my ears, but I was running, I couldn’t stop.

I was deep in the woods when Elisa caught up to me, Marianne in tow, standing in front of me.

“Get out of my way!” I roared, my hands braced to fight her.

Fight Elisa. Fight Marianne. This is what that beautiful girl had done to me. I needed her back.

“No!” Elisa cried, “Stop acting like a fool! If you want to save her you have to use your head. Come back to the Manor, and we will figure it out.”

“I could've caught up to her,” I yelled back into her face.

Suddenly, anguish rolled over me, and I collapsed to my knees, holding my head in my hands.

“I could’ve caught up to her…”

Since then, worse than having no idea where she was, I could feel that she was in pain. It was like a dull ache, all over, but I knew it was her. My Fated. My flower. My love. My Rose.

“Your brother is approaching the Manor,” Elisa continued, “He is not thrilled. You should’ve called him.”

I growled lowly at Elisa, baring my fangs before I rose to my chair, “If Jeremy dare say a word, I will kill him.”

“I’d beat you to it, brother,” said Ada’s lithe voice, as she stepped into the dining hall.

Her blond hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and her eyes were concerned as she walked towards me, planting a kiss on my cheek.

Elisa smiled softly, “Ada, thank you for coming for Matteo.”

She nodded, sitting in one of the tall backed chairs, “Rose is precious to him, so she is precious to me. I took a liking to her when I was here.”

She turned to me, “What can I do, Matteo?”

Suddenly, Jeremy’s loud voice boomed into the dining hall, as in an instant he stood in front of me, fangs bared, “The witch?!”

I threw my chair back, baring my own fangs at him, “That witch is my Fated!”

“You could’ve severed the bond,” he hisses, his eyes glaring into mine.

“I would’ve never suggested you do that to Elena, brother, so I suggest you watch your tone,” I growl in response.

We face off for a few more moments, and finally, his posture relaxes, and he puts away his teeth. I relax as well, but only slightly, choosing to clutch the ends of the table.

“I need your help,” I say in a firm, but quiet voice, “A witch took her... she’s masking her scent, and I can’t track her.”

“Go clean yourself up, Matteo, you’re filthy,” responds Jeremy in a tight voice, “I will pull out some things.”

I knew Jeremy and I did not agree on this, but I was grateful for his help. I set my hand on his shoulder for a moment, before quickly showering and dressing. When I returned only minutes later, Jeremy had a few large maps on the table. Marianne was serving everyone blood and wine. Elisa was on the phone, letting people in the village know there was a missing person. Ada was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to speak.

If my heart wasn’t tearing, I would have relished this moment. It has been almost a hundred years since we were all gathered here, less a few faces.

“Which way did they go?” Jeremy asks.

“East,” I respond instantly.

Jeremy jumps in to gear, beginning to point things out on the maps, and I listen intently.

I’m coming, mio fiore.

ROSEPOV

My mother stares back at me in the soft glow in the dark, and nods, “Yes, little sun.”

“Are you...are you really…” I struggle to speak the words, and not just due to the hoarseness in my throat.

“I am, and I’m not,” she says softly, “The last of your father and I’s spell is unraveling. This is one of its conditions. One of my conditions.”

“What spell?” I ask, and this time, I break into a coughing fit, blood spattering across my hand, and I shiver.

“Little sun, I’m going to tell you a story,” she says, with sadness in her voice, “It is a difficult one, as it is the last story I will ever tell you.”

Tears prick my eyes, but I give a small, sure nod to her.

“Your father and I come from a long line of witches. Your great, great, great, great grandmother was one of the first killed in the Salem witch trials. Your father held abilities that witches haven’t possessed in hundreds of years thanks to his mother's union with a Fae. We were not to be together. We were not Fated, both of us born wielding so much magic, we were actually quite the opposite together.”

“But I loved your father, and he loved me. And I got pregnant with you, and your sister. I knew instantly you were twins, and I knew instantly the threat people would find in both of you. I wanted to run at first but....one of my abilities...it let us see what we needed to do. So we told everyone, our own coven, the council, everyone, that we were pregnant with only one, and we used magic to hide you, Rose.”

I was watching her intently. A rational part of me assumed this was a hallucination, but I knew I had never heard this story before. She continued.

“I gave birth to her first. She was beautiful. Excruciatingly gorgeous. Not a hair out of place...and I handed her to a nurse I knew was under compulsion, and I held you from making your passage into this world as long as I could. And then came you, my daughter. You were born cold. Your heartbeat was so slow. The doctors and nurses rushed to take you from me, but I wouldn’t let them. I waited. And I waited.”

“All of a sudden, an intense pain ran through me, and I knew it was done when you opened the pinkest pair of lips and began to wail. Your father and I mourned the loss of our eldest daughter, but we knew the goddess had taken her from us for a reason. For you. For him.”

“But you were still not safe. We left the coven, claiming the loss of our daughter. We shunned ourselves from the coven. We chose to be exiled by the council. And we poured all of our magic, almost every last drop, into you. Into a spell I found, that bound your magic, weaving it not into just a pattern under your skin, but into the very marrow in your bones, the blood in your veins, and the sinew of your muscles.”

“You were three years old when your father’s ability gave us a vision. Your Mate. We knew our time with you would be short and so...we began to tie your magic to him. Without him ever knowing. It was as if we have kept everything behind a door, and suddenly decided to change the locks.”

She almost chuckles, and I smile softly, feeling the tears running down my cheeks.

“It took almost everything we had. And it was not long before they found us...and we learned of the consequences we weren’t aware of. You see, little sun, there has never been a cross-species Fated before. Not ever, in the history of time. But we saw the goddess bind him to you, and we made that bond strong but it...created another bond. With a darker force.”

“He who you know is the key. He is the answer to every question, and you will do things with him to save our people that you can never fathom. And with he who you don’t know...it is with him that lies destruction...but also salvation. You will face nightmares, my dear girl, you will face more pain than you can imagine.”

Her voice is barely a whisper, and I can feel her begin to fade away. My heart catches but I can’t speak.

“Hold fast to him who you know, little sun. Learn who you are. Protect those you love with everything in you. I have seen so much and yet know so little. But know that we are unimaginably proud of you.”

“Wait,” I whimper, my voice desperately hoarse, as the tears continue to fall.

Her light grows dimmer and dimmer. Her face becoming more and more translucent.

“I can’t lose you again,” I croak.

She smiles a sad smile, “I am in you my little sun, always. Now call to him. He needs you. You need him.”

“How am I supposed to get out of here?” I sob, “How can I get back to him?”

As the last of the light fades from the room, I hear her once more.

“Call to him.”

She is gone. My mother is gone. I writhe in pain on the floor, my body aching unimaginably. I close my eyes, whimpering in the darkness.

“Matteo,” I whisper, “Please…”

The darkness surrounds me, deafening me until all I can hear is my own, slow heart, and the sound of my breathing.

Matteo.