Alliance

Powerlessness.

That alone now fills Nova's heart. Her mind seems to have a blackout and she just stares blankly at Rosemary who keeps smiling. Her full lips form a wide smile on her face, but Nova no longer sees a single grain of innocence or compassion in it like when she first saw her.

"Please, you may leave," Rosemary says in a bold voice, pointing elegantly at the front door.

However, all three hesitate for a small moment. How could they be sure that this is not another trap or just a trick to play with them?

Their eyes focus on the large door leading outside and then back to Faye, who is frowning and she'd rather be slitting Rosemary's throat right now.

"I understand. You don't have to worry about her. I'll keep a very good eye on her, well at least I'll try. it's all up to you three."

"And if I refuse?" Aiden who was silent the whole time finally speaks up.

There was determination and arrogance in his voice. Nova understood that he wasn't exactly the type to listen to Rosemary, or anyone else. He's had enough orders, that's why Nova is here because he refused to listen to Rosemary and do what she wanted him to do, but how can anyone blame him?

"Like I said. It's all up to you." Rosemary repeats.

Kalen glares at the other vampire and Aiden just shrugs.

"I understand that you already have these two wrapped around your finger, but not me. There's nothing in it for me, I don't have a single reason why I would help Faith in particular. In the past, she made it quite clear how she felt about me." says Aiden with a confident tone.

"When I get out of here, I'll kill you before this witch gets a chance!" Faye yells angrily as Rosemary still holds her tightly.

"I don't know why are you making such a big deal out of this, I know full well that if I were you right now, you wouldn't even try to help me."

They all talk over each other and before long it just turns into a big necessary fight between Faye and Aiden. But Nova notices Rosemary who closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, her smile slowly changes and the corners of her lips fall down, starting to form an annoyed expression.

"We'll do it!" Nova raises her voice and angrily looks at Aiden, who fell silent as soon as he heard her sharp voice.

"At least one of you understands your situation. As I said, you have 48 hours. Don't make me repeat again."

Rosemary then looks at the men holding Nova and Aiden and orders them both to let go. Nova lowers her head and walks past Faye who watches everyone nervously.

On the outside, she always tries to appear independent and fearless, but after a long time, she starts to feel one of the emotions that she did not miss at all.

Fear.

Fear of the unknown.

It reminded her of her human life when she looked at the ceiling of her room at night and was terrified of what would happen in the future.

"Be strong Faye, we'll be back as soon as we can," Nova whispers to her, heading for the door.

Kalen follows close behind her and gently touches Faye's arm. "We'll do anything to get you out of here, I promise. I won't let her hurt you again."

"Oh and Aiden, I almost forgot. Try to leave town or make problems and I'll have to take drastic action. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about." Rosemary adds, nodding at him.

Aiden ignores everyone and runs ahead of them, opening the massive door and stepping out into the dark garden, which is illuminated by several small lights that are hidden in large flower bushes.

The neighborhood is dark and cold and they hear several cars drive by. Aiden takes a breath of fresh air and looks towards Nova and Kalen who slowly join him. Rosemary waves innocently behind them and her face disappears behind the large front door.

Nova shivers and rubs her palms together. Kalen looks over his shoulder once more, then back at the two standing before him.

Aiden puts his hands over his head and stretches with a yawn. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm leaving. I've been here way too long for one day."

"Wait a minute, didn't you hear what Rosemary said? They have Rosalie and Faye, we can't just walk away without at least trying to find out what she's up to." Nova stops him and grabs his arm.

Aiden furrows his brows and looks at her hand, which touches him. "Watch me."

"Rosemary has something you want right Aiden?"

However, Nova doesn't give up and keeps looking at the boy in front of her who is looking away from her.

"That's my business and mine alone. No one will take responsibility for what happened and I'm not going to be dragged around like a pawn just because Rosemary decided to destroy another life again."

Nova stops for a moment and slowly realizes why Aiden is looking at her so hurt. He also lost something because of Rosemary and blames himself for it.

However, her thoughts are stopped by Kalen, who has been watching everything silently until now.

"You're weak. You always give speeches about how it's wrong to feel something toward anything other than yourself. That's the crushing part of being a vampire, isn't it? Pretending there's nothing inside, just a shell of someone who already died a long time ago!"

Kalen pushes him away from Nova with his palm and looks at him blankly, noticing that his words are getting under Aiden's skin.

"You know nothing about me, Kalen. I'm not like you."

"That's the problem, you're so much like me it's eating you up from the inside. Come on, admit it."

Nova notices Aiden grit his teeth and his crimson eyes slowly lose their color. Black eyes take their place and cover his pupils.

In a quick movement that Nova failed to notice, he heads straight for Kalen and knocks him down onto the wet grass. They switch positions a few times and several times Nova hears loud bangs and quick movements of their arms.

"You're a disgrace to the vampires Kalen!" screams Aiden who is sitting on top of Kalen, his nails digging into his pale skin.

"Maybe, but I never chose this fucked up life! I wanted a normal human life, I never wanted this!" Kalen screams back.

They fight more, more screams, more cracking of their bones that heal in an instant. More of the noises that are echoing all around the girl right next to them.

Panic engulfs her entire body as she looks at the blurs around her that were moving from place to place. Nova closes her eyes and puts her hands over her ears to block out their eternal cursing and the sounds of battle, which took place between two vampires.

"Enough," she whispers into the cold evening.

Suddenly everything goes quiet. The sounds around her stopped, the fast currents of air that moved around her died down and she no longer heard the voices of the two boys.

Aiden is lying on the ground with several blood stains on his face. His wet hair was tangled up and all around him.

His hands were still tightly gripping Kalen, who was leaning over him. His black strands of hair fall into his face and his bloody fingers grip Aiden's skinny neck.

"We're just wasting time with this. For a little while, I thought even vampires could feel and care, but now that I see it, my grandmother was right. You're nothing more than bloodthirsty monsters."

Both of them stare at her, and Kalen is the only one who gets up and quickly heads toward her.

Nova, however, has already turned her back and is heading away from them. How could she be so trusting, how could she be fooled by something that wasn't even human and how could she sympathize with them?

"Nova, wait. Kalen stops her and grabs her hand.

Nova stands still and refuses to turn around.

"I've seen multiple corpses in one single week, my best friend is being held by a crazy witch who is several centuries old and it seems Kai was one of them this whole time. I'm only 17 years old Kalen, no one should ever have to go through this."

Kalen listens quietly when Aiden breaks the silence. "Rosemary won't live to see another year, I promise.

"We have to find out what Rosemary meant by the ashes. There's no other choice, I won't let her take anything else from me." Nova says confidently.

Faye turns her head from side to side, taking in the smaller room around her. There is nothing here, a smaller rectangular window with several rusty bars on it, dirty stone walls, and a floor covered in dust.

In a few rays of sunlight coming from the tiny window, she notices specks of dust in the air, and then her eyes focus on a large wooden door with a metal lock.

She is sitting on a wooden chair, her hands are locked in strong shackles and her legs are tied to the chair with a heavy metal chain that could not be broken off.

It shouldn't be a problem for her to break it, but as soon as she pushes hard, she feels a sharp pain in her back, she could describe it as being stabbed with a long pin that kept spinning round and round. There is definitely something in the chair that was supposed to keep her in one place.

Next to the chair, she notices a small wooden stool and a table with a silver tray and several utensils that reminded her of a hospital. Her blonde hair sits on her shoulders and falls into her eyes.

At that moment, she hears the massive door move, and the elegant figure steps in.

"Rosemary." Faye hisses, looking at the witch with one eye as she had a strand of her hair over the other.

With a smile on her face, Rosemary sits down on the small stool next to her, dusts off her long skirt, and puts her hands in her lap.

"My dear Faith. How would you like to know who you truly are?"