Chapter 12 - Poisoned

Ivy watched in horror as the girl she was ordered to protect looked so sick and pale. She had caught the kitchen maid, leaning over Kelly, holding a bunch of dried stems, which were tied together, to look like a person. She held a knife in the other hand, ready to stab the hand-made person with it. With her combat skills, she tackled the witch to the floor, stopping her from completing the spell. A fight broke out in the living room, but with Oliver's sneak attack, the witch was brought to her knees.

Kelly looked sickly, her body temperature really hot and her lips, the shade of light purple. Ivy didn't need anyone to tell her that the little hybrid had little time left and no more time needed to be wasted.

"Is she willing to cooperate?" Ivy asked Oliver who had just walked in.

"No she won't remove the poison, she'd rather die"

Oliver had resulted to using his torture schemes to get the witch to heal Kelly of whatever poison she used.

"Well, that's tempting," Ivy said, sounding sarcastic.

"Should we just wait for lord Damien to return," Oliver suggested.

"I mean, he's the master of torture, he'll get it out of her in seconds. I wouldn't want to be her"

"No, no way. I'm supposed to protect her with my life, remember… What do you think he'll do to me? To us…" Ivy said.

"Fair enough. We have today, till tomorrow afternoon to figure it out, except he somehow returns today, then we're toast" Oliver said, turning to continue his tactics on the witch maid.

"Leave it, I'll get it out of her" Ivy walked past him to meet the witch. They had tied her up in one of the dark empty rooms with ropes.

Ivy knew a lot about people and their weaknesses since she's moved around a lot. The best way to get the witch to reverse the spell is to threaten her life. The witches are not like other supernaturals. They are mortals, but they age really slowly. They can be killed with mere things that kill the humans, that's why they have sorcery to protect themselves, but since this little one isn't scared of death, another method had to be used.

"Aren't you two tired? I'm not gonna heal her, she needs to die. She's a hybrid" The witch said, her eyes drooping and some parts of her body wounded. Ivy didn't want to know what Oliver did to her but she looked terrible and definitely very stubborn too.

"I knew you'd say that" Ivy said, bringing in a trolley with a bowl of water in it.

"Best to say, I'm just an amateur, my methods are not the best but I can do what I can while we wait for lord Damien to be back from his journey" Ivy said, noticing the changing look on the witches' face.

"And you know how merciless he can be." Ivy said, lowering the bowl to the ground in front of the witch.

"I'm sure he'd go easy on you and just chop off your fingers or slowly roast this wound," Ivy said, sticking her gloved hand into an open wound on her skin, making the witch scream in pain and agony.

"Do you think he'll let you get away with trying to kill his precious guest? I can't wait to see when he burns your beautiful face,"

"Or maybe he'll pluck out one of your eyes and make you watch him feed them to the hellhounds and you know the best part…" Ivy said, pulling the girl's hair to look at her.

"It'll be a slow and painful death for you and you'll beg to tell him the cure but as always he shows no mercy. Your body won't be found, except the ashes left off from his deadly flames" Ivy said again pushing her head into the water. The water bubbled violently from the struggles and unsteady breathing of the witch. Ivy didn't like to torture people but in her years of living around, she had learned survival instinct and in this case, it's either the witch or her and she picked herself.

Oliver squeezed the cloth and gently placed it on Kelly's head. He would have had one of the maids do it but he didn't trust any of them anymore.

"Sir Oliver" A female voice called and he looked to see a young nymph. Her eyes as green as the earth itself and her hair reaching below her waist.

"I…I can help reduce the pain, but it only lasts for a while. I'm still working on my powers"

"Lola won't reverse the spell that easily. She's stubborn. The hybrid will die before Miss Ivy gets her to undo it" Oliver looked at the maid skeptically. Though she looked innocent and a little ignorant, she could be lying and plotting her own method to kill the already weakened hybrid.

Kelly moaned in pain, her teeth gnashing against each other and her eyeballs rolling like she was having a seizure. He looked at the young girl whose eyes were on her feet and he made his decision.

"Do what you need to do," he said, placing his pocket knife on her neck. He always had it with him because he had trust issues.

"...just in case you get any ideas"

The little maid waved her hand over Kelly's body.

Kelly groaned, turning on the bed, slowly opening her eyes.

"Interesting…what's your name?" Oliver asked with a smile.

"Melody," she replied, returning the smile.

"So how long do we have?"

"Not much time, but it should be enough"

"Damien…?"

"Miss Kelly…" Oliver said, taking the cloth from Kelly.

"Oliver? What happened?" Kelly said, trying to sit up, her voice low and inaudible.

"Stay still, miss, you should rest," Oliver said, laying her back down on the bed.

"Did you see her, that girl…she poisoned me" Kelly said recalling what happened.

"Yes…we caught her. Everything's fine now"

"Who's she?" Kelly asked, spotting the maid.

"She volunteered to help. She…bought us some more time" Oliver explained, trying not to disclose every detail so Kelly wouldn't panic.

"Time for what?" Kelly asked.

"Time for what?" A deep masculine voice sounded, making everyone jolt in shock.

Oliver didn't need anyone to tell him who spoke. He knew who that was and that they were all in trouble, especially the witch maid.