Lethal Sins (Feral Souls Series - II)

Chapter Two

|Amena|

Being holed up in their village house, knowing what carnage had been wreaked outside, Amena loathed being a witch word-bound to the devil, Malcolm, himself. She felt like the worst kind of a coward. Who in their right mind would let hundreds of people die but save seven? And for what? For some silly notion of the 'greater good'? She couldn't comprehend why Sorcha had made that bargain but she knew her cousin always had a reason and a plan, as for of as it may sound.

With her head full of these thoughts, Amena walked down the stairs to Sorcha's living room. It was right beneath the stairs. With an L-shaped couch, the one they had turned into a bed to accommodate the cousins, the living area was full of plants, giving it an extremely cozy vibe. A vibe that they, currently, did not feel as it was now shrouded in cold.

Three of her fellow witches, also distant cousins, sat huddled together, discussing herbs as though the world was not out there ending, as they spoke. She found Sorcha sitting on the kitchen island, deep in thought. Her mouth supported a pout and her eyebrows were furrowed. Amena could tell that her cousin was lost deep in thought, pondering hard over the newest addition to the coven and what her predicament meant.

Two days ago, potentially dangerous incidents had taken place in the nearest coven. The vampire, Malcolm, had attacked the coven in the middle of the night but the witches there had been able to hold out for most of the attack, shielding as many wolf-kin as possible. They had attacked the vampires and caused a distraction for the wolves; some had even covered for them with their lives. But Malcolm had turned the tide around by targeting the humans and then goading the witches' hearts by inciting guilt.

Moments into their forced surrender, the vampires had hunted down all the escaped wolves and killed them along with the witches and humans alike. They hadn't left anyone alive in the wake of their attack.

Amena was divided then. Was it better to be alive but a traitor or die honorably? The answer had arrived last night in the form of Sorcha's dream.

Her grandmother, crying uncontrollably, had appeared to Sorcha. She could only convey her message in single and broken words as forming coherent sentences could have taken a heavy toll on Sorcha's health. Sorcha had described that the area surrounding her grandmother had seemed to be lacking any solid ground, she saw a great void beneath their feet. And even though her grandmother had been hovering over the dark abyss, Sorcha's feet were planted on nothing.

The sky had honed two moons, an apparition of Earth with one half on fire. She had also seen a misty silhouette flying haphazardly around them but did not bother them either.

"Celeste... not wrong... danger... save... needs... destruction." And with that said, her grandmother had faded away and Sorcha had awoken with a scream stuck in her throat. Without wasting another moment, she had called for the coven and with everyone gathered in the library, she had given Colina a call.

It was surprising that despite the late hour, Colina sounded fully awake. The conversation that took place, then, explained why that was the case.

They had thought that calling Colina would help them with some insight or maybe she could decipher what her mother was trying to convey however, Colina's response had rendered everyone speechless. Cold shivers had travelled down Amena's body.

Even before Sorcha could have told Colina about the interaction with her grandmother, Colina had exclaimed, "thank heavens that you called Sorcha!"

"Celeste and Elliot had betrayed the clan. They were working for Malcolm."

Sorcha looked each of her cousins in the eye but as she opened her mouth to reply, Colina spoke again.

"I had a dream. Mother wanted to tell me something about Celeste but I couldn't fully understand her."

Everyone's faces went ashen.

"I dreamt something similar last night, aunty," Sorcha replied.

"What did she say to you? Maybe we could form some sense out of both the dreams combined." Colina wondered out loud.

When Sorcha told her about the unintelligible words, and Colina agreed to have heard the same, no one knew what to make of it or do next.

Amena had decided to break the silence then. "I think your grandmother was partly trying to tell you that Celeste is in danger, and needs saving." She paused, "also I believe your grandmother thinks Celeste to be innocent."

"Or," Mikki interrupted, "it could mean that Celeste is the danger everyone needs saving from."

Hearing these possibilities, Colina took a deep breath. To Amena, it seemed as though she was steeling herself to whatever it may mean about her daughter because how could one know that their daughter was responsible for the death of innumerable kin and yet not break? If Amena were to guess, a mother would always go with the former.

She was proven right when Colina breathed, "Sorcha, I need your help."

|Xavier|

The day after Elliot, Celeste and Callahan, the traitor trio, had been captured, Blayne had refused to leave his rooms. Worried about his health, Colina had decided to stay with her husband. But how could the Alpha and Luna of the pack that had been wrong have the same privilege to hide behind closed doors. No. They had responsibilities – to bring justice, calm the upheaval caused by Elliot's betrayal but foremost, to protect their people from the imminent threat.

Xavier did not want to fail them this time around. His people, his kin, had given him a second chance and Xavier knew that he would upend the world to ensure that they didn't regret it.

However, the father in him kept telling him to talk to his boy once; to try and understand his reasons.

"Silence," Dominic's voice echoed through the hall, bringing Xavier out of his thoughts. The people were whispering amongst each other. Xavier heard a few fragments of their conversation.

"...just like his father." "family of betrayers" "how can we trust the Alpha?"

From Greta's pale face and mouth set in a tight line, he could tell that she had also heard them. He decided to let them speculate as they were right to wonder.

"My people," he said with a sombre voice, on reaching the podium, "I know you are all angry and are absolutely right in feeling so. I am not here to negate your feelings or justify my son's or his mate's actions. Neither would I be any lenient with their treatment. They are traitors as much as Callahan is and all three of them would be punished justly."

"We do not wish to hear fancy words Alpha; we want the traitors to hang for the lives lost because of them. If not in the other villages then in our pack." Xavier recognized the speaker as the mother of one of the wolves that had turned feral during Elliot's wedding announcement.

"Justice will be served." Xavier's voice vibrated with authority, "tomorrow night, we will all gather for the trial of the traitors – Callahan, Celeste and Elliot." He masked the heaviness that came over his heart on saying his son's name in this context.

There was scattered applause from the pack but some faces were still deeply frowning; emanating anger.

"We are to believe that all the traitors have been caught. Therefore, all of you may return to your daily lives. However, the threat hasn't completely passed yet. We are to believe that the enemy's forces are still at large and are moving rapidly in our pack's direction. Thus, all of those capable of joining a fight for the protection of the pack will assemble in the grounds outside the grand hall an hour and a half after the morning meals, every day, starting today." 

With that, Xavier and Greta stepped down as the pack members hooted their appreciation and agreement; all of them ready and eager to kill.