The Light Within Her - Book Nine

Ch. 14 - Silence is Deadly

"Every corner of this house is haunted." –Gracie Abrams

***

My eyes burned with the leftover drugs and alcohol in my system as I opened them slowly. The sun was covered in clouds which made my bedroom dark and gloomy, just how I feel these last few days. This time, there was no one but me indulging in my bad habits. No one could hold my hair as I threw up in the toilet or stumbled down my bed because of all the drugs I took to kill a normal human. And I let myself believe it was for the best.

It has to be.

The others left me alone but when I was passed out by the side of the toilet, I could feel Rosalind's soft arms around me as she picked me up and took me to my bed. Or last night when Amias placed a coffee mug and a plate of food beside my bed for me, though I never touched it. Even Luc managed to clean up around my room, but I quickly messed it up again. Bea and Emmeline, however, I haven't seen them at all. Oh, well.

My cell phone pinged loudly and I groaned, grabbing it from my bedside table and turning it on. A news article was at the top of my notifications, one of the major new outlets in the Kingdom. VampNews, is what they called themselves. It was sort of a gossip website for Ambrosia that was founded by the one and only Luci Breevort. Though others in the community run it now, I still check it every day. Lately, they've been focused on me and what I've been doing the past few years. I clicked on the news article and read.

Soari Breevort's Vacation Comes to an End!

As we all know, the young Princess has been living in the French Riviera with her two cousins, Emmeline Meryn and Rosalind Ayelet, for the past five years. From jumping off cliffs to swimming in the ocean, these girls have been high on immortality for a while and have stumbled onto a great enemy that could hurt them all. Shadows. That's right, I just said shadows are trying to hurt our favorite young royals. But don't worry, the King of Ambrosia visited and found a way to protect themselves. Not only do they have an unbreakable shield in place but two famous bodyguards to keep them safe: brothers Amias and Luc Guinivere. Yes, those brothers that kept King Sebastian Breevort safe years before. Our girls will be in great hands because the Guinivere's have sworn a blood oath to protect them. Down below is information about the ancient Vampire blood oath.

–Maria Sinclair, editor

"Fuck," I cursed out loud, throwing my phone across my room. Great, everyone knows now. There's nothing that changes this outcome, this unbearable future. My phone rang again and with a growl, I got out of my bed and picked up my cracked screen. As I looked at the caller ID, I realized it was Nyra wanting to video call me. I answered quickly and saw her bright smile first, then her straight pink hair as she wore a formal jumpsuit. "Nyra, hey."

"Sor, you look horrible," she said bluntly. Thanks for the boost of confidence, my adopted niece who was older than me. As she looked closer into the screen, she caught a glimpse of the line of cocaine on my table and the bottles of whiskey laying on the floor. But she knew better than to comment on it. "I just heard the news. Are you alright?"

"I'm peachy," I replied, placing the biggest fake smile I could muster. "How are you, Ny, and where are you now in that dazzling pink hair of yours?" Every time I see her, she has a new hair color, a new appearance and I couldn't help but envy her for it.

Nyra smiled brightly, waving her hair towards the screen like a model. "I'm currently standing in my owl dorm room at Solasta Academy, trying to see if I have my hidden stash somewhere but found nothing." She noticed my confusion so she continued. "I'm speaking with the students here about health and growing pains, all that jazz. Then I'm headed to New York to do the same thing there." She, like my uncle Jasper, are considered the most prestigious doctors in the world with patients lining to heal them from every direction. Though, we rarely get sick, sometimes it's facial wounds or ingesting Witch's blood that could kill them.

Solasta Academy, however, was the school I attended for six years as an adolescent. It was built in between all four Kingdoms and was the safest place for young supernaturals to control our magic. My time there was amazing, to say the least. Though, maybe, not for others since I was so close to being expelled once or twice. Yikes. I'm sure they won't allow me on the grounds ever again if they tried. "You know where to find my stash, Ny," I grinned, thinking about my school years. "I'm pretty sure there is still a little bit of Graves' weed in there, too."

She huffed out a laugh. "Why did we ever take drugs from a Wolf named Graves?"

I chuckled, shaking my head. "No idea, but it definitely was way too strong for the both of us. I still can't remember what I did in Professor Blackwood's class to this day."

"Seriously, Sor!" she laughed again, tilting her head back. "We were practicing how to change our appearance and you had the wicked idea to turn Professor Blackwood's mustache into the shape of a penis then decided to set it on fire!" My grin grew wider as I now recalled that memory, totally impressed by past Soari. "He was so pissed he had the balls to send you, the Princess of Ambrosia, to the office where Principal Orla called your parents. I mean, seriously, I would die to see the look on her face when your Father answered the phone."

"Girl, I was still high out of my mind at that point that I just kept laughing as she tried to speak to my Dad. Orla was so pissed that her face was fucking red and I told her she looked like a tomato, which annoyed my Father. He made a decision to give me a week suspension and clean all the Wolf's shit in the woods." I let out a loud giggle, realizing that one of the few times my Father disciplined me. "Definitely fucking worth it."

Nyra's blue eyes brightened into the screen. "Professor Blackwood was a dick and deserved every fucking minute of it. You were just doing us a favor by being brave enough to do what we all desired." During our time in the academy, we only spent two years together and decided to make the most out of it without any parental figures following us around everywhere we went. I was twelve, she was seventeen and yet I was the one corrupting her. Emmeline and Rosalind were fourteen at the time and even though they were older, still listened to what kind of trouble I wanted to get into at Solasta.

I set my cell phone on my dresser and grabbed a hair tie from the counter, placing my hair into a braid down my back. "When you get into the auditorium, make sure to tell everyone I said hello. It's the least I could do to manage to graduate with decent grades and leave, huh? I bet there's a lot less problems now."

She rolled her eyes, taking a sip of water now before speaking again. "Always the troublemaker, Soari," Nyra teased. She went quiet again as she rummaged around her old dorm room, then yelped out in surprise. "I found it!" My eyes widened as she showed me the years-old joint in a tiny plastic bag, still fresh as ever from what I could tell. Nyra brought it to her nose and smell, inhaling deeply and I laughed. "Oh, Graves, my almighty drug-dealer."

"And to think you're a doctor, Nyra," I joked. "Don't you know it's bad for your health? Maybe you should tell that to the students today."

Nyra shook her head, hiding the joint in her pocket where no one could see as she no doubt will smoke it later. Her bright eyes stared into mine now, winking at me. "The less they know the better, right Sor? Anyway, I am now demanding you to take a shower. I can sense the stench all the way here. Then, after the shower, clean your fucking room. No one living there wants to see the hard drugs you've been taking now that everyone wants to see you. I love you and want you to feel better, alright?"

I rolled my eyes. "Define alright when my life's a fucking mess, Nyra. Meli won't talk to me for making the choice to complete the blood oath and Rosalind is lurking around the house like a ghost. Bea is nowhere to be seen at all."

"Have you considered apologizing to them?" Nyra questioned, raising an eyebrow. "It was partly your choice in the matter, but Sebastian was the one that ordered it to protect you if I'm correct. We all know your Father won't let you do anything you don't want to do. They aren't just your family, Sor, but your best friends. Talk to them."

I can't.

They will want a reason for it, but I simply have no answer. And if I did, they would have trouble with the law, so would Amias and Luc. But maybe I can give them a bullshit reason for it, maybe give them an ounce of a lie that will somehow convince all of us that it's true.

But before I could do anything, Lyssa de Blaire lingered by the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. Her jaw was clenched as she said, "There's been another attack."