Bitter Revenge

Chapter 36

(Scarlet Everly's POV)

It all happened so fast. One second, me and Fiona were reacting to the sound of something being thrown– the next, I'm holding her as she struggled to breathe, blood pouring out of her chest and she kept spitting out extra blood. Until the lack of sufficient oxygen and the burning of iron got to her, and she passed out. The fear that struck me when I saw 17 year old Fiona dead in front of her house seems like nothing compared to now. I had taken off my jacket and tied it at her back, letting the back of my jacket absorb the incessant bleeding. I could hear Stella fighting, her heartbeat was so loud– Fiona would be happy about that. I stood up and laid Fiona carefully on the ground, staying in just my once white button up to face the Council.

Queen Valerie took one look at me and knew immediately what I was going to say. "Council, I'm sorry to interrupt your recess but... High Priestess Beatrix Flores just attacked Fiona and she seems to be out cold." The beautiful black witch that had previously looked into Fiona's memories stood up immediately, alongside the vampire council lady, and made their way to the back stage. The rest of the Council turned their gaze to Flores, piercing enough to kill but it didn't seem to affect her. This lady has to be fucking insane. "Miss Flores. Attacking anyone whilst in this courtroom is strictly forbidden under the Law of Harmony. A law created to maintain balance between the three eldest children of the night, but it seems you have no respect for the rules. Fiona Miako's case will have to be postponed until she is well. As for you, High Priestess, do you have anything left to say?"

She looked at them and seemed to think for a while, before a wicked grin broke out onto her face and her next words echoed in the hall. "I hold no regret for doing what I did. That family ordered the mission my sister died in, and in the hands of vampires is where she took her last breath. I hurt the only person on this Earth that could've ever satisfied my disdain of everything." And with that, a portal opened beneath her feet and closed just as quickly as it had appeared. "Then you are sentenced to eternity in Tartarus. I will visit the Royal Coven in a few days' time to decree a new High Priestess." The male witch spoke and then, they all stood and bowed, creating the same reaction from me and Queen Valerie.

I turned to walk backstage and saw the Councilwomen muttering to each other. I looked at the witch and bowed my head a little, "Is there any way you could help her?" She gave me a sad smile and tucked a stray, curly white hair behind her ear. "I stopped the bleeding with healing magic, but the effects of the iron stake on her body are beyond my control. Not only legally, but magically as well." The vampire Councilwoman spoke up right after, "I'm sure you know the effects of iron on a vampire, and when introduced by being stabbed by it... It is beyond magic, now we can only hope she can recover on her own."

**A week later**

To say that I've had my eye on Fiona is an understatement. After bringing her back from the Highest Court, we had a doctor from the Winteress Estate remove the stake and begin her treatment, which consisted of a huge tube being placed down her bronchial airways to suction out excess air and blood leakage, seeing as the iron stake punctured her right lung. Dr. Emma Jenkins said it should take about 4 weeks to heal if everything goes well, especially seeing as she's a vampire with regenerative properties. To see her like this though, still and lifeless freaked me out a lot. And almost as bad to see was Stella, sitting in that chair day in and day out. She hadn't gotten up since she had sat down. The only person who had spent more time with Nona than me, was Stella. She slept here, drank here– seeing as she couldn't stomach any solids–, lived here now. Fiona was kept under though, Emma thought that keeping her asleep would be the better option.

Queen Valerie has also been in and out, but she's unfortunately gotten swamped by Queenly duties so I haven't seen her around much. Two people I was surprised to see rather frequently with Fiona were Allison and Talia. I knew they spoke for a little, but I hadn't realized they'd grown such a liking to her. After some contemplation, I had also called Cristina and Grayson last night to tell them the news. Both of them bought plane tickets in a heartbeat, which is why I'm sitting in the airport. After a while, a crazed brunette caught my eye. I waved my hand and they both ran towards me. "Scarlet, thank you so much for calling. Now take me to my best friend!" I didn't even hesitate and I drove them to the Estate- Yes, I had permission from Queen Valerie, we don't let just anyone in willy-nilly.

I walked them to the room she was in and warned them before opening the door. "It's a pretty gruesome sight, and a depressing one. Stella hasn't left this room since Fiona entered it, try to be respectful." They both nodded seriously, so I opened the door and let them inside. Stella had fallen asleep on the chair, her head and arms resting on the bed, her hand clutching Fiona's like a lifeline. Both Cristina and Grayson rushed forward, like worried parents wanting to see their daughter. Immediately, they both started sobbing like gigantic babies. There must've been anger thrown into the mix because both Cristina and Grayson half transformed. The ruckus must've alerted Stella because she stirred and sat up, groggily looking around. When her eyes found those two, they opened wide.

"A demon and a werewolf? Wait- I know you two. You both work in Devil's Corner!" They both looked at her and sadly nodded, but we were all shocked to see Stella stand up and walk around Fiona's bed to Cristina and suddenly wrap her into a hug. "W-why... are you h-h-hugging me?" Cristina sobbed still, but gently patted Stella's back as a sign that she didn't hate the gesture. "Thank you. If there's one person Fiona wouldn't shut up about, it was you. Thank you for being with her, you have no idea how much you've impacted her." That only made Cristina cry harder and fully wrap her arms around Stella to truly weep. "T-that idiot! She knew I-I was going to throw the b-best party for New Y-Years and she j-just had to run off a-and meet her mate!!" Grayson rubbed his eyes, the crying finally calming down for him. His eyes and nose were still red but the tears had at least stopped.

"I'm sorry, I'm kind of lost. I don't know you, and I didn't realize our chef was a vampire." Oh right... He actually did know that, until I wiped it from his memory of course. Stella pulled back and held her hand out to Grayson, "I'm Stella King. I work at Bunny's Burrow and interviewed at Devil's Corner a while ago, I'm also the witch that took Fiona away for so long. I'm sorry for what I did, I was doing what I thought was right. But I've come to sorely regret my actions, especially after learning that I'm her mate." Grayson and Cristina shared a look, but both of them put one hand on Stella's shoulders and shot her a smile. "Hey, you're good. We get it. Besides, it's not like Fiona is going to hate you forever so we might as well move on from that now." Grayson spoke up, Cristina nodding along– which was weird to see their dynamics switched but somewhat refreshing as well.

After sitting and chatting up a storm, I couldn't be more grateful to Grayson and Cristina for not only keeping Stella entertained but also happy. After a while, Doctor Jenkins walked in to check on Fiona and seemed shocked at us all. She was a relatively young vampire, being barely over 50 years old. Emma was about the same height as Fiona, except with a delicate build. She had a long fall of light brown hair with two small braids running to the back of her head that were tied together. And her eyes were an exceptionally pretty shade of hazel mixed with green. "Looks like there's a party going on and I wasn't invited. I don't believe I know you two, I'm Emma Jenkins. And you two?" She quickly took Fiona's vitals before turning her attention to the two strangers. "Here Emma, let me introduce you. The demon over there is Cristina and the werewolf is Grayson, they're close friends of Fiona." They both waved at her and she waved back, turning to face me completely– we looked at each other for a long moment before hearing a snicker in the background. We both turned to see three pairs of eyes on us and equally shit-eating grins. Oh Goddess.