Risky Reputation (The Originals/Book Two)

Sanctuary

I woke up in Lenore's store, in the no-magic manacles that we had used on Finn, chained to the wall, sitting on the floor, struggling uselessly, seeing that Finn had managed to bring Marcel, Josh and the rest of the vampires where he had placed them each in their own magic circle that was bound with human bones, all trapped in their respective circles.

Some of the vampires were conscious, rolling around in agony.

Others, like Marcel, were unconscious.

I looked around, struggling even harder.

Finn looked toward me, smirking. "You're awake. In the same magic-free chains that you magically put on me." He walked closer, kneeling in front of me. "How revenge tastes sweet."

"You're one kinky son of a bitch, you know that?" I asked.

"Takes one to know one," Finn replied. He chuckled, shaking his head. "Auria Rayvnne, the renegade witch that was wanted dead by her own coven for trying to stop the Harvest, wants to make amends."

"I don't think I did anything wrong," I told him. "I just tried to save the lives of four 16-year-old girls. They're the ones that sacrificed them in the end, anyway. But then, if my people was willing to put a hex on Father Kieran, I knew that there was something truly awful gonna be sent my way. If I do something now, then this can all end now."

"So, now you're looking for world peace?" Finn asked in amusement.

"I'm just trying to stop people from being killed," I told him in annoyance.

"Hey, you don't need to convince me," Finn told me. "But, still, all I'm hearing is talk, because Marcel is the one that does. He doesn't want you to put yourself in more danger than you already have. You're strong, Auria, but not that strong." He looked around the vampires. "And neither are they. How the mighty have fallen. Simple bit of magic, and the once mighty vampires lie before me." He looked at me. "And the ever-defiant outsider witch." I gave him a sarcastic look. "They're hungry. You know that? Hunger so intense, it's like shards of glass creeping through their veins." I looked at Marcel numbly with worry. "And you, you're chained up, locked away." Finn grabbed my chin, turning my head to make me look at him. "How does it feel to be so powerless? Did you actually think that you would betray the witches, your own people, and sell me out, and get away with it, without any consequences?" I turned my head away forcefully angrily. Finn smirked, chuckling. "Perhaps I can't get into Marcel's head as much as I'd like to, but maybe I can get into yours."

"I don't know why you would want to," I told him. "We don't know anything."

"Are you sure about that?" Finn asked. "The second I brought up a secret that both my brothers were keeping from me, a secret that they would die to protect, you started to act cagey." I didn't answer, lowering my gaze. Finn whispered into my ear. "You know more than you're letting on. And I'm gonna have fun ripping it out of you."

~~

Finn had been very keen on torturing me with magic trying to get into my head, but he couldn't find what he was looking for because I was burying it, having passed out from the pain for a while. "Impressive. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were using magic to keep your secrets, but then..." He gripped one of the chains, shaking them, making them rattle. "You can't." I looked toward where Marcel had been, but he wasn't there. "Oh, yeah. I moved your one true love so I would be able to hurt him to get to you. And the alternative."

"He doesn't know anything," I told him.

"But you do," Finn told me, standing, walking toward the table that held Marcel, tied to it by vervain ropes. Marcel had heard us, struggling. "You can't free yourself. Those ropes have been soaked in vervain." Finn plucked a fresh vervain flower from a nearby table, smelling it. "But, I did lessen the spell that made you hungry." He tossed the vervain flower onto the table. "Affording us an opportunity for some civilized discourse."