Tainted Soul {Formerly Fallen} (Book 3) (Completed)

Chapter 15

Melanie POV

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I heard the doorknob turn and heels click on the tile. It was the best sound is heard all night. Normally, it meant another "Why I should Awaken you" speech. Today, it meant safety. When Rosa came barging inside, she found two Strigoi "dead" on the floor, one human cowering in a corner, and me making sure no one was waking up. When the door opened, Esperanza quickly ran out, terrified.

"What the hell happened?!" She yelled.

"I-I'm not sure. Juanito, that other guy, and Esperanza came in trying to kill me. So I broke the leg off of a chair and 'staked' them." I said, close to being in tears.

"Well, that marks two people off my list. This is a small hiccup in my plan, but it'll work. Here, stake them with this before they wake up." Rosa said, handing me something wrapped in a towel.

"My stake!" I exclaimed, rushing to shove it into the holes the makeshift stake created, killing them.

"I'm impressed. You remembered another rule. Don't turn your back on your enemy until they're dead." She said, in the typical malicious tone.

"I'm not sure whether to be happy you said that or nervous." I said, twisting my wedding band, wishing I could be at home with Vince and my kids.

"Can I see your wedding band?" Rosa asked, seeing me twisting it.

"Uh, sure I guess." I said, handing it to her, praying she wouldn't turn it into dust.

"It's beautiful. I've never noticed before." She said, the malicious tone suddenly gone.

"Strigoi don't see beauty." I said, concerned.

"I'm not sure why, but your ring is just beautiful. It's fitting for you. A ring just as gorgeous as you are." She said, laughing almost the same way she used to.

"Okay, Rosa this is weird. You're acting like you're Viu again. What happened?" I said, terrified.

"Nothing happened to me, Mels. I told you, I haven't changed." She said, laughing again.

I didn't know what to say, but then I remembered something. Right before I left Court, before all this happened, I had the queen charm my ring with Spirit because it was silver.

"You can have your ring back. I just wanted to look at it." Rosa said, handing it back to me.

I clutched the ring in my palms and felt a slight bit of Spirit inside it.

"Holy shit! If it can do that, maybe..." I pondered, looking down at my ring, over at Rosa, and down at the stake in my lap.

"What are you mumbling about?" Rosa said with her usual cold tone.

"Nothing." I said, holding the stake between my hands, trying to charm the stake like Lissa did my ring.

"Why are you holding that stake like it's your best friend?" Rosa spat, knowing I was lying.

"I just had a thought, it was probably nothing." I said, Rosa let the subject go.

I hoped that my second plan of the week would work. Luckily, when she left an hour later, Rosa forgot that she gave me my stake. I kept it under my pillow along with the wooden stake to make sure no one saw it. When I awoke the next day, no one was in my room, which was definitely a good thing. It gave me more time to go over my plan and convince myself that this was for the best. If the stake didn't work, at least Rosa would have been free from this life.

When I heard the click of heels outside my door, I quickly grabbed the Spirit-charmed stake and got ready to attack. As soon as the door closed, I ran up to Rosa and flipped her over using one of the first moves she ever showed me. She quickly recovered and almost landed a decent blow to my shoulder, which I blocked and ran to pin her against the wall. She found a way out of my grasp and pinned me to the floor in almost the same way she did that first day I was there.

"What in the hell are you doing, Mels?" Rosa said, obviously mad.

"Helping you." I said, managing to shimmy out of her grip and knee her in the gut, causing her to roll off of me.

I saw it was night from the dark, tinted windows that I'd never noticed until just now and used my advanced compulsion to compel her into going outside. I was met at the door by a Strigoi coming in from feeding, but took him out by igniting him using a Fire attack spell. When I took Rosa off of compulsion, she was more mad than I'd ever seen her.

"What the hell has gotten into you?! All this is your fault! It's your fault that my plans went to hell! It's your fault I had to do this in the first place! If you hadn't saved me after Dave attacked Cory, none of this would have happened! Why didn't you just let me die like I desired at the time?! Why didn't you just let me be?! Why did you have to come to Spain? Don't you get it that I left to avoid this type of situations?! Now that we're actually in this situation, why won't you just be Awakened?! Why are you so damn stubborn?!" She yelled.

At this point, I was in tears and they wouldn't stop. I was constantly telling myself that this would only enable her to actually kill me. This was so similar to parts of my childhood with my alcoholic mother that I got smart all of the sudden and used some of the same techniques I used to calm myself down when mom was yelling at me while drunk, but now with Rosa. The concept wasn't too different. My mother was addicted to alcohol, Rosa was in a way addicted to killing people for blood. I never truly realized it was that easy. Knowing this only made me fight harder. My Spirit-charmed stake was the only miracle that could save her from this. It was the only thing that could make her better again and if I blew it, I'd never forgive myself.

"Don't hesitate." I whispered as I caught Rosa off guard after her yelling and pinned her to the ground.

I had a perfect shot to her heart. I got a death-grip on the stake and drove it into her chest. With the first touch of the stake, she screamed louder than I'd ever heard anyone scream, yet it made sense. The magic charmed into the stake was life and Strigoi were undead. The life in the stake hurt them. It physically hurt me to hear her screaming like this, but I knew it would end up for the best. She screamed louder and harder as my stake drove deeper into her chest until it hit her heart and a blinding, white light filled the entire area. Rosa sat up, fell into my arms, and began to cry.