Page 60 of Stalked

The memories I recalled during my vision with the psychic flooded my mind; the echoes of emotions flowed through me as if they had never left. I remembered caring for Caleb as a kid, and I felt things in this life when we touched. It was a connection I couldn’t deny, but I had to remind myself that the girl from my visions wasn’t me. The woman he had loved long ago … wasn’t me.

I thought more about why the coven was formed?—the reason I was born. I needed to understand the relationship between who I am today and who I was in my past life. I couldn’t deny the reason Tatyana gave me these powers. My purpose, then and now, was to protect this world from evil. If I deprived the witches on Earth of my power, it would be the most selfish act I could ever do, and I couldn’t live with myself if I turned my back on them. My life belonged to the coven.

“Okay,” I said, looking at the door we were about to walk through. I put my hand to my chest and let out a slow exhale. “I’m terrified, but I won’t fight you on this any longer. I’ve decided this is what I want.”

With a smile, he grabbed my other hand, unlocked the front door, and escorted me inside the library. We took the elevator down into the cellar. As the doors opened, my eyes immediately drew to an engraved pentagram on the wooden floor.

I sat at the center as he instructed. Calebsifted through his backpack, pulling out a few candles, and placed them around the circle, lighting each one of them. Then, checked the time on his phone.

“The spell to make you immortal will take place immediately after your Awakening, which is just a few minutes away. Ready, Mercy?”

“I’m scared,” I admitted.

“I’m right here,” he said, running his hands through my hair in a gentle touch. “Close your eyes.”

After I shut my eyes, Caleb began to speak in a tongue I didn’t recognize—incoherent sentences that seemed to be all flowing together at once. I couldn’t decipher any of it. I felt him move closer to me, and I opened my eyes again, watching the look in his own eyes that seemed distant … like he was afraid this moment was going to be our last.

Caleb leaned forward, cradled my face in the palms of his hands, and kissed me gently upon my lips.

As he deepened the kiss, a gray cloud formed under my eyes and parted, revealing an image before me, just like I had seen during the spell in the witch shop.

In the scene before me, my mother from my past life was cooking something over an iron stove. The room was dimly lit by candlelight. The kitchen appliances weren’t like anything we have in the twenty-first century. It was my old home.

She turned around and looked straight through me.

“Mercy, go to your room,” she said. “I need to speak with Caleb.”

I heard the floor creak from behind me, and when I turned around, I saw my past self, but with copper-red hair and deep blue eyes.

“Mother, I want to hear what Caleb has to say.”

My mother slammed her hand on the counter. “Go, Mercy. Now!”

“No! I’ll not be kept from my coven. Not anymore,” the former me told her mother defiantly.

Caleb was there, dressed in black slacks with a buttoned-down white shirt under his long coat. He took a few steps toward my past self and grabbed her hand gently, still facing her mother.

“We’re doing the ritual tonight. Mercy and the rest of us will become immortal because it’s the only way she’ll be safe. Look what happened to your husband. Alexander could be dead for all we know. And what about your daughter Faith?? She needs her sister to protect her. Mercy will be able to protect you both. It’s a witch hunt out there, Mary. Why would you not want this for her?”

“Roland lied to you, Caleb. Your father knew more about this prophecy than he shared with us. You’ll never be safe. If vampires knew she was immortal, knew any of you could not die, they would take you and torture you. They would feed on you over and over again. Not to mention, Mercy’s blood will allow them to walk in the daylight, putting usallin danger.”

He stepped in her direction, but she moved back as if she were afraid of him. “I’ll protect her,” he promised. “We all will protect her.”

Caleb caught hold of Mary’s shoulder and squeezed. She didn’t fight back. Her dazed look terrified me because of the amount of power he had over her. She was utterly helpless as he chanted a spell, followed by her collapsing to the floor.

He turned to my old self. “We need to leave the village as soon as the ritual is done. It won’t take long before the vampires know what we’ve done. Grab enough clothes for a few days and meet me at the barn. I need to go find the others,” he instructed.

After Caleb left the house, the other Mercy ran upstairs and stuffed a bunch of clothes in a sack. She picked up a book from the dresser and a few small blankets and stuffed them into her bag. She then stopped by her bed.

Is she having second thoughts?

She heard a knock at her door.

“Mercy.”

“Dorian, what are you doing here?” A handsome man with dark brown hair and brown eyes stepped into the room. He was built like Caleb, strong, tall, with smooth, slightly fair skin. He was not rugged, no five o’clock shadow. It was clear to me—he was a vampire.

My stomach fluttered wildly as I recognized him. He was the man who had been visiting my dreams before all of this happened. He was the one who kissed me under the moonlight night after night, who had suddenly disappeared when Caleb walked back into my life.

---