I was worried beyond belief, that I felt like crying, but I had to be strong. I was helping the injured that were unable to move by themselves through the forest as we headed to safety. I could feel Vaden's exhaustion and wanted to go to her but I know she would want me to concentrate on getting these fairies to safety.

Candy came running from the back of the slow moving group to where I was in the middle of it. "I'm worried." The usually hard as stone soldier fairy admitted while looking backwards a confused expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked while panting though I didn't feel tired in the least. It was all coming from Vaden.

"They're not following us." She replied while frowning. "Should we send someone to scout back?"

"No." I immediately shook my head. "We're low on soldiers as it is and we need everyone able to fight protecting the injured just in case an ambush happens."

"Candy! Beatrice!" Honey came running from the front of the group.

"What's happening?" Beatrice asked quickly already picturing the worse.

Honey panted lightly from the quick sprint. "Scouts came back from the front and said that we're nearing the closest encampment, on our side."

I breathed out a sigh of relief at that. "Thank god, I don't think I could have kept going if it was too far further." The fairy I was helping muttered lowly.

I chuckled lowly and sighed as further exhaustion come to be over the mating bond between me and Vaden. I looked back in worry, pleading to whoever was listening that she was going to be okay. She had to be. I wouldn't know what to do if anything bad happened to her.

"She'll be fine. She's a tough one." Candy told me reading my expression.

"I know she is... but she's my Mate and I can't help but worry." I sighed. We stopped at the edge of a clearing that held the camp and I gave the care of the injured soldier I was helping over to another fairy from the camp. "She's really tired for some reason and I don't think she'll last much longer... I need to go back to her and help."

Candy grabbed my arm stopping me from going. "You'll only distract her if you go. Your safety is her ultimate priority and you'll just stop her from keeping the Orcs at bay."

I was about to growl at her but I lurched forward instead as pain spread through my stomach. I cried out from the pain and fell to my knees, Candy coming down with me looking shocked.

"What's happening?" Georgia asked as she came over.

"V-Vaden's been hurt." I hissed out holding my stomach but only to have everything suddenly go numb then black.

*

I felt so empty all of a sudden. I was in a world of darkness completely submerged in black with not a single light piercing it. It was my mind. I felt surrounded by myself and wondered why I was here. A growl came from a bit away to my left and when I turned to it I found the black mass of my beast chained down, unable to move, while it's red eyes glared at me with its crazed blood lust. I turned away from it and found a light gold string leading from me to out into the darkness.

I followed the thin string and found Aviva standing there leaning against a wall with her stoic look on her face. The string was the connection we held as sisters. A stronger and thicker string of gold lead from Aviva to Georgia who stood beside her with a soft smile looking up at her mate, showing their connection as Mates.

I placed a hand to my chest, I looked down to find the thick thread of gold that weaved through me and out to somewhere in the darkness away from Aviva and Georgia. I followed it for I don't know how long, but I soon came across a wall. The thread continued through the wall but for some reason I couldn't get through it. I hit it with all my strength but it didn't crumble. I pulled on the thread but that only caused me pain. Suddenly an image appeared behind the invisible wall.

I sucked in a breath at the sight of Vaden slumped over and chained to a chair as shadows surrounded her, pulling at her clothes and hair, wrapping around her or striking her.

"Vaden!" I shouted wanting her to look up at me. "Vaden!" I need you to hear me. Look up Vaden, please look up, I begged to her in my mind trying to push the thoughts down the thread, but the wall stopped that too. "Vaden!"

Finally, she looked up but my heart stopped in my chest and I cried out in painful realisation. It wasn't her. It looked like her. Her long black hair I liked to play with. The scar on her neck from before she was changed. Her stunning body I wanted to explore with my hands and lips whenever I saw her... but her eyes were a deep crimson red showing nothing but a lusting for blood and death.

She cracked a smile at me showing her fangs as the shadows around her warped and twirled around her and started to sink into her body. The chains holding her down fell away to nothing and she soon stood up. She walked towards the invisible wall until it was the only thing stopping us from touching.

"Vaden?" I whispered, throat constricted from how painful it was to look at my love as she was.

Black tinged the red in her eyes and insanity tilted her smile into a cruel grin. "Not anymore." She spoke back, voice lased with a darkness I knew wasn't Vaden's. Vaden was too pure to hold such darkness. This wasn't her. I stepped back away from the wall and the imposter. "Where are you going?" She asked still with that smile. "Don't you want to play?" She cackled. "Mmm, I wonder what you taste like... I wanna know how you look when your blood pools around you. Will you let me? Come on! Let's play!"

I stumbled backwards in fear and shock as she launched herself at the wall and clawed at it while laughing. I tripped and fell backwards only to continue falling longer than I should have.

I sat up with a gasp. My heart was in my throat and the image of the imposter looking so much like my Mate had me scared out of my wits. Tears streamed from my eyes and sweat stuck to my skin. It was horrible, just utterly horrible. I need to remind myself that that wasn't Vaden. That person, that insane person, was someone else. But it had me worried about what was happening to Vaden, what has happened to Vaden. I need to know.

I got up from where I was sleeping and walked out of the tent to find that it was night time but most of the camp was still up.

"Beatrice!" Candy called to me standing up from where she sat around a fire. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly coming over to me.

I wiped my eyes and sniffed back the tears. "No, no I'm not okay. I just had a terrible dream and I can't feel Vaden anymore." Unbidden, more tears trickled out of my eyes as I felt myself begin to tremble. "I-I need to find her. We-we need to get her back!"

Candy surprised me by pulling me into a hug. I latched onto her and started crying my eyes out, worry, fear and dread filling me to the brim till I just couldn't handle it anymore.

"It's okay... she's going to be fine Beatrice." Candy breathed out comfortingly, her hand running over the back of my head. "While you were asleep we received a letter from the capital. That witch you came with is coming with a few other people. They should be here soon."

I pulled away from her finally while rubbing my eyes. "Ashwini's coming?" I asked. "That mean's she's found something! We can start planning our attack and get Vaden back!"

"That's if she's not dead." Tora answered with a shrug of his shoulders, having walked over and heard our conversation.

Candy glared at him and punched him in the stomach making him bend over with an 'oof' of pain. I looked at the ground as pain spread through my chest and my stomach rolled over making me feel sick.

"She's not dead." Candy stated firmly and seriously.

I placed a hand to my stomach and grabbed at the fabric over my chest with my other hand. "No... she's not. I would have felt that... I would have felt that." I told myself as much as the others.

"Beatrice, you're awake! Great, come on, we're meeting Ashwini and whoever has come with her at another clearing." Georgia said quickly walking over to us. "We're going to go get Vaden once they tell us what they need to."

"But Georgia! That'll be too dangerous for you to go." Candy frowned obviously not liking the thought of Georgia going out into danger.

Georgia shot her a glare. "Vaden is my friend, I'd do the exact same thing if it was you who was taken."

"Hey! They're coming!" Honey shouted from the edge of the clearing.

"Come on, we have to meet them." Georgia stated and grabbed my hand to pull me along.

We came to the clearing where Ashwini was set to land and I looked up to the night sky. At first I saw nothing but then I realised that the lights I first thought were stars, were actually moving and coming closer. There were four lights moving and I wondered who the other three were until I felt the familiar feeling of subtle power that came off of my sister whenever I was in her presence.

Aviva was here? But why? Shouldn't she be looking after the estate and the territory?

As they landed I got a good look at who else was with them and I gasped at the sight of Anon, Mercy and Athena on the other two Pegasus. Athena was riding in front of Anon looking like she was having the time of her life while Anon frowned looking like he couldn't wait to get down off of the horse.

"Aviva! What are you doing here?" I asked my older sister when she got down from her Pegasus.

She smiled at me, "Good to see you too little sis." She teased me but I just frowned back not impressed. Her smile turned sad and I allowed myself to fall into her when she came to me and wrapped her arms around me. "I felt it." She whispered to me. "The loss of connection with Vaden and that something wasn't right. So I came as soon as I could."

I breathed in her familiar scent and calmed down at the feel of being around family. I nodded my head against her shoulder as tears slipped from my eyes. "They've taken her." I sniffed out voice bubbly and thick as I tried not to cry again.

"And we'll get her back." Aviva assured me while hugging me tighter.

"Can we go now? Ashwini, did you find out anything important? Can we attack now and get Vaden back?" I asked quickly pulling away from Aviva and looked at Ashwini intently.

The beautiful earth brown witch frowned before sighing and shaking her head. "Something has been trying to jam my magicks and has made watching the camp difficult. I'm going to try and get a better view from here, but to get any really good information will take at least a week or two."

"But we don't have that amount of time!" I exclaimed. "Vaden could be killed, or probably get eaten by then!"

Aviva placed a hand on my shoulder but I didn't calm down. "Vaden will be fine because we do know who has her."

I turned and glared at her. "Yes, we all know that. The orcs have her and if we waist any more time they're going to eat her!"

"No they won't, because the Orcs are being controlled by someone else." Aviva replied calmly.

"What do you mean? By who?"

Aviva ground her jaw together as hate filled her molten gold eyes. "Santano Enrique." She spat out and if I wasn't afraid before, I'm utterly terrified now.

"That's even worse!" I shouted completely going out of my mind with worry. Then I remembered what Vaden said at that strange clearing back at the capital. Match that with what I saw in my dream before I woke up... "He's going to torture her and change her into something else..." I whispered in horror.

"What do you mean?" Anon asked joining us after helping Athena down off of the Pegasus. The little girl was silent, looking upset and afraid as she held onto his hand with a white knuckled grip.

"Vaden and I found a clearing in at the capital that held a tree, which showed us... premonitions or something. Vaden... Vaden saw something I didn't... she said that she saw herself killing everything in this realm, orc, fairy... and us." I sighed rubbing my face in frustration and fear. "I passed out when Vaden was taken because she was injured and for some reason couldn't move either. While I was asleep, I had a dream. I saw Vaden behind this invisible wall that wouldn't allow me to get to her, but... the person behind the wall was no longer Vaden. She was crazed, pure insanity seeped from her and she looked at me with the red eyes of someone in the blood haze but her they were also tinged with black. She tried to attack me and started carrying on about wanting to see my blood and... she wanted to kill me." I started crying again. "I don't think Vaden is herself anymore."

Everyone was silent and I just felt hopeless.

"Everything will be alright." That came from Athena. I was surprised by how serious the little girl looked. She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, placing her chin on my stomach so she could look up at me. "We can save her. Who you saw wasn't Vaden, which means the real Vaden has been placed somewhere else, so all we need to do is find her and she'll come back." She said this with a child's certainty that I just couldn't help but believe in.

I knelt down in front of her and pulled her small body into mine. I kissed the top of her hand and closed my eyes. "You're right. All we need to do is find her and bring her back." I agreed. I looked up at the others. "We need to start planning an attack."

"I'll get started on surveillance." Ashwini replied immediately.

"I'll heal everyone I can." Georgia stated.

"We'll get an army ready so that we can attack at full force." Candy agreed.

"I'll go with her." Mercy said pointing at Candy.

"I don't mind going off to scout around their camp." Anon shrugged. "I'll see if I can pick up Vaden's scent and pin point where she might be in the camp."

"Then all we do now is wait and prepare. Enrique will not get away with what he has done." Aviva stated with cold confidence as her eyes brightened dangerously. "She has saved and protected us, now it's our turn to repay her."

Everyone went off to do their things. Aviva went with Georgia to help heal the injured fairies and Mercy and Candy became acquainted. Ashwini went with Aviva and Georgia to find a quiet place to work so only Athena, Anon and myself were left in the clearing.

"I have to ask, why is Athena even here?" I asked Anon, unimpressed that the little girl has been brought into a war zone.

Anon sighed and scratched his chin. "I didn't want her to come but the little minx hid in one of the bags. We didn't realise she was there until we got to the capital."

I looked down at Athena who was giving me an innocent look. "I wanted to see Vaden. I miss her."

I sighed softly. I hate that she's here, but it's too late now. "Okay, but you have to promise me you won't leave my side and cause any disruptions, and when we go you have to stay behind with Georgia, alright?" I told her seriously while squatting down to her level. I moved hair out of her face and cupped her cheeks. "Vaden loves you and she'll never forgive herself if anything happens to you."

Athena nodded her head. "I understand. It's dangerous here, but I want to help in anyway I can especially if Vaden is hurt."

I leant forward and kissed her forehead. "Thank you. Come on, we should help Georgia and Aviva with the injured." I stood up and held Athena's hand, Anon having walked off already to get ready for his scouting mission. I sighed softly again and looked in the direction I last felt Vaden's presence. Please be alright Vaden, I don't know what I'll do if I lose you too. I placed a hand over my chest were I felt a gaping hole in my heart that didn't belong to Vaden. No this hole was left behind by something else, something that should've made me whole, but was no longer there making me feel like I was constantly missing something. Only Vaden has managed me to ignore the feeling and almost mend it.

I hope this was an alright surprise after what I put you through last chapter.

Please comment and vote if you like the story so far! Thank You!