Free Soulstone by Katie Salidas

can question her.”
    Zuri, still close by, looked over her shoulder and saw Ariana was waking. “You got some explaining to do, sista’.” Her tone was serious but lacked the anger I thought she should feel.
    Ariana, groggy and disoriented, tried to sit up. She groaned as she pushed herself, favoring her right hand over her left. With deep breaths and a few painful gasps, she managed the task.
    “You okay?” Zuri asked.
    “No… I don’t think I am,” Ariana replied. “I think I broke something.” She grasped her left hand and slowly wiggled her fingers and wrist, wincing with each small movement.
    “Well, you’re alive. That’s more than can be said for the rest of your coven,” I said without holding back my anger.
    “What do you mean? Where are the others?
    “Dead,” I blurted the word out.
    “They’re… dead?” Ariana gasped. “All of them?”
    As much as I wanted to hate her at that moment, I couldn’t. She wasn’t faking the shock, or the tears that began to stream down her face.
    “We were ambushed,” Zuri explained. “You’re looking at all of the survivors, honey.”
    “Ambushed, but who would do that?” she sobbed.
    “You mean to tell me you don’t know what happened?” I narrowed my eyes as I looked down to meet hers.
    She didn’t shy away from my gaze, which I found extremely surprising. She knew the mental control we were capable of if necessary, and I took this as a sign she accepted my use of it.
    I reached out with all of my power and delved deep into her mind. “Tell me the truth,” I said slowly.
    Her whole body shuddered. Her words came out in shaky gasps. “I… don’t know … anything.”
    “Let her be,” Nicholas said harshly and grabbed me by the shoulders. “She’s telling the truth.”
    I growled in frustration and blinked away the mental connection. He was right, though—I felt no deceit from Ariana, only fear. Whether that fear came from having five angry vampires staring down at her or the unknown depravity of the enemy who had attacked us, I couldn’t tell. Neither satisfied my anger. I needed an outlet for it. I needed someone to blame and punish for what had happened. I punched a hole into the sheetrock wall.
    “What are you planning to do with me?” Ariana asked, her voice still shaky.
    Zuri put an arm around her. “Honey, we aren’t gonna do anything to you. We’re not like that.”
    “No. Nothing will happen to you,” Nicholas sat down on a moss-green fabric-covered bench along the wall near the back windows. “But, since it appears your coven is at fault, you will help us in any way possible to fix the situation.”
    Ariana was quick to reply. “Anything. Of course.”
    Santino emerged from the room and stood in the hallway with his arms crossed. “I’m told you want me to stay now.”
    “It would appear we need to work together again,” Nicholas responded.
    “Yeah. Tell us everything you know. Where would the Saints take the crystal? Why do they want it? Who’s running— ”
    “Calm down, girl. One thing at a time,” Zuri said.
    “Hey, after spending all this time in the dark, thanks to all your secrets, I think it’s high time I was given the info.”
    “Alyssa, we told you… We didn’t want to worry you,” Crystal said, sounding a little annoyed.
    Santino cleared his throat. “Standard procedure for the order would be to catalogue any unnatural artifact first, before sending it to Rome. If we are quick to act, we might be able to intercept it at one of their repositories.”
    “What are we waiting for, then?” I asked. “If you know where we should go, then let’s get a move on.”
    “It’s not so simple, girl,” Santino snapped at me. “We can’t just waltz in and take what we want. There’s bound to be heightened security in place. We need a plan.” He glanced over to Crystal. “And we need to assess our current injuries.”
    “I’ll heal on my own,” Crystal said.
    “Only after the poison shrapnel had