Chapter Eleven: Josephine

Betrayal.

The people you're closest to may be the ones to betray you.

Faith's POV

Charity stole my diary.

She stole it.

SHE STOLE THE THING I CONFESS MY GOOD FOR NOTHIN' FEELINGS IN, AND PROBABLY GAVE IT TO THE ONE PERSON I'D HATE TO READ IT!

Magnus.

Well. Two can play at that game.

Quickly, I unlocked the... well, lock, and opened the book. Charity's scrawling handwriting was in it, not as much as I had, but enough.

And by chance, I came upon this.

Dear Bob(ok... Bob.)

Magnus and I kissed today.

That's all it said. My fingers shaking, I moved my hand to the date of the entry. I had been in the coma. Dead to the world.

No.

My whole entire body was shaking. How could they have done this to me? My best friend and the guy I had loved. Kissing. I closed my eyes, but the image was still in my head. Magnus and Charity. Their lips touching like that...

Angrily, I slammed the diary shut. That was the end of that. The basic code that every female is born with dictates one gigantic rule:

Never get with your friend's boyfriend. Even if they're exes.

Tears fell. Very slowly. Not like sobs. Not a sound came, except for the rain falling in the early morning. Whoa. I had stayed up all night. Exhaustion now came to my body for the first time, and I slumped onto my stomach in the sheets.

After a moment, I stood and looked in the mirror. Droplets of water clung to my eyelashes. Made salty tracks down my face. My hair was messy, and so was my short nightgown.

Tap.

I looked out the window, and was almost overcome by the last time I had seen a guy down there.

Magnus had been there.

He had kissed me.

"Rob?" I hissed. His hazel eyes were earnest and reassuring.

"Hey. I was wondering how you were doing." He had more pebbles in his hands, ready to throw some more.

"I'm fine," I sniffled. Oh, yeah. That sounded 'fine'. Pfft.

"Do you... do you want to come down here?" Rob asked hesitantly. I smiled.

"Yeah. Be there in a second."

I opened the door, and saw Rob's eyes traveling down my body. Nothing much. I was in that new look, black tank top, leggings, miniskirt over leggings...

"What?" I asked, allowing myself to let a giggle out.

"You look... great."

I shrugged casually. "Nothing much." A blush spread up my face.

Rob suddenly walked up to me and cradled my head in his hands, kissing me full on the mouth.

But as he did this, tears fell down my face.

For all I saw was Charity and Magnus.

xxx

Magnus's POV(third person)

Magnus's eyes widened, and he could barely choke out the name.

"Lady Josephine?"

The woman smiled. Not really that much of a woman, only nineteen. She was no beauty. Tangled black hair. Beady black eyes. Pale, sickly skin. A hawklike nose. She smiled with thin lips.

"Nice to see you again."

Magnus stood. "Sorry," He said coldly, "Can't really say the same."

For this was Lady Josephine.

This was the vampiress who turned him all those years ago.

She was leaning against his doorway. He half wished that Charity had locked the door. But then again, this was his chance. His chance to get back at her.

Unlike with Magnus, being a vampire had not treated Josephine well. That hungry gleam in her eye showed that she had probably not used the new system to feed.

"What Coven do you belong to?" Magnus asked.

"I don't," Josephine rasped, "For some reason, they don't let me in."

Magnus looked her up and down. She had the look of a rogue. A rogue was a vampire who was basically old fashioned and evil. Magnus and Charity had been that way for a while, admittedly. She was wearing a sundress that he guessed was supposed to be provocative, but it was far from it, making her frame seem even more stick-like.

"Tell me this," Josephine continued, "How have you been doing? I've heard that you are a Coven Leader."

"Fine." Magnus stated, walking up to her. "Good, actually. The new system-I'm guessing you haven't heard of it-keeps blood available, and I have a trustworthy beta."

Josephine arched an eyebrow. "Oh, that pretty girl walking out the door?" She chuckled. "Friend of yours?"

Magnus nodded. "Nothing but a friend, Josephine," He hissed. "Rowena is back."

And there's Faith, an annoying voice in his head said.

"Ah," Josephine said, "Miss Perfect? She's dead."

"Yes," Magnus admitted. "But she is a ghost. We can-"

"Be together?" Josephine guessed. "Perhaps. But only if you are truly dead. You know that, don't you? And besides. There are... other problems with that fantasy."
Magnus narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, Josephine?"
A slow smile spread up her face. "You haven't even spoken to Rowena for hundreds of years, Magnus. Maybe she had a life."

"No." Magnus said. "I know Rowena-"

"Do you?" Josephine demanded. "Do you really? You didn't know her that well. She came to the castle, started working for Guinivere, and suddenly, everyone trusted her, even the queen. She had only been there for two weeks before you were head over heels for her."

"Why should I trust you?" Magnus asked.

"Because," Josephine smirked. "No one else but Rowena knows what really happened. And she was very quick to send you away, wasn't she? Kind of strange, don't you think? If she loved you, wouldn't she have tried to be with you? And besides. I did want to be with you, Magnus. Only something really tempting would make me do that."

"What are you saying?" It was unbearable, but Magnus found logic in her words.

"Guinivere wasn't the only one who betrayed her lover, Magnus."

xxx

Faith's POV
"What a cute couple," Came the sneer.

Turning my head, I gave a fakey smile.

Cassidy Prescott.

She was blonde. She was plastic. And I swear that she had a boob/nose job two months ago.

Rob and I were out at the park. It was late night. We had spent the whole day together, in basic bliss, till Cassidy and her cronies came.

"So. Miss Perfect got herself a college guy," Cassidy laughed. "There's only one way a girl like you could get a college guy." Her friends nodded like robots.

I arched an eyebrow and smirked. "You would know, wouldn't you, Cassidy?"
She looked like she was about to turn on her heel and leave, when she continued. "So, where's that weird chick?" She asked, obviously referring to Charity. I nearly winced. Charity. I had put that thought out of my mind for the day. I was about to reply with some scathing thing about Charity, when a voice came.

"Weird Chick, present."

Charity was watching, a hand on her cocked hip, a look of disgust on her face. I had mixed feelings. This was my best friend, coming to help me out. But this was also the girl who had kissed the guy I had loved.

Even though I didn't love him anymore.

Buckles on her boots clinking, Charity strode over. Even though she was shorter than Cassidy, I'm sure she looked pretty intimidating. I had to hold back a giggle as Charity drew something from her pocket.
"What's that?" Cassidy sneered.

The blade was flicked out, and Cassidy and her robots jumped back.

"Pocket knife," Charity replied casually, flicking it in and out with interest. "Pretty, no?"

"Er... no?"
"Wrong answer." Charity made a sharp step toward her, and Cassidy gasped, but then, Charity was backing off. It was obvious that she had been faking. She grinned at me. I looked down.

"So," Charity suggested. "What are girls that are as intelligent as you hanging out around here at night?"
"Yeah," Came a voice. "I was about to ask the same question."

Sam slipped out of the shadows. I could tell by the way the girls' stared, that he was milking the Vampire Scent.

"I mean," Charity said in that husky voice the guys love. "You're all high-society, right?"

They had gone full vampire. If you were trained to know it, like I am, you would see that all traces of mortal were gone, even though the fangs weren't elongated yet.

Turning my head, I saw that Rob's eyes were on Charity. I rolled my own eyes. Guys.

Sam took a step closer to them, his face inches away from Cassidy's. I saw her flinch as his icy breath touched her skin.

"I wouldn't go here, if I were you," He whispered.

"Why?" She breathed.

"Monsters."

Sam then opened his mouth, fangs totally elongated, and hissed. Right in Cassidy's face. Just as Charity gave them a wicked grin.

That scent them running. Once the girls were out of earshot, Charity and Sam began laughinh. Charity leaned against Sam for support. I couldn't help the small smile on my face. They really would make a cute couple.

If she wasn't with Magnus.

"Rob," I muttered in his ear. "You really should be going."

He nodded, and walked quickly away. I guess he felt the tension.

"So," I stood, walking over to Charity. "Why'd you come? Wanted to steal my new boyfriend too?"

She cocked her head, confused. The laughter stopped. "What do you mean?" She asked. "I was just trying to h-"

"Help?" I snapped. "Right! Just like you were trying to help when you kissed Magnus."

Her eyes widened. "How did you find out?"
That stabbed at my heart. So they had kissed. For some odd reason, I had been trying to convince myself that she had lied in her diary.

No one lies in their diary.

"The question is," I quavered. "Why did you do it?"

Sam looked extremely uncomfortable. But not like he was surprised. He must have known the whole time.

"Well?" I said, putting my face really close to Charity's. For one of the few times ever, I saw tears in her eyes.

"Tell m-"

"We were hurting, OK?" Charity screamed in my face. "Think about it, Faith! I might have just lost my best friend! Magnus felt responsible for it all, and it looked like you might die. How do you think that feels, huh? The girl he loved, and he might have caused her death. That girl was my best friend. Maybe we wanted some comfort. It was NOTHING. I can't believe I'm saying this, but... have a heart."

And with that, she turned into a bat and flew off.

Odd sentence.

But that's not the issue. I felt like I was going to die. A horrible person. But I had to do something to lift this pain.

"She should have-" I began helplessly, even though my heart was telling my not to. Sam cut me off.

"She's going through a lot, Faith," He stated. She's playing in-between for you two, she's keeping track of her little sister, who, by the way, has no idea that she's even alive. Yeah, I know you have problems too, but Charity has just as many."

Then, he turned into a bat.

I just can't make that sound serious, you know?

xxx

But other times, the betrayed may be the one betraying.

xxx

So. That was it.