Blood Traitor

"What do you mean?" Chris asked Oziyat, stunned. What could be worse than your mother's death, your sister's almost death, and your sister accidentally killing your mother?

"We found out who betrayed us and gave away our secrets to Maligno," Oziyat said gritting his teeth and Chris inhaled sharply. "It was Gweneth."

"What?" Chris stared at Oziyat surprised. Gweneth was not only a Vampire Guardian but someone very close to Oziyat. There was no way she could betray her entire clan including Oziyat. But then again, the people closest to you could easily betray you without being suspected, Chris remembered the time Jason betrayed her. But now he was gone. Chris blinked a couple of times to focus on Oziyat and not think about Jason. "What happened?"

"She was against you," Guardian Javier said coming forward. He glanced at Rosaline with a small bow as if asking for her permission to go on and he spoke again after Rosaline nodded. "Since you have arrived Lady Christina, a few of the guardians and vampires were weary of you, as in case the royal family decides to participate in this wizard war, we will be the ones fighting, thus we were concerned even if this was necessary. Gweneth was one of those guardians, who was against this alliance from the beginning. And Prince Oziyat taking your side and you defeating the First Princess did not make her happy. Honestly, I knew that she was upset but I just thought --" Javier glanced at Oziyat very quickly before looking back at Chris. There was something heavy in his gaze which he quickly hid away. "I just thought it was something harmless. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I hadn't realized how this seed of doubt and bitterness was growing and expanding in her heart every day until it was too late."

Javier looked at Rosaline with regret and guilt, and from the corner of her eyes, Chris noticed the other guardian, who stood far away from them, were looking at Rosaline and Oziyat with the same expression as Javier. The other guardians' vampire hearing must have known what Chris, Oziyat, Rosaline, and Javier were discussing.

"It wasn't your fault, Javier," Oziyat forcefully took a deep breath to calm himself but he still looked angry. "None of us thought Gweneth could do something like that. If anything I should have known. We practically grew up together, I knew how she always made sure what she thought was right happened. When she shared her thoughts and concerns regarding Wizards and Christina, I should have realized she wasn't going to let it go. I just never thought she would go this far too--"

"Betrayal is something that is bound to come from the people we trust, there wouldn't be a betrayal if we didn't trust anyone," Rosaline interrupted Oziyat in a perfectly calm voice. "That's just how it is. Yes, you can blame yourself for not seeing the signs but then again the traitor chooses their own path and the consequences that come with it. As a trained Guardian, Gweneth knew exactly what she was doing and how it could end for her." 

Javier and Oziyat looked at Rosaline and a grim expression crossed their faces. Chris was almost afraid to ask but she had to.

"What exactly did she do?" Chris looked from Rosaline to Javier to Oziyat for the explanation. 

"When Maligno found out there was a possibility you could be with us, he tried to gain any sort of information he could about what was going on in Titian Forest. As usual, Maligno was smart and he sent one of his loyal witches to get information rather than sending Ethan. He knew Ethan would be killed as soon as someone from us recognized him -- by the way, thank you for killing him, Christina," Rosaline spoke completely devoid of emotion except for a quick grateful glance at Chris and Chris guessed who was this loyal witch Malgino sent. Stormy. "As one of the best-trained Guardians, Gweneth caught that witch after a few days of noticing her. However, at that moment she was not pleased with the way we were treating you and wizarding war. It was just after your friends had arrived at the castle. Gweneth was displeased, to say the least with the way we were opening up our homes and colony for wizards and witches like you. Not to mention the fame you were gaining among our people, which bothered her greatly as many Guardians who were against you at first, were starting to come around. Therefore, Gweneth took the matter into her own hands. She planned with the Witch sent by Maligno that she would weaken our boundaries, get them in, and make sure that none of us help you and in return, vampires would be left alone and they would not attack us."

"Make sure that none of you help me -- wait is that why she made me and my friends change our appearances before the war?"

A memory clicked in Chris's brain. Gweneth suddenly becoming helpful and suggesting that Chris and her friends change how they look so Maligno's men wouldn't recognize them but in reality, she was making sure of something else.

"Yes," Oziyat glared at nothing in particular. "It was her way of making sure that our people don't recognize you or come to your defense. She was also hoping one of us might accidentally kill you or your friends to make things easier."

Chris blinked, she was still having a hard wrapping her head around Gweneth's plan.

"But why do so much planning and not just hand me over to Maligno directly? I mean I trusted her too and there is a big chance I would have followed her into a trap. She could have just easily given me away to Malgino's people. Also, how does doing all of this make sure that Maligno keeps the vampires out of this war? Maligno didn't keep his word as expected, he did attack your home. Didn't Gweneth see that coming? She wasn't that stupid to believe him, was she?" Chris hesitated at the last sentence, she knew how persuasive Malgino could be. Maligno's entire army was created on his persuasion.

"That's the worst part," Oziayt's eyes flashed a darker shade of red as his jaw tightened. "She knew. She just didn't care, in fact, she counted on it. She thought if she could convince the others about how this wizarding war would affect us, we wouldn't help you. All those vampires and guardians were just casualties for her. She was so hellbent on making sure everything was going the way she wanted, she didn't care about anything else and Maligno used it to his advantage. He took a lot more secrets from her than she wanted to give."

"What secrets?" Chris barely managed to ask while processing what had happened among the vampires because of her and Maligno.

"An ancient book from our private library was stolen which contained a lot of information about vampires and our magic abilities," Rosaline answered grimly.

"And Gweneth gave it to them?"

"No, she didn't. They probably took it when Ethan was fighting me," Rosaline responded with stoic.

"How can you be sure of that?" Chris asked even though she didn't want to. "She could be --"

"All of this which you heard just now came straight out of Gweneth, Lady Christina. There is no way she could have lied about it," Javier said in a controlled voice and a series of emotions passed over his face. "Not after her death sentence."

"You killed her?" Chris gasped and whispered.

"No, that would have easy way out. The punishment for betraying your kind especially as Guardian is far worse and it's something you don't need to know," Rosaline said matter of factly before turning to look at the glass-like barrier, Maligno had created surrounding their army to protect them from vampires. The barrier the vampires were desperately trying to break. "All you need to know is she is gone but her betrayal will cause us troubles like this. They probably learned to create this barrier from that book. I never thought that book had any important information. It had a few details about our magic and the similarities it had with wizards and there was something about blood and rune magic as well. I never paid much attention to it. It looked more like a children's book, so I don't understand why they took that book from all the more valuable and crucial books."

"Because that's all he needed."

A vaguely familiar voice spoke behind Chris.