Dawn was completely silent. She hadn't spoken a word since the judgment was passed nor did she shed a tear. Her expressions were unreadable, hard, cold and flinty. As soon as she stepped in the cell, the metallic door slid back into the place and locked automatically. She went to lie on the cold bed and stared at the ceiling. The cell was a small ten feet by ten, with one iron bed in the corner, a toilet and nothing else.

She closed her eyes, but sleep was not even near… only thoughts on what Bree had told her. How did she know that she was bitten? And that also meant that she knew about it for a long time yet she never revealed. How? For five years she had been constantly haunted by the nightmares. For days she had woken up panting and sweaty. She had to escape for her life and Bree was part of the conspiracy?

​​

Rage simmered in her chest. It was like a volcano that was about to explode. She needed answers—desperately. At that point of time, somewhere on the inside her conscience had died. She didn't feel any emotion or any pity for herself—only anger and acrimony. She refused every food that was served to her.

Hours later, she didn't know when but she fell off to sleep only to be woken up by a sound of metal clinking. The lights of the prison were out. When she opened her eyes, a torch was flashing on her face. Dawn got up and brought her forearm to shield her eyes from the blinding light. "Who is it?" she asked, though she knew who it was.

"Bitch!" said Helena. "I finally got you! Had been waiting so long for this moment."

Dawn wasn't surprised. She got up. "Helena, how are you?" She faced her with a scowl.

For a moment Helena was stunned as to how Dawn was greeting her. It was as if she knew that she would come to visit her. Shoving the thought, she flashed a big kitchen knife in front of her. She poked her cheek with it and said, "Do you know murders within the prison are so common that if I murder you, nothing would be untoward? I will go scot-free from here?"

"I agree," said Dawn lightly. Then she tilted her head to see behind her. "And where is your lovely little partner, Anne?" Dawn's nails clicked. "I can sense her lurking on the outside."

Helena's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. She said, "You surely know a lot, you nasty piece of neotide! Did that nose of yours whiff like a dog? Did you pick up her smell, huh, bitch?"

"Interesting!" Dawn snorted. "How do you know I am a neotide?" She clucked her tongue. "Oh wait! Jason is a neotide too!" Then she paused. Putting up one foot on the bed while the other one dangled from bed, she asked, "How come you never became one?"

"Yes, he is. He helped me to get you in here! And I hate being bitten!" Helena leaped towards her with a knife but Dawn dodged her easily by getting out of her way with her werewolf speed and Helena fell on the bed. The torch went flying on the ground. It rolled and so did the light it threw on the wall behind them. All the figures appeared ghostly in the scattered beams.

With a deadly growl, Dawn faced her with her claws and fangs elongating. "By Skadi! You had a plan!"

Helena laughed in a sinister manner as she balanced and sat down on the bed. She removed the hair from her face and said, "Cunt, I had a plan to do away with you when I had murdered your father. But you ran away with your brother! If you hadn't run that day, I would have got you killed! That bloody bastard, Luke, he tucked you away safely in a hospital before Jason could reach you!"

Dawn snarled.

"Finish the work, Helena" a soft voice came from outside the cell in front of the metal door. "We don't have much time!" Anne was standing right there with one hand at the back and one on her stomach. They had bribed too many guards for the job as soon as they knew that Dawn was going to come in this jail. They had a fifteen-minute window to execute the murder.

Ignoring Anne Dawn asked "So you killed my father?" She had held her breath. She had to know everything. The mystery behind her father's murder was eating her on the inside. It was gnawing her soul. And now every piece of puzzle was fitting together.

Helena tittered. "Yes! I killed Luke because the bastard had come to know that I was siphoning off the money from his Company. Not only that, I came to know that he had been stashing his money in some bank from a long time so that I or Anne or Lily don't get a scent of it. When I confronted him, he didn't reveal where it was. He had been watching me for a long time. He wanted to hand me over to the police but I got the better of him. I got him murdered. Jason murdered him and I enjoyed watching him begging for life. I watched him bleed as Jason stabbed him," said Helena and she started to laugh again. "God! How much I am going to do the same with you!"

"Where is my father's body? What did you do with it?" asked Dawn as a bead of sweat slithered down her spine.

Helena and Anne started laughing like madwomen. "Oh that?" said Helena. "We simply buried it in the garden, which your mother had so beautifully landscaped. It is below the fountain." In response to her statement, Anne slapped her thigh, as though she was so excited.

Dawn's lips pulled back in disgust. She was so appalled that bile rose in her throat. She had sat on the skirt of the fountain and played with the fish in it when she last visited.

Pushing back her revulsion, she asked, "How do you know I am a neotide?" Did you have a hand in converting me into one?"

Helena let out a deep throaty laughter as if she was thrilled in recounting the deeds of the past. "Not me. It was Jason's idea. You see Bree wanted to go for the national championships, but you came in between her dreams. She was angered as hell and complained to her father, Mr. Higgins. The man loved his daughter a lot. When he discussed it with Jason, Jason gave him the idea about converting you into a neotide. We were already planning to murder your father, so if you were being bitten by a neotide, you would have died by the venom. No one would have suspected us. But—" Helena hissed and clenched her teeth. "But you survived! You survived because of that rotten father of yours! He found you before us and stashed you in the hospital immediately along with Cole. I think he had suspicions about our plan." She pointed the dagger in her direction and said lazily, "By the time my men came to know about you, you escaped." She clenched her jaw. "Twice!"

A muscle feathered in Dawn's jaw. "So it was Jason who bit me?"