by Hayley Todd
I was seeing streaks of moonlight through the cloud now, indicating the edge. Carson noticed too and pulled me forward. We stumbled into light just as another bolt of energy stabbed through my chest. I cried out, falling to my knees.
Carson scrambled to gather me up, scooping me in his arms. He actually moved faster like this anyway. Out along the edge of the block, the dark SUV had pulled to a stop along the curb, waiting.
Carson shot his hand forward, pointing and I could see Gabrielle and Kellic shoot toward the car through the night. They were quick and fully engulfed in shadow. I breathed a little easier when they climbed into the car.
My mother crawled out of the darkness beside us. I leapt in Carson’s arms as she scared the daylights out of me. He didn’t even flinch. He looked down at my face with a small smile, then his eyes fell to the hole in my chest and his face went grim.
He gestured to my mother who took my weight into her arms and began to creep down to the car. I had the perfect view to find Carson getting surrounded. They were on him in an instant, bellowing chants.
He stood still for a moment before exploding into a flurry of activity. He was flanked on either side, an inky black wave of power overcoming him like a bludgeoning cloud.
“Carson!” I shrieked, throwing myself from my mother’s arms. She clasped my shoulders, not letting me go.
The bubble closing in on him...stopped.
A foot or two away from his body, Carson radiated one sliver of clear air. His eyes met mine from across the street and his eyes closed faintly. He leapt forward, rolling and coming up with legs spinning. His knees locked around a hood and with a hard wrench of his abdomen, the figure dropped.
He dropped to a crouch, leaping from position to position and lashing out lethal blows to each passing figure. He had almost reached us when a set of clawed hands snatched him about the neck. Thin red lines welling blood stretched over his shoulder and up his neck.
He cried out, twisted to see the figure over his shoulder, grabbed a white haired Magick by her hair and tossed her onto the concrete with one hand. She slammed off the ground with an echo.
I finally broke free of my mother’s restraints and dashed forward. The Magick leapt from the ground and dove for me. I hadn’t expected the sudden change of direction, since she hadn’t been facing me.
She plowed into my chest, sending me soaring. She stomped over to me, pressing her foot into my neck. I scrambled, clawing at her legs but she didn’t budge. My throat was on fire, my vision filling with black spots.
Just in time for Carson to appear above her shoulder. His face was terrifying. It reminded me so much of Marcellus from my dream. Dark veins bubbled the skin along his cheeks; his lips were drawn back from his teeth, long sharp fangs sinking into the woman’s shoulder. His fingers pressed against the sides of her head and a midnight blue sheen skimmed her body.
After a moment he released her, wiping blood from his lip with the back of his hand. She didn’t move and didn’t speak, simply frozen there. His glowing eyes settled back on me for a moment, skimming my face.
The look he held was predatory and frightening. He stared at me, hungrily. I had never seen him look like this. And I found myself wanting nothing more than to wrap myself around him, doing all that I could do to please him. I would bow beneath him. I would throw myself at his mercy. I would…
Carson had moved closer without me being aware of it. He had his hand beneath my back, lifting me closer to him.
The glaring color burning from his skin had faded, his eyes light but not glowing. His hand was at my chin, drawing my eyes to his.
“Are you okay?” He asked, lifting me to my feet. My legs shook beneath me and he looped an arm beneath me and scooped me up again, following my mother down the block and to the car. He slid me in carefully and turned, showing my father’s men binding the Magick woman. She simply stood there and stared after Carson while they locked metal cuffs around her neck that connected to identical cuffs at her wrists.
He didn’t bother going to the front of the vehicle and slid protectively in beside me. He pulled me close, tucking me assertively under one arm.
Once the driver headed down the road, Carson turned. “Is everyone alright?” He asked, looking us all over. He suddenly urged me to lean back, laying my head in his lap.
He peered down at me, eyes narrowed at my chest. He reached down and tore a hole through the upper chest of my shirt. I tucked my chin, looking to see what he saw. There was an open hole there in my chest above my breast. It wasn’t healing, the holes edge bubbling with some green liquid.
I could just see my mother lean over the edge of the seat before gasping and pressing her hand to her mouth. “I think she’s the only one who got hit,” she said before making eye contact with him. “Will you heal her?” She asked.
He huffed an unamused laugh as though the question had been silly and lifted his wrist to his lips. He dug his teeth into his arm and pressed the welling blood to my lips. It took a second or two but I then watched as the hole knitted closed. My mind began to feel a touch clearer. I sat up.
Kellic, my mom, and Gabrielle’s sat in the back row of the vehicle. They were snuggled together now; all three of them fast asleep.
I leaned back against the door and reached for Carson, clutching his hand in mine. He looked at me, as though he didn’t believe I was okay.
“What was that?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. I again saw that horrifyingly powerful face behind my eyelids. I felt the draw again, leaning in closer to him.
“What?” He replied, his eyes swinging out the window as though nothing had happened.
I gave him a sidelong glance. He couldn’t pretend that hadn’t happened. He had that insecure look on his face again, a horror creeping over him.
He sighed before finally responding to me. “I have a power too,” he replied softly. “It’s not something I use often.”
I recalled the splash of sweet agony that had emitted from him, calling me to him, to whatever would make him happy. My body burned with desire. I wanted to feel it again. But I also wanted to never experience that level of anger and furious dedication.
“I’ve never used it on you before,” he said. “I hadn’t meant to do it then either. I’m sorry.”
“What did you do to me?” I asked, hairs prickling up on my skin at the memory. I held his arm in my hand, forcing him to look back to me. I tried to convey on my face that I didn’t think any less of him for the incident. Actually, I was fascinated.
He looked me over. “I nearly fed on you,” he replied.
I stared at him. And? “It’s not as though you haven’t done it before,” I said questioningly.
He laughed. “Yes, you’re partially correct. I’m a hybrid, though. I get different benefits from my crossed breeds. I was originally born as an incubus. I was changed later. But I can still prey, and feed as one. She was going to snap your esophagus. I pumped her full of that mesmerizing magic and sucked enough of her blood to keep docile. They’re taking her in.” He took my hand in his. “I hadn’t meant for you to see me like that. I didn’t frighten you did I?” He asked.
I thought about it, tightening my fingers around his. He had frightened me. But that was okay. He had been terrifying, but I was still not scared of him.
I laughed half-heartedly. “Kind’ve hard. You’re scary as hell.” I gave him a soft grin, letting him know that I was only joking. Or at least I wanted him to think that. He really was terrifying but I knew that that was a weapon to be wielded in our defense, not feared as something to be turned against me.
I pressed a kiss to his lips before laying my head against his chest and letting us lapse into silence.
The house rolled unassumingly into sight before us. Though I had stayed quiet, I had never fallen asleep. The warm thrumming of his heartbeat beneath my cheek had felt delectable. I needed this quiet moment with him.
As the gravel of the drive crunched beneath the tires, my mother stirred
. She leaned over the seat, looking at Carson and I. Her eyes leveled on the tear in my shirt. “She’s alright then?” she asked, Carson--not me, which grated against my nerves.
He looked down at me with those big green eyes before meeting her gaze. “I want to make sure she experiences no...ill effects from my tactics. But I have healed her wounds.” He caught my eyes, making a point to speak directly to me. “How are you feeling?”
How was I feeling? Like I was really sick of being run from location to location by people who felt that through Henrick, they had a reason to dictate my life. I was feeling angry and worried, Will’s profile hovering in my mind. I was feeling like I had to force down the urge to leap from the moving vehicle and track him down myself.
“I’m fine. A little tired,” I replied at last, shoving my inner turmoil into my chest.
He stared at me a moment longer before allowing me to lapse back into silence.
Damien was already waiting for us as we crept up to the steps. Once the vehicle came to a stop, he flung open our door, looking impatiently over all of us. When he could see that we were all well, he stepped aside, allowing Carson to pull me from the vehicle, then he leaned back in, assisting my mother, Gabrielle, and Kellic.
I had though Gabrielle and Kellic had gotten away unscathed but they both looked endlessly exhausted, a sag to their steps. Kellic’s face was tear stained, her cheeks matted with dirt in trails. When had she been crying? And why?
Carson kept me tucked close to him protectively, but I reached my hand out in time to skin Kellic’s fingertips. She turned to me, looking me up and down for an instant before clutching me to her. I wrapped my arms around her neck. She wasn’t warm to me like Carson was, but I still took comfort in her scent, pressed under my nose, and her form against me.
Much like Will, Kellic had always been my comfort. In the absence of parents, we had given each other that same assurance. Without Will, the world felt askew on its axis, every step feeling perfect and completely wrong at the same time. I knew she felt this as much, if not more than I did.
Tears ran down her face again, soaking the collar of my tattered sweater. I let her sob into me and Carson took a half step back, ducking his head low to speak with my father in hushed tones. I pushed the distraction away, thinking only of Kellic in this moment.
She always displayed such a rigorous confidence that I sometimes had to take a step back and remember that she was just a girl, like myself, who had gotten swept along into something much larger than ourselves.
“I feel him sometimes,” she said suddenly through tears. She was looking up at me and I noticed for the first time that her crystalline blue eyes that had always matched mine, had begun to change, morphing into a more subdued golden laced blue. It was shocking actually. The color looked entirely different on her.
She could feel Will. They’d always had an inseparable connection, knowing where the other was without a word, gripping each other in times of tribulation without saying anything about their concerns. They called it “twinning” when we were younger, until Will had grown out of the desire to be so thoroughly connected to his twin. He had hit an age where he wanted to be the big strong teenage guy that he was, not Kellic’s other half, even if he was that too. He had never abandoned us, and I could never imagine him doing so, but there was a time when he started developing his own friends, his own life. Tyler was actually his best friend in high school, which had been how we’d been introduced. Will had always made friends so readily, his friendliness its own second nature.
I looked down at Kellic, her head pressed against my chest, tears streaming from her eyes. She could feel Will. Which I trusted. It meant that he was out there somewhere. Whatever Henrick was doing to him, he was still alive.
My heart swelled with hope but my stomach sank at the same time. Poor Will, who had tried to avoid this life for some unbeknownst reason, had gotten pulled into it the farthest.
Having not long ago been human myself, I knew that he may be hardy, but against the foes he would be facing, he was helpless. I wanted to find Henrick and besiege his forces. I wanted to tear him down, foundation by foundation.
I found myself shaking with anger, Kellic peering up at me. “We’ll find him,” she whispered, knowing my thoughts. I nodded tersely, even the simple gesture feeling stiff and wrong.
Damien cleared his throat, rejoining us. He looked our haggard appearances over with a watchful eye before speaking. “Kyra, I need you, your mother, and Carson at my training center immediately. We need to see what you can do before proceeding.” He left a lengthy pause, meeting each of our eyes. “While you were gone,” he continued and my interest piqued. “We discovered another abandoned ritual ground in town. We destroyed it but the place was empty. I think the coven in residence may have been the same people to attack the boutique. We’re closing in on Henrick. Now that we have another Magick involved, we hope to pinpoint his location. I will be speaking with her with Anton’s assistance.”
His eyes shot over my head and I turned, not having noticed Anton waiting by the steps. He avoided my gaze, watching only Damien.
I nodded to my father and followed quickly as Carson and my mother made their way through the maze of the house. They went down corridors in absolute silence but always seemed to have a grasp of where we were. This house hadn’t become any more familiar to me in my time staying there, but I also hadn’t exactly had time to explore.
After ten or so minutes of walking, Carson turned to a grand set of wooden double doors. They were ornate and only set apart from the monotony of other doors by the fact that there were two.
He stepped forward, sweeping the doors open for us and ushering us in.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The room before us had me giddy with excitement. It was a huge room, twice the size of a standard gymnasium and decked completely out with modern training equipment.
Along one wall was a variety of training dummies, capitalizing on different parts of the body. Some of the mannequins were true to form, looking almost human, some were simple silhouettes and some were sectioned off body parts. There was one with no arms capitalizing on blows to the head, there was another that sported limbs to encourage accuracy around them. There were instructional signs regarding proper hand to hand techniques plastered along the wall.
In the middle of the room was a wide circle set into the ground. It was a foot or so lower than the rest of the floor, creating an easy boundary.
I thought momentarily back to the day that Will and I had sparred. That was the day that our lives had changed dramatically, but I took joy in recalling his indignant response to my head butt. It wasn’t the first time I had “cheated” and seemed to be far from the last. I wished he were here for another round.
To the far left, there was a door that led to a long room lined in glass. Inside I could see what appeared to be a shooting range. It took up the length of the room with targets set to different distances within.
It was here that Carson led us. He swiped his bracelet over a panel at the door and the door clicked open. I would have to ask him about that bracelet at some point, but now didn’t seem to be the time.
He swung the door open, ushering my mother and me inside. I followed on her heels as she headed to a bank of cubbies at the shooting end of the gallery. She squared her feet and I could feel her drawing on the energy in the air. Her skin had begun to shimmer with blue white light as Carson sidled up to us.
I looked up at him, my gaze eager. If there was any part of being a Magick that I had been inherently excited to try, it was flexing my new magick muscles. I was happy to see that with the right knowledge, I now recognized the power building and being pulled and manipulated from the air. This made me feel confident that my consciousness of magick was increasing.
My mother glanced over her shoulder as Carson approached. “I know that you’re more experienced with magick than most, but what do you know about its actual use?” she asked, sending sparks of ele
ctricity dancing through the air. She stood away from the range itself, lifting her hands and sending blue white bolts skimming across her skin starting with the fingertips of her right finger and shifting it across her chest to the tips of her other hand.
Her eyes were alight, thrilled, and she seemed to revel in the ability flowing through her. This was the Naomi that I remembered. She was playful and light and I realized with a jolt that I likened her to Kellic. Perhaps that was why they had both been my best friends.
My mother and her sister were very similar in both attitude and actions. They were inseparable and I didn’t find myself resenting that until I realized that this was the first time I’d had my mother--almost--to myself since we had found her. I took a deep breath, letting my insecurities and emotions slip out with the exhale.
Carson leaned against the back wall, his arms folded over his chest. He looked endlessly exhausted right now, dark bags forming beneath his eyes. He stared at my mother’s powers unimpressed however which made me curious for his response. He chuckled. “I have a better concept than most skilled with the ability. I have rigorously researched and trained in both its use and defending against it.”
My mother’s dainty dark eyebrows rose. Maybe there were some things she didn’t know about this handsome hybrid. She extended her fingers and my heart leapt in my throat. The blue lightning that danced on her fingertip zipped across the room toward Carson.
He didn’t move. He didn’t flinch. He almost seemed as though he had expected the attack. The bolt shot across the room, slamming into the air near his forearm. It arched around an invisible barrier, not touching his skin.
“Defensive magic,” she muttered, seemingly satisfied, maybe even a little impressed.
I took a moment longer to calm my racing heartbeat. Carson gazed at me, amused, a small smile on his lips. What on Earth was I walking in to? My mother was casually tossing around lethal magick and my lover was ignoring her jibes with ease. I had a lot to learn.
