Meta Marshal Service 3

by B N Miles

  “I think you’re right.”

  “When we get her back, we need to try and do more for her.” Jared kicked a rock, sent it skittering through the dust. “At least try and ask her about her old life, see if she wants to talk about it.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  “And Wade, well, we’ll figure him out.”

  “Cassie will be happy to hear you say that. I know you’re having a tough time with him, but he’s still her cousin.”

  “That’s what I keep reminding myself.”

  Jessalene smiled and slipped her hand through his arm. They walked like that for a while, stomping through short, fat bushes, over loose gravel, off the path and into the true desert.

  It took them longer this time to reach the border. But as they got closer to the flat-topped mountain in the distance, Lumi held a hand up and called for a halt. Jared could see it looming in the moonlight, holding court above the surrounding rolling hills, a monster among mortals.

  “We’re here,” she said.

  “How can you tell?” Jared asked.

  Lumi walked forward, moved around Nikki, then took a hopping, skipping jump over a little group of rocks.

  And disappeared.

  “Okay,” Jessalene said. “We’re here. And I still really hate that.”

  “Let’s get set up,” Izzy said.

  Jared slid the pack off his back and unzipped it. Izzy added her bag next to his, and together they got the materials.

  Lumi popped back into existence a few seconds later. “Still clear,” she said. “No sign of any sentries. Magic still feels the same. I don’t think they know I crossed over.”

  “Good,” Izzy said. “Because this is going to be like five of you crossing over all at once.”

  Jared passed out the small wooden squares with the runes expertly inked onto their faces. Next came small vials of blood, carefully filled by Nikki’s steady hand, the rest of the blood tucked away somewhere safe, presumably for a meal later on.

  They stood in a loose circle, each of them holding a vial of blood and a small marked square. Lumi stood with them, though she wasn’t holding the vial, just the square.

  “Part of this is syncing us up,” Izzy said. “That’s the easy step. Once we’re aligned, then I’ll start the hard bit.”

  “Will we feel anything?” Jessalene asked.

  “Probably,” Izzy said. “I’m attempting to align your biological rhythms, heart rate and respiration rate, all that. But I’ve never actually done this before.”

  “I thought you said you did this sort of thing all the time,” Jessalene said.

  “I do,” Izzy said. “Stuff like it, at least. But altering the blood of two Metas and two Magi at the same exact time isn’t exactly something I’ve practiced, not to mention aligning this many people.”

  “Let her concentrate,” Jared said and took Jessalene’s hand before she could ask more questions.

  He knew this was difficult for her, knew she hated the idea of losing control of her body like this, but the fact that she was still willing to let it happen spoke volumes about just how much she cared for Cassie.

  “Okay, everyone close your eyes,” Izzy said. “The first bit’s simple. I’m pretty sure.”

  “Reassuring,” Lumi said.

  Jared took a breath, looked up at the stars swirling in the night sky, then closed his eyes.

  At first, nothing happened. He felt the flare of Izzy’s power, so different from his and Lumi’s. Where Lumi was all aggression and power, Izzy was subtle and gentle. Lumi ripped the priori from the world and dominated it; Izzy pulled it into herself, a steady flow, and shaped it. Jared knew he fell somewhere between those two styles, and tended more toward Lumi, as most Magi did.

  He felt Izzy’s power begin to seep out from her body and activate the runes on all their wooden pieces. It was subtle and quiet magic, so he wasn’t worried about the whole world feeling it, but once she did the blood changing trick, that couldn’t be helped.

  If there were any Magi in this part of the desert, they’d feel a deep tug in their bones.

  Jared pushed that thought aside and concentrated as the warm healing glow he’d experienced from Izzy before slowly passed over him. He breathed deep, his heart rate steadying, his anxiety fading. He felt calmer than he had in a long time, and a strange smile flitted across his lips. His heart beat eased into in an even rhythm, and his breath flowed in and out, almost as if someone else were controlling it.

  “Finished,” Izzy said. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”

  Jared opened his eyes and the others stared back. They were all smiling too, like everyone had just gone through one of the best massages of their lives. Nikki rolled her shoulders, tilted her head. Lumi cracked her neck and let out a sigh. Jessalene put her hands on her chest, and Jared realized that they were all breathing at the exact same rate, in even, deep breaths.

  “This is really weird,” Lumi said. “Really, really weird.”

  “We’re breathing at the same time,” Nikki said. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”

  “I told you, first step was to align everyone,” Izzy said.

  “Yeah, but feeling it is totally different,” Lumi said. “Holy shit, I wish we could do this more often.”

  Jared let out a little laugh and was startled to find everyone else join in, like they were all thinking the same thoughts.

  “We’re not, uh, sharing anything else, are we?” Jessalene asked.

  Jared thought he felt a small stab of anxiety wash over him as Jessalene’s lips began to lose their smile.

  “No,” Izzy said. “It’s biological. But if you start feeling anxious, the physical symptoms will manifest in everyone else. So please, everyone, stay calm, stay happy.”

  “Right,” Jessalene said. “Right, calm and happy. Calm and happy.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Jared said, putting his hand on her lower back. He felt a strange thrill run through him, desire mingled with comfort, a physical yearning that pierced through his center. “Oh wow,” he said.

  “Did you feel that?” Jessalene asked.

  “We all felt it,” Nikki said. “You must really like him.”

  Jessalene blushed, and Jared felt his own skin flush. “We need to speed this up,” she said.

  “Keep it together,” Izzy said. “Let’s get everyone calmed down again before we move on. I need you all centered and even before I do the next part.”

  Jared dropped his hand from Jessalene’s back. “Come on, deep breaths with us.”

  He sucked in and the others mirrored him. They stood, their hearts beating as one, their breath coming in perfect harmony, until the group’s physical sensations dropped back down to a steady baseline calm again.

  “Good,” Izzy said. “Okay, good. Now I’m going to start the second half of the spellwork.”

  “I’m ready,” Jessalene said.

  “Eyes closed again,” Izzy said.

  Jared squeezed Jessalene’s arm then dropped his hands to his sides. He gripped Lumi’s vial of blood and the wooden rune-covered square and shut his eyes tight, focusing on his breathing and heartbeat, trying to stay calm.

  Izzy’s power flared to life.

  This time, she wasn’t being gentle. Jared could feel how hard she pulled, how much priori she drew up into herself. He felt a stab of surprise run through him, which was confusing, because he had expected Izzy to be able to handle her magic. He realized a breath later that the surprise wasn’t coming from him, but from Lumi. She must not have thought Izzy was so capable, maybe because Izzy was an Independent and had lost her Magi family.

  But Jared knew better than that, knew that the Magi families didn’t always bring out the best in their members.

  Sometimes, hardship could hone a person into something harder, something sharper, something deadlier.

  Izzy drew in an enormous amount of priori. Jared grimaced at the feeling of it, the weight of it holding steady in her body. He heard
her let out a little gasp, a little groan, and he knew she must already be feeling the effects of it. Her heart began beating faster, her breath coming in quicker gasps, which caused everyone else in the circle to mirror her. Jared struggled to try and get it under control, and he felt the others doing the same.

  Together, working as a group, they managed to keep Izzy calm and centered and concentrating better than she would have been able to on her own.

  Izzy shaped the magic. Jared felt it flow from her and into the wooden square he held in his hand. The runes flared to life again, and this time they burned bright in his palm.

  He could feel it like a lamp in his hand, warmth suffusing his skin, though it wasn’t hot and wasn’t like a real physical feeling. It was more like the suggestion of heat, more like the sense that the square should be hot, even if it wasn’t actually.

  “Hard part now,” Izzy said through a clenched jaw. “Everyone stay calm.”

  “Do it,” Jared said, and he felt that determination mirrored in everyone around him, their heartrates still calm, their breathing still steady.

  Izzy groaned again as the magic flared to life and stabbed outward.

  Jared felt it hit him.

  It sliced through his body, and for a second, he felt like it might break him into pieces.

  He gasped as every inch of his body felt like a glare of white-hot lava, and he felt that horrible pain mirrored in all the others. He felt their pain, and they felt his pain, and he felt them feeling his pain, the effect of it like a house of mirrors, endlessly repeating in a feedback loop of horror, getting worse and worse as the magic continued to flare through them.

  Something hot and thick dripped down his face, over his lips.

  “Oh fuck,” Izzy groaned. “Oh fucking fuck.”

  The pain continued, as did the dripping sensation. Jared gasped and opened his eyes, unable to help himself.

  The first thing he saw was Jessalene, standing close to him, blood pouring from her mouth, her nose, her eyes.

  He looked at Nikki and saw the same thing. Her blood was darker somehow, more viscous, but it drained from her lips. She coughed and it splattered onto the ground as she pressed a hand against her chest. Jared looked at Izzy, saw blood leaking from her eyes and rolling from her parted lips, and he knew something had gone horribly wrong.

  “Is it finished?” Lumi asked, her voice loud and shrill, her eyes wild and wide. Jared met her gaze, and she was the only one not bleeding, since she wasn’t part of the blood magic. “Izzy, is it done?”

  “It’s done,” Izzy said, sputtering and spitting thick red slush onto the ground. “Hurry, we have to— we have to—” She spit another clot of it onto the rocks. “We have to go through.”

  Jared gagged, spit blood, snorted more, and grabbed Jessalene. He pulled her forward, toward the spot where they’d slip through. Lumi staggered back as Jared approached, but Nikki managed to drag herself after them.

  Lumi turned and led them toward the barrier, stopping only to grab the bags.

  He felt like every muscle in his body was locking up, like the pain might break him into tiny, bitter pieces, like his own skin was trying to strangle him. But he pushed forward, tugging Jessalene along. He reached Izzy, grabbed her, pushed her at Lumi, who caught her and turned her toward the barrier. Nikki came up next to Jared, more blood pooling from her ears and nose, stumbling along, the stuff covering her dark black shirt, her dark black jeans.

  Lumi and Izzy reached the barrier first. Lumi slipped through, disappeared, and there was a moment where Izzy stood before it, a moment where Jared thought she might not be able to pass, thought she might turn away from it and start walking in some random direction.

  Instead, she blinked away.

  “It worked,” Jared muttered, gasping for breath as blood threatened to fill his throat. “Fucking worked.”

  He shoved Jessalene forward. She staggered, reached the barrier, and went through. Jared went next, reaching back to snag Nikki’s hand. He tugged her after him, and as he hit the demarcation line between the outside world and the inside of the magical line, he thought he might scream and puke every drop of blood from his body.

  Instead, he moved through, and a second later Nikki came with him.

  “Turn it off,” Jared said as he collapsed onto the ground, blood dripping from his mouth. “Turn it the fuck off.”

  “Don’t drop the square,” Izzy said. “Don’t… just hold on…”

  She closed her eyes, supported by Lumi. Her power flared again, the warmth spreading through him…

  And the pain stopped.

  He gasped, fell forward onto his hands and knees. Nikki collapsed next to him, groaning, more blood drooling from her eyeballs in thick globs. Jessalene leaned over a boulder and retched once, twice, a mixture of bile and blood. It was like going from a burning hot lava bath into a freezing cold ice tub.

  The cessation of pain was almost as bad as the pain itself.

  “What the fuck happened?” Jared said, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. The warm desert sand, still retaining some heat from the day, felt good under his palms. His body wasn’t actively bleeding anymore, but blood still filled his mouth and dripped from his ears and nose.

  He hocked and spit it up.

  “Magic fucked up,” Izzy said. She sat back on her hands and tilted her head up into the air, blood dripping down her cheeks, into her hair. “Fucked it up really bad.”

  “But we got through,” Lumi said. “You all got through. So it had to work.”

  “Circumstances were too much,” Izzy said. “Lost control. Bodies started breaking down.” She leaned back onto her elbows and sobbed once, trying to choke back her tears.

  Jared got up onto his knees and wiped his face, flinging blood down.

  “Is everyone okay?” he asked, feeling nauseous and dizzy. “Nikki, Jessalene, still bleeding?”

  “I’m okay,” Jessalene said, wiping her mouth and face. “I think it’s done.”

  “Me too,” Nikki said, lying on her back and staring up at the sky. “My god, I haven’t bled like that in a very long time.” She turned her head toward Jared and her fangs gleamed in the moonlight, long and curved and sharp. “You look beautiful, you know.”

  “Thanks,” he said and held out his finger. “Go ahead.”

  She crawled over on her elbows and took his finger into her mouth, sucking the blood from his skin with a moan of pleasure. Jared felt dizzy and sick to his stomach, but at least his body wasn’t breaking into pieces.

  Although Nikki sucking his own blood off his fingers did send some very confusing thoughts through his head.

  Fortunately, they weren’t aligned anymore, and the others couldn’t feel his physical response to Nikki’s satisfied groans.

  Lumi rifled through the bags and produced a beat-up white hotel towel. She tossed it to Jessalene, who wiped herself off as best she could before moving over to Izzy. Jessalene wiped Izzy off, then came to Jared, wiped him off the best she could, but hesitated before doing Nikki.

  “Go ahead,” Nikki said, her eyes heavy and lidded, a lazy smile on her lips as she cradled Jared’s blood-covered fingers in her hands. “Don’t be shy, darling. You never are.”

  Jessalene gave Jared a look then toweled Nikki off as Nikki continued to lick him.

  When Jessalene finished, she threw the sopping towel aside and collapsed back onto the ground, out of breath.

  “Water now,” Lumi said, handing out water bottles.

  Everyone drank, except for Nikki, who already seemed better as she dropped Jared’s right hand and began on his left.

  “How much blood did we just lose?” Jessalene asked as she drank half her water bottle before capping it again.

  “I don’t know,” Izzy said through clenched teeth. “I don’t think too much. Just based on myself… maybe ten percent…” She let out a huffed, sharp breath.

  “The Need’s bad, isn’t it?” Jared asked.

  Izzy only nodded, her
eyes and jaw tight and focused on the ground in front of her.

  Jared sucked in a breath and pushed himself up to his feet. Nikki let out a little groaning gasp as he pulled his finger from her mouth. She reached for him then seemed to catch herself and pulled back, biting her lip, her fangs hanging out.

  He felt a moment of dizziness, but he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and it passed. The pain in his body was gone, though the memory of it still lingered. He opened his eyes again and looked at Izzy as she seemed to pull into herself.

  “We have to take care of her,” he said.

  “You guys look like shit,” Lumi said. “And you can barely stand.”

  “But we need her,” Jared said. “She can help. All we need to do is…”

  “Oh fuck,” Izzy said, her eyes opening, fluttering, closing again. “You’re talking about fucking me.”

  “I’m talking about getting you off,” Jared said.

  “You’re covered in blood,” she said.

  “You are too.”

  Jared took a step closer and his head didn’t swim. His eyes roamed Izzy’s beautiful, fit body, her tight breasts and stomach, her sun-touched skin.

  Despite the blood dripping from her tank top, she still looked gorgeous.

  “Give me the word, and I’ll help,” Jared said, his voice deep, his hands balled into fists. “Just ask for it.”

  She opened her eyes and stared at him, her lips hanging open. Blood still smeared on her face, though Jessalene had wiped the worst of it away.

  “Please,” she whispered. “I hate this.”

  Jared walked to her, the cool night breeze picking up and rustling through the nearby scrub bushes, loose dust swirling in the air, flowing toward the plateau in the distance.

  38

  Jared picked up a water bottle and the white towel, stained with red and almost soaked through, and pressed a clean patch of cloth against Izzy’s cheeks. He knelt down in front of her, cleaning her face, wiping away the stray streaks of blood, brushing it up against her lips.

  He poured some water onto his hands and brushed them against her cheeks, her forehead. Blood sluiced away, turning pink and running off her skin. Nobody spoke as Jared cleaned her, wiping down her face first, then her hands and arms, then as much of her hair and neck as he could. When he was finished, most of the blood was gone, but her eyes were still red-rimmed and wild.