“All you need to know is that I'm a bounty hunter and a Fire Mage, like you.” I crossed my arms, wincing as I pulled at the bandage on my hand. “The rest you can make up for all I care.”
“How’s your hand feeling?” He reached over the couch as if to touch me, but pulled back at the last moment.
“Fine.”
“Let me look.” He tugged at my sleeve until I relented and placed my hand in his lap.
He unwrapped the bandage and I turned away. I didn’t want to see the blood.
“Why aren’t you covered in scars from casting?” He went to his back pack and retrieved more ointment.
“When I draw upon my power it usually heals me if the cut is shallow. I also know a few healing runes.”
“So you practice Rune Magic as well?”
I shrugged. My parents had drilled the patterns into me since childhood. I had known the basics before I had learnt the alphabet.
“It takes a lot of power to cast Runes,” he noted.
I didn’t need a reminder of my lost Magic. His touch felt nice as he smeared my hand with the cream. I hated it.
“Thank you,” I muttered. Thanking the Hunter wasn’t a good habit to get in to. I sunk into the hard chair and closed my eyes.
“What does it feel like?” I opened one eye and raised an eyebrow.
“It hurts.”
“You know what I meant.”
“So the Hunter wants to know how it feels to use Blood Magic? That sounds treasonous to me.”
“Forget I said anything.” He rose and stomped to the other side of the room.
No one had ever asked me about my power before.
“It’s… euphoric.” I rubbed my chest, aware of the icy feeling that had been slowly building since I first awoke.
The Hunter asked no more questions.
I rolled onto my side and huddled against the arm of the couch, hopeful that I would be able to get some rest. I should have stretched out on the bed, but it felt wrong with my enemy watching on. The Hunter roused me from my light sleep. He seemed to trust me enough not to keep me cuffed. Not like I could betray him anyway. Not with the oath holding us both in place.
We drove past the city and came to the poverty struck place Judas had shown me. We reached the old library. The carpark was empty and the moon was obscured by clouds. Before I could walk toward the building, the Hunter stopped me. He threw me against the jeep, using his body as a barricade.
What the hell?
I struggled to breathe under his substantial weight. He fished something out of his pocket and held it in front of my face. It was a round potion capsule, shiny and red.
“What’s that?” I tried to pretend he wasn’t pressing his arm across my throat. Fear filled my veins as his gaze turned predatory. It seemed he wasn’t able to suppress the monster for long. A sinister smile crossed his face. He had shed the lamb skin and revealed the wolf underneath.
I was an idiot for thinking him harmless.
“It’s a paralysis potion,” he said out the side of his mouth.
“Okay.” I lifted my chin and tried to look bored. My bravado was ruined by my shaking hands.
Paralysis potions were very rare and very expensive. Only two potion Mages in the world could create them and their power didn’t come cheap. The charms were like heat-seeking missiles, they caused the victim to be under the control of the wielder until they decided otherwise. I had only heard stories about the horrific psychological effects they had on their victims. The things people were forced to do. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to experience.
“Don’t underestimate me, sorceress. I didn’t get to my position by accident.” I shivered even though the weather was balmy and his body was hot against mine.
“I really hate that name,” I mumbled, my voice sounding pathetic.
“If you betray me, I’ll make sure you live to regret it. Oath be damned.” The Hunter had been serene so far, but I had no doubt underneath the icy exterior was cruelty. He knew when to let it peak out.
I found myself nodding as he dragged me toward the dark building.
The door was unlocked and we let ourselves in. I shoved my trembling hands into my jean pockets. Judas’s lithe figure lent against a column. When he saw me, his face lit up with a breathtaking smile.
“Lilith!” He marched toward me, taking no notice of the Hunter standing beside me. “You came. I couldn’t find you at the motel and I got worried.”
I found myself reciprocating the easy grin. With Judas around, the terror was easier to control. “Of course. Judas, this is my dear friend. I went to find him, I hope it’s okay I brought him along.”
“I’m Noah.” The Hunter didn’t miss a beat.
Judas assessed him, his light eyes scanning his features as if he knew who he was.
“I need your help, Judas.” I softened my voice, drawing his attention to me. Crocodile tears swelled in my eyes. “I wasn’t truthful to you on the bus. The Elect is hunting me for a crime I didn’t commit. They collared me, Judas.”
His eyes widened in shock. I thumbed the thin metal around my neck, pulling it from my shirt.
“I didn’t see this before.”
I blushed a deep red as I fumbled with an excuse. The Hunter saved me. “She usually keeps it glamoured. We’ve been searching for ways to get it off.”
Judas nodded solemnly. “Of course. No wonder you were so reserved when we first met.”
We trailed after Judas as he weaved through the empty rooms. The Hunter and I were herded into a small room with a desk. Judas gave me a small smile and stood at the back of the room. The Hunter and I sat side by side on the plastic chairs. I was hyperaware of his body next to mine. I needed to find a way to get that potion from him.
“Let me do the talking,” the Hunter whispered in my ear.
Arrogant asshole.
After we had stewed for some time, the door opened. A short, balding man entered the room. I couldn’t look away. He was captivating. Immediately I knew he was a leader. Armies would follow him and lay down their lives at his command. He smiled in my direction and a warmth flooded me. I was blanketed with a sense of confidence. I could shake it off, but I didn’t want to. The assuredness filled the empty cavern in my chest.
“Welcome. I’m Joseph. What are your names?” His gravelly voice filled the small room.
“Lilith.” My voice was reedy in comparison.
“Noah,” the Hunter followed.
Joseph held out his hand and we placed our ID bands into his palm.
“Judas has said you want to join us.”
I nodded.
“I have known them for a long time Joseph, they can be trusted,” Judas said. I turned to face him, studying him.
“Thank you Judas.” Joseph set his calm gaze on me and took my hands in his. “Why do you wish to join our cause child?”
“The Elect murdered my parents when I was a child. They collared me and took away my Magic.” The hatred in my voice was palpable.
He nodded solemnly. “The Elect has taken much from you.”
He reached toward the Hunter and did the same. Anxiety built within me. If the Hunter stuffed this up I didn’t know what would happen.
“I made an oath to free her and I intend to follow through.” His voice was so sure.
I almost believed him.
“You speak the truth. You’re welcome to join us. We have a number of rules which you must promise to adhere too. Secrecy is paramount to our survival. Since you already know Judas, you will be stationed within his cell. We do not disclose our last names. You will not know anyone outside your cell. What are your skills? Everyone is useful here.”
“We were bounty hunters. I am a Fire Mage and so is Lilith.” He shifted in his seat. “…Before she was collared.”
He was good.
“Excellent. The compound you will be stationed in needs more fighters. I will be travelling with you tonight. We will introduce you to everyone tomorrow mornin
g.”
He stood from his chair. “Come, you must be tired. It is late. I do not believe many others will join us tonight.”
We stood to follow. “We have bags in the car,” the Hunter advised.
Joseph brushed him off. “Go get them. We’ll be here.”
The Hunter strode off and returned with both our duffel bags.
“What about pickles?” I asked, creening my head to try and find my new furry friend.
“I sent him back home.”
I pouted. We were led to a car. Judas was standing outside. When he saw me, he wrapped me in a tight hug. I stiffened and frantically wriggled out.
“You made it.”
“Sure did, buddy.” I punched him lightly in the shoulder. He looked down at me like I had grown an extra head. I jumped back in case he got any more sudden urges to hug me.
“You guys have to wear these.” He held out some blindfolds.
The Hunter and I were seated in the back row and Joseph took the front seat. If there were others, they had left long ago. I wondered why they had waited so late. Judas’s idle chatter filled the darkness. It was fortunate that he liked to talk so much. The Hunter seemed to be about as much as a conversationalist as I was.
It took a few hours for us to come to a dirt road. I wondered if the Hunter was taking a peak from under his blindfold. The road was bumpy and I jostled in the backseat. I threw my hand out to steady myself, the Hunter had the same idea and our fingers met. He hissed and ripped his hand from mine while muttering an apology. I swallowed my retort.
“We’re nearly here,” Judas murmured from the front seat.
The car rolled to a stop and I heard Judas and Joseph slide out of the car. My door opened and a warm hand grasped mine. This one didn’t pull away. The touch was uncomfortable to me, but I didn’t want to telegraph the fact that I was an outsider, so I smiled gratefully in the direction I thought the face was. I gingerly climbed from the car, careful not to hit my head.
“Watch your step.” Judas led me around, his hand gentle on my lower back.
I heard the Hunter stumble in the gravel. I hoped he fell on his blindfolded ass. We were finally led inside and down a steep staircase. I tripped on the last step and felt a strong arm wrap around my waist, saving my face from a meeting with the ground.
“You can take them off now.” Joseph’s calm voice filled the small space.
The air pressure had changed and there was a considerable chill to the room. Judas let my hand go and I rubbed my arms for warmth. When my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, Judas switched the lights on and I realised how small the corridor was. If I reached out with both hands I could touch the sides. Turning, I looked longingly up the stairwell. It didn’t seem as if we would be seeing sky anytime soon. I should have savoured the moon longer.
“How are you feeling, Lilith?” Joseph sounded genuinely concerned.
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
“Of course. Judas, please show them to a room. We double-up here. We don’t have much space. Tomorrow I will introduce you to the group.”
I gave him a closed-lip smile. Joseph turned and strode down a long corridor. The thought of sharing a room with the Hunter wasn’t appealing. There would be no peace. We were ushered into a small room filled only with a double mattress and a single drop light in the centre. Judas flicked the light on. He delivered an extra blanket and our bags before reluctantly leaving us.
The walls were bare dirt and the entrance was covered only by a flimsy white curtain. I stood on the brink of something I couldn’t describe. The weight of it pressed down on my shoulders and I struggled to take another step forward. It was too much and not enough at the same time. Any joy inside of me was swallowed by the dark thing.
“I’ll take the floor.” The Hunter interrupted my train of thought and pulled a pillow off the bed. I finally moved forward and crawled on to the mattress. Exhaustion overcame me and I wrapped myself in the scratchy blanket. The Hunter must have found the light switch because suddenly the room was black and sleep took me.
It felt strange to wake in the dark; I lay on my back for a long period of time before the Hunter flicked on the lights and loomed over me. It didn’t look like he had slept much.
He held up my bag. “There’s a shower through there. You go first.”
I snatched my bag. The bathroom was tiny and dark. There was no light and no door. A shower and toilet were jammed into the small space. Thankfully there was no mirror. I got dressed into my last change of clean clothes and hung my shower washed garments over the toilet to dry. I shuffled back to the tiny bedroom and sat on the mattress. The tiny cracks running down the wall seemed to demand full attention. My body started tingling and the edges of my vision begun to go grey. Dark clouds of fog rolled through my brain dampening any emotions until I felt nothing. I was looking through the haze of plastic that had been washed too many times.
“Arina.” The Hunter held me by the shoulders, his face close to mine. Translucent droplets of water slid slowly down his bare chest. They caught the yellow light, sparkling like amber. If I looked hard enough I could see the whole room reflected back at me.
The thin tether that held me to this earth was cut and I felt my awareness flee. “Arina.”
I was shaken roughly. The movement caused the water from his dark hair to find a path down his face. Droplets hit my face. His hair fell just short of his eyes, his grey eyes.
“Snap out of it.”
There was a small bead of water at the end of his dark lashes. It looked like it would fall at any moment, his eyes…. his eyes.
“Arina!”
Why was I looking at his eyes? The room suddenly seemed much louder, like the water had cleared from my ears.
“What?” I snapped.
I shook my head, trying to disperse the thick fog. The Hunter took a step back from me. The fear drained from his features and the indifferent mask returned.
“Your hand. It’s not healing.”
I held my arm up to the light, the wound was suddenly painful. At some point I had unwrapped it. Blood ran freely down my forearm and onto the floor. The cut was fresh, when it should have been healed already. The edges were angry and infected. I looked up at the Hunter in alarm. Panic bubbled within me, my heart pounding in my chest. Infections were not for Mages. It was a human aliment. Questions raced through my mind.
What had happened? Was this a taste of the horror that people spoke of when they whispered about collars?
The Hunter sprang into action, scrounging up more bandages before wrapping and cleaning my hand. The blood still seeped, he pressed a cloth to the cut trying to stem the flood. His brow creased with worry.
“It’s okay. It’s just bleeding from the hot water.” I didn’t know who I was trying to comfort.
When the blood slowed he left me to go and get dressed. How long had I been sitting in the wet singlet? It was cold, even in the stagnant air. Neither of us bothered to speak again. I didn’t want to think about how the collar was affecting me already. The initially pleasant feeling of emptiness had now begun to suck my soul from my body.
We sat in silence until someone came and retrieved us. A teenage girl who had not yet grown into her body stood meekly in our threshold. She ushered us down the skinny hall. We walked quickly in single file. The Hunter nearly had to duck his head to avoid the roof. Eventually the passage opened into an oval-shaped room. There was a small kitchen on one side and three long picnic tables on the other. On top were bowls of fruit and bread.
Joseph was standing at the head of the tables. The group was larger than I expected, about fifty people of all species sat around the tables.
He paused when we entered. “Please join us.”
The Hunter and I squeezed onto the end of a table. As soon as we were seated, he began.
“I know you’re all restless for war. But fast change is undone quickly. The saviours become the new oppressors, and the cycle continues. We must be smarter. True r
evolution, the kind that sticks, the kind that makes the world safe and fair takes time. The rebellion stands for equality. We want a society in which all species stand together and govern as one. The Mage Elect has ruled with oppression for too long. Their reign will soon come to an end.”
His words were hypnotic. I could envisage his world. It was a world of freedom without death. People would no longer be persecuted for simply existing. With Joseph at the helm it all seemed possible. Someone cheered, and then someone else. Soon shouts and calls of support broke out, rising in volume.
“We are in negotiations with the Vampire King and a number of Alphas.”
More cheers from the group.
“We must stay strong. We are at a crucial juncture. True rebellion never dies!”
“True rebellion never dies!” the crowd parroted back.
There was an energy in the room and it was intoxicating. I stole a glance at the Hunter, his jaw was set and his eyes narrowed. I wondered what he thought of this. This was the Elect’s worst nightmare. They thrived on fear, not hope.
“We are joined by two new members today. Lilith and Noah, please stand.”
I stood. Silence fell over the crowd. I looked at their faces, they were filled with so much hope and I was here to crush it.
“Please make them feel welcome.”
Applause broke out.
“I will be leaving this morning, I won’t be returning for some time. I will have direct contact with Loral and Sylvia. Please listen to them in the coming months.”
With that he was seated and lively conversation broke out. People reached over each other to get to the food. My stomach rumbled and I snatched up a piece of bread along with an apple.
A plump middle-aged woman with a warm smile turned toward me. “Welcome Lilith. It’s so nice to have a new face around here.”
I couldn’t return the sentiment. Instead, I shoved the apple in my mouth. Before I could slip back into my room, Judas bounced over to me, a lopsided grin on his face.
“Morning Lilith.”
“Good morning.”
The Sanguine Door Page 8
