Bitter Magic

by Raven Steele

  I shook his arms off me. “I’m sorry, Christian. Please.” Tears filled my eyes. “Just stay away from me.”

  I turned and rushed down the hallway, away from the dining room and away from my Christian.

  Instead of returning to my cramped, smelly room, I ran from the school, no longer caring who saw me leave. But who would be watching? No one. The Auras were together beneath the light of fancy chandeliers while I raced toward darkness.

  Chapter 18

  I ran into the forest, darting around trees, up and over fallen limbs, my mind on Christian. How could he ever want to be with someone like me? A damaged Aura. What future could we possibly have?

  I stopped and gasped for air, my hands on my shaking knees for support. But it wasn’t enough. I collapsed to the ground, onto my back, and stared upward. Pieces of the night sky twinkled through the cracks in the tree branches.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  I sat up in time to see Liam walking toward me. I grunted and fell back into the grass. “How did you find me?”

  “I sensed you in the wind.” He huffed and glanced toward the school. “It’s a school night.”

  “And?”

  “Shouldn’t you be hanging out with friends, studying?”

  “Because I fit right in?”

  Several seconds passed before he said, “I meant what I said before. I can help.”

  “I know.” And I will take it as soon as I work up the courage to ask you.

  “I’ve been where you’re at. I know what it feels like.”

  I smirked. “To be a teenage Aura who wants to claw her skin off?”

  “To wish that you’d never wake up,” he responded. “Because when you’re awake all you want to do is destroy everything around you, even yourself. Every breath threatens to suffocate you until you wonder if death would be better.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “You don’t have to feel like that,” he said.

  Two sparkling pieces of sky came together when the wind blew a branch to the side. I sat up. “How can I trust you?”

  Liam glanced around. “Is there anyone else trying to help you? Anyone at all who would understand what you’re going through?”

  I stood. “What do I need to do?”

  A smile teased the corners of his mouth. “I think it’s going to be easier than you think. You already have the power within you to combat it.”

  I blinked. “Light? But how?”

  “Wow.” He shook his head. “You’re a lot further gone than I thought if you don’t know what I’m talking about.” He took three steps until he was standing directly in front of me. I resisted the urge to step back from his powerful presence. “When is the last time you used Light?”

  I thought about it and frowned. “It’s been a while.”

  “There’s your problem. The Vyken’s poison inside you is trying to kill everything good about you. And you’re letting it.”

  “I’m not letting it. I’m using Light.”

  “To harm others.”

  I scoffed. “Not others. Bad guys. Is there something wrong with that?”

  “Possibly. It all depends on your motivation to use violence. Is it because you’re craving the destruction, or are you trying to help someone, even if it’s yourself?”

  I knew the answer right away but didn’t tell him that. Ever since I’d been bitten, I craved contention and the thrill that came with it.

  Liam continued, “The Vyken’s poison feeds on chaos and death. If you continue on this path, it’s only a matter of time before you do the unforgivable.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Deliberately and knowingly take the life of an innocent soul.”

  I shrunk back, embarrassed. “That deer the other night . . .”

  “Not quite an unforgivable act, but if you would’ve gone through with it, I don’t think you could’ve come back. Taking a life can make one feel extremely powerful. It’s the worst kind of addiction.”

  Liam leaned toward me, as if he were about to reveal a great secret. “But know this, there’s more power in saving a life. The Vykens will never know this. It’s easy to take lives, but to save them, that’s a lot harder, hence the greater reward.”

  “How do you know I’m not already too far gone?” My gaze lowered to the ground. “It sure feels like it.”

  Liam tilted my chin back up. His touch was warm and gentle. “Because you’re here, which means you want to change, correct?”

  I nodded.

  “Good. Let’s get started then.” He turned around and surveyed the area.

  “Wait, what? Right now?”

  Liam looked back at me. “You have something better to do?”

  “I guess not. What do you want me to do?”

  He pursed his lips, thinking. “Why don’t you show me what you can do? The non-killing stuff, that is.”

  “Easy enough.” I held my hand in a closed fist in front of me, turned it over, and opened it. A ball of Light the size of an apple appeared. With a single thought, the Light split into several pieces. I raised them into the air and spun them around.

  “Wow,” Liam said, sarcastically. “Not impressed.”

  With a flick of my wrist, I shot them just over Liam’s head. He had to duck to keep from being hit by the last one.

  “Those look like weapons to me,” Liam growled.

  I huffed. “Fine.”

  I lit another ball. This one I shaped into a thin spear the size of a needle.

  “What’s that supposed to be?” he asked.

  “I made something just like this to pick the lock to the nurse’s office.”

  Liam sighed. “So you used Light to break into somewhere you weren’t supposed to be?”

  The way he said it made it sound all wrong. “That’s not what . . . I don’t know.” I threw up my arms. “You’re confusing me.”

  “You should be confused. You can’t tell what’s right and wrong anymore.” He paced in front of me. “I want you to think back, before you were bitten. What did you use Light for?”

  I wrapped my arms around my stomach and inhaled a hitched breath. I didn’t want to think about before I got bitten. The memories were painful. Tracey.

  Liam placed his warm hand on my arm. “Why is this so hard?”

  I jerked away from his touch that left heat on my skin. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  Sucking in a deep breath, I thought back to the trick Sophie had shown me in the forest back in Wildemoor. Closing my eyes, I focused all my senses. I sought out nearby life, all the creepy crawlies. The process came easily, mainly because a part of me wanted to destroy them all, but I didn’t focus on that darker part. Instead, I focused on their life force. A burning started deep inside me, warming my insides. I’d forgotten how nice it felt! I sighed contently.

  When I located all the life around us, I transferred my Light to them.

  Liam whistled slow and long. I opened my eyes. It looked like the stars above had fallen to the earth around us.

  “It’s beautiful,” he whispered, as if the sound of his voice might ruin the celestial moment.

  I, on the other hand, struggled to feel it. Sure, it was beautiful, but it didn’t feel special. I shifted my weight and rubbed at my arms.

  Liam must’ve noticed my bored expression because he said, “Focus on the connection you have with the living. On how you can make them stronger, better. You have a gift. Use it.”

  I huffed and walked around the lights, pretending to examine them. I wanted Liam to think I was doing something, but I really had no idea what I was doing.

  “Concentrate, Llona,” he said, his voice threatening.

  “Fine.” Sighing, I eyed several bugs scurrying up bark and in and out of the grass. Birds rested high in the trees. A twinkling light just in front of me drew my attention. A butterfly perched on a branch, beating its wings, yet it couldn’t fly.

  “Its wing is broken,” I said to no one. Its life force was
waning, making Light flicker within it.

  “You can fix it,” Liam said over my shoulder. I hadn’t even heard him approach. He breathed slow and steady, close enough that I could feel the warmth of his breath feathering across my neck. Somehow, it helped focus me.

  I stared at the butterfly. Light shined through its blue transparent wings, reminding me of a church’s stained glass window. I reached out to lightly trace my fingers over its smooth curves when an instinct, powerful and as old as time, had me turning my hand over just above the wounded butterfly. My hand warmed and beneath my palm, Light appeared and bathed the butterfly.

  My heart thundered within my chest as its wings began to beat—both of them, fast and furiously until the butterfly rose from the limb. I gasped and watched it flutter away, while an indescribable feeling washed over me. Warm and comforting, yet strong and powerful. For the first time since Tracey’s death, I felt peace.

  Liam cleared his throat. “That was beautiful. How do you feel?”

  I turned around to face him but had to step back as his body was only inches from mine. “A little better, actually.”

  And it was true. My chest felt lighter, and my mind not so dark. “Do you think I could heal people like that too?”

  He shook his head. “I doubt it. Besides, the amount of energy it would take for something so much bigger would probably kill you.”

  “Good to know.” I turned around, my eyes roaming over all the lights. “There’s something I still don’t understand.”

  I dropped my connection with the forest, extinguishing the Light around us, and turned back to face him. “What’s with the blood?”

  “Blood?”

  “I can smell it, really strong. And sometimes,” I paused and grimaced, “I crave it.”

  “It’s your Vyken half. You’re sensing everything a Vyken can sense.”

  “But they want Light, not blood.”

  “But where is that Light?”

  My eyebrows lifted. “In our blood.”

  “Exactly. It’s the only way a Vyken can tolerate it. The Light has to be filtered somehow, otherwise it’s too powerful and will kill them. And Vykens salivate at the smell and sight of blood the way a human does with a candy bar wrapper, because they know what it contains.”

  This made sense, but I still wasn’t sure about something. “So what are you, then?”

  Liam’s jaw muscles flexed, and I swore his green eyes darkened. “First, and foremost, I’m an Enlil, despite the Vyken poison inside me. Enlil’s can control wind, one of the earth’s four elements. We were created to help protect the earth and those living on it.”

  “Created by who?”

  “It’s rumored that Light, when it was in its original form, made us.”

  “Are there more of you?”

  A shadow darkened his expression, sending a cold shiver up my spine.

  He averted his gaze. “Not that I know of.”

  “What happened?”

  His eyes met mine; the heat of it warmed, more like burned, my insides. “Vykens either killed us or turned us. They’ve done this to a lot of races. Anything to further their cause.”

  The chill at my spine erupted all over the rest of my body. Trying to find a silver-lining, I asked, “So if they got turned, but are only half-Vyken, then they’re like you, right? Not all evil and wanting to kill Auras?”

  He chuckled. “If only. I’m the only one who did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “Resisted.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He stared at me pointedly until sweat broke on my brow. “Yes, you do.”

  I swallowed hard and sucked in a shallow breath. I didn’t want to believe it. There had to be others who’d overcome being bitten by a Vyken.

  Liam cast his gaze upward, searching the treetops, and I wondered if he was trying to put the night’s puzzle pieces together like I had earlier.

  “It’s just us,” he finally said and lowered his eyes. “That is, if you survive this. You still have a lot to overcome.”

  “How long?”

  Liam began to walk away, heading in the direction of the school. “How long for what?”

  I followed after him. “For me to get rid of the poison. I want my life to get back to normal.”

  Liam stopped so abruptly that I almost ran into him. He whirled around. “Poison? Don’t you understand? It’s a part of you now, and it will always be inside you just waiting for you to succumb to it.”

  “So you’re saying I have to battle these, these,” I fumbled to find the right words, “serial killer tendencies the rest of my life?”

  He didn’t say anything, but the sadness in his eyes was answer enough.

  “I can’t. I won’t!” I shook my head as panic gripped me. There’s no way I could go through life feeling the way I’d felt the last few months. “How do you stand it? The shadows in your mind, the rage in your blood?”

  Liam stared past me, his chest heaving up and down.

  “Answer me!” I said. “I don’t want to feel like this anymore.”

  “Then give up,” he whispered.

  “That’s your answer?”

  His gaze returned to mine. “What do you want me to say? You have three choices: give in to the poison and become a full Vyken, die, or deal with it and be somewhere in between. It’s terrible, I know. It’s hard, it’s painful, it burns, and every day is a constant battle.”

  His expression cracked, revealing pain throughout every inch his face. My hand came to my mouth in shocked silence at the thought of what he’d had to endure for so many years. He masked it well.

  As gently as I could, I asked, “What happened to you?”

  His agony turned to rage, and I swore it made his green eyes glow. “People think the death of a loved one is the hardest thing to overcome, but it isn’t. There are far worse things than mourning.”

  His jaw clenched tight, and I knew he wouldn’t say more. His pain was still too raw, too emotional.

  Although my desire to transfer Light had been almost non-existent the last few weeks, I placed my palm onto his arm. He startled at the contact but didn’t move away from me. Our eyes met just as I transferred my Light to him.

  He sucked in a quick breath, and on his exhale, he visibly relaxed. “What was that?”

  I shrugged. “A little comfort, I guess.”

  He stared down at me, his eyes burrowing into mine so deeply, I swore he could read my mind.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked, suddenly breathless.

  “Nothing, I . . . ,” but he didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he began walking again. “You know, maybe there is hope for you after all.”

  I caught up to him. “What do you mean?”

  “I didn’t realize how powerful Light is. Who knows? Maybe it’s strong enough to stamp out the Vyken’s poison for good. I hope so, because you’d get bored living forever.”

  Chapter 19

  My heart skipped a beat. Maybe I heard wrong. “What did you just say?”

  “Live forever. That’s what Vykens do, as long as their head is still attached, that is. Surely you knew this.” Liam kept moving, his head turning side to side as if he were searching for something. “You’ve got to get back. It’s not safe anymore.”

  “Hello? You just dropped a bomb on me. How could I live forever? I’m only half-Vyken.”

  Saying that out loud made me feel dirty.

  Liam didn’t explain. Instead, he grabbed my arm. “Don’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  Faster than I could blink, he whirled me around and pressed my back to him, his arm around my chest.

  “Shhh,” he whispered in my ear. “Listen. Concentrate.”

  I did as he asked even though the warmth of his body against mine was oddly distracting.

  “Far away,” he said. “Two Vykens, maybe three, walking through the forest. Can you sense them?”

  I focused all my senses, especi
ally my hearing. I could hear movement, heavier than the normal beasts of the forest, yet agile and full of grace. Much like I imagined a tiger would sound prowling through the jungle.

  “Their numbers are growing,” Liam said and let me go. “We’re concerned something big is coming.”

  I turned and looked at him. “You keep saying we. Who is we, and, now that I’m thinking about it, why are you always out here?”

  Liam hesitated, his fingers tugging on the hem of his jacket.

  What?” I said. “You expect me to trust you, but you won’t return the favor?”

  “I was sent here.”

  “By whom?”

  “The Deific.”

  “And they are?”

  He exhaled a breath. “They’re a group of people, some graced with unique abilities, who fight the bad in the world, whatever form that comes in. The Deific was formed hundreds of years ago and was a small group at first. You see, along with the Auras, they were able to keep the world in balance, but then the Auras withdrew themselves, first from the Deific and then from the world. Their presence is barely felt now, and it’s caused all sorts of problems for the Deific.”

  “Why did they send you here?”

  He paused, his eyes searching my face, for what I didn’t know, and then said, “In the last three years there’s been an increase in Vyken activity.”

  “How much of an increase?”

  “More than we can keep track of. Vykens used to keep a low profile and only occasionally attacked an Aura on the outside, but that’s not the case anymore.”

  “What’s changed?”

  “Vykens are no longer confined to the night. They are able to do things in the day. It’s like doubling the amount of time for mayhem.”

  I shook my head. “But that means—”

  “They’re ingesting Auran blood,” he finished. “And more so than the number of Auras being killed on the outside. That means someone’s supplying blood to them. Someone at Lucent is my guess.”

  I remembered the IV bag Christian had found. My mouth fell open. “One of the Guardians.”

  “I’ve suspected them for a long time, but I don’t have any proof. And if one’s involved, then there’s a good chance others are too. One Guardian can’t be doing all this.”