Magic In My Blood

by Kellie Sheridan

  As soon as I was sitting up, Taya handed me a mug of coffee. “I figured you’d need this.”

  “Much appreciated. So what’s happening? Is everyone okay?”

  “Everyone’s fine. At least, all of our people are fine. It’s the witches—some of their people are missing. An entire coven, just gone overnight. Well, the three of them who’d been in town for the summit. And there’s at least three more people missing, two vampires and one of the fae.”

  “Do we have any ideas on what this is about? Did they maybe just call it and go home?”

  “That’s probably the best case scenario. We’re wondering if maybe there was a fight last night we didn’t know about. Or if Aoife’s people are somehow responsible. Basically, we’re not sure.”

  “There was someone following me and Ethan last night last night in town. Maybe that’s connected.”

  “Yeah, Ethan mentioned that when he called. We’re not exactly sure, but he said they need you in the city. Something about Sebastian.”

  “Right. That. I said I’d talk to him, see if I could learn anything.” Technically, I wasn’t actually sure if I’d agreed to anything, but now that people were starting to go missing, we needed more information sooner rather than later.

  “Okay, give me like twenty minutes to shower and look human and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  I made it through showering and putting on pants before my phone started ringing. Flashbacks of my conversation with Otto still fresh in my mind, I threw on a bathrobe and answered the phone, wondering what kind of disaster was going to be waiting for me.

  “Hello?”

  “Melanie!” My mom’s chipper tone was the splash of cold water I’d been waiting for, fully waking me up for the first time that day. “How are you, dear? I just wanted to call and check in.”

  “Oh! Hey, Mom. I’m doing okay. How are you?”

  “You know me. Same as ever. Just having a quiet day around the house while your father is out of town.”

  She was bored. This wasn’t the first time I’d gotten a call like this, usually when my dad was out-of-town visiting his sister. More times than not, my mom would happily blather on for over an hour telling me about everything from her latest baking experiment to neighbourhood gossip, which I didn’t exactly have time for.

  Still, I didn’t have it in me to cut her off completely. She’d called just to say hi, because I was still part of her life and in her thoughts even while I lived in a different county. It was exactly the kind of steadying reminder that could do me a world of good.

  “When’s Dad back?” I asked, mostly so Mom would know I was listening.

  “Two days. Maybe your teleporter friend could swing you by for dinner tonight?”

  “I wish I could. I don’t have a lot of time this week though. I can only talk for a few minutes. But I promise, as soon as things settle down, I’ll come by. Treat yourself to a movie night or something instead.”

  My mom sounded disappointed for all of five seconds before she managed to change the subject to her latest TV show obsession. We’d gotten through to a recap of season two before I really did have to go.

  “Hey, Mom. Can we finish this a little later? I’ve actually got to run.”

  “Of course! If you have time later, I’ll be around to chat.”

  “Is there ever a time where you aren’t available to chat?” I teased.

  “Oh, shush. What’s wrong with a mother keeping herself available to talk with her daughter?”

  I didn’t need to point out that there wasn’t a single person on that planet that my mom wouldn’t happily chatter away to if given the opportunity. “I’ll talk to you a little later, okay?” I hoped that much as true. “Love you.”

  “Love you too.” I let the words settle in my heart, lingering for a few seconds before hanging up the phone.

  They were keeping Sebastian in the basement of a townhouse that Otto and his pack had rented for the week. I doubted whoever owned the place had known their sparsely decorated basement would be used for holding prisoners, but the room where they’d put Sebastian seemed to do the trick.

  Ethan and I had met up in the city centre, sharing a quick, secret smile with one another before taking off toward the other side of town. He’d had gone with me to the house, but only so far as the front door. Like all of the other faction members in attendance at the summit, he was being kept at arm’s length from the official investigation in the name of avoiding sides or favouritism. With over three hundred official delegates, there was no way to involve everyone. Which meant that the official stance was that they wouldn’t involve anyone.

  Except me.

  “He looks rough,” I pointed out as soon as Otto had led me down the stairs. “Only fill me in on what’s been done to him if I actually need to know.”

  Sebastian looked up at the sound of my voice, bruises lining one side of his face. He sat alone in what was probably meant to be an extra bedroom, tied to an office chair by his wrists and waist. He was positioned in a back corner, facing away from the door, an empty armchair nearby.

  I’d been expecting Otto to leave us alone; instead he shut the door to the bedroom, leaving us on the other side.

  “Miss Sinclair...” Well there was a tone I knew and didn’t love. I’d been hearing it my whole life, usually from my parents or teachers who were less than impressed with my performance. Except this time around, I didn’t think I’d been around long enough to be a disappointment.

  “Yes?” Not that I was all that eager to get inside, having absolutely no idea how to get information from anyone other than asking nicely.

  “I know you’re new to so much of this. You’re so very young, and you have likely never been in a position like this before.” Oh, it was going to be that kind of talk. The incredibly condescending kind. “But things are bound to get unpleasant. Shying away from the elements you aren’t comfortable with is only going to put you at a disadvantage. In this particular situation, I’m sure your imagination can tell you exactly what Sebastian’s been through. He helped murder some of our kind at what was supposed to be a peaceful summit. If we didn’t need him, we’d have had a few volunteers to rip him limb from limb already.”

  I had a half-dozen snappy comebacks ready to go, but kept each of them to myself. I understood his point even if I didn’t exactly love the delivery. I also suspected the lecture wasn’t quite over yet.

  “I think you’ll be immensely valuable here. And I’m not the only person who has high hopes for what your presence might mean for the future of our community. But I can’t let you into that room without being absolutely certain that you’re going to face this head on. That you’ll do what needs to be done. If not, you’re no good to us. We’ll find another way.”

  “Wait. What exactly is it you’re thinking I’m here for? What could I possibly do to that man that you haven’t done already? If you think I’m going to...” My stomach clenched at the thought.

  “Nothing like that. Ethan thought you’d be able to bring something different to the table than what we’ve already tried. But I’m also very aware that the man in that room is a member of your faction. One of your kind. I need to know that you aren’t sitting across from him, feeling sympathy for someone whose bomb ripped apart two young witches before crushing a few other people who were just trying to make a difference.”

  “I know what the sides are here, Otto. I do. But I also don’t think things are quite as clear-cut as everyone would like to believe. And if being a leader of this community means not feeling anything at all when I see a person in pain, then I’m not sure I’m interested. I’d probably have been better off staying out of all this. But I’m here. I want to help, and I’m committed to seeing an end to all of this.”

  As far as rousing pep talks went, I’d done better. But there was only so far I’d been willing to go to convince anyone to let me get involved in this particular mess. I’d always known that putting myself on the front lines would get me into situ
ations that would go far beyond unpleasant. And that I wouldn’t always be able to get myself or anyone else out of those situations by diplomacy alone. I was prepared to fight dirty and to keep myself alive.

  I wasn’t prepared to like it.

  Otto opened the door and left me to it.

  I waited until he’d gone back upstairs before going inside, listening for the telltale click of a door. I had no doubt that Otto’s entire pack would be able to hear what was going on, but I didn’t want to have to worry about that. And I suspected that Sebastian was very much in the same boat.

  “Are they feeding you? Do you need water or anything else?” I asked, not sure how else to get into the kind of conversation I needed to have.

  “What, so you’re playing good cop now?”

  “There was a good cop before?” I asked, a little surprised.

  It didn’t look like anything good had happened in this room recently. The longer I looked at Sebastian, the more cuts, scrapes and bruises I managed to find. It looked like more than a few people had gotten the opportunity to take their frustrations out on the man sitting in front of me. I doubted much actual technique or strategy had gone into speaking with him so far: hit him and hope he’s scared enough to start talking. That was about the extent of it.

  And, if nothing else, it was a place to start.

  “Seriously, do you need anything? I’m not offering up the chance to phone a friend or anything, but I’m guessing you’ve had a rough night. And I’d really like to see you not dead, so if there’s something I can get you to help keep you functioning, say the word.”

  Sebastian kept his eyes on mine, challenging me to something I couldn’t quite work out. “What does it matter? I’ll be dead soon anyway, right?”

  “I hope not.” It was the truth. Mostly. “Although I can’t imagine that you went back to that church expecting a better outcome for yourself than where you ended up. You had to have known we’d go back, to try to work out for ourselves what had happened.”

  Sebastian shifted in his seat, making a point of not answering.

  Which left me where exactly? I probably should have taken some time to Google interrogation techniques before I’d left the castle that morning. Because what my life really needed was an incriminating search history for the local police to latch onto.

  Still, I probably could have pulled out my phone and done a quick search for ideas on how to get people to talk. I’m sure Yahoo Answers would have had a plethora of terrible ideas I could draw from. But was that really why I’d been brought in?

  Last night, when I’d been talking to Ethan, he’d suggested that I might have something new to bring to the table. He’d had all these pretty words about how I could bring something out in people, rally them to my cause.

  The trouble was, none of that had ever been anything I’d done intentionally. I saw problems and the people in their orbit, and I tried to fix them. Sometimes it went better than others. And usually all it came down to was opening my mouth, and trying to find the pieces that connected two people to one another. Or the things that pulled them apart.

  I wasn’t sure what the right approach to take with Sebastian was, but the only tool I had left in my arsenal was to start talking and see where that led.

  “I guess you’re not going to tell me what it was you were doing back at that church?” I asked, hoping to just skip ahead to the good bits.

  “Not possible.”

  “Great. Glad we got that cleared up. Look, I know you and I don’t know each other very well. And from what I’ve seen, I’m guessing we both have different approaches to things. But aren’t we on the same side? At least on some level. Don’t we want the same things?”

  “Which is what exactly?” Sebastian raised his eyebrows and then winced in response. Looked like he was feeling a little tender. “No really, tell me. You started an entire faction. You declared Galway a haven for lesser magicks and anyone else who couldn’t defend themselves. And now you’re partnering with the factions, letting them use you as a tool to get them the things they need. So what is it you want?”

  “Mostly, I want people to stop dying. And I think if you’d stop and listen to someone other than Aoife, you’d realize that’s what a lot of the people at the summit wanted. They were trying to stop a problem before it had a chance to get all of us killed. Is that really so wrong?”

  “Is that really what you think they want? Honestly? You think there’s a single vampire that cares about protecting people, or shielding the less powerful? The witches would have been more than happy to sacrifice you just to wield a fraction of the magick that flows in your bloodstream, a fluke of your birth. These people have showed you who they are at every turn, but you still think they all want to hold hands and skip through the fields together?”

  “Save it,” I said. “I’ve heard this speech before.” Apparently speeches weren’t in short supply in Galway these days. People were happy to offer them up at every turn. “And believe me, I get it.” Maybe the personal approach would be the way to go. “When I was growing up, I had this whole second set of memories, playing non-stop in my head. For the longest time, I thought it was normal. Then I learned not to talk about it. I learned to understand magick by watching a girl, exactly my age, learn about her ability to see magick from her parents.”

  “I know your story,” Sebastian said, clearly unmoved.

  “Then you know the part where I figured out that the girl whose memories I had belonged to my teenage mother. Sometime after she’d died, someone had managed to transfer the vast majority of her experiences into my mind. Sometime before I was adopted here in Ireland, but after she and her entire family were ripped apart by the factions. They were hell bent on controlling me, and my family paid the price. I know exactly what kind of assholes these people can be.”

  “Then why are you helping them?”

  “I’m not helping them. I’m trying to help all of us.”

  “Including them.”

  “If by them you mean every single person born with or altered by magick, whether or not they’ve ever hurt anyone. Sure, I guess. Is that so terrible? Or so deeply different from what Aoife wants, or what you want?”

  As much as I wanted to keep rambling, but I let the silence settle between us.

  Sebastian took the bait. “They’ve all hurt us, in one way or another. They’ve let themselves benefit from this system right from the beginning. They’ve used us, hunted us, killed us for fun. I’ve seen it all.”

  And that much, I couldn’t really argue with. And I didn’t even want to. There was a lot of evil in the world, and that was before anything magickal was involved. Add in inexplicable powers or supernaturally long life, and things went from bad to worse. “I get that. I do. But there are terrible people everywhere, in every corner, on every side. Aoife murdered a fae girl who hadn’t done anything to her, just to try to get her faction to go up against the wolves. She killed people at the summit, just to, what? Buy herself more time? You all had to have known no one was just going to call it quits because things were going poorly. The human problem isn’t going away, and we were making real progress on finding a way forward that was as good for our faction as the rest.”

  “We don’t have a faction.”

  “We do now. And you would have been welcome. Instead, you’re running errands for Aoife. Killing people.”

  “We’re doing whatever it takes to survive.”

  After that came more of the same for a good long while. For every question or accusation I had, trying to chip away at his armor to get to something that might help, Sebastian was happy to parrot back some other party line about protecting our people or avenging their crimes.

  I was getting nowhere, and I was getting there fast.

  “Do you want me to leave?” I asked, briefly surrendering to a bout of frustration. “I can just go. I’ll tell the wolves waiting upstairs that you’re a lost cause, and that we’re better off focusing our efforts elsewhere. I just don’
t understand what any of you think you’re accomplishing here. You’re a smart enough guy. What’s the end game?”

  Sebastian leveled his steely gaze at me, and I suspected he was starting to enjoy this little game of ours. At least one way or another, it would be over soon enough.

  “There is an end game, right? This isn’t just an attempt at evening the score; Aoife wanted to end the summit. She thought this was all going to end when the factions decided to start using people with undefinable magick to show the humans what we were capable of. To ease them in before the big reveals. But the summit is going forward one way or another. They’ve already got a line on a new location. And we’re going to find answers that don’t involve sacrificing anyone to the court of public opinion. So what’s your endgame? Is there something you want? Or is this just about rage?”

  I hadn’t really expected Sebastian to answer, and for more than a minute, he didn’t. And when he finally answered me, it wasn’t to respond to the question I’d just asked him. “I went back to the church looking for you,” he said, his voice soft. “Aoife, she’s out of control. I didn’t expect things to get this bad. But she has to be stopped.”

  For an instant, I believed him. I believed that this had all been some big misunderstanding and that deep down he was a good person who had gotten mixed up in something bigger than himself. And maybe he had.

  But if it had been me he was looking for why hadn’t he spoken up a thousand times earlier?

  “I’m not an idiot. And the factions aren’t the only people that can’t be trusted. If you’d been looking for me, you would have found me. I’m not hiding from the people who need me. Others have, and those are the people I’m going to support.” I stood up, ready to admit my defeat as frustrations simmered beneath my skin.

  “If you were really willing to support your people, you’d have stood with Aoife from the beginning.” Sebastian smirked, knowing he’d won. And for one brief second, I really did consider punching him in the face myself. “The two of you could have made a real difference. And so much of this could have been avoided. But we don’t need you, Melanie. Nobody does. Our side grows stronger every day, while you and yours are busy trying to figure out which way is up.”