I walked into the kitchen to see what Nathaniel had left me on the counter. It was my grandfather’s wand. And it was fixed. Nathaniel had Eli fix it for me. And it wasn’t only in one piece. It was luminous. Practically glowing with power. Whatever Eli had done rejuvenated it to look how it probably did when it was first created. Not that I could use it without vixra blood. Even so, the sensation I had as I touched it warmed my insides. Filling me with a sense of authority I was sure only luxra and vixra enjoyed from their magic.
This was what Nathaniel was going downstairs for the night before. He wanted to show me the wand. He wanted to tell me that he was going to ask Eli to fix it. And I had been a jerk to him.
Georgeanna’s words echoed in my memory, telling me to go easier on him.
I already failed spectacularly. Go figure.
An hour later I was showered, in fresh clothes, and sitting back at Madison’s kitchen at the table with my grandfather’s wand tucked into my jeans. The table where Madison first told me I shouldn’t help Andrew. Now he was dead. The table where I first met Eli and he told me to find out why the vixra tunnels were being misused. Now I had been the one to misuse them. The table where I walked in to find Nathaniel trying to vouch for me as Eli stewed over what I had done. Now it was just me. Sitting alone in my sister’s kitchen. Mulling over everything that had happened.
Samantha Larsen was dead. Officer Andrew Parker was dead. Emily was as good as dead in that asylum and after using large amounts of vixra blood. The Congressman was inches from being arrested after having been attacked by his own daughter. I had been attacked by Nathaniel not just once, but twice. Then I was attacked by Tobias Vallas who was now interested in courting me. The leader of the Catach-Brayin. The deadliest vampire coven in the western world.
It had been a long couple of weeks. There were hours where I felt as though my insides might cave in. That I wanted to break down but I wouldn’t allow myself the release. As I sat there at the kitchen table for a majority of the day, I didn’t feel anything but a profound numbness. A numbness that I often fell into when things were beyond what I could handle. When they got so hard that I didn’t know how to respond anymore.
Trickles of water started splattering on the kitchen window as the sun began to set. I peered outside to see a set of headlights pulling into the driveway just as night started to fall. I didn’t get up to see who it was. Eli had already told me. I was under his own magical form of lock and key. A powerful and binding blood magic that would keep me sealed inside as Nathaniel went to plead my case to Eli’s father, an old and powerful vixra.
I heard Madison’s key lodge into the front door lock. Had Eli told her that witchlings that went in couldn’t go back out? That she would be trapped in here with me? He must have, because the second she walked through the door she examined the blood marking with a shake of her head, not quite able to fully comprehend the magnitude of what happened, but worried all the same.
“Maddie?” I called out to her, trying to get her attention away from the bloodstained white paint. Yeah, that’s right. I was actually trying to get my sister’s attention now. That was when I knew just how bad of shape I was in.
“Harper,” she said my name as she wheeled in her suitcase behind her, shut the door, then opened her arms to me.
This time, I didn’t hesitate. I walked right up to her and let her hold me. I had the strangest sensation reach toward my fingers. My magic was there, itching to come out. But I couldn’t understand why. It did random things sometimes. Maybe I was finally losing it. Maybe the vixra blood had overwhelmed my system and I couldn’t control anything anymore. I took a few deep breaths as she held me and forced my magic to go back inside my body, deep in the confines of my hollow soul where it would stay until it decided to rear it’s unpredictable head again.
“I heard about Emily,” she whispered to me. “I’m so sorry.” I could hear in her voice that she meant it. She knew Emily. She had seen us together from time to time.
“I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know why she would take vixra blood. Even if the Catach-Brayin was using her. Why would she take it? Why would she do that?”
“It’s not like humans know the risks involved. They don’t know that it will slowly kill them. They just like the immediate high it gives them. The feeling of strength, of being able to conquer anything.”
“But how would she even know how to take it? It’s not like someone would show her how to use it. And I can’t imagine anyone told her what was inside the locket. I don’t think Samantha even knew. She was just a go-between.”
Madison sighed and pulled away. “We might never know,” she said. “Especially with Emily locked away inside that awful place.”
I let my head fall, doing my best to stay collected but feeling weaker by the second. The numbness was sinking back in, taking me to a place where I didn’t have to feel anything.
“I’m so sorry I got you involved in all of this,” she said. “It’s my fault.”
I couldn’t help give a small laugh at the thought. “In a way, I guess. But you got what you wanted. I’m thoroughly distracted from thinking about Caleb all the time. Now I have new people to mourn.”
Madison embraced me once more. For the first time in a long while, probably since Caleb’s funeral, I held her back just as tight.
“Come on,” she said. “This doesn’t have to be too painful. Let’s bake something.”
Ahh…baking. Madison’s old standby for when something was wrong.
“The girls and I made the best recipe up at the lake house called Crack Cake. I want to make it with you. It will get your mind off of things.”
I exhaled a long breath, not willing to fight anymore. “Alright.”
She went upstairs to unpack and I took the recipe from her cell phone, gathering the ingredients she needed in the kitchen. Then I saw one ingredient that I couldn’t quite make sense of.
“You made a cake recipe with wine in it for the girls?” I shouted up at her from downstairs. “Not very parental of you,” I teased.
I could hear her snicker. “The alcohol cooks off. I thought you would like that one feature to this cake.”
She wasn’t wrong. But after my little stunt with the whiskey the previous night I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted more alcohol, no matter what kind of recipe it was in. Thinking back on it only filled me with shame. Not for what I had done. I still didn’t regret it. Emily was one of the few people in this world that I’d break all the rules for. But shame for what happened following that. The fact that I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t protect her. I failed her as a friend.
I shook off the feeling as best as I could and took out the final ingredients.
A hand came around and moved a long lock of my hair from my face, placing it along my back and standing there only a few inches behind me. I knew it was Madison. She always told me to keep my hair out of my face while cooking or baking. I didn’t really care about the state of my hair. It could get a little flour in it. You know? Just to make the day complete and my misery that much more palpable.
She sighed behind me as I opened up the package of flour and reached for the measuring cups inside the cupboard. I fished around inside it only to see that my fingers were glowing again. And this time I couldn’t stop it. I shook my hand only to see my magic swirling around in my palm, ready to strike. Ready to protect me. But from what? The blood magic kept Madison and I sealed inside. Nothing nefarious could get in.
“Isn’t that interesting,” she said behind me. Her voice sounded different. Almost husky. Masculine. Like she was trying to talk sternly to a dog that needed training. “We all have a private position and a public one. Only it’s your public one that keeps you alive, isn’t it kruxa?”
My head turned upward and back toward the kitchen counter. I didn’t know exactly what had happened. Or how it happened. All I knew was that my magic hadn’t been lying to me. It rarely ever did. It knew danger better than I
ever could.
There was only one thing I could do. I lunged for the kitchen knife to my right and shoved Madison as far away from me as I could manage, holding the knife up at her once she was a solid few feet back. Then I started edging my way out of the kitchen.
She laughed at me. A deep laugh that didn’t match my sister even in the slightest.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“What are you talking about, Harper? You look ridiculous. Put that knife down.” She tried walking closer to me. I walked backward all the way to the front door. I reached to open it. If I tried to leave, maybe Eli would know something was wrong. Maybe he would come right back and get Madison the hell away from me.
No such luck. I reached for the doorknob only to find that I couldn’t touch it. My hand wouldn’t even graze over the metal knob. The blood magic commanded that I wouldn’t leave. I was trapped in the house with her.
“What happened to you, Madison?” I shouted. I had one hand extended toward her with the knife an the other with my magic swirling about, ready to lash out.
She forced her magic from her hand as well. She was never quite as powerful as I was. Which wasn’t much if I’m being honest.
It was then that I noticed it took her effort to hold up her hand. Like something was weighing it down. The same heaviness that I felt when Nathaniel lured me in the hospital so I would recognize the signs.
Someone was luring Madison. Someone had gotten to her before she came to me.
“It’s alright, Harper. I wanted you to see,” she said.
“See what?” I saw as I sidestepped toward the living room and bumped into one of the recliners.
She wouldn’t back off! I shot my hand forward and zapped her with my magic, setting her back only a few feet. She barely even reacted.
“Don’t do that,” she groaned. “Don’t you know how much it hurts?”
“Then don’t come any closer!”
She gave a heavy sigh and stood there before me, examining me with eyes that weren’t entirely hers. They were ones that had been given different memories. Given orders. Given instructions to kill me. Which could only mean one thing.
A vampire wanted me dead. A vampire had lured her. But those words. The words she spoke. They were similar to what Brian had said to me at the Congressman’s party.
The memory was in the back of my mind but it was still there.
‘Isn’t all of politics that way,’ he had said to me. ‘We have a private position and a public position. The public one keeps us employed. The private one keeps us alive.’
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Brian isn’t a-”
“Vampire?” she said, daring to take another step closer to me.
The air in the room grew thick. There was a static that threatened to shock me if I made any sudden movements.
‘No! Not right now!’
Wait! This was a good thing. Whatever vision I was about to have, it would buy me some time. Time to think. Or maybe time for Madison to get a few inches closer without me noticing because my mind had slowed down time and taken me to la la land.
The setting around me changed, morphing into a room I had never been in before. It was a room decorated with baby blue colors. There were posters of rock bands on the walls and clothes folded on the pristinely made bed. Clothes I had seen before in the past. But not on me. On someone else.
Emily was huddled in the corner of the bedroom. Alone and frightened. Brian was in the room with her. She didn’t want to look up at him. She didn’t dare challenge him. She knew she couldn’t get away. She couldn’t fight him. My position in the room shifted and changed. I was seeing directly from Emily’s eyes as Brian knelt down to her eye level, examining her with an expression of superiority. An expression that told me he found her very existence entertaining. She was a toy. Something he could use and then discard the second she wasn’t useful anymore. A comical distraction. He pulled her hair out of her face the same way Madison had done to me.
“You have beautiful eyes, Emily,” he said. “Don’t deprive the world the gift of seeing them. Why do you hide them behind those glasses?”
I turned away from him. No. Emily turned away from him. She was terrified. She knew what he was.
No, no, no. That wasn’t right. Not what he was. What he was becoming. He wasn’t a vampire yet. But he was slowly being transformed into one.
I had never really known how it worked. Becoming a vampire. All I knew was that human blood became tainted with vampire blood. It might have been like in the movies. Someone had to consume a ton of it. Or maybe they had to be bitten too. But their blood was always contaminated on some level.
Emily knew. She had seen it happening to Brian.
He was nice once. Ambitious and a bit dismissive but nice. Maybe even too good for the likes of her sister. That was until he started working in Washington D.C. He changed. He became someone she feared.
His mind touched hers with a light and tender stroke, making her limbs feel heavy and her mind muddled.
“Give it to me,” he said quietly.
She did as he said, taking the pocket watch from her back pocket and placing it in his hands. It was gold and decorated with the symbol of the Catach-Brayin. It looked exactly like the one Tobias had given Samantha. Brian opened up the back and took out one of the small pieces of paper.
“Now open your mouth,” he commanded.
She did so, and he placed the piece of paper inside. She closed her mouth. It dissolved on her tongue, leaving her with a sense of euphoria. A feeling of empowerment she had never experienced.
“Now,” he said, handing the pocket watch back to her and ordering her to tuck it away once more. “You’re going to do exactly as I say.”
His way of luring was so subtle. So light. Barely even noticeable. Because he wasn’t a full-blown vampire. Not yet. Someone was transforming him into one. Slowly but surely. He had a few of the abilities without the burden of not being able to handle the sunlight. At least not yet.
“Your sister has done quite a few things that I can’t say an honorable woman should do,” he said. “At least not a woman I plan to marry. She’s a risk. And she’s never treated you right. She’s become a problem. One that needs solving. Will you help me solve it, Emily?” he said smoothly.
She didn’t say anything. Nor did she nod. She simply stared at him with wide-eyed wonder. I imagine it was the same way other humans reacted when vampires lured them. Not quite knowing which thoughts were hers and which belonged to Brian. Combined with the vixra blood, she didn’t stand a chance.
“That’s a good girl,” he said, commending his pet for her good behavior.
The vision ended as quickly as it started. I was back in the living room with Madison.
No, not Madison. Not the Madison I knew anyway. Madison had been lured by Brian. He wanted one thing from her. For her to kill me. I was his new problem. One that needed solving. And she would be the one to help him solve it.
Samantha was never meant to be found. I led the cops straight to her body. Unlike Samantha, there would be no one to find me once Madison had done Brian’s bidding.
Chapter 15
The magic in Madison’s hand was weaving in ways I had never seen before. It turned red. Bright crimson red! It was sparking right out of her hand at least a foot high from her palm. Ready to fire at me. Ready to kill. My own sister!
This wasn’t her regular magic. It was something else.
Vixra magic. And not only that. Vixra blood. Brian had given my sister vixra blood on top of luring her. Just like he did to Emily. He couldn’t get inside the house to kill me with Nathaniel around and Ted’s ownership of the house. So he lured my sister and poisoned her before she got here.
I shook my head in disbelief, not wanting to see the truth right before me even though Madison was looking at me with the same eyes that Isaac had. They possessed the same aggression. The same anger. Andrew had it. Emily had it. Now my sister
had it.
“All my life I’ve wished I had even a fraction of your talent, Harper,” she said as she inched closer and I took a few generous steps back. Not that there was anywhere I could go. I was stuck inside. I’d have no choice but to battle it out with her. But with her on vixra blood, there was no way I could win. “You’re visions are so much more potent than mine. And the way your magic seems to instinctively know when something is wrong. Mine is always so erratic. So unpredictable. You knew when yours was trying to tell you something.”
“Madison, stop! Brian is luring you! I don’t know who has been transforming him, but they did.”
She tilted her head. “Brian? Who the hell is Brian?”
‘Oh, how convenient. He erased her memory of him. Or maybe he lured her from a distance. Did he do the same to Emily? Was that why she couldn’t tell what was happening?’
“Maddie! Don’t!”
There was only time for me to dodge out of the way.
Madison lurched her arm outward and her magic followed. It was so strong that I could feel the heat barreling off the strands of her magic weaving through the air. It blew her recliner straight into the fireplace and lit the wood inside it aflame. The fire spread across the carpet and into the living room.
‘Great. Just great. Now we will probably burn to death. Your magic might be stronger for the moment but your control over it sure isn’t.’
I ran down the hallway, not sure of where I was going to go even if I managed to get away from her. I began coughing from the smoke. The only choice I had was to get higher and away from it as the fire started to spread. I ran up the stairs only to be followed by another lash of her magic hurling at me on the steps. Only this time, she struck true.
Fire erupted on my right calf, making it feel as though someone had dug a hot knife right into my flesh. Then it trailed down to my ankle, splitting the skin open.
I screamed. I couldn’t stop it. The pain was unlike anything else I had experienced. I knew emotional pain. I knew the pain of grief. I knew the pain of a couple of broken bones over the years. But this… this was entirely different.
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