Death Magic Rules

by Sharon Stevenson

  Nick showed up. He walked over to Pete and touched the blue liquid that was leaking out of his eyes. “He would have given up his life for you.”

  I knew that, but I didn’t understand it. My stomach turned. Pete had no reason to give up anything for me. We were never even friends.

  “I would give up nothing for you,” Nick said as he turned to me. “I want you to give up everything for me.”

  I frowned at him, wishing I could move. It was a dream and I knew it but it didn’t change the fact that I was trapped sitting on the floor, unable to defend myself.

  “He belongs to me, and I will destroy him to make sure he can’t take you from me.” He turned suddenly and the pinkish tint that swamped the air made my eyes hurt. The sound of Pete’s body hitting the floor made me shake. When Nick turned back to me Pete was gone. The body on the floor was emptied of magic and it was decaying rapidly. “He’s gone now, Kit. You’re all mine.”

  I willed myself to move. The thought of him touching me again made me ill. My body refused to obey my commands. He got closer. I glared at him as he moved towards me; a cocky smile on his face that matched his self-assured swagger. He touched my shoulder and the spell that had been holding me still broke. I jumped to my feet and he held out his arms. “Come to me.”

  I stared at him. Was he freaking serious? “Fuck that,” I said, shoving him back hard as he moved to embrace me.

  He laughed off my attack. “Now there’s the Kit I know and love.”

  “You don’t know what love is, you deluded creep.” I gave him another forceful shove back when he tried to wrap his arms around me again.

  His face changed quickly, his expression turning thunderous. “Don’t tell me what I know,” he snapped. His attack caught me off guard. I stumbled backwards, hitting my head off the coffee table. The pain was agonising as I fell to the ground. My eyes closed on his leering face as I fought to stay conscious.

  I awoke with a start, finding my surroundings had altered slightly. The bedroom was decorated similarly to the rest of the cabin. I sat up, glad to find my dress intact. Nick wasn’t around, but I could hear movement in the other room. I had to get out of here before he used any more magic on me. Getting up, I ignored my headache and crept towards the only door to the room. I knew it would be expensive to get home without a teleport but right now I’d take my chances with my emergency credit card and cross my fingers that the limit would cover a flight home rather than make any attempt at reasoning with Nick. He’d lost it, and I couldn’t risk being around him a second longer than I needed to.

  “Kit?” His voice was uncertain as he called out from the other room.

  I winced, not sure how I’d get past him. I checked out the room, but there wasn’t much I could use as a weapon. The lamps were wall mounted and the alarm clock looked too small and light to bother with. My heels weren’t here so he’d taken them off me before he brought me through to the bed. I shuddered to think of what he’d planned bringing me into this room.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but I need to teleport you home,” Nick went on, sounding mildly confused. Something tipped over and he groaned. “Crap. That hurt. How can it hurt?”

  I didn’t want to respond to him. This was clearly some kind of twisted trick; well, either that or he’d completely lost it and truly had no idea what he’d been doing. I was not interested in figuring out which theory was the right one. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

  The hallway was tiny and only led to a bathroom or the open plan living room/dining area/kitchen I’d already been in. The only exit appeared to be out those living room doors onto the deck.

  “Shit,” I whispered.

  “Listen, Kit, I have to get you back before Pete goes mad. He was all tense about this thing so can you just give me a sec to get this shirt on, and I’ll…”

  I walked to the open door. “What are you talking about?”

  He glanced up, embarrassment heating his face. He’d knocked over a lamp stand and was half-dressed, hauling on his shirt in a hurry to cover up his skinny body. “Erm, Pete didn’t exactly give me other instructions so I have no idea what else I’m allowed to tell you.”

  “Why do you keep talking about Pete?” It was freaking me out. My dream came back to me and made me shudder. I knew I couldn’t trust anything Nick was saying but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. As I came into the room and watched him dress I realised I could see a blueish tint around him. I blinked.

  “That can’t be…” I knew a little about magic and Users and something wasn’t adding up right now. The blue tint was linked to death. Only Animates were supposed to be able to use death magic.

  “Can you just grab anything that’s yours? We’re getting out of here.”

  I frowned at him. “What happened when I was passed out?”

  “You were passed out?”

  I sighed. “Never mind.” I wondered if his guilty conscience had caused this sudden turn around. “Let’s get home then.” I could tell him to go to hell once we got back. I wanted to get home more than anything else right then. My shoes were on the floor by the couch. I put them on without sitting down and I went out to the deck to get my bag. My phone vibrated as I picked the bag up. I answered it quickly. “Mickey?”

  “Kit, thank god.” Pete’s relieved voice confused me further.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Mickey?”

  “He’s right here. Listen, are you okay?”

  I don’t know if it was the question or the strained concern in his voice but a lump rose in my throat. “I’m… I’m fine. Not really, but…” I cut myself off before I could start to sob. I really did not want to have this conversation right now, never mind with Pete.

  “Shit,” Pete muttered. “Listen, I sent Dave to pick you up so he should be possessing Nick right now. He’s been told to bring you home.”

  I sighed deeply. Suddenly Nick’s personality change and blue tint made sense. “Thank you.”

  “I’m glad you’re… okay.” His tentative tone burst my composure.

  Tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched Dave button up Nick’s shirt.

  He turned to me and held out his hands. “Sorry, but I need to touch you for the teleport.”

  “I’ll see you soon,” I told Pete, hanging up and putting the phone in my bag. I took Nick’s hand, unable to hold back a grimace as I touched him. A moment later we were standing out back of the pub and William was flapping about in front of my tear-stained face.

  “Oh, Miss Chase, I never should have let you go with that man.”

  I yanked my hand out of Nick’s loose grasp and headed up the stairs, barely even glancing at Pete and Mickey. I just wanted to get inside and never come back out. I didn’t feel safe until I was inside, locking the door with shaking fingers and letting out a trembling sigh as William landed on my hand.

  “I’ll be okay,” I muttered.

  His big eyes stared up at me silently.

  “I promise.”

  Thirty-Two – Mickey

  I can’t say I’ve never seen Pete get pissed off; he’s not exactly the calmest person I’ve ever met, but the way he stared at Nick when he got back with Kit was enough to make me nervous.

  “Is Dave still in there?”

  Pete kept right on staring as Kit disappeared into her flat without speaking. “I have to do something about this.”

  “You just did,” I reminded him. “We got Kit back. She’s okay.”

  “She didn’t look okay,” he said. “Mickey, you might want to go back to Mum’s house now.”

  “What? Why? What are you going to do, like?” Whatever it was, I did not like the sound of it.

  “Just go,” he said, frowning at Nick/Dave.

  “I’m not leaving you like this. You’re going all psycho-calm.” I couldn’t figure out what he thought he was going to do to Nick. “You’re an Animate, Pete. He’s your User.”

  “I know that.”

  “Oh, go
od, so you know that killing him isn’t an option then.”

  Pete’s creepy undead eyes narrowed. “I know I can’t kill him.”

  “Then what…”

  “Mickey, I need to deal with this myself.” He turned to Nick/Dave. “Dave, teleport us back to the flat.”

  Dave took his arm and they disappeared right in front of me before I could ask any more pesky questions. I stared up at the door to Kit’s flat. There was only one thing I could really do right now. Climbing the stairs slowly, I prepared myself for whatever horror story she was about to unload on me. Pete was right to be pissed at Nick, I wouldn’t dispute that. I just didn’t want him doing anything crazy. He might already be dead, but that didn’t make him invulnerable. I knocked Kit’s door.

  “Hey, Kit,” I called out gently. “Are you all right? Do you want to talk?”

  The door opened slowly a few moments later. She’d been crying, and she had her AI owl in her hand.

  “I don’t want to think about it right now, Mickey.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “Do you want me to fix you a drink or something? I don’t know if you should be alone right now.”

  She smiled tightly. “Tea might be good. I feel too shaky to pour. Would you mind?”

  I nodded, and she let me in.

  “Pete went home?” She sounded worried as she locked the door behind us.

  “Eh, yeah. He’s in a weird mood right now.” I only hoped he wasn’t pissed enough to do something stupid.

  Thirty-Three – Tim

  A soft but repetitive noise woke me up what felt like seconds after I lay down to sleep. Someone was saying my name over and over again. My body ached as I hauled myself up, confused by the cold hard feel of the bed. The concrete slab I’d been lying on was damp in places and mossy in others. I frowned at the dark room I’d awoken in.

  “Here,” someone was saying. It sounded like the same someone who’d woken me up repeating my name.

  I turned and saw a familiar Animate passing a bundle through the bars of the cell. The mystery of where I was had just been solved. I was in the castle dungeons. I got up and took the bundle of clothes from Frankie. He straightened; his eyes on me as he drew me a wry smile. “I would have warned you if I’d known.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, knowing I should have realised this was going to happen.

  “I added some things,” he said, nodding to the bundle I’d just taken. “There was only one bar of battery left so you might want to use it wisely.” With that, he walked away.

  I put my clothes down. Lucky for me, they were clean, though why I even cared about that right now was laughable. I hauled on my trousers and picked up the phone. He’d switched it off, probably so that it wouldn’t make any noise. I was glad I’d charged it with my magic earlier because that wasn’t going to be an option now. I couldn’t use my magic here. The King had altered this particular dungeon to serve as a prison for Users so it would have been pointless if they were able to access magic. What precisely he’d done was unknown and forever would be since the advisors who’d helped construct it had been killed immediately after the prison was successfully tested.

  I finished dressing and found Frankie had gone to the bother of wrapping a few energy bars and a bottle of water up in my shirt. I pocketed the bars on the off chance the King came down for a personal visit, though I seriously doubted he’d risk anything of the kind. His own magic would be as inaccessible as mine was to me right now if he came down here. I placed the water bottle down the far side of the cold slab that would serve as my bed, hidden from sight. My phone stayed in my hand as I sat back down.

  Though I was grateful for Frankie’s efforts, the thought of hatching an escape plan didn’t enter my head for even a moment. I would die in this cell because letting that happen was the only way to save the people I loved from harm. I couldn’t risk anyone else’s life to get out of this mess. Accepting my fate was the only way forward. This day had been inevitable.

  I just hadn’t expected it to come so soon.

  I turned the phone on and dialled Mickey’s number after noticing he’d been the one calling me earlier. Pete picked up with a pissy ‘hello’, and I couldn’t help the wry smile that found its way to my lips. “You’ve been calling me?”

  “You’re not needed now,” Pete said, not sounding any less pissy.

  “Fine. Is Mickey around?”

  “He’s not.”

  “Well, do you mind not answering next time so I can leave him a message?”

  “Whatever,” Pete said, hanging up.

  “Typical,” I muttered, dialling a second time. This time the phone rang a few times before it went to voicemail. My throat felt tight as I got ready to leave the message. “Mickey, I had to let you know… I’m being re-deployed by the King. I won’t be around. I’m sorry but this is goodbye. I won’t get another chance to speak to you, and I don’t know when I might be back so… you should just move on.” I wanted to say more but I couldn’t. I hung up and lay down on the uncomfortable bed I’d made for myself. I turned the phone off. I wanted to call my sister, but I knew that would only make her suspicious. Cutting myself off from her all those years ago had hurt, but it had been necessary. One call now would undo all of that. So, I just lay there staring at the ceiling as I waited to die.

  Thirty-Four – Pete

  I shoved Mickey’s phone in to my pocket and looked back at Dave. Just looking at Nick’s face had my anger spiking to breaking point. I held back to urge to attack him.

  “You can access his memories, right?”

  Dave nodded slowly. “I’m… not sure you want to do that though, Pete.”

  “I need to know what he did.” I wasn’t exactly going to ask Kit to tell me. I wanted to smash Nick’s face inside out every time I thought about her; the way her voice had shaken on the phone, the way she’d looked when he dropped her outside her flat. He needed to pay for what he’d done, and I was going to make sure that he did.

  “I think… he can tell what I’m doing,” Dave said.

  “Just tell me what he did.” I could make it an order, and Dave knew it.

  “He… he made her like him. It was a lust spell or something like that. He kissed her, but they didn’t get any further. He…” Dave bit at his lip.

  “He what, Dave?”

  “He was thinking that she’d fall for him if they slept together. He kept thinking about her like he wanted to own her.” He winced as he met my eyes.

  I wanted to kill him where he stood. That night in the bar had been bad enough. Nick needed to be stopped and right now I had a way to do that. I stared at Dave. “David Alan McNamara I command you to pick up that knife.”

  Dave looked panicked even as he obeyed my order. “What are you doing, Pete? This isn’t right.”

  “I have no way to strip Nick of his powers. He’s always going to be a danger to Kit. I can’t let anything happen to her.”

  “You’re talking about murder.”

  “I know that.”

  “But it’s wrong.”

  “If you don’t want to do it, I’ll find someone who will.” Angie sprang to mind for some reason.

  “Wait! What about you, and what about that new guy who’s trying to steal my room?”

  Shit. I’d forgotten about the contracts. I’d forgotten about Cal. Nick was our User so if he died the magic that was animating us would go along with him. I’d need to find the damned contracts.

  “Okay, change of plan. We find the contracts first.”

  Thirty-Five – Kit

  I’d had to get out of that dress. I grabbed the first set of clothes I could find in my bedroom and headed into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. It was creeping me out remembering how much effort I’d put into finding the perfect dress for the sick date I’d been forced into going on. Shuddering, I pulled it off, hearing a seam tear in my hurry to haul the thing off without bothering to unzip the back. I crammed it into the washing basket and shut the lid, br
eathing a sigh of relief when it was gone from sight. I pulled on jeans and a jumper after I washed the make-up off my mascara-stained face. Starting to feel normal again, I finally left the bathroom and went to find Mickey in the kitchen. He had set the table for what looked like afternoon tea. I smiled at him.

  “You do realise it’s like nine at night?”

  He shrugged, smiling back. “Thought you might need the cheering up. You might need to restock your fridge though.”

  I sat down and picked up one of the little sandwiches. “I’m actually starving. Being abducted kind of takes it out of a girl.” My eyes landed on the last bit of Nick’s cake on the plate next to biscuits. “Don’t eat that cake. It’s how he put that messed up spell on me.” I didn’t even want to look at the damn thing so I got up and tipped the contents of the plate straight into the bin.

  “Shit, sorry,” Mickey said. “I didn’t know.”

  I forced a smile. “I know.”

  He poured me a mug of tea as I sat back down. “Pete went crazy when he found out Nick had gone on a date with you.”

  I sighed. If he was going to turn this into an attempt to get me to like his undead cousin I was going to get seriously crabbit with him. “You’ve told me he likes me before. So, what, jealousy saved me from Nick? That really makes me feel better.”

  “I don’t think… he doesn’t get like this. I’ve never seen him get like that before. I think he might actually…”

  “Can we just change the subject?” I didn’t want to hear it, and it seemed like Mickey just couldn’t shut up about it. My feelings for Pete might have warmed up slightly, but it wasn’t something I’d be running around declaring all over town. He was still an Animate. It wasn’t as if we could have any kind of relationship. I pushed those thoughts away. There were more important things on my mind right now, besides. “I need to go and buy some charms. I don’t want Nick thinking he can do this again.”

  “Do those things really work?”