Of Beasts and Blood: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Arcane Arts Academy Book 3)

by Elena Lawson

  Heads were turning, trying to find where the scream had come from. My blood ran cold and it was like someone had reached into my gut and twisted it. No. Not here. No one was supposed to get hurt.

  This was a trap to lure out and expose the killer, not give whoever it was the opportunity to strike again.

  Maybe it was nothing. Maybe—

  A body slammed into mine and I spun, hand raised and magic surging to the precipice of my fingertips. It was only Bianca. “Did you hear that, too?” she asked, worry crossing her face.

  I heard someone nearby say they thought it was coming from upstairs. I didn’t have time to be relieved it wasn’t Bianca who’d screamed—we had to get up there before any of the other students started to get curious.

  “Miss, Harper,” I heard Martin somewhere to our right, but I hurried on, finding Cal and Adrian in the throng of people crowing the foyer.

  “Upstairs,” I told them, and they cleared a path.

  “Miss Harper,” Martin said again and I turned, only a little, just enough so he would catch my voice when I told him, “Not now, Martin,” in a voice that ended up sounding a little harsher than I intended.

  Bianca and I raced up the stairs after Cal and Adrian and Elias. The partygoers quieted to—speaking in whispers. Some began to make their way outside to leave. That was probably a good idea…

  I hollered over the balcony down to a hundred sets of eyes looking up at me. “Party’s over,” I shouted in as calm as a voice as I could.

  “Yeah,” Bianca added, waving. “Thanks for coming!”

  We disappeared down the hall, and I watch Cal opening each and every doorway on the way, feverishly investigating each room.

  I sucked in a breath and stopped.

  “Harper?” Bianca asked, and the three males turned to me.

  In a blur of black and ivory skin, Draven was there, too, his hand on my arm. “Are you hurt?”

  “The last door on the right,” I said, swallowing down what tasted suspiciously like guilt and maybe a bit of bile.

  How had I forgotten about her in the span of only a few minutes? “It’s Kendra.”

  Bianca’s mouth fell open. “Kendra’s here?”

  Elias was already at the end of the hall, ripping the door to my bedroom open. The rest of us ran into the room behind him. The window was open a crack. The painting on the wall to out right was crooked. And on the floor near the window was a swath of soft purple fabric, torn, and next to it were three small droplets of crimson—soaking into the carpet.

  “Is that?”

  “Yes,” Draven answered.

  My hand flew to my mouth. Elias tore into the bathroom, and then into the closet while the rest of us stood as immovable as statues.

  Where did she go?

  “Did any of you see someone follow her up here?” I asked everyone in the room.

  But I already knew the answer… they were too busy waiting to see if someone was following me. They wouldn’t have been watching anyone else. This was all my fault. Just by speaking to Kendra and sending her up here, whoever was after the information I had—and was allegedly going to get more of—was lead to believe that Kendra could be my informant.

  That was what happened, right? It had to be.

  But where did they take her? What would they do with her?

  This was Kendra we were talking about. Bitch face Kendra. Cruel Kendra. The same Kendra who blackmailed me into doing her bidding for weeks!

  But she was also the Kendra who just lost one of her closest friends. And no matter who she was, no one deserved to die at eighteen before their life had even begun.

  “Miss Harper,” Martin said from the doorway and we all turned.

  He didn’t seem surprised at the scene before him. “I was trying to find you,” he said, apologetically.

  “A girl is missing, Martin, did you see her? She was in a light purple dress. She had yellow hair, and she’s about this tall?”

  Martin nodded. “I did, Miss Harper. When I saw her coming upstairs, I came to tell her she wasn’t allowed like you requested.”

  It was why I told her no one would bother her up here. I’d made sure Martin knew I didn’t want anyone in mine or my father’s old rooms. Turned out I was wrong…

  “She was already inside and when I came in, she wasn’t alone,” Martin bowed his head. “I should have known something was amiss I’m so terribly sorry.”

  I rushed over to him, taking the elder gentleman by his arms to force him to look at me. “Who?” I demanded. “Who was in here with her?”

  Martin regarded with sad eyes and removed his monocle. “My eyes don’t work as well as they used to, Miss Harper,” he said by way of apology. “But I think the gentleman was older. The girl was crying, and the man was one of your professor’s I believe—he was comforting her, or perhaps offering to escort her home…”

  Of course, Martin would think the best. He would think that a grown man was acting like a gentleman towards her. In his sweet little mind, he couldn’t fathom what was really happening. That something sinister was going on right under his nose.

  “I’m afraid I’ve made a terrible mistake,” he added, and stepped back, out of my grasp. His lips pressed into a firm line and he straightened his shoulders. “I’ll notify the Arcane Authorities,” he said, and made to turn back down the corridor.

  “No,” I said, stopping him.

  He cocked his head at me. Confused for a moment before understanding flickered across his face.

  “You can’t, Martin.” After everything the Arcane Authorities had helped cover up, I was starting to believe they couldn’t be trusted, either. For all we knew it was an Arcane Officer who was doing these things. They’d been around the academy enough that they could’ve. “For all we know—they could have something to do with this.”

  His brows drew together and his milky gaze darkened, but he didn’t argue. “I’ll send the rest of the guests away, then,” he said. “And then I’ll be back to assist you in any way I can.”

  Once he was halfway to the stairs I turned back to the men in the room. “Where’s Draven?”

  “Here,” he said, and came out from the closet. He must’ve been getting tired of hiding in dark, damp places.

  Elias ran a white-knuckled hand over the stubble on his jaw. “It can’t be a professor,” he said. “I know them all. They aren’t capable of murder.”

  Is that what we were talking about here? Had Kendra been… murdered?

  My teeth clenched. No. Just because there was a bit of blood didn’t mean she was dead. Whoever it was would want to question her. They would want to interrogate her to find out if she knew something.

  Bianca’s eyes were welling up, and she was shaking her head over and over in disbelief. “Why is this happening?”

  “We have to find her.”

  “How?” Cal asked, his expression grim. “The guy who took her was obviously a witch. He could’ve portaled anywhere.”

  Shit.

  “Right about now would be a good time to try that spell I was talking about,” I whirled around.

  “Rose?”

  She stood there in all her 20’s flapper glory, the feather in her headband bobbing as she nodded her head. I was so relieved to see her, my eyes brimmed with tears. Had I been subconsciously calling to her?

  I swear I was just thinking to myself that we would need a miracle to find Kendra, and boom, here she was.

  “Rose?” Adrian asked, looking at the spot where my eyes were fixed near the door and then back to me, scratching his head.

  “Hey, toots.”

  “Is there any other way?” I asked her. “Anything else we could do.”

  Solemnly, she shook her head.

  “Who are you talking to?” Elias asked, looking confused and worried, and slightly afraid all at once.

  Bianca answered for me, her voice tense. “Her great aunt. She’s a… ghost.”

  The room quieted.

  “That’s one way
to silence a crowd,” Rose said with a snort.

  There was no time for explanations. If we didn’t find Kendra soon there was no doubt in my mind she would end up just like Lacey and Heather. Face down in the dirt. Drained of blood.

  If we were right about the person who was killing students being the same person who was tampering with Bianca’s mind then…

  “You have to find out what she knows,” Rose answered the thought. “You have to find out what’s been hidden in the recesses of her mind.”

  I swallowed hard and bit the inside of my cheek. “B,” I started, turning to face her. “I need you to do something for me.”

  Her perfectly manicured brows lowered. “What?”

  “Rose knows a spell,” I started and Bianca’s eyes widened, knowing exactly where I was going with this.

  “I won’t do blood magic, Harper. I’m sorry.”

  “No,” I said, rushing to correct her. “That’s not what I’m asking. Rose knows a spell—you’re right, it’s a blood magic spell—but you wouldn’t be helping me perform it. I’d be performing it on you.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “Harper,” Elias said, drawing my gaze. “What are you talking about? You can’t use blood magic. And… and you’re seeing ghosts… what’s going on?”

  My heart ached at the betrayal and disappointment I saw swirling around behind his stormy blue eyes. But I had to disappoint him even more. “It’s not the first time I’ve had to use blood magic, Elias.”

  He gasped, his face draining of color.

  My chin quivered. “I had to. I had to use it to find them,” I said and cast a quick glance at Cal and Adrian, who bore twin looks of guilt they shouldn’t have felt. They never asked me to do it. And if I had to go back and do it again—I would. I didn’t regret it. “Now, if I want to find Kendra before she’s dead—if we want to find out who’s been fucking with Bianca’s head, then I have to do it again. It’s the only way.”

  “Harper—”

  “Leave if you want to. Go! But if Bianca agrees, I’m doing this. I found a dead girl last week. Granger found one the week before. We’re not going to let it happen again tonight.”

  Elias steeled himself. I saw the hardness in his stare, and in the way his hands were clenched in tight balls at his sides. “It’s dangerous—”

  I opened my mouth again to protest, but he silenced me with a raised hand. “But I’ll help you.”

  I ran into his arms. “Thank you,” I said, meaning it more than I knew he could understand. “Thank you.”

  In those two words, I thanked him for more than his help. I thanked him for being here. For not judging me. For understanding that I had no choice and would do it any other way if I could.

  I let him go and went to Bianca. “B?”

  She bit her bottom lip.

  “Please?”

  She nodded, unable to voice her answer.

  “About time,” Rose said, stepping further into the room. “I don’t know how much time I’ve got here, so let’s do this quick.” She discarded her trademark cigarette and it winked out of existence before it could touch the carpeted floor.

  “What do I do?”

  The space was set. For this spell to work, a sigil unlike any I’d ever seen before was required. A huge sigil. Large enough so that Bianca could stand within it. It felt as though it was taking hours to draw it out, even though I knew it was mere minutes. Rose directed my hand the whole way through it. Every loop and curve. Every line and corner.

  “There,” she said, stepping away.

  Bianca was standing at the center of my bedroom floor, and now, all around her was a red glowing sigil, hovering in midair. A double ringed circle with runic symbols between the rings on the outer edge. It pulsed with magic, and the magic in my own veins was singing. A chorus of deadly, potent intent.

  It was forcing my heart to beat harder and sweat to bead on my brow from the effort of containing so much energy at once. I needed to finish casting the spell soon, or I was going to burst.

  “Soon,” Rose said, reading my thoughts. “Just one more thing first.”

  “What?”

  “Your blood.”

  Elias, Cal, Adrian, and Draven watched me from the edge of the room. Elias could barely watch. Cal and Adrian seemed slightly disgusted. But Draven—he seemed almost… hypnotized—in total awe of what he was seeing.

  “Don’t mind them,” Rose told me. “You need to focus.”

  Bianca had her hands clasped together at her front, holding them up to her heart. She too was sweating in her gown, and I saw her panic in the way her breathing was fast and her eyes wide with worry.

  “This won’t harm her in any way, right?” I whispered to Rose, hiding my voice under the whispers of my guys and soft rushing and roaring of the sheer amount of magic in the room.

  Rose shook her head. “It shouldn’t. No.”

  “Alright then,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

  “You’ll need to bleed,” she told me plainly, as though it were the most normal of things to ask of someone.

  I shuddered. “How much.”

  “Not too much. Just a little on each of your hands should do it.”

  I searched the room for something sharp, but came up empty handed, groaning.

  “What is it?” Elias asked. “What do you need?”

  “I need to bleed,” I said, repeating what Rose has just said. “Help me find something sharp.”

  That shut him up, but he didn’t move to help me. Ugh, this was not the time to protect me from a little bit of pain! I was about to say as much when Draven stepped forward, loosing his fangs. “Where, and how much?” he asked and I sighed, ushering him over to the edge of the sigil with me.

  The other three men in the room crossed their arms, almost all the same time. They didn’t have to watch if they didn’t want to.

  “My hands,” I told him and he wasted no time. He lifted my left one and pierced it with one of his fangs. I saw the tension in his movements. How he moved so deliberately. Slowly. Using up all the control he had. His venom raced into my bloodstream, mingling with the magic fighting for dominance. I let out a low moan and squeezed my thighs together beneath my dress.

  “Hurry up,” I told him. If he didn’t get this done fast, I would unravel completely. Between the venom, the magic, and the wine still circulating in my bloodstream, I was primed for explosion.

  He moved to the other side and did the same, eliciting a shiver from my spine. This time he kissed the soft skin on my wrist before he moved away, back to the wall with the others, wiping his bloodstained mouth on his sleeve.

  Bianca was staring at me incredulously, as though she didn’t even recognize me. I didn’t blame her. I hardly recognized myself.

  “Ready?” I asked her.

  She closed her mouth and nodded. “Ready.”

  “Rose?”

  She moved into place beside me and raised her arms, as though she were the one performing the spell. I did as she did, the blood welling on the palms of my hands dripping down to stain the carpet some more.

  “A sanguine, memoria reditus,” she spoke, opening her closed hands.

  I filled my lungs with air and readied my body to release the power it contained. Widened my stance for the kickback. Prepared my mind for the high that only darkness could bring. I opened my hands. “A sanguine, memoria reditus!”

  My hair lifted from my shoulders as the blood magic energy rose from my flesh like a wave of black smoke, the tendrils curling into the air, swirling in a phantom wind.

  The smoke was a living thing, moving and dancing in the air, falling to cover Bianca like clawing hands. My blood too rose from me with the spell. The dark magic drawing it out from the open wounds to swirl with the inky tendrils in the air. The crimson droplets gyrating around my friend at the center of a sigil that was now glowing so brightly it looked like it was on fire.

  What remained of the spell power left me in a great wave and Bianca’s ey
es went white. Her head tipped back, and her chest pushed forward. Her body lifted from the floor, contorting in midair while her face was frozen in a silent scream.

  No.

  “Rose!” I shouted, looking for her at my side, but she wasn’t there. I spun, finding her backing away, beginning to fade. “You said it wouldn’t harm her. You said—”

  “All blood magic has a cost,” she said, and I saw that glint of something less than human in her ghostly green eyes. “It had to be done.”

  She vanished in the span of a blink, and I was left hyperventilating, the aftereffects of the blood magic making me woozy and unsteady. The black stain that was on my heart spreading. I clutched my chest, watching as Bianca stared with white eyes, unblinking at the ceiling, her back bent at an odd angle.

  “Help her!” I managed through the chaos raging within me and fell to my knees, feeling heavier than I’d ever felt in my life, my vision crowding with strange vibrating blackness around the edges.

  Release it. It’s what Bianca told me to do the last time. I had to release it back to the earth. Shove it down and out before it could consume me.

  Cal and Adrian broke the circle of magic around Bianca, and the sigil fell away, evaporating in a hiss and they both winced, touched by the darkness.

  Bianca fell like a rag doll from the air and Cal had to sprint to catch her before she could strike the floor.

  Someone touched my back and I realized how ragged my breathing was—how even though I was heaving in air, it didn’t seem to have any effect. There wasn’t enough air in this room—in this world to sustain me. “Let it go,” Elias whispered, and I whimpered, wanting more than anything to succumb to it, to fall to the ground and let it consume me—and then sleep.

  “Harper,” he said, more forcefully this time and pulled me up to look at him, startling at what he saw. The fear in his eyes was unmistakable. His grip on my arms tightened, almost painfully. “Let it go,” he shouted. “Release it, now!”

  It was sort of funny, how he looked when he was afraid. A bubble of laughter rose like a helium balloon behind my ribcage, expanding and rising, nothing to stop it from finding a place among the clouds. I couldn’t stop it.