I Want Your Hex

by Renee George

  "Vampire," I hissed.

  "Ding, ding. You got it in one. Though, I'm afraid my balls are off the menu." He winked at me. "For now."

  Chapter Two

  "Tell me who you are, vampire, before I rip off your head," Time Bomb growled. Fur had sprouted over his skin, and he'd gained several inches in height.

  "Bring it on, bear-boy. We'll see who can tear apart who first," the vampire replied.

  We hadn't heard or seen the vampire, that alone was enough to send a cold trickle of fear to my core. Could Time Bomb take him? Even if he could, one drop of vamp blood was extremely fatal for Shifters. I wasn't ready to lose my partner in a fight to the death, so I positioned myself between them. The vampire had snuck up on us, listened in on our conversation, all the while we were completely unaware.

  "Keep calm, TB. If this guy was here to take us out, he wouldn't have given up the element of surprise by revealing himself to us beforehand."

  "Unless I'm someone who likes a challenge," the vampire said pointedly. A rumble of anger from Time Bomb made the vamp raise his hands. "And while I do enjoy the occasional brawl, tonight I come in peace." He smiled again, this time with less teeth. "Take me to your leader."

  "Who are you?" I asked again, now that we'd established the "what."

  "Excuse my poor manners." He gave a slight bow. "I'm Baz Delgados, fourth son of Mikaninos Delgados-Ravenblood, our lord progenitor, ninth in line to the Ravenblood throne," he waved his hand in a circle, "after my three other brothers and my five sisters, and head of security for the current sitting prince, my eldest brother, Legabute Ambroos Delgados-Ravenblood. I have been sent, much as you have, I assume, to scout the location for weaknesses that can be exploited by our enemies. So far, I've only found one real problem."

  "What's that?" I asked.

  "You people have no idea what you're doing when it comes to vampires." He crossed his arms. "But that's why my brother, with the full blessing of your council, sent me. I'm going to give you all a four-day crash course in bloodsuckers. After you sign a non-disclosure act that will be strictly enforced by the council. What I am going to share with you is not for general consumption, but it will help us all survive my brother's crazy idea to form an alliance with the witches." When neither I nor my partner said anything, Baz added, "Go on, now. Call the big guns and let them know I'm here."

  "Kiss my ass," Time Bomb said.

  "You're not my type," Baz said. He turned his golden gaze in my direction. "I prefer AB negative."

  I gulped the lump in my throat. "Call it in, TB," I said. "Let Gigi know we have a guest."

  "Make that four guests," he said. Out of the shadows, two men and one woman, all with Baz's same dark hair but with blue instead of golden eyes, appeared. "My team," Baz explained.

  Time Bomb sniffed as he glanced at the woman. "Mushrooms," he muttered.

  Her eyes fixed on him. "You don't smell so good yourself, fur bag," she said, her honied voice thick as syrup.

  "Now, Dee," Baz chided. "Don't be rude to our new allies."

  "Boss," Time Bomb said into his mic. "We have four mosquitos."

  "I didn't feel a shift in the wards."

  "Nope," he said. "They didn't set off any alarms."

  To her credit, she didn't ask a lot of questions about how. That line of inquiry could wait.

  "Hostile?" she asked.

  "Not yet," he said.

  There was a crackle on Gigi's end. "Are they looking for a meal?"

  I gave Baz a raised brow. He shook his head and said, "We filled up before our arrival."

  "Not here for food," Time Bomb told her.

  Baz moved closer to me, and the color of his eyes changed to red then immediately back to gold. "Your hair is an interesting shade of pink," he said. "Magic or were you born with it?"

  "A ten-dollar boxed dye from Target," I replied.

  "Step back," Time Bomb growled. "Our boss will be here any--"

  The air between Baz and me shimmered with heat, then poof! Gigi and Monty apparated into the space. Gigi's blonde wavy hair floated around her shoulders as the residual magic faded.

  She put her fists on her hips, and I held my breath while I waited for her to lambaste our guests.

  Monty thrust his hand at the vampire before the yelling could start and said, "Welcome, Emissary Delgado."

  The breath whooshed out of me as I stared with disbelief and curiosity at my team leader. Gigi grimaced then shook her head. "We've talked to the council, and they've informed us to give you our full cooperation. Why don't we all head up to the cabin, so we can get down to the business of business?"

  Once again, I realized my shields were down, yet, I couldn't feel Monty or Gigi. They were both more powerful than I was, at least when it came to spell casting, so why did I feel...empty? The more I tried to find their magic, the emptier I felt. I reached out, metaphysically to Time Bomb. He was my best friend, and I was more familiar with his markers than anyone else.

  Again. Nothing.

  It wasn't like when I had my barriers in place. Even then, I sensed the world around me, the people, my surroundings. This was different. I was different. Hollow. I always thought it would be a relief to feel nothing, and in a way, it was. But mostly, it scared the shit out of me. I hated not knowing what was going on in my own body.

  My heart raced as I fought to calm my breathing before I set in motion an embarrassing panic attack. I hadn't had one since I was sixteen, and Dal Meyers, a human boy, had kissed me in the school's photography darkroom. That's when I learned the hard way that humans had their own brand of magic.

  I searched for answers in the faces of the four vampires. The two blue-eyed vamps and Dee were busy watching Monty and Gigi, the two people they had assessed as the most important. However, Baz was staring at me. Studying me.

  A-ha! He was the reason I couldn’t use my powers. That mother-sucking-fanger was mind-screwing me. I steeled my gaze. No way was I letting this jerk know how much he was throwing me off balance.

  "Drag?"

  I glanced at Gigi. "Yes, boss?"

  She gave me an odd look. "Grab one of our guests to apparate back to the cabin. Monty and I will get the rest."

  "Can't they just take themselves back?" I asked. They'd gotten here without any issues.

  "We know how to make the shadows work for us, but we can't magically transport ourselves," the leader said.

  "I'll run," Time Bomb said, not wanting any part of magical transportation.

  "Chicken," I told him.

  "Bawk, bawk," he countered, then took off on foot in the direction.

  "I'll go with the pink-haired girl," Baz said. "She is my first point of contact."

  "The pink-haired girl has a name," I said.

  "And what is this name of yours?" the vampire lowered his gaze, and my skin warmed.

  I frowned. "Drag Jones," I replied.

  "Unusual."

  "Because Baz is usual," I snarfed.

  "Do you want to take him, Drag?" Gigi asked. "It's up to you."

  Actually, I wasn't even sure if I could perform the simple task. My sensing magic was null because of something Baz was doing but was it affecting my casting? I rubbed my fingers together, then closed my fist, and whispered, "Handy-dandy Jacky-Spandy, In My Hand, a little candy."

  When I opened my hand, there was a single piece of cinnamon taffy, my favorite. I smiled at the look of surprise on Baz's face then turned to Gigi. "I've got this." I popped the cinnamon morsel in my mouth then, feeling only slightly more confident, I walked right over to the arrogant vampire, and said, "Hold on to your panties, Baz. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

  Chapter Three

  When we reappeared, I couldn't see. My surroundings were covered in an inky blackness that indicated the complete lack of any light source.

  "Where are we?" Baz asked.

  I didn't loosen my grip on his wrist because I was afraid that if I let go, the entire world would fall away from me. "You tell me," I accused
him. "My spell aimed us at the yard in front of the cabin, but somehow we've ended up--" The chill damp on my skin raised goosebumps on my arms. "--in a lair of darkness."

  "It feels like a cave," Baz said, not rising to the bait.

  "And I know how bats love caves," I quipped.

  "Can you make some light?" he asked with great practicality.

  It grated my nerves more than a little bit. I raised my free hand. "Hickory Dickory, dark. Grow and glow my little spark." I was pleased with myself as a tiny flare, no bigger than a firefly, began to grow above our heads. "There," I said. "Light." As the illumination got brighter, I saw that Baz had been right. We were definitely in a cave system of some type. The walls were rock with moisture sweating from the smooth surface.

  Baz, who had been cocky and confident in the woods, looked ready to vomit now.

  I met his gaze. "You really don't know where we are?"

  "Oh," he disagreed. "I know exactly where we are, and that's what worries me. We have to get out of here?"

  "How? Is there an exit somewhere?" I couldn't see any tunnels leading out of the room.

  "You can zap us out the way you zapped us in," he said incredulously.

  "Right." I nodded, hoping my cheeks weren't as red as they felt. Then shrugged. "I'll try, but it's really dangerous to use a translocation spell when you're not sure where you are in relation to where you'll land. Frankly, we're lucky we landed inside this open space, instead of reconstituting into these solid walls." I let go of Baz and smacked the cold stone behind me. "That's something you don't come back from."

  I didn't think it would be possible for a vampire to blanch, but I swear, Baz went two shades paler than pale. "Why don't we see if we can find an exit first?"

  "Good plan." I rolled my eyes. The glowing spark had become about as bright a sixty-watt bulb. Now, it was easy to see that the cavern stretched out about fifty feet in either direction, but was narrow, maybe fifteen feet in width. Also, there were scrawls and sigils etched into several sections of the walls.

  I reached out and touched the surface again. It still felt smooth. "That's weird." It was as if the swirls, curls, and curved lines had been inlaid into the rock as to not leave a crease or raised edge.

  The worry in his furrowed brow when he spoke increased my own anxiety. "That's Malachim."

  "What's Malahaakeem?"

  "Close enough," he said. "It's an alphabet developed over five centuries ago. It was named for the Hebrew word for angels or messengers. The people who used it thought it was divine."

  I groaned. "Please tell me this isn't a cult thing. I've had my fill and then some of freaking fanatics."

  Baz looked me straight in the eye and said, "This might possibly be a cult thing if you consider Freemasons a cult. They're about the only ones who use this alphabet anymore."

  "Nooo," I whined. "What a bunch of goblin shit!" In my irritation, my shit sounded a little more like shite, as my English accent, which I mostly left behind years ago, came out with my fear.

  Baz raised a brow at me. And now that he was all lit up, I could see that he was not only tall with dark hair and golden eyes, but he also had a face that and body that Michelangelo would have given their left thumb to have sculpted him in bronze. High cheekbones, perfectly symmetrical features, wide full lips, and the outer edges of his deep-set eyes were turned down just slightly in a way that gave him a lost boy appearance guaranteed to melt the coldest of hearts.

  His low chuckle brought me to my senses. "If you're done drinking in my beauty, can we get back to the problem at hand? Unless, of course, you rather take a break from hatching an escape plan to have sex. I mean, it's a horrible place, but I find that any place can be made a little less wretched with naked company."

  I coughed. "As if. You're not my type. I don't even like pretty men," I lied. I did like pretty men and handsome men and rough and tumble mountain men. Really, I just liked men, but my condition had always been a reminder that I couldn't have them. Except, I still had my shields down, so why wasn't I picking up any vibes in this cave?

  "Oh, my dear sweet, Drag. I'm everyone's type," he said. "And I'm happy to prove, many times over, exactly why."

  Goddess damn! Were all vampires this egotistical or just Baz? Unfortunately, his conceited claims kind of turned me on. The bastard. Maybe he was making me like him, doing that mind-mojo vampires are so good at? Maybe this seduction was part of the magic he was using to block my ability.

  "What are you doing to me?"

  "Nothing," Baz said. A hint of a smile played on his lips. "Yet. But I'm trying really hard to get into your pants, love." He looked around. "I mean, we don't appear in imminent danger, so I can't see the harm."

  My anger rallied, overcoming my hormones. I pulled a silver spike from my weapon's vest and lunged at Baz. He grabbed me with lightning speed and shoved me against the wall. He held my arms crisscrossed against my chest, his strength preventing any movement. I hadn't been trying to kill him. I'd just wanted to take him down a peg, but now, I wanted him dead. But since only a Shifter could kill a vampire, I'd settle for away from me.

  "Hickory, Dickory, Dock, I want you against that rock," I used my right hand to point down the left corridor.

  Baz's eyes widened as my magic dragged him backward all fifty feet to the far wall and pinned him there.

  I let out a relieved breath and sagged down, my ass cold on the damp floor.

  "This won't hold me long," Baz said loudly, his low melodic voice echoing off the walls.

  "Long enough," I told him. "And there are more spells where that came from." I walked the perimeter of the long room, studying each symbol as I passed. I'd seen plenty of shows with secret passages and whatnot, but I couldn't find a single crevice to indicate where one might be. But someone had been in here to put up these damn letters, and since I didn't see any bones around here, they'd obviously got out.

  Unless they were witches and warlock, who could safely apparate out of here. Or Freemasons who were in league with my kind. Funny, I’d never heard of Freemasons hanging out in the supernatural world. Yet, the vampire knew about them.

  "If you let me down, I can help decipher some of the languages."

  "How is that we happen to get redirected to this rocky tomb and you just happen to know this Mala-cha-cha-salsa language? It seems awfully convenient."

  "Oh, yes," Baz said. "I've always wanted to get trapped in a cave warded with a language that's been dead for thousands of years, with a witch that's in denial about our circumstances, and glued to rock that’s digging into my shoulder blade. It's the most convenient thing ever."

  I moved closer down the corridor toward him and gave him a pitying look. "Does it hurt?" I asked.

  He frowned, giving me, what I had to admit, some seriously good puppy eyes. "It does."

  "Good," I said blandly.

  "You really need to let me down."

  "I will when you stop screwing with me."

  I saw him bite back a retort.

  "Nice," I said. "You're learning."

  "I'll play nice," Baz said. "If you play nice. Truce?"

  "Can I trust a vampire to keep his word?" I asked.

  "On my honor, I won't screw with you." A smile danced in his eyes, even if it didn't reach his lips. "Not unless you ask."

  I rolled my eyes. Part of me enjoyed the flirting, but most of me just wanted the hell out of this cave so that it didn't turn into my grave.

  I reached out my hand the way Monty had earlier. "The clock struck one, and the spell was undone," I incanted.

  Baz stepped away from the wall and rolled his shoulders as he strolled up to me.

  "Truce," I said, my hand still offered.

  "Truce," he agreed. His palm slipped into mine, his fingers curling into a clasp, and I was suddenly, inexplicably filled with a warm tingle that tightened my nipples and made my sex throb with need.

  "Stop," I said in a hoarse whisper.

  Baz's eyes had gone red again, only this ti
me, they didn't instantly turn back to gold. He looked at me with a hunger I'd never seen before, and I lived with a bottomless pit of a bear Shifter.

  I tried to yank my hand away, but Baz's iron grip held me in place.

  "Hickory--"

  "Stop," he commanded. "I don't want to harm you. Please don't speak. Don't move. Just give me a moment to regain control."