by Jen Pretty
The floors were still solid, but with no power, we had to take the stairs. It was only 8 floors, but Nick wasn't sure which floor his brother was on, so we ended up walking up and down each floor as Nick's twin vampire radar honed in.
Nick stopped on the fifth floor as we exited the stairwell. He turned and put his lips right to my ear, his hand slipping around to the small of my back. "There are six heartbeats."
A shiver trickled down my spine at his warm breath, then he pulled away and held up 6 fingers to the guys. I could have figured out what he meant when he did that, but the feeling of his hand on my back and his lips against my ear lingered.
I followed behind him as we walked silently down the hall, past open doors of trashed apartments. Some looked as if they had been lived in recently. Perhaps homeless people were making themselves a home here, but the apartments were empty now. Until we got to one with a closed door. The door looked new; the lock was shiny.
Nick stopped and pointed to the door. My stomach churned and jumped with nerves, but my magic didn't pull towards anything beyond the door. That should have been a warning that something wasn't right, but at the moment I was too afraid to notice.
Nick took a step back from the door, lifted his foot and banged the new steel door right off the hinges. It smashed down with a scream of metal and a heavy bang as loud as a gunshot.
Nick rushed forward, followed closely by Falcor. I raced in third, with Jax at my back. As soon as we were through the door, the magic began to fly from all directions. Nick was knocked down and Falcor slammed to a stop. I hit his back and tumbled past him, ricocheted like a pinball into the waiting arms of a giant warlock.
His thick arm went around my throat and began to squeeze, slowly crushing My windpipe and blocking off my air. Jax appeared in front of us, ripped the big man's arm off me and I collapsed to the floor, gasping for air.
A wet thump was followed by a couple more and the warlock dropped to the floor beside me, a pulpy mess. I quickly looked away and caught sight of Nick struggling against a string of magic that had his arms pinned to his side as his attackers scrambled. I realized a moment later, they were looking for a wooden stake. I lurched to my feet, fighting with my coat as I attempted to get my blade free of the sheath.
One of the warlocks rose to his feet, a wooden stake in his hand and time seemed to slow down as I watched in horror as the warlock took a lurching step toward Nick and then another. Nick struggled in vain. I wasn't going to make it in time, Instead, I cocked my arm back and threw the knife directly between the two of them.
The blade spun once, twice, and then the sharp edge of the knife cut clean through the thread of magic coming from the warlock and wrapping around Nick.
As soon as it was cut, Nick raised his arms and caught the warlock’s stake on its way toward his chest.
The sharp snap of the warlock’s arm punctuated the apartment as more magic spun out toward Nick and me. Others were attacking Jax and Falcor, but I could only focus on Nick as I slowed myself and came to a stop.
My magic poured out, coating the dirty room in blue sparks that extinguished every other spark in the room. Every thread of magic sputtered out like a candle in the wind.
And Nick's quick movements spun the warlock and pulled him to his chest, as he reared back and slammed his teeth down on the warlock's neck, tearing it open and letting his blood spill onto the peeling wallpaper and brown stained carpet under Nick's feet.
I blinked as blood sprayed in a fantastic arc, some of it landing on my cheek.
And the moment of slow-motion snapped back to real speed like a rubber band reaching its maximum capacity.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Falcor was free of the magic that was holding him, and he immediately began to attack the other warlocks, casting spells and threads of magic at them in offence. It wasn't long before he had two wrapped up like flies caught in a web.
Behind me, Jax had beaten two more warlocks with his fists and his boots to the point they weren't moving.
Nick had let the warlock he tore open with his mouth drop to the floor and was staring down at the body of the man who had attacked him with a stake, with a look of shock and bewilderment.
"Nick," I said.
His head moved toward me before his eyes left the man at his feet, but finally, his eyes caught on mine. The expression didn't change though.
I didn't know what to say, now that I was faced with is pain. Nick had already suffered a lot, and I knew he didn't approve of vampires biting people, much less killing them. But these were definitely extenuating circumstances. That warlock would have killed Nick.
"How are you here!?" one of the warlocks screamed staring at Nick. "We killed you!"
"Oh no," I whispered.
It took Nick a minute, but the words sunk past his regret at killing the warlock and he raced forward, toward a door in the back of the apartment.
He disappeared beyond the door and I rushed to catch up, knowing what we would find on the other side of the door.
Nick was on his knees when I entered. Kneeling in front of a pile of ashes.
He didn't move, he just sat on his knees and stared at it.
I covered my mouth with my hand. Nick had already lost so much; this was too much to bear.
An arm circled my waist and pulled me back out of the room. Falcor turned me into his chest and I buried my face there.
Nick had been brought all this way, we fought the warlocks, only to find his brother had already died a true death. A final death.
At the hands of the monsters in the other room. Two of them still remained alive.
Anger surged through me. How dare they kill what was mine. Ryan may not have been a part of my team, and he may have buried his own brother in a graveyard, but they thought they had killed Nick. And for all intents and purposes, they may as well have.
I pushed off Falcor and turned on the pair of bound warlocks. Falcor's magic still held them tight, but today it was my turn to decide.
I let my magic flow out again. Coating the entire apartment with my thick, heavy magic. A sea of blue glittered, covering every surface.
"You think you can win a war against me?" I asked. My voice was deep and hollow. As if Crow was riding inside me, but I knew he wasn't. I didn't know where he was, or if he could have stopped this, but this time, I wanted vengeance.
The men writhed and screamed, but I showed them no mercy as I removed my blade and pressed it to my skin.
Something inside me forced my fingers, not that I was in any condition to stop whatever was going to happen.
"Selena," Jax said, his voice a warning.
I ignored him too. I kept my eyes locked on the two warlocks as I drew the blade across my forearm, releasing my blood.
The men who were already dead rose as wraiths.
"I banish you to hell," I said. And the wraiths screamed before disappearing into the floor.
The other two men were screaming hysterically now, thrashing like trash in a hurricane. I pointed the tip of my blade at one of them and his wraith tore free of his body with a sickening rip. I repeated the action with the other warlock and once his wraith was free and his body was nothing but an empty shell, I banished them straight to hell, too.
I had never killed someone with my necromancer magic before. But the amount of magic spinning inside me was like a dam about to break. It filled me and the room and the apartment building, all of it violent and angry. Not the soothing flow of glitter it usually was.
My head swam with the weight of it all. And I began to feel as though I might explode. Like I did outside the Sanctuary. The magic was too thick. There was too much.
My vision began to narrow. It funnelled down to the faces of the men I killed, forever locked in a scream of torture. Much less than they deserved, but more than I should have done.
The room spun until a warm hand on my arm distracted me and I let the dam break free. My magic flowed into Jax's body and safely out into the world. Li
ke a filter, Jax took it all away and released the weight of the world from my shoulders.
I opened my eyes again and turned my head to look at Jax. His eyes had rolled back into his head and his body shuddered, then his body relaxed, and his hand fell away from my arm.
I couldn't find it in me to feel bad about the warlocks; my heart was still broken from Nick. This would change him. If being buried hadn't, this would. How could it not?
I just hoped I would be able to help him.
We sat in that filthy, blood-stained apartment for an hour before Nick appeared at the door to the small room where his brother's ashes lay scattered.
"You should go," he said.
"Go where?" I asked.
"Back home. I'll stay here and try to stop this."
His eyes flashed to Falcor. "I don't want any warlocks or witches in the city."
"He's on your side," I said, defending Falcor.
"No," Falcor said. "He's right. We should go."
I raised my eyebrows at Falcor. After everything we went through to get Nick back and find his brother, Falcor was just going to concede?
If that was how he wanted it, so be it.
I rose from my spot on the floor. "You could come with us," I said to Nick.
He shook his head. "I never should have tried to leave in the first place. It should be me in that room. They all thought it was me."
"Doesn't mean you have to stay," I argued.
"Yes, it does."
My anger surged again "You said you would stay with me!"
"And look what's happened?" he replied his voice rising in volume to match mine.
"This isn't your fault!" I countered.
"It's all my fault!" He yelled. "Can't you see? I should have been here all along!"
"Selena," Falcor said. "Let's just go."
"No! Not until he sees sense!"
Nick turned on his heel and jumped toward the window, breaking through the glass and disappearing from view.
"Nick!" I raced to the window and watching him run away from the building. Wherever he was going, he was definitely not staying with me. Again.
And our fucking rental car was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Falcor shifted us back to the hotel. Despite my objections, we had a flight booked home in less than two hours.
"I still say we should talk to Nick. His brother is dead. We shouldn't leave him."
Falcor threw his bag at the door and disappeared. I guess it was something I said.
"Selena," Jax said, sitting down on the bed. "There is a lot you don't understand about vampires."
I was aware of that, but I knew Nick. Mostly. My feet carried me to the window of the hotel room where I stared down at the street as if I could make Nick appear just by thinking of him. Leaving him alone now was a terrible idea. Leaving anyone alone when they had gone through a loss like that had to be wrong. Nick was there for me when my friend was killed, and I could be there for him now.
"Are you with me?" Jax's voice was soft but pulled me out of my thoughts.
I turned to face him. "So, tell me then."
"Vampire twins are different." He paused and bit his lip. "They are like two opposite ends of each other. That's why they fight so much but they also need each other to keep balanced."
"Nick and his brother were estranged."
"Yeah. But they were both alive. They kept each other in check. One twin is usually a bit darker, more prone to following their natural vampire urges. And the other typically tips the scale a bit more the other way. Toward being human."
"So now what? The scale is tipped?"
"Now the scale is on fire in a hurricane. Nick will have all the vampire urges and human mentalities. He will want to kill people, but also protect them."
"So, what do we do?" I asked, still not sure I had the whole picture. It felt like a rough outline of the situation.
"We can't do anything." Jax rose and crossed to the room to stand in front of me. His hand reached up and brushed some of my windblown, stringy hair out of my face. "We have to let Nick get control of himself." Jax's eyes were so deep, his brow furrowed. The honest emotion in his face was like a magnet. "If he can, that is."
I snapped out of the spell that had pulled me under. "What if he can't?
Jax dropped his hand. "Then the community will take care of him before he can cause too much damage to the human world."
The news had been chalking up the recent violence to gangs using a new pharmaceutical drug that was turning them into crazed monsters. If only they knew the truth. People would be terrified.
The memory of Colvin asking me to come home stirred me into action. "Let's go home then." I marched out of the room dragging my suitcase behind me. I wasn't sure how to fix anything in Phoenix but knew I was needed back home. Maybe I could fix some of the trouble between the witches, warlocks, and vampires.
Jax and Falcor followed me to the elevator. I paused long enough for Falcor to check us out and Jax to call an Uber. And before I knew it, we were on the long flight back home.
My leg bounced on the floor, making a light squeaking sound as the seat shifted slightly. The plane had been in the air for a few hours, but I couldn't sit still. I was so amped up; magic was trying to burst out of me. I hadn't felt so overwhelmed by magic in months. I had improved my ability to handle it, but the anxiety that was pressing at me was slowly breaking down my control.
"What's wrong?" Jax asked.
I shot him a look.
"Okay, everything is wrong, but what is wrong at this exact moment?"
I glanced at the woman in the seat beside me, her head was tipped back at an inelegant angle and her heavy breathing was just short of a snore.
"I have too much magic," I whispered, so quietly I was sure he was the only one who would have heard me anyway.
"What can I do?" he asked.
I had given him some of my magic by accident before, but not intentionally dropped all my magic into him. It felt personal, based on Nick's reaction previously. I tipped my head back and sighed. This was ridiculous. I couldn't solve all the problems in the world right now, but I could do this and maybe have a moment of peace.
"Meet me in the bathroom. I'll leave it unlocked." I rose and squished past Jax's legs, tripping over his foot and nearly falling into the aisle where Falcor grinned at my clumsiness.
I scowled at him and moved down the aisle to the tiny airplane bathroom. Visions of Nick kept flitting into my mind. The first time I had given him my magic, it had felt amazing, freeing. And the look on his face every time assured me he had felt something powerful. I splashed water on my face, then dried it on a rough paper towel before collapsing on the closed toilet seat. I rubbed my tired eyes until I heard the bathroom door open. I looked up into Jax's curious eyes and his grin.
He was so beautiful, his strong jaw and deep eyes. His lips flattened as he pressed them together. "What do you need?"
"I need to give you my magic. It will just come back in, but I can't hold it all. It's too much. Everything is too much." A tear I wasn't expecting pressed out and took a trip down my cheek. I brushed it away. The last few days had overwhelmed me to the point of collapse, and I knew this was only the beginning. I couldn't do all this on my own.
Jax dropped to his knees in front of me, his eyes meeting me at my level. "Then give it all to me." His hand reached out and cupped my cheek.
I sighed and let my magic trickle out slowly at first, then all at once. As the flood gates opened, the release was magnificent. The feeling of lightness as if I was floating, rolled my eyes back in my head.
The ragged breathing of Jax in front of me was the only thing keeping me anchored on the ground. Or in the plane, anyway, since we weren't even on the ground.
When my eyes opened, Jax's face was only inches from mine. His eyes like pools in the moonlight. I tipped forward, closing those inches and met his lips with mine. Tentatively at first, but after a moment, his hand slid behind my head and
I let his mouth envelope mine. His lips tasted sweet, like the wine he had been drinking and I wanted more. I slipped forward, pressing him down until I was straddling his thighs where he kneeled on the bathroom floor. I let my tongue play with him while his hands roamed my back, taking away all the grief and fear that was plaguing me.
I pulled at his shirt and his hands stopped mine. He pulled his mouth away and looked at me as if his heart was breaking. "I don't want to be a rebound."
"You aren't. I just don't want to feel bad for a while."
He chuckled. "That's kind of the definition of a rebound."
I dropped my forehead to his shoulder and his arms wrapped around me.
"It's going to be fine. It will all work out in the end."
"How do you know?" I asked, still not lifting my forehead.
"I am very old and wise." He chuckled when he said it.
I had forgotten how much older he was than me. But now that he brought it up, it still didn't feel weird to be straddling him in an airplane bathroom.
He held me for a few more moments until there was a knock at the door. I growled and pushed myself up onto the toilet again so Jax could get off the ground. Then we both exited the bathroom as if it was perfectly normal. To hell with what everyone thought. I had way bigger concerns than a plane full of passengers thinking I was hooking up in a bathroom. Although I almost did. So, whatever.
Falcor was reading a book in his seat as we passed, but the grin on his face was the assurance he was aware of my embarrassment, though I tried to hide it.
I slipped into my seat to find the woman beside me was awake. She cleared her throat in disdain, but I ignored her in favour of Jax who's hand crossed the armrest to take mine in his. Apparently, he wasn't feeling the little bit of embarrassment I was.
I glanced at him and he smiled at me. I leaned my head on his shoulder and just let myself relax. I might not have much hope of stopping this war, but at least I wasn't alone. Even Falcor was in my corner, no matter how annoying he got sometimes.
I closed my eyes and let my mind drift away until the stewardess asked us to fasten our seat belts for the landing. Something about being home made me feel a bit more solid. There were more people here who would support me and get this situation worked out.
