“I’ve still got a wand!” I shouted.
I’d carved it down and hid it inside a toothbrush to escape the detection of any Trust member who might be trying to bust me for illegal magic dealing. The loss of my real wand had been a death sentence. There were too many people out there that wanted to kill me. Fortunately, my grandfather had left me his things after his death, so I’d had his wand to fall back on. Apparently, the camouflage had been effective. I’d shoved it into my pocket while we ran toward the Summit. Combined with the bathrobe I’d thrown on, the vampires had probably discounted it as something I’d stolen from a hotel.
A shape plowed into me from the side and I threw an elbow into it without thinking. A low, human groan told me that I’d hit Dominic. Probably a lot harder than I meant to. At least his ribs hadn’t cracked.
If he was angry with me for hitting him, he didn’t show it. He shoved a hand into my pocket and rooted around. His long fingers were unexpectedly warm between the thin material of the pocket, and their desperate scrabbling against my thigh sent my mind in a direction it should certainly not have been going in this particular scenario.
“Hey,” I shouted above the howl of the nearby wolves. “When a man shoves his hand down my pants, he’s usually bought me dinner first.”
Dominic’s chuckle was low and more sensual than it had any right to be. His fingers closed around the handle of the wand. “Have you been with many guys since me, then? Cause as I recall, you told me you were still a quarter virgin when we met.”
I scowled at the reminder. Now was not the time to quibble over the details of our love life.
Dominic yanked the wand free and twirled it between his fingers like it was the world’s tiniest baton. He spun toward the large group of wolves emerging from our left and muttered a word.
Nothing happened.
Dominic scowled down at the handle of the toothbrush wand. He even shook it, like it was a remote control on the fritz.
“What the hell is wrong with this thing?”
“Maybe it doesn’t like you,” I offered, taking a swing at the nearest wolf. The punch sent it back several feet and a tooth tumbled from its mouth. It appeared I was going to keep gaining strength the longer we stayed alive. In about a half hour I’d be able to take on these guys all by my lonesome. The trick was staying in one piece until then.
“Yeah, just like its owner,” he grumbled.
“I never said I didn’t like you.”
“Tell me the trick, then,” he growled, feinting to right in order to avoid the wolf that was trying to tear his head off.
I racked my brains, trying to come up with something to tell him. Some mages had a set ritual before they cast magic. Dominic liked to do breathing exercises and center himself. Ewan Saunders, one of the mages on the elite squad I’d once called my second family, always treated his wand like a gun. He carried it in a holster of sorts, cleaning it, and performing routine maintenance before a mission. A stone settled into the pit of my stomach as I remembered Ewan’s gurgled breathing after I’d shot him; the look of surprise in his eyes as he took his final breath. I shook my head to clear it, this wasn’t the time for remorse. If Dominic didn’t figure out how to use my wand, we were about to get eaten.
I’d never had a ritual to warm up my magic. None so defined, anyway. At first, I was driven by a burning conviction and a sense of righteous justice. After my fall from grace, anger and revenge fueled enough magic when I needed it. I’d cross my fingers, keep my sister’s face in my mind, and pray to any God that would listen and hope whatever scheme I’d hatched would work.
“Think of what you want. A person you want to get out of this for. Elle maybe. We still need to get off this damned rock and save her. Then once you have a face in your head, pray really hard.”
“That’s it?” he snapped. “Hope and pray?”
“Well, you can curse really loud, too. I’ve found it helps.”
He muttered an obscenity beneath his breath, and I laughed.
“Now’s that’s the spirit. Try it again.”
Dominic waved the toothbrush wand in a wide arc and the fog thickened. He closed his eyes and chanted, his black jacket and dark hair whipping in the wind until his feet lifted off the ground in slight levitation. He was truly a sight to behold. The smell went from sulfurous to unbearably sweet, like someone had gagged me with a wad of cotton candy. Breathing in the stuff made me instantly lethargic. I swayed once and my knees nearly went out from under me.
Dominic caught me by the elbow and steadied me before I could fall.
“Thanks,” I grumbled.
The wolves around us weren’t so lucky. Any of them unfortunate enough to be within a few feet of the affected fog dropped instantly. I couldn’t tell if they were dead or merely lethargic. Dominic pulled his coat up over his nose and I did the same, covering my mouth and nose, lest I breathe any more of the stuff.
“What is that?”
“It’s the magical equivalent to sevoflurane. They’ll be out for a while. We need to go while they’re down. I’m certain there are more out there, and I’m not sure how much longer your wand will cooperate. It doesn’t seem to work that well. At least for me.”
“It senses you’re a militant despot in opposition to joy of any kind,” I mumbled. I wasn’t sure he heard me through the material of my bathrobe.
“Want it back?” he offered, holding up the wand. I knew what it cost him. Giving up power and control, when we were already so outmatched, must have been difficult.
“You should keep it,” I sighed, cracking my knuckles. “I’m an engraver, not a battle mage. Plus I think I’m stronger than you now. You be the brains, I’ll be the brawn.”
“I feel like I should be insulted, but I accept.” Dom’s hand clutched more tightly around the wand and I saw his face relax a fraction.
We sprinted inland, stopping every so often to listen for the sound of footfalls or the soft tread of paws. Either there weren’t any more rabid wolves on this section of the island, or their limited capacity to reason was enough to realize they shouldn’t fuck with us. Either way, I was grateful.
Now that the adrenaline was fading, the gash in my elbow was really starting to bother me. The blood was moving slow and thick, like syrup. I supposed it couldn’t pulse out of me any longer, without a heartbeat. But I was certain the blood loss would still kill me if I wasn’t careful, and I was in no rush to die again.
The ground leveled out beneath our feet and the terrain got less overgrown as we continued on. We could have been traveling for minutes or hours. It was impossible to tell in the neverending gloom that clung to this place.
Ahead, a shape loomed out of the darkness and for a split second I was sure it was another wolf. Dominic must have thought so too because he brought my wand to bear like it was an automatic weapon. But edging closer it appeared to be a silver sedan. I let out a breath that sounded too loud in the relative stillness.
Squinting through the fog I could see that there were several more shapes near it, all aligned exactly the same way.
“We’re in a parking lot,” I realized. “Good God, Dom, were there people on this island before they dropped the wolves here?”
I’d been told that the native population of Wolf Island had been asked to relocate for a hefty sum. But maybe some of them had decided to stay. Why else would there be so many cars around?
Dominic shook his head. “No. It was bought out before this became Wolf Isle. Some billionaire practically stole it from under the people who lived here. He was planning on making it a prime vacation spot. Resorts, swanky eateries, spas by the million. He got infected with lycanthropy and caught the virus not long after. Kind of ironic that his vacation spot became a graveyard.”
I wasn’t really in the mood to appreciate the irony. But if Dom was right, there had to be places we could hide. Dom had to mutter the incantation five times before my wand would glow for him, providing us wit
h enough light to see where we were going. Only a few yards away, a door stood slightly ajar. A sign that read “Sunrise Hotel and Day Spa” hung crookedly beside it.
Good enough.
“Let’s get inside. There’s probably something we can use to barricade the door,” I said.
“There could be wolves inside. We might be trapping ourselves in with them.”
“I don’t see many other options,” I shot back. “In the open, we’re sitting ducks. At least inside we stand a chance of finding something to defend ourselves with.”
Dominic hesitated for several seconds before he finally muttered another curse. “If we end up as kibble, I’m blaming you.”
I let out a short bark of laughter. “And that’s different from usual, how?”
Dominic shouldered the door the rest of the way open, shining my wand into the interior. I leaned my head past his elbow to get a look at the place. The lobby had probably been pretty at some point. Now the marble was covered in an inch-thick layer of dust and the silver fixtures had long since tarnished. The furniture was shredded. A nest of bones lay in one corner. Dominic had been right. A wolf had made its home in here at one point, but not recently. The dust was undisturbed.
Dominic stepped inside and I followed after, not relaxing my rigid posture until he’d seized the reception desk and pulled it across the room to barricade the door.
I braced my back against the wall and sank to the floor, weariness washing over me. I hoped it was just the shock of the events, and not the prelude to my death. I felt like I’d just crawled out of a grave, and I didn’t want to go back in the hole.
Ashby said that with each resurrection, Valerius would take root in my body until I lost myself completely. Each death gave him a greater hold over me. I’d be trapped in my own body, without any ability to control my own limbs. Catatonic, like my sister had been for the past few years. It was the worst future I could imagine, apart from igniting a volcano and ending an entire species like a supernatural terrorist. I was going to stay alive for as long as I possibly could until Findlay’s death curse caught up with me. But first, a nap.
“Shit,” Dominic muttered. “You’re bleeding. Why didn’t you say something? I would have—”
“What? Stopped? Yeah, that would have been stupid.”
I barely registered the sound of shredding cloth. Dominic must have seized one of the gauzy drapes that lined the lobby. It wasn’t the best material, but it would do in a pinch.
“Don’t pass out,” he ordered, even as my eyes began to slide closed.
I gave him a sleepy smile. “Sorry. No-can-do, sir.”
And then the blackness pulled me down and I settled into the weighty depths of unconsciousness.
chapter
2
THE SOUND OF METAL SCRAPING against stone woke me and for a few horrifying moments, I was sure I was back on the ship, defenseless and surrounded by vampires.
Panic seized my lungs in a vice and I lashed out at the source of the sound without thinking. I swept my legs in an arc that would take any potential attackers off of their feet, putting me in a better position to fight them.
My foot made contact with something small and metallic and the overzealousness of my attack sent the shape spiraling across the lobby, splashing a thick, sweet-smelling juice everywhere. I sat upright and just had time to make out the shape of a can smacking against a plain, cream-colored wall before it bounced off and disappeared out of sight.
Dominic sighed theatrically. “I guess you didn’t want the peaches then? That was only one of five cans of food that I found here. I’m surprised I found that much, to be honest. This place was scavenged pretty thoroughly.”
My stomach squirmed with guilt and embarrassment as the events of the previous night came back to me. I wasn’t being attacked and I’d apparently sent some of our limited foodstuffs to a dusty grave somewhere in the depths of the room.
I sat up and took stock of myself. The gauzy drape that Dom had used to bandage the gash in my elbow was crusted with dried blood. I had to have been out for a while for the stuff to get flaky. I hooked a finger into the makeshift bandage and pulled it away an inch to peer at the wound. Dried blood clung to my arm, but the gash appeared to have completely sealed.
“How long have we been here?” It wasn’t the question that I really wanted to ask. But I’d just attacked a can and I wasn’t sure if my fried nerves were up to hearing the news that I might have died again. I reached under the couch and grabbed a chunk of syrupy peach. I picked off a bit of wolf hair and gulped it down like an oyster. A look of disgust flashed across Dom’s face, but he tried to hide it.
He turned towards the window, adjusting the blinds so he could squint into the ever-present fog. It seemed like the sun never shone here. I wasn’t sure if it was due to magic or just a natural phenomenon. Either way, it was advantageous for the vampires. I had no doubt they’d keep their ships nearby to prevent an early escape.
If their boats stayed concealed in the fog, they could guard this island twenty-four seven. Even if we weren’t starved, injured, and surrounded by feral werewolves and guarded by vampires, getting off of the island would still have been a challenge.
“It’s hard to tell time without any indicators, but I’d say about ten hours.”
Dom’s voice shook me out of the vague sense of unease that had been building under my skin. I hated being trapped. I’d normally smash through every barrier with whatever weapons I had at my disposal, but how did you fight a whole ocean?
“I had time to explore the entire place, head to toe,” Dom said, more softly this time. “I scrounged some new clothes. There’s also a generator in the basement. If we can rig it up, I think we might actually be able to get water and electricity for brief periods. I was going to suggest that you take a shower once we get it going.”
I closed my eyes and fought the urge to moan. In our dire circumstances, a hot shower shouldn’t have seemed like such a big deal. But right now, I’d have swapped almost everything I had on me to sit under the spray for an hour. I’d been marinating for days in the same blood-soaked clothes, and I was pretty sure my hair still had chunks of my own skull in it from being shot in Sienna’s office.
Reality cut rudely into my pleasant fantasy. Even if we rigged it up correctly, it would be stupid to waste limited resources on indulgences like a hot shower. And it would be selfish to monopolize the water.
“We should shower together,” I muttered. “You don’t smell like a bouquet of roses either, and we need to conserve energy.”
It was difficult to tell in the low light, but his cheeks seemed to flush at that. Unexpected warmth brushed along my skin. Silly, that his embarrassment should make me feel better about the whole situation, but it did. He was still my Dom. The ever-honorable, moral, and chivalrous Dom that I’d met so many years ago. Even though he’d seen me naked at least a hundred times when we’d been dating—and once in the past year—it was nice he still reacted to the thought of my body.
“If you’re sure,” he said doubtfully.
“I am. We can do it high-school style. We turn our backs and pretend that it’s a locker room. We pretend we don’t see anything and try desperately not to make eye contact.”
He let out a soft laugh. I could hear a note of hysteria in it. “Whatever you say. Just promise me that we’re going to get off this island as soon as we can. I am not going to die here and let the bloodsuckers get away with this.”
I wanted to promise him that we’d get out. But I’d told him so many lies in the last week. We were stuck in this hell together. I wasn’t going to start off wrong-footed by lying to him.
“If we ever get off of the island, I’m kicking Ashby’s teeth in.”
Dom’s lips twitched but didn’t pull up into a smile. “Alright then. Let’s see what we can get the generator to do.”
The next hour was spent in the basement, which boasted a number of replacement ja
cuzzis, should any of the ones in the room above become irreparably damaged. The basement was filled with junk. Coils of extension cords snaked between scattered gardening equipment. I stowed one in the makeshift pack we’d cobbled together from the heavy drapes. I never knew when it could come in useful, and it could be used as a weapon if we found ourselves in desperate straits.
I fiddled with the wiring on one of the jacuzzis while wolfing down a container of pears in heavy syrup. Dominic rigged the generator to work but had a hell of a time trying to make my wand cooperate for long enough to purify the water. There was little point stepping into the tub if it remained a murky brown. He’d rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular forearms. When he stopped to wipe the sweat off his forehead, I caught a glimpse of his chest through his loosely buttoned shirt.
“I don’t understand how you work with this thing,” he muttered, slapping the side of the wand as though that would somehow improve its performance.
Sparks shot from the bristles of the toothbrush wand and set his pant leg on fire. He yelped in surprise and tried to pat it out. I casually scooped up a handful of the muck and tossed it at him. I knew the overcoat he wore was precious to him. It had been in the Finch family for years. It had taken a lot of damage in recent days and more than half of it was my fault. If I ever got back to the mainland, I was going to make sure it was repaired.
“Maybe you’d get better results if you didn’t smack it. She’s a temperamental sort. You hit her, she’ll hit you back.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Her? You gave your wand a gender?”
I shook my head with a wry smile. “Nope. My grandfather did. Named her Chavela, after my great-aunt. Apparently, her bite was worse than her bark and he had the scar on his arm to prove it.”
I stared down into the muddy brown water, feeling a little heartsick while Dom continued to fiddle with my wand. I hadn’t thought about my grandfather in a long time, except to lament the appropriation of his wand for my own use. The first month had been frustrating, but I felt like we’d come to some sort of understanding, at least for simple spells or charms. I never tried any advanced magic with it, afraid I’d set my house on fire again.
Agent of Magic Box Set Page 21
