Blood Mage (Dark Impulse Book 1)

by Edmund Hughes

  “Fuck!” shouted Katie. “God dammit! Fine. Peter, if you’re somehow watching this from beyond the grave, you’d better understand why I’m doing this. You fucking owe me, Peter.”

  Jack opted not to point out how uncomfortable she was making him as he listened to her talk to his dead grandfather while still pointing a crossbow at his chest.

  “I’m assuming you have a plan that doesn’t involve killing me?” asked Jack.

  “Yeah,” said Katie. “Start walking. We’re heading down to the cellar. You remember where that is, right?”

  “I remember you being just as bossy back when we used to play down there as kids,” said Jack.

  Katie was behind him, but he could still identify the sound of her finger tapping against the crossbow’s trigger.

  “I said start walking,” she hissed.

  CHAPTER 9

  Jack slowly made his way down the stairs and into the cellar. It hadn’t changed much since his childhood. A wine rack ran across one wall, holding at least a hundred bottles, some of which he was pretty sure hadn’t been touched in over a decade. A few rolled-up carpets were leaned against one wall, and the shelves across the back held a variety of old, nearly discarded bits of junk.

  Katie ignored all of it, heading instead for the far wall. Jack noticed the absence of dust on the bricks as she pressed her hand onto one midway up the wall. It receded slightly along with the five other bricks nearest to them, and then slid to the side.

  Behind them was a digital lock panel with a tiny display. Katie pressed a series of numbers, and the entire wall slid sideways, stone grinding against stone as a hidden entranceway appeared. Jack almost couldn’t believe it, even though it was much less of a surprise than most of the rest of the night had been.

  “My grandfather always used to say he was organizing his wine collection down here,” said Jack. “Wow. I never would have guessed.”

  “Stay here,” said Katie. “This won’t take long. If your bloodthirst gets to be too much for you to handle, let me know immediately.”

  Jack nodded. He could still feel his bloodthirst, and its intensity came in waves. It reminded him of being at the beach without anything to drink other than the impossibly salty ocean water. Except the thirst was compounded by intense headaches, muscle twitches, and the occasional bout of vertigo.

  He walked up to the edge of the hidden doorway Katie had disappeared through and glanced into the room on the other side. It was a magical laboratory, with an alchemy set on a central table, bookshelves lining the walls, and a desk in one corner. The alchemy set had Bunsen burners, pipettes, and graduated cylinders sitting side by side with cauldrons, a mortar and pestle, and several alembics.

  Jack took another step forward. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the walls on either side of the doorway were adorned with weapon racks. Several longswords hung next to another crossbow, a few wands the length of his forearm, a shotgun, and several pistols.

  “Why did you choose the crossbow over firearms?” asked Jack. “It seems a little impractical.”

  Katie was digging through a cupboard, pulling out small bottles and reading their labels.

  “Most monsters shrug off gunfire,” said Katie. “Especially vampires. The bullets just aren’t large enough to get the job done, unless you use an automatic weapon and really go overboard.”

  “What if you use silver bullets?” asked Jack. “Vampires are weak against silver, aren’t they?”

  “They are, but the effectiveness is exaggerated in fiction,” said Katie. “Silver slows down the natural healing metabolism of vampires, but it doesn’t kill them instantly.”

  Jack nodded. “What about the other weaknesses? Garlic? Holy water?”

  Katie shook her head. “Those are just myths. Same with you needing to be invited inside. Sunlight, however, will weaken you. Less so given that you’re an Aquinian vampire, but you won’t be able to use your magic or vampiric strength on sunny days. Or do any healing.”

  “That’s good to know,” he said.

  Katie started up one of the burners and positioned a small cauldron over it. She started pouring various ingredients from the bottles into the mix and stirring with a long, metal spoon.

  “What are you doing?” asked Jack.

  “Trying to buy myself another day to figure this out,” said Katie. “You won’t be able to hold onto your sanity if you don’t feed soon. And I can’t risk you enthralling innocents, or possibly even draining them.”

  “All right,” said Jack. “So, what? You’re making me a blood potion?”

  “If it were that fucking simple, vampires would just start a blood bank program instead of being an existential threat to humanity,” said Katie. “No. Vampires drink blood, but they do it for the blood essence contained within it, not for nutrition. Blood essence fades back into the Other Realms as soon as the blood leaves a person’s body. You will have to drink directly from a neck. From… my neck.”

  “You want me to bite you?” asked Jack.

  “Of course I fucking don’t!” snapped Katie. “But we don’t exactly have many options. I’m making an anti-enthrallment potion. They’re not perfect, but they should let me resist most of the effects of your bite.”

  “Okay,” said Jack. “Uh… What is enthrallment, exactly?

  “It’s basically magical enslavement,” said Katie. “If you bite someone enough, they’ll start to respond to your commands and have an emotional reaction to your presence. It’s a huge part of what makes vampires so dangerous.”

  She took a small pinch of yellow powder from out of a tiny leather bag and tossed it into the cauldron. A plume of pink sparks shot into the air as the dust landed. Jack sniffed, recognizing the scent of nutmeg along with something sweet.

  He could sense the physical toll of his bloodthirst again, but it was different this time. His head was throbbing from a point that originated directly behind his eyes, making his vision pulse red each time, almost like he was looking at the sun.

  The pull of his bloodthirst was starting to feel heady and uncontrollable, and it scared him a little. He was thirsty, but there was a certainty that came with it. Or rather, an inevitable internal tidal wave of raw need. He would have a drink eventually, and the fact that he had Katie working on a solution was the only thing that kept him from feeling like a danger to the world.

  “Oh, jeez,” he muttered. “It’s starting to get to me a little. How much longer does the potion have?”

  “It’ll be done when it’s done,” she said. “You’re going to have to learn how to control yourself. There are some actions you can take if you start to feel the bloodthirst in a bad setting. Locking yourself in a room. Handcuffing yourself to something. Speaking of which…”

  Katie approached Jack, reaching into the pocket of her pouch and pulling out the key to the handcuffs he still had on one wrist. Jack shuddered as she came close enough for him to smell her instead of the potion. Her scent was sweet with a slightly bitter, citrus edge. Like fresh squeezed lemonade, but with more subtlety.

  “Back up toward the wall,” said Katie. “Jack? Are you still in control?”

  “Yeah…” he said. “Sorry.”

  He did as instructed. Katie had him put his hand up against one of the heavy metal weapon racks and closed the empty loop of his handcuffs onto them. It only took a glance to see that with the weapon racks secured directly into the stone and concrete of the basement, there was basically no chance of him getting loose.

  “This isn’t how I wanted our reunion to go,” said Jack. He felt a little ashamed of himself, mostly for being naïve enough to get into the situation to begin with.

  “This is reality,” said Katie. She turned the burner off and dipped a small cup into her steaming cauldron. She gave it a couple of seconds to cool off, tested it with one finger, and then downed the potion in a single gulp. She winced as she swallowed.

  “How’s the taste?” asked Jack.

  “It kind of reminds me of C
hristmas dinner, except sickly-sweet,” said Katie. “But it should do the job.”

  She put the cup down and came a little closer to him. Jack shivered with anticipation and felt a little disgusted at how excited he was at the idea of biting her.

  “We need to set down some ground rules,” said Katie. “This… isn’t something that Peter would have approved of. At all. It’s only happening this one time, Jack. With any luck, I’ll be able to find your broodmother by tomorrow night.”

  “And if you don’t?” He hated feeling like he needed to ask the question.

  “I don’t want to think about that yet,” said Katie, in a quiet voice. It was a voice that let Jack know that she still hadn’t discarded the possibility of putting her childhood-friend-turned-vampire down if there was no other safe option.

  “You’re going to have to be careful,” continued Katie. “Vampires tend to have a… strong reaction to drinking blood. It’s why I handcuffed you again, but even still, you’ll need to stop yourself from going too far. You can’t let yourself drink too much of my blood, or, well, take advantage of me in other ways.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Jack. “Do you think I’m going to hurt you, or something?”

  “Not exactly.” Katie frowned, and a slight flush of color came to her cheeks. “Look, I’ll spell this out for you, because you don’t seem to be getting it. There’s usually an… erotic element to feeding. It’s why most vampires prefer to drink blood from people they’re attracted to, Jack.”

  “An erotic element?” asked Jack. “Are you saying that you think me biting you is going to put the two of us in the mood to…?”

  He trailed off, feeling a prickle of embarrassment that only grew more pronounced as he noticed Katie’s similarly flustered reaction.

  “It happens sometimes,” she said, in a quiet voice. “More often than not, when vampires feed in the wild.”

  “I’m not a creep, Katie,” he said. “And besides, it takes two to tango. Just pull away from me if I get out of control. I am the one handcuffed, after all.”

  “Oh, trust me, I will,” said Katie. “But the anti-enthrallment potion will only protect me from the lasting effects of your bite. I’ll still be vulnerable to the contact effects. I might get dizzy or confused for a minute.”

  “Can we just get on with this already?” Jack was starting to twitch from his thirst, and his entire body felt hot and cold at the same time. “It’ll be fine. I’m not as out of control as you seem to think I am.”

  “Seriously,” said Katie. “I need you to promise me that you’ll try to keep your mind off anything that might excite you in that kind of way. To keep this from being any weirder than it already is.”

  Jack stared at her. She’d unzipped the top of her skintight catsuit slightly while working with the cauldron, revealing a not insubstantial amount of pinched cleavage. She set her hands on her hips and leaned at a slight angle, a movement that pushed her butt out to one side and made the tight leather fabric look almost like it had been painted on. He tried to glance away and only ended up looking at her chest again, where her breasts seemed to be waging a war of attrition against the suit’s zipper, threatening to bounce loose each time Katie shifted position.

  “I’ll do my best,” he said.

  CHAPTER 10

  “Okay,” said Katie. “Well, the potion should have taken effect by now. Let’s get this over with, I guess.”

  Katie’s nervousness only seemed to ratchet the tension in the room up even further. She approached him slowly, trying to decide whether to keep her focus on his hands, his eyes, or his mouth. Jack ran his tongue over his fangs in anticipation. They felt like they were getting sharper as the moment of truth approached.

  Katie stopped as she came within a foot of him. Her hair was still up in a bun, but she pulled a few loose strands aside as she bared her neck to him. It almost seemed like she was presenting herself to be taken, and in a sense, she was.

  Jack leaned forward, letting his free hand settle on her neck. Was this the first time he’d touched her since returning to the island? He wasn’t sure. Katie shivered and exhaled as his fingertips made contact. He slid his hand down to her shoulder and pulled her in a little closer, gently holding her in place.

  At that moment, he felt a strong urge to kiss her neck, rather than bite it. He resisted, remembering what she’d said before about doing anything weird, and opened his mouth wide instead, pressing his fangs against her skin.

  It was bliss. It was the same primal, intimate rush that came from good sex, along with so much more. Katie gasped, tensing up and pressing forward against him. Her blood was sweet, smooth, and a little tangy, almost like fresh squeezed lemonade. It sated Jack’s bloodthirst in a way that went deep to the core of his very being. It was so thoroughly satisfying to him that he found it a little scary.

  Katie’s body felt soft and vulnerable. Jack let his hand move to encircle her waist as he continued to drink. It was a dominant, possessive gesture, and she responded to it by shuddering and lifting one of her legs to curl around the back of his.

  He stopped drinking as soon as he felt the thirst fade, sooner than he really wanted to. He pulled back, licking the last of the blood from his lips, and glanced at Katie. Her eyes were half closed. One of her hands slid through Jack’s hair, and she leaned into him, planting a quick series of kisses across his cheek, and then onto his lips.

  Jack kissed her back. His arm was still around her, and he was feeling the effects of a literal blood rush, a powerful, intoxicating sensation. He kissed with more passion than he knew that he had in him. His free hand shifted off her waist, instead finding its way into the open zipper of Katie’s catsuit. She was wearing a bra underneath, but she shuddered all the same as Jack’s hand began to explore.

  Katie lifted one of her legs and ebbed closer in to him. She was taking shaky, quick breaths, and biting her lower lip. Jack was completely lost in the moment, and as he pressed his lips against hers a second time, he let his hand slide lower, dragging two fingers over the fabric of her panties.

  Katie drew her breath in sharply, arching her back and pressing her crotch forward. Jack kept his hand where it was, feeling her entire body respond to each and every movement. He let his thumb hook into the waistband of her panties, and Katie let out a pleasured, whimpering sigh.

  Her hand was touching him, too. She groped at his obvious arousal through his pants. Jack shifted to the side slightly and felt Katie undoing the zipper of his jeans and then reaching into his boxers. He gasped as she found something to grip onto and then responded in kind, pulling Katie’s panties back and pushing his hand into them. She was wet, and she shuddered with anticipation as he began to touch her.

  “…No,” she whispered. “Stop… stop!”

  Jack immediately pulled back, only then realizing how far they’d let things go. He slapped his free hand up against the stone wall as though he’d just touched a hot stove.

  “I stopped,” he whispered. “Katie?”

  Despite her protest, Katie was still pressed against him, kissing his neck and slowly undulating against his crotch. She made a whimpering noise, and then pulled back all at once. Wrapping her arms over her breasts, she leaned forward slightly and shook her head, as though she was naked and trying to conceal herself.

  “Okay…” she said, taking slow breaths. “Okay. It’s done.”

  A few tense moments passed in complete silence. Jack shifted uncomfortably against the wall. He tried to adjust his jeans a little, not wanting Katie to see how turned on the act of feeding on her had left him.

  “Can you take the handcuffs off me now?” he asked.

  Katie cleared her throat. She only then seemed to notice how far her catsuit had come unzipped. She quickly fixed it and brushed her hands across the front.

  “Right,” she said. “The handcuffs.”

  She unlocked them from the side, trying to put as much distance between herself and Jack as she could. It made h
im feel even more ashamed about what had just occurred.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was going to be so hard to stop myself.”

  “I warned you,” said Katie. “Let’s not make it into a big deal. We’ll just have to be more careful next time.”

  “Next time?” asked Jack. “Isn’t that a little pessimistic? There’s still a chance we could find Mira and put a stop to this before it’s an issue.”

  “Right,” said Katie. “That’s what I meant.”

  She rubbed her hand against the spot on her neck where Jack had bitten her and shivered. His fangs had barely left a mark, and Jack vaguely remembered licking up the last of the blood on her skin with his tongue.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine, Jack,” said Katie. “The potion did its job. Let’s just go upstairs and pretend like that never happened.”

  Jack nodded, though he suspected that her second suggestion would be totally impossible. He could still taste her blood, the sweet, delicious purity of it. It made him appreciate her as a person so much more, though he felt a little shallow admitting it to himself.

  Katie closed the hidden door to the workshop as they left. They headed up to the lounge. Jack took a seat on one of the couches, while Katie paced in front of the unlit fireplace, frowning slightly.

  “Are you afraid of me, Katie?” asked Jack.

  He couldn’t stop the question from coming out, once he’d realized it might be the case. Katie stopped pacing and looked at him, and he knew what the answer was from the determination and resolve he saw in her expression.

  “No,” she said. “I think you’d be surprised at what it takes to scare me, these days. And quit calling me Katie. It’s Katherine, or Kate, if you have to shorten it.”

  She was so serious that Jack couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “The Katie I remember used to run away screaming from monsters,” he said. “Remember that one Halloween when I had the ‘Swamp Thing’ costume?”

  Katie rolled her eyes at him, but he could tell she was holding back a smile.