by Ciara Graves
Savage Magic
Savagery and Skills
Ciara Graves
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Afterword
Savage Magic
Savagery and Skills Book Four
Fae. Vampires. Mages. Demons. A Federal Paranormal Unit. Savagery and Skills will hook you!
The final book in the Savagery and Skills series!
Seneca Savage is so much more than a bad ass with skills. But learning of her heritage has put her on a path bound for hell.
Draven’s a vampire, the son of a former leader of a coven, he spent years in the torture dungeons of another vampire. Now, he’s out for revenge. And he’s fallen in love with the only fae vampire hybrid, a tortured soul who wavers between falling into the abyss of evil and landing on the side of good.
Warning: Unputdownable action-packed fantasy, with fae, vampires, mages, demons, and a Federal Paranormal Unit.
Chapter 1
Draven
“Wait, I’m sorry,” Marlie said, and my hand tightened around Seneca’s protectively, “you did what?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Seneca repeated for the fourth time. “It just happened.”
Marlie shook his head. “No, that doesn’t just happen, Seneca. You did something. You want him to have rings or something, is that it? Do you not want this war to be over? For him to be destroyed?”
“Of course, I do,” she shouted, on her feet now.
“You sure about that? I mean, are you really sure?”
In warning, I glared at Marlie to keep his damned mouth shut, but he ignored me. In private, I’d told him about Seneca’s meetings with Rudarius, hoping he would’ve been smart enough to keep that bit to himself. No one else needed to know Seneca had nearly been seduced by that monster, and here he was about ready to tell an entire roomful of people.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply,” Seneca said quietly, her hands shaking as she stomped toward her brother, “but you have no idea what you’re talking about. Drop it.”
Marlie didn’t back down.
I rose slowly, making ready to throw myself between them.
“Why don’t you tell them all, huh? Tell them what else happened while you were on this little adventure of yours. Tell them why I don’t believe you’re really fighting for the good guys anymore.”
“Marlie,” I yelled.
At the same time, Seneca’s hand curled into a fist, and she decked him.
He flew back into the wall, and she was on him in a shot, her hand wrapped around his throat as she drew her fist back.
“You bastard,” she seethed. “You’re my brother, and you’re going to stand there and accuse me of being a traitor?”
He spat blood from his mouth. “Tell them. Convince me I’m wrong.”
She tensed for a second hit.
I caught her arm. “Don’t,” I warned her. “Get control of your temper right now. We don’t have time to fight amongst ourselves.”
“You’re right. We don’t because that asshole has a whole new set of rings now, thanks to Seneca.”
I cursed as soon as the words slipped from Marlie’s mouth.
She screamed and grabbed him by the throat with both hands. She swung him around and threw him toward the kitchen. He scrambled to get up and defend himself, but she was on him too fast, kicking him further into the kitchen. She hoisted him up and looked more than ready to toss him through the new back door when I bellowed her name. She panted, chest heaving as she held fast to her brother. Her emerald eyes darkened for a long moment as I neared her, with Owen and Shane behind me.
“Put him down, gently, and back away from your brother. Marlie, if you say another word, I’ll take your other hand. Got it?”
Seneca hissed and didn’t let Marlie ago, but she hadn’t thrown him yet either.
I took a step closer, reaching for her arm. “Seneca, let him go.”
Her eye twitched, and she unleashed her grip on Marlie’s shirt. He crashed to the floor with a grunt. “You’re lucky they’re here to save your ass,” she muttered darkly. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that again. Got it? You have no idea what I’m going through. None of you do.”
The tension in the kitchen rose until Helena joined us, stepping between her grandchildren, scowling from one to the other. “Both of you back to the living room right now.” When neither moved, she glared, even fiercer. “I said, now.”
Seneca waited for a beat then did as she’d ordered. Marlie sulked along behind her, keeping his distance.
“Draven, I would like a word with you, outside, in private.” Helena hurried out the back door.
Worried, I glanced toward the living room.
“We’ll watch her,” Owen assured me. “Don’t worry.”
I wasn’t sure I liked Owen being back in this house and so close to Seneca, but she was with me, not him, and I was damned sure he knew that. I nodded and followed Helena out into the garden. Tents were set up in the field just beyond the fence. The demons who’d decided to stay and assist us in the coming fight needed a place to take shelter and make ready. Macron had warded it the best he could, assisted by several other mages that had escaped Valesk before it was destroyed, but he told me it wouldn’t last forever. The mages had been weakened, their power not nearly as strong as it needed to be, but I’d take what we could get for now. Once the vampires, as well as the fae, arrived, we’d have to find a place to put them all.
“How is she?” Helena asked quietly as I approached, turning my thoughts away from our growing army.
“She’s fine.”
She slid me a sideways look, and I stiffened under the weight of it. “I want the truth, Draven. I’m not Marlie. I can take it. Now tell me the truth. How is she?”
I walked away, wishing I had good news to give Helena. We’d returned from evacuating Valesk, and there’d been very little time to talk. But something had changed deep within Seneca. It wasn’t just Rudarius getting inside her head, though I’m sure that didn’t help matters. This dark magic, it felt wrong. I had no other way to explain it other than I knew it wasn’t right. Nothing about it was.
“Not good,” I finally replied lamely. “She’s not good, not at all. And I don’t know how to help her. Marlie opening his fat mouth doesn’t help.”
“What was he talking about?”
I wasn’t sure I should be the one to tell Helena. I made that mistake with Marlie and look where I ended up. “You’ll have to ask her. I can’t tell you that. I won’t.”
Helena looked at me long and hard, sighed, and made her way to the bench beneath the sturdy oak tree. Though Seneca was still inside, the orbs shifting from red to orange, then back again let me know she had yet to calm down. Helena moved through them then sat down, looking far older than she had when Shane and Lark rescued her. “You truly love her. I respect that. I admire it. It’s hard to love someone who’s struggling with such darkness inside her. Such anger.”
“We have our moments.”
“I’m sure you do.” She motioned to the bench, but I was too anxious to sit still. “If you won’t speak to me about her time with Rudarius, what will you tell me?”
The back door was closed, and we were alone. Even still, I worried we’d be overheard. I gave in and sat down beside Helena. “She said right before she forged the rings, there was a voice inside her head. It wasn’t hers or Rudarius’s, but it could’ve been another trick.”
“A voice.”
“Yes, that’s what she said, and I think she’s still hearing it.”
“How do you know?”
I’d left Seneca to get cleaned up after returning from Valesk. I went back in to check on her and heard her talking through the bathroom door. I told Helena exactly what I heard. “At first, I thought she was talking to Rudarius, but this was different. She sounded so different from herself. I should’ve opened that door and looked, but for some reason, I backed away. What does this mean for her?”
Helena said nothing for a long while as the wind rustled the dead leaves in the tree branches overhead. “Macron and I discussed the small possibility of this happening,” she finally said softly.
“Of what happening?’ I was all ears now, wondering if I should go and kick Macron’s ass for keeping something from me and Seneca. “Helena, what is going on with her?”
“Seneca is the last of her kind,” she said in a rush sounding flustered, something Helena never was, at least not in the short time I’d been around her. “As such, when she sought out the forges, when she found the last resting place of the Sa’ren kingdom, it wasn’t just her power she put into those rings.”
My heart sank even lower than it was already. “Meaning what?”
“She’s carrying the power of the entire Sa’ren people in her veins. All of it from the very beginning to the very end.”
“How can one person hold that much power?”
“They can’t, not for long,” she replied sadly.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before she left?” I meant to ask it quietly, but the question came out as a yell. I was on my feet, glaring at her. “What the hell is wrong with you? You’re all so desperate for an end to Rudarius no one stopped to think what you were doing? How much more pain do you think she can take, huh? How much more does she have to be tortured before she can be at peace?”
“We hoped it wouldn’t happen,” she explained calmly.
“Right, because everything else we’ve tried has worked out so well for her.”
“Draven, stop, you need to understand—”
“No, I don’t,” I shouted, and this time she clamped her lips shut, and her face paled in the face of my rage. “Do you have any idea what she’s been going through since this mess started? Do you even care?”
“I do,” she argued.
“No, you don’t. If you did, you would’ve told her and Macron not to go. Now, she’s stuck with rings that are going to end up tearing her apart and voices inside her head telling her to do who knows what.”
How had this happened? We’d had a plan, a decent plan, a way to get one up on Rudarius and once again, it backfired in our faces. All my talks of staying positive and finding a way to survive this war seemed pointless now. What was the point when no matter what move we made, we ended up in a worse off situation?
“She’s strong,” Helena was saying, but I scoffed. “She is. She can make it through this.”
“Right, sure she can, because she’s not already losing her shit. Did you not see her in there? She’s ready to kill anyone who pisses her off. I saw that look in her eyes.” I paused as Helena’s eyes filled with guilt and she wouldn’t meet my gaze anymore. “Please tell me that’s not what you’re hoping for.”
“Rudarius has become far stronger than we ever expected,” she said as she stood, smoothing her hands down her jeans. “There is no more time. No other way.”
“How bad will it get?”
“I don’t know.”
I hissed as I walked right up to her, glaring into eyes that looked so much like Seneca’s. “You don’t know. You’ve probably condemned your granddaughter to hell. I just want you to understand that, so when she turns on us, when I have to be the one to end her, you’ll understand if I come after you and Macron next.”
“Don’t threaten her.” Macron appeared behind me suddenly.
I whirled around and glared at him. “Not now, old man. Both of you should go inside and talk to her. She needs to hear this.”
“She’s not ready for the truth.”
I looked from one to the other, not believing what I was hearing. “Both of you stand there and claim to love her, but you’re going to keep her in the dark? Don’t you think if she knows this, she might have a chance to fight back?”
Macron glanced to Helena, and she shook her head. “She can’t know.”
“Too late.”
We whirled around.
Seneca stood on the other side of the garden gate, watching, eyes narrowed, hands shaking at her sides. I guessed being the living room with her brother hadn’t gone well. Those vibrant green eyes flickered with anger, but not from the magic inside her. That was all Seneca. I waited for the yelling to start, the screaming and the cursing, but then she started to back away from the fence.
“Seneca, wait,” I said.
She paused, surprising me. “What?”
“How much did you hear?” Macron asked as I opened my mouth to ask her if she was alright.
The mage was an idiot, and I considered decking him for pushing her. His question wasn’t asked kindly, but urgently, angrily, almost. He waited impatiently for an answer, not seeming to feel my glare on him. Or doing a damned good job of ignoring me.
“Enough.” Seneca lifted her right hand. The rings crackled with dark shadows and small bursts of white sparks. “You did this to me. You let them all get inside my head? What did you think would happen, you jackass?”
She shouted the last so harshly, Helena flinched, but not Macron.
He took her anger, stared her down. “I wouldn’t have put you through it if I didn’t think you would come out the other side stronger for it and live.”
“Live, right,” she laughed bitterly. “You think I’m going to live through this? You know about the vision Briar showed me. That’s me, not living. That’s forcing Draven to end me. Gods, do you ever think of anyone else?”
“That’s why I’m doing this.”
“No, don’t you dare lay that save the world bullshit on me. I won’t listen to it. Not anymore.” She turned to leave.
Macron hurried after her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m leaving.”
“You can’t. Not now. We’re on the brink of war. We are gathering an army. This is not the time to abandon everyone.”
“Why not? I’m not a queen. I’m not a princess or a ruler. I’m not anything, but your damned weapon! Just like I was for everyone else. You’re using me,” she snarled as she charged through the gate right up to him. “You took me to that damned place knowing they’d all end up inside my head—talking to me, never shutting the hell up.”
I wanted to know what they were saying to her but never got the chance.
Macron was talking again. “I never would’ve let any of this happen to you if I knew you weren’t going to make it.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, I cursed and made ready to intervene.
Seneca blinked. Her lips lifted in a small smile of disbelief then fell away as her brow furrowed in confusion. “What did you say?”
Macron squared his shoulders but didn’t repeat himself.
“Any of this happen to me. You’re not just talking about the rings, are you?” When he still said nothing, she leaned right into his face and screamed, “Are you? Answer me. Damn it.”
I growled quietly, unable to help myself as the truth came out. Macron’s strong façade shattered in the face of her disbelief and the guilt poured off him in waves. My lip twitched in disgust at the harsh stench, waiting for him to admit what he’d done.
“I had no choice,” he finally whispered. “We mages knew there was a war coming and you’re the last of your kind. If the rest of us failed to stop Rudarius, then we needed you to become strong.”
“By letting Rudarius kidnap me and torture me?” she shouted so loud those inside the house flooded out the back door looking worried.
“I didn’t know
. I thought—Seneca, I’m so sorry, but we had to.”
“Did you know what he’d do to me? That he’d turn me into this freak?”
When Macron said nothing again, I hissed, outraged for her. “How did you know?” I demanded. “Macron, how did you know he would turn her?”
“One amongst us saw it,” he replied quietly. “I spoke out against it, but we saw what you could become.”
“And? Tell me, in this vision of yours, which version of me won?”
“If you could just control your anger, see the good you are about to do then you can beat this,” he insisted. “I have faith in you.”
“I trusted you,” she whispered, hurt, and in obvious pain. “You, of all people. You betrayed me.” She backed away then kept on walking.
Macron and Helena called out to her, but she flipped them off and continued toward the field then the woods.
“Watch over her,” Macron said, his face paling when I let the full weight of my glare fall on him. “Please, Draven.”
“What do you think I’ve been trying to do all this time? And you just keep making it worse.”
“We did what we had to do. Seneca does what she has to do, too.”
“Seneca would’ve been a lot better off if she had nothing to do with any of you,” I replied hotly.
I glanced toward the cottage and the multitude of faces looking at us. I threw up my hands and hurried after Seneca. It wasn’t hard to find her. The sound of trees cracking was loud enough to know exactly where she was. I leaned against another trunk and watched as she beat the crap out of several large oaks around her. She screamed and cursed as she punched them over and over again. When her knuckles were raw and bleeding, she backed away and fell to her knees.
I blurred to her side then and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
