Cursed Relic

by Shawn Knightley

  “Yes,” she freely admitted. “But not this one. The bullets Christophe shot you with were full of a tolepa potion I brewed for a very specific purpose. The purpose of possessing your ability to have visions and show you what could be.”

  The anger inside of me was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I didn’t get angry like this. Sure, I lashed out on occasion but I was ready to kill her. I wanted to rip her throat open and suckle on whatever came spewing out. The thought repulsed me once I realized I was having it. I shook my head and forced it from my mind.

  ‘Focus. Focus on what she’s saying.’

  “How what could be?” I demanded. “What are you talking about?”

  “You were indeed captured by Gandira Corp. And a man named Dr. Richard Foster did perform experiments on you. But you never left.”

  “Yes, I did. Edmund rescued me. He opened up a vixra tunnel to get me out of there. And according to you and Tobias, it was all a charade so Tobias could get a hold of me and turn me into…into…this,” I roared, jutting my fangs even further out of my gums. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

  She shook her head in such a way that was trying to break the truth to me gently. She wasn’t succeeding. But then again, vampires weren’t known for being particularly tame.

  “You’re still being held captive, Georgeanna. Tobias met with me after what happened at the Red Rocks Amphitheater. He said that we had to find a way to force you to see what needs to be done but give you the choice. Tobias wanted to know if you will come willingly. If you will make the ultimate sacrifice for the well-being of all magical souls in this Earthly realm. Edmund wanted to force it on you. Tobias insisted that you be given a choice. Because somewhere inside of him, he hopes that he can still have what he lost. Someone to walk beside him in all things.”

  My hands came up to my forehead as I tried to sort through what she was saying. There was too much rampaging through my mind. The sense of hunger was already starting to creep up my throat. The sight of her bare neck right there before me ready for the taking was completely maddening. The incessant drip of the water coming from the faucet. The owl hooting in a nearby tree outside. My senses were overwhelming me.

  My fingers were disappearing right before my eyes. Then my hands. I started to panic. A full-fledged panic that caused me to back up against a wall and start shaking.

  Lenora got up from the table and walked over to me, taking my arms into her hands and pouring the blue magic into my skin.

  “Listen to me, Georgeanna,” she said.

  I turned my head up to look into her eyes.

  “Tobias doesn’t hate you. He wants your help. He needs it. Desperately. But the way to prevent the coming of war between humans and witchlings isn’t to follow the vixra’s will. You must break it. And not just by letting me break the curse over you. You must become a vampire. It’s the only way the vampires will listen and respect you. You must be one of them. And Tobias can’t do it alone. Not anymore. The Catach-Brayin might be temporarily restored but it can still be fractured. He needs help.”

  My arms started to fade and she let them go.

  “This is a glimpse, Georgeanna. If you allow Tobias to turn you into a vampire, I will break you free of your chains. The vixra will no longer have power over you. I’ve already freed Tobias. Let me free you too.”

  “Why? Why is Tobias so desperate that he would want my help? He’s never needed it before.”

  “President McAllaster is dead,” she said coldly. “Someone succeeded in assassinating him in Denver after the chaos ensued. We don’t know who did it. The media is blaming terrorists but certain members of McAllaster’s administration believe it was us. The United States government knows about witchlings and whoever assassinated the president did so to put a target on our backs. But they’re doing it stealthily. The public doesn’t know. Not yet. Tobias can manipulate the coven to stop what’s coming more efficiently than the vixra ever could. Trying to micro-manage them from Hungary where the vixra council meet will never work. He wants you. So you have to decide Georgeanna. And this was the only solution to tell you in a way that you would be forced to listen. You have to decide which is a better alternative. Remaining a slave to the vixra until witchlings are destroyed or becoming a vampire that will help rule the most powerful coven in the world. Because if you don’t, you already know what can potentially happen. Don’t you?”

  The memory was still fresh in my mind. The vision I had of Denver completely abandoned. The people were gone. The streets were empty. The highways were full of military tanks and soldiers armed to fight powers they couldn’t possibly comprehend. And Victor was ready for them along with the whole coven.

  Lenora nodded her head as though she knew exactly what I was thinking.

  “Yes, I know you know,” she said. “Because I saw it too. It’s the only reason I agreed to help Tobias. That and he’s very much aware that a part of me will always be wrapped around his little finger. The choice, however, is yours and yours alone. You must make it quickly.”

  “Why should I trust you?” I asked as my legs started to disappear out from under me.

  “Don’t. Trust yourself and trust your visions. That’s all a kruxa can do.”

  She faded right before my eyes only to be replaced by a blinding light. The same white light that invaded my sight when I awoke at the Gandira facility. I blinked rapidly until my eyes adjusted to the light. When I looked down, my wrists and ankles were tied to the board once more with locksin tightened around my skin. And Dr. Richard Foster was standing in the corner of the room with a syringe in his hand, ready to drain me of my magic.

  Somehow, Lenora tapped into my mind with the help of a tolepa potion. She gained control of my senses and showed me exactly how things could be if I made the decision Tobias wanted me to make.

  I didn’t want to be a slave, to follow endless orders, or to become a vampire. But most of all, I really didn’t want this scrawny old man sticking me with a needle.

  Vampires were beastly creatures. A perversion of true magic. An insect among magical beings. And yet, being a slave was little more than being a beetle. Watching giants move by and threatening to crush me with each step of an enormous foot on the pavement. Tobias was offering me another way. I might still be an insect among magical beings but I would be free of my chains. And that made all the difference in the world.

  In the end, it wasn’t a difficult choice to make.

  13

  The funny thing about seeing a vision of the future was that I didn’t question things in the present. There was no need to hesitate or ponder what Dr. Foster was doing. I already saw what he was going to do. I already experienced what came next. I saw it. I experienced it. Or at least I thought I was. And for the first time in centuries, I made a decision for myself. One that was solely of my doing and my undertaking. I summoned all the magic I possibly could and let it explode from every inch of my body. A radiant gold light jutted through my skin. It burned like someone had set me on fire. It was too much too fast. And more magic than I had ever summoned in my entire life. At least without vixra blood to help me.

  The glass on the door shattered. The walls cracked from floor to ceiling. A pipe running along one of the walls burst open sending a fountain of water straight across the room. And Dr. Foster was lying on the ground in a state of stunned shock and confusion. He writhed around from the pain, spitting up water that was already beginning to gather on the floor.

  But that wasn’t all. The glass containing the sword disguised as a mere cylinder Arthur gave me broke through the glass bottle on the table. I braided a long spiral of my magic and focused with everything I possibly could to get the sword to release the blade hidden inside. To my shock, it not only responded to my magic touching it, it moved! The blade clanked against the tiles and splashed in the water gathering on the floor as it fell. I reached my wrist as far as I could in the locksin restraints, feeling it tighten as I strained. The sword was obeying my command withou
t me touching it.

  I closed my eyes, hoping what came next wouldn’t cause me to lose a wrist or foot. But I had to try. I had to escape. And I couldn’t let Edmund rescue me as he had in the vision.

  I focused as hard as I could and forced the sword to levitate. Then I slammed it up against the locksin with as much power as I possibly could. Not nearly as much as Edmund had, but enough to get my wrist free. The blade sliced a few layers of skin. I winced at the pain, knowing it would heal in a matter of seconds but hating the inconvenience.

  My right arm was loose!

  I took the sword in my hands and lashed at my other wrist, doing my best to ignore the pain when my aim wasn’t quite right.

  Once both arms were free I focused my magic directly into the blade. Harnessing the power inside it was unlike anything I experienced before. I saw what the blade was capable of doing in the vision. How it helped in a fight and launched magic at my enemies. But holding it in reality when I needed it was different. I knew the difference between reality and the vision. And the reality was that this sword was something Arthur probably shouldn’t have trusted me with. It was far too powerful.

  I thrust it down to my ankles and easily sliced away the locksin, feeling my magic meld with the vixra magic already inside the blade.

  I must have been a sight to behold. A kruxa witchling with gold light permeating from my body, holding a sword, soaking wet, battered, and ready to lash out at anyone who got in my way. And fortunately for me, there was one glass bottle on the corner of the room that didn’t break. It was small with an airtight seal. I reached for it and opened the lid to get the treasure inside. A few remainders of vixra blood on small pieces of paper. He must have found them in my leather jacket and thought they were important.

  ‘Right you were.’

  I placed one of them on my tongue and pocketed the others, hoping they wouldn’t dissolve from all the water spraying everywhere. Within seconds, I could feel the vixra magic spreading throughout my body. I searched the lower counter and cabinets to find the other items I was looking for. My gun and the bullets were in two separate containers. Just like in my vision. I got them out and loaded the magazine with the magic-infused bullets inside. Then I tucked it into the back of my jeans and turned around to see the pitiful man still trying to gather his senses scrambling around on the floor looking for his glasses. When he finally found them, they were soaking wet and cracked in one lens. He glared up at me with a face full emotions I could see and feel. Anger. Shock. And best of all… fear.

  ‘Good, Richard. You should be afraid.’

  I was filled with the most powerful magic known to witchlings. I had seen a vision of a possible future that I could either prevent or ignore. I had been held captive for days. And I was more enraged than was suitable for a woman brought up in times when ladies weren’t meant to have tempers.

  I pointed the blade down at his throat. He swallowed hard, waiting to see if I would make good on the threat of holding his life in my hands.

  “Where are the others?” I asked.

  He tried muttering something but was too frightened of me to let the words come out.

  “Where are they?” I ordered him to answer me. My voice was different somehow. As though the magic coursing through the sword and into my body expanded it. Or deepened it. Either way, it sounded menacing.

  “W-wing four,” he stammered. “My god, you’re incredible!”

  The man stared at me in genuine admiration. But not for what I was. Rather for what he wanted. Which I knew all too well. To experiment on me. To see how I ticked. What made my magic work.

  He wouldn’t get the chance.

  “Where is wing four?” I spat as I dug the tip of the blade into the hollow area just below his throat. He grimaced as a single droplet of blood spilled from the cut I carved into his skin.

  “Down the right hall, up the stairs, and the second door to the left. You won’t ever get through it. You need security clearance.”

  I smirked. “No one will tell me what I can and cannot do anymore. Soon I will have no master.”

  I thrust the blade forward straight through his throat, watching as his eyes widened and blood came spilling out of his mouth. Then I pulled it out and sent my magic into the lock on the door, bursting it open with ease. Alarms were blaring all over the building. Red lights flashed in my eyes as I walked down the hall with the sword held firm in my right hand.

  A man came rushing down the hall with a gun in his hands. Security by the looks of him.

  I rarely kill humans. It’s never been necessary. The vixra mostly used me to keep other witchlings in check or to spy on the Catach-Brayin.

  ‘But these aren’t good people. They’re experimenting on witchlings and vampires.’

  “Drop your weapon!” the man shouted at me. He was dressed in a black suit with a bulletproof vest, pointing a gun at my face and ready to fire. I raised the sword funneling my magic through the blade. Just as it did in my vision, the magic poured through the metal and gave me longer range than I ever imagined.

  He fired his bullet and hit me right in the chest. But not before I slashed the sword downward and sliced him wide open from his shoulder down to his torso, straight through his vest and into his lungs.

  He fell to his knees and collapsed. I reached for the wall and spit up blood as the bullet started moving out of my body, healing from the wound in a matter of seconds.

  ‘Nice to have the healing back finally.’

  I heard more footsteps coming down the hall. That wasn’t what startled me. It was the familiar sound of wind whooshing by me. The hall directly behind me leading to the room where I was held captive opened up. Edmund was opening up the vixra tunnel to get me out of there. He was using the sword’s magic to locate me. Just as he had in the vision.

  ‘Nope. Not this time. I’m done being called on anymore and you don’t need to lie to me.’

  I reached for the edge of a door frame only feet away and held on tight. The vixra tunnel opened up behind me, trying to suck me right out of the facility. My legs lifted off the floor, dangling in the air behind me as I held on tight with the sword in my hand and the door frame in the other. The men in black kevlar vests came tearing around the corner of the hall with their guns blazing only to get sucked right into the vixra tunnel behind me. I could hear their screams as the entire hallway was destroyed. The corner of the facility trailed along behind them as they went flying.

  Edmund kept the vixra tunnel open. He was waiting for me. Searching. After all, the man thought he was still needed to deceive me into hunting down Tobias so he could turn me.

  ‘Sorry, Edmund. But I’ve been offered a better path. And I’m going to take it.’

  The sword would always tell him where I was. Every time I activated the magic inside it and revealed the blade. I had to let it go.

  The cord around my neck tightened, as though Edmund could sense my rebellious thoughts. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t backing down. Not now.

  I let go of the sword and watched through my red hair wafting behind me as the tunnel sucked it up and closed.

  I fell to the ground and grunted as the bullet in my chest finally spilled out of my skin and fell to the floor. I was covered in blood and looked as if I had been through battle. Not exactly the best way to present myself before a bunch of vampires. But I didn’t have a choice. I ran up the stairs and found wing four. There were cameras everywhere. Along with a special camera for scanning someone’s eye in order to get in.

  ‘Hell, they’ve already seen my face. It’s not like it matters now.’

  I formed an L shape with my palms and summoned my magic. It went flying through the air and burst through the lock on the door, unhinging it right off the wall.

  This wasn’t exactly something that could be pulled off easily. Even with vixra magic in my system, I was dealing with vampires. Some might have been some of Tobias’s best warriors. Maybe they even had some control over their vampire impulses. But no
w that I had felt what their urges were like and how quickly their emotions could flare up inside of them the last thing I would ever do again was underestimate what they might do. Especially in large numbers.

  The flashing red light going off in the corner and blaring alarm system wasn’t particularly helpful when it came to my focus. I squinted my eyes as I stepped forward to see the hallways before me. There were ten locked cells lining each side of the hall. Twenty in total. I peered inside one of them to see a man huddled in the corner. A vampire. Weakened by the experiments likely done on him but still alert enough to smell the kruxa who had walked into the hall.

  ‘Guess these cell doors aren’t exactly airtight.’

  He lunged toward the door so fast that I got a good look at his face through the tiny window of thick glass. He bared his teeth at me only to see that my magic was weaving outside my skin. I made it glow a bit brighter just so he would know what was waiting for him if he tried to get within inches of me.

  ‘Try anything and you die. That goes for all of you.’

  I walked down to the end of the hall and cast a shadow spell over my body. They might be able to smell me but I sure as hell wasn’t going to give them help by allowing them to see me.

  Once I was at the other end of the hall, I summoned as much vixra magic as I could, saving only a shred of it to help me get out of there. And once I did, the gold light shining from my skin became a movable force. It launched from my hands and spiraled through the air, bending the doors of each cell. I was careful not to break them entirely. They were vampires. And therefore very strong. I gave them an edge. They could work for it the rest of the way.

  The first to burst through the door once it had been bent was Liza. I saw her hands push the broken edge down until the metal frame snapped. She hopped through it and caught my scent almost immediately. Followed by another. And another. Clearly being experimented on didn’t do anything to contain her craving for blood. Especially kruxa blood.