Stolen Ink (Ink Born Book 1)

by Holly Evans

  The darkness shifted around me and the thief’s face rippled into form. I blinked. I hadn’t expected such a clear response quite so quickly. My stomach twisted as I saw his face there. I recognised him from college. He didn’t stand out from the crowd, no one would look at him and think him a murderer. Images of his crimes began to swim in the darkness. Horrific images of broken people and shattered tattoos. The pain was verging on unbearable.

  “I need to bring him here. To us,” I said, trying to push past the images.

  I knew what he had done. I didn’t need reminding. I was trying to stop him. A large multi-coloured thread formed in front of me. I grabbed onto it and yanked as hard as I could. Something tugged back against me. The thread tried to shatter and crumble in my hands. I gripped onto it with everything I had and trusted my instincts. I pushed the image of Keirn’s fox down the thread. Something suddenly shifted. There was a sensation of curiosity and probing.

  “You’re an ink magician. I thought I was alone,” came the thief’s voice.

  “I know what you seek,” I replied.

  “The spirit fox.”

  “You know where to find it,” I said.

  The feeling of him grinning at me, challenging me filled my senses despite the fact that I could no longer see his face.

  “I will claim the prize.”

  With that, I was driven out of the ink network and woke gasping for air with the dark sky overhead. He was so much stronger than I had anticipated. It had felt like a freight train had shoved me out of the network. I glanced over and saw Isa was calmly sitting with his hands moving methodically in twisting patterns that I had no doubt were very important for the safety of Keirn. I hoped I’d done the right thing.

  “Watch over Keirn,” I told the gods.

  My life was lost, at best I’d start again somewhere new, but he could focus on his art and continue.

  “You don’t need them, you have me and the pack,” Isa said with a smile.

  His hands had stopped moving and the creases had slipped from his face. His eyes danced electric blue with the remnants of his weavings. I walked over to him and kissed the point of his cheeks, savouring the feeling of his soft skin beneath my lips.

  I wished I had his confidence and faith. I couldn’t lose that fox. I couldn’t be responsible for that pain.

  55

  Keirn was stress cooking when I went back down into the kitchen with Isa close behind me. Ethan was in the living room staring at a stone amulet of some form or another. Beth and Caiden were at the kitchen table playing a card game that I didn’t recognise. Beth appeared to be winning. Or at the very least she was enjoying it; the grin on her face and pile of bottle caps in front of her certainly looked positive.

  I walked up to Keirn and put my hand between his shoulder blades. “How’s it going, old friend?”

  I felt Caiden’s gaze on me. He had the good sense not to pick that argument again. Isa took a seat at the table and didn’t pay us any attention. He had no reason to worry, despite what the hound seemed to think. Keirn’s fox was curled up under the kitchen table between Caiden and Beth’s feet.

  “I’ll be glad when this is over and I can focus on my art again,” Keirn said tightly.

  “I’ve put up multi-layered defences around you, your fox, and the parlour. Once the thief steps foot on the premises, he won’t be able to leave, unless that magic-breaking artifact you mentioned is stronger than I thought,” Isa said.

  “Ethan’s artifact will break whatever ink magic he might try and use. He won’t get close enough to do any harm,” Caiden said.

  Isa smiled and turned to Caiden.

  “Deal me in,” he said.

  He’d really settled in with the pack. I was glad of it. He wouldn’t be alone when I left him. Despite everyone’s calm facades, the anxiety and stress were tangible within the room. Keirn was incredible tense, and Caiden looked ready to snap at whatever came within reach. Keirn soon served up a veritable banquet. The dishes ranged from rich elven meat dishes to tender and delicate incubus dishes, and it was topped off with sweet fairy desserts. None of us would be able to move for a week if we ate the portions Keirn tried to insist we did. Caiden politely said that he’d put some aside for Vyx and the pack before Beth pointed out that no one could afford to be weighed down by a huge meal.

  Keirn huffed, but said nothing. His fox was by his feet, thrashing its tail and snarling at anyone who got within two feet of the elf. The meal was uptight and uncomfortable, with everyone sitting rigidly upright and stopping to listen to every small sound. Ethan was rewarded for his hard work with a sharp bite to the hand from Keirn’s fox when he came into the room. Ethan raised an eyebrow at the white fox, which was all puffed up and growling.

  “This,” he held up a delicate collar, “is to keep you safe,” Ethan said firmly.

  The fox whined and bowed its head. Ethan smiled and knelt to put the collar around the fox’s throat. My hands unconsciously clenched when I saw him lay his hands on the fox. It was too intimate a gesture. Isa took my hand and rubbed his thumb over my palm until I calmed and pushed the feeling aside. Isa was right, of course. Ethan slipped the accompanying necklace over Keirn’s neck.

  “They will break any ink magic that comes near either of you. It’s a backup to Isa’s weaving,” Ethan said.

  Keirn squeezed the breaker’s hand and smiled. “Thank you, Ethan.”

  A soft whine came from the back door. An insistent scratching sound soon accompanied it. Keirn’s fox shot to the door and scratched at it. Ethan opened the door to allow a small red fox in. She jumped up onto the kitchen table and glared at Caiden.

  “Places. Now,” Jake growled from the doorway.

  His gaze met mine. “The thief wasn’t there. He had been, but he’d already left by the time we arrived.”

  Black ink was splattered over his cheek. It stained his hand and the thigh of his jeans.

  “He knew someone was coming, there were… ink things waiting for us.”

  I squeezed my eyes closed.

  “Are you and the pack ok?” I asked.

  Jake gave a sharp nod. “A few injuries, nothing to worry yourself about. There was no scent. No trail.”

  He was coming, and we didn’t know what his skills were. I remembered how he’d thrown me out of the ink network. He was powerful. I glanced at Isa and Ethan. They were both first tier. I had to hope their workings were strong enough. Keirn and his fox went out into the parlour, where Keirn began sweeping the floor. I followed them out and started wiping down the chairs and surfaces where the paints were kept. Ethan was sitting on one of the comfortable guest chairs in the corner, pretending to read a book, while Jake and Caiden were in the hallway out of sight. I knew the pack was out on the street covering all of the entrances, but my throat still constricted. What if we’d missed something?

  I was glad to have Isa and Vyx in the kitchen away from trouble. Isa had said he could weave as required from there. It was close enough for him to feel the magic. Time slowed to an agonising crawl, as it was prone to doing in these situations. I strained to hear some sign that the thief was close: footsteps, anything.

  What I hadn’t expected was for him to be whistling a jaunty little song. He strode into the tattoo parlour with a large grin on his face. His gaze immediately went to Keirn’s fox, who was sprawled out on one of the tattoo chairs. Keirn’s bear was raging under his skin. I could feel it throwing itself at Keirn’s restraints. He hadn’t wanted to risk it, not when his fox was already so exposed.

  “That’s a beautiful fox you have there,” the thief said to Keirn.

  Keirn smiled tightly. “Thank you.”

  The thief paused in the middle of the parlour, his attention turned to me. “You really did hand it all to me on a plate, didn’t you? I expected you to be a rival, being a fellow ink magician and all.”

  My blood ran cold. I didn’t have a chance to react, to worry about the others’ reaction. I saw an amulet around his neck. It had to be
the magic-breaking artifact. We had to remove that. Right on cue, Kyra appeared from the edge of the room and threw herself at the thief in a black blur. The room shivered and warped as the thief casually waved his hand. Kyra became lost in the illusions somewhere. I heard her yowl and felt her rage down the bond. She was unhurt, just incredibly pissed.

  Fuck. He was an illusionist, and a powerful one. The ink tiger appeared out of nowhere and launched itself at Keirn’s fox. The fox was too agile and slipped away. Everything went to hell from there. The walls bled from white into blood-red roses that writhed and became snakes that hissed and snapped at everyone in the room. The thief himself vanished from view, but I could feel him. Ethan stood up and made a tearing motion with his hands. The thief screamed, and the tiger threw itself at Ethan.

  We needed to break his magic. Ethan was distracted trying to fight off the tiger and flock of ravens that had appeared from thin air. My heart was pounding in my chest. A scream came from somewhere, quickly chased by a war-cry and a savage snarl. The air was thick with feathers and butterflies. I couldn’t see a damn thing.

  The thief appeared out of the chaos, a grin on his face, his eyes pitch black with droplets of blood pooling in the corners. He was being consumed.

  “This body is dying. But yours. Yours is strong and pure. I can take it for my own. My soul is one with the ink network. Then, when I’m done, I’ll take the fox and finally be complete,” he said, slowly approaching me.

  I had to use the only thing I had. I had to fight him with my own ink magic. Ben’s words echoed in my mind. He was fractured and broken. He wasn’t fully connected to the ink network. I was stronger. I could win. I had to.

  56

  “Ethan, break him!” I shouted into the mayhem.

  I needed some room to breathe and focus.

  “I’m fucking trying!” Ethan shouted back.

  The thief laughed, a rasping sound that somehow dripped through the air. I ground my teeth and focused. There was a maelstrom of colour and sound around us. I blocked it out and stared into his pitch-black eyes. Something began to tug at the back of my mind, like the itching of the ink network but worse. The thief grinned at me. His teeth were stained black with ink that was beginning to drip from the corner of his mouth.

  Suddenly I was yanked into the ink network. The black was swirling all around me, black on darker black. A whispering surrounded me and filled my mind, a soothing sound that told me to sleep and slip away into the network.

  “No,” I shouted.

  I had too much to lose. I wasn’t going to roll over and give in. Pushing away the fear, the doubt, I got to work. He was almost more ink than man. I needed to manipulate that ink and tear him apart. My breath hitched as the black burst into eye-watering colours. He stood before me in the middle of a large room. Colour bled down the walls, neon green merged into blood red before dripping into sky blue.

  “Don’t fight it, Dacian. You’ll be happier here,” he said almost sweetly. “You know, I should thank Camille. If she hadn’t have broken my heart, I wouldn’t have discovered this glorious path,” he said wistfully.

  Anger fuelled me as I realised he was talking about Goldarn. The bastard had killed her horrifically, and yet there he was. I stared him down and formed the images of drawing the ink out of him, of tearing his body in two. He screamed. The room shifted again. The floor gave way beneath my feet, and suddenly I was in a greyscale city with black birds circling overhead.

  He stood before me, a sad smile on his face. “You have so much potential, but you’re too scared.”

  The fear manifested in front of me. Keirn’s disappointed face and the horror etched on Isa’s before the council surrounded me to take me away. Sleek black suits and harsh lines with sadistic smiles. I pushed myself to a standing position and drove them all away. I’d never killed someone before, but by the gods I wasn’t going to let that asshole walk away from this.

  He took a step back as I grasped onto a pitch-black thread somewhere within him. The landscape shimmered and threatened to change again. I stretched out my left hand and pushed the idea of ‘stop’. A wave of energy burst out of my calm and the scene around us froze. I was an ink magician. I was chosen as an ambassador and protector. I took a step closer to him and made a tearing motion with my right hand. The thief’s face contorted into an expression of pure rage.

  My heart thundered in my chest. Somewhere far away I could feel my body complaining under the strain. The tattoo animals emerged from the darkness. I took another step closer to him. The ink was running from his eyes now, small black streams coating his cheeks and dripping from his fingers. I took another step, pushing all that I had into the idea of tearing him apart. I couldn’t quite grasp onto the ink.

  His mouth dropped open, his head lolled back, and the landscape changed. I was slammed back into my body to find Ethan standing with his foot on the thief’s body, the necklace crushed in his fist. Caiden stood nearby. I caught sight of Keirn out the corner of my eye with his fox in his arms.

  “End this, Dacian,” Caiden growled.

  The front door burst open. I ignored it and stared into those pitch-black eyes, grasping onto the ink with everything I had. I wrapped my mind around it and drove the magic back into the network. He screamed, an agonised, anguished scream that tore through me. I pushed harder, watching as his body deflated, leaving nothing but an empty shell. I felt it the moment his life blinked out of existence. Somehow, I knew that he had been torn asunder, that the ink network was dealing with him in a brutal manner.

  I’d done it. I’d killed him. My heart pounded in my ears, my chest constricted around my lungs. Exhaustion washed over me.

  “We need to have a word, Mr. Corbeaux,” Enforcer Scythe said.

  57

  Caiden and Jake put themselves between me and the enforcers.

  “Mr. Corbeaux is under my protection,” Caiden said calmly.

  “He is an ink magician,” the enforcer said.

  “He is a tattoo magician who just did your job for you in catching a murderer,” Caiden replied.

  “We will be back in the morning with the appropriate paperwork,” the enforcer snapped.

  “I’ll speak to you then,” Caiden said.

  The door slammed shut behind the enforcers.

  “We have transport arranged to Europe. You have thirty minutes, Dan,” Caiden said.

  I stood there stunned. He smiled at me.

  “We’re your friends.”

  Keirn stood next to me. Ink covered the lower half of his face and dripped from his fingertips.

  “Go and pack, Dan,” Caiden pushed.

  I couldn’t say anything, I had no idea what I was supposed to say. I ran up the stairs to my room and double-checked I had everything I needed in the bag I kept stashed there. Isa shut the door behind himself and stood facing me, a small smile on his beautiful mouth. Gone was the quiet little thing I’d picked up in the bar. He stood tall and strong. Pride swelled within me. He’d done so much in the months I’d known him. His hard work and dedication had allowed him to build a fantastic business and the beginnings of an enviable reputation.

  I froze. My heart stuttered in my chest, my breath caught in my throat. I’d prepared to slip away into the city for years, but I’d never prepared for this moment. He closed the gap between us and kissed me tenderly. His lips caressed mine, I wanted to wrap myself around him and never let go.

  “I have a contract I need to fulfil,” he said softly.

  I swallowed down the fear and heartache that came with his words. I kissed him hard and passionately. I wasn’t ready to lose him. I didn’t want to walk away.

  “I will join you in a month, once I’ve finished the contract. Live life to its fullest. Stop hiding. You gave me a life, now make one for yourself,” he said firmly.

  I ran my fingers through his hair and drank in the details of his face, committing every detail to memory before I brushed my lips over his one last time. It was only one month. I could surv
ive that long.

  “Take care, Isa.”

  “I love you too,” he whispered.

  I didn’t look back. I couldn’t.

  Much to my surprise, Keirn, Vyx (who was thankfully in human form and fully dressed), and Ethan were all standing in the kitchen with bags waiting for me.

  “We’re not letting you do this alone,” Keirn said.

  “You need us,” Vyx said.

  “I can’t ask you to give up your lives…” I said.

  “You’re not,” Ethan said, “I’m staying here to help watch over Isa and wrap up a contract. Once that’s finished, we’ll join you in Europe; I’ve been in need of an adventure.”

  “Isa will be under my protection,” Caiden growled.

  “We have an air transport to catch!” Keirn said cutting off an argument before it could start.

  I desperately fought the urge to look back at Isa one last time. One month. It would only be one month. We went out the back door into the city to find the sky covered in thick storm clouds. Lightning arced across the sky and thunder rumbled overhead.

  It had all started with a storm. It seemed too fitting it would end with one.

  End Note.

  I really hope that you enjoyed this book. If you want to get in touch, please feel free to do so at authorhollyevans@gmail.com

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  Blood & Ink (Ink Born 2) is expected to be released in May 2017.