High Stakes (Codex Blair Book 6)

by Izzy Shows

  They howled in pain, dropped to the ground and clawed at the roots.

  That would keep them occupied for a few minutes at best.

  Now, I turned my attention to the remaining vampire, who had taken a moment to pause and look back at his comrades. He charged towards me, running faster than any human would ever be capable of.

  I remained crouched until he was right before me, then brought my leg up. “Vis!” I called on the tattoo etched into my ankle, a focus for strength.

  Making a focus out of a tattoo is a nasty bit of work, much more painful than just filling an object you’ve created, but it’s really awesome in that you never have to worry about forgetting it.

  It’s also much easier to refill whenever the magic runs low.

  My foot slammed into his chest, knocking him back several feet. I didn’t waste time; I ran forward and jumped on top of him. I repeated the same spell, this time calling on the cuff on my wrist, and slammed my fist down into his face.

  Bones crunched.

  Let me tell you, it takes a lot of power to break the bones of a vampire. Those things are nigh-on immortal, and you have to do a lot of work over an extended period of time to do any real damage to them.

  Or at least you would if you didn’t think ahead and put together several foci that would allow you to call on magic without using your own energy. That was the beauty of having foci; no matter how little energy I had to keep myself moving, I knew I could fall back on the foci and they’d carry me through a fight.

  That was why I wished I had my wands. Everything would be so much easier with them.

  Hell, I’d settle for a stake in my hand.

  The vampire brought his head up, slamming it into mine.

  I was already dizzy from the magic I was using to keep the other two vampires contained, and that did me in. I was sent sprawling onto my back, unable to pull a coherent thought together.

  What was I doing? Where was I?

  God, it was difficult to think.

  Move, Blair. You have to move. Get up!

  No, I don’t want to get up. The ground is so soft...

  And then the vampire was on top of me, his fangs inches away from my throat.

  No!

  I grabbed his hair and wrenched his head away from my neck moments before he would have broken my skin.

  Close call.

  There was no more time to play around. Every moment I wasted was a moment those vampires could break out of the roots. I pulled my arm back and called on the cuff again, and slammed my fist into his chest. Once it was inside his chest cavity, I grabbed his heart.

  He sputtered, gasping for air, but there was nothing he could do. Not while I had his heart in my hand.

  “It’s a pity you can’t take a message back to your friends. But maybe your death will be enough for them to learn not to fuck with me,” I said, then wrenched my hand out of his chest, carrying his heart with me.

  He collapsed on top of me, eyes rolling back in his head, stolen blood leaking all over my shirt.

  Ew.

  I tossed his heart to the side and threw him off me, then jumped back to my feet.

  The other two vampires were still caged. Good. Just a few more minutes, and I’d have this in the bag.

  Clenching my hands into fists, I stalked towards them. My head was light, dizzy, and their bodies blurred in front of me. My vision was going out, and I knew I only had a short amount of time before I’d pass out.

  Just a few more minutes. Come on, Blair, you’ve got this.

  I made it to one of them without stumbling, thank the Gods, though it didn’t really matter if they saw me sway at this point. Either they died or I would, and then the point would be moot.

  Quickly, I extracted his heart. The spell holding his legs in place dissipated, somewhat easing up the pressure that was beating inside my head.

  Almost there. Just one more.

  I stumbled, falling to my knees in front of the third vampire. My eyes drifted shut as my fists closed around the grass beneath them, anchoring me in place.

  No. Get up. You’re going to die, you idiot!

  I swayed on my knees, barely holding myself up. If I passed out, the spell holding the vampire in place would drop, and he’d kill me. If I was lucky, it would be a quick death.

  More likely than not, I wouldn’t wake up for whatever torture he had in mind. Diego had said I’d been out for an hour before he was able to wake me up. If I passed out now, I was never going to wake up again.

  That doesn’t sound so bad.

  No!

  I forced my eyes open and climbed to my feet, panting heavily.

  The vampire wrapped his hand around my throat, nails digging into my skin and drawing blood. I choked, unable to breathe. My vision dimmed as the oxygen flow to my brain was cut off.

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

  My eyes drifted closed again, and I couldn’t seem to get them to open.

  What did it matter?

  People need you. If you die, then the rebellion wins and everyone’s going to die.

  Right. I forced my eyes to open, though I could barely see the vampire in front of me. I was low on oxygen, but that didn’t matter.

  “In...cen...di...um.” I croaked the word out between gasps, letting out the only air I had left in my lungs.

  The magic stirred within me, weak at first, then it came at last. My skin was set ablaze, and the flames quickly spread to the vampire, engulfing both of us.

  The fire roared for what felt like an eternity. I couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, and I fell to the ground as soon as his hand let go of me.

  Blackness claimed me.

  Twenty Five

  Dawn was creeping into the sky when I woke on the ground.

  At first, I had no idea where I was or even who I was. Memory failed me, and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and go back to the sleep that had felt so good.

  What harm was there in sleeping?

  Get up!

  There was that voice in my head again, demanding that I do things I didn’t want to do.

  I knew that voice was a constant presence in my life--and it was a little bitch I sorely wanted to be rid of.

  No matter. It wasn’t going to go away until I did what it said.

  It took great effort to open my eyes, and it felt like my eyelids were sandpaper scraping against my eyeballs. Pain lanced through me; every inch of me was in agony. Just taking a breath hurt.

  I struggled to a sitting position and looked around. There was a charred spot right beside me, and dimly I remembered setting myself on fire to kill the vampire who had almost killed me.

  That was dumb. You overreached, you idiot.

  Twice in one day. That had to be some kind of record.

  Well, what the fuck else was I supposed to have done? It was use magic or die. Kill or be killed. There’d been no good decision to make, although I’d been sure at the time that I could use that small bit of magic and everything would still be OK.

  But, hey, I was still standing, right?

  Or...not. I was sitting.

  I continued to scan the field, and I saw two other bodies. The other vampires. I was going to have to deal with that soon--I didn’t want the police to come sniffing around and find out that there were dead bodies outside my house. They definitely wouldn’t like that.

  But right now, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Let them arrest me. I didn’t have the energy to give a single fuck.

  I started to stand, but my legs gave out from under me.

  “Weylyn...” I sent the thought to my familiar. It was weak, and I wasn’t sure he could hear me.

  Then he was barking at the door, and a moment later it opened. He came bounding out of the house.

  “Blair! Fred wouldn’t open the door for me. I couldn’t reach you.”

  “He has strict orders about that door.” I tried to grin, but it hurt to even move the muscles in my face. “Can’t do anything to it unless
I tell him to.”

  “You need to amend those orders.”

  “Probably.”

  Now that I had Weylyn, I needed him to be able to get out to me in case of a fight like the one that had just taken place. If I’d had Weylyn with me for that fight, I wouldn’t have had to overreach.

  “Can you stand?”

  “Let’s find out.”

  I moved to a kneeling position, every muscle in my body screaming at me, then pulled one foot up and planted it on the ground. My hands were trembling as I positioned both of them on my knee, and I could feel sweat breaking out on my forehead.

  Not good so far.

  With a grunt, I pushed myself up to stand on my own two feet. The world swam before my eyes, and my legs shook with the effort it took to remain standing, but a moment later Weylyn was at my side, a giant comfort leaning against me. I shifted most of my body weight to him, wrapped an arm around his back and allowed him to lead me to the door.

  Once we were there, I grabbed hold of the door frame while he shifted back to his smaller form. I’d needed him in his true form, but he couldn’t fit inside the house that way. Still, he pressed his weight against my leg, giving me some small measure of comfort. I leaned down and fisted a hand in his fur, and together we walked into the house.

  “Miss!” Fred cried as I stepped inside.

  I struggled to shut the door behind me and activated the wards--it didn’t take my own magic to do it, as the magic was already inlaid in the door. Similar to a focus, though not quite the same. Still, it hurt like hell to move my arm. The sleeves of my jacket felt like broken glass against my skin.

  “Hey,” I said, gasping afterwards at the pain that filled my throat.

  I guess Diego was right about overreaching being a very bad thing to do. Mental note: don’t do it again.

  Fred’s brows knit together, and he rushed to my other side to grasp my hand.

  A small whimper escaped my throat, but a moment later, I started to feel like myself again.

  I frowned. “What did you do?”

  “I has given you some strength, Miss Blair. Enough to get you to the bed and sleeping soundly.”

  Tears pricked at my eyes. “Thank you,” I said. It wasn’t a trial to get the words out now, but I couldn’t find the right ones to express to Fred how much it meant to me that he would lend me his strength this way.

  I didn’t let go of Weylyn as we walked to my bedroom, though I didn’t need him to carry my weight anymore. It was emotional support that I needed him for. My body was working again, but my brain still felt sluggish.

  I fell onto my bed, not even taking time to remove my boots. I was dimly aware of the bed shuddering under Weylyn’s weight as he crawled up with me and rested his head on my calves.

  A second later, I was asleep.

  The world was burning around me. Buildings were aflame, and the streets were crowded with civilians running around, screaming their heads off and trying to avoid the vampires swarming around them.

  Cold laughter came from behind me, and I whirled around to face the source of the sound.

  Who could laugh at a time like this?

  “You didn’t think we could do it, did you?” He bared his teeth in a vicious smile, fangs gleaming in the light given off by the burning buildings.

  “What have you done?”

  “It’s a rebellion, darling. Welcome to the new world.”

  Cries of pain erupted around me, and I turned again to see multiple people being dragged against vampires’ bodies, their necks torn open as their blood was drained from their bodies.

  My knees went weak, and I crashed to the ground, horrified by the sight in front of me. I clapped a hand over my mouth, and it was all I could do to shake my head.

  What was this?

  How had this happened?

  A hand pressed against my shoulder.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “NO!” I jerked awake, a ragged scream torn from my throat. Weylyn was barking, his face inches away from my own. He had awakened me. I threw my arms around him, dragging him against me as the sobs wracked my body.

  I had to stop this rebellion.

  But how?

  Twenty Six

  The sound of my foot tapping against the marble floor filled the room as I waited impatiently for the vampire to see me. I’d come straight over to Dudley’s massive mansion right after I woke up, too concerned with the dream I’d had last night to do anything else.

  It was such a strange dream, in retrospect. I never had dreams like that. For other people, it might have been normal to have a nightmare about what you feared would come. But for me? No, I had nightmares about the people I’d killed or the ones I couldn’t save. I never dreamt of what might come to pass. There just wasn’t room in my brain to fit in all those nightmares.

  So, why had that particular one broken through?

  Part of me was afraid it was a premonition; part of me thought that was silly. Could dreams be prophetic? I’d have to ask Diego when I saw him next.

  It was time I recognized my own ignorance as a mage and leaned on the support provided by my Wizard mentor. He could make me a better mage, and in time, a Wizard. I knew he could do that, and I trusted him implicitly. It was just a matter of putting aside my pride and submitting to his seniority.

  Not something I was good at--I didn’t do well with authority figures, even ones who went gentle on me.

  I pushed the thoughts away as I crossed my arms over my chest, letting out a heavy sigh.

  What in hell was taking Dudley so long to see me? He never dragged his feet like this.

  After what felt like an eternity--but was probably more like five minutes--the butler came to collect me and ushered me into Dudley’s office.

  “I apologize for the delay, Ms. Sheach. There were pressing matters for me to deal with,” he said.

  He looked a little strained today. Likely, the stress of facing a rebellion was finally eating away at him. I was surprised he’d lasted as long as he had without falling victim to stress.

  “No matter. Let’s get down to business.”

  “There’s never any time for pleasantries with you.”

  “Would you prefer I waste your time with pretty words while your people rally more and more supporters to their cause?”

  The skin around his eyes tightened, and a muscle throbbed in his jaw. I’d clearly touched on a pressure point with him, and I knew I should step back and assuage that, but I didn’t care enough. Dudley knew who I was, he knew how I operated, and if he didn’t learn to deal with it, we’d never get anywhere with each other.

  “What is it this time?” He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together in front of his chest.

  “I was attacked by three vampires last night.”

  There was no good way to say it, so I went for the blunt option.

  I waited for him to react, but whatever he was thinking, he didn’t let it reach his face. That reminded me that he was centuries old and had had plenty of time to school his features and learn how to deal with such situations. I was a child compared to him, stumbling around and trying to figure out what to do in the world.

  Yeah, that actually summed me up pretty well.

  Hopefully, training with Diego would better prepare me for the job I had now.

  “I see. Did they say anything?”

  “Yeah, they said you were losing control. That if you had to call me in, you must not be very strong anymore,” I replied.

  Again, there was no reaction from him. I really had expected one that time. After all, I’d basically told him that his vampires didn’t give a fuck what he said and what we were doing was only making the situation worse.

  Didn’t that matter to him?

  “And what did you do with these rebels?” His face was a mask of perfect calm. It was starting to make my skin itch.

  “I killed them,” I said, shrugging. “What else do you do with rebel vampires ready to tear your th
roat out?”

  “And you didn’t happen to leave at least one of them alive to deliver a message to their leader?”

  “No.” I pressed my lips together, inhaling deeply through my nose. I counted down from ten, trying to remind myself that Dudley wasn’t a fighter anymore and he didn’t know what it was like to be in a life or death situation. He couldn’t possibly understand how difficult it would have been to leave one of them alive and convince them to deliver a message.

  “Very well,” he said, and he let one emotion get through to his face--disappointment.

  Great. Just what I needed, some old fart being disappointed in me.

  “One moment.” He stood up, walked around his desk to his office door, and opened it just a bit. He spoke in low tones to whoever was outside the door--the butler?--and then shut it again and took his seat once more. “The situation will be taken care of. I assume you didn’t dispose of the bodies.”

  “No.” I shifted my gaze away from him, slightly embarrassed. I really should have taken more care with that, but I’d been too wiped last night, and there hadn’t been any time this morning. I was already late to see Diego, and I knew I was going to catch an earful about that. But this had seemed important.

  “I thought not. It will be taken care of.”

  “What are we going to do about the bigger problem?”

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  “I just killed some of your vampires. That’s going to get around, never mind the fact that I didn’t leave one of them alive. Someone sent them to me, and they’ll put two and two together when they don’t come back. Whispers are going to get around your people.”

  “And what do you think will be said?”

  “That you’re authorizing the deaths of your people. They won’t be happy about that, Dudley. You don’t know what it’s like, being at the bottom of the food chain. When people don’t care about whether you live or die. You don’t exactly want them to stay in power.”