by K. F. Breene
“I think I have a girl crush,” I said hoarsely, my head still dizzy and my throat feeling scratchy and sore.
“I think I am going to bash your head in for scaring me. I don’t like being scared. It’s an annoying feeling.”
“What happened?” I twisted to roll over so that I could get up—the moisture was seeping into my jeans—but she put a hand on the center of my chest, keeping me put.
“That’s my question. What happened? Are you okay? Do we need to go to the hospital? I swear, Darius will absolutely kill me if I kill you, and I don’t even want to get started on Emery. I’m confident I could take him, but it would be a wild ride.”
“Since when do you babble?” I tried to slap her hand away.
“You’re as weak as a kitten. Crap. I broke you. But how did I break you? What happened?”
I tried to gauge her with my gaze. She slowly pushed up to standing, stepped over me, and squatted again, hovering.
“Cut the apron strings, Mable, I’m fine,” I said, rolling to my side and continuing to suck in lungfuls of air.
“I don’t even know who you are right now. I mean, I like the change, because that’s funny, but I’m worried you have brain damage. Do you have brain damage? Seriously, what is going on? You clearly solved the riddle of how to keep that nasty little creature from changing. I got my sword through it, finally, but then I turned around and you were lying flat on your back, not breathing. Did it somehow have the power to make you stop breathing? I didn’t notice my air drying up, and usually I do.”
I waved my hand in front of my face to stop the bombardment of words. “I don’t like when you fret. It’s unnatural. Fretting is my job.”
“Yeah, I know. How do you think I feel? I didn’t know I had it in me to fret. I hate it.”
I huffed out a laugh before sitting up painfully and rubbing the back of my head. I’d clearly fallen on it first, somehow. Thinking back, I relayed everything I’d felt, including her magic surging in and balancing everything out.
“I’m pretty sure you saved my life,” I finished, slowly getting to my feet.
She grabbed my arm and helped me up. “I felt magic warring within you somehow. I panicked. Don’t tell anyone.”
“I’m in no position to judge—I panic all the time.”
“It’s funny when you do it.”
“Great,” I mumbled, my mood souring.
The Redcap goblin lay in a pile about thirty feet away, a sword through its middle and a pool of red around its body. A charred speck sat off to the side, still smoking.
“What happened there?” I pointed.
“That was its hat.”
“Ah.” I twisted to each side, trying to stretch my back. It felt like I’d run back-to-back marathons. “It had some extremely powerful magic.” I put up my hands. I could still feel the power surging through my blood. “And it isn’t dissipating. Usually when I latch on to someone else’s magic, it’s only while they’re near me. And alive, obviously. This magic should be long gone.” I widened my eyes. “Did you make sure it was dead?”
“Of course I did! I hacked the hell out of it. Vicious, yes, but warranted. It was a nasty little— Anyway, maybe it wasn’t lying.” Reagan’s brow furrowed. “Maybe gods are legit and it…somehow…got a gift of power…from one of them?” She scoffed and shook her head. “That just sounds absurd. It’s a goblin. Why would a god give a nasty little creature like that a gift of any kind? It was more deserving of a kick. Right to the head.”
“Maybe the goblin killed whoever had the power first, and it somehow managed to ingest the magic.” I ran my hand down my chest, feeling a strange tingling and lightness, like nervousness and butterflies and excitement, all mixed up. It didn’t feel like it belonged. “I can’t think how else this would be possible. Then again, I know next to nothing about the magical community, so…”
“This is a question for Darius. Regardless, you’re alive, not still dying…” She lifted an eyebrow at me. I shook my head. The danger had passed; I could feel it. Whatever was going on with the magic wouldn’t kill me. Not yet, anyway. “And next time, when a creature says something about power from the gods, we’ll know how to handle it.”
“No.” I shook my head and about-faced. “No way. This was the last time. No more. I am done with these bounty hunter gigs. Absolutely done.” I waggled my finger behind me. “You can call the cleanup people or whatever. I’m out.”
“You don’t have a car,” she yelled after me.
I didn’t even care. I’d walk in the cold. Anything to get away from her inevitable effort to talk me into another hunt. I really was done. Totally finished.
3
Emery sat in a chair at the edge of a green field dotted with occasional white specks, the last of the snow from yesterday finally melting away. The temperature was still down near freezing, but the cold couldn’t permeate the blackness of his mood.
He sighed deeply and a cloud of white left his lips. He’d jumped at the chance to go back to Ireland with Penny. He’d follow her to the ends of the Earth if she asked. His feelings for her had only gotten stronger. And would only get stronger as they continued to weave into each other’s lives.
But he’d been assailed by bad memories of the time he’d spent here alone. Of his life after his brother, having to kill liberally to stay alive. Emery couldn’t help but wonder how different things would have been if his brother had lived and he had died. Would Conrad have been able to turn things around? Emery only knew how to maim and kill, not save. He was a rogue, a recluse, and he’d never be as easily liked as his brother had been.
He shook his head and reached for the glass of whiskey resting in the grass next to the sinking leg of his chair. Not for the first time, a thread of guilt wormed through him. Penny deserved better than a guy like him. And he felt guilty for praying to God she never realized it, because he didn’t know what he’d do if she left. She’d put the color back into his life. The depth. She was his anchor.
And if she were here right now, she’d tell him to stop dwelling.
He grinned and looked at his feet. She’d be right, too. Life felt better when you enjoyed the positive instead of lingering on the negative.
Soft footfalls reached his ears, somewhat quicker than a human would naturally walk. A moment later, he could pick out the rhythm of the gait and the careful steps. He was well versed on all things dangerous, and the approaching individual was one of the more dangerous things in the world.
Darius. A cunning elder vampire who was way too deeply involved in Emery’s affairs.
Judging from the overcast sky and short days, he guessed it to be about four or four thirty in the afternoon. Evening had replaced the day.
Penny and Reagan would be finishing up with paperwork about now, Penny sour about whatever had happened, and Reagan likely filled with pride that her training buddy had come up with unique and airtight spells. The two of them were as effective as they were hilariously predictable. He got endless enjoyment out of listening to their squabbles.
“Black thoughts?” Darius asked quietly, setting down the chair he’d grabbed from their rental house across the road. Emery sat on one just like it.
“Just reflecting on my life choices.” Emery took a sip of his whiskey and leaned back.
“Dwelling, as Penny would call it?”
Emery huffed out a laugh. The vampire couldn’t actually pick thoughts from his head, but he was so good at reading body language, mood, and situational cues that it practically came to the same thing. “It’s easy to blame myself for what the Guild has become. For years they were merely festering, but I resurfaced, raised havoc, and suddenly they’re spreading like a virus. In just a few months they’ve claimed a couple dozen new cities around the world and a host of new talent. The mages who vocally oppose their methods are being slaughtered. If I’d left the whole thing alone, the darker magic wouldn’t be spreading, and innocent mages wouldn’t be in jeopardy. Penny would be so much safer. It
’s a lot to feel accountable for.”
“Pardon me for a moment.” Darius stood up and zipped off so fast that Emery had woven together a spell before realizing he’d been startled. Usually when an elder vampire moved that fast, he was two seconds from ripping out a throat. A moment later, though, Darius was sitting down again with a snifter filled with a deep brown liquid.
Apparently they were about to have a man-to-man chat. No doubt Darius would use it as an opportunity to glean information. You could never trust a vampire, and elder vampires were the worst kind.
Yet…Emery found himself leaning back a little more into his chair, interested in what the vampire had to say. Whatever else he might be, he was also incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable.
“Let’s go over the facts, shall we?” Darius asked, crossing an argyle sock over his designer jeans. The vampire did nothing by halves, including dressing casually. “Before your brother’s death, the Guild already had a firm hold over Seattle, and they had started increasing their scope.”
“But they haven’t done much in the three and a half years since my brother was killed…until now.”
“This is true. Of course, organizations largely operate in fits and starts as their leaders change over. It was bound to happen sooner or later. You—and I—have ensured that it happened sooner.”
“Dangling an untrained, naive natural in front of them really helped speed things up, yes,” Emery said dryly, trying (and failing) to push away the surge of guilt. “It’s their desire to obtain her that has driven this sudden focus, I have no doubt. I’ve put Penny in extreme danger.”
“Ah.” Darius swirled the brown liquid in his glass. “I think that is the root of the problem, is it not? The issue of Penny has been weighing on you.”
Emery leaned his forearms onto his knees. He didn’t comment. Darius had been subtle about it, but Emery knew the elder had been watching him. Cataloguing his actions and noticing his mood slips. The vampire filed away everything he saw into that incredible computer of a brain, puzzling out the patterns and working out how he could manipulate the present situation into what he planned for the future. Emery shouldn’t give him any more fodder for his plans, but…
Well, when it came down to it, he wanted to know what the vampire had to say. Wondered if Darius had any wisdom to impart.
Emery desperately wanted to make this situation with Penny right. He wanted to dig himself out of this hole. If he had to temporarily get chummy with a vampire to do it, he would.
Darius paused for a moment, looking out over the field.
“We must remember, she had already stumbled onto magic when you first met her,” he said slowly.
Emery huffed out a laugh. Penny’s version of stumbling onto magic had involved turning a coven of witches into zombies. That woman could really unravel a situation. Like him.
“She was a ticking time bomb,” Darius went on. He paused again, and it almost seemed like the words were being dragged from him. “Being an elder, I’ve largely shrugged off many things. The idea of each of us having one true mate, for example. Fate as a whole, actually. However…” He took a sip of his drink. “I’ve looked into what it means to be a natural pairing.”
Ja, an extremely old vampire whose interest in Penny had forced her out of the bored stupor many vampires fall into if he or she gets old enough, had said Penny and Emery were a natural pairing, something Emery had heard was even rarer than natural mages. It meant Penny was the yin to his yang, and together they formed a balanced whole. That sort of natural affinity was different than the kind that could be achieved magically—something he’d shared with his brother.
Emery absently wiped at his chest, the familiar pang of loss cutting him deeply. He remembered what it had felt like when the dual-mage connection had been ripped out of him by his brother’s untimely demise. Like someone had punched a hole in his chest, yanked out his ribs one by one, then used a dull knife to extract his heart. The feeling had spread throughout his body, flash-boiling his blood, crunching each bone, and twisting his guts. If the Guild hadn’t tried to kill him that very night, he might’ve succumbed to the mental anguish. He might’ve let it take him.
His rage had saved him in the end.
Darius cut into Emery’s dark reverie. “Further research has revealed that a natural pairing is actually not rare at all. It is widely believed that everyone has one. The rarity is that each member of the pairing should find each other. Some magical creatures can only love their natural pair, and in extreme cases, they can only produce offspring with that person or creature. In a huge population, it stands to reason that you would never meet the one ‘destined’ for you. This goes double for you, since you’ve spent so little time living amongst the human population over the last three years. The chances that you would meet your pair were so slim, they might well be classified as miraculous.”
“Except…” Emery scratched his nose. “I’d have to think that a natural’s pairing would be another natural. Which means there would only be so many options for me.”
“Interesting assessment.” Darius’s thumb tapped his glass. “Meaning…instead of being a human with magic, you are reduced down to your own subset of species, a natural.” He shifted and his brow furrowed. “Be that as it may, and we cannot know if there’s any truth to it until I look more thoroughly into the matter…”
Emery grimaced. Any entanglement with an elder was bad, but long-term entanglement was parallel to entrapment. And here he was, giving the elder new information to digest. That would just give the vampire more ideas.
“Anyway,” Darius went on, “even if it was because you were naturals, there are a few other naturals scattered around the world, and you never planned to have a connection with any of them. Yet you were brought face to face with your natural pairing when you took an unplanned day trip into a medieval village to waste time.”
“Except I left with nothing but her name that day.”
“Only to have her miraculously find you in the middle of a magical battle. And the only way she knew to go to that magical battle was because her curiosity had been piqued by her foray to New Orleans the month before.”
Emery shook his head. He was losing the thread of the conversation. “And… So what’s your point?”
“Despite my personal beliefs about fate, an unbelievable series of coincidences have led you and Penny to this exact moment. From one stop on the journey to the next, even a nonbeliever like me would shake his head at all the connections that brought you here. She came out of her shell at just the right time. She was primed to meet you when you showed up.”
“Sounds far-fetched.”
“Yes. But if it hadn’t been for you grabbing her when you did, she would’ve done something to out herself. Of that we can be sure. Without proper magical protection, she would have been picked up by the Guild. If we go a step further, the Guild would’ve trained her the way they train everyone. How you were trained. They would’ve squashed her truly unique way of doing magic, and thereby diminished her ability. If not for you, she would be a shell of herself.”
Emery blinked as the words rambled to a stop. “So…you think I actually saved her, instead of dragging her into this mess?”
“I think that is evident.” Darius’s tone wasn’t just confident, it was full of the kind of certainty of a scientist who’s just proved a theory. “As I said, fate is largely preposterous, in my opinion, but in this one situation, I can’t help but…” An uncomfortable expression crossed his face.
People who valued knowledge and strategy didn’t much like the idea that things were out of their control. Emery wasn’t a control freak to nearly the same degree as Darius, but he understood—and felt—his discomfort.
“Only fools believe in coincidences,” Emery mumbled. “I think Ms. Bristol said that once.”
“In this case, I would have to agree.”
“Still seems far-fetched.”
“Even if they were coincidences, it has to be
acknowledged that her magical journey was already underway when you met her. She ran from what happened in New Orleans, but that wouldn’t have kept her away from magic for long. She would’ve sought out knowledge in her area, which would eventually have led her to the Guild. You know what would’ve happened next.”
“The Guild would’ve pieced her parentage together, just like they did after she showed up at my magical battle.”
“Without you and your connections to shelter her, she would not have stood a chance. Either way you look at it—fate or logic—you crashed into that girl’s life in the nick of time. Had you come earlier or later, you would’ve missed your opportunity, and her future would’ve been bleak.”
Emery blew out a breath, something warm infusing his chest. He’d gotten there in a roundabout sort of way, but in the end, Darius had known exactly what to say. How to view the events that had unfolded. Looking at it that way, he could hardly deny the vampire was right. And Emery’s guilt wasn’t such a constant pressure on his shoulders.
“So you see, Mr. Westbrook,” Darius said softly, back to swirling his drink, “you are actually that girl’s knight in shining armor.”
Emery laughed and sat back. “You had me, and then you lost me.”
A small grin lit Darius’s face. “Be that as it may, we’re here now. However it happened, this is where we are. Rather than dwelling on the past, we must look forward to the future.”
Shivers spread over Emery’s skin, and it wasn’t from the cold.
“You are already a natural pairing,” Darius said conversationally, “and have a deep connection you tried to run from and could not.” Emery swallowed into the pause, dreading what he knew would come next. “Have you thought of becoming a dual-mage pair?”
4
All the breath left Emery’s lungs. Yes, he’d thought about it. All he’d done was think about it. Every time Penny curled up in his arms, the idea ran through his mind. Every time she defended him to her mother. When she gave him her sleepy smile. When she whispered that she loved him. When he looked at her beautiful face. When he laughed at her hilarious antics…
