I leaped up and over a fallen tree, then cleared the huckleberry bushes on the other side without really trying. I made a mental note to collect some of the red berries before we returned home. Though it took numerous handfuls to make anything substantial, I was thinking of a limited edition cupcake for the bakery …
Though I was still chasing his magic, I couldn’t see or hear the vampire ahead of me among the cedar and fir trees. Of course, I couldn’t really hear anything over the sound of my own labored crashing around. I had probably already scared away any animals that hadn’t fled from the vampire.
I focused on the gathering ahead. I wasn’t sure I could run all the supposed miles between here and there, even though ever since Sienna had forced me — inadvertently or not — to open the portal in my basement, I’d been stronger and faster than I ever had before. Contact with the portal magic had … well, not strengthened my magic, because I think I’d always been this way without knowing. But it had connected me with more of my magical abilities. So I was stronger and faster than I thought, and I healed quickly, though I hadn’t tested that voluntarily.
Maybe I could run miles if I needed to. I just knew that a vampire on the hunt shouldn’t go unchecked. Not that I could check Kett — not if he ever really lost it. But maybe he would hesitate to slaughter too much, too wantonly in front of me, seeing as how he was my self-appointed mentor and all.
The grouping was nearer now, but I still couldn’t distinguish their magic. I hadn’t tasted it before. It was earthy like shifter or witch magic — but then, most of the Adept drew their power from the earth. The spirit of the earth, as Gran called it, was dying, and the powers and numbers of the Adept along with it. Whether this was a natural evolution or something to do with climate change and the poisoning of the earth, I didn’t know. Beyond its earthy base, the magic of the gathering up ahead was tart like the huckleberries that grew in wild abundance in these mountains. And spicy like some sort of red pepper. No, maybe like a sweet-edged onion?
I couldn’t manage to catch up to the vampire without going all out, and I was afraid I’d run out of steam if I did.
The gathering resolved into individual magical signatures as I neared. I picked up my pace as I sensed Kett do the same ahead of me. The low branches of some junior evergreens whipped across my face, but the scrapes healed within seconds. That was still weird. I mean, I was certainly happy to not be walking around with a scratched up face, but feeling yourself heal was definitely freaky. I had been putting off asking Kandy about it. Werewolves healed quickly as well, though Kandy had taken a good week to heal after her run-in with Sienna. ‘Run in,’ was completely understating the actual situation, but I was still having a difficult time dealing with the aftermath of it all in my head.
I could make out five individuals up ahead. But I was also flagging, my breathing quickening and my stride shortening. I pushed through, knowing my mind would give out before my body actually did, because the vampire was pulling too far ahead of me now. He would reach the group easily five, maybe ten minutes before me. It was difficult to judge. I’d never been in a foot race with a vampire before.
Certainly he wouldn’t go barreling into a group of unknown magic users? He was too careful, too meticulous for that. Except that once on a hunt, what if he had a difficult time reining himself in … ?Damn. How did I get myself into these situations? Right, I wandered around alone in the forest with a vampire. I was practically begging for it.
CHAPTER TWO
I caught a taste of Kandy’s magic. It was faint, as if shielded. That brought me up short, because it wasn’t in the same direction as the gathering. Kett — though I could still only sense his magic rather than see him — didn’t even pause. Maybe he hadn’t noticed, or maybe he didn’t care. The vampire was just as much of a collector as I was, but while I obsessively gathered glimmers of magic — including the jade stones in my pocket that I’d fished out of the river an hour ago — he collected information on unusual Adepts such as myself.
So, did I leave the gathering ahead to the vampire and the possible slaughter that lay at the end of his run? Or did I ignore Kandy, though her magic felt oddly sluggish and remote?
The vampire didn’t typically to go around slaughtering people. Though honestly, I had no idea how — or on who — he fed. Though I gathered it could be a mutual pleasure, nonlethal sort of arrangement. And Kandy was the nearest thing I had to a friend since Sienna had disintegrated before my eyes. I’d felt my sister’s magic dissipate within the golden power of the portal. I’d let go. I’d let her die —
I veered off toward Kandy and left the unknown Adepts to the vampire and fate. I was barely able to take care of myself. The strangers would have to wait while I checked on the werewolf.
∞
I could hear another river in this direction, and I found myself seriously hoping I hadn’t somehow circled back. I was fairly certain we’d been following the Squamish River before, but now that was in some doubt. Logically, I’d been running through a valley surrounded by mountains, so chances were good that there’d be another river around here somewhere.
I almost ran over Kandy. Her magic was that dim. I managed to not step on the green-haired werewolf, but just barely.
“Kandy!” I cried, throwing myself down on my knees by her side. Yeah, I found it difficult not being completely typical all the time. Especially when faced with a friend curled in a fetal position on the damp ground in the middle of the freaking nowhere forest. Okay, I was aware that we were somewhere between Squamish and Whistler, but that was a long distance, like fifty or so miles. On foot.
Kandy moaned so quietly that I wasn’t actually sure she’d made any noise, but the werewolf didn’t open her eyes.
I hunched down to look her over. My first instinct was to touch her, but I was really trying to not just heed my every whim these days. Touching her could be bad for us both. If she’d been spelled, that magic could grab me or react badly to my interference. She didn’t appear to be hurt, not that I could tell for sure given that she healed so quickly. Her jeans were ripped across her thighs, but I couldn’t remember if they’d been like that before. Her snug-fitting, belly-baring T-shirt bore some obscene print as per usual.
I needed to figure out if she’d been spelled. Slowly, I ran my fingers down her taut, muscled arm, but picked up nothing beyond the abnormally sluggish pulse of werewolf magic.
I carefully rolled Kandy over onto her back. I could see a vein pulsing in her neck. It looked too rapid and intense — but then, I barely knew anything about human physiology, let alone werewolf. Where her short-cropped green hair grew out shaggily, it fell across her brow, but other than that, she didn’t react. No roots, I noted, even though it wasn’t vaguely relevant. Kandy must dye her hair every two weeks to maintain it so perfectly.
She was pale. She was usually so vibrant, so brash and ready with her predatory grin and easy swagger. My heart was attempting to climb up my throat, but I swallowed it back down. This wasn’t the same situation. This wasn’t the same as when Sienna had cut Kandy so badly —
Focus. Focus.
Kandy’s hand lay across her belly, and I noticed her very human-looking fingers were tipped with wolf claws. Had she tried to change? Or had she just been practicing partially changing as she often did?
I touched her hand. Then I noticed the bright spots of magic underneath it, on her belly and across her chest. Five points that were partially diffused into Kandy’s own magic. I could clearly identify the different colors of green.
I hovered my fingers over the brightest — the newest? — spot. The magic felt similar to the glimmers in the forest, and to the gathering in the east.
Though now that I widened my senses from being pinpoint-focused on Kandy, I noticed that the gathering had dispersed.
Then I got hit by a bear.
∞
I didn’t know it was a bear at the time it hit me, seeing as how I was curled into a ball in
an attempt to protect my head and neck. It became clear after that, after I rolled away from Kandy to direct the bear away from the incapacitated werewolf. After I slammed against a two-hundred-year-old cedar and twisted my wrist in an attempt to break my badly handled fall. Kett would have lowered his eyebrows at least a quarter-of-an-inch over that tumble if this had been a sparring session. After I straightened, looked up, and kicked the bear in the gut then I saw it was a bear. A nine-hundred-pound, nine-foot-tall-on-its-hind-legs grizzly bear that I had just slammed into a neighboring tree.
I’d never seen a surprised grizzly hunch over and hold its bruised belly before. But then, I’d never seen a grizzly in the flesh at all.
I didn’t stop to celebrate the fact that I’d just kicked a nine-hundred-pound bear ten feet or so, though the display of strength was impressive and unprecedented. Not knowing it was a big, freaking bear probably helped. I widened my stance and pulled my knife. The jade blade was more of a rapier than a sword, and held between the bear and me, it looked like I was threatening to poke it with a toothpick.
Kandy moaned and rolled back into her fetal position.
The bear swung its massive, broad head toward the werewolf. I remained calm, forcing myself to not just start shrieking for Kett. Could a vampire drop a grizzly bear? Could I even annoy it?
“Hey, big guy!” I shouted. “Look here. Look at me. See my shiny knife. No touchy the green-haired one, or I’ll poke you.” Geez. Poke you. Brilliant threat. Hopefully, my tone was doing the heavy lifting. Too bad I didn’t have any bells. Bears didn’t like bells, right?
The bear thumped down on all fours. Evidently, my kick wasn’t a long-term sort of deterrent. Even flat on his feet, his head was higher than mine. Couldn’t a grizzly take multiple rounds from a shotgun and still keep mauling its victim?
The bear was vacillating — yep, I pull out the big words when a weird situation gets weirder — as it swung its huge head between Kandy and me.
I waved my knife. The bear didn’t even blink. Maybe he was nearsighted? I wasn’t terribly interested in getting close enough to find out.
I stepped sideways. The bear watched me, though its head was turned toward Kandy. I took another step toward the unconscious werewolf —
Loud noises! Bears hated loud noises.
I clapped my hands together and stomped my feet. The clap was pathetic because I was still clutching my knife in one hand. The stomping was ineffective and muffled by the blanket of needles that covered the ground underneath all the trees.
The bear swung its head back at me. I took another step, attempting to place myself between it and Kandy.
The bear raised its head and opened its mouth. Its many teeth were wider and much more pointy than my fingers. It bellowed at me.
Its wet, hot breath buffeted me. But while I clenched my inner thighs and attempted to not pee my pants, I felt something underneath, something I’d been too pumped on adrenaline to notice right away. Namely, magic. Specifically, something magic on or around the bear. Was the animal spelled?
The bear lowered its head, rolled its massive shoulders forward, and lumbered toward me.
I tried to turn and execute another side kick. I didn’t actually want to kill — if I even could — a confused, spelled bear. But the bear moved quicker than I anticipated. It batted me sideways, hooking me from hip to upper ribs with three-inch claws.
I brought the knife up and slashed it across the bear’s shoulder as it flung me sideways again.
It bellowed with pain.
I tumbled then landed down on one knee, but half-turned as I caught myself to raise the knife between the bear and me.
Except it didn’t attack further. It somehow — I saw it, but I still couldn’t figure it out — rolled its head under Kandy and flipped the werewolf over its shoulder.
Kandy groaned as she hit the hard muscled meat of the bear’s back, and for a brief moment, she opened her blazing green eyes to look at me.
“Shit!” I swore, scrambling to my feet.
The bear took off with the werewolf slung across its back.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
My feet kept moving, which was good because my brain was stuttering to a halt. A bear was kidnapping my friend. It was freaking insane.
The deep claw puncture wounds on my side closed, though my T-shirt and jeans were probably ripped and covered in blood.
With my knife still in hand, I chased after the bear.
Yeah, again. I chased. A bear.
The eyes of werewolves glowed green, as Kandy’s had, only when they were accessing their shifter magic somehow. But Kandy wasn’t changing forms, so her magic was doing something else. Perhaps burning off the foreign magic I’d seen on her belly and chest. I didn’t know, and I certainly wasn’t going to leave her at the mercy of an obviously deranged bear.
I caught up to the grizzly. It was fast, but I — as I was still learning — was faster.
I grabbed a fistful of its pelt on its right back haunch and yanked. The bear skidded right, but then attempted to twist away from me.
I was trying to wrestle a bear. Maybe I was the insane one.
I avoided another paw swipe. The bear seemed more interested in getting away than fighting, so it was easy to anticipate its half-hearted defensive strikes.
I reached for Kandy. She lifted her blazing green, unfocused eyes and raised her hand toward me. Her other hand was clenched tight in the bear’s fur. The bear twisted away and I nearly lost my footing, and then my shoulder, as it veered by a large cedar tree. My fingers skidded down Kandy’s forearm, keeping me from getting a grip on her. The bear was trying to scrape me off its back with the bark of the trees as if I was an annoying insect.
Asshole.
I’d show it.
I raised my knife, then plowed face first into a large block of dense ice.
I crashed to my knees and brought my hand up to my bloody, crushed nose. Pain ricocheted though my skull. Tears streamed from my eyes. Jesus. It felt like I’d bitten clear through my bottom lip.
I spat a mouthful of blood out all over a pair of Merrell hiking boots that were an exact match to the ones I currently wore, except for the size. What the hell?
I craned my neck and head upward. Expensive jeans, expensive leather belt, blue lightweight Gore-Tex jacket that was torn in a few places and spotted with dirt, bark, and leaves. Underneath the jacket was a gray T-shirt stretched over a trim, but clearly muscled upper chest. All of which led upward to a chiseled, angular, too-pale face.
Freaking Kett had just broken my nose.
“Kett!” I cried, because I have a difficult time not just stating the obvious when stressed. “I was wrestling that bear!” My voice was dreadfully nasal. I snapped my nose back into place. It instantly healed, though I saw spots floating before my eyes for a few blinks afterward. “It was a contest of wills, and Kandy was the prize.”
I stumbled to my feet, using various bits of Kett’s clothing as handholds. Well, one handhold. I kept the other hand, the one dripping with my blood, over my now healed nose. I wasn’t sure that the sight of so much blood would sit well with the vampire.
I must have sheathed my knife at some point because I could feel its magic on my right hip. I didn’t remember doing so.
Kett swayed on his feet.
Every bone in the front of my body felt bruised. “Kett,” I said again. “Kandy is in —”
Red rolled over Kett’s ice-blue eyes. The eyes that were currently fixed on mine. I’d never seen Kett’s magic operate like that before. Usually his eyes filled with blood when he needed to feed, but this was different.
“Dowser,” he murmured. “Found you.” He reached up and brushed the curls away from my cheek. It was a lazy, intimate caress. The hackles on the back of my neck tingled a warning.
Predator alert. Predator alert.
Kett listed sideways and stumbled. His eyes, which flashed red again, never left my face.
“Yes,” I answered, completely bewildered.
“You’re going to have to run now, little dowser.”
“Can we just skip the running and chasing part? You don’t look hurt. You don’t look like you need to feed. And Kandy —”
“Not me, dowser. You. You need to head southwest, back to the car —” He stumbled again, as if swooning. I grasped his upper arms, though I loathed to touch him while all covered in blood. His potent magic tingled all the way through his jacket into my hands.
“I don’t know southwest. I don’t know where the car is.”
“Find a river. Follow it back.”
“Kandy —”
“No. You’re going to need your Gran. Get Pearl.”
“Kett.” He was really starting to freak me out. He was heavy — oddly heavy for his size relative to me — and getting difficult to hold steady.
“I’m right behind you.” He stepped back so my hands fell away from him. “Go now, dowser.” He swayed as if buffeted by a nonexistent wind.
“You don’t seem okay.”
“I can still keep up with you.” He grinned. His teeth were too pointy for my liking. “You still move more like a human than you should.”
“How would you know?” I snapped. Yes, the topic of my parentage was an instant trigger.
“It would be a shame for you to die. I would do anything in my power to save you. Don’t make me save you, Jade.”
A chill ran down my spine. His use of my name, and what I was pretty sure was a threat to my humanity — or whatever I was — completely unnerved me.
I turned and ran.
Kett followed, but he wasn’t chasing me.
The bear had bulldozed a path through the underbrush, so I followed it. Least resistance and all that.
I all-out sprinted. Not really knowing where I was going, but still running as fast as I could.
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser Series) Page 2
