by Rena Marks
The change was immediate, ripping through his body with an uncontrollable force. It looked painful, bones cracking, joints popping, hair sprouting, flesh splitting.
Clothes ripped alongside his body and fell in tattered remains to the marble floor.
My hand was still on his neck throughout the process. I smoothed it over his naked back to comfort him. His skin broke out in a thin sheen of sweat. Movement rolled underneath his skin. Giant rolling waves, like a beast running throughout his body and taking control.
Hair doesn’t just sprout through skin, I realized. The skin rips, erupting a gooey body fluid. It doesn’t just look painful. It is.
When it was over, huge dark wolf eyes looked at me. I didn’t know if they were hungry or not. I didn’t know if it was a conscious Leo or just an animal.
I raised my hand from his body to stroke his soft fur and stopped. My hand was wet with his blood and body fluids. Whining softly, he licked my hand until it was clean and then he turned tail and was gone. I ran back out to my car and sped to Bang’s.
Chapter Sixteen
As I drove, a light bulb switched on in my head. The dream. In which I dreamed of Julian’s coffin. Could Danielle have tapped into it somehow?
Johnny was the bouncer that night. I heard a gasp. A bunch of people stared behind me. It was Leo in his wolf form.
Great, a sickly-looking woman with her pet wolf. That had to look good. Still, I was surprised. I wasn’t aware of the speeds at which supernatural beings ran, but he must have run alongside the car.
I kneeled down to speak to Leo.
“You have to stay. You can’t go inside.” He whined and nuzzled me.
“I know, baby.”
I stood, my hand on Leo's fur, and whispered to Johnny.
“It’s Danielle.”
“Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
“Barely hanging on. We don’t have much time.”
I knew I looked like hell, thin with dark circles under my eyes. My skin was pale and sallow, my lips had a bluish cast. I was dying and losing the urge to care.
I started to walk inside and the wolf followed me. Looking apologetically at Johnny, I said, “I guess Leo’s going to protect me.”
Leo licked my hand.
Johnny closed the double doors and locked them. As I walked through the darkness of Bang’s, my eyes quickly became accustomed to the dark.
Anna, Nicki and Lily ran up to me.
“Leah, you have to feed! Now!” Lily's eyes raced up and down my body.
“It’s no use anymore. It’s not going to help.”
Anna stepped in front of me. “That’s crap, Leah. Drink.”
“Anna,” I said, as calmly as I could.
Her eyes glittered with unshed tears.
“Shh. It’s not going to help. I’ve fed within the last hour.”
“Please.” One tear rolled down her cheek.
Leo whined and licked my hand. Since when did Leo side with Anna?
“Okay, but see to it that Danielle doesn’t disappear.”
Nicki and Lily nodded, and left.
Anna and I were near the dance floor. It was a slow song and couples were squirming. I wrapped one arm around her neck and the other around her waist. I hoped it looked like we were dancing. After all, lots of women danced together nowadays. Wouldn’t city council be pleased if they had proof of biting on the premises? They’d finally have fuel to shut down Bang’s.
Anna’s previous fang punctures hadn’t had time to heal. I sucked hard and they reopened. I had no gross factor left.
The feeding didn’t help much. About all it accomplished was weakening Anna. I grimaced at the irony. I had effectively weakened all four of my bodyguards.
I licked her neck and then my lips. “Let’s go find Danielle.”
My eyes widened. “I forgot to tell Nicki and Lily she’s at full strength.”
Dammit. And they were not.
We raced to the back stairs. Johnny met us. We made our way to the stairway that led to Julian’s office. Lily and Nicki were knocked out cold.
“She has to be in here somewhere,” Johnny said. “I have guards on the doors. No one is allowed in or out.”
“There are humans in the bar. We can’t keep this under wraps.”
“With all the vamps in here, Merrick should be able to do a mass hypnosis to make them forget whatever happened. We’ll worry about it later. If we find Julian, he has the power to do it on his own.”
My weakened brain glommed on to a very important fact. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten it.
“Julian—he’s downstairs locked in his own coffin.”
We raced downstairs, leaving the unconscious Nicki and Lily.
Danielle—still old and ugly—levitated in front of Julian’s coffin. The coffin itself was chained heavily with silver crosses. The air was thick and hard to breathe through. A fog rose from the ground and reached nearly up to the coffin.
Leo growled and leaped at her. In his wolf state, he wasn’t thinking. As a human he would have realized that magic was involved and he couldn’t touch her. As a wolf and a wolf who had a harsh change since I hadn’t been around him much to balance his insanity, he was acting on pure animalistic urges. The urge to attack and protect.
An unseen force field knocked him away, resulting in a small, magical explosion. His wolf form collapsed, still as death. I ran to his side, Johnny and Anna following. I touched his body, trying to discern if he still breathed.
I inhaled deeply. Something inside me was being triggered. But I pushed it aside to check on Leo. I felt the rise and fall of his chest, and released a breath, relieved.
“Leah,” Johnny whispered, eyes large. “What’s happening to you?”
I took a minute to check myself out. I was warmer than I had been in weeks and a circular gust of wind seemed to be blowing perpetually around me. Only me. I stood slowly. My hair whipped up and floated about, weightless. Like there was no gravity. My eyes didn't seem like they were mine. I could see beyond our reality and into another. Two worlds seemed to be merged, I could see past solid lines and beyond. Much like the aftereffects of the hypnosis I'd gone through.
“Your eyes are one solid color,” Anna whispered.
I don’t know how but I was aware of what was happening. It’s a known fact that humans only use ten percent of their brains. If it were possible to use our full brains, we would realize that there is something beyond our own safe, gray, world.
A handful of people have the ability to use more of their brains to see the supernatural realm. Wizards, witches. Psychics can tap into more of their brains to see but it is a learned experience. Some cultures call it the third eye. Others call it the sixth sense.
All I knew was in the supernatural realm, you can see magic. You can see evil, you can see what used to be, what will be, what is now, all at the same time. My eyes were suddenly clearer. My entire life had been spent wrapped in cotton, dulling my senses, muffling my sight and my hearing, all my senses. Now it was stripped away and I was lighter, faster, clearer...and stronger.
I also knew that this wasn’t my first trip viewing the supernatural realm. I wasn’t aware of how I’d previously been here, though. Some parts of my memory weren’t accessible to me. I didn’t know why. I also didn't know how I’d gotten to this state now. I didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Danielle used her vamp speed to reach me instantly. Except, this time, with my enhanced vision, I could see her coming. I knew she was in her warp speed, but to me she appeared to move in normal motion. Anna, with her own vamp speed, saw her coming and gave her a solid punch to the solar plexus. Danielle gasped and fell backward, but then she was up again. Johnny took her other side and between Anna and Johnny, they forced her down. She was down on her knees, on the floor, the fog still rising, nearly covering her.
Until she started laughing. She laughed, with tears streaming down her wrinkled face. She lowered her face slowly to the ground and when she lo
oked up again, she was instantly normal looking. Youthful. The wrinkles had vanished from her skin, her pale complexion glowed again with the vamp beauty, and her hair color was at once that deep, dark red.
Anna and Johnny gaped at the regaining of her beauty. The regaining done without her master’s blood. How was it possible?
“Know what the fog is that’s coming from the ground?” Danielle asked. She continued without any response. “It’s from the witch, Tanya. It’s magic. She’s on my side. She kept the bindings on his coffin hidden until now, that’s how powerful she is.”
Silver chains appeared, wrapping around Anna and Johnny and binding them together. They were frozen, each unmoving from the neck down. A chanting began, and then a woman slowly materialized through the thick fog. Tanya. The resident witch Julian had introduced me to.
Danielle's voice echoed. “Yes, it’s me who’s replacing the master vampire of the City. I inspired the Coalition to kidnap you. Actually, they were supposed to kill you. They failed. Instead I’m going to take you down, sweet little human. Then I don’t have to worry about what’s in that coffin. I just needed to perform the ritual to restore my beauty before his death.” Danielle pointed to Julian’s bound coffin and then raised a hand reaching for my throat. But her hand couldn’t connect. The swirly little air of protection around me was keeping her from touching me. My own personal force field.
“What the hell?” she muttered, looking at the witch.
Tanya shrugged, looking just as confused.
“I think that may be from me.” We all whirled to the sound of Merrick’s voice, who'd appeared in the doorway. “Or, it may be her own. Who knows?” he shrugged.
Tanya gasped as she saw him. She stopped chanting and the fog started to dissipate.
“Do you know him?” Danielle asked her.
“Yes, Merrick and I go way back. He was a witch before a vampire got a hold of him.”
“So you also know that since becoming a vampire I can’t access my powers anymore. But it seems I have found a conduit,” he told Tanya.
The three of them looked at me.
“What’s a conduit?” Danielle asked.
“Not what. Who. Someone who has access to the powers I once held.”
“Why would you give her your powers?”
“Why? I didn’t choose to, it must have been accidentally done when I hypnotized her. They’re certainly not doing me any good being in limbo now. And Anjelia and Julian did bail me out of trouble when your murders pointed to me. You would have left me hanging.”
“You’re choosing the wrong side, Merrick. Tanya, she may have access to his lost powers but she has no idea how to use them. Bind his useless magic.”
Tanya began to chant again and the air grew thick and musty at once. Merrick struggled but it was hopeless. He sank to the ground, his body as paralyzed as Johnny and Anna.
Danielle turned to me. “I’m going to remind you of something, Anjelia. Think back. Think of your husband’s funeral. Connect your mind to Julian’s. Remember…” Her voice lulled me and Tanya’s chanting was mesmerizing.
I couldn’t keep it from happening. I flashed back to the funeral and saw myself standing in the sun looking down at the coffin.
How could I be watching myself?
Somehow I was in the shade of a tree, watching me—but from a distance.
The coffin was being buried. I wasn’t crying. It looked a little odd, the widow not shedding tears. I looked—empty.
I was aware of feelings, feelings of protection and feelings of…deceit. It was Julian’s memories I was accessing. I wasn't in my body, I was in Julian's.
As Julian, I saw me turn and look toward the trees, a puzzled look on my face. I walked slowly to them.
“Why are you here?”
“To help you forget. Come to me.”
“But I don’t want to forget, Julian,” I'd murmured.
My eyes were looking into his when he lowered his mouth to mine. He kissed me until I sagged against him, unconscious. He lowered me gently to the ground and left before I awoke.
“Leah, it’s a trick! Snap out of it!” I heard Johnny yell.
A trick? Suddenly I remembered the last punishment Danielle went through. She’d told me things about Julian, ugly things. Julian had murdered my ex-husband. I hadn’t met Julian after Trevor’s death but knew him earlier. I had been sold to Leo.
I’d forgotten this. Had Julian erased my memories? Left holes in my brain like Swiss cheese? I hated the confusion of not knowing one way or the other.
I slowly pulled out of my daze to see Danielle in the same mesmerized mode. I was quicker though, and noticed Merrick and Tanya.
He'd gotten free, and they were hitting each other with physical blows. She may have bound his magic but he simply rose from the ground and had attacked her when she was distracted with me.
Tanya jumped onto Merrick and was physically strangling him. He was stronger than she was and hurled her away from him only to have a torch hit him in the head, knocking him out.
The torch was from Danielle. I’d forgotten about her and turned to her as Tanya slowly stood.
It was two against one. Unless you counted two frozen vamps, one unconscious one and an equally unconscious wolf.
I didn’t move. I simply stood motionless as Danielle and Tanya tied up the unconscious Merrick. My power was growing inside me because Merrick was out for the count physically. Unknowingly, he gave me the rest of his. I barely breathed, afraid to upset the delicate balance. It raged like an inferno inside me, sometimes hot with fury, sometimes leaving me dizzy and sick. If I held very still it would level.
While Tanya was finishing tying Merrick to Anna and Johnny, Danielle finally turned to me. I was still standing in the same position, afraid to move. The power inside me still grew and I was afraid to lose it and become my sickened, human self. Danielle was right. I didn’t understand how to use this power.
She was standing before me in one instant, her clawed hand reaching for me.
Don’t move, said a voice in my head. She can’t really touch you. Be still and don’t worry.
Just concentrate on letting the power fill you.
Her hand didn’t connect and she howled with frustration. Tanya began chanting more, making the air too thick to breathe. I was gagging on the thickness so I swung my arm out and hit Danielle square in the face. Someone gasped. Before she could stand, I kicked her, hitting her in the throat. Tanya grabbed for me and my last thread of concentration broke. I realized part of my mind was controlling the little swirl of air that had been protecting me.
Tanya had her hands about my throat and squeezed. She began to chant, calling on her magic to help her. I was damn sick of that chanting. Fury burned within me, thick and welcome. I looked at her—not with my eyes but with that other sight. The other sight could see the other realities. It could see her aura. It could see her magic. I felt myself grow hot, overheated.
The voice whispered again. Concentrate. Just feel the burn.
It was the unconscious Merrick.
Tanya felt the heat too and for a moment her hands couldn’t squeeze my throat. They were still wrapped around my neck but without pressure.
Something whipped from my throat from the point of contact where her hands were. It lashed out to her, engulfing her instantaneously and she threw her head back to howl in pain. The scream never surfaced. There was an explosion, a flash of light. The air cleared and Tanya lay a few feet beyond me.
Her body was a pile of ash, a perfectly formed statue. It was amazing. It had all of her features, down to each eyelash clearly defined. There was a look of terror on her frozen face. I blew gently at that face. The ash lifted and flew, her head crumbling down into her neck. I realized slowly that in using this “sight” my emotions were remote and detached. I felt nothing for the pile of ash before me. I did feel some relief that I didn’t have to hear that damned constant chanting and that the musty fog was clearing from the room.
> Good, said the voice. Now raise your arms to give thanks for the magicks of the earth.
I raised my arms and closed my eyes.
I could see all around me even without turning my head or opening my eyes. I “saw” Danielle sneaking behind me in her vamp speed, ready to attack.
“Do you really want to die?” I whispered, without turning.
Inside, I knew it to be so. I could kill her too, in just a microsecond. Just like Tanya.
She stopped and I turned completely around. I held my hand out to the silver chains that bound Anna, Johnny and Merrick and in that instant the chains appeared around my hand. I threw them at Danielle and she was immediately wrapped in them.
There was silence for a minute while we all contemplated the binding of Danielle. I was still in a fog, my swirly air of protection still around me.
“Anjelia,” Merrick whispered, now awake. “You need to turn to the east and thank the wind for the provided protection also.”
I knew he was right without realizing how. I turned slightly, raising my hands again.
Not a second too soon because I collapsed. The threat had ended and the magic left me. I was my sick, trembling, human self.
Johnny was there holding my head. I turned over and vomited a spew of black blood onto the floor. It was then I realized it wasn’t vomit or blood at all. It was the magic leaving my body.
I wondered briefly where it would go. Back to Merrick? I couldn’t tell, though, as it just dispersed into the air.
“Leah, are you all right? Do we need to feed you?”
“No,” I pushed myself up slowly. “I have to find Julian. I need…need his touch…need him to feed. It’s him dying and killing me.” I coughed out.
Julian’s coffin was there, along with all the others. I knew which one was his—we all did by the spells binding it. No wonder he couldn’t get out, and no wonder Danielle’s hands had been burned.
