I narrow my eyes at him and lift my jaw. “Says you,” I growl out evenly.
“Oh ho, is that so? You have a hankering to be alpha, do you? I don’t know. Aren’t you your alpha’s nephew? You’re really going to kill him?”
I just stare him down.
“There is more than one way to become an alpha, I suppose. That why you’re here? You need something to protect yourself? Need to have your bond to your old clan severed?”
My swallow makes me cough, and I cave and sip the blue milk. It's sweet, so very sweet, with a hint of honey and juice to it. I take another swallow actually not bad at all. Maybe too sweet, but I prefer sweet to sour most of the time.
“You aren’t answering. You need something bad, don’t you? Something big. You know, if you don’t tell me, I can’t help you. Heh.”
I nod and steel my nerve. It’s not easy, blurting out what I need. It requires a level of trust that I honestly don’t know that he deserves. Yes, he helped the Moonblaze pack before, but that had been a long time ago. Maybe he’s not our current witch. I’m not always in the loop as far as the most important matters pertaining to the pack, and attending the academy means I’m away more than I’m with the pack. Times change. People change, and time hasn’t been the kindest to Rune Darkmore.
But I didn’t come here to waste my time, and Mercy needs my help. I don’t trust any other witch to ask, so I might as well rip the Band-Aid off and ask for his help.
My mouth opens at the same time that the door to the treehouse does.
In the doorway stands a vampire with slicked-back black hair. His red eyes dance as he appraises me.
“You,” he says. “You’re Julian Moonblaze.”
I glance at Rune. He’s sliding back to the kitchen, without any sign of limping or hobbling or anything like that.
That witch! He ratted me out!
“I take it your Constantine, aren’t you?” I ask. “Constantine Raven? Constantine Pigeon? Peacock? Giraffe?”
“Crowe,” he snaps before recovering his composure. He adjusts his sportscoat. Why is he wearing one? “Constantine Crowe.”
"Ah, yes. I thought it was something like that. Constantine Coward. I mean Crowe. Constantine Crowe." I nod a few times, suppressing a grin as well as my fury geared toward Rune. How could the witch be under Constantine's thumb? And after all of the business dealings he's had with my pack too!
What made him turn? Or is he bitter because what he said already happened and the pack’s replaced him with a younger, hungrier witch?
“Go ahead. Mock me. Today is going to be the last time you can use that mouth of yours.”
“Is that so?” I ask. “Because I have plans for my mouth for today, tonight, tomorrow, the day after… Until I die a long, long time from now.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve peeked into Rune’s crystal ball. You’re going to die tonight.”
“Is that so?” I ask coolly. “Because it’s not on my to-do list. You sure you don’t want to check yours?”
His nostrils flare, and his eyes squint a bit. He’s so easily flustered. I find it hilarious, but I also don’t have time to waste.
I stand.
“Sit, Julian,” Constantine says as he shuts the door behind him.
“I’m not a dog,” I snap.
“No? You certainly aren’t a good boy,” he says. “You make a terrible wolf too. Running around like a stray little dog with your tail between your legs. It’s pathetic, really. You think you deserve her. You don’t.”
My mouth runs dry. I thought all along that his knowing my name meant that he knew about Romelia and me. This only confirms that, but he purposely didn’t say her name. Why? Does he know about my pack’s ties to Rune? Does he not trust the witch either?
“Mercy deserves a fighting chance,” I say, acting as if I don’t recognize that he’s referring to Romelia.
“Mercy. Bah. Mercy, charity, peace… all of that is overrated.”
I burst out laughing. Of course he wouldn’t know about Mercy and Bermon. They’re beneath the almighty Constantine Crowe. He’s so very pompous and full of himself that he can’t bother to get to know his adversary.
Adversaries. If Constantine dared to fight me in front of my friends, they would join in. There's no doubting that.
Not that Constantine plans on there being another battle. He means to fight and kill me here and now.
It won’t happen. It can’t happen. Romelia will be free of him, and Mercy will gain some means to heal and recover.
“Love is all that matters,” I say. “A marriage can only be built on love.”
“Love can come later. Honestly, marriage doesn’t have to have love at all. Marriages are contracts. Nothing more and maybe a lot less.”
“You’ll never get married then.”
“Oh, I will. Believe me.”
“Not for real.”
Constantine merely shakes his head. “A dog’s trying to teach me a new trick? I don’t think so. You listen here, you mangy mutt—”
“I don’t have to listen to anything.” I stalk over to him.
For a long moment, we attempt to stare each other down, but then Constantine just shakes his head.
“How is Mercy, by the way? She dead yet?”
His mocking tone seizes me like an electric jolt, and my fingers transform into claws before I can think better of it.
Constantine grins, revealing his long fangs. “About time,” he slurs.
I go to rack my claws against his chest, but he blocks the blow and uppercuts my chest, right beneath my ribcage. Wincing, I grunt and attempt another slash, but he sidesteps, grabs my wrist with one hand, the other pinching my shoulder. He shoves my shoulder back to off-balance me, and he sweeps my leg out from under him. Down I go, hard too, but my claws rake through his sleeve and then into his forearm.
The scent of blood fills the room, and Constantine stomps on my stomach. He goes to stomp again, this time aiming for my ribs, but I catch his foot, twist it, and send him tumbling forward onto me. My legs kick up, and I use the moment of his fall to kick him up over me. He smashes into the table, spilling the rest of my blue milk.
As I jump to my feet, I spy Rune. The witch is in the back corner, watching us. Clearly, he's not going to interfere and help one of us over the other. I guess it's better that way than for him to help Constantine against me.
Constantine bull-rushes me. He’s fast, of course, as all vampires are, but I am shocked by his boldness, by his recklessness.
Only he stops short, right when I’m winding up to launch an attack. He changes levels, dropping down, aiming for my legs. I fall back again, and I manage to dig my claws into his beck, but he allows that. He’s playing me because his fangs sink into my neck.
In a desperate gamble, I dig a claw deep into his neck. Constantine backs away, and I slowly sit up. We’re both wounded, and the fight’s only just started.
Constantine stares down at me with hatred in his red eyes. “I know you’re with Romelia,” he says, “but that won’t always be the case.”
Chapter 6
Romelia
Mother’s laughter still rings in my ears even though I raced away from her long ago. She’s so far under my father’s clutches that she seems to only do what she’s told. She doesn’t seem to have any of her own thoughts anymore. Honestly, it’s sad and even frightening that someone would allow themselves to be so firmly stuck under someone else’s thumb.
A puppet. That’s all she is. That’s not how love is supposed to work, but then again, I’ve always wondered if love and demons are incompatible. My parents, their relationship, it’s the exact antithesis of what I want for myself and Julian. What we have is true love, the kind that doesn’t happen every day. We aren’t perfect, of course. I mean, we’ve had our first fight, after all, but we listened to each other, and we came to a compromise. That’s love.
Blind devotion, obeying orders, allowing another to tell you what to do, ho
w to dress, all of that control… That’s not love but something else entirely.
Deep down, I might feel sorry for my mother, but she made her bed. She can lie in it and try to avoid the spikes hidden beneath the mattress, but she will get pricked time and again.
I’m running out of options, and there are precious few allies I trust. There remains one who knows everything, one I trust above all others, save for Julian.
The vampire who also shares our dream and hope that vampires and werewolves won’t always be locked in an eternal cycle of hatred and misery.
The vampire who married us.
The vampire who teaches blood magic.
If anyone might be able to help Mercy, maybe Professor Marius Cross can.
Fifteen minutes later, I arrive at Blood Haven Academy. I could have been here sooner, but I feared my mother might be following me, and I tried to leave diversions and clues that I forked off at different places so that she might be fooled. A waste of time, perhaps, but I won’t have her interfering. A curse slips out at my foolishness. I never should have thought Mother would consider helping me. Naïve. I’m still too naïve yet. Foolish hope, that’s what I suffer from, that and maybe denial too.
I rush to the castle that houses the offices of the professors, and I race to his office. The door is ajar, and I press it open. A low creak sounds, and Professor Marius looks up from papers gathered on his desk.
“Ah, Romelia.” He stands and sweeps his arm toward the chairs opposite his impressive desk. “Do come in and take a seat.”
“Professor Marius, please, I need your help, and I know you’ll be willing, but you have to understand you might get in trouble. Life-or-death in trouble. I’m only here because I have nowhere else to turn and—”
“Romelia, please. I appreciate your concern and worry, but I can handle myself.” He grins broadly and clasps his hands together. “Now, what seems to be the issue?”
"A vampire—a living vampire—attacked a werewolf. The werewolf is dying. She's not healing, and nothing is helping her. She'll vomit vampire blood, and she has seizures, and I think… I have reason to think that it's the demon side that did something to the werewolf, but I… I never learned about any demonic powers. I don't know what might be happening to her, and I'm… She can't die, Professor. Do you have any idea what might be going on? How can we heal her? Nurse her back to health?"
The professor slowly sits back down. “Demon can be very powerful creatures. As such, I think that living vampires are far stronger and mightier than turned vampires.”
“Which are you? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“Turned, but rest assured, blood magic is powerful regardless of which you type of vampire you are.”
"So, there is something we can do?"
“Yes. I can make a potion that will cure her, but there is a catch, Romelia.”
“With blood magic, there always is. What do you need? Every last drop of blood from a vampire?”
If so, I would do it. I’ve never met Mercy, and she fought my cousin. I know she’s fought other vampires. She’s not perfect at all, but that doesn’t matter. She’s friends with Julian, and maybe if word spreads that a vampire willingly died to save a werewolf’s life, maybe then some of the animosity can start to wane.
Yes, that would mean I would die, but I’m willing to. I would do it.
It would be the hardest thing I would ever have to do, but I would.
A single tear trickles down my face, and I wipe it away so harshly that I hope there’s no bloody smear on my cheek.
The professor opens and shuts desk drawers before turning to his right and examine the bookcase. He has to stand on his chair to remove a volume from the top shelf. The tome thuds onto his desk, dust scattering about in a cloud.
“No, I don’t require every last drop from a vampire, but I will need someone willing to accept the affliction that has overtaken the werewolf.” He stops rifling through the pages to eye me. “You said she, yes? It’s not—”
“Julian is safe from harm but only because she stepped in and… I’ll do it. I’ll take the affliction. Whatever she’s been fighting off, maybe I can handle and outlive it.”
“There’s a chance you might not be able to,” Professor Marius warns. “Perhaps you should speak with him first and weigh out your options.”
I just shake my head. No. If I tell Julian, he won’t let me do this. He’ll want to be the one, and his werewolf body won’t be able to handle it any better than Mercy’s. He definitely will die, as I’m sure Mercy will if nothing changes and soon.
"You won't talk to him? Far be it for me to lecture you on how you live your life, but marriages work best when the couple is a team."
“We are a team. This is a gift, a present to him. I’ll give him back his friend.”
“But possibly at the expense of your life. It’s a terrible choice to make, but I have to believe that Julian would rather lose his friend than his wife.”
“If the moon is kind, then he won’t lose either of us.” I lift my chin and stare down the vampire.
The professor grunts. “You’re too stubborn for your own good. Some would even say defiant.”
“Well, yes, I suppose, but I have to do this. I must. Any werewolf would risk death from this, yes?”
He hesitates. “I would think so.”
“Then it can’t be another werewolf to do the blood magic. Who better than a vampire? Especially a living vampire? I have a… I’m part demon. Whatever demonic magic or power that is afoot, I can handle it. I know I can.”
The professor wipes a hand down his face. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it might not be quite as simple as you hope.”
“Nothing in life is simple.”
“True enough.” He resumes rifling through the pages. The pages flip almost too quickly for me to read the text, but the pictures alarm me. They’re all of terrible demons in horrific monster forms, with horns, red skin, spikes…
The more he flips through the pages, the more anxious I become. “Professor, I don’t mean to rush you, but time is of the essence.”
“I am willing to help you, Romelia, but I do not want to have a role in your death. If you will oblige me, I will first try to determine what is going on so that you have your best shot at surviving. Allow me this.”
There's a pain in his eyes, a deep-seated ache, and he swallows hard and runs a hand through his dark auburn hair.
“You remind me of my daughter,” he finally murmurs. “She died.”
“Was she human?” I ask, assuming that he had the daughter before he had been turned into a vampire.
“A vampire. I adopted her. A thug attacked her in the alley. It was when I was a young vampire, still learning my powers, and I tried to be there in time to stop it and overshot the alley. By the time I raced back, she was nearly dead. I turned her to save her life. She was thirteen.”
“Oh,” I murmur, the sound almost a sigh. “I’m sorry.”
“She died trying to save another’s life. I don’t want to lose another daughter…” He coughs into his hand. “I suppose it should come as no surprise that I feel almost like a father to you. I hope that doesn’t upset you. I know you and your real father—”
I reach over and pat his arm. “Professor Marius, I wish you were my father, and I am more than happy to consider you the father I choose.”
Professor Marius beams, rifles a few more pages, scans them, nods, and turns the book to me.
“I think this is the issue,” he says, his tone turning grim.
My eyes widen as I take in the picture of half-formed zombies.
“But… But she isn’t dead. A demon can’t turn a living person into a zombie!” I hesitate. “Can they?”
“No, and that’s why her body is fighting the magic and dying. To become a zombie, one has to be dead. I can add a component to the formula so that if the unspeakable should happen, you won’t turn into a zombie.” He grimaces. “Reanimation is powerful, dark magic, b
ut you have the right of it. It’s the ability to raise the dead. Not all demons possess this particular brand of magic. A living vampire did this?”
“Yes. She, ah, she’s been having issues with her emotions, her control. Her demon side seems to have been awoken or activated or something. I don’t know.” I bite my lower lip. “Once all of this is done, and the werewolf is saved, and I recover, maybe… Would you be willing to help me?”
“You want to learn your demonic abilities?”
I shake my head empathically. “No. Never. I want to make sure that that side of me doesn’t ever come to light. I don’t want to be controlled by it.”
“But you also don’t want to control it either.” He slams the book shut with a loud thud. “Far be it for me to tell you what to do, but if you do survive, if you and Julian wish to try to be the glue that heals the rift between the vampires and werewolves, you might wish to have all of your magic at your fingertips.”
I lift my chin. “I reject that side of me, but I don’t want to become a slave to it as a result. Will you help me?”
“Always, Romelia. I always will.”
Chapter 7
Romelia
Professor Marius has me running this place and that to gather this ingredient and that. Blood magic, the darkest kind, requires more than just blood. I'm rushing about so quickly that I don't have time to think let alone call or text Julian to let him know what's going on.
The professor removes the portrait hanging over his shoulder to reveal a large vault. He presses his palm to a small portion off-center, and the vault opens to reveal stairs. He ushers me inside, and the stairs lead deep down. By the time the stairs stop, we have to be well underground.
Spiders and other creepy crawlies are all over the earthen tunnel, and I pay them no mind, rushing ahead to a large opening. There’s no table, no chairs, just a painted red circle.
Blood Haven: Year Three: A Mayhem of Magic World Story Page 4
