by Alicia Rades
Damn it. We weren’t just dealing with vampires here. We were facing shifters, and this one might actually stand a chance against Ryland.
I didn’t think about what I was doing. I just acted. My body shrank to the size of a raven, and I spread my wings. Rain hammered down on my feathers, and it took every ounce of strength I had to push against it and fly through the sky. A gust of wind caught my wings and hurled me off course. I quickly corrected my flight and continued on my intended path.
To my horror, the tiger shifter was already making the leap. I dove as fast as I could toward him. Disgust twisted in my gut as I felt my talons slice deeply across the skin between his eyes. A roar filled the street as the tiger fell through the air.
I landed on the closest fire escape and held tightly to the metal. The tiger landed on Ryland’s back, but I could see that the roar had alerted him. Ryland spun around, and his jaws clamped upon the tiger’s paw.
Lightning cracked through the street. But it hadn’t come from the sky. I could’ve sworn it had come straight from Sondra’s hands, blasting back one of the men. As fast as it was there, it was gone. I only paused a moment to take in the scene before I was swooping down to the street again. I glanced around frantically, hoping to find something to use as a weapon. I found nothing. I would have to fight with what I had: my talons and beak.
Before I had a chance to reach the fight, the man Sondra had blasted backward hopped to his feet. Freaking vampires and their immortality. Even through the downpour, I could see the fury in his eyes as he fixed them on Sondra.
I flew forward and dug my talons into the back of his neck. He cried out in pain and whirled around to fling me off of him. My small body whipped through the air and slammed against the side of the brick building. I sank to the ground and gasped for breath.
When I glanced up, Lightning Guy was sauntering toward me. Terror filled my chest when I realized his eyes weren’t silver. They were blue. Which meant he wasn’t a vampire. To survive the kind of shock Sondra had just given him, he must’ve been—
Lightning Guy raised his palms and muttered an incantation under his breath. I spread my wings, but I already knew I wasn’t going to make it out of the way in time. A blast of dark green energy erupted out of his palms.
I flinched, but before I felt the blast hit me, a dark shadow crossed in front of me. I opened my eyes to see Venn writhing on the sidewalk in pain. Slowly, his arms and legs lengthened as his body shifted back into human form. He stared straight up into the sky while the rain pounded down on him. His body convulsed uncontrollably.
The blood drained from my face as I quickly shifted back into human form and knelt beside him.
“Venn, no!” I cried, leaning over him.
His gaze traveled straight through me.
I shot to my feet and narrowed my gaze at Lightning Guy. “Fuck you!” I screamed.
He only laughed as he gazed down at Venn in satisfaction.
“Ardeat ignis,” I mumbled under my breath.
The hem of Lightning Guy’s jeans caught on fire. It burned, despite the dampness of the fabric, but the rain had put it out before he even noticed.
Lightning cracked across the street again, pulling the guy’s attention away from us. His face fell when he realized only he and the tiger shifter remained. The tiger shifter ran as fast as he could on three feet toward Lightning Guy. Ryland sprinted behind him, limping on his bad leg, and Lighting Guy took off running alongside his tiger friend.
I didn’t watch to see how far Ryland chased them down the street. Instead, I fell hopelessly to my knees beside Venn. Boils had erupted across his face, marring his handsome features.
“Stay with me, Venn.” I placed my hands on his shoulders, but he only shook more violently under my touch. I ran my fingers down his arm and squeezed his hand tightly. It was beginning to swell.
I was aware of several other figures kneeling down beside us, but I didn’t quite register them until a voice spoke.
“We have to get him inside. Now.” I recognized the voice as the blonde from inside Amalia’s. She must’ve followed us outside.
Sondra stood beside the blonde and mumbled something under her breath. To my surprise, Venn’s body elevated off the pavement, as if being carried on an invisible stretcher. My sobs ceased instantly, and I rose beside him. Venn continued to shake and stare lifelessly up at the sky.
“Is he going to be okay?” Fiona asked.
Sondra turned her eyes away and didn’t answer. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“He’ll be okay,” Teagan said softly, wrapping an arm around Fiona. “He has to be.”
“This way,” the blonde said in a rush, gesturing for us to follow her.
She led us down an alley, past various doors and dumpsters. We followed her inside a door that I could only presume led to the back of Amalia’s. She glanced up and down the alleyway. Ryland rushed forward in human form and entered the hallway we stood in.
“They got away,” he said through heavy breaths.
The blonde shut the door and whirled around. She rushed past each of us in the narrow hall. “You’re safe here. My shop is heavily guarded with protection spells.” She flung open another door. “In here.”
“Oh my God,” Ryland whispered, his eyes fixed on Venn.
Fiona responded, but I was too overwhelmed to hear what exactly she’d said.
Sondra guided Venn into a small room no bigger than my studio apartment. There was a small kitchenette against one corner and a big burgundy couch against another. The break room had similar decor as the main shop. I figured the soft lighting and earthy tones were meant to be relaxing, but I couldn’t relax right then.
Sondra lowered Venn onto the couch, but he continued to convulse. I froze near the door and swallowed my emotions, pushing them down far into the pit of my stomach. My guts felt like rocks. I wanted to rush over to Venn, to cast a healing spell over him, but I knew my healing abilities wouldn’t help.
I couldn’t even combat the effects of vampire venom. I wasn’t going to reverse another witch’s spell.
“What do you have, Amalia?” Sondra asked.
“I might have something,” the blonde responded, “but it’s going to take three of us. We could call Clarita—”
“There’s no time,” Sondra insisted. “This curse will take over his body in minutes. Rae, get over here. We have to act now.”
5
“Rae!” Sondra repeated my name while Amalia hurried out of the room. I suddenly snapped to attention.
“They need three witches to run the spell,” Fiona told me. “You can do it, Rae. You’re good at healing.”
“Regular injuries,” I emphasized. “Not supernatural ones.”
“Well, you’re going to have to do your best.” Teagan grabbed my shoulders and forced me forward until I was standing right beside Venn.
I turned my face away. I didn’t want to remember him like that, the way he stared straight through me. It was terrifying.
“Why can’t you heal him yourself?” I asked Sondra. “You’re a high witch.”
“Because,” Amalia answered as she returned to the break room. She held a stack of glass vials in her arms and dumped them on the table nearby. “Breaking another witch’s spell is almost impossible. Can you grab me a bowl from that cupboard?”
Amalia pointed above the kitchenette, and Fiona quickly crossed the room and retrieved a large mixing bowl. Amalia began pouring contents of the vials together in various amounts.
“In most cases, only the witch who cast the spell can break it,” Amalia explained, “but this spell is weak enough that we might be able to save him.”
I dared to steal a glance at Venn. Weak spell my ass. His eyes were swollen shut, and I was pretty sure he was on the brink of losing his breath.
“If you don’t want your friend to die, I need your help,” Amalia insisted.
She held out two vials, each full of a clear liquid. Sondra stepped forward and took one
. Amalia stretched her arm out further, encouraging me to take the other.
I cleared my throat, willing my voice to stay strong. “What do I have to do?”
“Calm down, Rae,” Sondra said in a soothing voice.
I couldn’t understand how she remained calm at a time like this—or how she expected me to.
“Magic works best without anxiety or tension,” Sondra said, as if she were coaching me. “Venn has a better chance of survival if you can let all that negative energy go.”
If she thought that was a comforting way to put it, she was way off the mark. But the fact was, I was wasting time standing there. I needed to do exactly what I was told, for Venn’s sake. Emotions be damned. I’d control them, not let them control me.
I snatched the vial out of Amalia’s hand. Behind me, Fiona and Teagan stood beside Venn and did their best to comfort him. Ryland stuck his hands in his pockets near the door, looking shook. It seemed like he wanted to help but didn’t know what to do.
“We’ll save him,” Sondra whispered reassuringly beside me.
I forced myself to believe her.
“When we’re all ready, I want you to repeat these words with me while we all pour our oils together into the bowl, okay?” Amalia said in a serious tone. “Sana carissimi nahil pati.”
I repeated the words aloud, testing them on my tongue.
“Not until you’re ready, though,” Amalia warned.
We were running out of time. If I wasn’t ready to perform magic in the next five seconds, I might lose Venn.
I didn’t let myself think about that. Instead, I closed my eyes and pictured his sweet face, letting the warmth of his smile wash over me. Memories of the morning after I met him flickered through my mind, how he’d stayed in my apartment to clean my wound while I was passed out and had made sure I was all right. I recalled our friendly banter, how I teased that the first thing he’d tell his family about me was that I let him strip my pants off on our first meeting. I cracked a smile. I wasn’t sure he’d actually told anyone that.
Venn better live, because he still needs to take my pants off and get in them this time.
I let out a deep breath, letting the tension in my shoulders melt away with it. Deep down, I was still a nervous wreck, but this was the best I could do.
“Ready?” Sondra asked, eyeing me with concern.
“Ready,” I stated.
Amalia lifted her vial and began the incantation. Sondra and I joined in, repeating it over and over again until our vials were completely empty. The liquid mixture in the bowl swirled on its own accord, transforming into pink, then purple, before finally settling on dark blue. Amalia dipped her fingers into the potion. It dripped from her hand in a thick paste.
“Each of us will take about this much and spread it across his skin,” she explained. “The rest he will have to drink.”
I didn’t ask how we were going to get the paste down his throat. Fiona and Teagan quickly stepped aside as Amalia, Sondra, and I approached.
“Each of you take a hand, and keep repeating the incantation,” Amalia instructed as she wiped the blue substance across Venn’s inflamed face.
I focused my attention on his fingers, which had swollen to the size of sausages. I rubbed a glob across his dark skin. It spread evenly and soaked into it like lotion.
Venn coughed violently, causing my anxiety to spring back to the surface. Amalia pulled the bowl away from his mouth. Blue goop the consistency of yogurt ran down his lips.
“He’s choking!” I cried.
Sondra grabbed my wrist before I could reach his head and help him. “Hang on. It’s working.”
Just as she said it, Venn’s coughing ceased. The thick potion slid down his throat, and the convulsions stopped.
“He’s going to be okay?” I asked, glancing between Sondra and Amalia.
Amalia placed the bowl back up to Venn’s lips and forced more of the potion into his mouth. “It’ll take a couple of hours before we know for sure. We’ve done all we can.”
To be honest, I didn’t feel like I’d done anything. Boils still covered his face, and his eyes were still swollen shut. At best, we slowed down the curse’s progress, but I wasn’t sure we’d reversed the effects.
“We just need to give him time to recover now,” Sondra said somberly as she stepped away from Venn. “He’s a fighter. He’ll be all right.”
I wanted to believe her. I had to.
I sank to the floor next to the couch and leaned my head against one of the cushions. I held on to Venn’s hand and stroked his skin, praying to every god I’d ever heard of that he would survive.
At some point, I closed my eyes, and my consciousness drifted away.
I gazed down at my hands. I knew they were mine because they were attached to my body, but they didn’t look like my hands. The fingers were longer and the nails the wrong shape, but the abnormalities didn’t seem to register in the moment.
“I need your hand,” I instructed in a voice that sounded familiar, as if I’d been hearing it my whole life. But at the same time, it was like I’d never heard it before. I spoke with a thick British accent. It felt perfectly natural, like I’d been born with it.
A hand came into view, though I didn’t look up to see who the hand belonged to. Somehow, I knew it was a man, despite the smooth skin and neat fingernails. I grabbed on to his wrist and held his hand over a wooden bowl.
“This is going to hurt,” I warned him.
“I know,” the man replied in an equally thick accent. “I’m prepared.”
My heart hammered as I picked up a dagger sitting on the table beside my bowl. Somehow, I knew it was the man’s dagger. I gazed down at the embellishments on the handle, knowing I’d never be able to afford something like this on my own.
I placed the blade to his palm. My hands shook, and I hesitated.
“Do as you’re told, witch,” the man snarled. He said the word witch like it was poison on his tongue.
I swallowed hard and then dragged the blade across his skin, cutting deeper than I needed to. I wanted the man to hurt. I wanted him to suffer. Every instinct told me that he deserved it.
Blood poured out of the wound, filling the bowl with a crimson liquid. The man didn’t make a sound, as if he was immune to the pain.
“I hope this is what you truly want,” I said.
“It is,” the man growled. “I will not let the fate of man claim me.”
I jerked awake. The details of my dream began to slip away the moment my eyes opened. I mentally clamored to hold on to the memory, though I wasn’t sure why I bothered. It was only a dream.
I blinked, trying to remember where I was. I stared up at a white ceiling bathed in soft lighting. The surface beneath me was hard and uncomfortable.
“Have you heard of it?” a female voice asked from across the room.
I pushed myself up. I’d been lying on the floor in Amalia’s break room beside the couch. Venn lay there with his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling slowly. The boils on his face had completely disappeared, though there was still swelling around his eyes. His hands had slimmed and looked like his again. I ran my fingers across the soft skin on his cheek. It felt like he was running a fever of a hundred degrees.
“Rae.”
Fiona’s voice caught my attention. I jerked away from Venn as if I’d been caught doing something wrong. I looked up to see everyone else seated at the break table.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “Why didn’t anyone wake me up?”
Ryland shrugged. “You looked peaceful. Plus, Tea said you’d probably stab my eye out if I woke you.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Why don’t you come sit by us?” Sondra suggested, gesturing to the empty chair beside them.
I glanced between it and Venn. I didn’t want to leave his side.
“Venn could use some space,” Amalia said. “He needs to heal.”
&n
bsp; No way, bitch, was my first reaction. I almost let it slip out, too.
“I’m fine here, thanks,” I said instead. “Can someone fill me in on what happened? Who were those guys?”
“They were some of Matias’s men,” Sondra answered. “I recognized one of the guys from his security team. He must’ve sent them to follow us to make sure we weren’t trying to double-cross him or something. We noticed them following and confronted them.”
I nodded in understanding.
“Amalia was just going to tell us what she knows about the Artifact.” Fiona sounded excited.
I sat with my back to the couch and draped Venn’s limp arm across my chest. My fingers laced in his. I placed a light kiss on the back of his hand while I listened.
“It sounds like the artifact you’re describing is the Sapiens noctua, otherwise known as The Wise Owl,” Amalia said. “I remember my great aunt saying something about it before she passed. She was the only other witch in my family.”
Sondra leaned forward. “What’d she say about it?”
Amalia shrugged. “Just that it was very old. It was created centuries ago by a group of witches who wanted to block another witch’s powers, one who was using magic for all the wrong reasons. I don’t think it was ever intended to be used on a mass scale, only for the greater good.”
“Did your aunt ever say what the object actually was?” Teagan asked.
Amalia shook her head.
Ryland shifted in his chair. “Did she mention where to find it or how to destroy it?”
“No,” Amalia answered in a regretful tone. “All I know is that when magic returned, my aunt became very interested in it, to the point where her kids thought she’d gone completely off her rocker. She became very involved in the magical community and taught me most of what I know, though her magic was a lot more advanced than mine. I think she got a lot of her information from her past lives. I have yet to remember anything from mine.”
“You believe in reincarnation?” I asked. “And Synchrony?”
