Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6

by Elizabeth Kirke

  “Danio?!” I gasped, dropping to my knees by the side of the bathtub.

  It seemed the wizard had chosen to remove his clothes completely, giving me a gut-wrenching view of the five deep punctures in his chest. I swallowed hard: Cleaver’s claws were bigger than I had realized.

  I could see what happened now. Whether or not Danio had successfully beheaded Cleaver seemed like it was still up for debate, but it was clear that Cleaver had survived long enough to plunge his claws into Danio as he landed. Even a slash from his claws seemed to release enough venom to do serious damage, this had to be worse, especially so close to vital organs.

  Across one thigh I could see several wicked, deep slashes. They didn't look very healed, considering they were the oldest of the wounds. I forced my eyes up to his face and bit back a gasp; there were four long scratches and a fifth short one, where Cleaver’s claw had just nicked his chin. The longest slice went from his temple, across the bridge of his nose, and down the opposite cheek and the worst one followed the same path, coming so close to one of his eyes I couldn’t tell if it was hit or not.

  The wizard had said Danio was having trouble breathing, I thought it was an understatement. Each breath was a shallow hoarse gasp, spaced much too far apart for my liking; his heartbeat was weak and erratic, as if his heart was struggling against the venom.

  For a moment I just stood there, feeling helpless, and thought of one of the unpleasant conversations I had overheard; the speaker was reminiscing about an unfortunate werepanther who had taken all ten of Cleaver’s claws to his chest and survived for an hour, until the paralyzing venom killed him.

  The wizards may have used a healing potion, although considering they didn't seem to care about Danio’s fate, I doubted they had been very thorough with it. Danio wouldn't be happy about it, but there was only one thing I could think of doing to help. I sure as hell wasn't going to keep standing here, watching him die like I did in the arena.

  I considered him for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to do it. Ideally, I wanted to use his neck; get it into his system as quickly as I could. In the end, I decided that efficiency was the most important thing, but it would be hard to do without risking hurting him or taking him out of the bathtub entirely. There was only one way to really do it and as awkward as it would be, especially if he woke up, the only thing that mattered was saving him.

  Hoping my clothes weren't too dirty, I kicked off my shoes and climbed into the tub with him. I gently eased him up and slipped in behind him. To my horror, I discovered that three of Cleaver’s claws had gone completely through. With a hiss of fury, I carefully lowered him down so his back was resting against my chest. The new position did come with the added bonus of the water from the shower hitting more of his wounds directly. I wished that I had thought to adjust the showerhead first, but decided this would have to do; I wouldn't risk hurting him to get back up again.

  Instead, I gently tilted his head to one side, converted my saliva into a numbing agent, and started licking his neck. As soon as I thought it was ready, I took a deep breath and let my fangs slide down, bracing myself for the unpleasant taste of water elemental blood.

  “Sorry, Dani,” I murmured as I sank my fangs in.

  Even though I was prepared for non-human blood, I was not expecting the foul, nauseating taste of what could only be the venom. I paused a moment, resisting the urge to gag and then began to inject healing accelerant. I pumped it in until my mouth was dry and the gland that produced it felt flat under my tongue. Instead of retracting my fangs, I switched right over to a numbing agent.

  I didn't have as much of either as I would have liked; vampires were made to be killers, after all. The healing accelerant and the numbing agent were both designed to aid in feeding, not for saving lives, more specifically, they were for fast turnings or prolonging someone's suffering. For that same reason, we had a type of adrenaline as well so when I was done with the pseudo-painkiller, I switched to that.

  When I was done, I gently removed my fangs and licked at the wound. I didn't think I had enough healing accelerant left to actually close it but felt better trying. My mind kept trying to wander back to the last and only other time I had ever bitten Danio. I typically respected his understandable aversion to being bitten, not to mention I couldn’t feed on non-human blood anyway, but when his life was on the line… The last time I bit him he was actually in worse shape than this; that incident he wouldn’t have survived without more help than I could give. I hoped this time I was able to do it alone.

  I leaned back and closed my eyes, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of the cold water soaking my jeans. I focused on the sound of his breathing and the feel of his pulse. Was I imagining things or was it already becoming steadier and stronger? A few agonizing minutes later, I had my answer. He groaned and I sighed in relief.

  “Wh-what?” he said hoarsely, starting to shift his weight. He turned his head back, trying to look at me. “Thomas?!”

  “Don’t move,” I started to say, but he groaned and faced forward again.

  “Shit, I’m dead, aren’t I?”

  “No, although you tried your best.”

  “I’m naked in a bathtub with you, I must be dead.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m fully dressed, thank you.”

  “Huh. Maybe I am alive.” He adjusted himself and looked down at his chest. “Ah, fuck, that hurts.” He took several deep, shaky breaths. “That… really hurts.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah… just having trouble… catching my breath.”

  “It’s the venom,” I said. “It will wear off soon.”

  “How soon?”

  “I… don’t know,” I confessed.

  “Mm.” He groaned again and dropped his head back against my shoulder. “This is nice, at least.” After a moment he added, “You can get out. I’m sure this is weird.”

  Maybe it was too many years bonded to a canine, but I was used to connecting physical contact with comfort. “It’s not weird,” I said honestly, putting an arm around him, while making sure I avoided the wounds from Cleaver. “Just try not to enjoy yourself too much,” I teased.

  He snorted in amusement. “I assure you, I am in too much pain to think about anything enjoyable.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “It’s not great.”

  “I could try to numb it again.” The last word slipped out and I winced.

  “Nah, I’ll…” He stiffened against me in alarm. “Again?!” He immediately raised his wrists, examining them.

  “I…” I sighed. “I… did it where you wouldn’t see…”

  “Left or right?” he whispered.

  “Left.”

  Slowly, he lifted a slightly trembling hand to the left side of his neck, feeling for the punctures. I felt his breath hitch as his fingers found them.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “Danio… the venom… I don’t think you were going to make it…”

  He nodded once and murmured, “It’s okay. I… I need to get over it anyway.”

  “You were tortured. You don’t just get over it.”

  “Eh, it’s been, what, fifty years,” he said too casually. He relaxed, a little, back against me. “I’m going to get myself killed if I can’t get past it.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  He turned enough to see me out of his uninjured eye. “I froze up with Victor.” He shuddered at the memory. “And he didn’t actually plan to kill me. They just threw me out against a fucking berserker. We both know it won’t be long before they try a vampire. If I get bitten in the arena, I’m going to freak out and if that vampire doesn’t kill me, everyone else will see I have a weakness and it’ll only be a matter of time. If Victor realizes he can get to me…”

  I hissed softly at the thought of it. Victor would use it against him for sure.

  “We’re getting out of here before then,” I promised.

  He snorted, but said nothing.

  “Hey, at l
east you get to cross berserker off your list. It isn’t every day a water elemental takes out a berserker.”

  At that, he turned farther around and looked at me, wide-eyed. “I killed him?! Are you serious?”

  I nodded. “I can’t say how though, it was impossible to see with all the dust.”

  “That was the idea. Although it was harder for me to see than I hoped.” He gathered a small ball of water and held it over his good eye. “I think I’ve got grit between my lids.” He tossed the water away with a grimace, blinking. “Honestly, I waited until I saw his shadow and then just swung the sword like an idiot.”

  “It worked. The general consensus is you beheaded him.”

  “Holy shit.” He raised a ball of water to his other eye, then winced and gingerly prodded it instead. “Oh, that’s more than dirt… oh hell… does this look as bad as it feels?”

  “It looks pretty bad… can you see?”

  Danio covered his good eye and sighed. “No.”

  “Let’s hope it’s just the venom.”

  “Yeah.” He adjusted his weight a little with a groan and tried to stretch the leg Cleaver had scratched. “Skata, this sucks.” He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Thanks, by the way. For saving my ass.”

  “Anytime.” I hesitated and added softly, “You scared me there for a while.”

  “Scared myself,” he admitted. He rolled onto his side, putting his injured leg under the water and rested his head against my chest with a sigh. “You don’t mind…”

  “No.”

  Danio tilted his head up to look at me, likely checking to see if I really looked okay with the seating situation.

  “If you kiss me, however, you will hurt a lot more,” I said with a small smirk.

  He chuckled, then sighed and his good eye darkened and grayed. “When Cleaver jumped at me… at the end there… I do love you, Tom, but you’re not the guy I was thinking of.”

  “Good,” I teased softly, knowing he hated this sort of conversation. “I’d hate to be set on fire.”

  We both laughed.

  “You think he’s okay?” he asked softly.

  “I’m sure. I’d sense through TS if he wasn’t.” With the way our bond was being affected, I honestly didn’t know for sure, but I was confident they were all much better off than we were.

  “Fuck this place,” Danio muttered.

  I tightened my arm around him in response. We sat in silence for several minutes.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked when he adjusted his weight again.

  “Better.” He sat up and turned around partially. “Is my eye doing anything?”

  I leaned forward a little. Both eyes were gray, although the injured one looked a bit less swollen than it had before. “They’re both pretty stagnant,” I told him. “Think about something pleasant.”

  He frowned for a moment, then dark blues swirled into his good eye and a thin ripple of the same blue curled across the other.

  “There’s some dark blue now,” I told him. “Just a little.”

  “That’s a good sign.” He blinked a few times, then settled down again. “You really can get out, you know.”

  “I know.” I shifted my weight a little and leaned back instead.

  “Thanks.” There was something about the way he settled closer that made me glad I hadn’t taken him up on it.

  “So, why exactly,” he chuckled after a minute, “did you feel the need to take all of my clothes off? Not that I mind.”

  “It wasn’t me. It was… oh my god!” I jerked upright.

  “Ow! Drought! What?!”

  “He cast a spell!”

  “Who?!”

  “The wizard!”

  He twisted back, looking at me in confusion. “What wizard? What are you talking about?”

  “A bunch of wizards brought you in here,” I explained, hearts pounding. “I could hear them talking in the bathroom, one asked what to do with your clothes and then he cast a spell.”

  “Okay? Wait… that means he had a wand!” Danio gasped.

  “Yeah.”

  “This damn place doesn’t make any sense,” he snarled.

  “All I know is we need to find a way out. Preferably before one of us fights again.”

  “Agreed.”

  We sat in silence for a while and I listened in relief at the stronger, even sound of his heartbeat and steady breathing. In fact, his breathing was so steady I was pretty sure he was asleep. I was tempted to ask to see if he answered, but said nothing, letting him rest instead.

  The bathtub wasn’t the most comfortable place and I wondered if I should go ahead and get out after he woke up. All at once, it occurred to me that in all of the stressful nights over the years that Char had spent in the bathroom with Danio, it was always just Danio in the uncomfortable tub in pain, alone. For all the differences between a vampire and a witch, I couldn’t really complain. I draped an arm over him gently and he sighed.

  “Char wants me out,” he said suddenly.

  “What?” I asked, confused, wondering for a moment if he was talking in his sleep.

  “Of MES. Or at least being an agent,” he chuckled sadly. “He’s kind of sick of worrying about me dying.”

  “It’s not the… safest line of work,” I agreed.

  “That and I have a knack for getting myself mortally wounded.”

  “That too.” I waited a moment, but he said nothing. “What did you say?”

  “I said I will if he does.”

  “That’s kind of win-win for him,” I said. Spending a few years as an agent was part of the deal Charlie had taken when he transferred from Arizona to New York and we all knew his heart wasn’t fully in the job, he much preferred the administrative side of things.

  “I know,” Danio laughed. “But I would never quit if he was still out there.”

  “What did you actually tell him?”

  “That I’d think about it.”

  “Have you thought?”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “I dunno. After this though… I’m worried enough about Charlie and he’s safe back home. I can’t imagine how he feels with me… I can’t keep putting him through this shit. Besides, I don’t really need the action so much anymore, you know?”

  I nodded; I did know. We became agents around the same time and we both put in plenty of overtime. It was a way to keep ourselves busy, because when we weren’t busy, we both tended to dwell a little too much on our unpleasant, still too raw, pasts.

  “Besides,” he went on, “back then I… I guess I didn’t really care about the… the outcome. As long as I got the job done.” He let out a dark laugh. “I kind of care if I make it out alive now.”

  I sighed. “Yeah. It’s a miracle we never got killed.”

  “We were pretty stupid,” he agreed.

  I couldn’t argue. Neither one of us had held much regard for our personal safety, not back then. We ran headlong into a lot of dangerous situations, often choosing to take risks and breaking MES protocol, putting the success of a mission over our lives. Sometimes I wondered why Jon let us stay partners, until it occurred to me that if one of us was taking stupid risks, the other was the only other agent who would rush in after him. Still, it wasn’t a great combination and we found ourselves narrowly escaping death on more than one occasion. Neither of us ever wanted to actually die on duty, but we hadn’t cared much either if we did.

  As Danio said, I cared now. I couldn’t pinpoint when that changed and honestly hadn’t thought about it before, but he was right: I had too much to come home for.

  I sighed. I was ridiculously worried about Jen – not to mention missing her terribly – but I was the one in danger, she must have been beside herself. Even through the weakened bond I could tell Tethys was frantic half the time. At least he could always tell if I was alright. I thought of all the nights Jen had waited up for me to get back from work safely. The texts at two in the morning from when she was still in Maryland, telling me to call her when I got
home, no matter the time. The number of times Dani, or Charlie, or Tethys told me she had texted them to check in. All the nights I found her asleep on the couch since she moved in…

  “Of course,” Danio said, “I’d hate to quit and leave you on your own.” We both laughed, until he added softly. “I wouldn’t forgive myself if you ended up with a shitty partner and got hurt.”

  “I hear MES agents are supposed to be pretty good.” I didn’t add that I knew I’d feel the same way in his position.

  “Unless they’re Fletcher.”

  I hissed at the thought of the agent, secretly a blood wizard, who nearly killed us both. I pushed aside the memory of the unpleasant encounter – we certainly had experienced more than a few close calls recently. I wasn't exaggerating when I said being a MES agent was a dangerous line of work.

  I considered my earlier thoughts about how much I had changed since becoming an agent and for the first time it occurred to me that maybe I had done it long enough… Thirty years wasn't a long time in a job a magic was fond of, not to mention good at, but even though I enjoyed being an agent, I couldn't honestly say I was so passionate that I would stay one. Especially now that, like Danio said, I had a lot to live for.

  It wasn't as if I wouldn't stay at MES in some capacity. There were plenty of other positions. Besides, even though he hadn't said anything to me, Jon had never hired a replacement branch manager when he was promoted to head of the region and was still doing both duties himself. He claimed he was waiting for the right candidate, but I also knew that while an office manager was required to have experience as an agent, one also had to resign as an agent before holding the position. Even though he was careful to not say anything within my earshot I had my suspicions that I was the one he was waiting for; it didn’t help that several of the higher up employees were fond of making not-so cryptic comments to me about whether or not I felt I had gained enough experience as an agent to move on to “bigger things”.

  If nothing else, Jon and Natsuki would be relieved to have me move to a safer position as well, even if my suspicions were wrong.