by Hayley Todd
His eyes ticked around the room, lingering momentarily on each face. “The woman that lured my daughter to her near death has been identified. Her name is Alicia Curry. She is a witch. Were unsure of who was with her but the description sounds like a Vampyre.”
He fidgeted with a folder laying on his table, which actually may have been the same folder he had been perusing when we had first arrived. He retrieved and held aloft a picture of a familiar heart shaped face. The woman was definitely Alicia Curry. The image showed a tiny woman with pale blonde hair and those violet eyes.
“That's her,” I breathed.
Damien nodded before continuing. “We've received word of Ms. Curry’s movements. She has been spotted with several different covens in the local area. Lady Stark’s protégé, Liam Caldwater, has an affinity for detecting magic. He has sensed something big at a warehouse in the industrial district. The team I would usually send out for this is currently occupied checking another lead a few hours away. I would like to see if you all would be willing to accompany me in checking out this warehouse.”
Henrick leapt to his feet, fury filling his face. “You would risk our princess for a pointless endeavor?” He shrieked.
Damien went still, steepling his fingers atop his desk. “This is not something that you get a say in, Van Murg. If Kyra wishes to be directly involved with her investigation, I will not keep her from doing so. She has more right than anyone to find out who did this to her. Moreover, you're simply here for information sake.”
“I want to do it,” I announced, looking carefully at my father. I was shocked that he seemed to realize already how this would have upset me, had it been kept from me.
Damien nodded. “Carson, Kellic, Kyra, and myself will investigate this threat then.” He stood, not hesitating or waiting for further conversation. He rounded the desk and the three of us followed him.
Damien stepped through the front door, Carson, Kellic, and myself barely keeping up with him. Carson reached down, lacing his fingers through mine, giving me a smile. A man in a black suit pulled up to the bottom of the stairs. He stepped from the vehicle, leaving it running, bowed to Damien, and scurried up the steps and back into the house.
“Kellic, would you like to ride with me?” Damien asked, climbing into the driver’s seat. She glanced at me over her shoulder.
I smiled, eager to have a moment alone with Carson and nodded. “Go ahead, we’ll be right behind you,” I replied. I held my keys aloft, dropping them in Carson’s open palm. I could see a grin across his face in my peripheral vision.
He opened the passenger door of the Mercedes for me, and I slid in, strapping my seatbelt across my chest. He rounded the vehicle and situated himself in the driver’s seat beside me.
I placed my hand over his on the gear shift before he could change gear. “I'm trusting you,” I whispered, my lips spread in a smile. He grinned at me, pressing his lips gently to mine before pulling the shifter into gear beneath my fingertips. He followed down the path, with Damien’s vehicle in front of it.
Damien drove a shiny black 68’ Mustang and I was a little envious. It was a gorgeous, pristine model with a roaring engine.
“What are we walking in to?” I asked Carson, leaning back in my seat, and watching trees zoom past my window.
Carson paused before speaking. He seemed to be increasingly cautious of his words. I would've figured his secret being out would make him a bit less guarded. I could imagine there was quite a bit more to know though.
“I've heard a little about Liam. I believe his element is water but he's exhibited more abilities in regards to it than most others ever get, regardless of their age. He can sense things. We’re going to find out what is creating the wave of power he feels coming from the building.”
He drove my Mercedes smoothly, and it moved with him. His arm muscles flexed into his turns. He tilted his head, looking seriously at me. “I want you to stay behind me when we get there. I know you're capable but I can't stand by and allow you to be on the first line of defense. Please, just stay behind me.”
There was a conviction in his gaze. I knew that it wouldn't benefit me to argue with him. But I also didn't mind. We would work together.
I looked up at him, admiring the hard line of his jaw while he drove. “What did you do while I was in the coma?” I asked finally.
He stiffened, obviously not anticipating the question. “I didn't accomplish much, honestly,” he replied, thinking back. “I stayed with you for the most part. I helped arrange tracking the witch down before you woke up. If I wasn't with you, I was trying to find her.” His eyes went hard for a moment.
“How did you know about her?” I asked.
“I saw her, retreating from the scene. I couldn't catch her and still save you. And your human friend. It was an unfortunate loss,” he ran a fingertip down my cheek. “But it was necessary.”
“So, you were the one that saved Tyler?” I asked. I had been fairly certain after I ran into him at the club but he had never really explained what had happened.
He rolled his eyes. “Ah, the human.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “I was human not long ago,” I reminded him.
He conceded to me before continuing. “When I made it to the alley, the woman and her companion were leaving, headed the opposite way that I had come from. Tyler was hurled across the alley into the club door. He had a severe concussion, maybe brain bleeds and had partially bled out. He was cut up pretty badly and was a mass of bruising.” He paused, looking hard at me. “He wasn't breathing.”
I nodded. That made sense. He had collided head first into a steel door at horrific speed. I had watched the door dent beneath his weight and I had seen the dark puddle formed around him.
“How did you save him?” I asked.
“I fed him my blood,” he replied. “Most vampire races have blood that heals humans.”
“But because I am a Magick, you couldn't do that to me because it wouldn't have healed me, it would've turned me,” I trailed off, my mind swirling with information.
“Yes,” he responded, the words tight in his throat. I had expected that characteristic silence but he continued. “It killed me to watch you like that. You were so unbelievably fragile and there was nothing I could do to fix it. I didn't want you to have this life. I hoped that you'd somehow escape it, no matter how I felt about you.” He paused, “You're durability might be my favorite part of your change,” he muttered with a laugh.
I chuckled, running my fingers over my skin. I didn't feel any more durable than I had been, but I had watched broken bones and torn skin re-stitch themselves back together. And one day I might even develop Magick.
“I'm not sure that you knew how durable I was in the first place,” I replied, teasing.
His expression was torn. He was definitely trying to remain playful but I could see the tension in him. “I could tell that you tried to fight him. And I could tell that your training was no match for his overwhelming strength. It sometimes makes me wonder if you would have been safer had you already been exposed to this world.”
I understood what he meant. If I had been as strong then as I was now, as quick, tied with my fighting knowledge, I could've tossed Raoul about like a doll instead of him doing it to me.
“I was torn when you asked me to turn you. In this life, I could expose myself to you. I could truly be with you, albeit briefly. But I couldn't do that to you. I knew what the rest of this life meant. But it was hard to watch you as a human. It was hard to stay in the shadow.”
“So, you've really watched over me for my entire life?” I asked him.
He nodded.
“How old are you?”
He glanced down at me, smirking. “I don't know if you're ready for that answer,” he replied.
“Well, I already know that you're older than me.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I'm a bit older than you.”
“How old?” I urged.
He looked at me, hard. “I
was born in 16 AD.”
My jaw dropped. That made him more than 2,000 years old. I had guessed maybe a few generations or maybe even a couple of centuries. I had in no way began to believe he would be over 2,000 years old.
“You're two thousand years old?” I breathed.
He laughed, a soft chuckle more than a true laugh.
“Two thousand and sixteen precisely.”
I was stunned into utter silence. He was still stunningly gorgeous, and he still looked as though he were no more than a few years my senior. Did being alive for that long really make a difference? It had to, right?
“How old is Damien?” I asked him. He seemed close to my father. He would probably be the person who would know.
He glanced at me. “Older,” he replied simply.
My father was older than two thousand years old. That was insanity. I would have to grill Damien about his life at some point.
Carson drove around a corner and the city sprawled out before us. There streets filled with skyscrapers as we entered the city. The industrial district was all the way on the other side, blocks away. Traffic was light so we made quick time and eventually short wide buildings began to unfold before us.
The black mustang swung off the road to a brick building with tall Windows along its front. Several of the panes of glass had been shattered. The lot was entirely vacant. Damien creeped his car to a stop and Carson pulled my Mercedes alongside him.
The British Councilwoman stepped out of the darkness as we unloaded. A blonde haired, blue eyed man stood at her side. His eyes were the pale blue white of the sky on a crisp fall day. The pair joined us at the vehicles.
Damien greet them, bowing to the Councilwoman and shaking hands with the man. “Evelyn, Liam,” he greeted them.
Evelyn dipped her head and uttered, “My king.”
Liam bowed, crossing his arm over his waist.
Damien looked up at the wall of the warehouse, the area a figure of silence. “It's time to find out who is doing so much magic, so close to the seat of my home.”
Chapter Thirteen
The building that stretched up into the sky before us was plain, with sharp corners and edges and a standard rectangular shape. It had fallen into disrepair. There was a large white garage door with blacked out windows directly in front of us. It was to this door that Carson went, Damien and Liam flanking from close behind. Kellic, Lady Stark, and myself pressed in behind them.
It was eerily quiet, the air completely still. We were still technically inside of the city but the whole area felt abandoned. The closer we got to the building, the more dramatically I could feel waves of tense, dark energy rolling off of it. Liam hadn't been wrong. Something was here.
Carson knelt, grasping a handle at the bottom edge of the door and yanked. It stayed clamped into place. He repositioned himself and began pulling. A shriek of metal pierced the night from the other side of the door. Slowly, it crept upward until with a metallic snap, whatever had latched the door shut broke.
The door swiveled up.
It was dark inside; even my eyes struggled to piece the dividing veil of shadow.
Carson and Damien stepped forward, wary.
I didn’t immediately notice the trip wire along the inside of the door. As they stepped forward, moonlight fell across the chasm, glinting off a long metal string.
“Wait!” I screamed but my voice was lost to the sound of explosives detonating from either side of the entrance.
I was tossed away, a percussive impact slamming into my chest. I skidded across the ground like a skipped rock and came to rest with my back pressed against a metal tankard. My head rang and my vision spun, a screeching hurting my ears.
The building was shrouded in a cloud of smoke and dirt. Kellic was beside me, a few feet closer to the building, unconscious, a wound in her forehead bubbling with blood.
Lady Evelyn was bent in an awkward angle over a wall dividing the warehouse in question to the next building over. She was soaked in blood from her hips to her thigh and it dropped into a puddle beneath her.
I could just barely glimpse a blonde hide by the rear tire of the Mustang. It was the closest to the building that I could actually see.
Damien and Carson weren’t within eyesight.
I struggled to my feet, that piercing cry emanating through my entire body. My vision pulsed with it.
I staggered forward, notching a pain leaking up my left leg. I looked down to see a patch of white pressed through my skin. I glared down at the bloody spot, really not needing that at the moment.
Kellic stirred beside me, lifting herself into a sitting position with her palm pressed to her head. After a second, her eyes whipped to me, then down to my leg.
She beckoned me closer without speaking. I was almost glad for that as I hobbled over. I wasn’t sure if I’d hear her through the haze in my head.
She held her fingertips aloft, red mist emitting from her hand. I pulled closer to her, extending my injured leg towards her. I bowed and bent my other leg beneath myself falling into a sitting position.
She locked her hands around my calf and twisted.
For one brief, harsh moment, my eyes were blanketed with a red haze and my head exploded with pain. My entire leg echoed with agony. I couldn't feel my toes.
My vision came sweeping back to see her hands over my skin. A red glow emanated from my skin from my knee to my ankle, following her palms. The pain slowly faded, my head clearing.
“I've got to go to him,” I said at least, pulling my leg from her. She nodded weakly to me and resumed her struggle to get on her feet.
I stepped cautiously on my injured limb to find that no pain rang out in response. I made my way into the cloud, my eyes searching for any indication of Carson or Damien.
It didn't take long for me to find Damien. He was barely contained within the blast zone but there he lay, just inside of my bubble of vision. He had been decimated. His body was covered with open wounds, blood welling all over him and the surrounding area. His chest wasn't rising and he didn't move.
I fell to his side, flipping him so I could see his face. There was a large gap along his cheek that should've been filled with flesh. I lifted my wrist to my mouth, stabbing my teeth into the flesh there. Once a suitable wound had been opened, I pressed the bloody limb to his lips. For a moment, he didn't respond, but after a few breaths, his eyes blinked open, his hands grabbing my arm and hand. His eyes darted up to me and he released me, using his hands to lifted himself.
I gave him a meaningful look and edged farther forward, starting to feel an anxious pit in my stomach.
I had to step within the open door before I found Carson’s still form. His body was stretched across a concrete floor, a three foot wide piece of metal door an inch deep in his side.
I dashed to his side, looking him over. He was broken and battered. His chest was caved in, his arm bent behind him awkwardly, his leg twisted to the side. His face was cut and bruised and his blood pooled around my knees.
“Dammit,” I puffed.
I lifted my wrist to see that the wound there had healed already. A faint red glow skipped across my skin. Intriguing.
I bit into my skin again, tearing a sizeable hole, letting blood run own my arm. I lowered it to Carson’s lips and had to wait an agonizing thirty seconds before he stirred. His eyes opened groggily, trained on me already.
I stared into them. I knew this was going to hurt before I even reached for it.
My free hand latched onto the shard of metal, keeping my wrist pressed to his mouth. I pulled, hard, and with a disgusting shick of bloody flesh, it lurched free. I tossed it aside, clutching my hand onto the gap in his side until the skin begin to knit back together below me.
He started to sit up as I pulled my wrist away.
He blinked hard, his eyes never leaving me. “Are you okay?” He asked, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.
I puffed out a laugh. “Am I okay?” I asked.
He
looked me up and down and nodded, his gaze returning to my eyes.
“I'm fine,” I continued. “Are you okay? That's the real question.” I held my arm out, clasping my hand around his wrist and drawing him to his feet.
His hand brushed the wound along his waist. “I seem to be alright now,” he said, grinning down at me. “How did you know to feed me blood?”
“Well, I actually hoped the healing thing was true for you guys too, and additionally got tapped up from Kellic before I came looking for you.” I lifted my forearms and could still see that red glow skimming my skin. My leg felt phenomenal as I kept my wait on it.
He nodded appreciatively. “Smart,” he muttered and pressed a kiss to my lips. Then he lifted my arm to his face and pressed a kiss along inner arm. “Thank you.”
I smiled. I couldn't help it. He was intoxicating. “Any time.”
Damien made his way to him, Kellic trailing on his heels. I could seem Liam trying to rouse himself but Evelyn hadn't yet reappeared.
“Is everyone alright?” Asked my father, looking us over.
“Thanks to Kyra and Kellic,” Carson replied.
My father’s eyes trained on me. “I'm proud of you, my daughter,” he said, proud.
My heart swelled.
But we were doing something more important at the moment.
I turned away from them, facing deeper into the warehouse. I could feel that pulsating darkness more now in the absence of the door. The dark cloud between us seemed more tangible now.
Carson stepped around me, making his way cautiously into the room. I followed him, my dad and Kellic flanking me.
Our footsteps echoed through the cavernous room. The ceiling stretched several stories above, lined with metal supports. The room itself sported dozens of shelves, haphazardly filled with items of all sorts but was otherwise empty.