Magaestra: Tested: An urban fantasy series

by Katherine Kim

  That would make a weird amount of sense, though. And it would explain why her head felt so foggy. And when she tried to pull on her magic, to throw up a shield, pull up a fireball, anything, the magic was just as fuzzy as her thoughts. It was like trying to hold water in her hand- it kept leaking away, back into the ether or wherever it lived.

  "Oh, come now, I heard your breathing change five minutes ago. I know you're awake." A voice intruded into her musings. It was warm like melted honey and the words were accented in an almost sexy sort of way, but she couldn't quite place it. The voice may have been pleasant, but the tone was definitely not. “Time to open your eyes.”

  Faith didn't follow directions, and instead did a mental scan of herself. Her body felt weak, a little like when she surfaced to almost wake up in the middle of the night but didn't quite make it all the way awake. Thinking was a little tough as her mind did not want to stay focussed, and odd, random thoughts kept popping into her brain. Overall she felt sluggish and fuzzy. What the hell happened?

  She must have said that last thought out loud because the rude man with the nice voice answered.

  "You were brought to me at last, Magaestra, that is what happened," The voice crowed. There was a huff of irritation almost immediately after. "How I managed to fall in with such useless fools as those wolves, I still do not know. I am not accustomed to such repeated failure."

  Oh shit.

  Faith forced her eyes open and checked her body again. Did it feel like she had been bitten anywhere? When Aldric bit her the wound itself closed up quickly, but there was a tingle in her arm for several hours, even after there was no longer any visible evidence of the bite.

  No tingles now, just the finally fading heaviness.

  "I have been told that the drug will be fully out of your system within the next twelve hours. I look forward to breakfast." A man in an expensive suit leered at her from a sumptuous armchair. Dark blond hair framed dark eyes and a tanned complexion. He would probably have been handsome if he wasn't so clearly an arrogant, kidnapping asshole, Faith thought vaguely.

  Even in her fuzzy brain, she thought it looked a bit much when combined with his suit– three-piece and distinctly high-end– and the rug underneath his feet– cream-colored and plush with some faint geometric pattern all over, from what she could see of it. Faith blinked and looked around to see a low, white table with scrolled legs and nothing on it, another chair to match the one Rich Guy sat in was white as well, with the wood details painted gold and a perfectly plumped, bright, fire-engine red pillow resting in the seat.

  She didn't want to think of the name that hovered around the edge of her mind. That would make it too real.

  Curtains were draping the entire wall behind the man, cream again with a tasteful pattern of red stripes to match the pillow. The curtains ended high above their heads and seemed to stretch up and up only to disappear into darkness near the ceiling. Or at least she couldn't tell what was above them, as the light from the lamps near them almost glowed off the fabric of the carpet and the furniture. Everything she could see screamed expensive, luxurious, and egotistical. It was a movie set for a rich man that wanted to pretend he lived at his country club.

  Faith rolled her head, but all she could see was the back of the sofa she was laying on. White, again, with a fuzzy red blanket thrown tastefully over the back. The fabric under her cheek felt like velvet.

  "Well?" the man demanded. "Sit up. I have been waiting."

  Faith groaned. "Screw you. I don't follow your orders, buddy, I'm not one of your low-rent thugs."

  Given the surroundings that she could make out, Faith made a reasonable guess that his ego would be more than a little vulnerable. She smirked when he growled at her in response.

  "It is extremely unwise to anger me," he said. "I am Sandalio Conti and you are nothing."

  Faith struggled to sit up. She was feeling better by the minute, though she wouldn't want to run any marathons for a while. Stall. She had to stall until Aldric found her. She was one hundred percent sure that Aldric would find her, too. She just had to be patient. And stall.

  "I am important enough to stick around and send out shitty mercenaries and the Goldfang idiots,” Faith smirked. "And you didn't answer my question. Although I doubt I'd believe you whatever you said."

  Conti scowled. "I can make your life comfortable or very, very unpleasant."

  "You've already made it unpleasant," Faith shot back. "Have been for weeks, so why change things up now?"

  Conti's scowl slid into a more excited expression. Faith wasn't sure it could qualify as a smile though he likely would call it such. It was cold and joyless but still gleeful at the same time. Her immediate reaction was to try to pull at her magic, but it remained out of her reach. Think! she commanded herself. Ken talked about this! About how it's hard to focus sometimes. God, why did I have to turn it into a joke about coffee? What did he say?

  "Let me assure you that I have not even tried to make your life unpleasant. Yet." Conti settled back in his chair and reached for a glass on the small table beside him.

  "Did you escape from a bad movie? Are you seriously drinking blood out of a wine glass?" Faith couldn't stop the words. She needed to get better control of her mouth in situations like this.

  Conti ignored her and sipped at his drink.

  Faith took the opportunity to look around herself. What had seemed like a large, ornate room when she first woke was in reality far bigger than she had thought. In fact, it seemed that the ceiling wasn't the fancy drywall or plaster high-ceiling that she had expected, but stretched away into the dusty shadows that looked industrial. She could just make out steel girders some ways above the draped fabrics that covered the walls.

  Faith glanced at the fabric and realized that they didn't simply cover the walls, they essentially were the walls. The opening at one corner stretched all the way to the top of the drapery and was the same quality dusty dimness as the space above them. She was in some sort of huge, open space that was divided up by fancy drapery and expensive furnishings.

  "Where's Crissy?" At least she could get some information, maybe.

  "Who?" Conti's brow twitched as if his instinct was to frown but he couldn't bear to lower himself to that crass level of expression.

  "My sister," Faith growled. "Where is my sister Crissy?"

  "Ahh, the mage that the Goldfang's thought they could take. She is here,” he waved vaguely at one of the curtained walls. "She tried to put up a bit of fight, not that she was any real challenge for my people. An untrained mage throwing a punch at a vampire?" A smile flickered across his lips. "It was amusing. But she has been much less of a nuisance since she has been here."

  "What have you done to her?" Faith was determined to reach her magic and hold on to it. Keep him talking. She snickered to herself a bit, remembering a snatch dialogue from the villain of Jake's favorite movie. Got to get him monologuing.

  "Oh, nothing too detrimental. For the moment, at least. She is a valuable resource, after all, and one must take care of one's livestock. We are storing her blood away to be gifted to those of my people who prove themselves worthy," Conti smiled indulgently. "She tastes lovely, even though her magic is weak. I have enjoyed learning about my new abilities, however."

  He flicked the fingers of his free hand and a shower of sparks arced out in front of him, dancing through the air like fireflies. "A fire mage. Not a powerful one, as I said, so I will require several more meals from her, but it doesn't take much fire to blind someone."

  It took all of Faith's willpower not to growl and launch herself at him. She didn't need magic to blind this jackass. Tamika had shown her a few tricks that she didn't even need claws for.

  "You see, the one aspect of my mentor's operations that I truly disagree with was the wastefulness that was encouraged." Conti waved his hand and the sparks danced into a waving net between them, then flowed into a swirl around him.

  "All those mages drained on-site by whoever caught
them, or brought to him and Master Wilhelm to be drained by them. Such careless squandering of valuable resources! Then the vampires who took the blood, who gained that power? They were untrained, unfocused, and often sloppy, getting killed quickly and uselessly. My forces will be much more carefully organized, with the blood magic being granted to those who prove their worth. Once I have enough blood stored from you two, and that detective fellow, I will start selecting my elite soldiers. My special forces, if you will. I can’t wait to be able to rely on actual warriors instead of those worthless wolves and their weak, gullible Alpha.”

  Faith clamped her teeth together, willing herself not to throw up. Holy shit, this guy actually was planning to start World War Three! Uncle Eldridge had tossed it out as possible after Leo found that photo of Conti and the other guy, but nobody had seriously thought that was possible. A soft growl from somewhere nearby snapped her out of her panic spiral, but Conti didn’t seem to hear it.

  Come on, what was it that Ken had said to do when the magic felt so slippery? If she got out of this she was going to apologize to him and start doing the meditation as he suggested.

  "You, however?" Conti peered at her like she was a curious animal at a zoo. "You have some very interesting abilities if the reports are true. Tell me, how did you keep yourself and those children protected when we acquired your sister?"

  Faith growled now. Tamika would be proud of the sound Faith managed. "Fuck you."

  Conti chuckled. "I don't often lower myself to associate with humans like that." He put his glass down and leaned forward. "Tell me."

  "No."

  Conti sat back in his chair, an amused smirk spreading across his face.

  "It doesn't matter terribly, I suppose," he said, his accent softening his words, making them sound less violent and the incongruence was terrifying. "I shall find out soon enough. Until then, I shall simply reinforce my current skills before I gain new ones."

  He waved the sparks back into the space between them and reached for his glass again.

  He sipped slowly and smiled and Faith bit her cheek to prevent herself from screaming.

  13

  It had been hours. Hours since they discovered Faith's kidnapping. Frankie had admitted that he drugged the coffee he gave her in the car with two crushed-up pills Madeline had prescribed him after Mia's death and that she had gone under relatively quickly. A quick call to Madeline had confirmed that Faith was likely in no medical danger from it, though the fact that she succumbed so quickly concerned Madeline.

  It didn't surprise Aldric, however. Faith had once explained that drugs, even prescribed ones, made her nervous after watching a friend of hers get addicted to painkillers in high school. She herself rarely took anything stronger than over-the-counter pain medicine, even when she should. Madeline assured him that was likely a factor, as well as the fact that Faith hadn't eaten breakfast before leaving, so the drug passed quickly into her system.

  None of that was reassuring to Aldric, however, since Faith wasn't here for Madeline to examine. She should be fine was not a useful sentiment when fine also included not being held by psychotic vampires bent on some sort of movie villain world domination scheme. Faith was not fine and Aldric was pacing the clan house like a caged tiger, waiting for someone to come up with any useful damn information.

  "That's enough of that." Lucy grabbed his wrist as he stalked down the hallway, and tugged him in the other direction. "You are making everyone nervous and you've frightened the children to the point that Greg took them to the half-finished schoolroom to get them involved in a project. Jake shifted twice when you stomped past the den."

  Aldric blinked at the back of Lucy's head as she pulled him along.

  "I know that you're anxious about Faith and furious at that traitorous asshole, but that is no reason to take it out on the rest of us. We're all worried and angry," Lucy said. She stopped at the kitchen table and tugged until she had him seated, then pinned him there with a glare. "You park your butt right there, Aldric Donnelly and you find some damn calm. I'll make tea."

  "I did not intend to frighten the children," he said. He couldn't keep the slight hiss from his voice, letting anyone who listened know that he was stomping furiously around the house with fangs even if his face remained human.

  Lucy raised an eyebrow but remained silent and turned back to pour the hot water into mugs. Teabags went into the water and she bustled everything away quickly before bringing the mugs to the table.

  "Chamomile. You could use a little soothing." She set the steaming drink in front of him and he could smell the sweet, bitter herbs. It had never been his favorite tea, but he was not going to turn down any help in settling the fury he was feeling. Lucy was correct in that he should not be unsettling the others in the house.

  He should be doing something productive to find Faith. While Aldric couldn’t concentrate on anything other than imagining the bloody end of Cherro and his minions, Marc and Tamika were glued to their phones and their computers, trying to track down where Frankie took his Faith– And that was it wasn't it? As he frowned at the tea, Aldric realized that it was far from the first time that he had thought of Faith as his in some way.

  He breathed deeply over the steam and sipped his team, to an approving nod from Lucy.

  "I hear that you did not react very calmly when Frankie's actions came to light?" Lucy said. Her voice was mild and her words were casual, but the look in her eye was shrewd. "I hear that you referred to my niece as your mate?"

  Aldric choked on his sip of tea, liquid dribbling down his chin as he coughed. He grabbed a nearby napkin and dabbed at himself before looking up at Lucy, wide-eyed. The look in her eye was now amused more than anything, but her expression was otherwise unchanged.

  "Mmmm, I thought you might have done that in the heat of the moment, but you know. Often that is when our subconscious brain can get through to us," she said. Then she smiled, just a small flicker of pleasure. "Does she know how you feel?"

  Aldric blinked at the small human woman.

  "I..."

  Lucy laughed and reached over to pat his arm. "You tell her when you see her."

  "Assuming we can find her in time, I may never let her out of my sight again," Aldric admitted, and Lucy laughed again.

  "Eldridge told me a little bit about bonding,” she said. "You're well on your way, aren’t you? You should tell her that, as well."

  Aldric froze, his mind reeling from the shock of having his world suddenly slot into a sensible, understandable pattern. How did... When did...

  "Oh, sweetie. You've been going full tilt at this problem and haven't slowed down enough to even think about anything else, have you?" Lucy patted his arm again and then wrapped both hands around her mug.

  "I admit that when I got here I was... concerned. That Crissy was missing, and that Faith had found refuge among the very sort of people that she was supposed to avoid, according to my sister-in-law. But It didn't take me very long to see how everyone around here adores Kaylee, or how protective you all are of both of them. They're family now, that at least, is clear as a summer day. But you?" She cocked an eyebrow at him and smirked over her mug. "You always know where they are, both of them, and if you don't you get anxious and seek them out. You are well past attached and headed straight for stupid with it in the most adorable way. Except for right now with all the hissing and the scary aura wafting off you."

  Aldric frowned, thinking. Lucy was right. Since the day he had brought Faith and Kaylee here, he always made sure to know where they were and who they were with. The few times he didn't know, everything had gone distinctly wrong. Kaylee and Jake had been snatched off the street. Faith and Kaylee had been attacked in the backyard while Detective Lincoln stood there. And today, while he was at the clinic and certain that Faith was safe, asleep in her bed in a house full of security, she was being drugged and whisked right out from under their very noses.

  And he was falling apart.

  With a deep sigh, he
looked up at Lucy. "What do I do? What do I do if..."

  Lucy pursed her lips. "Well, first. Don't think that way. If you assume the worst, that is what you will get. Funny thing about the universe: it tends to be more than happy to fulfill your expectations."

  Aldric grimaced.

  "Second, you find your zen or whatever and get to work. Marc and Tamika have been calling all over getting in touch with people that could maybe have information for them, and I don't mean just Frostwalker people either. Humans, the odd stray, other packs, and covens. Whoever they can get in touch with that might know something. And Leo is damned close to growing a USB port in the side of his head or some such. He hasn't left his computer chair since we found out."

  Lucy raised her brows at him and nodded at his tepid tea. "Finish your tea and get to work. You'll feel more settled when you have a task in front of you."

  Aldric nodded and did as he was told. Lucy smiled and patted his shoulder when she stood up to go rinse her mug.

  "Good boy. I like you for her, you know. You bring out her real smile." Lucy clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "A significant improvement over her last date. I can't even dignify that jerk with the title boyfriend."

  "Thank you?" Aldric finished his tea, even though it was cold, and handed it to the small woman when she held her hand out for it.

  "Now, off you go. Marc is probably ready to update you on what they've been doing." Lucy turned back to the sink dismissing him.

  Aldric blinked. His vision doubled for just a moment, seeing a different woman standing there, washing a different dish, but having just as easily set him straight. He didn't know if reincarnation was a thing or not, but if it was, then he would not be shocked to learn that Lucy's soul had once resided in the Frostwalker's last Magaestra.