Elise pulls over to the side of the street just before the first house and parks the car. There is a man sitting in a rocking chair on the porch. His hands are folded in his lap like he’s relaxed, but I can see the coiled tension in his body. He pushes the chair back and forth in a steady rhythm as he watches us. There is no one else to be seen, but I’m sure they’re hiding somewhere.
Elise opens her door and we both climb out of the car. The man stands up and walks down the front steps, coming to a stop at the edge of the yard. His shoulders are wide and the muscles in his arms are straining against the fabric of his sleeves, but he walks with an easy grace you don’t expect of a bigger man.
I tuck my hands into my pockets and wait for Elise to approach before I walk after her. She stops a few yards from the man, who I assume is the alpha of this pack, and pulls out her badge.
I pull on the vampire magic as well as I can in the middle of the day. It’s sluggish, but it does respond. The fact that I can’t see anyone else makes me nervous. I don’t think this is an ambush, but I’d like to be able to hear and smell everything I can.
There are three more heartbeats in the house behind the pack leader. The scent of werewolf is overwhelmingly strong like they’ve marked the place. I can’t smell anything else, and I’m regretting being able to smell that at all.
“Pack Leader Miller, I spoke with your secretary yesterday evening about meeting with you. My name is Elise Hawking, I’m an agent with JHAPI.”
The man purses his lips and nods. “Yes, you are here to investigate the NWR. I can assure you we aren’t harboring any of them.”
Elise laughs and puts away her badge. “That’s good to know. However, that’s not what brought me here today.”
“Who is this with you?” Miller asks, looking past her at me.
Elise looks back as well and waves me forward. I come to stand beside her.
“This is Olivia Carter. She is working with JHAPI at the request of the council,” Elise says, carefully leaving off vampire council, probably hoping he’ll assume witch based on my scent.
Miller looks at me for a long moment, inhaling deeply, then turns back to Elise. “What does bring you here today, if not searching for NWR members on my lands?”
“Missing persons,” Elise says.
Miller doesn’t seem surprised, or concerned, at her proclamation. “No one is missing.”
Lie.
Elise tilts her head. “Five vampires have gone missing. All from different clans, all high flight risks. The only reason anyone noticed is because the clans all reported them missing, and the council noticed the trend. Is it possible that’s happening with the local packs?”
Miller shakes his head. “There are only two packs around here. It would be noticed by us.”
Not a lie.
“Noticed, but not necessarily reported?” Elise prods.
“My pack will always do its duty to the council,” Miller says, his tone going hard.
Not a lie. I hear movement inside the house and glance at the window. The curtain is swaying slightly like someone just moved it.
Elise pulls her card out of her pocket. “If you do hear or see anything suspicious, please call me. I’d also recommend caution over the next couple of weeks. We’re not sure what the NWR is planning, but there has been increased activity in the area.”
Miller steps forward and takes the card from Elise, shoving it in his pocket. I’m sure it will be thrown away as soon as we leave.
“Thank you for your time. I hope to hear from you soon,” Elise says. She turns and walks straight back to the car, but I take a few steps backward first. I don’t want to turn my back on Miller. I don’t think he would attack me, not really, but the primal part of my brain recognizes that he’s a serious threat.
Miller turns and walks back inside before I even get back to the car. I slip in and slam the door shut.
“He was lying,” I say, glaring at the curtain that is swaying again.
“Yes, he was,” Elise says, her nostrils flaring in irritation. “He knew we could both tell, and he lied to our faces.”
“Why would they do that?” I ask.
“They’re telling us to back off. That it’s a pack issue and they don’t want our dirty, JHAPI help.” Elise throws the car into drive and whips the car around. “Stupid, overly traditional, dumb, assholes.”
“It shouldn’t surprise me, I could see a coven doing the same thing,” I say with a sigh.
Elise rubs her hands roughly over her mouth. “I get their hesitation, it just frustrates me. JHAPI has done really good work over the last five years, but we could have done so much more if the paranormal community actually trusted us.”
“Do you think there’s any chance he’ll call?” I ask.
Elise shakes her head. “Not really. I just have to try.”
The gate opens and Elise pulls onto the highway.
“That whole thing where everyone was watching us, but no one else was outside was creepy as hell. Just for the record,” I say.
Elise laughs. “I guess it is. I’ve been on the other side before, which takes away a lot of the intimidation factor. I know they have all the kids in there giggling and daring each other to peek out.”
I smile. “That does make it less intimidating.”
“You’re training with Hu this afternoon, right?” She asks.
I nod. “Yeah, apparently sleep isn’t necessary.”
“Coffee is all you need,” Elise says solemnly. “You’ll come to accept that soon.”
I shake my head. “Coffee can only help so much.”
12
The gym is in the basement. There are way more fluorescent lights than necessary, filling the whole room with a harsh lighting. There is a rack of weights on the back wall, which is also lined with mirrors. To the right is an MMA style octagon cage and to the left are five punching bags hung in a row. The floor is wooden, except for two matted areas by the cage and the bags.
Hu is at the punching bags, and he is frighteningly strong. He cuts across the front of the bag and throws a left hook punch. His fist connects with a deep, resounding smack that shakes the bag on the chain. He punches with the other hand, then slides backward with a quick jab. He’s a fast and powerful striker. I hope he isn’t expecting me to spar with him.
He’s wearing a tight black tank that clings to the muscles in his back. I can see more of the tattoo that is always peeking out of his collar. My first impression that it is fire was wrong. It’s the tip of a vibrant red and orange wing that disappears into his shirt. He circles around the bag striking faster and faster, stopping only when he spots me.
“Hey, Olivia,” he says, leaving the bag swinging and jogging toward me.
“Hey,” I say, mustering up a smile. He is helping me in his free time, so I’m going to try to be as pleasant as possible even if I have been forced to get up before the sun has set and I feel like shit.
“I’m glad we found time to do this today,” Hu says. “Have you received any training at all for this magic? Or has it always been something you hid?”
“No training,” I say uncomfortably.
“Alright,” he says. “Well, let’s get started with this.”
Hu jogs over to the corner and drags a training dummy over to the empty area between the punching bags and the door. It’s the torso and head of a man, no arms, on a black stand. This sort of dummy is normally used for kicking practice. This particular one looks like it has seen better days. The head is lopsided and there are random gouges and a stain that looks suspiciously like blood.
“This thing is getting thrown away after today,” Hu says, rubbing his hands together. “So I was able to talk them into letting us use it for a little practice.”
“What kind of practice, exactly?” I ask.
“I want you to show me an attack. Use your electric magic,” Hu says as he walks over to stand beside me.
“Okay, so just,” I gesture at it and make an explosion noise
.
“Keep it on the lighter side. I’d just like to see what you know.” Hu steps back a few steps behind me and nods in encouragement.
I face the dummy, hands on my hips. I don’t really know anything about how to use this type of magic, but I don’t want to admit that just yet. The things I have done have been on instinct and they were effective. Maybe I can do this.
I take a deep breath and let the electric magic buzz through me. The hair on my arms stands on end and some of the hair on my head floats up like someone rubbed it with a balloon. I lift my hands and a sparking ball of light and electricity hurtles from my palms toward the dummy.
It hits it with a flash and a sound like thunder that makes me flinch. The center of the dummy is melted and twisted and the lopsided head is now hanging off the side, connected by one lumpy strip.
I clear my throat and smooth down the flyaway hairs that are still floating around me. I feel staticky. With one final breath, I turn around to face Hu.
He has his chin in his hand and he is staring at the smoldering remains of the practice dummy. He starts to say something, then shakes his head.
“What?” I ask, crossing my arms and looking back at it self consciously.
“That was very—powerful,” he says haltingly. “I’m glad you didn’t actually follow through on your threat to Cook in the meeting room the other day. I’d have ended up scorched too.”
I smirk at the mental image of Cook looking like the practice dummy. It’s harder to be smug without a head. Or a chest.
“As great as that sounds, I wouldn’t have done all that to him,” I say, waving a hand at it dismissively.
“Are you sure about that?” Hu asks.
I shrug. “Yes?”
“Show me a light attack,” he says, waving at the dummy and stepping back a couple of paces.
I frown. He’s being dramatic. I can do a light attack. I just didn’t understand how light he wanted that last one to be. It’s probably easier than putting all my power into it anyhow.
I lift my hands again and pool the magic in my palms. The electricity streaks across the space, a bolt this time, and slams into the dummy, knocking it backward and splitting the base in half. I drop my hands and swallow uncomfortably.
“Ok, so I might have a problem with controlling this,” I say as I look down at my still tingling fingers.
“Yes,” Hu says striding toward the wall and grabbing a fire extinguisher. He sprays down the dummy but keeps the extinguisher as he walks over to me. “Let’s start with something a lot more basic.”
I rub my hands against my sweats and nod in agreement. “Right. Basic.”
“When using offensive magic you have two options. A big, powerful attack,” he says gesturing at the dummy. “Or a precise, focused attack that uses less magic and requires less strength.”
He lifts his right arm and fire snakes down it, leaps from his fingers and cracks in the air right in front of my face like a whip. I stumble backward even though I’m a breath too late to avoid it.
“Way to give me a heart attack,” I mutter.
Hu laughs. “Sorry, just thought a demonstration would be more impactful.”
“Consider it successful.”
He snaps his fingers and a flame jumps up, then stretches out and curls around his hand in a spiral. He slowly builds the size of the flame until I can feel the heat from where I’m standing.
“This was one of the first exercises my Mom taught me,” he explains, lifting his arm. “The point of it was to keep my magic small and contained, and going exactly where I want it. Electric magic is a little different in execution, but the same concept applies. What I want you to do is take that wild energy you normally throw at people and contain it in your hand.”
“That’s it? Just keep a little ball of electricity in my hand?” I ask, crossing my arms.
“That’s it,” he says with a shrug. “It’s simple and something you can practice pretty much anywhere. Once you master that, we’ll talk about the next step.”
“Okay.” I sit down on the floor and cross my legs. Hu comes and sits across from me, keeping the extinguisher within reach.
When I’m brewing the magic isn’t trying to escape or control me like the electric magic does. It’s just part of me. I don’t remember struggling against it even as a child. Even the healing magic was never this hard to control. I did have to learn quickly not use too much of it, but it was gentle. I always thought of it as a faucet. I could turn the flow up or down, but it wasn’t much more complicated than that.
Controlling this magic is like holding a pit bull on a leash. Once I pull on it, it starts pulling on me. It was especially difficult to control at the beginning whenever I got angry. Hell, it’s still hard to keep under wraps when I get angry.
“Does your magic respond to your emotions?” I ask, staring at my hands. “I feel like it’s always trying to escape when I get angry or frustrated.”
“Yes,” Hu says with a nod. “When I was younger it was difficult. However, I had been meditating from a young age and I knew what to expect. Fire witches are known for their tempers, and some of us use that as an excuse. My mother didn’t believe in accepting weakness like that.”
“So it is possible to control it?” I ask.
“Yes.”
I nod and take a deep breath. If it’s just a matter of being more stubborn than the magic, then I’ve got this. There’s no way I’m going to let the magic I stole control me.
The crackling energy is still pounding in my chest, ready to be used. I tug on it and the magic sparks along my fingertips. I stop thinking about an attack and simply wiggle my fingers, trying to coax the magic to the surface. A bright blue arc leaps up from my palm. I keep pulling on it, and another crackles across my fingers, then my wrist, then another from my thumb.
The magic is unruly, asking me to contain something like that in the palm of my hand seems impossible. I grit my teeth and pull harder on the magic until my entire arm is crawling with visible electricity. I look like a Tesla coil. My hand starts to shake with the effort of holding back, then the electricity surges. My hair lifts all at once and the magic that has been crawling up my arm surges and a bolt shoots toward the floor, scorching it.
Hu is spraying the area before I have a chance to blink and I cough as the cold fog blows up into my face. I let the magic go and scramble backward.
“I see this is going well,” Reilly says from behind us.
I stand up and turn around, still dusting the chalky powder off my side. Reilly is wearing a loose-fitting black tank and dark gray sweatpants. I’ve never seen him dressed down like this before. He almost looks like a normal person. Except for the drool-worthy muscles, that’s something you don’t see every day.
“It was a good start actually. If she had gotten it perfectly on her first try I would have been a little annoyed that it was that easy for her,” Hu says with a chuckle.
“I wouldn’t have minded,” I say, staring at the mess on the floor, and then the mutilated dummy.
Hu shrugs. “Oh, Elise wanted me to invite you out tonight. We’re headed to some club on the Strip around eleven.”
“She’ll kill me if I don’t go, won’t she?” I ask.
Hu grins. “She wouldn’t kill you, but she might kidnap you. She’s aggressive about her friends enjoying themselves.”
It occurs to me that while a club isn’t necessarily my scene, there will be tequila there. I plaster on a smile.
“I’ll come. It’ll be a nice break.”
“Awesome,” Hu says.
“And I can clean up all this,” I say, gesturing at the mess from the fire extinguisher.
“That’s good because I’m actually running late. Ivy is expecting me in a half hour to go visit another local coven and I still need to shower. I’ll see you tonight.” Hu leaves with a wave.
I turn to Reilly, who is staring at the dummy with a grin on his face.
“Anger issues?” He asks.
“Your wish is my command,” Reilly says with a mock bow.
The electric magic tingles at the edges of my fingertips. It would be so easy to just lose control and throw everything I have at him. The only thing stopping me is knowing he could probably dodge the attack. He’s unreasonably fast. Faster than anyone else I’ve seen.
“You move insanely fast,” I say, trying to nudge him to get to the point. “How do you do that?”
“Well, the strength and speed of a vampire are based on two things,” Reilly says, rolling his head in a circle as she stretches his arms out in front of him. “Their sire and age.”
“Why the sire?” I ask.
“Strength begets strength. The original clans all have different advantages that they are known for. Tenebris is known for our speed. Familia de Sangre are known for their strength. Ānjìng De Sǐwán seem almost immune to the sun, even their younger vampires can wake during the day.”
“So your sire’s strengths are passed down to you?” I ask.
Reilly nods. “And sometimes their weaknesses. The most effective sires have the best control as well.”
I wonder if my sire would be my father, or if it would be Javier. Or, now that I’ve fed from Damien and Reilly if I’ve somehow taken on their talents and weaknesses as well.
“That explains that half. I’ve always known that older vampires are stronger, but not why. Witches don’t gain actual power as they age, skill maybe, but everyone seems to just have the power they were born with and nothing more,” I say.
“The magic that keeps us alive is different. I remember what it felt like when I was first changed,” Reilly says, looking off into the distance. “Every day, with every feeding, I could feel it growing. The potential seems endless sometimes. That’s part of the hunger as well, you can feel it making you stronger and that’s addictive all on its own.”
Blood Magic: Witch’s Bite Series Book Three Page 9