Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  “Absolutely not,” Kett snapped. “I just watched you drink from two elves. Benjamin is already dying.”

  I turned my attention to the bone bracelet on Benjamin’s left wrist. Half-healed scratch marks bloodied his arm and hand on either side. The bracelet seethed with blood, its magic deeply embedded into Benjamin, digging through flesh and bone. I could almost feel it burrowing deeper and deeper into the dying vampire, like a fast-growing malignancy.

  “His mother should have known she needed to remove it,” Kett said.

  Jasmine started pacing behind me. “She offered. But with Bitsy with us … Benjamin felt he needed the control it brings him.”

  “Jade.” Kett prompted me softly.

  I nodded, reaching for the necromancy embedded in the bone bracelet, slowly coaxing it into my left hand. I called my jade knife into my right hand. Then gently, carefully, I cut away the magic I’d gathered. One tiny bird bone loosened, then another. The separated pieces fell from the bracelet, leaving a gaping wound on Benjamin’s wrist.

  Two warrior elves barreled around the corner. Jasmine launched herself at the nearest one, taking him down with a vicious snarl.

  Bitsy was up and moving before I even knew she was actually awake. The young werewolf jumped into the air, slamming a vicious but gorgeously executed kick to the second elf’s head that knocked him sideways. It looked remarkably like the way she would have air kicked a soccer ball. Except hard enough to destroy the hypothetical ball.

  Still kneeling, I pulled my katana, inadvertently ripping the necromancy I’d been gathering from Benjamin’s bracelet as I spun and took the stumbling elf out at the knee.

  He fell.

  Jasmine, having finished off the first elf already, grabbed the second one from behind and tore out his throat. With her teeth.

  “Jesus Christ,” I muttered, giving Kett a look.

  He sighed. Heavily. “Stop biting the elves, Jasmine.”

  She looked up, face, neck, and hair slick with elven blood. “How else am I supposed to kill them?!”

  “We’ve had this conversation,” Kett snapped. “Twice.”

  Jasmine thrust her hand forward. “My claws aren’t as long as yours!”

  Bitsy stumbled, swaying on her feet. Jasmine’s gaze snapped to her. Like a predator homing in on prey. I slowly stood, stepping over to the young werewolf. Holding my katana before the golden-haired vampire, I tugged the werewolf behind me.

  “Excellent kick,” I murmured.

  Jasmine’s gaze snapped to me, fading from hungry predator to simply peeved.

  “Thank you,” Bitsy said, making it to the wall and sliding down to sit beside Kett again.

  I skewered Jasmine with a look.

  “I’m not going to hurt anyone,” she said huffily. “It was actually Ben who bit Bitsy. After Kett drained him and grabbed me …” She glanced at her maker, trailing off.

  All righty then. I turned back to Benjamin, gently coaxing the final pieces of the bone bracelet from his wrist with my alchemy. The flesh underneath tore away, raw and bloody. I must have nicked a vein, because it started dribbling blood. Blood that I was fairly certain was supposed to spurt.

  I cut Benjamin’s sweater away at the shoulder seam, wrapping the wound.

  “And now?” I asked Kett.

  Jasmine pushed up beside me. “We feed him Bitsy.”

  “No. We don’t.” Kett’s tone was steady and cool. But if his magic, fangs, and claws were any indication, he was only inches away from seriously losing it.

  “You … you want me to —” I raised my wrist.

  “Yes,” Jasmine blurted.

  “No,” Kett said. “We are trying to save him, aren’t we?”

  Jasmine jumped to her feet, prowling back and forth.

  Kett shifted Benjamin in his arms so that he was holding the back of his head in one hand. “Benjamin,” he said softly. His cool peppermint magic shifted, swelling. “Benjamin.”

  Kett was also calling the younger vampire telepathically, I knew. He’d done the same to me when he’d almost broken Reggie’s hold on me.

  The dark-haired vampire’s eyelids fluttered open. His eyes were blood red. “Kett.”

  “You’re dying, Benjamin.”

  “I know. I know the feeling.”

  Jasmine let out a moan that she quickly stifled.

  I pressed my hand against my aching chest. Not for the first time, I desperately wished I had some sort of healing ability.

  “I woke you to give you a choice, Benjamin,” Kett said. “A sip of my blood.”

  Benjamin’s hands twitched, then clenched and unclenched. But I wasn’t certain he was actually controlling the movement.

  “A sip,” Benjamin repeated. But his tone was remote, as if he might not have actually been hearing and understanding the offer.

  “If I let you be,” Kett said, his voice steady and cool, “you may simply slip into an … undead state. You may rise again.”

  “No,” Benjamin said. “I’m dying.”

  Kett nodded. “I concur. If you sip from me … you might not have enough magic left within you to absorb mine. Or, if you do, my blood could drive you insane. And then I would have to kill you myself.”

  “I understand.” Benjamin cleared his throat, trying to form the words he needed to say, to agree to the offer so it was magically binding. “I would be … honored …”

  “Kett,” Jasmine cried. “Please. Please! Now!”

  “Let Benjamin answer, Jasmine.”

  A smile ghosted over Benjamin’s face as he spotted Jasmine hovering over my shoulder.

  “Benjamin.” Kett called the younger vampire’s red-eyed gaze back to him. “You understand that you will be tied to me, and possibly those of my bloodline.”

  “Jasmine …” Benjamin murmured.

  “Not just Jasmine …” Kett hesitated, flicking his gaze to me.

  “Do you want me to leave?” I asked.

  He shook his head curtly. “I have another favor to ask. Two favors.”

  “The things we do for each other aren’t favors, my friend.” I smiled at him. “Anything I can give is yours.”

  Kett nodded, already refocusing on Benjamin. “It wouldn’t just be me who you might have to obey, Benjamin.”

  “I understand.”

  “I’m not sure you do. Having someone else be able to control you —”

  “He understands, Kett!” Jasmine cried. “Please, please. He understands. He wants to be with us. He wants to survive. You already know. You didn’t even have to ask!”

  Benjamin closed his eyes, laughing quietly to himself. And the soft sound brought a genuine smile to my face. Even while dying, Benjamin was … happy. Maybe even pleased. To be here in this moment. To be given a second … no, a third chance to survive.

  Kett bit his own wrist, then pressed it to Benjamin’s mouth. Blood smeared across the dark-haired vampire’s lips and chin, but nothing else happened.

  Jasmine collapsed between Bitsy and me, calling my attention to the werewolf. Bitsy smiled at me, but then immediately dropped her concerned gaze to Benjamin.

  Kett bit his wrist again, once more pressing the wound against Benjamin’s mouth. Again, nothing happened.

  Then I realized I couldn’t taste sour-grape jellybeans anymore. At all.

  “You’re going to have to force him.” Jasmine reached for Kett’s hand, scoring it over and over again with her sharp fingernails. Blood dripped down onto Benjamin’s lips and chin.

  I reached over, tilting Benjamin’s face up and gently opening his mouth. I held him that way until five or six drops had made it past his teeth.

  Jasmine raised her hand to claw Kett again.

  “No,” her master said. “That’s enough. Perhaps too much.” Kett looked to me. “We need to get him to ground before sunrise. And … I’ll need to stay with him just in case …”

  He didn’t finish the statement, but I understood. In case some creature other than the thoughtful, kind, and stea
dy Benjamin Garrick rose tomorrow evening.

  “I understand. Do you have a place to go? What about the bakery basement?”

  “We’ve got to get out of the damn stadium first,” Jasmine said. “The witches haven’t broken through the exterior wards yet.”

  “Okay. I can cut you out …” I said. Even though I really, really needed to return to the battle.

  “No,” Kett said softly. “I’ll get the fledglings to safety.”

  “Then what do you need from me?”

  Kett closed his eyes, pained. “Your blood. And … if possible, your knife. To cut through the warding.”

  Before I had a chance to respond, Jasmine reached over and took Benjamin from Kett, cradling him in her arms. Bitsy grabbed Benjamin’s satchel and shakily stuffed his notebooks back into it.

  “You want … won’t my blood poison you?”

  Kett opened his eyes. They’d reverted to their icy blue. He’d managed to retract his claws and fangs as well. “It very likely will. But …” He glanced over at Bitsy, who was using the wall for support as she made it to her feet. She followed Jasmine, who was carrying Benjamin, both of them moving around the decomposing elf corpses, giving us space. “As I understand it, the oracle needs you back at the gateway …”

  “And you need the strength to get your … the fledglings out of the stadium.”

  Kett lowered his voice to a whisper. “And to control Benjamin, if needed.”

  “Risky,” I teased.

  He chuckled. “Indeed.”

  I closed the space between us, straddling his legs. He hesitated, then brushed his fingers gently over my face and wrapped his arms around me.

  “I wouldn’t have had it this way, Jade,” he whispered against my neck.

  I shivered at the cool touch of his breath, his magic. “What other way should it be between us, Kettil? You’ve done much, much more for me than what a few sips of blood will cost me.”

  He smoothed his hand down my back and up again. “You underestimate the power of your blood.”

  “You underestimate how loved and valued you are.”

  He laughed again, but in disbelief. “I like the new look. Dangerous. Intimidating. But I prefer the cupcake T-shirts.”

  “So do I.”

  Kett’s fangs sliced into my neck with a whisper of pain. Then for the briefest of moments, he crushed me against his chest, as if gathering strength from the physical contact as well as from my blood. He suckled at me, feeling as though he was pulling the blood straight from my heart.

  I gasped.

  The instruments of assassination writhed, then bristled.

  Kett immediately released me, shoving me off his lap and back a few feet. His now-red eyes were glued to the weapons hanging around my neck.

  “Sorry,” I said, lifting my hand to my neck. My fingers came away bloody.

  “I apologize,” Kett said. “Normally, I would heal you …” But he trailed off as he saw the wound already closing over. He shook his head, smoothing his features. He looked better already. Not quite so gaunt. He stood in one fluid motion, then reached his hand toward me.

  I accepted that hand, allowing him to pull me to my feet — though I actually felt better than I had just a few moments before. The time away from the battle had given my body the chance to properly heal. And whatever blood Kett had managed to sip in the short time the instruments had given him hadn’t appeared to weaken me.

  The vampire brushed a cool kiss across my brow, across the scar in the center of my forehead. “Thank you, Jade.”

  “You are very welcome. But I need to get back to the gateway.”

  He nodded, taking a step toward the trio waiting for him. Benjamin was still immobile and gray-skinned in Jasmine’s arms. Bitsy was upright but leaning on the wall. “Jasmine informs me that the witches had planned to cut through the exterior wards themselves,” Kett added. “Apparently, they’ve been unsuccessful.”

  “The wards have been refortified,” I said. I was instinctively defending my grandmother, even though I’d thought the plan of an egress had been unnecessarily dangerous earlier. I palmed my knife, offering the jade weapon to Kett, hilt first. “This will help.”

  A smile flitted across his face. “Yes, my second request. I will return it to you.”

  I shook my head, already taking another step back and recalling the taste of Warner’s magic — since the teleportation spell contained within my necklace could apparently pinpoint location guided only by that remembered taste now. The only way that made any sense to me was in thinking about how I’d claimed the teleportation spell. Then understanding how my inherent, instinctual power — my dowsing ability — worked with the taste of magic as its foundation.

  It seemed like Alivia was right. There was a science to the energy we Adepts called magic.

  Still, randomly teleporting into the middle of a battlefield was definitely going to come with its own complications.

  “Just drop the knife when you’re done with it. It’ll return to me.”

  “I will not just be dropping a magical artifact of this caliber,” Kett said, utterly affronted.

  I squeezed out a laugh as the death grip of the teleportation magic cinched around me. “Just set it down then, old man. Take care of my BFF, Jasmine. Pretty please.”

  Bubbly, buoyant, creamy magic blotted out Jasmine’s response, though I caught a note or two of her snarky laughter. Then my insides were turned outside once more.

  I slammed into two elves, knocking them asunder, then tripping and tumbling into a pile of limbs and decapitated heads, all slick with elven blood. Warner’s blade — trilling gleefully — whooshed over my head, nearly taking the top of my skull with it.

  “Jade!” my fiance shouted, slamming a kick to an elf just past my shoulder.

  Kandy yanked me to my feet before I could respond, throwing me behind her. I tumbled again, then found myself lying on a bed of decomposing corpses and staring up at the gateway.

  Haoxin was hovering a couple of feet from the platform, facing Mory. Gabby was curled around the knitting-needle-wielding necromancer’s feet. As far as I could tell, the amplifier was unconscious but breathing.

  Mory wasn’t holding or commanding her zombie elves anymore. Likely that had expended too much energy, draining her when she needed to focus.

  As I watched, Mory gently teased forward another strand of the magic roped through and around Haoxin. Then somehow, the necromancer released it from her needles. The energy retracted, coiling into the guardian’s chest, right around her heart. Her eyes flared gold, and she slipped another six inches closer to the platform.

  Mory almost had the guardian out of the dimensional gate, which meant —

  I sat up.

  Reggie was mine.

  My movement pulled Haoxin’s gaze to me. Slowly, as if fighting the hold of the gateway magic to do so, she lifted her arm and pointed her finger at me.

  Yeah, that couldn’t be good.

  My father was slaughtering elves off to Mory’s right, letting them charge him, then cutting them down with almost-lazy flicks of his golden broadsword.

  “Hey, Dad,” I called, rolling to my feet. “Haoxin seems a bit pissed, eh?”

  “She was displeased when I refused to simply cut her away from the gateway,” my father said. “On the oracle’s orders.” He laughed, a little too gleeful for my taste. Especially since the guardian of North America’s pissiness appeared to be focused on me.

  I turned to survey the battlefield. To get my eyes on Reggie. Every inch of the floor, every foot of the ragged-concrete-and-rebar barrier my father had created was covered in white-armored bodies. Most of the elves were dead and dismembered, in various states of decomposition. But a few were still breathing, fallen but attempting to retreat.

  The onslaught had slowed to a trickle.

  Reggie was getting her subjects, those most loyal to her, slaughtered. For no reason. At this point, with Kandy and Warner joining the field and Haoxin almost fr
eed, she had to know she was going to lose.

  So why not surrender?

  I strode forward. My father flashed me a grin, stepping back while clearing the immediate area until he stood only a foot or so away from Mory and Gabby.

  Warner and Kandy stepped up behind me. The few elves still on their feet and facing us hesitated. I made a show of pulling my katana.

  They suddenly convulsed, dropping their swords. The blades crumbled into fine crystal as they hit the concrete. Then the elves clutched their foreheads, driven to their knees in pain.

  “They keep doing that,” Kandy muttered.

  “It’s Reggie,” I said, speaking through clenched teeth. “She’s not allowing them to retreat, or even regroup.”

  I skirted the elves, leaving them for my father to deal with if they managed to shake off Reggie’s psychic torture. I jogged up the barrier, easily finding and springing off footholds until I reached the apex. Warner and Kandy followed.

  Maybe twenty-five feet beyond the ridge of broken concrete littered with the dead and dying, Reggie and Alivia were still standing on the raised platform. The ward builder’s magic shimmered all around them, streaming straight up to the domed roof.

  A few dozen elves were still on their feet. More than that number were wounded. And only a few of those were being tended to.

  “Fuck this,” Kandy muttered to my left. “This is completely insane.”

  Warner brushed his shoulder against mine, grunting in agreement.

  “You’re a coward, Reggie!” I shouted, climbing down the other side of the barrier. “A manipulative coward. Your people deserve your protection and you waste their lives. You were never going to win. Not even if you managed to hold me.” I laughed harshly. “You couldn’t even get past the witches!”

  The remaining elves — maybe fifty or so, and most of them wounded — scrambled together, lining themselves up in neat short rows between Reggie and me. Momentarily halting our advance.