Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2

by T. L. McDonald

  “Here I am.”

  She pulls away quickly, staring at the half-healed wounds at his neck. “They were wrong, right? You’re not a vampire, are you?”

  Jack chokes a little on his spit as he laughs. “No, Liv, I’m not a vampire.”

  “Thank God.” She engulfs him in another hug.

  Jack gazes up at me, the look in his eyes full of gratitude. Thank you for bringing me back, he mouths with an added, we’ll talk about this later.

  I nod and take a step back. I doubt Liv wants me here, anyway. Not after everything. Black eyes, dark magic, the constant threat of death following me around everywhere I go. I mean, if it weren’t for me, Jack wouldn’t have been attacked and nearly killed in the first place. I’m bad luck to be around. Vampires want me dead, and they have no qualms whatsoever about going through everyone else to accomplish it. They proved as much at the diner. No one near me is safe.

  I scan the room for the angel of death on my way to the door, just in case he or she has any ideas, but there’s no one there. I should count it as a blessing, but the churning uneasiness sloshing around in my gut tells me otherwise because even though I got Jack back, there’s no doubt in my mind it will come at a cost. It’s only a matter of time before the bounty hunters find me, now that the death angels know exactly what it is I can do and where I am. I rub my fingers over the charm around my neck, hoping whatever magic Ivy infused in it to keep me hidden will be enough to delay the bounty hunters from figuring out my exact location.

  Sebastian is waiting for me on the other side of the double doors. The two giant dudes and the girl with hot pink hair are nowhere to be seen. I probably scared them off—way off—with my crazy yelling and magic wind. That, or they’re calling for reinforcements and will be back any minute now to throw me in another white room somewhere. Whatever the case, I don’t have the energy at the moment to care. All I want is a bed with fluffy pillows and a warm comforter to snuggle into where I can sleep for at least two days straight.

  “Hey.” I wave a hand and lean against the wall. Now that the adrenaline flooding my veins is waning my body feels like it weighs a ton, and my eyelids weigh two. I start to slide down the wall.

  Sebastian is by my side in seconds. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fiiiine. Perfect, even. Jack’s s’okay, and bonus, I don’t have a skull-splitting headache. Which means the effects of Aunt Claudia’s suppression spell must finally be out of my system, ssso woo-hoo!” I pump a fist in the air. It barely reaches above my shoulder.

  Keeping a hold of my wrist, Sebastian drapes my arm around his neck, and then his around my lower back when I start to droop a little more. “You’re not okay, Indi. You can barely stand on your own, and you’re slurring your words.”

  “I aaam? Huh. I hadn’t really noticed.” My knees give out and Sebastian scoops me up into his arms. “Actually, I am pretty tired. I think I’ll sleep now.”

  Strong hands shove me up against the wall, smashing my face into the gritty edges of the brick building. His breath crawls over the back of my neck, his lips brushing a trail up to my ear. “You can’t hide little girl. He wants you dead, and I’m here to follow through with his wishes.” He sucks my earlobe into his mouth, causing my gag reflex to kick in. The burning sting of vomit creeps up my throat until I’m sure I’m going to choke on it. The sharp points of his incisors nick my ear as they scrap down over the side of my neck. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I promise you’ll enjoy it.”

  He bites down, his fangs plunging deep into my throat. He loosens his grip to tilt my head further to the side, giving me just enough room to slip the silver-bladed pocketknife from my jacket before the rapture sets in, and I lose my desire to fight for my life. Releasing the blade, I jab it over my shoulder, jamming it right into his eye, making him the second vampire I’ve done this to.

  He rips his teeth from my flesh with a roar, and I take the opportunity to run. My Chucks splash through puddles, throwing dirty alley water up over the bottom of my jeans. My heart pounds within its cage, the rapid pumping spurting fresh blood onto the palm of my hand from the wound at my neck as I desperately try to keep it inside.

  I turn a corner and body slam into something hard. Bouncing back, I land on my butt. Standing before me is the same angel who came for me as a child. The same one who took my mom from me. The burns she gave him are long gone, his skin flawless and perfect, but his eyes ruin all his beauty with their cold intent. A long metal blade slides down into his waiting hand.

  “You are an abomination, Indiana Grace Bellamy, and cannot be allowed to live.” He looms over me, the blade in his hand arched and ready.

  “Not today, angel. She’s mine.”

  The vampire pulls out the knife still skewering his eyeball and throws it at the angel. It embeds into his shoulder, the eyeball now shoved against the hilt. While they’re distracted by each other, I push myself to my feet and run toward the open entrance of the alley. If I can make it to the street, there will be people there who can help me. The angel and vampire wouldn’t dare kill me out in the open. Would they?

  I burst free of the alley, but instead of finding others to help me, I’m left facing a group of people in hooded robes, their faces hidden in shadow. The one in front lifts his arm and clenches his hand into a fist. I drop to my knees through no will of my own. He tightens his fist as invisible hands squeeze my chest. One of my ribs crack, and I scream, only to have it choked off when he tightens his fist yet again. The rest of the hooded figures close in to surround me. They reach down to take hold of my jacket, my hair, my arms, whatever they can grab a hold of.

  “No! No! No! Let me go!”

  Regaining control of my body, I kick and claw, fighting my way free—of a fluffy white comforter?

  Several fast breaths rake in and out of my lungs, my gaze taking in everything around me: white room, white furniture, white everything. No vampires, no bounty hunting angels, no dark witches holding me down.

  It was just a dream. A messed up, scary as hell, dream.

  I fist my hand around my shirt, the beats of my heart jackhammering against my knuckles. I’m okay.

  The door bursts open, the bounty hunter’s body filling the doorway. He charges across the room without warning. Arm reared back and a long metal blade in his hand, he leaps into the air.

  I throw my arms over my face, bracing for an impact that never comes.

  “Indi! Indi, wake up!”

  The metallic taste of blood fills the back of my mouth. It kicks my heart into overdrive as I scream louder and louder. My throat flays with each bellow stripping away more and more skin until it feels like I’ve swallowed broken glass.

  Hands come down over me, and my magic finally reacts as a burst of energy pushes out from the center of my chest with my next scream. A loud thud hits the wall across the room, and I pull myself up, slamming my back into the corner behind me.

  “Good gravy, Indi.”

  A series of coughs fill the silence now that my screaming has stopped, and I zero in on the sound. I know that voice. “Liv?”

  “Yeah.” She untangles herself from the broken chair lying in jagged pieces around her.

  “Is it really you?” I press my back against the wall as I scan the room, waiting for the bounty hunter to suddenly burst through the ceiling tile, or the vampire to suddenly reach up and yank me under the bed, or for the hooded figures to seep through the walls like mist until I’m surrounded by them.

  “Who else would it be?” She dusts pieces of wood from her jeans, her fingers stalling over a giant tear down the side. “Are you kidding me? These are my favorite jeans. Or I guess I should say they were my favorite jeans. You owe me a new pair.”

  My shoulders finally relax, and I take a deep breath in. No one is more serious about clothes than Liv. “Yep, it’s definitely you. I should have known when you said ‘good gravy’.”

  She makes a face, sticking her tongue out. “You know I don’t like cussing.” She picks up the f
lap of her jeans, holding it closed before letting it fall back open. “At least you didn’t hit me with a fireball.”

  A small laugh slips out, and then another. Before I know it we’re both laughing. It’s like a giant weight has been momentarily lifted from my shoulders. But then reality slips back in and so does the weight as she takes a seat at the edge of the bed.

  She stares at me with a look I can’t quite decipher, caught somewhere between gratefulness, awe… and fear. “Jack told me what you did. Thank you for saving him.”

  I shrug, not knowing exactly how to react. “It’s Jack. I’d do anything for him. I’d do anything for you, too. You’re my family.”

  Voice low, her gaze drops to her hands, and my stomach tightens into a knotted ball. “I know.” The air between us thickens, the words she’s leaving unsaid weighing heavily between us.

  I force myself to swallow, despite my mouth being drier than dirt and my stomach churning around acid like a vicious beast ready to spew it out. “About what happened at the diner…” God, I can’t even look at her. I don’t think I can take seeing her look at me the same way she did last night. “I know I went too far, and I—”

  “You can’t use magic like that, Indi. Not ever.”

  “I know. I—”

  “No, you don’t know.” The hard edge within her voice has me looking up. An intense mix of pleading and fear swirls in her green eyes. “Please, promise me you won’t ever use magic like that again. Swear it.”

  “I swear.”

  “Good.”

  “I really am sorry, Liv. I know what I did was wrong, and I know I scared you. I scared me too. The vampires were… and I… I couldn’t watch anymore innocent people die, and I… If you hate me now, or think what I did was evil, and you don’t want anything to do with me anymore, I completely understand.”

  “I don’t hate you, Indi. Or think you’re evil. But that kind of magic… it’s dangerous, and with our…” She bites her lip, her gaze dropping to her lap.

  The door cracks open, and Jack sticks his head through, saving Liv from having to say whatever it is she’s holding back. “Good, you’re awake. I’ve stalled all I can with Mom and Dad. If we don’t get home right now, we’re probably going to be grounded well into the afterlife. If we’re not already.”

  Liv jumps up from the bed so fast I’m half-surprised she doesn’t go right into a happy dance. Whatever she’s not saying must be something bad if she’s this eager to get home—where we’ll no doubt be facing Aunt Claudia’s wrath—instead of telling me whatever it is.

  I grab her wrist before she can get too far. “With our what?”

  “Not here. Later, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She follows Jack out into the hall, leaving me to my thoughts in the all-white room. The chasers seriously need to embrace some color.

  12

  Aunt Claudia is waiting on the porch with her arms crossed over her chest when we pull up to the curb in a borrowed SUV. Sebastian leans over, catching a glimpse of her twitching eye and decides not to turn off the vehicle. Smart move because Jack, Liv, and I are about to be in some serious trouble if the pulsating vein in the middle of her forehead has anything to say.

  “I’ll stop by later tonight. We’ve got some things to discuss.” Sebastian’s gaze flicks out the window once again before making its way back to me. His mouth pulls back in a grimace. “On second thought, I’ll just see you at school tomorrow and we can discuss things there. We’ll resume training Tuesday morning.”

  “That bad, huh?” I’m almost afraid to get out of the vehicle. If Sebastian—a chaser who faces off against the undead on a daily basis—is afraid of my aunt, then the fury rolling off her must be epic. Liv and Jack must be thinking the same thing too, since they’re both still wearing their seatbelts. Aunt Claudia doesn’t get angry angry very often, but when she does, it’s best to fully cooperate or stay well out of her way.

  Swallowing the ball of fear festering in my throat, I twist around and face my cousins. “Guess we better get this over with before we make it even worse by sitting here.”

  Jack and Liv share a look. For the most part, none of us have ever gotten into serious trouble. But for all three of us to not come home last night without so much as a phone call? Yeah, it’s going to be bad.

  “Remember to stick to the story. I got a flat. Some friends picked us up and invited us to a party. We went. Things got out of control. We made some bad decisions and then fell asleep,” Jack says, going over our terrible lie one more time.

  “And if they ask why we didn’t answer their calls?” Liv asks.

  “The music was too loud, and we didn’t hear. Or the reception was bad and you couldn’t get a signal. Or your battery died. Or you had too much to drink. I’ve already explained some of this to Mom and Dad earlier on the phone, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they questioned us all individually.” Jack dares a glance out the window and jumps, his back hitting the seat.

  Knuckles pound against the glass beside me. “You three, out now or so help me, you will be grounded forever.” Aunt Claudia makes a point to stare down Jack, Liv, and me. She doesn’t even so much as spare Sebastian a glance. He should count himself lucky. I think I saw the fires of Hell in her eyes.

  Jack gets out first with Liv following close behind.

  “Let’s go, Indiana.” Aunt Claudia shoots me a final warning then heads toward the house.

  “If I don’t make it…”

  Sebastian laughs and kisses me quickly. “You should count yourself lucky to have people who care about you so much. Not all of us can say the same.”

  “Now, Indiana Grace,” Aunt Claudia yells from the porch steps.

  I wave goodbye to Sebastian and leave the relative safety of the SUV for certain doom. I’d almost rather face a vampire than Aunt Claudia right now. The lie we’re telling sucks. She’s never going to trust us now that she thinks we’re underage-drinking teenage delinquents. But on the other hand, if she knew the truth, she’d definitely never let us leave the house ever again. And she would most definitely find a way to make good on her threat to erase my memories and suppress my magic like she did before. Lying and blaming last night on boring teenage antics is the lesser of two evils and really the only option we have.

  She ushers me up the stairs and into the house behind Jack and Liv, practically shoving us through the door. Uncle Caleb is waiting inside with a stack of cleaning supplies. Anger and disappointment color his face.

  The door slams and everybody except Aunt Claudia jumps. She gathers us all into her arms in a fierce hug with Uncle Caleb joining in. “Thank the heavens you three are okay.”

  As quick as the hug came, she pushes us away, fury once again filling her eyes. “What were you three thinking? You know better than to drink at an underage party, or to go to a party at all without asking permission. Caleb and I raised you better than that. And what happened to your phones? Not one of you called to even lie about where you were, nor did you answer any of the calls Caleb and I made. Do you know how worried we were? We spent the night calling most of your friends before calling the police to file a missing-persons report.”

  Well, that explains the multitude of texts coming in from Taylor and Paige.

  Hands on her hips, she takes a breath while giving us the evil eye. “You are grounded for the next month. You will go to school and you will come home. No exceptions.”

  “Can I still go jogging in the mornings with my friend?” I ask. “We’ll technically be at the school. I don’t want to not jog for a month and have to start all over.” Truthfully, not running for a month sounds absolutely amazing, but I can’t afford to fall behind in my training. Vampires aren’t going to stop coming after me just because I’m grounded. I try my hand at the sad puppy eyes, hoping they’ll work for me the way they always work for Liv. All I get is a narrow-eyed glare in return. “I’m guessing that’s a no.”

  “You guessed correctly. You can continue your jogging on
the treadmill in the basement once the space is scrubbed from top to bottom, along with the rest of the house. Spring cleaning is coming early.” She flicks her eyes to Caleb, who hands Liv a broom and a bucket full of cleaning supplies. “I suggest you three get started because you’re not coming back upstairs until the basement is done.”

  Uncle Caleb pulls out a gallon-sized storage bag from his back pocket. “Phones inside.”

  “But I need my phone.” Liv takes a step away.

  “I think you’ll survive without it.” He gives the bag a shake.

  “But my whole life is on my phone. Plus, I need it to set an alarm to get up for school in the morning. You don’t want me to be late for class, do you, Dad?”

  He shares a look with Aunt Claudia. “You can have them back before bed, but they go back into the bag first thing in the morning.”

  “But I need my phone for school, too. What if Jack and I miss the bus and we need to call you? What if some creeper in a van tries to lure us in with candy because we had to walk home? Do you want us to be kidnapped with no way to call for help? Well, do you, Dad?”

  I got to hand it to Liv, her manipulation skills are on point. I share a look with Jack, both of us straining to not smile.

  Uncle Caleb sighs. “Fine. You can have your phones for school, too. But they go in the bag when you’re home.” He holds a hand up to silence her. “Don’t push your luck. We’re being generous enough.”

  “But—”

  Jack drops his phone into the bag, then turns pleading eyes toward his sister to do the same before Uncle Caleb changes his mind and takes the phones away without any leeway. “Just do it.”

  Her eyes narrow into slits with a death glare aimed straight at her brother. She pulls her phone from her back pocket, then dangles it over the opening of the bag. She gives Uncle Caleb the pleading puppy eyes she’s so famous for. “Do I have to? I clean better if I have music.”