Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2

by T. L. McDonald

  Possibly.

  Probably not.

  I’m so full of it. But what choice do I have? Telling them the truth isn’t an option. Not if I don’t want to end up in my aunt and uncle’s memory wiping crosshairs.

  I grab hold of her arm. “We can’t let Jack go to Uncle Caleb and Aunt Claudia, Liv. If he does, you know what they’ll do to me.”

  She pries my fingers from her arm and stares at the ground. “I know. But you have to see where he’s coming from. Yesterday was scary. You could have lost your soul and been damned forever. We’re in way over our heads. Having Mom and Dad with us—maybe even the coven—would give us way more protection. We can’t fight whoever these dark witches are on our own. We’re not that powerful.”

  “She’s right. We’re not strong enough.” Jack leans a shoulder against my doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. Water drips from the ends of his deep brown hair onto the shoulders of his long sleeve Henley, creating dark circles of gray against the lighter shade of his shirt. “You promised me if things got too dangerous, we’d tell them. We’ve gone way past dangerous so many times now, I don’t even know what to call where we’re at.”

  He’s right. I know he’s right. I know the three of us on our own isn’t enough considering someone was able to brand a soul-sucking symbol onto my chest, despite everything we’d done to keep me protected. But the self-preservation side of me doesn’t care about logical reasoning. It only cares about keeping who I am right now intact, and if we go to Aunt Claudia and Uncle Caleb, they’ll erase me. And I don’t want to be gone. I don’t want to lose me.

  “But if we tell them everything, and they spill to the coven about the vampire stuff, what then? You guys cool with me being a lab rat? You yourself said it would be bad for me if the coven found out I can cure vampirism, Jack.”

  A small flicker of indecision churns within his eyes, and a small seed of hope plants itself in my chest.

  “Let’s give it a week. If nothing bad happens within that time, we don’t say a thing. But if something else happens, I promise, I’ll be the first one in line to tell them everything.”

  “I don’t know, Indi.” Jack bites at his fingernails, his legs twitching to pace my room. “Whoever used blood magic on you is going to know the spell is broken. I don’t know if we can protect you on our own. We haven’t been able to so far.”

  “That’s not true. It’s my fault our efforts failed. I’m the one who accepted a spelled necklace from someone I can’t even remember. I let the bad magic in. If not for that, who’s to say everything we did wouldn’t have worked? Plus, we’re not on our own. We have Sebastian, and he’s sworn to never leave my side. And now that the pendant has been neutralized, and the sigil is gone, we can cast every protection spell known under the sun to cover all our bases.” I bust out the puppy eyes and add in a pout. “Please, Jack. Can’t we at least try?” I hold his gaze with bated breath as I watch the conflicting emotions battle it out within his eyes. The tiniest of sighs passes over his lips, and I let out my own sigh.

  I flick my gaze to the empty spot beside me. “Where is Sebastian anyway?”

  “He’s parked outside. He darted across the lawn early this morning after your alarm went off,” Liv fills me in.

  “That’s good. If Aunt Claudia caught him in here, we wouldn’t have to worry about vampires or evil witches trying to destroy my soul because she’d kill me herself.”

  “You’re not wrong there,” Liv says with a nod.

  “Give me your wrist,” Jack demands, though there’s not much of a command behind it. It’s more like resigned indignation.

  “Why?” I ask as I hold my arm out to him.

  He pulls an intricately braided friendship bracelet from his pocket and ties it around my wrist. “The pendant you were wearing had a secondary spell on it to cloak the wearer from the supernatural world. I found something similar in one of the Books of Shadows in the attic that should do the same thing. So long as you wear yours and Sebastian wears his, you should appear as an ordinary human.”

  “Really?” I turn my arm side-to-side, studying the bracelet from every angle. “How does it work?”

  “Basically, the bracelet will link Sebastian’s energy to your energy,” Liv says, before Jack can answer. “And since he’s wearing the primary bracelet, his non-magical energy will mask yours so you appear non-magical too. We’re not sure how his chaser-ness will factor in, but it’ll have to do since we don’t have a straight up non-magical, non-chaser human to tie you to.”

  Meeting my eye, Jack lets out another defeated sigh. “I’ve also already begun searching for a more heavy duty protection spells to cast in the Books of Shadows upstairs.”

  Excitement bubbles up inside me, but I tamp it down before any of it can show on my face for two reasons. One, I don’t want to spook Jack. And two, even I know it’s crazy to be excited about continuing to face vampire assassins and soul-stealing witches without any assistance. Not to mention the still ever-present threat of angelic bounty hunters coming after me now that I’ve seen at least two death angels.

  “Maybe Sebastian will have access to additional spells we can use through his friend Ava at the center. She’s one of the witches who helped…” I trail off, and drop my gaze from his, the rest of my words coming out more whispered. He may have told me not to feel guilty or blame myself for the fact he almost died at the hands of a vampire, but it’s easier said than done. I don’t think I’ll ever not feel like it was my fault. “… heal you after the diner incident.”

  “She’s the one with the hot pink hair, right?” Jack asks, glossing over the awkwardness of the room. “I like her. I’ll reach out. Maybe I can meet with her after school and see what we can come up with.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” With some of the weight off my shoulders, I hop off the bed and head for my closet to find something to wear to school before Liv picks it out for me. I kick my backpack out of the way, and Liv grabs hold of it.

  “Do you have an extra pen I can have? Mine ran out of ink the other day.” She opens it up and begins rooting around inside. “What’s this?” She pulls out a well-worn leather-bound book.

  An overwhelming urge to hide and protect it has me snatching the book along with my backpack from her hands so fast she yelps in surprise.

  “Um, I’ll find you one,” I blurt out, hoping for nonchalance, but coming across as neurotic instead.

  “Is that what I think it is? How did you even get it out of the attic without Mom and Dad knowing? They have the attic spelled to alert them if a book is removed.” Liv stares at me, her eyes growing bigger and more intense the longer I don’t say anything. “Earth to Indiana? How did you get the book out of the attic?”

  Hugging my backpack to my chest, I back up until my knees hit the edge of the bed, and I fall onto my butt. “Um…” Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. This is not how I planned to tell them about the book. In fact, I hadn’t planned to tell them about it at all because the plan was to get rid of it without anyone ever knowing it existed. “It uh… it isn’t from the attic.”

  Liv and Jack move to stand in front of me. I didn’t think anyone could rival Taylor in the intimidating you will tell me everything look, but these two have got her beat.

  “If it’s not from the attic, where did you get it?” Jack demands. “I can feel its pull, so I know it belongs to our bloodline.”

  “I… uh... found it in a shop.” I swallow down the bad taste of having kept yet another secret when I’ve sworn so many times I wouldn’t keep anything else from them. Too afraid to make eye contact, I stare at my hands fisted around my backpack. “It… um… has all kinds of spells in it. Most of them are good, but others in it, not so much. It’s… um… it’s where I learned the sanguinary spell.”

  My room is so silent I can practically hear Jack’s blood boiling in his veins.

  “You found a family Book of Shadows in a shop?” he says in a tone so low and controlled, it has the hairs on the back of my neck r
ising. “With dark spells, and you cast from it? Are you insane? For crap’s sake, Indi, I don’t know why Liv and I bother trying to teach you the rules of magic when you’re so hell-bent on breaking them, and lying to us about it. What shop did you get it from?”

  It’s a simple question, but for the life of me I can’t remember. “Um… I’m not sure.”

  “You’re not sure?” The disbelief saturating his words practically slaps me across the face.

  A stabbing pain goes through my head as a memory yanks free, and I see myself standing in an occult shop. There’s someone there with me who tells me the book chose me, but I can’t distinguish the voice or see his or her face. A second stab of pain has me gripping onto the sides of my head and gritting my teeth. Another memory surfaces, and I see myself standing outside the shop. The name is on the window, but the letters are all jumbled and out of focus. They keep moving and rearranging.

  Small hands come down over my shoulders. “Indi! Indi, are you okay? Jack?”

  Jack takes Liv’s place, his hands rough where hers were gentle. He shakes me and calls my name, but the memory won’t let go. The letters are almost in order. Changing tactics, he mumbles an incantation under his breath, then presses his fingers to the middle of my forehead. I pull from the memory so fast I lean forward in a fit of dry heaves. If there were anything in my stomach, it would be splattered all over his socks right now.

  I wipe my arm over my mouth even though I didn’t actually vomit and force myself to sit up straight. The room sways around me and I close my eyes for several minutes before cracking them open. “B something. I got it at B something. I couldn’t make out the rest. The letters kept blurring and shifting.” Lingering throbs pound through my head, and I press the edge of my palms to my eyes. “What the heck was that?”

  “A suppressed memory. Wherever you got this book, it must be the same place you got the pendant. Can you remember anything else? Was there anyone there with you?” Kneeling in front of me, Jack’s gaze searches my face as though he can pull the memory right out of my head and lay it out flat to see.

  “There was someone, but I couldn’t see who they were. They were too out of focus. They said the book chose me, and I got the feeling they were happy about that.”

  A sudden knock on the doorframe has all three of us jumping. The smirk covering Uncle Caleb’s face at having scared all three of us morphs into a narrowing of the eye as his gaze bounces between us. “Am I interrupting something?”

  The dangerous glint in Jack’s eye saying he’s contemplating the pros and cons of spilling the beans has me shouting out a fast, “Nope,” before he can make his decision. “Jack and Liv just came in to wake me up since I slept through my alarm.”

  “Well, in that case,” he taps a finger against his watch, “you better get a move on if you plan on eating any breakfast before school.”

  “We’ll be right down, Dad.” The irritation in Jack’s voice as he stares at me is astounding. I used to think Jack didn’t have a bad side. Obviously, I was wrong in that assumption since I’m clearly on it. I’m just not sure if it’s because of the book I lied about, or the fact I prevented him from tattling on me to Uncle Caleb. Maybe both.

  Uncle Caleb either doesn’t pick up on Jack’s frustration or he’s attributing it to having scared a few years off our lives. With a final “see you downstairs” he disappears down the hall.

  After a minute passes, Jack leans his head outside the door. Satisfied there’s no one else out there, he strides back into my room. “We’ll talk more about this book you found after school.”

  “Do you think Dad heard anything?” Liv asks.

  “Nah. If he did, there’s no way he would have kept walking,” Jack assures her before settling his narrowed gaze on me.

  I twist the bracelet around my wrist, hoping it does what it’s supposed to as I stare at the school across the parking lot. Nervous energy crawls up my spine. What if the Dark Heart Coven is in there? What if they try to attack me in the bathroom to strip away my soul by force since their spell failed? Providing they’re even the ones behind it. Truthfully, it could be anyone and I wouldn’t have a clue since I’m basing everything on assumptions.

  “How do you feel about skipping school today?” I blurt.

  Sebastian drops the backpack he’d been reaching for behind my seat. “I feel good about it. I don’t think your cousins will be too happy about it, though. Jack was strung a bit tight this morning.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing they took the bus, then, isn’t it?”

  He sits back in his seat, a smile on his face. “Okay then. What did you have in mind? Please, say it’s fun. I could use some fun.”

  “I was actually hoping we could search for Seth. It’s been days, and if he’s said anything…” I trail off as a shudder slithers down my spine at what the consequences could be if he has—for him and for me. All my nightmares of being studied and dissected in an all-white room may be his nightmares too. He may even be living them right now. And even though he was the bloodsucking vampire who yanked me from the oblivious life I was living in one of the most violent ways possible, he’s human now, and I wouldn’t wish the things in my nightmares on anyone. Not even him.

  The smile drops from Sebastian’s face, and he nods, his demeanor switching from light and fun, to heavy and resigned, to finally calculated and defiant. “It’s not the kind of fun I had in mind, but I suppose breaking into Gavin’s secret lair could be fun, too, in its own way.”

  Dark hidden corridors with sinister things like the super strong vampire girl—I’ve yet to tell him about—who nearly got me to set her free, creeps into my mind. “You and I have very different definitions of what’s fun.”

  He laughs, and I shudder at his blasé attitude toward jumping headfirst into danger. Maybe he really does have a death wish. Or he’s super arrogant. Or both. “Do you think Gavin will be there?”

  “I don’t know. Guess we’ll find out.” He starts the car and pulls out of the lot, glancing at me every few seconds from the corner of his eye. His shoulders tense, the emotions rolling off him morphing back to the heavy and resigned side of things. “There’s something there I need to show you, anyway.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound ominous or anything. Is this something you need to show me bad?” I don’t even know why I’m asking. Nine times out of ten, it’s always bad.

  “It’s… I don’t know,” Sebastian offers as explanation, which is no explanation at all.

  “So, bad then? Perfect. I was just saying to myself this morning how I could use some more bad in my life. So glad you’re able to provide.” I know I’m being an a-hole with a capital A, but just once, can’t there be some good news? A little ray of sunlight to cut through all the clouds of doom and gloom constantly over my head? For someone to say, ‘you know what? The supernatural world doesn’t care about you anymore. You’re free to live your life without fear of being torn apart and drained dry by vampires, or from suffering the wrathful smite of heaven, or from having your soul ripped out of your body by sinister witches who want to turn you into a puppet for nefarious purposes.’

  “It might not be bad…exactly.”

  “That’s not helping you know.” I stare out the window, watching the school shrink behind us in the passenger side mirror. “On second thought, maybe we should do something fun instead. We still haven’t gone on our first date yet. Why don’t we catch a boat and maroon ourselves on some deserted island? It’ll be just you and me and the sand, and the ocean. We can pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.” A ghost of a smile touches my lips at picturing Sebastian and I lying on the beach, the cool sand beneath our backs and the wide-open universe held in the twinkling sky above us.

  His hand finds its way to mine. “If I didn’t think the world would find us, I’d say let’s go, but—”

  “Inevitably it would because I’m some freak vampire cure with the powers of Heaven and a formidable-witch-family-whose-ancestors-created-an-
entire-new-race-of-bloodsucking-beings-in-the-name-of-saving-a-brother-who-should-have-died running through my veins,” I finish for him, my words rushing together by the middle to form one giant word.

  “Well, yeah. But when you say it like that, it’s pretty dark.”

  “It’s always been dark. Darkness is my legacy.”

  “Darkness is not your legacy. There’s light in there too, and you’re the brightest part of it. Why are you so insistent on not believing it? On not seeing what I see when I look at you?”

  A flutter of his feelings pulses through the connection between us, but it’s not enough to dissuade all the dark thoughts flitting through my mind. “Because of the diner. Because of what I did to the vampires there when I went dark. Because of the way I scared Liv when I did. Because I liked the way it felt when I cast the sanguinary spell. Because if it came down to it, I would do whatever it takes to save the ones I love—just like Earnan did.”

  At a red light, he shifts in his seat to better face me. “When it comes down to it, we’d all do whatever it takes. It’s human nature to fight for and protect the ones we love, no matter the cost. But it doesn’t mean we’re evil. You are not evil, Indi.”

  I turn my face away when the light turns green, mumbling under my breath, “Earnan didn’t think he was evil either.”

  29

  Putting his thumb and finger in his mouth, Sebastian lets out a loud whistle.

  Chester jumps halfway out of his seat, fumbling the PlayStation remote in his hand. He catches it before it hits the ground then yanks his headset off as he spins around. His eyes narrow the moment he sees Sebastian. “What did I tell you about sneaking up on me like that, Bas?”

  Sebastian leans onto the counter, a mischievous grin on his face. “What did I tell you about playing video games on the monitor behind you? If you’re going to have your back to the counter, expect people to sneak up on you.”