“Except they didn’t,” he said, looking at me as if I had told a joke.
“They didn’t what?” I whispered, frustrated at his bizarre statement, and ready to kill him for cursing me. Except that would only guarantee my loss of power.
“They didn’t take your wizard’s power.” The room was silent as a tomb. “I mean, sure. For all intents and purposes, it’s dead and gone.” He held two fingers together, squinting his eyes as he used a high-pitched voice to say, “there’s a teeny bit left. Just a fragment of a fragment, practically dead and decayed.” He watched me curiously. “But it’s still there.” He seemed to sense the mood in the room, turning from face to face. “Are you saying you didn’t know this?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.” A small part of me had risen up, suddenly excited, only to hear that it was ultimately a bust. As good as dead. My heart was beating faster though, imagining being a wizard again. None of this stupid Maker stuff. I needed to change the topic.
I leveled him with a furious glare. “What happens if I comply, or if I don’t?”
“Well, if you don’t, you lose your power.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he was already shaking his head. “Even though you are a Maker, I was thorough in my research. It would work just as well on you, the dragon, or even Mallory – whatever he is. Doesn’t matter the target. I was a bit of a coward,” he admitted truthfully. “Not much for battle magic, but this kind of stuff?” he motioned at the situation. “Yeah, I’m beyond good.” He kept his hands on the arms of his chair, remaining motionless. “And none of this decaying seed of your power left over business. It would be gone. Entirely.” He wasn’t saying it to be rude, just one practitioner critiquing the failed attempt of another practitioner. “But if you help me, the spell evaporates.”
“So, you’re extorting me to help you rescue a murderous monster, from another murderous monster who would like nothing more than to kidnap my friends, to eventually protect her from yet another group of murderous monsters that control every wizard on the planet. By holding my power hostage.”
He nodded slowly, face torn. “Yes,” he answered, obviously shamed.
I gave him a few seconds. “Are you seeing the flaw yet?” I hissed.
He blinked, not comprehending.
Aria finally piped up, voice full of venom. “He means, you idiot, that you came to him for help because he’s powerful.” Her shoulders heaved as her eyes began to shift to red, and her fingers became dragon claws. “And the first thing you do is curse him… limiting that power…” she hissed. Tory placed a palm on Aria’s wrist as the teen took an angry step. Tory’s eyes flashed green, and Aria was suddenly back to herself, still shaking with anger, but wearing a confused look on her face. Sonya embraced her in a soothing hug.
Rufus cast his eyes down. “She’s very… important to me. I already helped murder her parents. Even if I didn’t hold the blade, I was party to it.” His eyes grew far away. “I can’t fail her again. I had no choice.”
“And what about our conversation made you think I wouldn’t help?” I all but shouted.
He blinked. “Well, you broke Guestright, and every single one of your allies is warning you against helping me. And they tried to kill me.”
My mouth clicked shut. And the series of unfortunate events clicked into place at the same time.
Of course.
There was no way he would have been strong enough to overcome me if Gunnar hadn’t broken Guestright by attacking him first. Even with him touching me, he wouldn’t have been able to do it without that breach of etiquette. I rounded slowly on Gunnar, who looked suddenly embarrassed. The Dark Presence was screaming inside of me, and I realized I was muttering out loud. But not to argue with it.
To agree with it.
“Um, I’m sorry?” he offered with a wince. “Best of intentions?” he clarified, staring at me with an alien look of fear on his face at my incoherent mutterings.
“Bad puppy,” I snarled, slowly climbing to my feet and taking a threatening step his way.
“Right, Ashley and I need to go for a walk really quick. Catch up later?” And he exploded into wolf form alongside his fiancée, tearing out of the room in a blur of fur. Dean had the unlucky fortune to be stepping back into the room right when the wolves were fleeing the mad Master of the mansion.
They bowled over him with a yelp of surprise, but didn’t help him to his feet before disappearing from sight. Which only stoked my anger.
“Some friends,” Rufus murmured.
My rage cooled for a brief second as Death crouched over Dean, helping him to his feet. Seeing a little civility helped center me. Death spoke softly into his ear, then leaned back, listening as Dean mumbled a response. The Horseman nodded before guiding him over to Achilles near the fire, and settling him down into a chair. Then he left. I noticed he was carrying a black box with a purple silk bow on it before he disappeared from view. Achilles chuckled softly to himself, shaking his head as he watched the Horseman leave.
As he left, my rage seemed to reignite. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply as I coaxed myself back down, shutting out the alien voice inside of me that was raging for blood. It had been getting stronger lately. I opened my eyes and shot Rufus a scathing look before turning to Mallory. “Bind him, but don’t kill him. Put him in the dungeon. I will have questions for him later. Right now, I don’t trust myself to be civil. And my to-do list is suddenly full.”
Mallory glanced at Raego instead of answering me.
Raego got the hint. “Right. I’ll take him down to the dungeons. Hopefully he does something epically stupid so that I can mind-fuck him,” the dragon king chuckled darkly.
Sonya piped up. “I haven’t seen a good fucking in a while.” Tory gasped, and Sonya suddenly realized she had cursed. Then she replayed the rest of the sentence in her head. “I mean, I just want to watch!” she said urgently.
“Not any better, sister.” Aria was clutching her knees, gasping with laughter, and Tory looked like she didn’t quite know what to do. Which statement to correct.
“I meant, how are we supposed to learn if we can’t watch?” Sonya argued.
“You figure it out, child,” Achilles chuckled at his double-entendre.
Sonya threw her hands in the air, giving up.
Rufus’ face was pale at the exchange.
“I’ll join you, lizard,” Achilles finally said, climbing to his feet. “The magic man seemed interested in Greek history. Perhaps I can share the… finer points with him,” he enunciated. “I need to get back to the bar anyway.” Dean, apparently recovered from his tumble, also stood.
Mallory turned to me, so I nodded. “Fine. I’m going to go get some fresh air. Maybe hunt a hound or two,” and I stormed out of the room, ignoring the looks from Achilles and Dean.
“He has a dungeon here?” I heard Aria whisper to Tory. I couldn’t tell if it was eagerness or disgust in her voice. I didn’t care.
There was a pause before she answered, and I was almost out the door. “This is a dangerous place, child. And Nate Temple is a dangerous man. Just because he is our friend, we mustn’t forget…” I ignored the rest of her answer, my mind a furious tumble of rage as I left the room to step outside. I very deliberately did not touch the cane at my hip.
Chapter 10
I continued mumbling dark profanities under my breath as I stormed through the halls of Chateau Falco, vision faintly pulsing blue, as it sometimes did when my passion began to overrule my reason. Or when my magic was dangerously close to cutting loose. It happened more often now, thanks to – what I had decided to call – the Dark Presence riding shotgun in my sword cane. Except the dark influence wasn’t entirely restrained by my cane any longer. I was finding myself more amiable to its influence, even when I wasn’t consciously choosing to do so. Which meant the cane wasn’t as good of a defense as I had originally thought. And the blue vision was much more erratic now. I could be just as crazy without my world turning blue. I needed
to learn more about my powers, which meant I needed Ichabod to hurry his ass up and get back from his training session…
With Indie…
I growled, anger rising back up at the sudden emotion. I was glad I had stowed my sword cane in my rooms, realizing that if that darker voice inside of me said just the right thing, right now I was liable to listen…
And might eagerly oblige the violent little psycho.
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I stepped out onto the roof. I had discarded my jacket on a random chair before heading up here. I absorbed the cool air in hopes that it would calm my mood.
“Of course, you can’t cut loose with your magic and burn everything to ashes. That would be melodramatic.”
I pondered my statement, and decided that since I was all alone on the roof, it was entirely acceptable to argue with myself out loud. “Although justified, it’s still an overreaction. And cutting loose now would only open the floodgates about Indie. She’s gone, which makes you trigger-happy, and outside of the Dueling Grounds, cutting loose here could be a potentially fatal idea. For everyone. Especially now that you’re cursed.”
“But fun.”
I nodded, eyes still closed. “Fun, possibly. But after Doofus zapping you with his spell, you could very quickly burn up all of your reserves, leaving you defenseless when you go to save the girl.”
“From the bloodthirsty circus Freaks.”
“Yes, them.” A faint smile tinged my lips. “This is helping. You’re a good listener.”
Someone cleared their throat and my heart fell into my stomach as my eyes shot open, frantically searching for the source of the sound. My fists crackled with raw, violet electricity, my fingers throbbing at the arctic chill suddenly coating my skin. And the world pulsed blue as if I was suddenly wearing tinted glasses.
I saw the cause of the sound, and blinked.
Alucard lay on a lawn chair, Ray-Ban sunglasses on his face, clad in only a pair of silk boxers, his clothes folded neatly beside the chair. He was propped up on an elbow, watching me with concern. I blinked again, looked up at the noonday sun, then back at him, my jaw now hanging open.
“You’re sun tanning,” I stated, the blue tint to the world fading away from my vision.
He pulled off his sunglasses. “You’re talking to yourself. Literally. Full-blown conversation with responses, snark, and logical reasoning. Either that, or there is someone else up here with you who sounds a hell of a lot like you. Because I don’t think you were telling me that I was a good listener. You didn’t even know I was here.”
“You’re sun tanning,” I repeated, dumbly.
He sighed as if giving up on me, and slid the sunglasses onto his nose before leaning back into his chair, folding his arms above his head. His chair was near the edge of the flat roof, which my mother had also sometimes used for sun tanning when she didn’t want to waste her valuable time heading to the Olympic-sized pool on the grounds. I strode closer, staring in amazement as his skin literally did seem to sparkle, albeit faintly. Almost as if he was simply wearing some of that shimmery women’s lotion. I pinched his skin, wondering if it really was some kind of lotion.
“Hey!” he grunted, glaring at me. “What the hell?”
“You really do sparkle. Just like—”
“Say it and die,” he hissed.
That made me smile. “You know this is going to end poorly for you, right? I absolutely cannot keep my mouth shut about this. You really are Count Sparkula.” He stared at me. “You know, Count Dracula, and Sparkles. I combined the words.” He didn’t react. “It’s funnier when I explain it all out like that,” I added.
He groaned, letting out a final jerk of his head, accepting his fate. “So, what rattled that last bolt free?” he asked after a pause. “The one barely keeping your sanity in check. The one that is apparently forever lost now.” He slid his sunglasses down to peer over the frame at me. “In case I’m being too obtuse, I’m telling you that you’re bat-shit nuts.” He slid the glasses back in place and leaned back, absorbing the frigid sunlight as if it was a balmy summer day.
“Scoot,” I commanded, kicking the chair in polite encouragement for him to quit taking up all six feet of the lounge chair.
He tumbled off the chair with a curse, rolling a few paces, and I realized my toes throbbed a little where I had kicked the chair.
Okay, maybe I had given him a little more than polite encouragement.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Think I’m a bit unhinged.”
“I’ll say,” he grouched, picking up his sunglasses and inspecting them for damage as he climbed to his feet. “What the hell happened down there? Did Indie show up and confess her undying love for Dean or somethin—” His comment was abruptly cut short with an entirely new sound from his throat. “GACK!”
His bare feet were frantically kicking my shins, and I realized I was holding him by the throat over the edge of the roof. And the purple power was back, crackling around my fist as it seared his skin like bacon. His eyes were wide, but I felt entirely calm. So calm that I carefully lowered him back to the safety of the roof and took a few slow steps back, shaking my head as I forcibly released my power. A faint burned ring in the shape of my hand circled his throat, but it quickly began to heal. I looked up at the sun, then back down to see it striking his flesh, watching as it knit back together right before my eyes.
“You’re like Superman,” I murmured more to myself.
“You’re like Lex Luthor mixed with the Mad Hat—” his face paled. “The Scarecrow,” he corrected, eyeing me warily. “What the fuck was that? You really are bat-shit nuts!”
I nodded guiltily. “Perhaps. Short fuse.”
“No fuse,” he clarified, eyes fiery. He took a few deep breaths before sitting back down in the chair, motioning for me to join him. “Tell Count Sparkula your problems,” he offered in a resigned growl.
I smiled faintly. “Yeah, that’s gonna stick.” He rolled his eyes, and I told him what had happened downstairs.
He was silent for a long time before answering. “That sucks incredibly hard.”
I nodded, idly studying the grounds around Chateau Falco. “Tell me about it.”
“Well, Gunnar is an idiot.”
I shrugged, letting out a long breath. “Yeah, but how could he have known? He smelled blood, and reacted. In most cases, it would be better to react than to play it cool. Blood outside the body usually isn’t a good thing.” I glanced at him. “At least I know I don’t prefer it.”
Alucard’s fangs flashed instinctively at the mention of blood, but he looked embarrassed as he snapped them back into place. I knew for a fact that blood literally held no appeal for him any longer. I had heard the term Daywalker applied to him from someone who would likely know. But neither of us knew exactly what that signified, and his body had spent a long time reacting to the thought of blood. Kind of like Pavlov’s dog. Hear bell, start salivating.
Or, mention blood, turn into bloodsucking monster.
“Don’t take this away from me.” He leaned over to his clothes, placing his glasses down as he fumbled with his pants. Expensive glasses safe, he finally turned back to me, face a grin. “Cyclops is an idiot. Your sanity literally cracked as a direct result of his actions. Say it.”
I grinned, repeating the words.
He closed his eyes, as if relishing the words. Then a tinny voice interrupted the silence. “Cyclops is an idiot. My sanity literally cracked as a direct result of his actions.” I blinked, staring down at the source of the sound. Alucard gripped a pen in his fist, as if willing to protect it from all dangers in the world. Like Gollum with the One Ring. His eyes danced with glee and I burst out laughing.
“You recorded me?” He nodded eagerly. I patted him on the back, instantly recalling that he was practically naked. Which was weird since I was wearing my dress shirt and slacks, sans coat. It was a hetero-man rule – two men had to be in identical states of dress to embrace. I cleared my throat. “You�
��re picking up my bad habits.” I grinned, flicking my gaze at the pen.
He nodded. “It’s the only way to keep treading water around you.”
I was silent for a time, gazing out at the rather impressive view of the Chateau’s estate. I had done this many times with my parents. Simply absorbing our beautiful home. Alucard followed my gaze, sighing. “Pretty cool place, huh?” I said.
He nodded. “I’ll say. You’re a pretty lucky guy, Nate. Never forget that.”
I murmured my agreement as my eyes continued to rove the property, finally coming to rest on the gargantuan silvery white tree that now stood near the gardens. Where we had battled the Brothers Grimm. And where Indie had died and been brought back. The tree had torn free from the earth, shooting well over a hundred feet into the air to mark her grave. I still didn’t understand what that symbolized, but knew there had to be more to the story than that the sprites had done it as an honor to Indie. Alucard’s eyes followed mine, and I heard a soft intake of breath.
He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off, fearing he was about to say something about Indie and ruin my mood. “Thanks, Sparkula. I think my head’s clear enough to not murder everyone downstairs.”
Alucard closed his mouth, nodding silently as he watched me, his features now a sad attempt at masking the questions bubbling underneath. “No problem. I’ll be down shortly. I’m just going to sit here for a few more minutes. Need to juice up, since you stupidly agreed to help the extortionist wizard. And turned my neck into bacon.” But he was smiling. I grunted, turned my back, and headed towards the door leading inside. I heard the press of a button behind me, followed by the recording of me blaming my mental breakdown on Gunnar. I rolled my eyes as I heard Alucard chuckling to himself mirthlessly.
Then I heard him press the replay button.
I strode inside, feeling marginally better. “Right, time to go figure some stuff out,” I murmured as the door began to shut behind me. “Nothing’s going to mess with me this time. I’m ready. One with my mind. At peace. Cool, calm, and collected…” I murmured in false encouragement to myself.
Beast Master: A Novel in The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 5) Page 6