Death Magic Rules

by Sharon Stevenson

  He shut me up with his lips. Having a strange man invade my bath-time was most fun I’d had as Britt so far. I was starting to like this new life of mine.

  Thirty-Nine – Kit

  “Mickey, where have you been?” I answered my phone from outside Trish’s flat. I’d been waiting on him to provide the payment to the vampire, but if he was going to make me wait any longer I’d be taking my chances and letting her bite me instead. The thought made me screw up my nose.

  “I’m just up,” he said, sounding weary. “I’ll be there in ten.”

  “Are you okay? You sound kind of weird.”

  “It’s a long story,” he said, with a sigh. “I’ll tell you when I see you.”

  “Right. Okay.” I hung up and knocked on Trish’s door.

  Scuffling, shuffling noises and creaking floorboards told me the vampire was on her way to answer the door. She looked about how I’d imagined, pale and obese with an over-the-top dark beehive wig and eyes that lit up at the sight of a human. Her nostrils flared. Or should that be on smell of a human? Whatever it was, she was quick to usher me into the flat, and I was quick to push back a shudder.

  “I’m Kit,” I told her. “Mickey’s friend. He’s on his way. I need to buy some protection charms.”

  Trish nodded. “He mentioned it last night. A User’s been targeting you?”

  I nodded, feeling weird about talking to a vampire about it.

  “It was an attraction spell,” I told her, feeling sick just thinking about it. “He was deluded about my feelings for him, and he decided I needed a push.”

  Trish sighed and shook her head. Her wig wobbled but stayed put. “Humans.” She pulled open a drawer on the dresser beside the TV. “I think I have the right thing here.”

  “Great,” I said, feeling relieved that I was actually going to have proper protection against Users. “I need it to protect me against all magic. I’ve had other bad encounters with Users.”

  She gave me a sympathetic look that slid into hunger; her eyes flashed as her gaze fell to my neck. She shook her head. “Sorry. It’s been a few hours since I fed. Here it is.” It looked like a locket, silver and gold on a silver chain. “Protects against all magic. Are you sure you want to protect against all magic?”

  She passed me it when I nodded. It had a pinkish tint to it. Using magic to protect against magic; oh, the irony.

  “You won’t be able to use your healing powers. You won’t see or sense magic from others either.”

  I nodded, I could handle that. “How much?”

  “Fifty and a half-pint,” she said with a rueful smile. Her eyes had sparked up again, but she was quick to drop her ravenous gaze.

  I got out my purse and passed her the money, careful not to touch her cold skin as I handed it over. “Mickey will be here soon for the second thing.” I unclasped the necklace and put it on. Didn’t feel any different so far.

  She nodded as she pocketed my cash. “You want tea or coffee?”

  I shook my head. It might be faster to just let her bite me, but I knew it was something that could become addictive so I didn’t want to risk that unless really I had to. Not to mention how gross the thought of it was. I didn’t even know how I was going to sit here and watch Mickey do it.

  She went towards a room I assumed was the kitchen. The sound of the kettle boiling gave the whole thing a sense of normalcy. I touched the locket. I won’t see magic. I won’t be able to use my powers. I could always take it off if I ever needed to. Not that I planned on that anytime soon.

  The knock on the front door brought me out of my thoughts. Mickey! She let him in, and they headed to the other room. I sat down on the couch to wait. Ten minutes later Mickey came out, his refreshed bite-mark dribbling blood. “Let’s go.”

  Forty – Mickey

  The head-rush from Trish’s bite was fading faster than it used to. I wondered idly if changing to another vampire might help. Kit was walking ahead, probably because it had started to rain. She kept glancing back and motioning for me to hurry up. What the hell for? That was probably going to be my reaction to everything for a while. I made an effort to catch her up as she got to the pub. I could use a cold one and a bacon sandwich.

  My phone started to ring just as she let us in to the pub—no caller ID. I answered it once we were safely inside and Kit was locking the door behind us. “Hello?”

  “Uh, is that Mikey?” It was an American accent; wrong number, clearly.

  “No, pal, you’ve got a wrong…”

  “Pete’s cousin, right?”

  “Aye. What’s…”

  “There’s been a fire. There’s no easy way to say this.” He took a noisy breath. “Pete and Nick, well they died last night. I guess my contract burned in the fire because I’m still around. You still there?”

  I was having some kind of aural hallucination; I had to be. “Is that Cal? Did Nick put you up to this?”

  “Nick is dead,” Cal told him. “Listen, I’m really sorry…”

  I didn’t hear anything else, probably because I’d dropped the phone. I stared at Kit. She frowned at me. “What’s…”

  “I need out. I need to get to Pete’s.” I was already cursing my decision to actually go home to his Mum’s house last night instead of just crashing at Pete’s flat.

  Kit turned and unlocked the door, stepping back to let me rush out. I didn’t say or think anything else the whole way to the flat. I could barely breathe by the time I got there. I had to stop at the bottom of the stairs to catch my breath before I passed out. It killed me standing there for even a minute.

  When I finally got up the stairs, I saw the door to Nick’s flat lying open and I could smell it and see it. There’d been a fire. I rushed into the flat. His bedroom was burned up but there was no Pete, no Nick. Cal was a fucking lying cunt.

  I rushed across the hall and went into Pete’s flat. The door was unlocked. “Pete! Pete!”

  No one answered me, not even a pissy kitchen ghost. Fuck. Fuck! I pushed open Pete’s bedroom door, the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room; nothing. I pushed open Dave’s old room and found that American Animate shooting me a sympathetic look from where he sat on the bed. I closed the door and left the flat. This couldn’t be happening.

  Kit came up the stairs, and I broke apart on sight of her. Pete was dead, properly dead this time. I’d lost Tim to his stupid duties last night and today I lose my brother? I couldn’t take this, it was too much. Kit offered a hug and I clung on to her, sobbing like a pathetic little kid.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”

  She was lying but I let her. I needed the lie. I didn’t have anything else left.

  Forty-One – Pete

  I’m well aware of how much of a surprise it shouldn’t have been, but fuck me over slowly if I didn’t get a shock when I woke back up after dying a second time. The transparent blue of my ghostly form was pretty trippy. I didn’t exactly rise from my body or if I had I wasn’t aware of it. My body was a pile of mulch on Nick’s bedroom floor, so I was kind of glad. It was pretty disgusting and probably smelled bad. I couldn’t smell much of anything, though, which was weird considering the room must completely stink of smoke and burnt things. And death, can’t forget death; the worst smell of them all. I looked at the bed but Nick’s body wasn’t there, which was kind of weird. I couldn’t see his ghost either.

  I did see a thin sheen of blue over everything in the room. It could have just been ghost vision, I supposed, but it felt disturbingly like magic. I remembered something Mickey’s idiot boyfriend had said when I’d wanted to kill Britt. Killing a high-level User carried consequences. Their magic had to go somewhere. Ah shit. I looked around, feeling as if I was encased within a magical bomb that was just waiting to go off.

  This is not good. This is not good at all.

  I caught sight of Mickey appearing in the doorway, and I cursed. His panicked face disappeared a second later. I could only imagine how bad this was for him. I cr
inged. Mum was going to find out too. Shit. I was really dead now. I hated to think what not seeing me get married was going to do to her. Mickey would probably have to marry Kit just to calm her down.

  I wandered around the room, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now besides panic about where Nick’s magic was going to go. Considering the fire was out, I figured the emergency services had already been around, and that had to be why Nick’s body was gone. His ghost was probably rising in the morgue right about now. So what? Was I supposed to go find him? It wasn’t like I could kill him again. So, what now?

  The smell of something familiar and delicious made me look up. It seemed strange that I could smell Kit’s perfume when nothing else was getting through. It made me smile though. She looked into the room, moving her arms up to take off a necklace that was faintly glowing of pinkish-red User magic. She put it down on the floor and our eyes connected as she straightened again.

  “Shit,” she swore, taking a step back.

  “You can see ghosts?” As surprises went, this was a nice one.

  “It’s not something I like to brag about,” she told me, smiling tightly. She shook her head. “What did you do, Pete?”

  “Something stupid, I suppose,” I told her. “But I can’t say I regret doing it.”

  “I don’t even know what to say,” she said, turning. “He’s here.”

  Mickey came into sight, eyes flitting around the room but never landing on me. “Is he okay?”

  “He said he doesn’t regret it,” Kit said.

  “Tell him he’s an idiot,” Mickey said, sounding pissed and relieved at the same time.

  “I think he knows.” Kit smiled at me.

  “I had to do it,” I told her. “There was no other choice. It’s not like I had much of a life as an Animate anyway. I’d have been stuck with the Royal Guard if I got free of Nick another way.”

  She relayed the message to Mickey, who scowled and shook his head. “What am I supposed to tell your Mum now?”

  “Lay that guilt trip on me, why don’t you?” I grumbled.

  Kit opened her mouth.

  I shook my head before she could say anything. “Don’t say that. Tell him I’ll miss his shitty banter. Tell him he’ll always be my stupid little brother.”

  “Very poetic,” she told me before repeating it to Mickey.

  “I still can’t believe you did this, Bro,” Mickey said. “But you always were a stupid prick, so I should have expected it.”

  “He kind of should have,” I told Kit. “He knew what I was going to do, and he knows why I had to do it.”

  She smiled sadly. “I didn’t thank you properly for saving me before. And now…”

  “Well, it’s not like we can suck face now so forget about it,” I said with a grin.

  She rolled her eyes, but I caught her blushing first. “You’re so full of yourself.”

  “What’s he saying?” Mickey sounded put out. I suppose we’d left him out of the conversation for a bit.

  I didn’t say anything because the magic in the room was drawing my attention. I could feel it moving.

  Kit seemed to sense something too. She frowned at me. “This room is full of death magic.”

  “You two should leave,” I said, sounding panicked because the blue tint was creeping over her feet and ankles, and Mickey’s too. “Now. Get out of here!”

  She reached down hesitantly though the rising magic instead. Damn it, Kit, leave the necklace. The tint was spreading fast, the magic flowing up her arms and bleeding up to her neck by the time she stood up. I didn’t know what would happen when it covered her, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Mickey was already covered up to his chest. Why the hell weren’t they running away?

  “Get out of here! Both of you. I mean it, something bad is…” I felt a weird tug at the core of my being. It was like being pulled at by a very urgent and insistent rope. I could hear my name being called; I was being summoned!

  “Shit! Just get the hell out of here,” I shouted, seeing them fade from view as a white-blue mist surrounded me. Damn it, why weren’t they running away? I realised right away that teleporting as a ghost was substantially weirder than as an Animate. I could feel things I didn’t fully understand. It was as if I could feel every particle of my being vibrating and tingling in bizarrely warm way. When the smoke cleared, I found myself in a very dark place I didn’t instantly recognise. It took a second for my sight to adjust, but when it did I was in for a shock. The last person I expected to be facing was the girl who’d killed me in the first place.

  Angie smirked at me, arms folded across her chest. She was still wandering around in the underwear she died in and the look hadn’t gotten any less trashy. “Did you think only Animates could summon ghosts, Petie?”

  I sighed. Actually, I had, but I wasn’t admitting that to her. “I’m busy. What the hell do you want?”

  She stepped towards me and grabbed the front of my t-shirt. Ghosts may not be corporeal to the living, but apparently we were solid enough to each other. A terrifying concept when the ghost doing the touching didn’t look like she wanted to be gentle. “I want answers and you’re going to give them to me.”

  Pete and his friends return in

  Restless Spirits

  Read on for the first chapter

  Raised Book Three

  Restless Spirits

  One – Nine/Britt

  The way he stared at me should have been unnerving. His kiss had left my lips warm and tingling. He’d moved back quickly, leaving me to catch my breath. Those dark blue eyes were so intense. It was as if they were daring me to show him everything I had. He’d want whatever I decided to give him, he was waiting for me. I felt my shoulders shake as a shiver passed over my naked body. The water wasn’t warm anymore, but I couldn’t seem to care. I didn’t want to move. Not as long as he was staring at me like that.

  Eight’s usual warnings flashed through my head. You don’t know what he wants, Nine. Be careful.

  She was wrong. I did know what he wanted. He wanted into my thoughts. He wanted to dig around inside my head. There was something I knew that he wanted to know.

  I bit at my lip. He already knew I wasn’t Britt. What harm could it really do to let him see everything? I mean, I was used to letting Britt check my thoughts, and it wasn’t like it had ever bothered me. It’s not like it ever really hurt.

  But she had been my master. She was allowed to take whatever she wanted from me and I’d never stopped to question that. Why would I? I only existed because she had made me.

  Things were different now. Timmy had shown me that.

  “What is it that you want?” I asked because I had every right to know.

  He smiled. It was a sexy kind of smile, sly and slow in blossoming. “I’m interested in spending time with you. You don’t display typical behaviour for a clone.”

  I felt my face flush. Again, Eight’s voice invaded my thoughts. That wasn’t a compliment. He thinks he has you figured out. You’re not that easy, Nine. Don’t let him mess with you.

  It was a sterner talking to that I was used to from the girl I hadn’t even known was a friend until it was too late. And oh yeah, I knew it wasn’t really her. Duh. It was like my conscience, or something. I hadn’t known I had one of those, was all. I realised he was still watching me, waiting to see what effect his answer had on me.

  “Liar,” I told him, sipping at my champagne and putting the empty glass down on the side of the bath tub. “Tell me the truth, and maybe you’ll get somewhere.”

  “Fine. I’m attracted to you,” he said, sliding forward again and sloshing water over the side of the tub.

  It still felt like a lie, but I silenced Eight’s voice before she could tell me to be careful again. I’d been with enough men to know what desire looked like. I could hear it in his voice, husky and warm. I felt it between my legs when he pressed up against me. It was in his eyes, making them seem darker as he gazed into mine.

  “Brit
t was a bitch,” he said, breathing quickly as his gaze fell to my chest. “I never once thought of her like this.”

  I believed him. It’s why I kissed him back when his lips pressed against mine. It didn’t take long to let my guard down. He moaned as he moved against me. His slow, teasing movements were a distraction. I felt him inside my head suddenly, a foreign presence whispering through my thoughts. I pushed him away when I realised what we were doing.

  Confusion clouded the desire in his eyes. “I thought you wanted this.”

  “You were inside my head again.” I tried to sound pissed, like Britt would have done, but I didn’t have it in me. I wanted him too much. I couldn’t deny it.

  He blew out a breath. “You don’t understand.”

  “This just isn’t going to work,” I said it quickly, before I could have time to regret the decision. I stood up and climbed out of the bath, steadying my feet with magic when I slipped on the wet floor. I cursed under my breath. Stumbling around naked in front of a handsome King was so embarrassing. This would have never happened to Britt.

  His hand landed on my shoulder as I reached for a towel. I fought the urge to shudder. Something brushed against my neck; his hair, it had fallen forward as he kissed his way down my spine.

  “Holy Hell,” I whispered.

  “Tell me to leave and I’ll go,” he told me, his hard body pressing against mine from behind. His arms closed around me as his lips brushed against my throat. “You’ve never been with another User before, have you?”

  I shook my head slowly, not wanting to move. If this was how he could make me feel before we even did anything, I didn’t want him to ever leave.

  “When we lose control, it’s not just physical. I can’t stop the magic from opening you up to me. If you were feeling what I am, the same would be happening to you. You’d be inside my head as much as I was in yours. I’m fighting it right now, but it’s taking everything I have.” He sighed deeply.