Blood Magic (Blood Magic Series Book 1)

by Ann Atkins

  My heart jumped as a tiny ball of fire burst into life in the palm of my hand. David was still scribbling, so he didn’t notice, but someone else did. Matt motioned his head toward David and his meaning was clear; he wanted me to throw it, which I probably could’ve done with my mind, since my hands were tied, but I didn’t.

  I had obviously weakened the barrier a lot more but it was far from gone. Plus, it would make a lot more sense to attack when I was stronger and not restrained. If he saw this little flame of hope, he would know that the barrier had been weakened and have it strengthened again—we would never get out of here. So I did the only thing I could, I closed my fist tight until only a few tendrils of smoke remained.

  My eyes begged Matt to understand, but it was clear to me that he didn’t when he turned his head and looked away. My heart broke a little, but I couldn’t exactly explain my reasoning to him right now.

  “We’re ready,” David said, jolting me from my concerns over Matt. “Bring her in.” He had walked over to the intercom and pressed a button, and the same men as before brought in a terrified-looking girl before leaving once again.

  Her dark, brown hair was wet and plastered to her face, and her large violet eyes darted around the room wildly. She appeared to be completely naked as she clutched a large green towel around her and water pooled at her feet. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and my heart broke for her as she stood there shivering from fear and from the cold. What was she doing in here?

  My thoughts were interrupted once again as he shoved her forward, and she collapsed onto the floor. Matt and I both protested his rough treatment of her, but we were completely ignored.

  “Get up, Cressida!” he bellowed at her, but when she did not respond quickly enough, he fisted his hand in her long hair and ‘helped’ her up.

  Her legs seemed to be wobbly and weak as she walked toward me, almost as if she were just learning how to use them. That’s when it hit me, I remembered seeing her in the mermaid tank a few days ago; she was, quite literally, a fish out of water. Apparently, they could walk on land if they were taken out of the water.

  “Why have you brought her in here?” I asked in an accusatory manner.

  He smiled. “There is one more power I want you to test—the most important one—the one power that will grant access to any and all powers.”

  My face paled as understanding washed over me. He wanted me to drink from her. He wanted irrefutable proof that I was like my father, and he wanted to study my brain while I did it.”

  My eyes hardened and my jaw clenched. “No,” was all I said.

  “If you want your little friend to live till morning … you will!”

  “Allie, please, I don’t want to be the reason she suffers,” he told me, looking at her adoringly. Apparently, mermaids had some mystical power over men.

  I looked helplessly from my friend to the frightened girl and back again. There was no easy answer.

  David’s eyes squinted into slits as he watched my internal struggle, and his voice was as hard as stone when he spoke.

  “I’ll make it easy for you, Allison, drink willingly, or I will cut her throat and force the blood down your throat, anyway. If you choose correctly, no one has to die.”

  “It’s alright,” she said kindly, but that only made me feel worse. She stumbled forward and pulled her hair to the side exposing her neck. Then, she leaned down until my lips were only a breath away from her skin.

  A single tear leaked from my eye as the now familiar throbbing started in my jaw and my fangs burst forth. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as I sank my fangs deep into her neck.

  I took two large gulps, which I almost choked on, before letting her go. The two tiny puncture marks on her ivory skin sickened me. Blood flowed from her wounds and was absorbed by the towel she still held on to.

  “Don’t fret,” she said with a smile. “You haven’t stolen anything; it was given freely.

  I was momentarily struck dumb, because her smile was like the sun and her voice sounded like music. She was captivating. Maybe they could enthrall girls too. I was going to say something to her, but before I remembered how to talk, David grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the door. It immediately opened and those same men took her away.

  “How are you going to check to see if it worked, because I have no idea what a mermaid’s powers are, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to use them down here!”

  But he did not answer. Instead, he rolled my jeans up to my knee on one leg and poured a little cup of water on my leg.

  “What in the—”

  Instead of running down my leg, like it should have, my skin seemed to absorb every drop of the water, and tiny silver and blue scales appeared on my leg where the water had been.

  My eyes widened in shock as I stared down at their shiny, iridescent beauty, but after only a few moments they were gone, and I was back to reality—the ridiculous reality, that now, apparently, I was also part fish.

  David’s eyes were gleaming as he scribbled on his notepad and studied the computer screen. Finally, he set the notepad down and glanced at it occasionally as his fingers flew across the computer’s keyboard.

  “Why waste your time on my other powers if this is the only one you really wanted?” I asked him.

  “Because I will need all of the information I can get before I start my human trials,” he replied. “Isolating the part of the brain that is most active in the use of each power will help me in monitoring the brain waves of my test subjects.”

  “Don’t they usually always die? Shouldn’t that tell you something? Humans aren’t meant to have these powers!”

  “Oh, ye of little faith,” he said with a laugh. “I have made vast improvements in my methods since then, and my knowledge base has continued to grow and improve. In fact, after the information you’ve so graciously provided tonight, I think I’m ready to begin … immediately.”

  “You have humans down here, too?” I asked, aghast.

  “I have one,” he answered, as he filled a syringe full of liquid and gave it a test squirt, and then he looked at Matt.

  “No,” I screamed as I began to struggle. I felt the warmth in my hand before I saw it—a glowing, orange ball of flame that I sent flying straight at his back.

  A big hole burned through the back of his shirt and singed his skin, but it burned out way too quickly, and as hard as I tried I could not summon another one.

  He had stumbled and dropped the syringe as he whirled around and looked at me with a mixture of surprise and fear and anger. He ran to grab another needle and shoved it into my arm. My body immediately went lax and limp. It was the same paralytic drug he had given me before.

  After that, all I could do was watch as he filled another syringe and jabbed it into Matt’s neck. His body, almost immediately began to convulse, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

  A few moments later, Matt was carried from the room, and I was tossed, carelessly, onto the floor of my cell.

  And all I could do was wait and wonder. Wait for the drug to wear off. Wonder if Matt was even still alive. Wait for the inevitable fortification of the magical barrier. Wonder if Ella would still be strong enough to visit me in sleep. And wait for Mason to rescue us all, because I was forced to accept the fact that I had probably just blown any hope of getting us out of here on my own.

  The next couple of days were completely unremarkable. I saw no one except the man who brought my meals to me, and my frantic questions and pleas for information went completely unanswered.

  The first day after what had happened to Matt, I’d screamed until my throat was raw. I knew they were watching me, and I knew they could hear me; they just didn’t care.

  The second day I alternated between screaming and beating my hands bloody on the bars of my cell, but my only reply was the echoing of my own voice. And although my voice was loud, the silence in this room was so much louder, and half of the time, I think I was screaming just to drown it out.<
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  By the third day, I was half crazed from worry, sleep deprivation, and hunger. Matt was the only thing I could think about, and every time I closed my eyes I had horrible nightmares about going to his funeral—at least I hoped they were nightmares and not premonitions. I had finally given up on sleep entirely. My stomach was tied in about a thousand knots, and I couldn’t eat more than a few bites at a time without getting sick.

  At the end of the third day, I could barely hold my eyes open, and I prayed, that if I closed my eyes, Ella would somehow find her way in. I lay down on the cot and curled myself into a ball, and I was asleep almost instantly.

  I saw myself draped in black and crying over Matt’s coffin, but the crying stopped as I heard the sound of static and the image of Matt began to flicker. The sound of white noise and the flickering increased until he disappeared completely, and I was left standing in front of Ella.

  But this was completely different from the other dream visits. She was almost transparent, and I knew that it was a miracle she’d accomplished it at all. I also knew that she wouldn’t be able to hold it for long.

  “Thank you,” I told her, and I immediately ran to Matt’s cell. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow, but at least he was still breathing. His skin looked ashen, and his hair was wet with sweat. I thought about trying to heal him again. That’s when I noticed that I was also transparent—we all were. I tried to touch one of the bars and my hand passed right through it. We were like ghosts, and lacking any physical substance, there was nothing I could do for him.

  I walked, helplessly, back to Ella, and in a voice that sounded very childlike, I asked, “What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered, her eyes bright with unshed tears, “but there is someone who’s been asking to see you. It was with his help that I was finally able to bring you here tonight,” she said as she turned her head to gaze down the hall at one of the now-empty cells.

  I began to walk in that direction, not wanting to think about what might have happened to the occupants of the now-vacant cell, but as I drew closer I saw that it wasn’t as deserted as it looked.

  He looked perfect except for the blood smeared on his face and matted in his hair, and when he saw me, he smiled and rushed to the bars to meet me. I ran the rest of the way until I stood in front of him.

  There were a myriad of emotions swirling inside me. I was overwhelmed with love for him, but I couldn’t be happy about seeing him in here. He had been my last and best hope of escaping this place, but now, he was just as much a prisoner as the rest of us, and I was the reason why.

  “Allie,” he whispered, and I closed my eyes as the sound of his voice washed away everything but him. There was no prison, no bars, no regrets—only us.

  And as I opened my eyes and stared into the depths of his green ones, I felt my body automatically sway toward him. My mind may have temporarily forgotten where I belonged, but my heart and my body and my soul had always known.

  “Mason,” I finally answered, my mouth naturally curving into a smile as his name caressed my lips.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The Beginning

  Even though, logically, I knew I wouldn’t be able to touch him in my ghostly form, my hand automatically reached out for his, but I was both surprised and a little hurt when he backed away.

  “Not yet,” he said, “I want you in here with me before you touch me.” And the hot look in his eyes when he spoke those words made me catch my breath. Never in my life had I been filled with such a strong desire to run my fingers through his silken hair and hold his body close to mine, and I actually shuddered as I imagined the feel of his hot breath on my neck.

  “How?” I asked helplessly. “Ella has been weakened since the barrier came back up. We’re practically ghosts here. We’d just pass right through each other,” I finished sadly.

  “Trust me,” he said, holding out his hand to me. “Please?”

  And in that moment, I realized I did still trust him. I’d had a lot of time to think about everything in the past few days, and I honestly believed, that if he hadn’t thought he’d be able to save her, he never would’ve let her go. He would’ve fought, even at the risk of losing me.

  So I took one step, then another, and passed right through the bars that separated us. His hand was still outstretched, and I smiled as I attempted to place my hand in his. I had expected to feel nothing. I had not expected his hand to close tightly around mine and begin to glow.

  He mumbled something in Latin, that I couldn’t quite understand, and the glow began to creep across my entire body. I felt hot, cold, tingly, and dizzy all at once, but as the light faded, so too, did these strange sensations. And when I looked up at him, he no longer appeared transparent, but then, neither did I.

  I flew at him and wrapped my arms and legs around his body as I laughed and cried. It didn’t occur to me, then, to ask what had happened, I was too happy to be in his arms again. I had wondered if I’d ever see him or feel his touch again, and knowing now that the answer was yes, made me realize just how terrified I’d been that the answer would be no.

  At first, his kisses were hard and desperate and frantic—like a thirsty man desperate for water—but gradually, they became soft and sweet and familiar, and by the time we finally stopped, we were both gasping for breath.

  He still held me in his arms, our foreheads and noses still touching, as we both tried to remember how to breathe, but then, my fingers were tunneling through his hair and his lips were on my neck. He stumbled to the cot with me and laid me down, and then he lay down behind me. It was a very tight fit, but neither one of us cared.

  His warm breath tickled the back of my neck as his fingers traced up and down the length of my arm, and I sighed in contentment, momentarily forgetting where we were, but as it always does, the real world eventually made its way back in.

  I turned over so that I was facing him, but the perfect alignment of our bodies proved too much of a distraction. I wanted to kiss him and press my body as close to his as possible, so I had to sit up, and he sat up with me.

  “There are things I’d like to ask you, and I’m not sure how much time we have,” I told him.

  “Anything,” he whispered, brushing his lips across my cheek. “All you have to do is ask.” But I could tell that talking was the last thing on his mind.

  His soft, warm lips on my skin caused a soft moan to escape my lips, and I turned my head and captured his mouth once again, before reluctantly, pushing him away.

  “How am I supposed to think when you keep distracting me,” I asked him.

  A huge grin spread across his face as he answered me, “I’d say I’m sorry, but that would be a lie,” he said as his hand traveled up my thigh.

  I smacked his hand away, and he laughed, holding both of his hands up in a sign of surrender. “Okay, okay, let’s talk.”

  I studied him closely for several moments before I opened my mouth. His face gave nothing away, but I could see the uncertainty in his eyes. He was afraid that I still blamed him for my mother’s death, that I could understand, but I definitely didn’t understand his lack of fear and concern. Why wasn’t he frenetically devising crazy schemes to get us out of here? Wasn’t he worried at all? But I decided to put those questions on hold, because I wanted nothing more—right now—than to erase that haunted look from his beautiful, emerald eyes.

  “I want to ask you to forgive me for the horrible things I said to you and Sarah,” I told him as I covered his hand with my own.

  A look of pure shock followed by sadness crossed his face before he spoke. “I can’t forgive you, Allie, because you did nothing wrong. You didn’t say anything that I haven’t said to myself everyday for the past eighteen years, in fact, I’ve said a lot worse.”

  “I know. That’s why it was so wrong. I know you loved her and cared about her, and I should’ve never blamed you for her death.”

  “But I was to blame,” he said brokenly.
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br />   “No, you were placed in an impossible situation, and you did the best you could. She made the choice to go with him, not you or Sarah, and if she’d asked you to fight I know you would have,” I reassured him.

  “Thank you, for that,” he said, squeezing my hand tighter.

  “Yeah, well, my enlightenment didn’t come without a price. I’ve learned quite a bit about doing things you don’t want to do to keep the people you love alive.”

  A muscle began to tick in his strong jaw as his body went rigid and his eyes filled with green fire. “Tell me,” he said in a raspy voice that kind of reminded me of Batman.

  And I did. I told him everything that had happened in the last few days, feeling horror at reliving those moments, but also a strange sense of peace at letting them go. He had already known about Matt, but sharing my worries and fears with him had unburdened me a little.

  “I really, really can’t wait to kill him,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “How do you plan on accomplishing that?” I asked. “What do you know that I don’t?”

  He sighed. “It all started a couple of days ago when I received an invitation from David—”

  “What?” I interrupted. “He was expecting you? You had to know it was a trap! Are you insane? Why didn’t you bring an army with you?”

  “Because the army was already in here,” he said fondly, looking at me. “All I had to do was get myself caught, so I could deliver your weapons to you.”

  “What?!?” I shrieked. Why on God’s green Earth would you get captured on purpose?”

  “Sarah figured that if he was able to restrain you, he must’ve duplicated the spell he used when he took your mother. She knew that if I came—and there was no way she could stop me from coming—I wouldn’t be walking back out, so she asked for time to create a spell that would help us both get out of here. I gave her two days to pull it off and she did.”