Blood Magic (Blood Magic Series Book 1)

by Ann Atkins

  “You should go,” he said, almost as if he were reading my mind. “We’re both going to need every advantage we can get tomorrow.”

  A groan and a ragged cough drew my attention, and I decided to hold on to this dream for just a little bit longer.

  “I have to try and help him first,” I told Mason. He didn’t question me, only nodded his head. So I focused all of my energy on the metal bars before me, and in just a few moments they had faded away. Mason and I both walked toward Matt’s cell, and I was able to imagine the bars here away as well. I knelt on the floor and placed my hand on his forehead; he was burning up. He was as pale as death, and if not for his shallow breathing and occasional groans of pain, I might have believed he was dead.

  “Will this work?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know, but at this point, it can’t hurt,” he said sadly.

  My heart plummeted. I had been hoping to be reassured that of course it would work. Of course, Matt would live. Of course, I wasn’t going to lose him forever, but the only person who could ensure that that didn’t happen—was me. This time, my fangs burst forth easily, and I bit into my wrist with barely a thought. He would live, even if I had to give him every last drop of my blood to accomplish it, but fortunately it didn’t come down to that. After only a few moments, his breathing became more even and he was quiet. His fever was still pretty high, but I was hopeful.

  I swayed on my feet, so Mason picked me up and carried me back to his little cot. “It’s time for you to go now. No arguments,” he said as he stroked my hair and looked worriedly at me.

  “I’ll miss you,” I said.

  He laughed. “You’ll be sleeping, Allison.”

  “I always miss you a little, even when I’m with you; it’s practice for when we’re apart.”

  “Well, after tomorrow, you can stop practicing, because you are never getting rid of me,” he warned.

  I smiled as I allowed the dream to begin to dissolve. Everything, including us, had grown so insubstantial that it was completely transparent, but just as I was about to fade away, he called my name.

  His lips curved into a smile as he spoke, and even though he sounded far away, I still heard his message.

  “Happy Birthday, Allie. Happy Birthday.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Tomorrow

  Surprisingly, I had managed to sleep soundly and peacefully for the rest of the night, but as of this morning, I was a walking basket case. The barest trace of excitement mingled with an excess of dread and fear. My friends and I could all be free very soon, but we could also all be dead very soon. I would be gambling with all of our lives by going after him. The stakes were high, but the greater risk lay in doing nothing, because if we fought, at least we would have a chance at survival.

  I had been awake since nine o’clock and it was now only nine-thirty. They were the longest thirty minutes of my life. I don’t know how many times I glanced at the clock during this time but it was a lot.

  I wouldn’t get my powers until the moment my birthday actually began, in other words, the exact minute I’d been born, and I had no idea when that was. Mason had said I’d be able to feel the magic flowing back into my body, and after the barrier was down, it wouldn’t be long until all the other creatures in here had their powers, too—good and bad.

  It was an extremely dangerous situation, but there was no way around it. It had to come down, because if even a trace of it remained, I would be weakened and we’d all be screwed. If I wasn’t so scared, it might actually be funny that everyone was counting on me to get us out of this mess, but maybe I could actually pull it off. Far crazier things have happened.

  The doorknob wiggled and began to turn as I paced around the tiny, cramped cage. My heart lurched in my chest and my stomach swam. I stopped and stood rooted to the floor, staring unblinkingly at the door, wondering who was on the other side. What if it was him? Would he be able to read the truth in my eyes? Had he already guessed what we were up to? Was he here to stop me? Or maybe he was completely clueless and was just coming to taunt me or run more tests on me.

  But one thing was certain, if he wasn’t suspicious already, one look at my face and he would be. So I prepared to be the snarkiest, brattiest version of myself I could be. I would also have to feign ignorance over Matt’s condition, and I could not slip up and let him know that I was aware of Mason’s presence at this petting zoo from hell.

  And when he walked through the door, I finally released the breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. I actually had to force air in and out of my lungs, and I oscillated between not breathing at all and hyperventilating, but when he finally turned to look at me, I had it under control. It was time to see just how good an actress I could be.

  I rushed to the bars, gripping them so hard, that it looked as if my knuckles would burst right through my skin.

  “Where is Matt? What have you done with him? Is he even still alive?” I asked, allowing my voice to crack on that last word.

  He smiled that oily, disgusting smile that let me know this was exactly the reaction he’d been expecting. “How did you sleep, dear?”

  My stomach flip-flopped when he asked me that question, but as the smile grew wider, I realized he wasn’t asking because he suspected anything; he was just being an ass as usual.

  “Just answer the friggin’ question, old man!” I said through gritted teeth.

  He laughed again and tossed a brown paper bag on the floor in front of my cell. “Eat your breakfast, little girl. Then, I will answer your questions.”

  I eyed the bag suspiciously, as if it might bite me. “I’m not hungry,” I said hatefully, then my stomach objected with a loud rumble.

  His face darkened as he walked closer to me. “Eat it anyway! You will learn nothing of your friend’s condition as long as you continue to be so obstinate.”

  I scowled at him for a few moments, but I finally gave in and picked up the bag. There was a sausage biscuit inside. I hated sausage, but of course, he didn’t know that, and if he had, he wouldn’t have cared.

  A small part of me worried that it might be drugged, but that hadn’t happened since psycho Sheridan fed me vervain, so I was probably safe. I took a very small bite and started to chew as I glared up at him. I would have loved to spit it in his face.

  “You really should show a little more gratitude, Allison. No one else in here is as well fed as you are,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You’re absolutely right,” I said deadpan. “You should just toss me and my friends right out on our ungrateful rear-ends.”

  “You are far too valuable for that, and so is your young friend, who I am pleased to report, has made it through the night.”

  “Thank God,” I sighed in relief. Apparently, my blood had made enough of a difference to keep him hanging on, but David had volunteered that information way too quickly. Normally, he would’ve drawn it out as long as he could. He wanted something from me. I got up and threw the half-eaten biscuit in the toilet, and then I turned around, and asked, “Is this the part where you threaten him, in order to force my cooperation in another one of your sick experiments?”

  “Of course not!” he said, feigning surprise. “He is much too important to sacrifice. If he survives, he will be a living, breathing testament to my success and my genius, not to mention the huge influx of cash he will net me. And you have never been forced into anything! I have always given you choices.”

  “That doesn’t really mean much when all the choices are bad! Tell me, what do I get to choose this time? Whether or not to have my fingers cut off or my eyes gouged out?”

  He rolled his eyes. “You are being ridiculous and overly dramatic!”

  “Just tell me what it is and get out! The sight of you makes me sick, and I really don’t want to throw-up what little food is in my stomach.”

  His face looked like it had been chiseled from stone. His eyes were cold, blue chips of ice, and a vein was throbbing in his f
orehead. I wondered if I had gone too far, but I really didn’t think so. My anger implied that I would actually be here for his evil machinations. If I had acted smug or unconcerned it would’ve aroused his suspicion.

  “Fine! I had hoped to deliver the news a bit more gently, but your irrational behavior makes that impossible!” he said loudly. “Soon, you will begin taking fertility drugs and shots.”

  “Wh-what? Why?” I asked, as images that were too frightening to put into words swarmed inside my brain.

  He raised an eyebrow and smirked at me and my stomach heaved. “I should think that would be obvious, dear.”

  My eyes swam with tears as my mind and body rebelled against what he was telling me. I could withstand a lot of things, but being raped and impregnated by monsters wasn’t one of them. He didn’t need to explain himself; my mind was filling in the blanks just fine all by itself.

  He was going to use me as an incubator for more test subjects. Power grows with each generation, which means my children will be much stronger than I am now, and he had no qualms about experimenting on infants. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could be so cruel, and at that moment, I had never been more certain of his depravity. There was nothing inside him but darkness, no heart, no soul … not the tiniest drop of goodness.

  I closed my eyes as I imagined him ripping a tiny, squalling bundle from my arms, and a tear ran down my cheek. No matter what, the child or children would still be a part of me. I thought back to the little girl I’d been. I hadn’t been loved, but I hadn’t been tortured, and no child of mine would be either. I decided then and there that I would either walk out of here or die down here, but I would not be put back inside this cage.

  “How could you do that to a child you raised, let alone to a bunch of innocent babies?” My voice had a guttural sound and I was fairly certain my eyes were glowing. He wisely chose to take a step back before he answered me.

  “Not innocent babies,” he argued. “Abominations whose lives will be used in service of the greater good!”

  I laughed. “What? Soldiers with super powers? The only thing you care about is the size of your wallet. You’re not doing this for anyone but yourself. You can blather on about the “greater good” all you want, but they’re just words; you have no idea what they actually mean, because the last time I checked raping women and dissecting babies isn’t good!”

  He wrinkled his nose in distaste. “You will not be forced into this. As always, you have a choice. Artificial insemination would be much less messy and ugly.”

  “And if I don’t agree to that?” I challenged.

  “Then you are choosing the only other method available,” he said coldly.

  “You are a very sick man!”

  “It doesn’t have to be unpleasant. I’m sure Mason would be more than willing,” he said with a glint in his eye.

  I barely remembered that I wasn’t supposed to know about Mason. “You have Mason?” He seemed pleased by the horrorstruck look on my face.

  “Yes, I do, and if you agree to my terms, you will be reunited with him.”

  “As appealing as rolling around with him on the floor of this dirty cell while you watch through your hidden cameras sounds, I think I’ll have to pass.”

  “So you would prefer the attentions of an incubus?” he asked cruelly.

  I flinched. I couldn’t help it, but I did not back down. “You want an answer?” I asked. “Here’s your answer,” I yelled, sticking my arm through the bars with my middle finger pointing straight up.

  He seemed outraged by this last act of defiance. His face turned a very unbecoming shade of red, and the vein on his temple throbbed harder. There was a tick in his jaw, and I could practically hear his teeth grinding together. He walked closer to the cell, but I did not back away. We were practically face-to-face when he said, “So be it! Just remember that you’ve brought this on yourself!” he growled. I spat in his face, and his hand shot through the bars and grabbed a handful of my hair. He bent my head back so far that I thought it would snap off. “Actions have consequences, Allison. Remember that!” Then, he shoved me away and turned to go.

  And all of a sudden it was like light and life exploded inside of me. That’s really the only way I can accurately describe the wonderful feeling that unfurled and bloomed inside of me. I had my powers back. The magic was so close that if felt as if I could almost reach out and touch it. I looked up and saw that it was now five minutes after ten. I guess the exact time I had been born was no longer a mystery.

  I glanced up and one by one the unflattering fluorescent lights began to shatter. I waved my hand at the cabinets lining the walls and their contents flew through the air like shrapnel. A few of the medical instruments embedded themselves in the wall and the rest littered the floor. I reached out to touch the walls of my cell and the whole room began to shake. Five tiny cracks that started at my fingertips began to snake up the wall and spread throughout the room. His precious machines blew up, and the large, silver refrigerator was turned on its side. It was the equivalent of a magical hissy fit, but if anyone was entitled to throw a fit, I was pretty sure it was me.

  All of these things had happened in very quick succession, and all David could do was stare around the room in shock. Neither panic, nor fear, had set in yet. He was still too busy trying to process the destruction around him.

  I don’t know how long he would have stood there like that, if he hadn’t heard the shouts, growls, hisses, and the sound of gunshots. I saw him jump at the first sound, and then, his eyes focused on me and widened in alarm. He immediately ran for the door and began furiously twisting the knob, but no matter how hard he pulled, how many keys he tried, or how many buttons he pushed, the door wouldn’t budge.

  I easily unlocked my cell with a single thought and sent the metal door crashing into the wall. He cried out when he heard that sound and whirled back around, flattening his back against the door. He was a coward who preferred his opponents weak and helpless. It was time to see how he liked it when the shoe was on the other foot. I began to walk toward him, and if possible, he shrank back even farther against the door.

  “You’re right,” I told him. “Actions do have consequences.”

  * * *

  Mason

  I had woken up shortly after Allie had left my dreams, and I had been too full of nervous energy to go back to sleep. I wish I had some idea of exactly when this would all go down, but since we didn’t know what time she’d been born, that was impossible.

  The last few hours had been the longest of my life, and in my case, that was saying something. It was about ten o’clock now, and all I could think about was that sometime between now and midnight we would finally be free of all this. This plan would work. I wasn’t even willing to consider any other outcome.

  Ella’s main job was to protect Matt. He was vulnerable in his current condition, and Allie had entrusted Ella with his life. Every other decent creature in here had been assigned a specific target to take out, but Allie and I had only two. We would both go after Sheridan and David. Allie would trap David in the room her cell was in, and I was pretty certain that Sheridan would immediately seek him out once all hell broke loose—literally.

  The door would be charmed so that only Sheridan or I could open it, and once we had them together, we would dispense our own special brand of justice. She had insisted on going after David on her own, but I’d finally convinced her that we could take them both out together. We were both strong and would be able to watch each other’s backs.

  There was usually a steady rotation of armed guards patrolling the halls, and the creatures that were fighting for Allie had been instructed to wait at least fifteen minutes to start their fight. We knew that the dark, sinister things in here would act rashly when they felt the power come back, and that would send all of the guards running for that section of the jail. If we were lucky, the majority of them would take each other out and save us the trouble.

  There were three guards in m
y general vicinity when the commotion began. A cacophony of sounds soon caressed my eardrums: the twisting metal of cell doors being ripped from their hinges and the pounding of other things still trying to get out.

  The guards immediately began to run in that direction and I smiled. The air was soon filled with gunshots, hisses, growls, wailing, and horrible, terrible screaming. It probably only took the monsters about ten minutes to finish off the guards, and I was certain that was what happened, because the screams and echoes of gunfire had suddenly died away.

  In the next five minutes we were all freed from our cells, and I immediately began to make my way to Allie. The bodies of humans and nightmarish monsters were strewn about the floor, and I took the path of least resistance through the gore on my way to her.

  I had to stop occasionally and help one of our allies. I also fought my way through an incubus, a hellhound, and a troll who tried to step on me. I had almost made it to Allie when I found an unconscious elf whose throat had a nasty bite taken out of it. I could hear a faint heartbeat, so I gave her blood and carried her back to Ella and Matt. I lost count of how many times I had to lay her down to defend myself, and it felt like hours had passed by the time I finally made it back to Allie. I wasn’t sure exactly how much time I’d lost. I was just hoping and praying that that was the only thing I’d lost.

  * * *

  Allie

  “No! This is impossible! Those spells safeguarding against the use of magic were too strong! They were reinforced just last night! How are you doing this?” he demanded.

  I shrugged. “I guess I’m just smarter than you,” I replied, knowing that that would send his blood pressure through the roof. If possible his face grew even redder and his hands clenched and unclenched into fists. I could tell that he was dying to tell me exactly what a moron he thought I was, but he wisely chose to keep his thoughts to himself.

  “Are you going to kill me?” he asked, trying and failing to disguise the fear in his voice.