Dark Bargain (Kayla McQueen Book 2)

by brett hicks

  That snapped me out of my state of shock, I did open my senses and I sniffed the air. Indeed, tangled scents of my body and his. I knew what this combination was. I could even smell the difference between consent and rape, scent information was very complex.

  “Wha… who…how?”

  I felt someone coming and I turned, five seconds later I saw the similar form of my grandmother. She gave me a weak smile, like she was happy to see me, but very sad at the same time.

  “Grandma, what the hell is going on?”

  She sighed and said, “Well, I heard the whole thing. My guess, she took something from you. What did she ask you for Kayla?”

  I tried to remember and it came to me, her first offer came to me.

  “She wanted me to work for her, like some sort of transcended assassin. I flatly refused her, then she offered me something else and…”

  I collapsed into Sally’s arms and my head throbbed. It felt like a had someone drilling a dozen holes in my skull at once. I clutched my head and grunted. The guy, Jon, he tried to come forward, but Sally stopped him.

  “She is confused Jon, please, give her space. I will take her to my room tonight. I think Kayla needs her best friend right now.”

  She stroked my hair, my hair that I now realized was a long raven black. My same style and length, but completely black and silky.

  “What the hell happened to my hair!?”

  Joan shrugged and said, “Hell if I know, that’s never happened to anyone before honey.”

  I grumbled, “Great, why am I always the test case?”

  Sally picked me up, bridal style and began to quickly pace out of the room.

  “I am gonna get her grumpiness in bed and fed. Jon, you might wanna keep your pants on for a while, she might castrate you, she is behaving like the high school Kayla. Well, at least in things concerning men.”

  I heard a deep sigh and he whispered, “I love you chérie.”

  I blushed feverishly and pretended like I did not hear it, but Sally heard it too. She was trying not to smile, I could see it in her face now. I wanted to push myself free from her, it would be easy, especially…

  I felt weightless for a moment, then I felt my feet touch the ground lightly at the door I knew to be Sally’s.

  “What the fuck was that?!” Sally asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Kay, you just like teleported.”

  “No, that is called shadow stepping dear.”

  I turned and saw Bella standing there, her hands behind her back.

  “So, Seraphina really fucked you up, huh?”

  It was less of a question, more of a statement.

  “I was just waking up for the night, when I heard you shrieking like a virgin on prom night.”

  Sally shot her a look and said, “That would be moaning like…”

  Bella shrugged and said, “Two hundred years in the colonies and I still feel like a bloody foreigner.”

  “Yeah, and we had this tiny little thing called the Revolutionary War. You might have heard of it?”

  Sally quipped at Bella, but there was no bite to her words, not like there was at first between them.

  “I’ll get you some blood little one, you need to rest a few hours, then we shall update you on everything you have missed.”

  I looked between them and then I saw the tall Cajun guy walking into the room, so I did what any transcended being of a higher power would do, I ran into Sally’s room and slammed the door behind me.

  “Well… that went well… move along folks, nothing to see here!” Sally exclaimed like she was a police officer.

  Wait, she was one… so was I.

  Fragmented memories flooded into me, cases, people, places and then, the night four of them jumped me outside the 8th. The door opened and I whipped my head towards the sound, Sally came in holding a large bottle of blood. She dangled it like it was a carrot on a stick.

  “Who’s a hungry little dyamphyr?!” Her voice made her sound like she was talking to a puppy, not her best friend.

  I gave her a deadly look and said, “This girl, and I am about to bite a silly wolf.”

  She narrowed her eyes a fraction, but she quickly shrugged it off. She could tell that I was mostly kidding, I was truly pissed that I could not remember parts of the past year. I could not remember losing my virginity of all things!

  She finally handed me the blood and I tore the cap off and gulped down the rich blood greedily. I vaguely remembered having it once before, it was powerful, full of kick. I could taste it now, taste the magic fused with it, it was Bella’s blood, well a few drops of it mixed into the bottle. To share blood, was to share part of your life force with another of your kind. That was the greatest honor among our kind.

  “Kay, I’m gonna lay down beside you. Will you still cuddle with me?”

  She sounded very pouty. I rolled my eyes and I opened my arms for her. She shook her head and said, “I get to be the big spoon this time!”

  She crawled in behind me and wrapped her long, slender arms around me. Her wolfish scent lulled me into a sense of safety and peace. I was indeed the only dyamphyr or vampire, either, in history to feel so comforted by a werewolf’s scent. Whatever I might have lost in the abyss, Sally was still my best friend, still the very heart in my chest, still my sister.

  Twenty-One:

  I woke two hours later, feeling the pulse of another magic signature in the area. I dispersed into shadows and I slipped outside the house. I reformed as the light touched the shadows in the middle of the yard, in a break in the thick tree canopy.

  So, you must have some darkness, or you go solid again.

  My movements in my corporeal form were lighter, effortless. I stepped past the light and I dispersed again, into the shadows. Kayla ceased to be a physical being and became a thought, a cohesion of will and mental focus.

  So, my body is relative, not the end of my being, but one possible formation of my molecules. How the hell do I know all of this?

  ‘A gift, think of it as a manual for the newly transcended.’

  Great, you’re here, thanks, just what I needed, transcending for dummies.

  ‘If your rebellious nature did not amuse me, I would peel the skin from your very corporeal flesh.’

  Then stay out of my head!

  I thought it and the link slammed shut, I felt a pop in the connection between us. That did not explain itself.

  Was that in the manual?

  No response from Seraphina, so I was pretty sure I was alone now. One thing I had observed about her, she loved to talk, so she always promptly responded to any question or comment directed at her.

  We just need to set her up with some suicide chat rooms on the internet!

  My musing was cut short, I felt the water witch approach and I dispersed, reappearing behind her a moment later. She spun on her heels, her response time was spectacular, for a physical being. I caught her right leg and I went wide eyed.

  “Mom…”

  Her eyes bulged and she teared up. I dropped her leg and she tackled me to the ground in a bear hug. She wept and I stroked my hand through her hair.

  “I swear to god, I almost drown your grandmother when she told me what she did with you! Her and Bella, they are crazy! Taking you to see Seraphina! Oh god honey, what did that crazy shadowy bitch do you your beautiful hair?”

  My mom stroked my raven hair and I sighed and just listened to her hysterical chattering for a few minutes.

  ****

  Once we returned into the Cabin home, we all sat at the large oval table. I made a point to sit on the opposite end from lover boy. He was still having a lot of personal space issues and, well his sulking was about to drive me crazy!

  “Jenny, what did you find? Did she discover you?”

  My mom bobbed her yellow hair and said, “She was too proud of herself, and she was busy stealing magical life force from the witches that are trying to resist her. She has converted over two-dozen witches. They are all fused wi
th sorcerer magic.”

  I did not correct her, I realized that none of the older beings used the proper terminology in mixed company. This was supposed to be very secret, so much so, you did not speak of it, less the crazy bitch decides to make you forget your birthday, or your marriage, or worse, your gender preference!

  “She had vampires guarding the keep in the nights. They are talking about moving bodies to her workshop tomorrow night. I don’t know whose bodies, but I know what they are using all the drained life essence for.”

  “What?” We all asked at the same time.

  “They are going to have her cast a resurrection spell. I came back, because I figured we should move on this, lest whoever it is, is up and moving again.”

  Bella nodded and said, “Whoever these people are, they sure went through an awful lot of trouble, just to return them to life. That cannot bode well for any of us. It could possibly be, they are planning to resurrect the other ancients, so it weakens my power and influence once more.”

  Joan shrugged and said, “Who the hell knows, we could speculate all night, but we do know that her guard will be at its lowest tomorrow. She will have her attention divided. We must hit them.”

  I nodded and said, “I will be able to buy you a window, so you can steal the bodies. I can roam around the keep unchecked now. Her minions will not know what to do with me, they could do nothing before I met Seraphina.”

  Jon shot me a look and his brownish-green eyes flashed with concern.

  “Chérie, please, that is the most reckless thing you have ever suggested.”

  I shot him a hot look and said, “Cool it, I am a dyamphyr, in case you never noticed that before. I can take care of myself. I have never needed a human to do a damn thing for me!”

  Sally kicked me in the shin and I turned my gaze on her, but she just grinned and said, “I will get in touch with the pack. They should be ready to fight by now, but I cannot promise that all of them will come. My dad is sticking to his whole, “This is not our fight,” speech.”

  I muttered, “Bastard!”

  Sally just studied me silently, like she was trying to remember who I was.

  Was I really that different to them? I am not blind people! I see how they all study me like a fucking alien!

  You will forever be touched by the shadows Kayla…

  My grandmother’s words seem to be ringing true now. With new perceptions, I had yet to truly understand, I had lost some part of the naïve little dyamphyr I once was. According to everyone, including my own grandmother, I was in love with a human! ME! A HUMAN! That is the most ludicrous thing I could imagine. No matter how hot that young detective way, he could never handle what my nature is—the path of bloodshed I was forced to walk. Kayla the little half-breed died, now Kayla the shadow-forged existed. I understood it, understood that I could not turn back—nor would I. I also felt the pulse of festering energy, even this far from the coven community. My shadows whispered to me, demanding that I search and destroy. No prisoners, leave nothing, salt the earth behind me!

  “I will move at nightfall, they will not see me coming. Thanks to granny dearest, I can move with impunity inside the community.”

  My mom gave me a look and said, “They will have barriers—not nearly as fabulous as the ones I put over the coven years ago—but barriers none-the-less.”

  I rolled my eyes and said, “Witches of their talent have flawed magic, it only takes a pinhole of a flaw and I can slip through without anyone being any the wiser.”

  Joan nodded and said, “She was not supposed to say that, but I don’t sense that annoying bitch listening in either. How exactly is that Kayla?”

  I shrugged and said, “I just said something like ‘shut up,’ and she was gone from my mind.”

  Joan gawked at me and then cleared her throat.

  “Jenny, remind me how many years I have tried to get that bitch off my back again?”

  My mom pretended to think and then said, “Only six-hundred-years, but it’s ok, at least it was your granddaughter who managed to do it—a fellow McQueen!”

  I stabbed a piece of pancake in front of me and shoveled it into my gob. I enjoyed the mix of the sweet, buttery and sour tastes all blended to perfection. Note to self, two-thousand-year-old vampires should go into the restaurant business.

  “Well, once you gather more information with your heightened senses, do let me know how a lowly witch can re-produce that process. She likes to pop in from time to time, just to remind me that she owns a strip of my hide.”

  I snorted and mirthlessly said, “So I noticed.”

  “Kayla, you need to be careful, Seraphina is far too interested in you. You might very well be the first being capable of destroying her, since you can tune her out.”

  I furrowed my brow and said, “How does that figure?”

  Bella cut in, “Simple, it is the same rules of engagement on the higher planes Kayla. If you can block someone out, then it means your existence is in the same ballpark as her’s.”

  “Shit, so, I just telegraphed that on day one…”

  My mom nodded, with a grim expression.

  Joan said, “Probably better this way, because she can’t spy on your growth curve honey. That also means that she could just assume it is a fluke, or that you did not fully bond with her; you did not actually form any sort of service contract with her.”

  I shook my head, “Nope, she took some stuff and I had her help becoming a partially transcended being.”

  “Kayla, I cannot disperse at will like, you can—I never could. Even in my prime, with full power to the partial transcendence.”

  “Are you implying?”

  She shook her head and said, “Not yet, you’re more than I was, but less than she is. My sense of the abyss, or shadow magic, tells me this.”

  I nodded, my grandma was partially transcended, so she would have access to the information necessary to gauge such things.

  “I am typically the last to be all rush, rush, but we need to get this shit done. We only have today to come up with a plan of attack.”

  Sally surprised us all, her carefree side was gone, her green eyes were luminescing now. Her Lycan apex powers were very close to the surface. She was budding into a leader for her own kind.

  A knock at the door had all of us up in arms, all members of this conspiracy were accounted for.

  Bella paced to the door and opened it.

  “Anyone knows an alpha male named Dylan? I could just serve him for dinner, me and Kayla need to eat!”

  In stepped the tousled, torn up, Dylan. His beautiful blonde hair was growing back out. His naturally curly blonde hair was beginning to twist, like curly fries. He had three sets of fang marks on his person. I dispersed and re-appeared in front of him.

  He was shocked, but he recovered as soon as he took in my scent.

  “Kayla? You’re back, what the hell happened to your beautiful hair?!”

  My mom chimed in and said, “That is what I said!”

  “Dylan, what the hell happened, I know you were under orders not to come, unless it was life or death.”

  “Trust me, it is!”

  He turned to Sally and he fell at her feet. She let a single tear drop—her final tear in this life. She then slit her right palm open with her freshly shifted claws and she held her hand out to Dylan.

  “I pledge to serve you, my alpha, my apex—mother of the pack.”

  Everyone’s breath hitched, even the human seemed to understand what this meant. Jean Early was dead in battle, the highest ranking alpha male had come straight away to pledge fealty to the apex heir.

  Sally’s voice boomed with a thick feminine authority I rarely heard from her.

  “Rise, my first!”

  Dylan rose promptly, still looking at his shoes.

  “We must go to the pack, Kayla and Jenny, you both need to stay here.”

  I was about to protest, but Sally held up a hand and said, “You two are our ace in the hole. We will no
t risk the assault, even for the sake of what is happening tonight. Whatever is happening in that keep is probably apocalyptically bad Kay, please.”

  I shut my eyes and sighed.

  “Be safe—all of you.”

  Twenty-Two:

  My mom spent the entire day pushing my power. Thus far, I couldn’t shut off her magic without blocking my own. I could utilize the darkness around me, even just tiny bits and fragments, and I could create a dead zone. I knew that I could ask Seraphina, but I was not in any hurry to jump back into bed with the devil.

  I had learned that I could completely phase through any normal elemental spell. I doubted it worked so simple with that twisted magic that Jaden was using. Being touched by the shadows made physical form, a choice not a necessity.

  “Kayla, you might want to consider another plan. Your mastery of the shadow arts is novice at best. This spell of yours is a double-edged sword. Once you activate this spell, you will not be able to use your magic either.”

  I ran a flustered hand through my raven hair and groaned in annoyance.

  “Mom, we have been through this, I am a much better fighter than any witch. Solo, I dare say I could even take on grandma and win.”