Demon's Touch: A Reverse Harem Tale (Mountain Magic Book 2)

by Dakota Brown

  Doc swore.

  I tried to free myself from the tangle of werewolves and peek around Doc, but Ed was still convinced we were under attack.

  "Ed, Allan, let her up. I think it's safe."

  Doc dropped the shield, and I finally managed to crawl free of the wolves. I came over next to Doc and couldn't resist putting my arm around his bare waist, but the body on the floor had most of my attention.

  "What the hell?"

  None of us spoke after that, studying the person that had materialized out of the knife, however that was possible.

  The body was definitely male, had olive toned skin and shoulder length dark hair. I couldn't see much more than that, though his features didn't seem to be Caucasian. He wore some kind of long, divided, brocade coat thing lined in fur. His boots were leather and of a style I didn't even recognize. If it wasn't for the large bloodstain on the back above his kidney, the jacket would have been really nice. The stain looked fresh.

  "Is he still alive?" I managed to say around the shock.

  That got the guys moving. Doc knelt next to him. "Barely. Sofia, come here, see if you can help me heal him."

  "Me?"

  "I know the basics. I just usually don't have enough magic stored up to do more than take care of a stubbed toe."

  "You sure you're not a mage?"

  "Just been around a while," Doc muttered, clearly distracted as he rolled our guest onto his side.

  I sank down next to him and offered him my wrist. Doc glanced at me and smiled. "Let's see if I can guide your magic first."

  "Okay."

  "Just put your hands on him and call on your magic and see if you can follow what I'm doing."

  "Sure." I hoped I wouldn't cause whoever this was to die, because I had no idea what I was doing.

  I put my hands on the stranger's arm and called on my magic. I poured it into the guy. Lavender sparked across him, and blue sparkles rose to join them. I nearly lost my concentration in surprise.

  "He's a mage," Allan exclaimed.

  "Looks like it," Doc replied tightly. He put his hands on top of mine, and I let him direct my magic. We sank deeper into the unconscious man's body. The wound pricked at me, as if leaching energy from anything that touched it. Not only had he been stabbed, but he'd been poisoned, too. Doc showed me how to use my magic to repair the wound, and then he withdrew from the connection.

  "He's going to need more than that to recover," Doc said. "That poison is nasty, whatever it was."

  "Are you going to save him?" Allan sank down next to us.

  Doc sighed and pulled one of the beaded bracelets off of his arm. He wore identical wide bracelets on each wrist. They stored a little magical energy, giving him an extra edge against mages in combat. Not that the half-vampire normally needed much help unless he was also defending others. They had been his mother's, a Navajo vampire hunter at the turn of the last century.

  "Suppose we should try."

  Doc's energy changed as he let his vampire half take over, and he bit down on his wrist. Vampire blood had a lot of nifty qualities, one of them being that it could help heal the poor sod on our floor. It wasn't well known, and vampires preferred it that way. They were one of the more powerful supernatural beings, and one of the more reclusive.

  Blood welled on Doc's wrist, and Ed rolled the guy over and tilted his head back.

  Though the wound was slowly healing, the guy's life force faded as the poison worked.

  The moment Doc's blood hit the guy's system, a jolt ran through my entire body, transmitted from the injured guy. He sucked in a breath, shuddering as Doc's blood helped me combat the poison, though he remained unconscious.

  For a few moments, I wasn't sure it was going to be enough, that we were too late. I poured more magic into him, determined to save him, though I had no idea who he even was. My hold on my magic weakened. It was only in the last couple of weeks that I'd even tried to do anything on purpose other than fix my hair, and I still really didn't know what I was doing.

  I lost my grasp on the lavender motes of magic and collapsed across the newcomer, trembling with exertion.

  Doc pulled me into his arms, and I shivered. "Were we too late?"

  "No, I don't think so," Doc replied. "Ed, Allan, see if you can get him into my room."

  Doc helped me to my feet and brushed a strand of my short hair out of my face. It stuck to my face, and my shirt clung to my body. Everything was soaked, as if I'd run a marathon in the Nebraska summer. Exhaustion tugged at me.

  Protesting when Doc swept me off my feet earned me a kiss on the forehead.

  "You're beat, let me carry you. We'll get our guest cleaned up, and you can rest."

  I rested against Doc's shoulder and enjoyed being held in his strong arms. "So, does this happen often? Strange men appearing in your living room?"

  Doc laughed. "No. Unless I'm forgetting something, this is certainly a first for me."

  "How, exactly, was he in the knife?"

  "Hopefully, we'll be able to ask that question soon." Doc put me down on his king-sized bed. When you shared with two werewolves and now me, you needed more space than a queen allowed. He kissed my forehead and went over to the other side where Ed and Allan stared at the stranger.

  "Let's see if we can get his shirt off and check his wound. We can see if Sofia got it closed up and check to see if it looks infected," Doc ordered.

  Between the three of them, they had the stranger's shirt off in short order.

  "That looks like it hurt." Allan winced, pointing to the guy's chest. A diagonal scar ran from his collarbone to the opposite hipbone.

  "Sword," Doc commented before gently rolling the guy over onto his stomach and looking at his back.

  We all flinched.

  The knife wound was closed, but whoever had stabbed him hadn't done it cleanly, and while the scar wasn't too bad, the person had done more than just slide the knife in, they had twisted it.

  "Wonder what he did to deserve that," Ed puzzled.

  "Pissed someone off," Allan replied.

  Doc put his hand over the wound. "It's not hot, so we probably got all of the infection, and his heart is beating normally now, so he'll probably recover."

  "He looks Asian," Ed suggested when they rolled him back over onto his back and covered him with a blanket.

  "Not quite," Allan replied.

  "Yeah…" Ed trailed off. "Strange."

  "Well, whoever he is," I said. "I hope he's friendly." He didn't look much older than the rest of us, though I knew that could be deceiving.

  The guys looked at me, then back at the guy on the other side of the bed. Their expressions darkening from curiosity to suspicion.

  "Let's hope," Allan agreed.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  I drifted in and out of consciousness, recovering from the magical exertion, while Ed, Allan, and Doc rotated keeping watch on us.

  Warm hands caressed my cheek, and I opened my eyes. Ed pressed his lips to mine gently before whispering, "Allan and I are going to go run. If he's not awake by the time we get back, join us in my room?" His eyes shone with hope.

  "I will."

  Ed's sky-blue eyes lit up with joy, and I couldn't help but smile.

  He kissed me again before leaving the room.

  Thirsty, and wanting a shower after being drenched in sweat earlier, I got up.

  Doc glanced up from the tablet he was staring at, the light from the screen illuminating his face in the otherwise dimly lit room.

  "Whatcha doing?" I came over. He put the tablet down in his lap and put his arm around me until I was leaning against him and the chair he sat in.

  "Grading papers from one of my upper level classes."

  "You know, you have yet to give us anything other than reading assignments."

  Doc cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "This may be the year my freshman history class gets A's for showing up."

  "Oh?"

  "Yeah. I find myself not wanting to grade a certain
student's assignments."

  "Oh." I blushed. "Sorry."

  "It is far more my fault than yours, Sofia. I'll have to give a final, just don't fail that, and it should be fine."

  I laughed. "Sure, Mr. Cassidy."

  He groaned. "Gods, please don't call me that."

  "Ha." I planted a kiss on his cheek and headed for the bathroom.

  The hot shower drained away some of the stress and tension from my shoulders along with washing away the sweat from earlier. I didn't linger, not really wanting to leave Doc alone with the stranger for too long. Not that he couldn't take care of himself, but it still worried me. As soon as I turned the shower off, I heard voices, so I hurried through drying off, threw on a pair of Doc's flannel pants and one of Ed's shirts, though they were all a little too big, and stepped out into the bedroom.

  The newcomer was sitting up in the bed, back pressed against the headboard, looking terrified.

  Doc hadn't moved from his chair, but he had put the tablet down, and I knew from experience he could cross the room before any of us could blink.

  The new guy turned to look at me, but Doc kept his attention directed toward the potential threat.

  "Hi." I tried to sound welcoming.

  He tilted his head, as if trying to figure out what I said.

  Finally, he replied. It sounded like a greeting, but I didn't know the language. I looked at Doc. "Do you understand him?"

  "No. Sounds Russian, though."

  I pointed to myself. "Sofia."

  That he understood. He said something, then my name, following with pointing at himself. "Nikolai Orlov."

  "Nikolai. This is Doc." I pointed.

  "Doc." Nikolai nodded his head. He relaxed a little, but his shoulders were still tense and his eyes darted around the room. He said something else that, to me, had the cadence of where am I.

  "There doesn't happen to be any magic that will help you understand us, is there?" I really didn't know the full extent and limitations of magical power. I only knew the stories people told. Growing up in a non-magical family, even though I possessed the ability, had a lot of disadvantages. Including being completely untrained.

  Nikolai stared at me, and I got the idea he was trying to decide if he was safe or not. As long as he was friendly, he was safe, but he had no way to know that. Though hopefully waking up healthy and not restrained was a clue. Though, by the way he eyed Doc, he knew the other man was dangerous.

  I held my hands up and let lavender sparkles dance across my palms.

  Nikolai's eyes went wide, his gaze darting between me and Doc. If anything, he pressed himself further into the headboard.

  Pulling my magic back into myself, I dropped my hands and tried to look non-threatening.

  "It's okay. We're friends."

  He studied both of us for a few more minutes while I tried not to move. I was guessing he was a trained mage, but either he had an idea that Doc could get to him before he could cast a spell, or he was still exhausted from whatever had happened to him, because he didn't look like he was about to try and do any magic.

  Finally, he held out his hand to me, though he kept his fearful gaze locked on Doc.

  I glanced at the vampire as well. Doc frowned and fluidly rose from the chair. He usually managed to keep his movements more on the human side, though he moved with a fighter's grace all the time. Right now, he wasn't trying to blend in.

  Nikolai paled and babbled something that definitely sounded like a version of vampire.

  Doc put his hands on my shoulders, claiming me. Nikolai nodded somewhat frantically before holding his hand out to me again.

  "I don't think he's going to hurt me," I said.

  "I'm not getting that impression, either," Doc replied. He kissed my cheek and then stepped back.

  Heart beating a little faster, I closed the distance between myself and Nikolai. I put my hand into his. Though his fingers were long and elegant, his palms had rough callouses, and his gentle grip did nothing to disguise the strength in his hands.

  He climbed out of the bed, letting the blanket the guys had covered him with fall away, and stood in front of me. His pants looked to be of some sort of fine linen, and they hugged his hips. Nikolai's muscles were a little more defined than Doc, but not nearly as muscular as the wolves. I met his dark brown eyes and noticed a shine of the same rich blue as his magic.

  Nikolai glanced at Doc, clenched his jaw as if frustrated, and said something that sounded like he was trying to reassure both of us. Then he cupped my cheeks with his hands and blue motes of magic filled the air around us.

  My magic responded on its own, or Nikolai was doing something to call it up as well, until we stood in a small light show of our own making.

  "Sofia?" Doc murmured softly.

  "It's okay," I answered.

  The magic tingled through us, pulling at me. I let it tug me along, pull me into Nikolai's gaze, until he blinked and let go of my face.

  I took a step back and raised my eyebrows as I looked around. We stood in an ornate room I had never seen before. The floor looked to be white marble. The pillars, probably also marble. Gold gilt covered the walls, and lamps in sconces lit the space. For all of the ornateness of the building, there weren't any pictures on the walls, and that surprised me.

  "Where are we?"

  "I have that very same question."

  I jumped, not expecting to understand Nikolai.

  "Your vampire, he will not attack me for this?"

  I brought my attention fully back to Nikolai. He was fully dressed in the same clothing we had found him in. "How did you know?"

  "He is not the first vampire I have met, and I could taste blood in my mouth when I woke. I assume the two of you healed me?" He winced, probably with the memory of being stabbed in the back.

  "Yes, we did. And no, as long as he doesn't think you're hurting me, he won't."

  He sighed in relief. "They can be very territorial. And to answer your question, we are still standing in that very strange room I woke in, but I've brought our consciousnesses to a place where we can converse. It is a thing mages do. You are not familiar?"

  I shook my head. I didn't want to admit I knew next to nothing about magic, but I was probably going to have to tell him.

  "I would echo your question. Where have I woken?"

  "Colorado."

  He frowned. "I'm not familiar with this place."

  "It's in America."

  Nikolai still obviously had no idea what I was talking about.

  "Um, where are you from?"

  "Most recently, Moscow. I'm the high mage of Prince Ivan Vasilyevich. Well, he is the regent for Vasily, but he will soon be fully in charge."

  I stared at him.

  "You know these names?" He sounded hopeful.

  "Well, I mean, I know Moscow."

  "Perhaps I should ask what year it is," he inquired hesitantly.

  I told him.

  He paled.

  "Nikolai?"

  "Tell me, does Russia still stand?"

  I raised my eyebrows, but I nodded.

  "And the Mongols?"

  "There is a Mongolia, but if you're talking like, Genghis Khan type Mongols, not really." I knew very little about that region, but Nikolai's shoulders eased, and he took a breath.

  "So, what time are you from then?"

  "Fourteen fifty-five."

  "Oh."

  "It appears I was trapped for a very long time." He sighed. "Damn Roza, anyway."

  "What happened?"

  "I believe I will be answering this question many times in the near future. Perhaps it would save a bit of time if I answered you and, did you say his name was Doc? At the same time."

  "Yeah. Well, it's Roy Cassidy, but Doc's his nickname."

  "Curious. Well, I do not believe I can bring you here every time I need to have a conversation with someone so that you can translate for me, as much as I am enjoying having you in my space." He winked at me. "Would you be willing to gi
ve me your language. I will trade, of course."

  "Give it to you?"

  "I can take the knowledge of your language and transfer it to myself. It is common knowledge in my day, but perhaps it has been lost to time? It's not a perfect solution, still takes time to fully adapt to the new language."

  I shrugged. "I still retain my knowledge, right?"

  "Of course. And I will trade you. I know several languages. What would you find most useful? I speak Russian of course. The Mongolian tongue. Many regional dialects that will probably be less useful to you. I do not know enough Chinese for it to be a fair trade. Perhaps Russian?"

  "I, uh, sure. Though I'm willing to bet the language has shifted quite a bit since you learned it."

  "Perhaps, but you will always be able to understand me."

  That idea pleased him, so I shrugged. "Sure, why not."

  He tilted his head as if trying to understand my phrasing. "Thank you. I'll bring us back so you can explain to your friend. I don't want him to worry."

  "Sure."

  He stepped back over to me and cupped my chin and drew me back into his gaze. After a moment, I could tell we had shifted back. I felt heavier, though I hadn't noticed the lightness before.

  "Sofia?" Doc did sound worried, so it was probably just as well Nikolai had returned us to a normal state of consciousness.

  "It's okay. So, uh, Nikolai is from Russia. Like, fourteen fifty's Russia."

  Doc swore.

  "Yeah, that's kind of what he said when I told him what year it was. He's going to, uh, trade me languages so we can talk."

  "Convenient," Doc replied.

  "Well, I'm glad we won't have to teach him English the hard way."

  Nikolai watched our exchange, eyes wide with worry.

  "He definitely knows you're a vampire, though."

  "I could tell," Doc said tightly.

  Nikolai still cradled my face in his hands, and his hands tensed at Doc's tone.

  I put my hand on Nikolai's muscular forearm and squeezed, trying to reassure him.