by Renee George
"I didn't mean to lash out at you all. I hadn't felt the magic since Baz entered the picture, and I didn't think it would return automatically when he wasn't around."
"And you can't sense anything when you're with him?" Monty asked. Gigi's cheek had returned to its pale perfection.
"I won't say I can't sense anything. But it's not what I normally feel when it comes to magic.”
"Huh." Next, Monty put his fingers over his lips, and I watched with interest as the bleeding stopped, the crack mended, and the swelling went down. "Can you describe it?"
My eyes widened, and heat rose to my cheeks. "Nope."
He nodded, accepting my answer. "Your turn, Time Bomb. Let me heal the scratches."
"I'm fine," my lovable buddy said.
"Get yourself healed, or I won't forgive myself." I gave him a final squeeze. "I really am okay now."
When I released him, Time Bomb grabbed my hand. His eyes darkened as he glimpsed my wrist. "I'll kill him," he seethed. He yanked my wrist over for Gigi and Monty to see. "He fucking bit her!"
I yanked my hand back. "It's not what you think," I said.
"I think those two little puncture marks are pretty self-explanatory," Monty said.
Gigi nodded. "Did he mesmerize you? Is that why you thought you lost time? Maybe he tricked you into believing you were trapped somewhere when really he was getting classified information from you."
I stared at my team, my friends, the people I trusted most in the world, and couldn't believe the wary looks they were giving me. They thought I was compromised.
"He didn't," I told them. "He tried, but he can't. I mean, I couldn't be put in his thrall."
"So you admit he bit you with the purpose of mind-screwing you," Time Bomb accused.
"No. I don't admit that." A different type of panic welled inside me. To them, we'd been gone minutes, but for us, it had been hours, and those hours had almost cost me my life. Baz had done everything he could to save me. "He was trying to help!"
"I bet," Gigi said. "Help himself to your blood and your top-secret covert information."
Goddess damn it, I was going to have to tell them about the necromancy, and I really didn't want to have to explain the fact that my magic worked on vampires, like at all.
The ground shook, and fire roared from the trees near the cabin.
Baz burst through the door with his entourage behind him. Gigi produced two silver stakes, Monty had one in his hand, and Time Bomb was letting his fur fly free. They were going to kill Baz and his team.
"No!" I shouted
Another blast outside shook the entire cabin.
"They're coming," Baz shouted. I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears.
“C’mon. There’s an escape tunnel below the cabin.”
Everyone hesitated. Well, I wasn’t going to let their doubts about Baz, or about me, prevent the mission from succeeding. I followed Baz and his security team into the cabin and through a door that led to the basement. Gigi, Monty, and Time Bomb followed.
"Who's coming?" I asked Baz.
"The sabbatianoí!"
Crap. "I thought they were all dead."
"Apparently not," Baz said. "My brother's compound in Arkansas is under siege. It's a coordinated attack on the Ravenblood clan."
Monty locked the steel panic door behind us, and the noises from the firebombings outside quieted.
"How is this possible?" I asked Baz. "You said they were stupid, primitive."
"That was thousands of years ago, Drag. Up until today, I didn't believe any of their kind still existed. But, obviously, they have become smarter, more organized." He punched his fist into his palm. "Two of my sisters are dead."
"Do they have Shifters working for them?" Monty asked.
Baz shook his head. "Worse." He glanced at me then looked away. "My brother's people told me it's necromancers."
Gigi hissed. "That's forbidden. If witches and warlocks are practicing the black art of animating corpses, or de-animating as the case may be with vampires, we will make them pay."
"True necromancy," Baz amended. "The kind that you have to be born with, not the kind that requires black spells."
Monty furrowed his brow. "Born necromancers are a myth."
"No," I told them. "Born necromancers are real."
They all turned to look at me. "It's why Baz couldn't mesmerize me. It's why we escaped the death trap. I'm..." Goddess protect me. "...a necromancer. I can command the dead."
Chapter Eight
"We have to get to a safe location," Monty said. "All of us." He gave the vampires a meaningful glance.
"I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to translocate me," Baz said. " I think we ended up in the vampire trap by design. It seems apparent that the sabbatianoí have been living in secret, growing stronger, gathering allies, and now they are taking out the leaders of our clan."
"Do you think the Ravenbloods are the only targets, or is it all vampires?" I asked.
“Or the entire supernatural world,” said Gigi. “It can’t be a coincidence this attack happened when the witches and vampires are trying to hammer out a truce.”
Baz nodded. “You have a point.”
"How did they know where we were?" Time Bomb asked. "This location is supposed to be top secret."
Baz ran his fingers through his dark hair, and I noticed his eyes were red again. "We have a traitor," he said. "I don't know if it's on your side or mine, but we have to keep our next location secret. Only those of us in this place should be in the know."
I nodded. Time Bomb grunted.
Gigi and Monty agreed.
"Good," Baz said. "Now, where does this tunnel lead?"
"To a moss-covered manhole about a half a mile from here," Monty said.
"Where can I meet you?"
"We have a safe house in St. Louis." Monty glanced at Gigi. "Not even the Council knows about the place."
Gigi sighed. "It's the place we go when we want a little husband-wife time." I knew she hated to give away the location. It was rare for a member of the RMCA to have any real privacy.
"I'm going with Baz," I said. "I can help if he's attacked between here and St. Louis."
"It's an hour and a half drive, two hours at the most from Steelville, about ten miles northeast of our location," Monty said. "Don't stay on foot longer than necessary."
"I'm going with the prince," Dee, the female vampire on Baz's team, said. "It's my duty to protect him."
The other two vampires nodded their agreements.
"I'm still your leader," Baz said. "I don't need all of you. Blue and Damon, you go with Monty and Gigi and help them secure the location. Protect them as if you were protecting our king. Dee, you can come with me."
Time Bomb cleared his throat. "Wherever Drag goes, I go."
"Then it's settled," Baz said. "The four of us will go on foot, find a vehicle, and we'll meet the rest of you in St. Louis."
The tunnels, built by witches, were well-stocked with dry goods, bottled water, guns, knives, and grenades. The usual thing you'd expect to see in an underground bunker. Time Bomb and I geared up, and I packed some extra jerky, dried fruits and nuts, and some candy rope in my backpack. I felt like a hungry kid at camp.
"We can stop and grab a burger on the way there," Time Bomb said.
I nodded but glanced at Baz, thinking someone might get a bit peckish sooner rather than later. "I like to be prepared," I said. "Besides, it's been a minute since lunch." I bit into a red rope and chewed to make my point. "Mmmm."
Time Bomb chuckled. "Fair point."
When it was time to go, Gigi took me aside. "Do you trust him?" she asked.
I watched Baz give last-minute instructions to his team and nodded. "I do."
"Well, I trust you," she said. "Be careful, Drag." She handed me a satellite walkie-talkie "And stay in contact. I'll tap the mic button twice when we arrive at the safe house. If I hit it only once, it's been compromised. You and Time Bomb are
to get as far from the action as possible and contact Shirley."
Shirley was our council contact. "And if she's the traitor?"
Gigi shook her head. "I don't believe that for a minute, but Goddess help us all if I'm wrong."
Gigi and Monty stood with Blue and Damon. In a flash, they vanished.
A few seconds later the walkie-talkie squawked twice. I sighed with relief. "They made it."
Baz nodded. "Let's go."
We made quick work, moving silently through the woods until we reached the nearest highway. We were on 19 Road, about seven miles from Steelville. From there, we could find a car to steal and make our way to St. Louis. Turned out, we didn't have to walk the whole way. Dee, who was extremely leggy and gorgeous, managed to thumb down a truck driver, who gave us a ride into town.
She and Time Bomb found a green Suburban parked at the far in the Walmart parking lot for us to borrow.
It was an older model and didn’t have an alarm. Time Bomb smashed the back window, reached into the front driver side, and unlocked the doors.
We all waited expectantly for someone to jump into the driver seat and take the wheel. When no one did, I asked, "Who knows how to hotwire a truck?"
The answer was no one. Not a single one of us knew anything about stealing vehicles. "We are all trained field agents, here," I said. "How can none of you know how to hotwire a car." I frowned at my three companions. "Maybe this was something we all should have discussed, you know, before we smashed the freaking window out."
Time Bomb grimaced. "Can't you just use your magic, Drag?" He wiggled his fingers. "Higgledy-piggledy, and all that."
"That doesn't mean what you think it means," Dee said.
Time Bomb curled his lip at her.
"Play nice, children." I waved my hand. "I'll give it a try. Let's just hope I don't blow us up." The Latin spell that opened the portal was the magic I'd used that hadn't backfired on me since meeting Baz. "Twinkle, twinkle little star, I'll kiss your ass if you start this car."
The engine roared into life.
"It worked!" Time Bomb said. He climbed into the back seat.
"Aren't you driving?" I asked.
"Oh, right." He laughed. "I forgot you failed your driver's test. How many times now?"
"Shut up." He had not forgotten at all! "It's not my fault the guy giving the test is a cretin."
"In his defense, you were the one who chose to turn down a one-way street the wrong way. Twice."
"Har har. Laugh it up," I said, as he scooted out of the back seat, tempered glass particles showering the asphalt. He'd been trying to save me from landing in the worst seat. I lightly punched his arm as he passed me. All forgiven now.
I pointed the shattered glass. "Eenie, Meenie, Minie, go," I commanded, and they all disappeared. I grinned, pleased my magic wasn't failing me.
Dee rode up front with Time Bomb, and Baz sat in back with me. "Why nursery rhymes?" he asked when we were safely out of town with our stolen SUV.
"My gram used to recite them to me all the time when I was little. She loved the old ones, especially the ones that were really dark and grim. I guess I use them because they’re easy to remember, and they remind me of her."
"She's dead now?"
I nodded. "She was killed in rogue warlock terrorist attack against our village." Even though I couldn't feel the sheer power involved, I scratched my arms at the memory. "I felt it coming, but I didn't do anything to warn them."
"Did you know?"
I shook my head. "No. I was still too young to understand what my gift was showing me."
"Then it wasn't your fault." He held his hand out to me, palm up, and I intertwined my fingers with his. "You couldn't have done a thing that would have made a difference."
"My gram would have said the same," I told him.
"She sounds like a smart woman."
"We're a mile from a Flying J," Time Bomb said. "Anyone need a pee break?"
Now that he'd mentioned it... "I really do."
Time Bomb chuckled. "Your bladder is almost as predictable as your stomach," he said.
Before he could even put on his blinker, fiery pellets of death rained down on us from out of nowhere! The tiny nuclear balls burned through the roof of the truck dropping onto the seats.
"Goddess fuck-nuts!" Time bomb shouted as he slammed on the breaks. The truck swerved and fishtailed, then a front tire blew. We flipped into a ditch.
The horn blared, and the seat belt was the only thing keeping me from dropping onto the roof. I looked around, my vision foggy, pain searing my thighs and my arms where the burning projectiles had punched into my skin and muscle.
"Baz..." I said. "Time Bomb..." Neither of them answered. Hands were grasping at me. Then someone must have cut the seatbelt because I slammed down hard. "Ow." Something hard fell out of my jacket next to my hand. It was the satellite radio.
"She's awake," someone said. "Inject her before she can cast."
I felt a minor stab in my neck, and then the droning of bees as my shields went down. With my last ounce of effort, I hit the mike button once on the radio, and then I felt absolutely nothing as I passed out.
Chapter Nine
The dank scent infiltrated my nose and woke me. I sat up straight, and blurrily, studied my strange surroundings when I woke up made me sit up straight. Where were Time Bomb, Baz, and Dee? I couldn't feel any magic, which meant, Baz was near. I let the relief of that revelation wash through me before I tried standing. Whatever drug they'd injected into my neck made me feel woozy and nauseated.
"Baz?" I called. "Time Bomb?" I hoped one of them would answer, but I got nothing back. I gave my eyes a second to adjust. My stomach clenched when I saw the writing on the walls. It was the same scribbles and markings that had been in the vampire trap. I worried if I used magic, it would trigger an alarm, or worse, it might kill me. After all, a simple translocation spell had almost fried my ass.
Light had been okay. Did I risk it? And if I did, would I also risk exposing myself? After all, these were modern-day Saturn dudes, and they might have used some ancient cave to trap us the first time, but this dungeon felt a little more modern. Not much, mind you. I decided the risk was worth it. "Hickory Dickory, dark. Grow and glow my little spark."
Nothing happened. Then I noticed the MAN, a Magic Animism Nullifier, cuffed to my non-dominant hand. It took the power of one hundred witches chanting on a blue moon to create a single bracelet, so I knew they'd probably stolen mine from my bag and slapped it on me. A weapon of convenience. Maybe that's why they hadn't bothered to restrain me. They knew with the bracelet on and no way to get it off without the key, I'd be as useless as a mundane.
I kept my hand on the wall and walked the perimeter until I stumbled onto a shadowy form on the ground near the far wall. It was still. Dead.
"Baz?" Goddess, no! I rushed to his side and placed my hand on his arm. He was naked. Why would they take his clothing? They hadn't taken mine. Then I saw the rivulets of silver running down his back and across his thighs. Those mother-dicking-Saturn creeps had tortured him.
I shook him. "Baz?" He wasn't breathing, and I couldn't feel a pulse, telling me absolutely nothing, considering as a vampire he didn't need air and his heart didn't beat. He still had his head. That was a good sign, right? Vampires couldn't be killed if they still had their heads.
I dug my fingers into his forearms. "Bazyli," I pleaded. "Please wake up. Don't leave me like this. Not like this." I barely knew Baz, but my magic greeted him like a long lost lover. This felt different—not like my usual witch magic.
Necromancy.
I searched for him with my newly discovered gift, hoping the MAN wouldn't block my darker ability, the thing I now believed to be part of some necromancy gene passed down to me from my foremothers. If I could affect him with my necro-power, maybe I could reach whatever dark hole his unconscious had sunk into and bring him back to me.
I probed, prodded, examined, and searched him until I'd near
ly given up. Whatever they'd used on Baz had made him no better than a corpse. But then I felt it. The warmth of his spark. The light that some called a soul. For all I knew, it was his vampire parasite, but I didn't really care at this point. I wanted, no, I needed, Baz to be whole.
"Wake for me," I whispered. "Live for me."
Baz's eyes fluttered open, and he gasped in a breath. His eyes were the color of day-old blood, rusty brown. His mouth dropped open, and his fangs slid down then back, next his eyes widened as the dirty, faded red drained out and was replaced with gold.