More Than This

by Alexa Land

  I couldn’t even begin to make sense of that, and I really doubted I was going to get any sort of coherent explanation from him, so I pointed to the door and said, “Get out of here.”

  “Let me start at the beginning. As I said, my name is August Mayes. I’m married to a man named Tyler Reynolds, who I adore with all my heart and soul. But I’m losing him, and I believe you’re the only person who can help him.”

  “Are you trying to tell me he’s ill? If so, then take him to a hospital. Maybe get yourself checked out too while you’re there.”

  He was becoming agitated. “I’m not crazy, and if you allow me to explain, it’ll all make sense!”

  Mayes started to approach me again, and I yelled, “I said get out!” It felt like the entire situation was seconds from spiraling out of control.

  But then he shocked the hell out of me by dropping to his knees and saying, “I’ll beg if I have to. Please, Griffin, I need your help. Do you know what I went through to find you? It took me over a year, and during that time, Tyler has been slipping away more and more, every day. Sometimes, I don’t even think he recognizes me. I’ve tried absolutely everything I can think of, but I’m just not strong enough to fix this.”

  The anguish in his green eyes was intense. After a pause, I lowered the poker and asked, “What’s wrong with your husband?”

  I was glad when he stood up, because that had made me uncomfortable. “My best guess is that all the different parts of him are fighting for control. It all started when I turned him into a vampire. He’s part warlock and has just a smidge of werewolf blood, but Tyler also comes from a long line of vampire hunters with supernatural abilities. Any one of those things would have been compatible with his vampire side, but it may be too much at once. Maybe one mind and body can’t hold together all those disparate elements.”

  Oh God. This guy was so much crazier than I’d realized, and quite obviously delusional. I held up my hands in a way that I hoped seemed nonthreatening, even if I was still holding that poker, and backed away from him as I said, “I need you to come downstairs with me while I call an ambulance, August. There are several excellent hospitals in the area, and any one of them can give you the help you need.”

  He sighed dramatically. “You think I’m stark raving mad.”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “Why? Is it because I admitted I’d been watching you? I felt it was important to gain a bit of intel before I tried to approach you, but I assure you, I’m hardly a deranged stalker.”

  “It’s a lot more than that.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at me. “What exactly have I said that makes you think I’m a nutter?”

  Mayes was staring at me like I was the crazy one, so I said, “Vampires? Werewolves? Warlocks?”

  “What about them?”

  “They’re not real!” This was by far the strangest conversation I’d ever had.

  His voice rose a little. “Obviously, they are!”

  “Look, just calm down. I know this all must seem real to you, but with the proper medication—”

  “I don’t need medication, Griffin, I need your bloody help! I don’t know how much more time Tyler has. Every day, I lose a little more of him. Do you know what that’s like, watching someone you love deteriorate before your eyes?”

  My hands dropped to my sides as moments from the last two years of Roz’s life drifted through my memories. It had started with forgetfulness. Then there were days toward the end when she’d look at me, and several seconds would tick by before recognition dawned in her eyes. I said, “Yeah. I do. But why would you think I can help your husband?”

  “Because as far as I know, you’re the last full-blooded warlock in existence, aside from me. But my magic was corrupted and made unpredictable when I was turned into a vampire, while yours is pure and undiluted.” He said that in all seriousness.

  It felt like the air had gone from the room. “I’m the last what?”

  “You don’t have to pretend,” he told me. “Like I said, you and I are the same. Well, I’m as close as you’ll find, anyway.”

  That couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be the explanation for all the things I knew were very wrong with me. I murmured, “Prove it.”

  “That I’m also a warlock, you mean? Alright, if that’s what you want.” He raised his hand, palm up. I drew a sharp breath when a glowing ball of white light appeared above his fingertips, and he said, “Catch.”

  The ball flew toward me with a flick of his wrist, and I dropped the poker as my left hand shot out by pure instinct and froze it in mid-air. The moment it stopped, it turned blue and began to pulsate, and I blurted, “I don’t know how to control this.”

  “It’s just light and perfectly harmless. Throw it aside.” My hand started to shake, and the ball sparked and zigzagged, then began to produce a low humming sound. “You’re starting to charge it with electricity, Griffin. Don’t do that.”

  “I just said I don’t know how to control it!” The orb jerked wildly and tripled in diameter, so it was now the size of a basketball.

  August appeared at my side. I hadn’t even seen him move. “I can’t break the connection,” he said. “This has become your magic, not mine. Just try to relax, because it’s feeding off your energy.”

  I yelled, “Relax? Do you see what’s happening here?” Abruptly, the orb doubled in size, and I dropped to my knees as a tremor shook me.

  August looked around, then said, “Throw it in the fireplace.”

  “I can’t!” I could feel heat coming off the sphere, and jagged bolts of electricity began to radiate from it as its hum grew louder.

  It doubled again, and August shouted, “You’re about to burn your whole house down, Griffin! Get it under control!”

  I flung my arm to the left, and the orb flew across the room and slammed into the baseboard near the front windows. Jagged fingers of lightning singed a path up the wall, then shot across the ceiling. As I fell back, August waved both arms like a baseball umpire calling someone out, and immediately, the flames were extinguished. Left in their wake were long, black burn marks, which looked remarkably like a tree. The smell of burnt wallpaper and ozone hung in the air.

  He sat beside me on the wood floor, pulled the flask from his pocket, and took a drink. As he passed it to me, he said, “Ten more seconds, and I wouldn’t have been able to control that blaze.”

  I took a big sip of whiskey, then handed the empty flask back to him and asked, “What the hell were you thinking when you threw that at me?”

  “Like I said, it was a perfectly harmless ball of light. Your magic changed it.”

  “Well, don’t do that again.”

  “Oh, I won’t, mate. Believe you me.” After a pause, he asked, “What do you do to control all the electricity in your body?”

  I muttered, “It’ll sound crazy.”

  August shot me a look. “I’d say we’re past that point, wouldn’t you?”

  I glanced at him, and then I studied the tree shape burned into my wall as I said, “Every week, I drive out into the middle of Death Valley and discharge it into the ground.”

  “That often?”

  “It was less frequent at first. The build-up started when I was ten, and my aunt came up with that solution. It was the most isolated place she could think of. Back then, we only had to go to the desert twice a year, but when I turned twenty, it became something I had to do once a month. Lately, it’s been accelerating. I don’t know why.”

  “It’s because you’re approaching your twenty-fifth birthday,” he said.

  “How does that explain anything?”

  “Witches and warlocks fully come into their power when they turn twenty-five. I found you just in time, both for your sake and my husband’s.”

  “Is that really what I am?”

  He seemed surprised. “You didn’t know?”

  I shook my head, and after a moment, I asked, “How do you think I can help your husband?”

/>   “By overriding all the magic battling within him.”

  “When you said you and he are vampires…you’re not delusional, are you?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  I gestured toward the window. “Shouldn’t you be burning in the sun?”

  “I would be if I wasn’t warded against it.”

  I glanced at him and asked a more relevant question. “Are you a danger to me?”

  “Of course not. I need you, but even if I didn’t, vampires aren’t actually mindless killing machines.”

  I rubbed my temples as a headache started to brew. “I always thought I must be some sort of biological anomaly. Even knowing how odd and different I am, it’s taking a lot to believe there are really vampires and werewolves out there.”

  “Supernaturals are pretty rare these days. Vampires continue to survive because we’ve learned to hide and adapt, but full-blooded werewolves are all but extinct. In fact, there’s very little magic of any kind left in the world. That’s why you’re so important.”

  I tried to absorb that for a few moments before saying, “I can’t believe I’m actually…hell, I can’t even say it.”

  August put on a thicker accent and quipped, “You’re a wizard, ‘arry.” When I shot him a look, he grinned and added, “My husband would’ve loved that reference.”

  “You sound perfect for each other.”

  He grew serious and asked, “Are you going to help me get him back?”

  “How? I have no control over any of this, as you saw.”

  “I can help you with that, but we don’t have a lot of time. Your birthday is in seventeen days, so we need to start training you to keep you from going off like a nuclear bomb when your powers come in.” I frowned at him, and he said, “I sincerely hope I’m exaggerating, mate.”

  “As much as I’ve always wanted to know what’s wrong with me, I can’t believe this is happening now, right after I met a great guy, and—oh shit, I’m late!”

  I leapt up and ran downstairs to the kitchen, then dialed Ari’s number with shaking hands. He answered on the second ring with a cheery, “Hello?”

  “It’s me,” I said, as I tried to catch my breath. “I’m so sorry. I got tied up, but I can be there in just a few minutes if you still want to go on that picnic.”

  “It’s totally fine. Fig and I are baking cookies. Just get here when you can.”

  “Okay. See you soon.”

  After we disconnected, I turned to find August standing in the doorway with an annoyed expression. He asked, “Did I fail to make the urgency of this situation clear? The clock is ticking, even faster for you than it is for my husband, and you’re not going to be able to help him if you go supernova.”

  “You have to stop trying to scare me with the explosion metaphors.” I left the kitchen, and he followed me.

  “They’re necessary to impart the gravity of this situation.” He hurried to keep up with me and asked, “What are you doing?”

  “I’m taking a shower, finding something to wear, and then I’m going on a picnic with the most amazing guy I’ve ever met.”

  “We don’t have time for this!”

  I whirled around and pointed at him, and he actually recoiled from me. “Ari is nonnegotiable. I’m going to do whatever I can to help your husband, I promise you that. I’ll call you as soon as my date is over, but first, this picnic is absolutely happening. Also, let me be perfectly clear: under no circumstances is he to find out about any of this. Got it?”

  August moved my hand aside, as if my finger was a loaded weapon. “I understand. But seventeen days, Griffin…”

  “Do you know for a fact that all hell is going to break loose on my twenty-fifth birthday?”

  “It’s an educated guess, and you said it yourself, you’ve had to release the built-up energy a lot more frequently lately.”

  I watched him for a few moments before asking, “Do you honestly believe you can help get this thing inside me under control?”

  “I’m sure I can teach you how to use your magic.” His expression turned sympathetic. “As far as whatever’s going to happen to you on your birthday, total honesty, mate—I’ve never dealt with your particular situation. Also, I don’t believe in coincidences, so the fact that it falls on the autumnal equinox is worrisome. It makes me think there might be more to this than I’m equipped to deal with. But I have a lot of resources at my disposal, and I think we have a real shot at figuring out how to keep you alive.”

  I asked, “Do you actually care what happens to me?”

  “You’re the very last of your kind, a fucking unicorn. I’ve been alive for more than five centuries, and during that time, I’ve watched magic die out all around the world, slowly but surely. And you know what that is? It’s a crying shame. So, saving you is important.”

  “But mostly, you just want me to save your husband.”

  He nodded in agreement. “Mostly that.”

  After a two-minute shower, I managed to find a pair of jeans and a clean T-shirt to wear on my date. August was waiting for me on the porch when I stepped outside, since my car was boxing him in. The big, heavy painting was still in the backseat of the convertible, and I muttered, “Shit, the portrait.”

  “Let me get that for you, mate.” It was pretty obvious that he was trying to get on my good side. He hurried to my car, picked up the framed canvas with one hand like it weighed nothing, and carried it inside before joining me on the porch again. There was no way he should have been able to do that, further reinforcing the fact that there was much more to him than met the eye.

  He pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to me as he said, “My private number is on the back, and I’ll be waiting for your call tonight. It doesn’t matter how late it is, I’ll be here as soon as you say the word.”

  “Okay. I’ll talk to you in a few hours.” I stuck the card in my wallet and locked up behind us. Then we both got in our cars, and August followed me down the long driveway. The gate was still open, but as soon as his car went through, it began to swing shut with its usual squeal.

  At the bottom of the hill, he went one way and I went the other. As soon as he was out of sight, I pulled to the curb and scrubbed my hands over my face.

  From the time I was ten years old, Aunt Roz told me, “You can never let anyone know you’re different, Griffy. People fear what they don’t understand, and that could be very bad for you, so you have to promise me you’ll always keep it hidden.”

  I’d done as she asked. I never talked about it, not with anyone, and I didn’t argue about being taken out of school, or any of her other efforts to shelter me from the rest of the world. That was because I truly believed Aunt Roz acted out of love, and everything she did was just to keep me safe.

  I pressed my thumb and index finger together, then separated them by about an inch and watched as blue tendrils of electricity appeared between my fingertips, bright, alive, and thrumming with energy. I’d never explored that part of me. Just the opposite. I’d tried to suppress and deny it, only giving it attention when the pressure started to build up in me to unbearable levels.

  The anomaly had been there all my life, but at first it was small enough to let us live in denial. And when I turned ten and it started demanding attention, we dealt with it. Every six months, Roz would drive us to the middle of the desert, someplace far from prying eyes, and I’d push it out of my fingertips and into the sandy ground, burying it deep.

  Doing that always left me weak and shaken. Afterwards, Aunt Roz would cradle me in her arms and stroke my hair while I cried. I never knew why it upset me like that. Roz didn’t, either. We both just accepted the fact that it did. She’d help me to the car and make the five-hour drive back to L.A., and we’d always stop at Dairy Queen, where she’d buy me a swirled vanilla cone to cheer me up.

  She tried so hard to take care of me, and to normalize what was clearly not a normal situation. I asked her once if she’d had any idea what she was in for when she agreed t
o take me in as a toddler, and she’d said, “Even if I had, I wouldn’t have done anything differently. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I love you with all my heart, Griffy. I admit, I don’t quite know what to make of your particular set of challenges, but I do know this: God never puts more on our shoulders than we can carry, so we just have to trust in his divine plan for you.”

  Roz had turned to religion as a way of trying to come to terms with my oddity, while I looked to science. In the end though, neither of us could even begin to explain what was going on with me, and she was far too adamant about keeping it a secret to ever try to get an outside opinion.

  And now, a stranger had shown up out of the blue, broken into my house, and claimed to be a vampire, which should have been more than enough to totally discredit him. The fact that it didn’t was a testament to just how desperate I was for answers. Besides, if something as odd as me could exist, why not vampires, too?

  Also, I’d seen what he could do with my own eyes, and I knew he was right about one thing—whatever I contained inside me was getting stronger. I hadn’t realized it was going to come to a head on my birthday, but it was getting harder and harder to keep it under control. Given that, yes, I was willing to listen to August, on the off chance he could actually help me.

  After taking a few moments to get myself together, I put the car in drive and continued on my way to pick up Ari. Damn it, why did all of this have to be happening now? It really felt like he and I were at the start of something special, and I was absolutely determined not to derail it.

  For now, that would have to mean keeping all of this a secret. We were just getting to know each other, and I couldn’t exactly lead off with, ‘So, I’ve always had this freakishly weird thing about me, and an alleged vampire just showed up and told me I’m a warlock’. Anyone in their right mind would assume I was delusional.

  And if he actually believed me? Then what? Aunt Roz’s words echoed in the back of my mind, ‘people fear what they don’t understand’. It would be devastating if Ari became afraid of me.