Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  “You look like shit.”

  I opened my eyes. Rebecca was staring down at me, looking as tired as I felt. She felt my pulse and nodded her head. I could see piled up towels next to the bed covered in dried blood. I’d bled so much. I was lucky I was still alive.

  She saw me looking at the bloody towels. “Circe and I healed you as best as I could.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Perfectly fine.”

  I didn’t move. All I could think about was Bram. I didn’t even act surprised that Circe was awake. I knew she could survive pretty much anything. She was a fragment of a goddess after all.

  “You tried,” said Rebecca. “You tried and you failed.”

  “I nearly killed my family. I had no right to do that unless I was absolutely sure what I felt for Bram. Even then I was selfish.” I sat up, noticing the dark blood stains all over my clothes. I felt dirty. “For one second I thought I deserved to die happy. I was stupid, and that stupidity almost cost me everything.”

  I could smell bacon frying, energising my taste buds. I was so hungry I could eat a horse. Then again, I’d met some wonderful centaurs on another world. I’d even slept with one of them. What can I say? He was gorgeous and we were bored.

  Bram never really cared about me. I never really cared for Bram. All we’d had was a shared lust that culminated in some superb sex. What a complete and utter shitstorm. I’m only glad I realised it before it was too late.

  “You should eat something,” said Rebecca.

  “I can smell bacon,” I said, concentrating only on that.

  Rebecca pondered. “Have you ever noticed that, no matter what world we visit, everybody loves bacon?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “It’s good to see you smile,” said Rebecca, patting me on the shoulder. “I’ll get you something to eat.”

  Rebecca brought me a plate of bacon and eggs. It was the most wonderful meal I’d ever had in my life. My stomach felt like it hadn’t eaten anything solid in a week.

  “You’re eating like it’s your last meal,” said Rebecca.

  She was sitting by my bed, eating rashers of crispy bacon with her fingers from a chipped plate. She seemed in good spirits, despite the fact she was the only one around. The others must be outside.

  I starred daggers at her. “It is my last meal.”

  I ignored her and concentrated on my eggs and bacon. I banished everything from my mind but my mission. Bram didn’t mean a thing to me now.

  It was unusually quiet inside and out. I’d been used to hearing the triceratops and the other weredragons and weresaurs moving about and learning to fight. Something wasn’t right.

  “How long have I been out?” I asked.

  “Couple of days,” said Rebecca guiltily.

  “How long?” I demanded.

  “Nine days, give or take an hour.”

  I pulled myself out of bed and staggered toward the door. My legs didn’t feel right. They literally hadn’t been used properly in nine days. I think I even had bed sores.

  “Don’t,” Rebecca commanded.

  I pulled open the door and entered the main part of the house. It was empty. I searched all the rooms, even the larder, and found nothing. I ran into the garden, looking over at the abandoned village. Nothing stirred, not even a triceratops.

  “Where is everybody?” I whispered.

  “They’ve gone,” said Rebecca. I turned to her. “I’m sorry.”

  I shook my head. “No. They’d never go without me.”

  “They had no choice. They thought you were dying. The mission to get Bram his throne back had to come first.”

  I sank to the ground, feeling useless. I understood completely, but I felt left out. This was our mission. We were supposed to complete it together.

  “How long ago did they leave?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t too late.

  “Five days ago,” Rebecca answered.

  “If they kill Dorian before I do…”

  Rebecca laughed. “That won’t be a problem.”

  I felt the cold blade of a knife press against my throat.

  “They should all be dead by now,” Rebecca whispered.

  “What have you done?” I demanded.

  She laughed and dug the blade into my neck. Blood trickled down my skin.

  Rebecca said, “Just shut up and die.”

  Chapter 22

  I had a fraction of a second to react. I shoved the back of my head back into her crotch. The knife swiped across the empty space where my throat once was. She yelled out and stabbed down against the top of my skull. I performed a simple shield spell, covering my scalp. The blade shattered against the shield.

  “Bitch!” I screamed.

  I rolled around onto my back and threw a blast of air at her. She countered it straight away, propelling the air back at me, throwing me across the grass and into the herb garden. My head felt like it had been hit with a ten-ton weight.

  “Killing you is going to be easier than I thought,” spat Rebecca.

  “Why are you doing this?” I cried. I stank of sage.

  She grinned and said, “You want answers? Tough shit.”

  Her eyes glowed red hot before she fired an eagle fireball at me. I deflected it with another blast of air and threw my own fireball, which was a lot bigger and more powerful than the one she’d created. I watched as flames exploded and caressed the shield around her body, lighting her up like a firework.

  I threw another, this one much larger than the one before. It was animated, just like the one I’d created after Bram’s and my mind-blowing sex. The best sex I’d ever had, true, but not the most emotionally fulfilling. That had been the first time I was with Leopold.

  She stalked forward and spun the second fireball back toward me in a monstrous vortex. I was swept up in the winds, spinning round and round, the tips of the flickering flames licking at my hair and clothes and skin. The air was being sucked from my lungs. I couldn’t escape.

  “Well now we know who’s the most powerful,” said Rebecca, prowling around me, mocking me. “I’m actually sad it came to this. I liked you. I thought we got on great together. But I got an offer I just couldn’t refuse. You would’ve done the same.”

  I closed my eyes, trying to stop myself from going dizzy. I had to concentrate or I’d be dead. I could do this.

  “I’m upset about sending Bram off to die, but it couldn’t be helped,” said Rebecca. “I tried it on with him you know. I pretended to be you. He saw through it instantly. He wasn’t polite to me.”

  I thought about Bram, falling into a trap. The thought of him dying enraged me. It made me want to scream at the heavens. Was he really dead? Were Circe, Nile, Sini, Tina and all their new weresaurs allies dead too?

  “Are you warm enough yet?” Rebecca chanted.

  I opened my eyes. My breathing was calm, despite the flames and wind snapping at my skin. I fixed Rebecca with my most penetrating gaze and let rip a duplicate of my parallel self’s spell. It collided with the vortex I was caught in, and the two cancelled each other out. I fell to the ground, smelling my own burnt hair, and fired off a series of eagle fireballs.

  “Bitch!” she screamed.

  She spun through the air, avoiding each one. One of the fireballs exploded into the side of the cottage, setting it aflame instantly. Rebecca laughed and charged at me, lightning exploding through her fingertips, hitting my shield.

  I copied her again, our lightning strikes colliding. Energy crackled through the air, making the hairs on my arms to stand on end. Rebecca grimaced and screamed with rage, her lightning turning more crimson with how heated she was. I’d never seen anything like this before. Then again, I hadn’t been in a proper duel with a witch in a long time. Perhaps I was just rusty.

  Or perhaps I’d never faced an enemy so personal before.

  “How long have they really been gone?” I demanded.

  “You can’t save them,” shouted Rebecca.

  “I can save them,”
I said. “And I can kill you too.”

  A stray bolt of lightning slipped past me, cutting a razor-like gash through my left ear. I stepped up my game, determined not to break. I wasn’t a quitter like her. I was going to save my family and I was going to break this fucking curse.

  I grinned as my own lightning started to turn red. It pushed her back, causing her hands to smoke like they were on fire. She yelled with pain as she was electrocuted.

  Rebecca performed a spell. The electricity surging through her body exploded out of her up into the sky. There was an explosion in the heavens.

  “Useless,” she uttered.

  But I could see it. She was tired. I was winning.

  I screamed my rage, forcing myself toward her as she threw fireball after fireball. I was fuelled by anger and betrayal and hatred, but more than that I had to save my friends, the people I cared about. I was stronger than her because my main motivation was love.

  Rebecca screamed in pain as I backhanded her across the face. She spun around, smacking her fist against the side of my nose. I grabbed her hair, lifted my knee up and struck her on the chin. She fell back, her mouth bleeding.

  I wasn’t going to use magic to kill her. I was going to use my bare hands. It would be much more satisfying.

  “They’re all dead!” Rebecca yelled, spitting a bloody tooth onto the grass. “You can’t save them!”

  She came at me, her hands a blur. I blocked every attack and thrust out the two middle fingers of my left hand, puncturing her right eye. She screamed. Gooey flesh gushed all over my hand as I kicked her in the chest, knocking her back onto the ground.

  “What did you do?” I asked. “Tell me and I might spare you.”

  She looked up, her eye socket gushing blood. She was a mess. I felt nothing but hatred for her. She had betrayed me. I was going to end her.

  “The night your Dorian contacted you, mine contacted me.” She wiped at her eye and winced. “Now they’re together they’re more powerful than ever. They can give me what I’ve always wanted, and all it took was betraying some dragon—whose family, by the way, were trying to take over the world!”

  She tried to get up. I kicked her in the head. I performed another spell, keeping her in place. She was paralysed.

  “What did he promise you?” I asked.

  She smiled and said, “He’s going to bring Leopold back to life.”

  “He can’t do that.”

  “Not now, maybe, but when he’s whole he can do it. He can bring Leopold back to me!”

  She had to be delusional.

  Right?

  I sighed with pity. “He’s never going to do what he promised! He’s a demon; and not just any demon, but the first demon! Demons lie, Rebecca. Demons lie.”

  I couldn’t blame her, not really. I would’ve done anything to bring Leopold back to life, and I’d met my fair share of entities along the way who claimed they could do that. But making deals with the devil only leads to you losing your soul.

  “He wants you dead,” said Rebecca defensively. “He wants this stupid situation with Bram and his coup sorted. I can count on him.”

  “You can’t really believe that,” I exclaimed

  “I have to.”

  Would I have betrayed everything to have Leopold back? Were Rebecca and I more alike than even I wanted to admit?

  I shook my head. Leopold was dead. I may always love him but I’d never betray my friends for him.

  I sighed. “You told me you’d gotten over Leopold’s death. You were lying.”

  “Of course I was lying!” she cried. “How could I forget him? How could I ever forget him? If you ever really loved him, you would’ve made deals with anything to get him back.”

  I thought back to the jinn I’d met so long ago. What he wanted from me had been too much. I’d nearly given in to him, just to have Leopold back. I shuddered at the memory.

  “You gave up hunting for Dorian,” I said. “What do you think Leopold’s going to say when he finds out you let your daughter die?”

  “He’s not going to find out.”

  I pulled out one of my knives. Its blade was serrated, still covered in brown blood, dried. I had no idea who I’d killed with this weapon. I’d taken so many lives in my pursuit of Dorian. Some of them I regretted, some I took great pleasure in. The life of this pitiful traitor was one life I wouldn’t regret taking.

  “I did this for love!” Rebecca roared.

  I stabbed her in the neck. She grinned as she choked on her own blood and vanished in a puff of dust.

  What the…

  I looked around, confused. No other attack came. I was alone.

  I stirred my fingers through the dust and performed a spell. This dust had Rebecca’s DNA in it, but it wasn’t her. She’d created some kind of duplicate using her own blood. I’d never heard of a spell like it.

  “You were never actually here, you bitch,” I whispered.

  I could feel her presence in the ash. The duplicate had Rebecca’s power. She’d actually created a version of herself and mentally controlled it from a distance. The only way she could perform such a spell was if she had help from something very powerful.

  I spat in the ashes, cursing her. She’d made her bed. Rebecca was my enemy now. When I found her I was going to crush her.

  I ate some bread and drank some water from the faucet before deciding to make my retreat from the safe house. I wasn’t sure when I’d get another chance. The palace was twenty miles away. I was pretty sure I’d get no help along the way. Could I get that far on my own, with an army of dragons hunting me down?

  I gulped down the last of my meal, ready for the journey ahead, when the bookshelf caught my eye. I’d had a brief look through it earlier, fascinated by what could be such a divergent history to my own, but hadn’t had time to really read anything.

  “Hmm,” I pondered.

  I sorted through the books again, looking for the one I wanted. I smiled when I found it, a history of the weredragon royal family. It was full of detailed photographs of the palace. It really was spectacular. It reminded me of some of the colourful architecture of Barcelona in my own world.

  I’d never attempted to teleport to somewhere I’d never been before. It was dangerous. Sure, I’d teleported between dimensions without knowing what was on the other side, but I’d always prepared first. When I’d come to this world I’d had Rebecca with me. Could I teleport to a place I’d only seen in a picture? If I could do this, it could open up a whole new world for me.

  I cleared my mind. I would only have to do this once. When Dorian was dead I’d die too. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I’d worked for all this time. The quest may have been forced on me by Queen Victoria but that wasn’t the point. It would soon be over and I could rest at last.

  There was a photo of Bram in the book. He was dressed in a smart black suit, his arms crossed, a sober look on his face. He was younger, without a beard, but he was staggeringly handsome and fearless.

  I touched the photo. “Bram…”

  I slammed the book closed and threw it on the floor. Bram was dead, along with Niles, Sini and Circe. I should never have grown to like them. Everyone I cared about ended up dead. I’d learned that lesson so many times now. I’d been stupid to think I could evade losing my friends yet again.

  I stood by the door, checking myself over. I had all my weapons, concealed and ready. I knew some deadly spells that I’ve saved for my final battle against Dorian. I was as ready as I ever could be.

  The final battle.

  Chapter 23

  I pressed myself against the door, a listening spell helping me overhear everything that was being said. The queen’s drawing room was silent of human voices. I could hear the logs in the fire crackling and the pacing of Leopold’s boots. I didn’t envy him one little bit. Queen Victoria could stare down the devil himself.

  I considered knocking, intervening, when I heard the queen speak.

  “Stop pacing,” Victoria com
plained. She sounded calm, which scared me a little. Her quiet anger could be quite explosive. “You’ll wear holes in the carpet.”

  “You know why I’m here,” Leopold stated.

  “You’re here to visit your dear old mother. We can play chess! Discuss your immortal life as a vampire!” There was a terrible silence, followed by, “Why else would you visit?”

  “I’m here to talk about Kezia.”

  “Oh yes. My witch. A talented girl.”

  I’d liked being Victoria’s witch. It was a title I admired and was proud of. But I didn’t like the way she said it now. There was a touch of condescension and venom in it.

  “But she’s not for you,” added Victoria. “Your wife is for you.”

  “If you send someone to kill her I’ll never forgive you,” said Leopold. I was proud of him. I don’t think he’d ever raised his voice to his mother before. “I promise you!”

  “What kind of person do you take me for?” Victoria asked.

  “I know what Magenta does for you. We all know.”

  I didn’t know, but Leopold’s words confirmed it for me. Magenta was the queen’s personal assassin. Who knew how many people the dark witch had murdered for her monarch? Would I be next?

  “In that case, you know if I wanted Kezia dead then she’d be dead already,” said the queen. “Stop fussing.”

  “I’m pleading with you, Mother. I’ve never asked for anything. I’ve gone along with anything you’ve asked of me. I’ve sat around while I was neglected and seen as nothing but the youngest son. I want you to leave Kezia alone.”

  “You can’t have a future with her. She’s a commoner. She can’t bear your children. You can’t have children.”

  I wasn’t sure I understood her words. Of course Leopold could have children. He had two with Helena.

  “I know perfectly well that I’m not the biological father of Charles and Alice. Helena knew if she wanted a child she’d have to look…elsewhere.” He seemed to pause, as if the very words were choking him. I wanted to hold him and tell him it would be all right. “Vampires can’t have children. I know. I’ve accepted it. But I can’t accept a life without Kezia.”