Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1)

by Margo Bond Collins

  We make our way slowly down the darkened corridor, my head hanging in embarrassment, when I hear footsteps behind us. I chance a glance over my shoulder and realise that the vampires are following closely at our heels.

  “Why are they following us?”

  He smiles again. “Don’t worry about them, Mia. They’re just curious about you.”

  I stop walking and turn to face them. “Curious about me? Why?” My eyes narrow, whilst I take in the deadly threat before me. I huff out a frustrated breath that I still feel clueless as to what is going on. Everyone else seems to be in on the game. Anger bubbles inside me and I struggle to contain it as my emotions begin to get the better of me again. They seem to be ruling my every decision at the moment, I realise wearily.

  “All in good time, Mia.” He gently leads me by the elbow to a large door at the end of the corridor, but I hesitate on the threshold, suddenly apprehensive of my own judgement to trust him.

  He enters and makes his way across the room to a large, comfy-looking chair by the fireplace. Turning back, he sees me still waiting, my indecision showing on my face, and he only smiles in response. He looks powerful, and he must be; why else would there be so many vampires ready to follow him?

  The horde is still behind me. I can feel their stares burning into my back, and I turn to examine them. They are all beautiful, but their eyes are another matter. They are cold and empty, like staring into a black abyss. They seem empty of emotions, which is the total opposite of me. Since becoming a vampire, I have been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, swinging from insanely angry to extreme devastation. I can only imagine what I must look like, wild-eyed and mentally unstable. I shake myself and come back to the present.

  “Mia.” I look at Mr San with irritation as he says my name. I waver, one foot going forward and then rocking back on my heel as I change my mind, in some sort of crazy dance.

  “I would make your decision quickly, my dear. They grow ever impatient with you.” He watches me sternly as I look back to the horde behind me. They have crept further forward. I should feel fear, but my overwhelming emotion is possibly the most inappropriate: anger.

  “You said I was free to leave.”

  “And you are my, dear. You are free to leave whenever you want. However, I cannot guarantee your safety.” He calmly clasps his hands in front of himself as I stay fixed to the spot.

  “So.” I narrow my eyes, unable to stop the sarcasm from reaching my words. “I’m free to leave whenever I want, only if I do, these guys are going to chase after me and bring me back. Great, yeah, I can see how that’s fair.”

  He chortles loudly, making even the vampires behind me jump.

  “Oh, Mia. I can see why he likes you. Your honesty really is quite refreshing.”

  “To answer your question, no, we will not chase after you and bring you back. We are not the enemy, Mia. He is—Mr Breckt and all of his Pawns, his slaves. We are just humble Emancipator vampires, struggling to survive and free ourselves from the tyrannical jaws of the Queen.” He smiles widely. “You have stumbled upon something that has been hidden for centuries, something that most people will never be aware of. And I, we…” he gestures to the others, “want to keep it that way. However…”

  He pauses mid-sentence, as if considering his next words more carefully. “Look, just come in, we can sit, rest…have a drink together and I will tell you all about it. I’ll tell you anything that you want to know.”

  It’s tempting. So god-damn tempting. He’s offering me the truth, and vengeance. And best of all, blood. After the exertion of destroying my room and the overwhelming emotions awash in me, I know I’m in short supply. I can feel the coldness creeping back into me, but the blood buzz always makes me zone out for so long, and I need to leave. I need to check on my family—on Rachael.

  “It won’t always be like that, Mia. You won’t always have such a strong reaction to the blood. Soon enough it will be like taking a protein shake. The more you have, the sooner that will happen and the safer it will be for you to return home.”

  Home! I feel hot tears spring to my eyes. But home isn’t what it used to be anymore, not without Oliver. Not without my family. Damn him, reading my mind again. I look at him with a pinched expression, tapping my foot impatiently.

  “You’re doing it now aren’t you?” I say, my brow furrowing.

  “I’m afraid so, Mia.” He watches me intently. “Sorry, it’s a habit, albeit a bad one, I know.”

  “Well then you know that I need to check on my family. You said that he killed Oliver, and has destroyed everyone,” I snap, trying to shut off the pain inside before I cry.

  He looks to the floor sadly and for the briefest of moments his aura changes —a flicker of difference at the outside. The colour change is so subtle that I almost miss it. I frown harder, wondering what it means. I don’t trust him. I can’t trust him until I have seen for myself that he isn’t the bad guy. I do believe that he is more dangerous than he makes out. But if there is anyone left that I care about, my only way of protecting them is to stay alive—or as alive as a vampire can be. Mr San smiles blatantly at me as he listens in to my thoughts again and I scowl.

  “Okay, but just an hour. Then I’m leaving, with or without your help.”

  He looks up and claps his hands together triumphantly. “Very well.” He turns to a vampire standing behind him. Her eyes seem much too dark in her ivory face, yet they hold a certain glow to them that the others don’t seem to have. She’s beautiful in a remarkable way, set apart from all the others I have met.

  “Shauna, if you could fetch us some blood from the bank.” He sits in his chair as I finally choose to come fully into the room. His greyish-black hair trails around his face as he looks at me with yet another creepy, wide smile.

  The pale vampire nods and turns away from us, threading herself through the entourage of vampires still standing on the threshold. They are all exceptionally attractive, all blessed with pristine skin, pink lips, and shiny hair. It’s only their eyes that give anything away. It’s like a goddamn models’ house in here.

  He gestures to the chair in front of him and I sit, taking in the room around me. It’s sparse of furniture, like the rest of this place, with no windows, and as far as I can see, just the one door in and out. Bookshelves line the back wall, but they are almost empty of offerings. Apart from a large torn painting above the un-lit fireplace, there is nothing on the walls either. The painting is of Mr San, but one half of it has been ripped clean away.

  He looks at where I gaze but says nothing, and I don’t question him about the painting—or the missing half—although every muscle in my body is screaming at me to ask. I look back to Mr San, who is watching me tensely as I glance behind him and spy another door tucked away in the corner.

  Mr San notices my glance and leans forwards, then whispers with a grin, “That’s where the dungeon is.”

  My eyes widen in horror. “What?”

  There is a sharp knock on the door before he can respond to me and Shauna, the pale vampire from earlier, comes in. Her shiny brown hair frames her face, seemingly frozen in place as she moves across the room. There is no bob to her head, no move to her shoulders. She literally glides to us; her feet are moving, but she seems to almost skim the floor with them. I wonder if I walk like this now. I’ve never been graceful, more tending to bump into things or knock things over.

  She carries a round tray, and upon it, a decorative glass carafe filled with liquid. It could have been a good red wine, matured and darkened with age. However, I know its blood when the smell drifts towards me, growing ever stronger the closer she gets. I can’t take my eyes from it and feel almost hypnotised by its hold over me. As our gliding waitress reaches us, my stomach twists in hungry expectancy. The rich iron smell fills my nose and head, and my mouth begins to water at its proximity. I stand abruptly, almost ashamed by my eagerness for it, almost.

  Mr Sans hand reaches for my knee. “Sit, Mia. You must learn to c
ontrol your thirst better,” he scolds.

  I sit obediently but pout through the motion. The cold in my stomach is like acid in my gut now that the blood—the cure—is so close to me, and I wince.

  Shauna pours the blood slowly, into long-stemmed champagne flutes; if this wasn’t blood, it would be very debonair of us. Mr San leans across and takes a glass, handing it to me, and then picks up another one for him. he clinks his against mine as if reciprocating my thoughts.

  He catches my eye. “To…us.”

  “To my family,” I snap.

  “To new alliances.” He retorts with a quirk of his eyebrow.

  I take a sip, but the moment the blood touches my lips and I get my first taste, I tip the entire contents down my throat in one go. It tingles and pulses as it goes down, almost alive. I am in ecstasy, murmuring to myself. My fingers stroke the hair away from my eyes, the touch so gentle it sends shivers convulsing through me. My skin is so sensitive, the world so beautiful. I sigh loudly as it reaches my stomach and explodes through me in a series of climaxing sensations. The pain that has been slowly building over the last hour is instantly soothed, and I sigh louder.

  I stand again, more brusquely this time. “More.” I hold my glass out towards Shauna. She looks with uncertain brown eyes to Mr San who nods, and she proceeds to pour me another glass. She has barely finished pouring it when I snatch it up and tip it into my eager mouth. The feeling is just as exquisite as the first time. However, now my senses are on fire. Everything is crystal clear.

  Every speck of dirt.

  Every colour.

  I see it all.

  I stare around me in amazement at everything, as if finally seeing the world for its true colours. I can see every crease on the books bindings, every notch in the wood of the bookcase that they sit upon. I feel the draft from the far corner and I know instantly that it is the way out. It may-or-may-not lead to dungeons, but cold daytime air also flits through that area. That is my escape if need be.

  “Sit now, Mia.” Mr San is watching me with concern and I realise that my blood-buzz must be making it hard for him to read me.

  I sit and try to focus on his face, finding the action of being still extremely difficult. My body wants to move, to touch, to taste, to experience all of the sensations that are coursing through it.

  “So, where do we begin, Mia? What would you like to know?” He leans back in his chair and crosses his legs.

  “I don’t want to know anything,” I say as flatly as I can. I think I’m slurring my words drunkenly, but I can’t help it. “I just want to know how we are going to kill him.”

  He smirks. “There must be something else that you’re curious about. Something else I can help you with. Without a doubt, we will kill him.” He takes a sip of his blood. I stare enraptured by the image as I ponder the taste of it in his mouth, on his tongue. The way it feels when its velvety softness slides down his throat. I swallow instinctively and my body flexes towards him.

  “Would you like another?” He gestures to Shauna who moves forward with the carafe.

  I nod and then shamefully look away with a shake of my head, and I have to physically turn myself away from Shauna when she comes close, holding the carafe out to me. I need to concentrate, no matter how thirsty I am. And I am suddenly so very thirsty—parched to the core as I watch him take another slow teasing sip, swilling the blood around in the glass and watching my reaction. I stare mesmerised at the blood that sloshes up the sides of the glass. He knows exactly what he is doing to me.

  I clear my arid throat. “When?”

  “When?” He raises an eyebrow at me.

  “When will we kill him?” I lick my lips, they feel plumper somehow, as if stung and inflamed.

  “Soon, Mia. Very soon.”

  “What has happened to my family?”

  He looks away, the smile lost. “It’s probably best that I don’t tell you the details of that, Mia dearest.”

  “Has Mr Breckt killed them?”

  “Without a doubt he has. He was very angry when you weren’t there when he returned for you.” He sounds sad, but I notice the subtle change in his aura again.

  “When you took me, you mean.” I cut off my words when I realise that the reason Mr Breckt has killed them—my family—is because I was kidnapped. He killed them in anger. Did he think that I had run away? “He killed them because you took me.” I snarl.

  “No, Mia. He was intending on killing them anyway, it was just sooner than expected.”

  “But still…”

  “Mia, you would have been lost to him, swallowed up whole. Never to return to this consciousness, never being able to avenge them, never knowing—or caring—that they were dead.”

  I breathe out slowly as I digest the information. My palms feel sweaty and I rub them along my thighs, leaving a dark trail in their wake. I look at them and find my sweat is pink. I grimace.

  “An annoying side effect of being a vampire, I apologise.” He says as he hands me a tissue. I wipe my hands with it while biting down on my bottom lip to contain the misery I’m feeling. “It won’t always be like this, Mia. Soon, things will be much easier.”

  He watches me scrubbing the tissue at my skin until I feel it’s dry enough. My eyes are downcast whilst I try to think of another question, any other question or thought that will rid the image of Mr Breckt killing my family from my mind.

  “How long have I been here?”

  “A day or two.”

  I heave a sigh. “Well, which is it? A day or two?”

  His eyes flit to Shauna and I see her move in my peripheral vision.

  He purses his lips looking uncomfortable. “A week.” He puts his glass down on the small table next to us and clasps his hands together.

  I’m flummoxed as to what to say to him. A week? How have I not realised that I have been here a week? Rage burns through my veins. I am incensed with him for keeping me here for that long.

  “Why…” I swallow down my anger, having to look away from his lying eyes. “Why have you kept me here for that long? Have you put me under some sort of spell?”

  Mr San keeps his face level with mine, a small rise in his mouth which I assume to be a smile. “We are vampires, not magicians, Mia.”

  “What is so ridiculous about the thought?” I spit back.

  “Yes, of course, you know nothing of this world that you have so suddenly found yourself in. If I can read minds, and Mr Breckt can control people, and you can…what is it exactly that you do, Mia? I know that you can sense someone’s emotions, but how? How does it come to you? Your thoughts aren’t clear on that.” He narrows his eyes and leans forward in his chair.

  I suddenly don’t want to tell him. This is my secret. Perhaps if he knows what I can do he will decide I’m of no use after all and get rid of me.

  “Mia?” His aura dances about him wildly as his irritation grows.

  I raise my chin. “It’s just a feeling I get.”

  He frowns at me and then I feel it: fingers prying at my brain, literally plucking at my thoughts like strings on an instrument.

  “Stop it,” I shout and stand up, my skin crawling at the intrusion.

  “I’m sorry, Mia, but I think that you’re lying to me. I need to know what it is that you . . . Well, whatever it is that you do. You are a Bastion, a stronger vampire than most, with a special talent, and I want to know what it is. You’re important, and I need to know why—to understand it.” He’s there again, inside my head. I can feel him shifting through my thoughts. His face is calm, as if in a daze, as he concentrates. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll find the information myself.”

  I gasp as I feel him inside my head again. I look around in a panic, my eyes landing on the glass of blood and I instinctively reach for it and down the contents. The buzz hits me hard and I sway on my feet, my eyes alert to every movement.

  “Very clever, Mia. But I told you that you are not in any danger here. We only want to help you, but I need to know what i
t is you can do. If your power is going to be wanted by the Queen, then she will come for you.” He scowls at me.

  “Is that what you want, Mia? Do you want to be her servant for the rest of your very, very long life? To be her Bastion?”

  I raise an eyebrow at him. “A Bastion?”

  “Yes, a Bastion.” He seems angry, but I sense he is trying to contain it, to keep himself calm. For my sake or his, I’m still unsure. He sits back in his chair frowning, my jumbled thoughts and flitting emotions making it difficult for him to get inside my head.

  “How do you know all of this?” I ask. It’s not the first question I want answered but it seems as good as any.

  “Because I used to be one too, a Bastion—her Bastion.” He watches me. “In fact, all of us here were at some point her Bastions. However, we have chosen to live with no ruler, no greater authority telling us what we can or can’t do. None of us here want to be her protector and risk our lives day in and day out for someone who thinks so little of us.”

  “Why does she need protection? Why would she even need…” I pause on the foreign word “Bastions?” I slowly sit back down, enraptured to hear more.

  His patronising smile is back. “Because we are trying to kill her, of course.”

  Thirty-Two

  Mia

  “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.” The cogs in my head whirl, slowly building up momentum. “She needs new Bastions to protect her from her old Bastions? But if you weren’t trying to kill her, then surely she wouldn’t need any new Bastions.” I look to him, my expression slack.

  If I thought he was getting irritated with me before, that is nothing compared to now. I’m almost certain I can hear his teeth grinding together as he struggles to contain himself.

  “Well, that’s the dumbed-down version, yes. However, there will always be someone else that will be trying to kill her for some reason or another. There’s always someone else, of course.”

  I don’t know what else to say. This is a war that I don’t want to get involved in. I stand to leave.