Of Blood & Magic: Blood Descent Book 1

by T. L. McDonald

  And then there’s the crashing waves of pain, ebbing and flowing through every part of my body that both pulls me out of unconsciousness and puts me back in it. From the raging fire at my lower back, to the heavy elephant sitting on my chest stealing my breaths away, the coldness seeping in around the edges promises to make everything numb.

  The car veers to the right, the tires bouncing over a bump before coming to a stop. Strong arms take hold of me once again, lifting me from the car. My head falls backward, my eyes too heavy to hold open more than a few seconds at a time.

  “Will she be okay?” I hear a familiar—though raspy—voice ask.

  “Liv?” Her name drags over my lips, barely audible to even my own ears.

  “I’m here.” She takes hold of my hand, stopping it from bouncing with the steps of the person carrying me. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry. I should have known what they were.”

  “It’s okay,” I slur. “You’re safe?”

  “I’m safe. Ben didn’t take as much from me as Seth did you.” Her voice hitches and she takes in a sharp inhale of breath. “I’m so sorry, Indi. I’m so, so sorry.”

  “We need to get her inside,” a male voice says over me.

  “Right.” Liv drops my hand. A series of beeps fill the silence followed by the click of a door opening.

  The person holding me lays me down slowly on top of a bed. He turns my head to the side, his fingers examining my neck. “Liv, I need you to get me a wet washcloth so I can see what we’re dealing with.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Her feet scuff against the floor as she darts into the bathroom.

  “Thank you,” I half whisper, half slur. Breaths wheeze in and out, each one harder to take than the one before it. “For getting her out of there.” I try opening my eyes again so I can see his face, but the lights are too bright and the effort too hard.

  He lifts my arms, his fingers searching over my skin near the cuts and scrapes I sustained from crashing through the table back at the club. “Where does it hurt?” he asks. “You’re covered in so much blood, I can’t tell where you’re injured.”

  “Everywhere,” I somehow huff out around the elephant growing heavier and heavier on my chest. “But it’s not so bad anymore. All I really feel now is cold.”

  His hands hesitate before moving once again. He lifts up my shirt.

  “What are you doing?” Liv demands.

  “I need to see if she’s injured anywhere else. There’s too much blood, I can’t tell what’s hers and what’s not.”

  “Let me do it.” Her hands replace his, but they don’t lift my shirt. “Turn around jackass.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” A few seconds later, she lifts the hem of my shirt up to just under the edge of my bra. She sucks in a sharp breath. “Oh my God, Indi.” Sobs fill the room and a new set of hands takes over for her. Rough but gentle hands that roll me slowly onto my side.

  “Liv, hand me that pillowcase and hurry,” he orders. A moment later he’s pressing it onto my back.

  “So, not good news then,” I say with a breathless teasing lilt to my voice, my lame attempt at a joke in the face of my more than likely imminent death. I splay my fingers out, reaching for Liv. She puts her hand in mine, squeezing it like she’s holding on for dear life. “At least one of us… will make it out… alive.” I take a deep breath in without really getting any air. “I was… so scared for you Liv. I… didn’t know how long… he’d been… drinking… from you. And then you… just kept screaming… and screaming… when he wasn’t… anymore. I’m glad you’re not… the one… who’s going to die.”

  “You’re not going to die either, Indi.” There’s a hard determination to her voice that makes me want to hope when it’s pointless. I don’t have much time left. I can feel it. “Not if I can help it. Bas, I need your keys.”

  Bass? He’s named after a fish? If the circumstances were different, I’d probably laugh about that, or at least tease him a little in good fun. I mean, who names their kid after a fish?

  One of his hands leaves my back, the other still holding me on my side. My body slightly rocks with the movements he makes. I can’t see what he’s doing, but I imagine he’s searching his pockets judging by the sounds of clanking coins and keys. “Are you even old enough to drive?” Bas asks.

  “Yes,” Liv says without hesitation even though she’s lying. She doesn’t even have her permit yet.

  He tosses her the keys. “Bring me my bag from the trunk before you go on your supply run and I’ll do what I can until you get back.”

  Supply run?

  I wait for the door to open and close before I say, “Be… brutally honest. It’s fatally bad… isn’t it? A puncture wound… spilling… all my blood out? A broken rib… or several… broken ribs since… it feels like… more than one… is tearing holes… into my lungs? Something else… just as equally… bad… because why not?”

  “I won’t lie. It’s bad, but I think—” His hands still their movements. “Indi?”

  Whatever he was about to say gets cut off as blood fills my throat and I gasp for breath, only to find liquid in its place. He rolls me further onto my side, but it doesn’t help. I’m drowning. I grip his hand, my fingers momentarily squeezing tight as the darkness swimming around my vision closes in.

  “Indi! Indi!” He shouts my name over and over, but the more he says it, the further away it sounds.

  A bright shining light beckons me forward. I float toward it, my body left behind along with the guy straddling over it. Hands locked together, he presses down on my chest in rapid pumps. I don’t feel it.

  I don’t feel anything anymore.

  I turn back to the light. A figure walks toward me, the glare behind her bright. I squint my eyes. “Mom?” All the tears I’ve ever cried and then some come rushing forward like a dam breaking behind my eyes. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  “Indiana.” She wraps me up in a hug then pulls back, cupping my face. A soft white glow emanates beneath her hands. “Breathe.”

  Air rushes into my lungs and I cough up the rest of the blood choking me. My eyes open a crack, the world too much of a blurry mess to see the face hovering over mine. “Mom?”

  My eyes sliver open just enough to let the tiniest bit of sunlight seep in. For a moment all I do is watch the dust moats sparkle like little specks of glitter in the air. Happy to be snuggled in bed, my mind straddled between wakefulness and sleep, I close my eyes, content to drift back into dreamland.

  And then a monster with fangs rips into the side of my throat.

  I sit up fast, my head banging off the headboard in my haste. Fresh pain rips through the back of my skull straight through to my eyes. I squeeze them shut and bite my lip as I press the palm of my hand against the forming knot.

  I drop my hand onto my lap, opening my eyes up to unfamiliar surroundings.

  Where am I?

  A soft whimper to my right catches my attention. Liv is curled up in a ball in the middle of a bed next to mine, her arms tucked around her legs. Her red hair hangs down over half of her face, most of her delicate features hidden. A small tear leaks from the corner of her closed eye. It rolls over her nose and onto her cheek where it collects with all the others dampening the sheet beneath her face. She’s crying in her sleep.

  The monster from my dream solidifies in my thoughts. The heavy weight of the truth it brings crashes through my perceived world of innocence and safety, shattering it all to pieces. For half a second I think maybe it’s not real, but when my fingers touch the bandage at my neck, I can’t deny it. Liv and I were attacked last night… and the things that attacked us were vampires. Freaking vampires. I lean my head back against the headboard, letting the horror of it sink in.

  The bathroom door opens with a loud creak in an otherwise quiet room. My heart rockets into my throat as my body flings itself away from the noise. Too close to the edge of the bed, I fall off the side. I reach out for anything I can grab on to and end
up only successfully yanking the alarm clock off the nightstand in my descent. I hit the floor with a thud, a throw blanket snaked around my body, and my fingers latched onto the clock with so much force it cracks from the pressure.

  On the other side of the bed stands a tall guy with black hair and piercing deep blue eyes, the left appearing brighter than the right because of the dark purple bruises around it. There’s a cut across the edge of his right eyebrow, the bridge of his nose, and down his bottom lip on the right side, each covered in fresh scabs. Dark bruises mar the skin of his neck, which disturbingly looks like a hand with four lines on one side and one on the other. His clothes are rumpled and spotted with blood. The knuckles of both hands covered straight across in scabs. I blink a few times and let out the breath held captive in my lungs as my eyebrows furrow. I cock my head to the side.

  “New Boy? What are you doing here?” I look around the motel room. “What am I doing here?”

  “I saved your life last night.”

  “You did?” An image of a blurry figure holding me in his arms comes to mind, but the pieces to putting the events of last night together are too fuzzy to coalesce.

  His eyes roam over me in a precise cold and calculated way, but there’s something hidden in them too. A concern for my wellbeing with just a touch of fear mixed in.

  “How do you feel?” New Boy takes a few steps backward toward the window, his steely gaze never leaving my face. He pulls the curtains back just enough to let in a beam of sunlight. It streaks across the bed and right into my eyes. He watches my reaction, which obviously is me covering my eyes with my forearm because bright lights in the eyes blinds. He waits a few beats then closes the curtains with a drop of his hand. Before I have the chance to clear the spots from my vision, he throws some kind of object at me with no more of a warning than a simple, “Catch.”

  I fling my arms over my face, bracing for impact. Whatever he threw hits me right in the elbow and sends a tingling pain up and down my arm before the object falls into my lap.

  “What the hell is your problem?” I glare at him before picking up the item. “A silver cross?” And then it dawns on me what he’s doing. “Are you going to dump holy water on me next?”

  His mouth twitches into a smirk.

  “What’s going on?” Liv asks. Her voice sounds like it’s been dragged down the street from the back of a pickup truck after being put in a shredder.

  “New Boy here is testing me for vampirism.”

  “What? Why?” She scoots to the edge of the bed then clamps her hand down over my shoulder. “Indi’s not a vampire dumbass, she was attacked by one.”

  New Boy raises both hands in submission. “Easy there killer. I had to be sure. She did technically die for a few minutes last night.”

  “I died?” I re-examine the bandage on my neck, then move onto the rest of my body. I suck in a deep breath when I reach the bandage at my back. The fight between Seth and me flashes through my mind, bits and pieces coming back in a rush. “Seth did this. He… he attacked me.”

  For a moment, the room falls away and all I can see is Seth’s gnashing teeth and glowing brown eyes. I flinch and press my back against the side of the mattress behind me, the dark room of last night morphing back into a dank motel room with two sets of eyes in two concerned faces, watching me intently. “He… he shoved me down onto the floor in a pool of Ben’s blood.” I glance at Liv. “I think I killed Ben. Did I kill Ben?” More flashes of memory assault my mind, sending me back into the nightmare of last night. I press my hand over the bandage at my back. “A piece of the broken table went into my lower back. I pulled it out, hoping I could use it to fight off Seth, but it didn’t do me any good. He still ripped into my throat, anyway.” My hand shakes as it finds its way back to the side of my neck, the feel of his fangs breaking through my skin echoing through my mind and body. The world around me takes on a shimmery hue as my eyes fill and spill over, sending tiny salty rivers running down my face. “He took so much. At first I screamed, but then… it was like I no longer cared. I wanted him to take more even if it was killing me.”

  “It’s the rapture,” New Boy states. “Their bite acts like a drug, flooding the system with high amounts of hormones that bring on a euphoric state.” He speaks as though he’s had experience with this himself. It leaves me wondering if he has.

  Liv slides down from the bed and onto the floor beside me. She leans in to hug me. I push her away, the fear of last night turning into something darker. “You left me. You left me alone with him. Why did you do that?” I dig my nails into the palms of my hands, my teeth clenching shut. Hot tears flow one after the other, adding to the fire burning in the pit of my stomach. “Why do you do such stupid things? You could have died last night, Liv. Do you get that? Do you have any idea of the hell you put me through when you ran off like that with that… that… fiend?”

  She looks up at me, eyes wide and glossed over with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know they were vampires. I—”

  “I died, Liv!” I shout. She flinches and the seething anger pumping through every single vein in my body diminishes. I stare up at the ceiling until I’m calm enough to speak normally. I uncurl my fists, releasing what’s left of my rage. I don’t look at her as I climb to my feet and step around her. “I need some air.”

  When I get to the door, New Boy puts his hand down on my arm. “I get you’re upset, but you can’t go outside looking like that unless you want the cops here.”

  I look down at myself really seeing all the bloodstains spread out all over my clothes and skin for the first time. I look like a murder victim who just rose from the dead. Which I guess in a way is kind of true.

  “I’ll go,” Liv whispers in the silence of the room. “I need to give Mom and Dad a call, anyway. Let them know we’re okay.” I don’t know what Liv’s definition of okay is, but I’m definitely nowhere near being okay. She pulls herself up off the floor then wipes her face clear of tears with the back of her hands. “I’ll get us some breakfast too, and when I get back, we can sort everything out.” She looks at me with hopeful eyes and I slightly nod. She bobs her head a few times then swipes New Boy’s jacket and keys from the small dining table in the corner of the room without asking. I don’t even think he saw her do it. I step out of her way. She pauses at the door. “I really am sorry, Indi.”

  “I know.” I turn away from her. I should tell her I don’t blame her, at least not entirely. What happened with Seth and Ben wasn’t her fault. Sure, she has a knack for attracting the wackos and getting herself in binds, but there’s no way she could have known what they were, or what the night would bring. But she did lie to me about the subway, and she did leave me behind, and for that, I’m not ready yet to forgive her.

  The door clicks shut. A moment later I hear an engine start. I peek out the window and watch as she backs out of the motel parking lot in a shiny black ‘67 Camaro. The same one I saw at the corner of Winchester and Rosewood, and then again cruising past the club last night.

  Seth’s voice whispers in my ear. I’m not the only one who’s been following you.

  For half a second I seriously consider bolting out the door without a backward glance, but the need for answers plants my feet to the cruddy brown carpet. I turn back around slowly. New Boy is sitting on the bed, his back against the headboard, one leg spread along the edge of the mattress, the other hanging over it. His arms are crossed over his chest and he’s giving me that weird stare again like he does in class. The one where he’s trying to work out who or what I am: friend or foe, good or evil. And to be honest, in this moment, I’m looking at him in the exact same way.

  Neither one of us moves or speaks.

  The silence has my mind spinning with questions. Questions like—who is he? Could he be following me too? My heart beats a little faster at the thought, and I take a small step backward toward the door, because what if he tries to kill me too? Then again, that really doesn’t make sense considering he saved my life las
t night. Why would he save me then if he were planning on killing me now? New Boy raises an eyebrow as I continue to battle it out in my head. Maybe he needs me alive for some reason or another and once he gets what he wants, he’ll dispose of me. No, that doesn’t make any sense either, because what could I possibly have that he would want?

  After a few minutes of our weird stare off, I cave first and break the silence. I need answers and there’s only one way I’m going to get them. “Why do you stare at me like that all the time?”

  “Because I’m trying to figure out what you are.”

  “What do you mean you’re trying to figure out what I am?” His words echo the things Seth was saying last night about me being special. Even he asked what I was. But I’m nobody. “I’m just a girl. A girl who’s getting sick and tired of being stared at all the time. It’s really creepy and I don’t like it. So you can stop now. Stop staring, stop asking teachers to pair me with you for assignments, and stop following me around in your Camaro. Just leave me alone.”

  A grin covers his face. “Feisty. I like it. But I’m afraid I can’t leave you alone. Not until I determine whether or not you’re dangerous.”

  My jaw drops. I slam it shut. “You think I’m dangerous? Are you freaking kidding me? The most dangerous thing I’ve done is let Liv leave here with your car since she’s only fifteen and doesn’t have a license. What on earth would make you think I’m dangerous?”

  “Liv’s only fifteen?” He jumps up from the bed and runs to the window. “She took my car? Why would you let her take my car?”

  “Why would you? She took it last night too didn’t she for some supply run? What supplies did she need? Was it for medical purposes?”

  “Sort of.”

  “What the hell does that mean? What exactly were the supplies she needed then?”

  Moving away from the window, he circles around me. “You’re completely clueless aren’t you? You really don’t know?”