“I’ve got something that will fix that right up for you,” Jack says from the doorway. “Or at least the hurting head part.” He carries in a tall glass of something neon orange. He holds it out for me to take. “Drink this.”
I sit up slowly and painfully. I take the glass from him, giving it a sniff. “It smells like feet. Also, I don’t think any consumable beverage should be neon orange. What is this stuff?”
“Just drink it. I swear it will make your headache disappear,” he snaps his fingers, “like this.”
“Okay.” My head hurts so bad at this point I’d eat raw chicken feet if someone said it would make the pain go away. I bring it to my lips and take a small sip. It tastes like strawberries. “How can a drink be neon orange, smell like feet, yet taste like strawberries?”
“Magic,” Liv says with a wink.
“Right. Magic.” I drink a little more.
Jack places his fingers on the bottom of the glass, forcing me to drink the rest. “It’s best if you drink it all at once.”
By the time I sip down the last bit of contents, my headache is completely gone. In fact, I feel like a million bucks. “What is in that? And can we market it and sell it because we could be like so rich?”
Liv and Jack both laugh.
“If only we could,” Jack says. “But sadly, magic is supposed to be kept a secret from those who don’t know it really exists.”
“I suppose that makes sense. The world’s already a crazy place. Who knows what kind of pandemonium would ensue if everyone knew the truth about what’s around them. And I don’t just mean magic.” The happy, chipper mood in the room cools into something a little more somber. “I think I’m ready to talk to Uncle Caleb and Aunt Claudia now. I’m ready to know the truth about everything. But first, I’d like to talk to Sebastian. Do either of you know how to get a hold of him?”
“He’s downstairs, actually. He’s been sleeping on the sofa. He refused to leave until he knew you’d be okay.” Liv hops up off the bed and heads for the door. “I’ll send him up.”
“Are you really okay?” Jack asks once Liv’s out of the room. He stares at the floor like he’s suddenly afraid to look at me.
“That depends on your definition of okay. My entire world has changed. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“That’s a fair answer.” He starts picking at his nails and it finally hits me what he’s really asking.
“What happened wasn’t your fault, Jack.”
“I shouldn’t have let you go out at night alone. I should have talked you into staying home, or at the very least I should have gone with you. It was stupid. You had just been attacked the night before; I didn’t think it would happen again a few blocks from our house. I’m so sorry, Indi.” He sits on the bed, filling in the indent Liv left behind when she went downstairs. “I’m here for you if you need me. Or you can throw me out. Whatever you prefer.”
I grab hold of his hand. “I’m not going to throw you out or blame you. Neither one of us could have known I’d run into vampires again. Besides it was you who saved me that night.”
“Me?”
“Yep. The knife you lent me really came through. Though you should know, I think there’s a good chance I might have ruined it. Some of the details of what happened are still a little fuzzy. It sort of feels like I’m waking up after a heavy night of drinking and can’t fully remember all the stupid things I did, if that makes sense. Anyway, I think I might have stabbed it into a vampire’s eye. And I’m pretty sure his eye came out with it.”
“You did,” Jack says with a half laugh and a smile that suggests he’s proud of my actions. “Sebastian told me the Venari found the knife in the grass with the eyeball still skewered on it when they got there. I told him they could keep it. Sebastian also told me about how you guys were attacked. How he was rendered unconscious, leaving you to fend off the vamp on your own until he came to and was able to set the vampire on fire with some lighter fluid and matches he had in the trunk of his car.”
“Rrriiiight,” I say letting the word drag out. My memory might still be unclear on the details, but none of what Jack just said sounds familiar at all. “And Sebastian? Liv said I did something that saved him. What did I do?”
“I don’t know exactly. Sebastian said you must have somehow tapped into your powers to place a protection spell over him to help slow down the damage he sustained when he got hit over the head until the Venari could get there to heal him. He said he showed you how to do it earlier that night in the garage when you insisted on going to Evan’s game. It would explain why you woke up with such a bad headache and why you can’t remember much. It’s a common side effect of using magic that’s been suppressed. It takes a lot of energy to do what you did. It’s impressive.”
I nod my head, but what he’s saying can’t be right. I don’t know any protection spells. I remember Sebastian asking me if I’d performed one on myself, which I, of course, hadn’t because I’d only found out about magic that morning, but I definitely know he didn’t show me how to cast one. Which means he lied, but why?
“What was Sebastian doing in our garage, anyway?” Jack asks.
“He was here for The Salem Witch Trials.”
“What?” Jack looks at me in confusion.
“It’s a school project we’re supposed to be working on together.”
“Oh.”
There’s a knock outside my door. I look up to see Sebastian leaning against the doorframe, his thumbs tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. There’s bruising on the side of his face, but other than that there’s no sign he’d had his head split open with a baseball bat. How is that possible? Jack said the Venari healed him, but what exactly does that mean? Do they hire witches while also hunting them down? Because magic is the only thing that would explain how he’s able to be standing here now and not lying in a bed in the ICU somewhere? There’s so much I don’t know and so much I need to ask, but first I need to find out why he lied to my family.
“I’ll leave you two to talk.” Jack pats my hand then takes the empty glass that contained the headache be gone juice, or whatever it’s called with him on his way out.
“You lied to them about what happened Friday night, because none of what Jack just told me sounds remotely familiar at all. What really happened, and why didn’t you tell them the truth?”
Sebastian steps into my room, closing the door behind him. A small irrelevant act that flips my stomach over and sends heat to my cheeks, simply because he’s the first boy other than Jack or Uncle Caleb who’s been in my room. Not even Evan has seen my room and we’ve been dating for three months.
Sebastian flops down beside me on the bed. He stretches out, tucking his arms behind his head. His shirt rises a little, revealing a strip of skin I absolutely refuse to look at… directly. The peripherals on the other hand are out of my control.
Get it together Indi. You’re supposed to be getting answers not getting flustered over the fact that there’s a guy in your room… on your bed… who’s not related to you. You don’t even like him remember?
He watches me from under the cover of lashes, a devilish grin playing at his mouth. I scoot further down the bed while keeping the covers on. Someone put me in my jammies, which are nothing more than a tank top and shorts barely long enough to cover my butt. His smile grows bigger. “If you’re worried, we can always keep things PG-13.”
“What?” I drop the blanket then pick it up in a hurry, tucking it under my arms. If I thought my face was red before, it’s probably nothing compared to what it is now. It feels like it’s on fire. And Oh. My. God. Is it hot in here?
He rolls to the side in a small fit of laughter then props his head up on his hand, a smile spread over his face. “I’m only teasing you. But only because you make it so easy.”
I punch him in the leg. It’s oddly satisfying. “And I’m only punching you because you make it so easy.”
He rubs his leg with the heel of his hand. �
��Touché.”
“Seriously though, what happened out there?”
He sits up; tucking one leg under him while the other one hangs off the bed. “I can only tell you what I know, which isn’t much. I was hoping you could tell me what happened, especially with the vamp who hit me over the head with a baseball bat. The cheating bastard.”
“I don’t really remember much of what happened after the first three vampires attacked us, just… emotions mostly, and a few fleeting glimpses of things I’ve been trying to piece together. I remember you getting hit hard over the head, and how there was all this blood covering your face. I was scared you were dead.”
“Aw.” His eyes grow big and he crosses his hands over his heart. “You were scared I was dead. I’m touched. You do care about me.”
I roll my eyes and hit him with a nearby pillow. I’m trying to be serious and he’s over there cracking jokes. “Do you want me to tell you what I remember or not?”
“I do.” He fluffs up the pillow I hit him with, then shoves it behind his back.
Ignoring the urge to smack him again for being so blasé about everything, I let my mind drift back, hoping I can grasp onto the images flickering in and out of my head. Sebastian may be annoyingly infuriating, but he’s the only person who can help me remember what happened that night.
A memory slithers along the edge of my mind and I grab a hold of it. Feelings of disgust sends a shiver throughout my body. “I remember the vampire—the one who hit you—the same one I saw at the club when I was looking for Liv, tasting me before I stabbed him in the eye with Jack’s pocketknife. And then anger, lots and lots of anger. It completely consumed me. That’s where things get the haziest. I think I…” I trail off wondering if I should confide in him. I feel different around him now, like I can trust him inexplicably, but still, I know nothing about him. Is it really a good idea to blindly trust someone I barely know?
Sebastian studies my face, his eyes open and vulnerable, and in them I see the parts of himself he keeps hidden. He may spend most of his time hiding behind an overconfident exterior while torturing me by never answering any of my questions, but I can trust him, at least with this. I don’t know when it happened, but something’s changed between us. I don’t really see him as a creepy stalker with a staring problem anymore although he does still stare. He’s staring right now. But it’s different somehow.
“I… I think I set him on fire just by thinking it,” I say, putting it out there. “I wanted him to die. I wanted to hurt him for all the things he wanted to do to me—for what he did to you.”
Sebastian scoots a little closer so his knee is now pressed against mine. Despite his jeans and my blankets separating us, I’m so acutely aware of him it’s as though those things don’t exist and it’s really our skin that’s touching. When did I become so aware of him? Why am I so aware of him? Do I want to be this aware of him?
“And me?” he asks. “How did you heal me? I lied to your family because not even the strongest healer can do what you did. I was slipping away, but then I heard you calling for me. I felt you. You were like this bright light in the darkness.” His eyes roam over my face, the two of us close enough now for me to see the spot of brown in his otherwise blue eyes. “The next thing I knew, I was waking up, and you were falling into my arms. How did you do it?” His eyes lower to my mouth. “And why do I feel such a strong pull to you? Admittedly, I was drawn to you from the moment I got here, but that connection I told you about, it’s so much stronger now.” His eyes flick back up to mine. “Why is that?”
“I don’t know.” He leans in closer and I don’t pull away, because that connection he’s talking about, I feel it too.
11
♪Message. Message. You’ve got a message.♪
I pull away, silently cursing my phone. Sebastian bites his lip, his eyes lowered. I lean across him to grab my phone off the nightstand, my heart thudding in my chest at our proximity for reasons I don’t quite understand.
“Screw it.” Sebastian takes the phone out of my hand and tosses it to the floor before I can see who sent the message. “I’ve wanted to do this since the day I saw you.”
Before I know what’s happening, his lips are pressed against mine. Caught off guard, I pull back and slap him hard across the face. An angry red handprint flares over his cheek. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you like that. You took me by surprise.” I reach out to touch his cheek and he takes my hand.
“Then now you’ll see it coming.” He tugs my hand in toward his chest, taking the rest of me along with it. Closer now, he cups the side of my face with his free hand. His gaze travels to my mouth as he leans in. His lips brush over mine hesitantly as though he’s waiting for me to slap him again. I don’t. I feel him smile and then he’s kissing me slowly, sending electric currents throughout my body. Part of me knows this is wrong, that I’m not free to do this, but the other part of me ignores that part until the only coherent thought in my head is how he tastes like cinnamon. I like cinnamon.
I melt into him, opening myself up completely to give and take. Sensing a change in me, he grabs a hold of the blankets keeping us apart and tosses them to the floor. His mouth finds mine once again, his fingers tangling in my hair, the distance between our bodies disappearing as I instinctively move closer. He wraps an arm around my waist and grips hold of my leg, pulling me onto his lap. He deepens the kiss, sending a swarm of hot butterflies fluttering through my stomach as his tongue teases over my lips. My hands fist in his hair, as his hand slips under the hem of my tank top, his fingers caressing over the skin of my lower back, leaving a trail of goose bumps behind.
♪Message. Message. You’ve got a message.♪
The sound of a reminder text brings me back to my senses and I pull away, wondering what the hell I’m doing. I barely know Sebastian and this, this isn’t fair to Evan. “Um,” I lick my lips. They taste like him, like cinnamon, and my eyes drift back down to the source, my whole body wanting to take more, because clearly I’ve lost my damn mind. I shake my head. “I should probably get that.” I start to climb off his lap.
He grips onto my waist. “Or you could stay.” The blue of his eyes deepens in color, heavy with want. He pinches his bottom lip between his teeth as his gaze drifts back to my mouth.
“Or I could stay.” Definitely losing my mind. I’m so going to hell for this. I take his face between my hands, wanting what the look in his eyes promises to give. Just as our lips meet there’s a knock on the door.
Ripped back to reality, my heart ricochets into my throat and I jump to the side, scrounging for the blanket on the floor. I pull it back up, wrapping it around myself like the hottest kiss I’ve ever experienced didn’t just happen. Not even Evan has ever kissed me like that. The corner of Sebastian’s mouth curls into a grin as he straightens his shirt and leans back against the pillows on the bed. He bites his lip as he watches me flounder around. Unsure of what to do with myself now, my insides vibrate at a hundred miles an hour, while I’m left wondering what kind of mess I’ve gotten myself into and how I’m going to wipe what just happened off my face before whoever is knocking comes through the door. I sit still, too still, and he laughs. It makes me want to hit him and kiss him all at once. I take a deep breath, resisting doing one or the other as the door opens.
Liv comes in and takes a seat at the end of the bed, her eyes shifting between Sebastian and me. A hot rush of blood goes straight to my face, heating up my cheeks. Sebastian grins and Liv draws her eyebrows together. “Am I missing something here?”
“No,” I say way, way too quickly. “You’re not missing anything. We were just talking about what happened with the vampires and why they would attack the way they did.”
“And did you come up with anything?” Liv asks a little slow, like she’s suspicious of something. Probably because of my behavior and Sebastian’s giant grin to said behavior.
“Nope, nothing yet.” I say just as quickly. We never really got that far.
She looks back and forth between Sebastian and me. “Mmmhmm.”
Oh God, she knows.
She gives me a look that says ‘we’ll be talking about this later’, then says, “It is really weird vampires attacked you guys out in the open like that, and in the suburbs no less. They usually like to be a little more inconspicuous than that. It’s why they mostly stick to bigger cities. It’s a lot easier to cover up their killings. Though, I overheard Dad telling Mom the other day how vampire related deaths have been on the rise lately. Maybe they’re branching out of their comfort zones. Whatever the case, it’s got the whole witch community in a tizzy. If one supernatural group were to get exposed, it’s not that far-fetched to think others could be too.”
I let out a slow sigh, resisting the urge to hug her for not calling me out. And then my brain circles back around to how she said others. “How many types of supernaturals are there?”
Liv’s eyes lift to the ceiling and I can all but see her mentally counting all the different groups.
“That many, huh?” My shoulders droop. I really have been blind to the world. And now at least two of these said groups are after me for whatever reason. What makes me so special and is it something that will make other groups come after me too? Why couldn’t I have just stayed hidden in the dark?
Sebastian’s pinky finger wraps around mine under the edge of the blanket and I hold on to it like a lifeline keeping me from falling into the abyss. So far he’s the only one who really knows these attacks weren’t just a series of wrong time, wrong place, bad luck coincidences, and that there’s a reason behind them. Except for maybe Uncle Caleb and Aunt Claudia. They’ve kept my magic, and me hidden for a reason. Could these recent attacks have something to do with why? Am I really that big of a threat? The girl who has panic attacks and is the biggest wallflower in school?
I guess there’s only one way to find out, and that’s having a very candid conversation with my aunt and uncle.
Of Blood & Magic: Blood Descent Book 1 Page 12