Spellbound (Crossbreed Series Book 8)

by Dannika Dark

  “Would you mind if I had your friend’s name?” Mary asked. “I’d like to compare notes.”

  Gem shook her head. “I can’t give you that if Viktor hasn’t. We’re a private organization. Something like that is highly confidential.”

  “Understood. Without giving any information on his name or your group, could I simply relay that there’s another? We thought it was an isolated case, but if there are more, this is something we need to remember so we can pass the knowledge on to our children.”

  Gem shrugged. “I don’t think it would do any good. I can’t give you anything else. I just want to know how to wake him up. Do you have any ideas?”

  Mary uncrossed her ankles and shifted to one side. “Without knowing the cause, I can only speculate. I think what might have happened is a reverse surge. When everyone else’s light went out, your friend’s energy exhibited signs of moving in the other direction.” She looked toward the windows and shrugged. “I guess you could compare it to a short circuit. It’s possible that the overload impacted the electrical impulses in his brain. Humans have all kinds of tests that can reveal active and inactive parts of the brain based on energy, but it’s something Relics have always known. Perhaps the channels were overloaded, like a traffic jam. It was more than he could handle, so his brain shut down as a protective measure. Kind of like the vasovagal syncope that happens when there’s a malfunction in your nervous system. It’s what changes your blood pressure and heart rate, causing you to faint.”

  “Can we reverse it? Or reset the system?”

  “That’s an interesting idea.” Mary drew in a sharp breath and let it out on a sigh. “I wonder if a Stealer might be able to temporarily render them mortal long enough for you to put their light back into them. That would require an Infuser to assist with the procedure. There’s no guarantee that would wake him up, and being mortal for any period of time could be risky in his condition.”

  That wasn’t an option. While Raven was a Stealer and could take energy, they didn’t know an Infuser. That would be the only way to return Niko’s core light to him, including all his abilities. Well, at least in theory. The other option would be to locate a Creator and give him his first spark again. No guarantee it would take in his unconscious state. And no guarantee he’d regain his unique ability to see energy. That would be a fate worse than death.

  “Are there any other options?” Gem inquired. “Something less… invasive?”

  “You’re right to be concerned. There’s no guarantee he’d survive the procedure. If his light is the only thing keeping him alive, taking it might be like pulling the plug.”

  Gem sprang out of her seat and walked over to stare at the painting on the wall.

  “Dear, I’m sorry if any of this upsets you, but it’s important that you’re aware of the risks. We don’t know what’s causing it. It’s possible there might be someone who has genetic knowledge of what might have caused this, but no one has come forward. If you’re withholding information, it limits what I can do.”

  Gem’s hand burned just as hot as her anger.

  “I can help you with that,” Mary said softly.

  Confused, Gem spun on her heel and looked down at the energy ball forming in her hand. Her eyes rounded as she quickly squeezed it into a million particles of light that showered at her feet. “Sorry about that.”

  Mary smiled knowingly. “You’re a Wielder. I don’t see many of those, and the few I have seen struggled with their rare gift. There aren’t many who can teach a person to control that kind of power. I suppose your Creator didn’t know what to do with it. Creators provide basic tools for survival, but so rarely do they understand unique gifts.”

  Gem wiped her hand on her shirt. “Alas, I never have the need to use it.”

  Mary stood up and straightened her dress in the back. “What we have need for is irrelevant. When you’re given a weapon, you have an obligation to learn how to use it.”

  That was an interesting way to put it. Gem had always heard people refer to what they had as gifts. But yes, some were also weapons.

  “I’m also a Blocker, so I prefer to use my shield over my sword.”

  “I’m sure if you haven’t figured it out already, you soon will. Blockers aren’t immune to all gifts used against them. I can teach you how to wield properly.”

  “Maybe another time. Do you want to see my friend? Viktor said he can arrange for you to visit.”

  “I’m afraid seeing his condition won’t help, not without knowing the cause or power behind it. Even then, my knowledge of such matters is limited.” She took Gem’s hands in hers and smiled warmly. “Tell you what, I’ll keep my ears open and make a few additional calls to see if anyone else has heard of this happening before. If I were you, I wouldn’t give your friend any more healing light; that might do more harm than good. If I come across any pertinent information, I’ll let you know right away. But I also want you to prepare for the possibility that there might not be a cure. The fates might not allow it.”

  Gem tried to pull away, but Mary kept a firm grip.

  “Make him comfortable for as long as you can. If you need someone to talk to, I’m here. My door is always open. Just remember that he can’t stay this way forever. At some point, you might have to consider letting go of hope. If you need counseling, just give me a call. Appointments are better, but I handle emergencies.” She gently squeezed Gem’s hands before letting them go.

  Mary had a therapeutic touch that Gem didn’t want to feel, a consoling look that she didn’t want to see, and comforting words that she didn’t want to hear. Gem held fast to hope and refused to let anyone take that away.

  But now she was back to square one.

  Chapter 4

  “At least the Relic might be able to help him,” Blue said glumly, folding her arms on the dining table.

  Gem didn’t have the heart to tell everyone the rest of what the Relic had said. Since Mary had promised to make a few calls, Gem would just as soon forget the last part of their conversation about the possibility of giving up on Niko.

  Blue stood up and pushed in her chair. “I’m going to sit with him for a while.”

  “The door is locked,” Viktor informed her. “Once I finish here, I need to be alone with him. Then I will call you up to visit.”

  As Blue left the room, she didn’t have the same confident strut as before. She walked at a slower gait, and Gem had noticed her grimacing sometimes when she reached for things on the table.

  Viktor had summoned everyone to the dining room at lunch to fill them in on Niko’s condition. He didn’t reveal the cause, and Raven remarked on how her own hands had glowed at around the same time. When Gem offered the Relic’s explanation of a power surge, the team accepted it as a plausible answer. None of them had seen Niko yet, and the bedroom door would remain locked until Viktor could hide or remove the book.

  As their cook carried a new dish into the room, everyone feasted their eyes on the platter of shrimp. Sometimes Gem wished that Kira would make sandwiches more often. A PB&J sounded a lot better than seafood at the moment. She had never seen a more studious worker. Kira rarely spoke, so it made it impossible for Gem to pick up on anything but a few words from the brief exchanges the woman had with Viktor.

  But Gem didn’t need another distraction anyway. She already had her hands full in that department. Eventually she’d figure out Kira’s language. It wasn’t as if Gem wanted to have private conversations with the woman and reveal all Keystone’s secrets, but it would be nice to let her know how much they appreciated her hard work. Maybe even ask if she had any hobbies, or how it was possible for her hair to be that striking color.

  When Shepherd touched Kira’s arm and asked for butter, she recoiled as if a snake had bitten her.

  Instead of saying the word for butter, Viktor took his knife and pretended to spread butter on his hand. Kira adjusted her blue kerchief and returned to the kitchen. With a look of irritation, Shepherd rubbed his palms together.


  “So what happens if we can’t wake him up?” Christian asked, then took a sip of his red wine.

  Wyatt reached past Gem and filled his plate. “He’ll give us a live performance of Sleeping Beauty every night.”

  “One of these days, that sense of humor is going to bite you in the arse.”

  When Wyatt settled back in his chair and put his plate down, two pieces of shrimp slid off and onto the floor. “Blast!” He bent over, picked them up, and put them back on his plate. “Look, it’s not that I don’t like the guy, but what do you want me to do, hold a candlelight vigil?” Wyatt gobbled his first shrimp. “What happened to Blue… now that upsets me. She can’t reverse the damage. Niko’s just taking a long nap. I’m sure someone will figure out how to wake him up. If not, I can’t think of a more ideal way to go. Dying in your sleep is every Gravewalker’s dream.”

  Christian leaned back in his chair and flashed him a dark look. “Would you like me to order another platter for your gob?”

  Wyatt licked his fingers, unfazed by Christian’s usual gruff demeanor. “After refueling my brain, I’m going upstairs to poke around and see what I can find. There’s chatter on some of the boards about the power-surge thing. Some people think it’s the end times. Others think a solar flare or some natural phenomenon caused it. Bunch of weirdos.”

  Shepherd folded his arms on the table. “And what do you think it is, Spooky? A new upgrade?”

  Wyatt sputtered with laughter and slapped his hand on the table. “That was a good one!”

  Shepherd gave him a frosty glare. “Button it up.”

  Hunter giggled.

  Gem picked at the breadstick on her plate. “The Relic didn’t have any answers. Viktor, isn’t there anyone else we can see?”

  “Nyet. Mary is the best when it comes to strange Mage phenomena.”

  Raven snorted. “She’s never met me.”

  Christian gave her a wolfish smile and raised his glass. “Strange indeed.”

  “Strange bedfellows,” Shepherd muttered.

  Pausing the glass at his lips, Christian said, “I heard that.”

  “Can we see him now?” Raven asked, staring at the platter. “It feels wrong to sit here and keep eating.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Wyatt said around a mouthful of shrimp.

  Kira placed a small bowl of melted butter in front of Shepherd and quickly left. Sometimes it was almost as if she wasn’t there. They’d all gotten used to it, but Gem couldn’t help but wonder what Kira’s story was. Everyone had a story.

  Gem glanced to her right and noticed Shepherd rubbing at the scars on his hands. He sometimes did that when he wanted a cigarette, but he usually waited until everyone was done eating before lighting up.

  Shepherd cleared his throat. “If it’s all the same to you, Viktor, I’d rather check on our buddy. Maybe I can do something.”

  Viktor wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin and stood. “Fine, fine. Let me change his bedding and see that he’s decent first, then I will message you. Eat. There is no reason to insult Kira by letting our food get cold.”

  Raven held the stem of her glass and stared vacantly at the wine. Christian’s hand was also on the table, and Gem spotted him brushing his pinky against Raven’s. No one else noticed, but that fleeting show of tenderness held her captive. It didn’t seem that long ago that Christian was a colder man. Something had changed in him. He didn’t care that Raven had mismatched eyes or that she wasn’t a pure Vampire. Older immortals were usually critical about defects. Gem often received tasteless remarks from gauche men because of her height. If only she had a nickel for every time some joker asked if she shopped in the kids’ section. She was barely over five feet tall, and being petite didn’t help matters. Height discrimination was a real thing.

  “Gem, come with me,” Viktor said, touching her shoulder as he passed behind her chair.

  “Moi?” she drawled, trying to avoid the curious stares.

  “I need to speak with you privately about a project.”

  It was the truth. Viktor chose his words carefully when Claude was present. Luckily, Claude was too busy scarfing down the basket of garlic breadsticks to bother parsing Viktor’s emotional scent. Hunter sipped his grape juice, his blue eyes wide and watchful.

  Gem flashed down the hall and caught up with Viktor. She gathered her duster in the front and tied it with the cloth belt. “Are you sure there isn’t someone else you could call? Mary was knowledgeable and nice, but she can’t be the only energy expert in the whole wide world.”

  Viktor started ascending the stairs. “She is the best in her field and has connections. If anyone knows something, it is Mary.”

  Gem waited until they reached the second floor before asking any more questions. Christian had a tendency to eavesdrop, but his skills weakened with more walls between them. “What about Claude?”

  Viktor tucked his hands in the pockets of his grey cardigan. “What about Claude?”

  “Can he dreamwalk? Some Chitahs can enter people’s dreams. I’ve never asked him about it because, well, it just never came up.”

  “Nyet. Claude cannot dreamwalk from what he has told me.” They turned a corner down a long hall, candles in sconces lit up the arched ceiling. “Besides, it would be useless to send anyone into his dreams. Niko—if he’s even in a dream world—would only be confused by a visitation. It is not as easy as you might think to convince a dreamer that you are real.”

  When they reached Niko’s bedroom and closed the door, Viktor immediately crossed the room and started stoking the fire. Gem drifted over to the bed and stared down at the ancient Mage. Niko’s ebony hair looked spun from silk. She touched his arm, her fingers skimming across his brown skin. Stubble peppered his chin and jaw, but the hairs were sparse and would never become a full beard. How had she never noticed how beautiful he was? She already missed seeing his crystal-blue eyes and hearing his silken voice.

  “I’ll get you out of this,” she whispered. “I promise.”

  Viktor turned around, fire poker in his hand. “What is that you say?”

  She straightened and looked around. “I was just wondering where you hid the book and all my notes.”

  After putting another log on the grate, he approached the bed and pulled out a neatly folded blanket from beneath it. “The best hiding places are the most obvious.” He handed her the small blanket, which was heavy with the weight of the hidden book. “Since we are letting the others in to visit, you should keep this in a safe location, a place where no one will find it.”

  Gem knew the very spot. Her private study.

  Viktor sent a text message on his phone, then patted Niko’s hand. He said comforting words in Russian that roughly translated to “You are among friends. We’ll do everything in our power to bring you back. Feel like some company?”

  Gem slunk out of the room with the blanket in hand. She didn’t want to be around when the others saw Niko in this condition. It would be too much negativity, and she had to surround herself with positive energy. She had even recharged all her crystals that morning and put them back in Niko’s room, hoping to keep the positive energy flowing. Maybe that would counter all the grim remarks from the team once they saw Niko in a comatose state. It amazed her how few people took positive and negative vibes seriously. After all, a Mage thrived on energy, so Gem’s beliefs weren’t as hocus-pocus as others assumed.

  She flashed down the rear stairwell and past a long row of windows. When she reached the alcove, she pushed on the wall and slipped through the gap. The lantern outside the room was always lit at night, but in the daytime, she had to blindly light the first candle in the room. It wasn’t a big space by any means, maybe twenty by twenty with a tall ceiling and wooden shelves on every wall. After closing the chamber door, she set the blanket on her large worktable and struck a match. Each candle lit breathed life into her book collection. It was as if that golden light dancing off their spines would turn the volumes into living beings with s
tories to tell.

  So much history.

  So much knowledge.

  She sat at the table and carefully opened the blanket, covering her lap with the warm fabric even though the chill in the room didn’t bother her. After a while, she just got used to it. Even in summer, the temperature barely rose above sixty-five. Someday, Gem planned to renovate a room in the house specifically for her collection, one where she could regulate the temperature and humidity, which would require Viktor’s consent. He wasn’t fond of electricity, and since most of these books were her personal collection, she wasn’t sure if he’d go for setting up another room in the house with electricity.

  After setting aside her notes, she placed the book in front of her to begin the grueling task of decoding a dead language. The smaller book she’d acquired from the pawnshop was still on her desk, so she pulled it closer then grabbed two reference books from the shelf behind her.

  Every job Viktor assigned her was vitally important. Some translations led to the conviction of hardened criminals, some who had risen to power. Other translations saved lives or exonerated the wrongfully convicted. But this was unlike any task she’d ever done. It was personal, and despite her being an immortal, time wasn’t on her side.

  Chapter 5

  Gem sped down the long hallway on her pink skates, wind in her hair and the windows zooming by.

  What a rush!

  Skating was the quickest way to get around the mansion without expending all her energy. Flashing was fun, but Gem had to be careful about tapping into her light too much. It wore her down and made her tired, and Gem had no time for idleness. Plus she loved the thrill that skating gave her. It was one of the best stress relievers, and the exercise released endorphins.