Blood Mage (Dark Impulse Book 1)

by Edmund Hughes

  He managed to stop himself, though only just. He held Ryoko in an embrace, and felt her hands gently pushing against his chest. He released her, opening his arms and feeling a rush of shame.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, finally managing to speak. “You’re right. I… think it’s better if you leave me alone in here, Ryoko.”

  “I can’t leave you alone like this, sir,” she said. “And I understand completely.”

  She helped him back into bed. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, as though it might somehow cordon off his horrible compulsions. Katie would get to the mansion soon enough, he reminded himself. Ryoko was both ignorant and innocent, and he wouldn’t let himself bite her against her will. He repeated the words over and over in his head, like a mantra. He clung to them.

  “Please, Ryoko,” he muttered. “I… need to be alone to rest.”

  Ryoko looked gravely worried, but eventually she nodded and left the room. Jack took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. His head was still pounding, but after a few minutes, he managed to fall into a state somewhere between sleep and a feverish fugue.

  CHAPTER 14

  Minutes slowly passed, turning to hours as the afternoon progressed into evening. Jack felt cold, but his body was sweating, and soon his clothes and sheets were completely soaked. Each time Ryoko poked her head in to check up on him, he did his best to compose himself enough to politely put her fears to rest. He didn’t trust himself to stay in control around the temptation she presented.

  “Ryoko?” Katie’s voice came from the mansion’s entrance shortly before sunset, much to Jack’s relief. He took a deep breath, listening as Ryoko greeted her and began explaining what had happened.

  Jack heard her coming upstairs, and then entering the room. He forced himself to sit up in bed, feeling a deep, primal urge kick in as he picked up her scent.

  Katie was wearing a blue tank top and black yoga pants, and her brown hair had been styled into a neat braid. She had a musky, post-workout smell, and Jack had trouble focusing on anything other than the slender curve of the nape of her neck.

  “Fuck,” muttered Katie. “Damn it, Jack. I thought you’d be able to hold out for longer.”

  She shut the door behind her and slowly moved deeper into the room, her mouth set into an annoyed frown. She had an intense look in her eyes, and there wasn’t a hint of fear in her body language, even though she’d just isolated herself with a hungry vampire.

  “It started just after lunch,” said Jack. “And it’s just been getting worse since then.”

  He had to look away as Katie came closer. His muscles felt twitchy, and he kept replaying the same, stupid scene in his head. The one where he leapt at her, threw her down on the bed, and sank his fangs deep into her neck to drink his fill.

  “It’s possible that it’s because you were just turned,” said Katie. “Peter had a few accounts of vampires being unusually hungry for the first few days after their transformation.”

  “You’re only telling me this now?”

  “I just remembered now, jackass,” said Katie. “Besides, it’s not the same for each type of vampire, and even then, not in every case. It’s also possible that you’ve been using your blood magic and accelerating your thirst by burning through your blood essence reserves.”

  “I haven’t been,” muttered Jack. “Well, not really.”

  Katie rolled her eyes. “Right...”

  “Have you taken the anti-enthrallment potion yet?” he asked.

  “I took it when I left the gym,” said Katie. “It should have kicked in by now.”

  Jack exhaled and let his eyes meet hers, trying and failing to control the obvious hunger in his stare. A couple silent, tense seconds by. Katie had an anxious expression on her face, with a hint of something else. Excitement? Guilt?

  “Do you think you can make it down to the basement?” asked Katie. “It would be safer if we used the handcuffs again, and I don’t think one of those wooden bedposts would be enough to keep you contained.”

  “Yeah,” said Jack. He kicked one of his legs over the side of the bed and tried to rise to his feet. A headache hit him hard enough to trigger a sudden wave of vertigo. He stumbled forward, but Katie was there in time to keep him from falling on his face.

  “Easy,” she said. “Jeez. I figured the bloodthirst would affect you, but not to this degree.”

  Her words sounded tinny and hollow to him. Katie had put one of her arms under his shoulder, which resulted in her body being against his, and her neck being irresistibly close. She started to take a step forward, and Jack felt his body moving on its own.

  “Katie…” he muttered. He let his hands settle on her waist. She let out an involuntary shiver, but didn’t move away.

  “Jack,” whispered Katie. “Let’s head downstairs and get the handcuffs, okay?”

  He held her from behind in a firm, but not forceful embrace. Katie stayed where she was, even as Jack brought his face in closer, inhaling her smell.

  “Idiot,” she said. “The handcuffs. Let’s get them first… so we can be… safe.”

  He kissed her neck. Katie let out a gasp, and her entire body shuddered against his. He gently pushed her forward until she was leaning against the bed with her butt pushed out. Jack grinded against her, kissed her neck again, and then…

  His fangs entered her with beautiful ease. Katie let out a squeal that sounded vaguely sexual, and her entire body tensed up, pressing back against him. Her blood was sweet, warm, and fresh, like the juice of an orange fresh off a sun-bathed tree.

  His mouth was the central focus of the act of drinking her blood, but it was a full body process. Jack was aroused, and he could tell that Katie was, too. He caressed her all over, and he felt one of her hands sliding back to do the same through his slacks. He pulled her tank top up, and then her bra down.

  They fell forward onto the bed as he pulled his mouth free of her neck, licking the last drops of blood off his lips. He gave Katie a deep, passionate kiss, and she let out a tiny moan as it ended. He slid his fingers into the stretchy waistband of her yoga pants and started to ease them down, feeling his arousal get the better of him.

  There were no handcuffs to stop either of them, this time. Katie was already bucking her hips by the time Jack had her yoga pants down, and rather than stopping him from doing the same with her panties, she wriggled from side to side, making it easier to slide them out of the way.

  She was clean shaven, and very girlish looking down below, but Jack only got a glance before she was pulling him onto her. She kissed him, probing into his mouth with her tongue. She seemed drunk on lust, and he didn’t feel much different. He all but tore his pants down, and his hands pawed over her soft body as he pressed forward to enter her.

  He missed, sliding along and just under her crotch instead of where he’d been aiming. Katie bucked her hips and let out a wispy moan, squeezing her thighs together in a way that felt incredible, but inadvertently stopped Jack from immediately taking things further.

  He kissed her again and squeezed one of her pale breasts. For a minute, the two of them continued bumping and grinding together, neither committing to proper the angle to actually have sex. They were like clumsy young teenagers, moving eagerly and awkwardly, overcome by the intensity of their emotions.

  Katie was so soft, and Jack had wanted this for so long. He was so close in every sense of the word. So close… to taking things too far. To ruining Katie’s life.

  The weight of what he was doing came back to him in a flash of clarity. Jack pulled back, rolling off the bed and standing up. He took a deep breath and tried to ignore both how turned on he was, and the incredible sight of Katie lying half undressed on his bed with one hand between her thighs. One of her breasts was still exposed, the bra cup pulled down just under the nipple and making it look a little larger than it actually was.

  “Katie,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Are you… done?” she whispered. She shivered and slowly sat up, appe
aring to go through the same process he had in recovering through the emotional fog brought on by Jack’s bite. She glanced down, blushing hard, and pulled her bra and tank top back into position.

  “Sorry,” he said. “As soon as I got in close to your neck, I just lost it.”

  “You’re an idiot,” said Katie, feeling her neck with one hand. “You have to learn how to control yourself, Jack. Jesus Christ. That could have been so fucking bad.”

  Jack nodded, unsure of what else he could say about it. He was still turned on, and the tense, silent moment that followed left room for his imagination to run wild with what they’d still probably be doing if he hadn’t managed to exercise his willpower. Katie was sitting on the bed with her legs crossed, taking slow breaths and casually rubbing one of her breasts.

  “Ms. White?” Ryoko’s voice came from just beyond the door, in the hallway. “Mr. Masterson? Are you both okay? I thought I heard something…”

  “It’s fine!” Katie said, a little too quickly. “I was just helping Jack out of bed.”

  The door opened. Ryoko’s hand went to her mouth when she saw them, and she glanced back and forth between the two of them without much attempt to hide the questioning look in her eyes. Jack was a little surprised to see so much open curiosity on the face of an otherwise stoic and professional maid.

  “Will you be staying for dinner tonight, Ms. White?” asked Ryoko.

  “No,” said Katie. “In fact, both Jack and I have some business we need to take care of in town tonight. If you could just make sandwiches and leave them out, that would perfect.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Ryoko.

  “I’ll need you here for the night, as I told you this morning,” said Katie. “Just in case Jack has another fit while I’m not around.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Ryoko.

  CHAPTER 15

  Katie nodded, and Ryoko took it as her dismissal. Jack frowned a little as he watched her walk off toward the stairs, remembering Katie’s secondhand message from earlier in the day.

  “What did you mean by what you had Ryoko tell me?” asked Jack. “The thing about her being able to take of my needs if ‘my condition’ acts up, or whatever. I really hope you didn’t mean what I think you meant.”

  “I did,” said Katie. “Obviously. If you need to feed when I’m not around, and it gets bad enough, consider Ryoko to be my backup.”

  Jack scowled and shook his head.

  “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “Does she even know anything about the supernatural, or what my grandfather was involved with?”

  “Not anymore,” said Katie.

  “Not… anymore?” asked Jack.

  “There was an incident with her before she first came to work for the mansion as a maid,” said Katie. “Peter had to use a basic dream weaving spell on her to convince her that none of it had happened. It’s similar to what the Order of Chaldea does whenever a monster or warlock attacks a town publicly.”

  “Dream weaving?” asked Jack. “How exactly does that work?”

  “It’s a way of rearranging a person’s memories that’s safer than doing a full wipe,” said Katie. “By entering a person’s dreams with a spell, you can access their mind while their guard is down, and shift memories of things that actually happened into their dreams. They’ll wake up and usually start to forget whatever happened.”

  “Okay,” said Jack. “But what was the incident that Ryoko needed to forget?”

  “It’s not important right now,” said Katie. “Just know that it would be much better for you to bite Ryoko, rather than some random person off the street.”

  He frowned. He didn’t like the idea of Katie hiding part of Ryoko’s past from him, but even more, he didn’t like the idea of feeding on her without her consent.

  “I’m not doing it,” said Jack. “No. I’d rather endure the side effects of being an unfed vampire than take advantage of her like that.”

  “Get over yourself,” said Katie. “You probably won’t have a choice if I’m not around and enough time goes by. I do have a solution to make it a little easier, however. I can give her the anti-enthrallment potion, along with a basic sedative. I’ll mix it into some tea leaves, and if it’s ever necessary, just add boiling water and give her a glass of it. Might want to add some honey, too, though, it’s pretty rough tasting stuff.”

  “Do you even realize how fucked up that sounds?” He shook his head. “I’m not about to start putting roofies in my maid’s tea so I can drink her blood. Absolutely not.”

  Katie folded her arms and gave him an intense look. “Jack, you’re a fucking vampire. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to find your broodmother tonight and kill her, freeing you from the curse. If we’re not, then this is something we’ll have to continue to deal with. There is no perfect solution here.”

  Jack sighed, knowing that she was probably right. Still, he had no plans of dosing Ryoko against her will. If he felt the urge to feed and Katie wasn’t around, he would have to figure something else out.

  “Anyway,” said Katie. “If you’re feeling better, we should head out and start looking for Mira.”

  “I am,” said Jack. “Though I’m a little surprised that you’re willing to let me come along tonight.”

  Katie smiled, and for an instant, she reminded Jack of the precocious, freckled girl that he had so many fond childhood memories of.

  “I get the feeling you’d cause a ruckus if I tried to handcuff you and leave you behind again,” she said. “Besides, we’re up against an Aquinian vampire. I don’t have the best understanding of what blood magic can potentially do, or how to counter it. It might be helpful to have you along for your spectral magic, along with any other latent abilities you may have.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” said Jack. “There’s one other thing that I think you should know. The mayor invited me to his mansion for a conversation today.”

  Katie raised an eyebrow.

  “Dave?” she said. “Next to your grandfather, he’s probably the best man on this island. You can trust him.”

  Jack resisted the urge to point out that she’d just ranked the mayor above her fiancé and continued with his point.

  “He asked me if I’d heard anything about Bert’s disappearance,” said Jack. “I don’t know how much he knows, but he might make the connection if he finds the body in the warehouse.”

  “Hmmm…” Katie tapped a finger against her lips and started pacing the room. “Fuck. We probably should have done something about the body yesterday. It’s little things like this that Peter used to chastise me about. All right, we’ll head to the warehouse first.”

  Jack nodded. “Sounds good.”

  He followed Katie out of his room and downstairs. Ryoko was in the laundry room, which meant that they were able to head into the basement without needing an excuse. Katie punched in the code for the workshop’s hidden door and led him inside.

  “Here,” she said. “I forgot about something.”

  She dug through a small cupboard next to one of the bookshelves, pulling out something and tossing it to Jack. It was a long black coat, a leather duster that felt a little heavier than it should have. Jack examined it, noticing that a layer of thin, flexible chainmail had been added throughout the inside.

  “Whoa,” he said. “Was this my grandfather’s?”

  He tried it on and was surprised by how well it fit.

  “Yeah,” said Katie. She’d started to take off her tank top to change into her own leather catsuit and cleared her throat to help Jack take the hint.

  “Thanks,” he said. He turned around to give her some privacy.

  “It was Peter’s, so don’t get the wrong idea about it being a gift from me, or something,” said Katie. “That coat has been through a lot. It isn’t bulletproof, but should hold up well enough against slashing weapons, claws, biting attacks. The more physical varieties of damage.”

  Jack walked back into the basement, testing how the coat affect
ed his mobility. It wasn’t heavy enough to slow him down, but it did trail behind slightly when he moved, almost like a cape. It felt strange on him, even though the fit was perfect. It was the same way he’d felt that morning when he’d seen himself in the mirror, almost like he’d become someone new.

  “I’m ready,” said Katie. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  She shouldered her crossbow and then walked by Jack up the basement stairs. He followed behind her, trying not to stare at her butt as he received another reminder at how tight the fit of Katie’s catsuit was.

  “What if Ryoko sees us leaving?” he asked.

  “We’ll just tell her we’re heading out for the night,” said Katie. “She knows better than to ask questions.”

  Ryoko wasn’t in the foyer, saving them the trouble. Jack thought they’d be heading for the garage, but Katie led him out the front door, instead.

  “I think it’s better if we travel on foot,” she said. “Your broodmother will know we’re coming if she sees the headlights. Ideally, it would be best if we could get the drop on her.”

  “Do you think she’ll go back to the warehouse?” asked Jack.

  “It’s possible,” said Katie. “But I doubt it. We’ll take care of Bert’s body and then find somewhere in town where we can set up a stakeout on top of one of the buildings. Odds are that she’ll need to feed at some point, and if we’re there, we might be able to catch her in action.”

  Jack jogged down the road alongside her. It was a cloudy night, but it felt good to be in the dark, and Katie seemed familiar enough with the area to manage all right.

  CHAPTER 16

  They took a left as they reached the outskirts of town, heading down the long, curving road that led to the abandoned warehouse. Katie slowed her pace as they covered the last stretch. The old building looked much the same as it had the previous night, with the door still hanging wide open.

  “We’ll drag his body out of here and down to the coast,” whispered Katie. “It’s not going to be fun, but it shouldn’t take us more than an hour to dispose of.”