Blood Magic

by Jayne Hawke

  I smiled at him.

  “I’ll be ok. I’ll shout if there’s something awful.”

  He squeezed my shoulder.

  “I know this is weird. I’m here if you need me.”

  I appreciated his words and sentiment. He didn’t know Mom, but he was still my baby brother and we loved each other.

  Steeling myself for the worst, I ascended the spiral stairs. The upper storey was far brighter than the lower one. There was less grime on the tall windows, which allowed a lot of pale natural light to flood the wide-open space. Orbs of brilliant white and gold light hung some seven feet above my head. Looking up, I saw the exposed roof far above. More girders stretched across far overhead; the roof was a patchwork of metal sheets.

  There were no lab tables up there. Thankfully there weren’t any bodies, skeletons, or anything either. I began to wander when I noted there was a pattern on the bare wooden floor. Crouching down, I tried to make out the details. I caught the edges of a red circle and some sharp-edged symbols. Then I saw it all. That was a ritual circle. I had no idea what it was for, but I’d seen a couple in previous cases as a bounty hunter. Witches used them when they needed to pull on a lot of big magic. Sometimes, they used them to try and work with the gods.

  I stood up and continued looking. There were six ritual circles in total. Each in what appeared to be old blood. The magic was long gone and gave me no clues, but it showed that Mom was working with big complicated magic. What had she been doing? And why had she kept it a secret?

  “Ow!” Matt cried out from below.

  “Matt!? Matt!” I shouted as I sprinted for the stairs.

  My daggers were in my hands as I vaulted over the banister and looked around for what had hurt Matt. Looking around frantically, I saw him with his arms crossed glaring at the bookshelf before him.

  “What happened? Are you ok?” I asked as I jogged over to him.

  “The damn book bit me!”

  I stopped next to him and looked at the book in question. It was the first in a set of three matching books with broad spines in what looked like beautiful blood-red leather.

  “I’m sorry. It bit you...?”

  He frowned and held out his hand. Small puncture marks could be seen on his fingers.

  “Yes. It bit me.”

  I leaned in and looked at the book. There was no sign of fangs or anything along the smooth leather. I reached out with my witch magic and felt the familiar magic that hid deep within me. The whispering song of blood magic. I swear there even a tittering laugh in the whispers.

  Reaching out cautiously, I maintained a grasp on my magic and tried to feel for anything weird as I inched closer to the book. Wrapping my hand around the spine, there was a little warmth but no pain. Warm familiarity spread through me like a hug from Mom when I was a little girl.

  I pulled the book from the shelf and flipped it open. Mom’s beautiful handwriting filled the first page.

  We’d done it. We’d found her grimoire.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Three blood-red leatherbound books combined made up Mom’s grimoire. From what little I’d been able to skim, they were the culmination of ten or more generations of witches. Every time Matt tried to touch one, the magic within the covers leapt out and drank his blood, using it to reinforce the book’s own defences. It was a pretty neat trick. Matt didn’t agree.

  My phone rang, drawing me out of my reverie.

  “Sorry, we’re running late. I’ll send a taxi to pick you up,” Ethan said.

  I’d completely forgotten we were going to the pack house for dinner.

  “We’re out at the moment, we’ll be home in about twenty minutes,” I said.

  “See you soon. Take care.”

  “Ethan’s tied up somewhere, he’s sending a taxi,” I said to Matt.

  “Kerry’s ok, right?”

  I smiled.

  “I’m sure she’s fine.”

  I piled the three thick books in my arms, and we headed back to the main door. There was so much information hiding there in that workshop. Matt kept pausing to get a closer look at the glassware as we walked between the tables.

  “This would be an amazing alchemy lab, you know...”

  “We should check the deed and see who owns it,” I said.

  I’d assumed that it would belong to me now that Mom and Dad were gone, but given the secrets I’d unearthed recently it seemed sensible to be sure. If it was mine, then I didn’t see why Matt couldn’t have that lower level as an alchemy lab. I was only really interested in the books, and possibly the ritual space upstairs.

  We stepped out into the crisp day, and I closed the door hoping that it would continue to remain untouched. There were sure to be many beings who would love to get their hands on that much information.

  The taxi pulled up near the pack house. The gruff older man kept his hands on the wheel and looked straight forward as we got out.

  I pulled out my purse, hoping I had enough cash on me, but the driver shook his head and drove off. I assumed that meant Ethan had paid for the fare when he booked it. Matt strode off ahead of me towards the house. He’d been unable to stay still since the phone call. I’d tried reassuring him that Kerry was tough, but he needed to see for himself.

  The front door was unlocked, so we let ourselves in. To my surprise, there wasn’t the usual smell of cooking coming from the kitchen. We walked in and found no one was there. Matt ran to Kerry’s room, and I pulled out my phone. My heart skittered in my chest as I really hoped nothing had gone wrong. They were cu sith. They were nearly impossible to kill.

  I’d just begun to ring Ethan when the front door swung open. Dean stomped in first. His hair was a tangled mess and his face had twisted into one of angry exhaustion. He huffed and yanked on his boots before he went straight upstairs without a word. Ethan was just behind him, covered in blood. Brilliant red splattered his face and coated his hands.

  “What happened!?” I asked as I approached them.

  Ethan’s liquid-gold eyes were a deep amber. I could feel his hound snarling just beneath the surface. He looked at me, and his face visibly softened. His shoulders relaxed, and his mouth pulled into a small smile.

  “A small god touched thought it would be a great idea to try and break into the fae plane. He was some bloodthirsty Aztec-fuelled man. I don’t know how he did it, but he found something that allowed him to grab a hold of the veil between the planes. He was trying to hack through that. Who knows what he was planning on doing once he was there?” Ethan said wearily as he walked to me.

  “He was coated in blood when we got there. We think he was sacrificing things to try and increase his god magic. Whatever he’d been doing made him strong and difficult to kill. I about bashed his brains in, and he kept coming. We had to pool our death magic before Ethan could rip his heart out,” Cade said.

  Matt had pushed past Cade and was checking on Kerry. The cait sidhe was leaning against the doorway looking particularly pale. Matt put his arm around her waist and helped her up the stairs.

  Ethan wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head against mine. His muscles relaxed beneath my touch as I held him. The hound slowly receded, and his breathing slowed.

  “I swear those smaller god touched are the bigger pains in the ass. The more powerful ones are occupied with businesses and the lords and ladies. Those smaller ones have more time to run rampant and make life difficult,” Cade grumbled.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the point of them,” Ethan said.

  “Don’t worry, we’ve ordered food. I’m sure you’re starving,” Cade said to me.

  I was a touch hungry, but there was no way I’d be able to eat whatever feast they’d ordered.

  “How was your day?” Ethan asked.

  “I found Mom’s grimoires,” I said.

  Ethan grinned at me.

  “That’s fantastic news! How do you feel about it?”

  I hadn’t really thought about it. They were beautiful an
d packed with information.

  “Weird. I feel weird. This is a huge secret that she kept, I guess I’m a bit worried I’ll find out she was sacrificing innocents for some nefarious end.”

  “Whatever you find, we’ll handle it together,” Ethan said softly.

  And that was the beauty of being part of the pack. I never needed to face anything alone again.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Even Ethan had to admit that they might have ordered a little too much food. Ten large pizzas had been piled up next to five cartons of sweet and sour chicken, four kung po chicken, three racks of ribs, and five fish ’n’ chips. The main kitchen table we usually sat around had been claimed by the fae food. I wasn’t even sure what most of it was. There was a sapphire-blue soup that Kerry had claimed. The white glittery food looked like it might have been some form of fish.

  Cade insisted that I tried the elf specialty, fireborn venison. I looked down at my plate, which the pack had heaped high with slices of pizza, chips, half a battered haddock, and now a large steak of fireborn venison. As the venison was on top, I began with that. Having never had venison before, I had no idea what to expect.

  The dark red meat melted on my tongue and gave way to a warm spice with a slight berry aftertaste. It was incredible. I was about to take another bite when Dean put what looked like half of a crispy duck on my plate.

  “I’m making sure you get your fair share,” Dean said.

  He’d replaced the blood-stained dark-green plaid shirt with a grey plaid shirt and a fresh pair of pale blue jeans. There was still a sharpness to his eyes, though, where the hound within hadn’t quite settled.

  “You haven’t told us about your day,” Ethan prompted.

  He had already devoured an entire pepperoni pizza and was on his second battered haddock.

  “I got a call from your office earlier. There was a blood witch not too far from home. I headed over and dealt with it,” I said with a shrug.

  The pack paused and looked at me.

  “By yourself?” Dean asked.

  “There wasn’t anyone else,” I said a little too defensively.

  “I knew you were a badass,” Kerry said with a grin.

  I relaxed a little.

  “Tell me everything,” Ethan said.

  “She literally fell on her own knife and died. It was honestly kind of tragic. Had the victim hung up like a kosher heifer and was sucking up the blood with what seemed like more or less normal blood magic. I didn’t manage to get much evidence from her, but I think she might have been one of those blood draining murderers,” I said.

  “So, she was a vampire,” Kerry said with a grin.

  “A day walker no less,” Cade added.

  I scowled at them both.

  “She wasn’t a vampire,” I said.

  She had been very eager to get my blood. That could just have been where she could feel my magic, though. She definitely wasn’t a vampire.

  “When I got there, she’d was just finishing draining a young fae mongrel. I didn’t see any sign of where the blood went, which was weird.”

  Cade and Kerry looked at each other. They spoke in unison.

  “Vampire.”

  I sighed and took a bite of my duck.

  “She clearly drank it,” Kerry said.

  I didn’t say a word. I wasn’t going to encourage them.

  “Did she use a magical signature you’d recognise? Was there anything unusual about her that we could look into?” Ethan asked.

  “‘Magical signature’ being a unique feel or character to the magic? It felt like a dark fractured version of mine and my Mom’s. She looked like a normal woman. Jeans. Sensible coat. She could have worked in a shop or office and not stood out,” I said.

  “I think it’s reasonable to think that these murderers we’re looking for are witches,” Dean said.

  “We still don’t have enough evidence to remove any suspects. There’s nothing to say this isn’t a deranged fae. Given the focus on fae victims, it could well be someone who blames their own kind for something, or someone who has been deformed in such a way as to need fae blood,” Ethan said.

  “Or god touched,” Cade added.

  Ethan growled.

  “Or god touched. They do like looking for anything that will cause trouble for our kind. I understand that they have their uses for business, but I think Ryn should tighten their leashes,” Ethan said.

  “That’s a difficult thing, though. They’d have to start putting tight border control in place, and then where is the line drawn? God-chosen witches? People who worship a particular god or pantheon?” Cade asked.

  Ethan shrugged.

  “I don’t really care about the details, as long as the occurrences like we went through today are reduced,” Ethan said.

  “Are they really that common?” I asked.

  I’d thought that the god touched mostly caused trouble in the business arena in the fae territories.

  Ethan’s lip curled.

  “Not as common as, say, witch murders, but too common for my tastes,” Ethan said.

  “Don’t worry about him. An Apollo god touched has been causing problems with a big alchemy contract,” Cade said as he cleared the empty cartons away.

  “It was a clear and simple contract. My people produced the potions, and now they’re trying to get out of paying up,” Ethan said.

  I remained happy that I didn’t have to deal with paperwork or politics. It looked beyond exhausting.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Kerry and Matt had headed upstairs, Cade was out getting more groceries, and Ethan had gone to his office to handle another phone call. That left me with Dean, who couldn’t stay still. He kept standing up and sitting back down.

  “What’s wrong?” I finally asked.

  “I don’t know. There’s just something bugging me,” he said.

  “Well, talk it out. Where? What does it feel like?”

  He sighed and looked into the distance.

  “Somewhere near the road. I can’t explain it, but my instincts have latched onto it,” he said.

  “Come on, then,” I said.

  He laughed.

  “I see why Ethan’s so taken with you.”

  We pulled on our boots, and I did up my jacket, which doubled as light armour. Night had fully descended, leaving the outside a deep all-consuming black. It took my eyes a few minutes to adjust as we walked out along the driveway towards the road. The sky was mostly clear, but with the moon in shadow I wasn’t going to be spotting much with my eyes. I sent threads of magic in every direction, feeling for anything living but expecting nothing.

  Our breath plumed in front of our faces as we walked in a comfortable silence. We reached the road, and Dean looked around, peering across the moors, looking for something.

  It came out of nowhere.

  Dean yelped, a canine sound that would have been funny under other circumstances, something to tease him about. The boys didn’t squeal for broken toenails, though, and whatever was enough to make a cu sith yelp wasn’t fun as I would describe it.

  The dark was still all but complete. I’d become used to feeling things, knowing their magic without needing to see them, but I was going to learn that not everything had blood. Some enemies were older than blood, older than mortality. I heard it in a half-snarl as Dean’s voice was subsumed into his hound’s voice box.

  “Fury.”

  I knew the name, everyone did, but it was like being attacked by Charybdis – it was a pantheon away, part of stories we hardly believed, a creature that existed to remind us of what normal humans went through more than a genuine threat. It didn’t matter, I was Dean’s pack now, and if he said Uranus himself was picking a fight I’d be on my feet and ready.

  I let go of my blood-magic feelers. She was close enough to strike at Dean, which meant she was close enough to sink my barbs onto – unless there was no blood to touch. It would have taken a lot to get the furies to York, someone from the Mediterranean where they
belonged or someone local with just the right cantrips. They weren’t our kind. They weren’t the battles we trained to fight at Elise’s informal training sessions. They were primordial, spawn-of-the-old-gods monsters. I didn’t have a special plan, but I knew what they taught in school. Wings, claws, scourges, black all over. Antecedent to magic and death.

  Nothing was immune to steel.

  I heard the beating of wings as she came around again. The blackness was complete, but I closed my eyes anyway. I could picture her, picture her path, I knew I could. I just had to...

  Before I could finish my echolocation, I felt the scourge for which they were infamous. Each and every knot swept through my jacket without ruffling it, a thrup-thrup-thrup of agony diagramming itself onto my flesh. I didn’t know what I was being punished for, but I knew I wasn’t going to accept my sentence. I jumped and grasped at the instrument of torture as it flew by, hoping to throw the fury down or, at the very least, disarm her. My hands caught nothing but air. Was my enemy ethereal, coming into being only to strike, or had I simply missed her?

  I felt fur against my legs and knew it was Dean. I told him to wait and listen for the sound, then imitated her wing flaps with my mouth and felt stupid. It was impossible not to think of them as actual dogs.

  Dean stayed mercifully silent, though I knew I’d be hearing about that for months later, and we waited for the fury’s return in the utter, breathless silence of a huntress and hound. I heard the sounds of the moors and listened closely for any disturbance. Maybe I was a city girl, but I could tell a startled animal as well as any druid.

  I slowed my breathing, listened to my heartbeat until it faded to white noise. Next I heard Dean’s heartbeat in time with the very slight intake of breath. I took a moment to admire his silence, knowing that no one had ever had a dog at their side to match this one. As I listened to him, he, too, fell into the background, and I began to hear more and more around me. The grass rustled ever so slightly under wind too gentle and distant to reach us. A single leaf from the oak trees lining the driveway cracked not far away. Dean was calm, so I was calm. Nothing disturbed a single leaf and then attacked a demigoddess and her cu sith. I hoped.