Savage Magic

by Judy Teel

  * * *

  We ran through the upper orchard and cut left behind the dining hall, using the building for cover. A quick pass through the infirmary confirmed that it was deserted, and I began to worry about what had happened to Dr. Barrett.

  I refused to follow that train of thought and focused on scanning for threats as Cooper broke from cover and raced across open ground. He hit the stairs and tore up them for the second tier breezeway. From there, he'd cover us as we did the same.

  I waved Miller out ahead of me, alert to any potential threats as I shadowed him. Although practitioners were more resilient than humans, they couldn't heal as fast as Weres and I refused to lose Miller on top of everything else.

  I ducked into the breezeway behind him, my thighs and lungs burning as I pressed back into the shadows. Even with Were superpowers, my body had taken a beating over the last forty-eight hours. I was starting to feel the strain. I looked around for Cooper.

  Next to the last stone column, he knelt beside a huddle figure. I signaled to Miller and we spread out, approaching them cautiously, our rifles up.

  Knox cowered against the column, naked, his knees drawn up to his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around them. He rocked forward and back, staring straight ahead, his face slack as tears streamed down his cheeks. "No more," he whispered. "Please...no more."

  Cooper stood up and motioned for us to follow him. "That's all he'll say," he said in a low voice, after we'd walked back to the other end of the breezeway.

  "Everything points to him being one of the attacking Weres," I said.

  "Agreed. But I don't think he's any danger now," Cooper countered.

  We looked at Miller, whose attention had stayed on Knox. "He's suffered some kind of severe trauma." His gaze landed on us. "That's Erika's expertise more than mine."

  "We should continue to the third tier," I said. "From what I've seen, whatever made the infected Weres attack is gone. We should locate the other practitioners and Dr. Barrett. They can set up any necessary support for the injured while we organize and deploy search parties."

  Cooper and Miller agreed. When we got to the upper breezeway, the door at the end was locked.

  I considered shooting the hell out of it but knew it would be a waste of bullets. The thing could probably hold back a hoard of elephants.

  Cooper pounded on the door, making the metal boom like a blast of thunder. "Erika, it's us!" Miller shouted against the seam.

  Yeah, I guess that could work too.

  After a moment, we heard the locks clattering and the door opened with a slow, cautious creak of sound. The barrel of an Uzi pointed in our faces, Erika at the other end of it. When she saw who it was, her shoulders drooped with relief. Lowering the machine gun, she stood back so we could file past her and into the hall.

  Locking the door behind us, she propped the machine gun against it and threw herself at Miller. "Thank God," she said against his shoulder.

  After a moment, she stepped back. "Danny let them out," she said, her voice quivering. "They went crazy. All of them."

  At the end of the hall, the door to the Alpha's suite opened. Mistress Raevinne hobbled out, leaning heavily on her cane. "We have Dr. Barrett."

  We followed her into the apartment. "Try not to shoot us," the older practitioner quipped as Erika locked that door as well. We quickly stacked our guns on the coffee table.

  My heart beat heavily against my chest as we followed her into the Alpha's bedroom. It was as large as the living area, with rustic, solid-looking furniture and a huge four-poster bed that dominated the wall across from us. Dr. Barrett lay on one side of the mattress covered to the chin in a pile of quilts. His face was drawn and so pale his skin looked almost translucent.

  I crossed the room to stand at the foot of the bed. I didn't know if I could take another loss. Not today. Cooper came up beside me. Taking my hand, he squeezed it briefly.

  "He was already unconscious when the vampire dragged him across the compound and threw him into the practice ring," Mistress Raevinne said as she hobbled to the thickly cushioned chair next to the bed. Erika and Miller hurried to her side and helped her ease down into it. "The infected ones poured from the dungeon, ripping the door free, stronger than any Were has a right to be."

  Closing her eyes, Mistress Raevinne leaned her head back against the cushions. "Those working in the compound were caught by surprise and the infected ones tore into them like wild animals. The vampire laughed, as the carnage spread across the compound."

  Erika laid her hand on her grandmother's arm. "Knox dropped the head of a young woman at the vampire's feet," she said, her hushed tone laced with horror.

  "The creature smeared his hands and arms in the blood and raised them triumphantly as if directing the madness," Mistress Raevinne finished.

  "Maybe he was," I said, dread sinking into my stomach. My instincts were screaming at me again, and what they had to say was nothing I wanted to hear. The theory battering at my mind was impossible.

  The old practitioner nodded. "Yes. Perhaps he was."

  "I snuck down to Dr. Barrett and hid him as best as I could until the fighting moved toward the other side of the compound," Erika continued. "Noah helped me bring him up here, but wouldn't stay. He said they were going after the children and he had to stop them."

  Some of the practitioners of Mistress Raevinne's genetic line had the ability to cloak their presence. I'd never appreciated the talent as much as I did in that moment. To lose Dr. Barrett would be a terrible blow to Bone Clan.

  "Nana Rae," Miller said, concern lowering his brow. "You should rest."

  "Not until I'm sure he's out of danger," she said, opening her eyes and settling her gaze on him. "This is Eddie. We won't abandon him."

  "I didn't mean—"

  "Where's Danny now?" Cooper asked, echoing another one of my concerns.

  "Just before we saw the dust cloud over the forest, the infected Weres started screaming and collapsed," Erika said. "He dropped to his knees as if something invisible had hold of him. We didn't see him after that."

  My worries finally got the best of me. "What if Bellmonte's found a way to control him?" I blurted out.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  At the clamor my words stirred up, Mistress Raevinne shooed us out of the bedroom, poking anyone within reach with her cane to motivate a quicker exit.

  "Lord Bellmonte does control him," Cooper said as we all regrouped in the kitchen. "Danny's family. And his representative."

  I paced in front of the refrigerator as Erika filled a kettle at the sink. "I mean remotely."

  "Vampires aren't capable of spirit possession," Miller said as he got down mugs from the cupboard and a box of tea.

  "Mehk said that when the fountain at the ruins was destroyed, the inter-D's would be pulled back into the Fourth Wor...into the fourth dimension." The memory of dead faces swirling around me swept through my mind and I shuddered.

  "Addison?" Cooper asked.

  "I'll go see if Mistress Raevinne wants some tea," I said.

  I closed the door carefully, mindful of the older practitioner now snoring softly in her chair. Crossing to the matching chair in front of a bookcase, I sank down onto the cushion. Bracing my elbows on my knees, I stared at my clasped my hands. I felt old and vulnerable and painfully aware of how easily the things we counted on to keep us safe could disappear. Dropping my head to my hands, I loosened my iron grip on my memories and the despair they carried, and I cried.

  After a while, the storm eased and I got up to get some tissues from the bedside table across from Mistress Raevinne. As I blew my nose, a tingling buzz of warning ignited between my shoulder blades. My senses sharpened and I spun around, drawing my gun as I did.

  Danny stood at the foot of the bed, dried blood staining his hands and arms a rusty brown. He transferred his gaze from Dr. Barrett to me.

  Dark endless eyes with the pits of Hell at the bottom of them gazed into mine.

  A cold chill shot thro
ugh my blood. I never thought I'd face him again.

  "Hello, niece," Aedodra said as a triumphant smile pulled up the corners of Danny's mouth.

  "Here to finish the job?" My mind churned through all the ways this might play out.

  "Of course not, darling. I have something much more delicious in mind." He turned toward me.

  Gun set for Were, close quarters fighting, fragile old people only a few feet away. He had me and he knew it. So I did something that I never thought I'd do. I screamed.

  As the piercing volume of that sound rocketed around the room, the eyes of the creature in front of me widened in surprise. Mistress Raevinne snorted awake. Dr. Barrett sucked in a breath. And Cooper slammed open the door and charged in, the practitioners behind him.

  He skidded to a halt at the sight of Danny.

  "And here I was so hoping that we might have a moment of privacy to chat." The vampire's face pulled down into a pout as the dark eyes that were not his glittered maliciously.

  "Aedodra," Cooper spat.

  The pout flowed into a broad smile. "In the flesh. Literally."

  To my horror, Mistress Raevinne climbed to her feet. Leaning heavily on her cane, she looked down her nose at him. "The vampire. Gone or alive?"

  "What do you think, witch?" Aedodra replied and her grandchildren sucked in shocked breaths at the insulting term.

  Cooper backed up, pushing them into the hall. Less people, less collateral damage. Good move.

  "Alive, then." She stacked her hands on top of her cane. "How?"

  "Experience." He looked at Dr. Barrett and pulled in a deep breath as if savoring the scent of a fine meal spread out before him. "This one surprises us, though. We feasted until his heart stopped." He glanced at her. "Your work, perhaps?"

  "Kill us and be done with it. I shall enjoy taking a piece of you with me." Mistress Raevinne's hands slid down the shaft of her cane and tightened around it.

  "It's me he wants dead," I bit out. I stepped up to him and aimed my gun at his heart. Holding his gaze, I keyed the arming chamber to vamp.

  "Never, dear one. Not strictly speaking at any rate." He pinched the tip of the Browning between his thumb and forefinger and delicately guided it to the side. "Your darts cannot hurt me in this form. I can, however, guarantee that they will make me lose my temper." He leaned toward me and dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Bad memories, you know."

  I remembered the first time this particular homicidal pain in my ass had tried coming into our world. While he was still vulnerable, we'd managed to stop him before he completely assimilated with his chosen host. We'd missed that window of opportunity this time. "Let me talk to Danny," I demanded.

  "You already are. We are one, and both of us couldn't be more pleased."

  "You'll pardon me if I don't believe you." I brought the gun back up to point at his chest. If Danny was still with us, there might be a chance that two darts into the heart would kill him.

  Aedodra gave a long suffering sigh and rolled his eyes. "Very well." In a flash, the dark fathomless gaze of the ancient god turned into the cold blue eyes of the vampire. "You play a dangerous game, bitch. I'm the side that wants to rip your head off."

  "Are you being forced?" I asked.

  His dark eyebrows arched upward in surprise. "Would you try and save me if I were?"

  "To the death."

  He gazed at me for a moment longer, a deep V forming above the bridge of his nose as he frowned. "We're enemies."

  "But of our own free will," I countered.

  "Do you hope to become allies against my uncle?"

  "Are you being forced?" I asked again.

  He stretched out his arms as if to embrace me. Closing his eyes, he tipped back his head. "Soon I'll be invincible."

  Buckling forward suddenly, he clutched his stomach, his expression shocked before a look of excruciating pain collapsed the bliss that had been there a moment before. His scream abruptly cut off and when he stood, Aedodra was back. "I shall have to work on his propensity to blab," the god said.

  Behind him, Miller stepped into the open doorway, his Colt pistol in his hand.

  Aedodra turned and his gaze landed on the practitioner. "Surprise me once, shame on me. Surprise me twice..."

  Miller's finger squeezed down on the trigger.

  "No!" I shouted. The practitioner froze and he looked down. The tip of his gun had fused together. It would have exploded in his face if he'd fired.

  "You always spoil my fun," Aedodra said, giving me a chastising look. Then his wicked smile lifted Danny's mouth. "But not for long."

  One second he was in front of me and then next he had Mistress Raevinne by the throat. We all rushed forward, stopping in mid step when she raised her hand, palm out, her eyes never leaving Aedodra's. The god squeezed down on her windpipe, his expression curious. Calmly she held his gaze as her breath turned into a sharp wheeze of sound. "I will have my due, priestess," Aedodra said, leaning in as if to kiss her. "You know that."

  He shoved Mistress Raevinne away from him and in a streak of motion, Cooper lunged, catching her before she hit the floor. As she coughed uncontrollably, he eased her into Miller's arms. Cooper scowled as Aedodra's gaze swept over him.

  "So noble. So dedicated. So tempting to rip your heart out where you stand," the god mused. He took a step closer and Cooper shielded the practitioners with his body. "But instead, I'll take the only thing you still have of her."

  Aedodra made an elegant gesture in the air as if flicking away a pesky bug. Something hit me in the middle of my chest and dug in with claws that burned into my skin as they tore through the muscles and punctured my sternum. I heard Cooper inhale sharply as my knees buckled and I hit the floor, gritting my teeth as my unseen assailant grabbed my heart and squeezed.

  I fell forward, my hand outstretched toward Cooper who now lay at Aedodra's feet, the color draining from his face. His silver-green eyes met mine and his hand inched toward me, the fingers trembling with the effort. "No," he gasped.

  Our fingers touched and then Cooper's hand clamped onto mine as Aedodra bent down, bringing Danny's face level with my eyes. He grabbed the collar of the vampire's shirt and ripped the material down, exposing the tattoo that covered the pale skin of his neck and shoulder — a dragon in flight with a spear and shield gripped in its claws, rippling as if alive.

  Bringing his mouth to my temple, he kissed me with a tenderness that made my stomach writhe. "You are mine, Dakum-Wara," he whispered. Straightening up, he held his palm over Cooper's head and slowly clenched his fingers into a hard fist.

  Cooper's face contorted with agony. I held on to his hand with the last of my strength as the claws wrapped around my heart and ripped it from my chest. Screams tore out of me and blended with Cooper's as the fires of Hell consumed my body.

  Aedodra's laugh followed me into darkness.

  * * *

  When I came to, Dr. Barrett was weakly arguing with Erika while Mistress Raevinne and Miller hovered over Cooper and me. My body felt like a train had run over it. Twice.

  Aedodra was gone.

  "She's alive," I heard Miller say, worry and fear fraying his voice.

  I clutched at my chest, astonished to find it in one piece. Reaching out to Cooper with my feelings, I opened my soul to him and hit a wall of resistance. Panic flooded me and I pounded against it, desperately searching for the link of our bonding. I slammed all of my will against the shield, silently screaming for Cooper. The barrier bowed inward and shattered.

  Triumph flooded me. Aedodra could never break what Cooper and I shared. We'd won. We would always win. I reached out with my consciousness, anticipating the soothing warmth of his heart touching mine. I met lifeless, endless emptiness.

  Not even a whisper of him remained.

  "Addison, what's happening? Are you in pain?" Miller said, kneeling down beside me.

  "Cooper," I groaned, rolling over onto my side. His hand still clutched in mine, was icy. My panic turned to terr
or.

  With the last of my failing strength, I turned over onto my stomach and dragged myself toward him. His eyes were closed, his strong face pale.

  Don't leave me.

  I laid my cheek on his shoulder. "You promised," I whispered.

  * * *

  "Addison, wake up," Miller said above me, his voice dim and far away as if from the end of a long tunnel.

  Cooper is dead.

  My despair trapped me, dragging me under until I couldn't breathe. Twisting my heart until I didn't want to.

  "Oh, my God, she's not breathing. Addison!"

  A leathery hand smacked me hard on the cheek.

  I sucked in a jagged breath and the world roared back into existence. An empty hole throbbing in the center of my chest, its merciless desolation pounding through my body, making my breath hitch as my lungs struggled to work.

  "I will...kill you," I muttered as I cracked open my eyes.

  Mistress Raevinne loomed above me. "You will have to live to do it, and so I will die content," she said crisply. "You are in the infirmary. Cooper is in the bed next to you."

  I scowled at her, expecting a trick. When her sharp brown eyes held my gaze, I gathered my strength and turned my head.

  Cooper lay next to me, a mound of covers piled up to his chin like Dr. Barrett's had been. His eyes were closed, but the covers rose and fell steadily.

  "Alive," I croaked, licking my dry lips. "He's alive."

  "But he has not regained consciousness," Mistress Raevinne said. "The abrupt shattering of the bond was a severe shock to his system." I refused to let the sadness I heard threading through her words kill my hope.

  "Did you...try slugging him?" I asked, telling my arms to get busy and push me up. They cooperated after the second try and Miller handed me a cup of water.

  "Small sips," he cautioned. "You've been unconscious for almost twenty-four hours."

  I drank half of the water and handed the glass back to him. "What happened?"