Insidious: (The Marked Mage Chronicles, Book 1)

  I slowly drew my foot up, almost imperceptibly, my fingers grazing the tip of the blade strapped to my ankle.

  Blaine suddenly seized my hand. “Now, now. No need for bloodshed, love. Save that for later.”

  Fury riddled every last nerve in me as I thrashed, kicked, and flailed to no avail. Why couldn’t I ignite any of my runes?

  “Because I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” Blaine whispered, steadying me in his hold.

  Did he just…?

  I couldn’t even process the thought when a deafening blast tore through the air, scaring me stiff.

  “Enough!” bellowed Adam.

  Blaine only seemed more amused, admiring the bullet hole now lodged in the wall beside us. “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that those aren’t made of Angelorum steel?”

  “Silver. And they’ll do the job just fine if I plant one between your eyes.”

  “Indeed,” he mused. “Only, we both know you’re not going to try. Not while I’ve got your little sweetie here.”

  Adam repositioned his aim, for my shoulder. If Adam fired, the bullet would go through me and into Blaine. And the silver would put him down, even if only long enough for me to break free from him.

  “Do it,” I whispered.

  “He won’t. He’s too much of a coward.”

  My eyes suddenly darted to the door. “Adam…”

  His reaction time was flawless. Not a split second after Daniel sprang in through the doorway did Adam unload a slug right into his shoulder. Daniel staggered back, but only laughed. It took him a few seconds to register the severity of the gunshot, because he suddenly collapsed to his knees. The bullet must have gotten lodged in him, because I could see smoke emitting from his back as he hunched over, hollering in agony.

  A barrage of footsteps echoed down the hall, forcing Adam’s attention back to the doorway. Blaine hauled me sideways to the backdoor entrance, only to let go of me. I stood still for a second, confused. He suddenly shot his hands up and closed his fists. Sparks rained down as every light bulb in the room and hallway exploded, letting darkness swallow up every corner of the open space. My hands blindly reached for the doorknob, wrenching it every which way until it finally gave in. I stumbled inside the dank, musty stairwell, only to find that it too was pitch-black. I slammed the door shut behind me, trying to feel my way down. The cement stairs were awkward. Too high and yet not long enough. I didn’t have big feet by any means, but my toes still hung off the ends of each step, causing my stomach to lurch with every rung.

  I only made it halfway between floors when the door slammed open from above. I could hear hands grip each of the banisters, and in one fell swoop, feet planted themselves right beside me on the platform. Holding my breath, I recoiled into the corner. The pair of feet pivoted toward the next set of stairs, and just as quickly hit the next landing. Hinges creaked as someone pulled the second floor door open, their footsteps vanishing in the distance. I finally let out a shaky breath, feeling my way down to the level.

  “Kat?” someone hollered from the other side of the door. The voice was muffled, but…it sounded like Adam. He’d been the one in the stairwell.

  I yanked the door open, peering into the hallway. It seemed Blaine had wrecked the emergency lights as well, because only the eerie glimmer from the streetlights outside illuminated the corridor through the windows.

  “Ad—”

  I barely had time to register the silent sweep of wind that rushed at me from the darkness. A hand clasped around my mouth as a familiar hold grabbed me from behind. I tried screaming anyway, but Adam’s voice was too far away to hear my stifled shrieks. Blaine pulled me up off the ground, hauling me back inside the stairwell. Blue lights shone in my eyes, but they weren’t from my runes. The tilted Z symbol on Blaine’s arm glowed, illuminating the closed corridor. I managed to pivot my right foot on the wall in front of us and used it to push myself backward, driving all my weight into Blaine. He tried steadying us, but the force was too much. His back slammed into the opposing wall, knocking the wind right out of him.

  Without my feet beneath me, I dropped to the ground, smacking my ass on the concrete floor as he let go of me. I shot up and bolted back out the door. “ADAM!”

  My legs were moving so fast, I thought I might lose control of them. I charged through the corridor, leaping down and jumping up the split level stairs of the second story. Just as I called out for Adam again, his frame rounded the corner at the end of the hall. Relief drained from me as the dual doors dividing the corridor between us suddenly bolted shut.

  “Kat!” Adam met me in seconds, throwing his weight into the barrier from the other side.

  I desperately yanked at the handles, already knowing it was no use. The unseen force rippled all around me, fastening the doors in place. I couldn’t control my hysteria as hot tears streamed down my face, my palms slamming against the unforgiving steel.

  “Run.” Adam was barely audible. All color had drained from his face, his eyes fixed over my shoulder through the small laminated window built into the door. “Kat, get out of here!”

  “That’s good advice,” drawled the voice behind me.

  Not bothering to turn around, I bolted to the classroom door closest to me.

  Locked.

  I darted across the hall to the opposing one. Same thing.

  No…no…no.

  I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were heaving so fast, but my sobs kept robbing me of air. Adam’s agonizing screams only further unraveled me as he desperately kicked, slammed, hurtled every ounce of himself into the steel to no avail.

  I slammed my fist into the door one last time, praying something would finally give. Nothing.

  “Kat…” Blaine’s soft voice made my knees buckle, and I cried. I screamed until there wasn’t any air left in me. I cried even after my voice gave out. I crumpled to the floor, dignity be damned.

  There was nowhere left for me to go.

  The faintest heat began spreading up my arm. I opened my fist, finding a small humming light sitting in my palm. It crackled, glinting blue, red, gold, and shades I wasn’t even sure had names. I rose back to my feet, turning to face Blaine.

  He took one look at the light in my hand and froze. “Kat, don’t—”

  The promise of hope flickered in my chest. If he really had marked me as his mate, then I shared his abilities. I could take him on.

  The halls filled with another scream. My own. My entire arm suddenly felt as if someone had dipped it into boiling water. White light flashed in my vision, and arms caught me before I blindly collapsed on the floor. The instant Blaine’s hands touched me, the pain stopped.

  Everything stopped.

  “Kat? Kat!”

  I gasped, and my vision finally cleared. Wild, icy blue eyes loomed over me, wide in what looked like…worry. The air had cleared. Not just the energy that I had produced, but his as well. I blinked a few times, and Blaine’s features softened, reinstating that lopsided grin.

  “Don’t scare me like that.”

  The doors slammed behind me, and I whirled around, seeing the material bow. Without Blaine’s magic reinforcing the door, it was finally giving way. Only a few more hits and it would buckle in.

  Gun shots erupted from below us, echoing across the lower halls. Swarms of footsteps immediately followed.

  “We have to go.” Blaine grabbed hold of my arm, pulling me backward.

  I tried regaining my bearings, but the floor was suddenly off kilter. It slanted in all the wrong ways, making me stumble over my own feet. With every step, the ground seemed to tilt in another direction. “What did you do to me?” I rasped, still struggling against Blaine’s grip.

  “I saved you from blowing up the entire city block,” he huffed, dragging me to the stairwell.

  Broken bits of the lock exploded across the floor as the dual doors burst open. Blaine cursed under his breath, resuming his stance where I was—yet again—his human shield. And I could see why. Adam barreled d
own the hallway, his gun firmly in hand.

  Any hesitation he had before was gone, replaced by an unnerving resolve. “Let her go now, or I’ll shoot her.” He wasn’t kidding. Adam really was willing to put a bullet into me if it meant taking Blaine down. If it meant stopping him from damning me.

  Blaine’s breathing was suddenly uneven, worsened all the more as Mr. Reynolds’s voice called out from the other end of the building.

  “They’re surrounding the place. You leave now, you just might stand a chance of making it out of here alive. Alone,” declared Adam, taking aim to the right side of my chest.

  “And what about her?” growled Blaine, pulling me closer. “The only reason your men haven’t killed Kat was because she served a purpose. They needed her to flush out their target. They know now who’s pulling the strings here. Your father has no use for Kat. He’ll kill her.”

  “If she leaves with you, she’ll be as good as dead.” Adam cocked the revolver. “Last chance.”

  Blaine didn’t move.

  And neither did I.

  I didn’t even have time to gasp as an unmistakable, earsplitting blast detonated in front of me. Blaine’s hold on me tightened, whirling me around in one fluid motion. He rasped, his body shuddering as he stumbled forward. Blaine caught himself on the wall beside us, inadvertently pivoting us back around so that we faced Adam again. A low hiss seeped from Blaine’s shoulder, intensifying to a sickening sizzle. The bullet hadn’t passed through the front of his shoulder. I saw what exposure to silver did to Brittany’s skin for merely touching it. I nearly wrenched at the thought of what it must have been doing to Blaine’s insides.

  Adam prepared to take aim again as Blaine’s breath warmed my ear.

  “This is going to hurt,” he whispered.

  “NO!”

  He was holding me too tightly. I couldn’t move.

  Two slender spears simultaneously sliced into the side of my neck. I choked on the strangled scream lodged in my chest, deliriously yanking up my hand to hit Blaine, to push him away, to get his own hands off whatever he had just stabbed me with. Every muscle in me fell slackened, my fingers only getting so far as to brush the side of his cheek. His cheek.

  My hand limply slipped down to my side. I couldn’t move. I really couldn’t move. My muscles weren’t even tensing, struggling against his hold. I was paralyzed in place, my body only held up by the grace of Blaine’s arm snaked around me.

  His mouth was on my neck. His…his…his fangs. He’d bitten me.

  Chapter 33

  Animal I Have Become

  Blaine was still biting me.

  The next gunshot barely registered over the blood pounding inside my ears. Blaine’s weight staggered and we both fell back. Adam kept yelling something, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear him over my own screams. Every nerve ending fired as the acidic poison propelled its way down my neck, down deeper, down lower. I was burning from the inside out. My veins pumped molten gold. My lungs breathed fire. My skin was melting off. Every muscle contracted so tightly around my bones, I could swear my entire body was about to shatter from within.

  And it only worsened. Another wave of unspeakable pain ripped through me. The raw agony tearing through me, and I couldn’t even verbalize my anguish. I convulsed, gasping on silent screams. Screams that had no home outside of my chest.

  “Accept it,” Blaine coughed from behind me. He wasn’t dead. “The harder you fight it, the more it’ll hurt.”

  “SHUT UP!” Adam’s frantic eyes scanned over my body as he pulled me up into his arms. “I can fix this…I can fix—”

  A raw laugh. “You can’t stop it.”

  “SHUT UP!”

  Footsteps echoed from the adjoining corridor. Adam quickly set me back down, yanking off his bloodied flannel shirt. He jammed the crumpled fabric into my neck and over my shoulder.

  Russell suddenly appeared behind Adam. He took one look at me and his fingers instinctively clenched around the sword in his hands. “What the hell happened?”

  “That piece of shit over there tried using Kat to escape, so I shot her,” Adam panted, still unable to look at Blaine. “The bullet passed through her and hit him, but I planted in another for good measure.”

  Russell nodded, his lips tipping up in satisfaction as he slammed a hand onto Adam’s shoulder. “Well done.”

  Mr. Reynolds came into view next. He bent down to get a better look at Blaine, his brows knitting in confusion. “Where have I seen him before?”

  “You stopped by his funeral service,” sneered Adam. “His name’s Blaine Ryder. He’s a Mage.”

  Russell brushed past us with a scoff. It took not five whole seconds before he leapt back into view. “Holy shit. He’s not kiddin’, boss.”

  Boss.

  The title reverberated in my head, making my veins burn more avidly. Was that what Blaine was going to be to me now? My boss?

  Yes, because you’re one of them now.

  I gasped, pinching my eyes shut. I couldn’t mask the pain rippling through me, and Adam knew it. He immediately swept me up, my legs dangling over his left arm as he secured my upper half in his right.

  “Where do you think you’re going with her?” barked Russell. “The wound will heal on its own. We need to ask her more questions.”

  Adam only stopped to look at his father. “It’ll take hours for the wound to fully heal. I’m not gonna let her suffer like this. She needs something for the pain.”

  Mr. Reynolds nodded. “Take her to the compound.”

  “Sir—”

  “Take her to the compound,” he reiterated, shooting a warning look at Russell. “The rest of us will meet you there shortly. We have some questions for our new friend here.”

  Blaine choked out a laugh. “As much as I’d thoroughly enjoy that, you won’t get anything useful out of me.”

  “Oh, I beg to differ,” said Mr. Reynolds, eerily calm. “And even if that is the case, we’ll certainly take pleasure in having you as our guest.”

  Adam turned our backs to them as I could hear what I knew now to be flesh frying. Blaine gnashed out a grievous, bitten down scream.

  No, no, no, no.

  Kill him. Kill him now.

  My nerves were so sensitive that the bitter October air hit me like a thousand pins prickling all over my body as Adam carried me outside. He pulled me closer to his chest as a violent shudder ran through me. People raced past us to head inside, but I couldn’t make out anyone’s face. I could barely move.

  Where was Reese? Had Blaine been lying about sparing him? What about Carly? Did Daniel catch up with her?

  I must have said something out loud, because Adam whispered softly, “They’re okay.”

  Adjusting my weight in his arms, he unlocked the back door to his Jeep Wrangler and set me inside. I lay across the seats, still convulsing from the pain and the cold. Adam draped his jacket over me before climbing up front. All I could see were streetlights and the tops of trees whiz by as we drove to God only knows where. I’d been clinging to the hope that Adam would give me whatever painkillers he claimed to have, but he finally admitted he couldn’t give them to me. He didn’t want to risk having the drugs calm me enough that I’d involuntarily let the virus take hold.

  It felt like an eternity had passed by the time the car finally came to a stop. We were in a parking garage. Adam gently eased me from the backseat, taking me inside whatever building the structure was attached to. Cold fluorescent lights loomed overhead, and all I could see were cement walls and ceilings. Where were we? A military compound?

  Adam took us upstairs to a small room and laid me down on an old mattress. There weren’t any windows, and the light was from a desk lamp. “You’ll be safe here. The building’s been fortified to protect from attack, so none of Blaine’s guys will get in.”

  I didn’t have the strength to ask more as I desperately bundled up in the worn comforter. Adam went to the armoire in the corner and pulled out a couple more blankets
to cover over me. The pounding in my head grew worse. Even with my eyes closed, the room kept spinning. Adam’s voice eventually trailed off as I couldn’t fend off the exhaustion anymore.

  ***

  My insides danced in a flurry of nerves, but there wasn’t a trace of the fever. I stood facing a wood paneled wall, flinching at the familiar hands brushing my skin. I turned just enough to glance behind me at the black tousled locks and gleaming pale blue eyes in the candlelight. The desolate room chilled my bare legs, but Blaine’s touch scorched my skin. What was he doing here? Why was his hair back to its natural color? And it was so much longer, the ends nearly brushing his shoulders. His fingers combed through my own hair, sweeping it away from the right side of my neck. Where he had bitten me. Why wasn’t I running? Why wasn’t I screaming? My body refused to listen to me, acting on its own accord.

  He pulled down the collar of my linen gown past my shoulders, exposing my entire neckline. When had I changed clothes? Blaine’s lips pressed to the back of my shoulder blade, slowly moving their way up my neck as his hands caressed my waist. He whispered something warmly in my ear, but the words were lost on me. What was this? How did he get to me? Why wasn’t I afraid?

  His breath cascaded down my jaw, and a traitorous impulse took hold of me. I angled my head and raked my hand through his tangled mane as our mouths met. His fervor had taken control, because his kiss deepened as he turned me around to stand square with him. Tearing off his shirt, he drove me back against the wooden wall and I moaned from the ecstasy his mere taste gave me as his hands dropped down to my thighs.

  “STOP!” I finally reclaimed my voice, only to bellow out into the cool compound room.

  “Kat? Kat!” Hands gripped my shoulders, and I shot up from the mattress, furiously batting at them. “Kat, it’s me!”

  Finally regaining my senses, I looked up, seeing Adam standing over me. I collapsed back into the bed, feeling everything from the sheets to my clothes completely soaked through. I was wearing my outfit from earlier, my Sex Pistols tee clinging to my sweaty frame. Every bone in my body shook and quivered. Fire still ran through my veins, but my outer core was frozen. The only thing that felt warm was the mass of tears now rolling down the sides of my face, absorbing into the already damp pillow. The sight proved to be enough of an assurance for Adam, because he sat down beside me, the old bed groaning under his weight.