Insidious: (The Marked Mage Chronicles, Book 1)

  That bottomless pit feeling wouldn’t leave my stomach. Adam didn’t help Blaine escape. Deep down, I knew it. He was willing to take the chance that I’d die. I wanted nothing more at that moment than to rip his jacket off my body.

  “Please,” I whimpered, tears shedding down my dirt-ridden cheek. “We have to leave.”

  The front door pounded, rattling the Halloween wreathe hanging on the back.

  “Don’t,” I whispered, prying both my parents away from the foyer.

  Neither had the chance to challenge me when a familiar voice called out from the other side. “Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery? It’s Officers Blake and Stevens. We need to talk with you.”

  My father pushed past me and hurried to answer the door.

  “Dad, no-”

  It was too late. He flung the door open, and they immediately stepped inside as I pulled Adam’s jacket closed again.

  “We have news concerning Mr. Blackburn, but we still haven’t heard word about your daughter yet,” said Blake. Both he and his partner froze, taking in the sight of me. “But it seems you already figured out the latter...”

  I stepped forward. “What about Reese?”

  “There was an incident at the school. Mr. Blackburn was admitted into the hospital for examination,” confirmed Stevens.

  Mom heaved an exhausted, grateful sigh. “So he’s in custody-”

  “Not exactly,” winced Blake. “He disappeared from his room.”

  “How the hell could you have let this happen?” roared my father.

  “The room was guarded by two of our men. We honestly don’t know what happened…”

  I did everything to repress a smile. Reese had gotten away. He was okay. Free.

  “In light of the situation, and the fact that your daughter’s apparently returned home, we think it would be best to finish this discussion at the police station,” said Stevens.

  “Why? Are you charging her with something?” Mom shrieked, pointing to me. “She doesn’t know anything.”

  He held up his hand. “Calm down. We’re not implicating your daughter in any of this. But from what we can gather, she’s better acquainted with him than anyone else in town. Kat might be able to point us in the right direction.”

  “Would you mind horribly coming with us? It shouldn’t take too long,” added his partner.

  “Of course.” Mom didn’t wait for my reply, grabbing her jacket slung over the coat rack. Dad was only a step behind her.

  Crap.

  We didn’t have time for this. Despite probably sounding like an escaped mental patient, I had to tell them the truth in the car, before we got to the station. If there was still a miniscule chance I’d be able to convince them to leave town, I had to take it.

  “Just let me change first,” I finally mumbled. The officers remained in the foyer, talking with my parents. I hurried upstairs and yanked off Adam’s jacket, throwing it to the floor. I couldn’t even stand the thought of it being on my body. I quickly changed my shirt, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked like Death eating a cracker. My face was as white as a sheet. Even my lips were drained of color.

  One thing I couldn’t ignore: the rune on my arm had never faded. Perhaps my manic anxiety was messing with the reading, but that aching suspicion that something was wrong wouldn’t leave. A low hum buzzed over the air, and I spun around, seeing the front of Adam’s jacket vibrating on the floor. I reached inside the exterior pockets to find nothing, but as the buzzing continued, I realized there was a secret compartment built inside. It was…Adam’s cell. The screen was cracked, but I could still read the number dancing across it.

  “Hello?”

  A brief pause. “Kat? Is that you?”

  “Reese?” I lowered my voice, shutting the bedroom door as quietly as I could. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

  “I’m fine. I was released from custody,” he sighed. “I’ve been trying to call you forever, but you weren’t answering. I saw Adam carrying you out of the school, so I thought I’d try my luck and see if I could get through to him instead. What happened to you? I overheard a couple of Reynolds’s guys mention something about Blaine. Is he really still alive?”

  “What?” The phone nearly slipped through my fingers.

  “Blaine,” he annunciated. “Was he really the one who attacked you?”

  I felt dizzy for a whole new reason. “Did you just say you were released from custody?”

  “Yeeeeah,” Reese laughed awkwardly, clearly baffled. “The police questioned me when I was forced to go to the E.R. My wrist hadn’t quite healed yet by the time they ran an x-ray, so I’m stuck having to wear this stupid cast for show. But anyway, I told the officers of my whereabouts and they found the surveillance footage of me and you at the restaurant during the time of Casey’s murder. That’s hardly the highlight of this conversation, Kat.”

  I bolted out the door, practically falling down the stairs to the foyer. Everyone looked up at me as I stopped short of the landing.

  “Oh my God!” my mom gasped, her attention centered on my left arm. I looked down, realizing all too late that my fever must have sweated off the makeup I had covering up my runes. They were on full display.

  But that was the least of my problems.

  “Kat?” shouted Reese on the other end of the phone. “You still there?”

  The room had fallen pin-drop quiet that not a word went unheard by anyone. A leering smile pulled at Officer Blake’s mouth as I focused my vision on him.

  “Shit.” The word came out breathless, seeing his eyes flash black.

  Chapter 37

  Made Of Stone

  Stevens rolled his own eyes at his partner and sighed. “Seriously? You couldn’t even keep the veil up till we got her in the squad car?”

  Both my folks looked at me, their faces paralyzed in confusion and an unrealized fear.

  “What are you waiting for? Go get her,” huffed Stevens, shoving Blake forward.

  “With pleasure.” He charged through the foyer, and I spun on my heels, unable to gain enough momentum to outrun him. Halfway up the stairs, he grabbed hold of my ankle, sending me face first into the carpeted steps.

  Dad barked something, but the room fell silent once more at the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked. “Best stay where we all are,” said Stevens, his friend yanking me down the flight.

  “Reese!” I screamed, the phone sliding from my hand as I tried grappling at the railings.

  Before I could get a steady grip, Blake flung me upright and grabbed me by the waist to haul me the rest of the way down. I kicked and pushed, managing to jab my elbow into his windpipe. He croaked, trying to drag in a breath that wouldn’t come. In an instant of blind panic, he suddenly flung me backward. My body plummeted down the stairs, my hands frantically flailing to grab onto something. No such luck. My ribs took a whole new beating, this time from my back as I crashed onto the hardwood floor of the landing. With the wind knocked clean out of me, both Blake and I were now gasping to catch our breaths.

  “Well, if this isn’t embarrassing…” Officer Stevens shook his head, half frustrated-half amused. Sure enough, he had his service pistol aimed at my parents, their trembling hands raised over their heads. “Come on, man. What does she weigh? A buck-ten at most? Just grab her, and go.”

  Blake dazedly made his way down the stairs, trying to inhale through his nose. His breathing rattled with a strangled cough. Despite the spasm in my diaphragm still robbing me of air, I staggered back up to my feet, clutching the entranceway table for support. I grabbed the Italian lead crystal vase off the countertop and chucked it at him. A rune on my arm ignited just before the vase left my hands, and I watched as it rocketed with unnatural momentum from my fingers. It flew right at Blake’s head, the glass shattering into oblivion upon impact. He fell like a sack of potatoes, his unconscious frame tumbling down the last few steps before crashing onto the landing.

  Stevens just rolled his eyes, repositioning his aim at
me. I instinctively threw up my hand, and even with a good ten feet between us, the pistol flew out of his grip as if I’d snatched it away from right out in front of him. I swept my hand backward, expecting to catch it. Apparently, my skills needed a little more work, because the gun launched back at me with the velocity of a professional baseball pitch.

  I ducked, hearing something smash behind me. With my luck, it was probably Mom’s fine china. If I wasn’t on the verge of being kidnapped by minions of the underworld, the thought of Mom’s wrath coming down on me would have made me wished I was.

  “Kat?” my dad muttered.

  I didn’t have time to look at him. Stevens focused his gaze on me, balling his hands into tight fists. He narrowed his eyes more and more until the entire house shook, rattling the frames right off the walls. I waited for something else to happen, but he finally dropped his hands in disappointment.

  “Should’ve figured you’d be immune to a penance stare.” His fiendish grin returned, looking over at my parents. “Guess you two will have to do.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” I growled.

  “Well, it’s a bit late for that.” Stevens laughed, and my mom suddenly collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain. She cried out, clutching her head. Dad fell next her, trying to help in some way, but he wound up grabbing the sides of his own head the moment he looked back up at the officer.

  The familiar blue light that I’d manifested in the alleyway sparked to life in my left hand. I raised my palm. With the slightest flex of my fingers, the familiar blast erupted, throwing Stevens across the room right into the fireplace. Mom and Dad dazedly looked up at me from the floor, their mouths agape with disbelief.

  Peeling himself out from under the rubble of soot and broken mantle knickknacks, Stevens snickered despite his nose now being bent in the most unnatural, twisted angle. “Come on now. You can do better than that.”

  He sauntered back over, and I aimed my hand at him again, only to find it no longer glowing. I shook my entire arm out, as if it would somehow help recharge it. Still, nothing. The officer grabbed one of Dad’s empty beer bottles, smashing the body of it against the top of the coffee table.

  He fiddled the remains of the beer bottle neck between his fingers. “Let’s show them what you can really do.”

  I was ready to lunge at any second, expecting him to make a move toward my parents. Instead, the officer turned the bottle over, dragging the jagged pieces of glass across his palm. Thin red slits appeared, quickly blossoming into bloody lines that coursed down the length of his hand and wrist. A part of me wanted to laugh. If his plan was to mutilate himself, I sure as hell wasn’t about to stop him.

  “Qui ostendunt tenebrarum,” Stevens hissed, his eyes glazing over into their true inky black form. He came into the foyer, extending his bleeding hand out to me.

  The pungent metallic odor hit me hard. The moment I inhaled the scent, stabbing pangs throbbed in the roof of my mouth. Gasping, I collapsed to the floor, feeling my gums tear open as I at last caved into the pain with a strangled cry.

  “That’s more like it,” the officer cooed, yanking my head upright.

  Mom took one look at me and screamed, scuttling across the hardwood until her back smacked against the wall.

  I couldn’t make sense of what was happening. I sprang up from the floor and tackled Stevens, pinning his body against the sill dividing the family room from the foyer. Without a guiding thought, my mouth immediately took aim to the side of his neck. I could hear his pulse pounding beneath his skin, and a ravenous hunger begged me to sink my teeth into it.

  My whole body stiffened at the realization. I throttled myself away. They weren’t teeth. My mouth was still ajar. I couldn’t close it. I staggered over to the mirror hanging in the entryway that now dangled for dear life by only one of its hooks.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Stevens laughed. “Don’t you think so, Mom?”

  I clamped my hands over my mouth, unable to bear the sight. It still couldn’t conceal my eyes. My glowing red eyes. Blaine’s eyes. Finally letting my hands fall away, I gawked back at myself, at the inch-long pointed canines protruding from my upper jaw.

  “What did you do to her?” my mother cried.

  “Oh, don’t look at me. This one comes courtesy of my boss,” the demon chortled. “Her master.”

  My entire forearm set ablaze at the words, nearly every rune igniting in response. The demonic energy coiled itself around the flurry of emotions stirring inside me. Rage, despair, horror. I couldn’t have controlled it if I’d wanted to, but that didn’t matter in that moment. I wanted to unleash its wrath.

  An eerie calm washed over me, my eyes fading back to their natural blue, my fangs retracting back to their normal length. Turning on my heels, I opened my hand. The demon didn’t move a muscle, yet his body shot forward, his neck coming right into my grasp.

  He snickered. “Time to feed?”

  “No. It’s time for you to say your goodbyes.”

  He strangled on a cackle as my grip tightened. Placing my other palm on his forehead, the pattern on top of my arm lit up. The demon was no longer laughing. Black smoke began pouring out of his eyes as ear aching screams filled every corner of the house. In a rush of heat, it stopped, and I let Stevens’ body collapsed to the floor. The smoke lingered in the air, slowly settling around my feet. My hands fell to my sides, and the mist dissipated, as if seeping into the cracks of the floorboards. He was gone.

  Chapter 38

  The Blower’s Daughter

  Apparently, Mystic Harbor’s train station wasn’t what you’d call a hotbed of activity at eleven o’clock at night, because the only people to keep me company in the entire terminal were a couple guys from the cleaning crew and Sheila, the barista at the dank little coffee shop inside. Nothing better than the smell of ammonia and dirty mop water to go with some burnt coffee.

  Footsteps echoed across the cracked tiled floors, and my body stiffened, feeling the warm flush creep across my chest. A moment later, the individual rounded the corner into the so-called café sporting an unmistakable Victorian militia coat. I hesitated, unsure whether to get up or not. Reese hadn’t said much after I told him about what Blaine had done. Was he afraid of me now, too?

  If he was, I didn’t want to make this any harder on him. So I stayed seated, wiping the constant stream of tears from my cheeks.

  He gave me a small, close-mouthed smile as he reached my lonely table. “Hey, Princess.”

  I tried to return the greeting, but the words got caught in my throat. Reese bent down, pressing his lips to my forehead. His face slowly lowered further until our features were aligned. Our noses brushed one another, but I pulled back as he tilted his head.

  “Don’t,” I pleaded.

  “Don’t what?” Even now, his voice had that teasing tenor to it. Only, I didn’t laugh.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I whispered.

  He knelt down, brushing the mess of hair from my eyes. “Then don’t.” His fingers trailed down one of my strands and froze upon settling on the side of my neck. He could feel it. The puncture marks.

  “I wouldn’t, not on purpose,” I murmured. “But after the transformation is complete, I don’t know what I’ll be capable of, or whether I’ll be able to control it. I could end up like Brittany.”

  “You won’t.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I know you,” he affirmed, his eyes fixed on mine. “And there’s nothing that says the demonic virus will have the same affect on you. Hellhounds are bred for the sole purpose of being ruthless and submissive-”

  “But I’ve been sired to…him.” I couldn’t say his name. It felt like trying to swallow battery acid. “If the bond is anything like being sired into a Hellhound, he could make me do anything. Hurt someone…kill them. Kill you.”

  “You don’t have to go through with this,” he said, looking around at the pathetic station café. “You can stay with me.”

 
I shook my head. “He knows about you. Your house is the first place he’ll look. He’s probably there as we speak. And as soon as Nathan realizes Russell’s dead, he’ll come after me as well. Right now it’s best if you don’t know anything. I can’t risk you getting involved any more than you already have. Everyone knows now that…Blaine…is behind all this. A lone-wolf Reaper will be the least of their concerns.”

  Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he knew I was right. He couldn’t very well leave town. It would only raise suspicion.

  At last, Reese nodded pitifully, continuing to look around the empty space. “Where are your parents?”

  “Right now they think it’s best to just get out of town, so they concocted a story about having to visit a sick relative. They booked a hotel room in Portland for the night, hence the train ride. But Dad claims there’s some last minute ‘business matters’ he needs to tend to before he can leave, so he’s planning on meeting me in the morning. And Mom didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone in town, you know, as opposed to leaving your only daughter who’s being hunted by everybody alone in a crusty train station.” I rolled my eyes, but it didn’t stop a fresh batch of tears from pouring off my lashes. “Blaine was right, about everything. He said Adam would turn his back on me, that I wouldn’t be able to conceal my abilities… And my parents… They’re terrified of me, just like he said they would be.”

  Reese cupped his hands around my face, cleaning away my tears with his thumbs. “First off, I could’ve told you that about Reynolds. Hell, I said it myself. He’s a dick.”

  I laughed despite myself.

  “And you’ll learn how to control your abilities on your own. You’ve proven yourself to be more than resourceful. And despite what you see, your folks still love you. They’re in shock right now. Just give them a little time, and they’ll come around.” I nodded, but he kept a hold of my cheeks. “Hey, I mean it. In spite of everything, they’re still meeting up with you.”