Rylan shook his head, his steps carefully measured as he kept pace. “I’ll be fine. The shifter blood helped.”
It was well past morning. He should be sleeping. He was slower, weaker, more vulnerable and trying to hide it. “It’s this place.”
He stiffened but didn’t look at her. “What?”
“It’s too much like the labs.”
He sucked in a startled breath, a telling sign, since his body didn’t need air.
“You noticed it, too.”
He gave a nearly imperceptible nod. “I’m afraid if I fall asleep, it will be like the last few years never happened, and I’ll wake back up in that cursed cell.”
They were both barely clinging to their sanity. She couldn’t tell Rylan to leave, not when his presence eased the memories for both of them. If she was a vampire, she’d go insane trapped inside her body when it shut down for the day. “Come, let’s find us a zombie.”
Rylan sniffed the air and pointed down a narrow alley she hadn’t even noticed. There was a spot of blood on the stone.
Bright.
Just spilled.
“Dammit! He found someone.” Little drops of blood dotted the path where the person had staggered off. “The amount of blood could indicate they’re still alive.”
Rylan touched the blood, then brought his fingers to his lips when she caught his arm.
“Don’t.”
“I can track him better this way. A taste won’t hurt me.”
Meaning he wouldn’t be affected by memories with such a small dose. Raven didn’t care. “We can’t risk you being infected as well. We don’t know how it will affect you. We can track him without putting you in danger.”
“Like how you never throw yourself in danger?” He stood and raised his brow at her.
“That’s different.” She muttered it under her breath, but she knew he heard her anyway. “I don’t go looking for it.”
“Oh, wait, I’d forgotten, it finds you.”
Raven narrowed her eyes at his sarcasm and stalked down the hall to search for the missing zombie. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You love taking risks.”
Raven snorted at the absurdity. “No, I like helping people. I can’t help that it usually leads to danger.”
“Can’t you?” He easily kept pace, not allowing her to run away from the conversation. “I think you throw yourself at the most hazardous cases, so you don’t have to think or feel. You’re terrified of what might happen if you allow yourself to claim your pack completely and rule the way you should.”
“Leave it be.” She didn’t want to talk about this.
Not now.
Not ever.
He paused a beat. “Isn’t that why you called me? Because you’re afraid of what you’re capable of becoming once your animal crests?”
“You know what happened last time. I killed people. Lots of them.” Her heart gave a painful lurch.
Rylan grabbed her arm and shook her. “Bad people. People who kept you prisoner for eighteen years. They tortured you day after day.” His voice hardened, his eyes flashing black. “They deserved what they got.”
“And I don’t remember doing any of it. I had no control. What if next time I hurt someone innocent?”
“You did what you had to do to survive.” He released her, looked at his hands, and grimaced at the black goo that had transferred to him. He removed a handkerchief from his pocket, shook it out and dabbed at the stains. “You underestimate yourself and your animal. I have complete faith in you. I’d be more worried if you had no fear.”
“And what if you’re wrong?” He gave her hope, and that was dangerous. If she allowed herself to believe she could have her pack, it would destroy her to lose them.
“Then we’ll face it together.”
His offer blindsided her. “You’d do that for me?”
He began walking down the tunnel, following the blood trail. “Maybe it’s time we both face our fears.”
His answer poleaxed her, and she had to scramble to catch up to him, so grateful she wanted to hug him. “Thank you.”
He grunted and concentrated on the trail.
When they rounded the corner, they came face to face with a group of five witches. Both parties froze and eyed the others. Paige was in the group and avoided meeting her eyes. After the way she’d behaved, Raven didn’t blame her.
“One down. The other got away.” Raven pointed to the bloody trail. “It looks like the second one found a victim.”
Heloise’s lips tightened at the evidence. “Which way did it go?”
Raven shrugged. “We lost him and decided to follow the blood trail instead.”
“How the hell could this happen?” Heloise sounded more defeated than angry.
“I suspect the Prime knew you would retreat to this fortress and set a trap for you. Once they sensed magic, they woke.”
“Which is why no one was able to find the missing bodies back on campus.”
“You were fighting the Prime and keeping your people alive. A few missing corpses was not a priority.”
“They’re not zombies.” Paige scoffed, having found her tongue again, the little snot.
Raven wanted to drag her down the tunnel and shove her face into the corpse they left behind. “Not in the conventional sense, but they are dead, and they are hunting those who have magic. They’ve already bitten one person. Probably infected them.”
“Why weren’t you bitten?” Paige elbowed her way forward. “How do we know she isn’t working with them?”
Raven was taken aback by her accusation, but maybe she shouldn’t have been. “You mean after you left Luca and me to face down two zombies when you riled them up and then ran?” Raven prowled forward until she was right in the girl’s face. “I wasn’t bitten because we removed his head from his body before he could. We need to find the rest of the corpses and find out how many people have been infected.”
The girl colored at the accusation, but backed away in disgust when she noticed Raven’s tattered appearance.
Raven couldn’t blame her for that, since she knew she looked like she’d bathed in rotten blood and smelled as disgusting.
“I’ll have two groups put together to hunt them down.” Heloise turned to the wizards who hung in the back. “Search this level. There are five zombies left. We need to find them.”
“No magic, unless you want to become bait. They’re drawn to it. The more you use, the faster and stronger they get.” Raven turned toward Heloise. “Where do you want us?”
She didn’t answer at first, then heaved a sigh. “I want you to inspect all the witches and find those who were bitten.”
Raven resisted the urge to curse, sure that if the witches hadn’t hated her before, they would now. “We need a place where we can isolate them from the rest of the community.”
“You don’t get to tell us what to do.” Paige apparently wasn’t done with her yet.
Raven shrugged, picking at the goo around her fingernails. “Fine, don’t listen to me. It appears only witches are affected. Let them run free, I’m sure everything will be fine. It’s your life you’re gambling with.”
Paige crossed her arms and glared, but didn’t say anything more.
Heloise stared at Paige, her face impassive. “I have given you a lot of latitude, hoping you’d show promise, but you obviously think your powers make you special. You’re just one of hundreds of students. Let me tell you, darling, being a leader is about more than power. It’s knowing when to use it, and when to stand down and protect your people.”
Raven wanted to cheer, but she knew the lesson wouldn’t last. If they managed to leave the fortress and survive, she had no doubt Heloise would go right back to seeing Raven as the enemy.
Heloise pinned her with her spooky dark eyes, clearly still wishing she could blame this mess on Raven. “We’ll place them in holding.”
“You’re putting them in jail?” One of the older witches seemed shoc
ked at the choice.
“It’s the only secured place, unless you feel comfortable having them walk around infected with wild magic?”
The woman closed her mouth without another protest.
Raven gave a nod. “Show me where to set up.”
Heloise turned and led them down a short corridor. They hadn’t gone two steps when a familiar sound caught her ear…scuffling feet.
Raven halted, motioning for Heloise to hand over an amulet. The moment she activated the spell, the zombie shot out of the tunnel toward her. It clipped Rylan on the shoulder so hard he barely managed to remain on his feet.
Raven twisted and grab one of the arms reaching for her. Using his momentum, she swung him around and slammed him into the wall. His skull hit with a nauseating crack. Raven pinned him with a knee to his lower back, but it still wasn’t enough to hold him. She used her shoulder against his back to keep him from escaping, her whole body plastered against the revolting creature.
Bones snapped from the pressure she used to keep it still, but the zombie didn’t feel a thing. His teeth clicked together over and over with a sickening frequency, while he tried to lunge for her. Ravenous for magic, he clawed at the wall, breaking first nails and then fingers in his hunger. Blood smeared the stones as he tore his hands apart to get at her. “Some help here would be great.”
Her hold was slipping.
If he got loose, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to grab him before someone was bitten. Rylan came into view with a rock that had to weigh at least thirty pounds. He lifted it over his head and nodded.
Raven leapt back just as the rock descended.
The first blow caved the skull.
The body collapsed to the floor, but the thing just wouldn’t stay dead. It clawed its way toward Raven, hauling his body behind him. Rylan brought down the rock a second time, splitting the head open like a watermelon.
Black goo drained from the mess in an ever-widening circle.
And the smell was just atrocious, like a skunk and road kill had mated in a rotten mess.
Rylan dropped the rock and dusted off his hands. His skin had turned gray, and she cursed herself for not noticing sooner. “You have to go rest before you collapse. You’re no good to me dead.”
He gave her a searching look before finally nodding. “Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”
“Of course.” As he disappeared down the tunnel, Raven picked up a shard of stone and scraped up some of the goo.
“What’re you doing?” Curiosity lured Heloise closer.
“I want my doctor to do a work-up on this virus. I’d also like permission to take a sample from one of the bitten as well.”
It took close to three hours to check every caster in the fortress. They submitted to the search with ill grace. Overall, ten people had been bitten; the eight witches and two wizards were then secured behind locked doors.
Raven frowned as she inspected her notes. People were in various stages of infection, those who were further along had slight fevers.
“You sense it, too, don’t you?”
Raven went rigid, doing her best not to squeal in alarm. No one likes to have an assassin sneak up on them. It took her a few seconds to recall his question. “The wizards seem unaffected, but there’s something wrong with the witches’ magic. It’s become mangled.”
As if answering him was an invitation, he moved to stand next to her. “Wizards don’t hold magic, they can only use it. Once they relinquish their magic, the infection has nothing to latch onto and it clears their system.”
Raven suspected the same thing. “Then why go after them?”
“They probably got in the way or were using magic at the wrong time.”
It chilled her to know he was so familiar with the virus, as if he’d contemplated biological warfare for fun in his spare time. “And the witches?”
“Their magic is no longer pure.”
Raven brushed the front of her shirt, but the black goo stubbornly clung to her. “They’re turning into something else.”
Randolph raised a brow. “Agreed, but the better question might be, turning into what? We can’t afford to have more people able to wield wild magic.”
He was suggesting that they kill them.
Why wasn’t she surprised?
Raven turned her back on the prison hallway and forced herself to meet Randolph’s look. “How do you know so much about this virus?”
He smiled as if he found her suspicions amusing. “If you were going to attack the witches, the best way to do it would be to attack their magic. They’re ingenious at protecting themselves. No one has ever been able to find a way to undermine them.”
Until now went unsaid.
Chapter Twenty
DAY FIVE: LATE AFTERNOON
Randolph was right about one thing…they couldn’t afford to have more wild magic loose in the world. It didn’t matter if the infected could wield it or not. If what Heloise said was true, wild magic was sentient up to a point. It would eventually find a way to spread and infect others, searching for the perfect host.
Her creature had been able to shred and destroy the wild magic in tiny doses, but not without some world-class indigestion.
“If you don’t do anything, they’ll die anyway and infect others before they do.” Randolph had followed her around for the past hour while she examined the survivors, always watching and studying her.
Everything inside her rebelled at the thought of experimenting on people. “No.”
Randolph raised a brow. “Isn’t it a little presumptuous of you? Doing nothing will condemn them. Don’t you think they deserve a choice?”
Raven resisted the urge to rip out his throat, anything to shut him up. She knew what he was doing. He didn’t care about helping these people, he wanted her to use her power so he could study it.
He leaned forward, hands on the table. He looked approachable and friendly, but it was a carefully crafted pose. There was nothing normal about the man. A stillness rested beneath the surface that was unnatural…like a cobra ready to strike. “We need a weapon to use against the Prime. The only way we’re going to find one is through them. I shouldn’t need to remind you that when the wards fall, we’ll all be at the mercy of the Prime.”
He straightened and left without another word, the clever bastard, leaving her to stew in her thoughts. And damn him, he was right.
If she did nothing, they were all dead.
After only an hour of observation, Raven dismissed the two wizards. They hurried away, relieved to be free. She gathered the others in a secured room. The oval table seated ten, the mismatched chairs leftovers from an era long gone. The four walls were solid granite but man-made, an office many would pay a fortune to have designed topside.
They were far enough into the mountain that the noise and jarring effects of the attack had faded. Only the occasional tremor could be seen in the cups of water resting on the table.
It wouldn’t be too much longer before the Prime broke through.
“Why are we here?” A middle-aged, plump woman who could be someone’s knitting grandmother, spoke from her seat at the end of the table. That she still showed her age meant she either came into her powers later in life or had such miniscule magic that even small spells were beyond her. Since she was their spokesperson, Raven was guessing the first option.
“You’ve all been bitten and infected.”
“Infected with what?” The girl at the foot of the table was belligerent, absently tugging down her sleeve to cover the bandage on her arm.
“Wild magic or what you call ancient magic.”
They laughed, but soon their amusement melted into disquiet.
The grandmother spoke. “What do you mean?”
“You’re hungry, but no food helps. You’re showing signs of magical withdrawal: shakes, nausea and headaches. None of you can use your magic, and have been unable to since an hour after being bitten. That’s because your magic is being altered.�
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Their disbelief changed then to something far more dangerous.
Terror.
Without their magic, they would age and die.
“Those without magic who were bitten starved out the infection. In your case, your magic is feeding the ancient magic. As you weaken, it grows stronger.”
“What do you want from us?” One of the men spoke this time, an older guy who could have passed for a butler at even the poshest English estate.
Raven released a breath, relieved that they were listening to her, and leaned forward. “The wild magic doesn’t seem to care for me. I want to find out why, and hopefully stop the process.”
A few of them didn’t move, suspicion darkening their expressions.
“I’m trying to help. If nothing is done, you’ll eventually be consumed by the wild magic, but not before you pass it on to someone else.” That stopped all the objections. She rose and walked around the table. “When I pass by you, I want you to call upon your magic.”
The butler was the first person in line. When she placed a hand on his shoulder, the magic he’d gathered scurried away like she was a predator. The rest of the table behaved similarly.
“It worked.” The youngest girl smiled, her whole posture melting with relief. When the others remained silent, the huge grin dropped off her face. “Right?”
Raven crossed her arms. “I’m afraid not. It’s acting like prey and hiding.”
“Not prey.” The granny shook her head. “Survival.”
“Randolph, would you mind taking a turn and walk around the room?” Raven waited for him to protest, but he gave her an amused smile, pleased to be included.
Even without trying, she felt the wild magic rise, reaching out in curiosity. The witches’ eyes glazed over with fever as the magic took over.
The blend of old and new magic tasted darker.
Tainted.
As if sensing the threat, all emotions dropped from Randolph until his eyes were pale green chips of ice. The trained assassin emerged. As he passed, the people leaned away from him. Despite being curious, the wild magic made no move against him.
At least not yet.
Electric Heat (A Raven Investigations Novel Book 3) Page 21