Hemorrhage

by SA Magnusson

  When sleep finally claimed me, it was fitful, not nearly as restive as I needed, and filled with dreams of failure.

  9

  The day passed in a blur. Everything hurt, and as much as I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t get past the images of Aron’s dying, his lifeless face lying next to mine, and the empty and hollow sense that I had at losing him.

  I hadn’t realized how deeply I felt about him until he was gone.

  At the end of my shift, I stopped in the lounge to change. Jen was there, and she looked over at me. “Oh, shit, Kate. What happened?”

  I shook my head. There was another resident, and one I didn’t know well, sitting on the sofa and flipping through a medical journal. “A difficult day, nothing more than that.” I swallowed back the lump in my throat, trying to ignore the pain rolling through me, pain that came from the idea that Aron was gone and that I would never again be able to call upon him for help.

  I tried to ignore the guilt, but it kept creeping back. The only reason we had gone there last night was because of me. It was not his choice, and if it were up to Aron, he would have avoided going someplace like that, someplace where he believed I would be in danger of dealing with the council.

  “I need to get home,” I said.

  “Let me sign out my patient and I’ll go with you,” Jen said.

  I was too numb to argue. I wasn’t sure that I wanted company, but maybe it would be for the best. Having her with me would at least allow me to rest. I could try to push away the thoughts of what had happened and could try to rest, which was what I felt I needed.

  I dropped onto the sofa and the intern glanced over. “What service are you on?”

  “Trauma,” I mumbled.

  “I hear you love trauma. It must be a great service.”

  “It’s fine,” I said.

  If only I had avoided the trauma service altogether. If I had, I would have known nothing about the runes and the gangs that now acquired those marks. Aron would’ve had no reason to have come with me.

  Jen returned and I looked up, my eyes a blur. I rubbed them, trying to get myself more awake, but it was difficult. I was tired—so tired. All I wanted was a chance to sleep, not to deal with all of this.

  We headed out of the ER and she looked over at me when we got onto the street. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

  “It’s Aron,” I said.

  “What about him? Did he dump you?”

  “He’s gone,” I said.

  Jen frowned. “Gone? And not gone off hunting demons, from the way you’re saying it.”

  I shook my head. “Gone.”

  Jen grabbed me and hugged, squeezing me with a force I didn’t know I needed. “Christ, Kate. I’m so sorry. What happened?”

  “I don’t even know. We were looking for information about the runes, and he brought me to a place where the council would be able to provide answers, and we were ambushed. Attacked by members of the gang.”

  “The same gang that shot the guy that you saved?”

  “And lost,” I said.

  “Jesus,” Jan whispered.

  “I don’t even know what to do anymore. I did everything in my power to try and save him, but…”

  “There are things you can’t save, Kate. You know that. We’ve been through enough cases in the ER to know that there are simply some patients that you can’t do anything about.”

  Helpless cases. It was the same way I had felt when trying to save him. As much as I wanted to try to save him, there was a limit to my magic, and a limit to what it could do for him.

  As we were making our way toward my home, a soft chill worked up my spine.

  I grabbed Jen’s arm and pulled her to the side of the street.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know, but after what Aron and I experienced last night, I need to take anything seriously.”

  “You’re detecting the same magic as before?”

  “I’m detecting magic, which is enough.”

  I focused on the sense of magic as it came again. It was a tapping, a faint sensation, and little more than that.

  If only I had some way of detecting a direction to the magic, but I didn’t.

  As tired as I was, I wasn’t sure that a barrier would even form around us, but thankfully, I was able to manage that much at least.

  Once the shield formed around us, I breathed out. Holding on to the spell was difficult, and the longer I did, the less likely I’d be able to maintain it.

  If this was the shooter again, I wasn’t about to sit here and allow him to take aim at us.

  I pulled Jen along the street.

  “Did you figure out where it is?” she asked.

  “My magic doesn’t work like that,” I whispered. It probably was unnecessary, as the shield muted sound, for better or worse. “I’m able to determine that magic is used near us, but that’s about it.” The sensation hadn’t returned, which made me wonder if I was overreacting. It was possible that I was, that there was no danger to Jen or me from the magic, but after what had happened to Aron, I wasn’t about to take that risk, especially not with someone like Jen, who had no magic of her own and no way of protecting herself. At least here I didn’t rely upon someone else to light up everything. The streetlights were bright enough to provide light and the sun hadn’t completely fallen, so we weren’t helpless.

  At least, not until my shield failed.

  When it did, what would happen next?

  Another tap of magic surged, and I looked around.

  The street was empty other than us. It would be odd other than the fact that I knew that anyone without any magic would avoid the street when there was magic being used. And I held onto a reasonable amount of magic right now, trying to avoid the possibility of an attack.

  But I had to find someplace for us to go.

  I didn’t want to lead them to my condo. It had been under fire enough already, and with Aron gone, there wasn’t going to be anyone who could fix up the hallway if these gang members decided to jump us.

  Where else could I go?

  “Where’s your car?” I asked.

  “Wait. You said there were magical attacks out here. I don’t want to have my car attacked by some crazy mage.”

  “I can protect the car, and I want us to get someplace where we can either get help or get more answers.”

  “Where do you intend for us to go?”

  Without calling on Gran and Gramps, I was limited in who I could go to, and though I didn’t doubt they would come to my aid, in this case, I wasn’t sure that I wanted them to. I wanted to know who was responsible for these runes, and in order to do that, I needed the kind of help that Gran and Gramps would be unlikely to offer.

  There were several possibilities. I didn’t think I could go to Ariel and the shifters, even if she were willing to help. Solera was a possibility, but she was angry with me, especially after what I had done. Without Aron, I wasn’t sure if she would be willing to listen to me.

  That left the Dark Council.

  I’d already gone to them once about this, but that was when I was looking for information. Now I was looking for something else: help.

  And that help might put them at odds with the mage council. Would Barden even agree to it? It was possible he wouldn’t, but I had a sense that the idea of going against the mage council might entice him more than it should.

  “Back to your boyfriend,” I said.

  Jen smiled at me. “As much as you claim you’re trying to keep the two of us apart, you’re doing an awful lot to bring us together.”

  I shook my head. “If there were any other way, trust me, I’d take it. It’s just that I’m not entirely certain what else to do.” There came another sense of magic, and I fortified my barrier. I needed the damned sword back so I could draw more magic.

  And maybe that was what I needed to do first.

  “What is it?” Jen asked.

  “Nothing. Just that I think we need to take a
little bit longer of a drive than what I had initially suggested.”

  “Why do I get the sense that I’m not going to care for this all that much?”

  “I’m not going to make you drive all over the state.”

  “Good.”

  “Just north.”

  “North?”

  “To see your other boyfriend.”

  “The shifter,” she said, smiling widely. I could practically imagine her rubbing her hands together excitedly. “I could be up for that.”

  “It’s a long drive from here,” I said.

  “Didn’t you go up and come back in the same night?”

  “That was with Aron doing the driving.”

  “And now that he’s not here, you don’t know how to drive fast? Oh, shit. I didn’t mean it like that, Kate.”

  “I know you didn’t. And I’m not all that excited about heading north, especially dealing with Ariel. She and Aron used to be a thing, and I don’t know that I want that reminder.”

  “If she cared about him, she deserves to know, too.”

  Damn Jen for being right. I didn’t like it that she made sense, especially when it came to this, but she was right. Ariel did deserve to know, and considering what we’d been through together, and the fact that Ariel had helped fight by our side, I owed it to her to tell her what I knew.

  We reached the entrance to the parking garage. Once again, power pulsed against me. “I’m getting really tired of this sensation,” I said.

  “Describe it.”

  “I don’t know how. It’s like a soft pulsation of magic. It’s probably nothing, but—”

  “But you don’t usually detect it.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t. And I don’t like that I’m detecting it now. There’s something to it, though I can’t tell if it’s all about the rune mages or whether this is about somebody using a more traditional type of magic.”

  “Right. Because all magic is either traditional or nontraditional.”

  “Well, a little bit. The rune mages are using magic—”

  “Borrowed magic. I know. And you could let me borrow a bit.”

  “I wouldn’t even know how,” I said.

  When I glanced over at her, the slight tension around the corners of her eyes made me realize that she was far more scared than she had been letting on. Jen had gone with everything in stride, dealing with the magic of the shifters, and then the dark mages, and the fact that I had magic, and she had made it seem as if it were no big deal, but both of us knew better, and seeing her now, seeing her like this, made me realize that it was.

  “I’m asking too much of you.”

  “Kate, I’m your friend. I’m going to be with you for this, but I don’t necessarily enjoy being powerless.”

  “I wish I could place one of these runes, but I don’t know anything about them, and I don’t even know if it’s safe for me to do so, let alone for you.”

  “Yeah, it was probably a bad idea. I should just let sexy John the shifter bite me.”

  “I don’t think you can turn into a shifter by getting bitten.”

  “Maybe a vampire, then?”

  “I don’t have a whole lot of experience with the vampire families to be able to answer that.”

  “What if they’re involved in this?”

  The thought had occurred to me, especially as the type of magic used on these rune mages was different than that of shifters or typical mages, but I didn’t have any evidence of that, and besides, what benefit would the vampires have in doing so?

  Would vampires even have anything to draw upon to strengthen the rune bearer?

  It was a question I could ask Ariel when we reached her.

  We ducked around the concrete pillar and Jen tapped on the unlock button on her car key, flashing the lights and chirping the horn.

  Magic pulsed around me again.

  It was closer. Either that or it was stronger.

  I was missing something, but what was it?

  If only Aron were here, he would know what to do and how to deal with this, but even without him, I could hold this barrier. And even doing that, I thought that I could wrap it around the car and keep us both safe.

  We were only two cars away from Jen’s when an attack struck my barrier.

  I grunted.

  It was a powerful blow, and different than what we had faced last night.

  “What was that?” Jen asked.

  “I don’t—”

  Another struck.

  Where were the attackers?

  For that matter, where was the sense of magic?

  I didn’t detect anything. It was as if whoever this was had the ability to strike me and retreat, disappearing from view.

  Unless they were masked.

  Could that have been what they were doing last night? We hadn’t seen them, but I had thought it was only because it was dark. Maybe whatever spell Aron had used had unveiled the masking.

  I held my hand up, focusing on the same sort of light Aron had summoned. Could I reproduce it?

  Holding on to the barrier and also trying to pull on that sense of light was difficult, and pain pulsed through me as I did. My hand began to glow, and Jen gasped.

  I jerked my head around, worried that she’d been shot, but she simply crouched near me, practically hanging on to me as she looked around.

  “Wow. I haven’t seen you do anything quite like this before,” Jen said.

  “It’s something Aron did last night. We were able to see our attackers. I thought that if they are using some way of masking their presence, I could unveil it.”

  “You can mask your presence?”

  “It’s tricky, but it can be done.”

  “Can you do it?”

  I shook my head. “Mine isn’t so much the fine detail work when it comes to magic. I have more brute strength.”

  “What’s that?” Jen asked, pointing.

  Near one of the nearby cars, a man crouched, pointing a long, slender rod at us.

  “Is he holding a magic wand?” Jen asked, starting to laugh nervously.

  I took a step toward the car, and power slammed into my barrier. Another step, and more power slammed into it. We were close, near enough that we could reach it.

  Before we had the chance to reach Jen’s car, another spell struck from the other side.

  It was enough force that I went staggering forward.

  Crap.

  Staying on my feet required a shifting of my focus and I lost the blazing light. The man holding the magic wand suddenly disappeared.

  At least I knew it was some sort of shielding and that they were using it in a way to mask themselves.

  I considered the options. We could run for it, and if we reached the car, I thought that I could place a barrier around it, but would we be able to go anywhere?

  I needed to draw the attention to me. If I didn’t, Jen would get trapped here, and I wasn’t going to be responsible for another death.

  “Get your car, don’t wait for me, and get going.”

  “Kate—”

  “Don’t wait for me. I’ll draw them away and we can meet up after it’s over.”

  “You don’t expect to be able to meet up,” Jen said.

  “Jen, I’ve already been through this once before, and I don’t think I can do it again.”

  “Then do something different,” she said.

  “With the kind of magic they’re throwing around, I don’t think we can drive out of here.”

  “Don’t you have some sort of magic that can teleport us or something?”

  “Magic doesn’t work like… Well, maybe it does.”

  Aron had guided me the last time I had attempted a spell like that, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it on my own, especially not without a connection to the magic within Solera’s pool, but if there was a spell that would get us out of here safely, that was going to be the one that would do it.

  “Fine. Let’s get to the car, and I will see if I can hold
a spell and teleport us.”

  “You really do know a spell like that? I was just kidding, but damn…”

  “You won’t like the way it feels,” I said.

  And that was if it worked. I wasn’t convinced it would.

  Another step, and power slammed into my barrier again and again. I pushed through it, forcing our way toward the car. With each step, I grew more and more tired, but I refused to back down.

  Another step, and another spell slammed into me. I could almost touch Jen’s car.

  If the spell failed, if the barrier failed, the mages would simply beat her car to shit, and then they would get to us and do… what, exactly?

  They were targeting me, but why?

  I could figure that out once this was all over. Until then, we needed to try magic that I was unprepared for.

  Lunging for the car, I placed my hands on the hood. I pushed my barrier around it, conforming it to the car. Jen grabbed for the driver’s door and crawled in. I squeezed in the backseat, not wanting to risk going around.

  “I’m your driver now?”

  “Just start the car,” I said.

  Holding onto the barrier took an effort of will. They were battering at my spell from all sides, from more places than I could hold. If I wasn’t careful, they would overwhelm it before we had a chance to go anywhere.

  Worse, I somehow had to work on the other part of the spell.

  Could I do it while holding the barrier?

  I fixed the intention of the barrier in my mind and added to it a desire to draw us from one place to the next, the sense that I had used when dragging us from Solera’s island to the park. It was a matter of fixing my desired destination in mind and mixing with that the drawing sensation. It hadn’t been a spell, at least not that I knew, and if it was nothing more than using magic in that way, I could brute force it. That was my specialty.

  Pressure began to build around us.

  “Oh,” Jen muttered.

  Everything squeezed and I held on, praying that my spell would hold, needing the barrier to prevent us from getting destroyed but needing the transportation spell to get us out of here.