Of Blood and Passion

by Pamela Palmer

  “But the enchanted case in which it lies will not so easily let it go,” he replied reasonably with a lift of his brow. “Lift the barbell a few inches using magic alone, then set it carefully down again, and I will be satisfied.”

  Yeah, him and her both. She’d been trying to find that kind of control for the past couple of days, and so far, had failed miserably. Another failure like before would only solidify his argument that she needed another day’s practice. But she’d told him she’d try and she might as well.

  Turning on her heel, she left the sparring room and strode down the hall toward the weight room where Zack spent most of his time these days. Both rooms were part of the extensive underground complex beneath Neo’s safe house deep in the Vamp City otherworld. Just a week ago, this place had been swarming with humans who’d escaped their vampire masters—humans who Neo and his team had ferried back to the real world through a well-organized underground railroad. But as Vamp City raced toward its end, everything was changing. Neo and his team no longer cared if they were caught. They’d been taking risks they’d never have taken before in order to free the humans quickly.

  No one was certain what would happen to the humans when the magic crumbled.

  As Quinn entered the weight room, she found Zack and Jason—the human ex-marine who’d been training her brother—in the midst of a pull-up competition. Both men were sweating, Jason a little flushed with exertion, Zack a bright crimson thanks to the illness that had spiked his fever well over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

  He should be dead. According to Dr. Morris, he would be soon unless they managed to free him from the magic’s deadly grip.

  The sickness raging through her brother’s body might be killing him, but it was not making him weak. Just the opposite. Against all that was logical, he felt perfectly fine and had been growing stronger by the hour. Quinn stared at her little brother, at the layers upon layers of muscle in his arms and chest, and shook her head. Just a couple of weeks ago, he’d been a tall, skinny computer geek who’d never lifted anything much heavier than his laptop. The two of them could have almost passed for twins, despite being only half siblings, with their height, wide mouths and green eyes inherited from their dad. Only their hair was strikingly different—his a mass of red curls, her own straight and blonde. Now, while she remained slender, he looked as buff and built as Jason.

  On the surface, Zack appeared to have become addicted to bodybuilding, but Quinn knew the real reason he worked out constantly. He was determined to become as strong as possible, as quickly as possible. Just as she had a one-track mind when it came to keeping Zack safe, his own thoughts were focused on finding, and saving, Lily.

  Arturo walked over to the weight bench, adjusted the weights at the ends of the bar to suit him, then stepped back.

  “Now, cara,” Arturo said. “Six inches.”

  Quinn met his gaze, then turned to her brother and Jason. “I hate to interrupt the pull-up battle, but I need you two to leave for a few minutes in case things start flying.” She was fairly certain she could lift the weights. The trouble was doing it with any measure of control.

  Jason responded immediately, dropping to the ground, but Zack executed three more seemingly effortless pull-ups before doing the same. He turned to Jason with a grunt. “Beat you.”

  Jason laughed. “No way in hell. You ignored direct orders.”

  Zack smirked. “You were hurting, man. Admit it. The moment she asked us to stop, you dropped.”

  Jason punched him good-naturedly in the shoulder and turned toward the door, but Arturo blocked their path.

  “Stay.”

  Quinn looked at him sharply, then rounded on him as understanding crashed. “You’d endanger them intentionally.”

  “It will give you the proper incentive, tesoro.”

  She just stared at him.

  But he didn’t budge, just continued to meet her gaze with that unflinching stubbornness. And while she longed to tell him no way in hell, she knew he was probably right. With a suitable incentive, she just might find the necessary control. Then again, she knew Arturo wouldn’t actually let Jason or Zack get hurt.

  What the hell. It was worth a try. With a huff, she turned toward the weights and shook out her hands.

  “Find the control, Quinn.” Arturo’s words were part demand, part plea. “Find it quickly.”

  “I’m trying. God knows, I’m trying.”

  She could almost feel the weights smirking at her, and had to quell the sudden, fierce desire to slam them against the wall. That she could do. Force was easy. It was the subtle lifting that remained steadfastly out of her reach.

  “Tesoro,” Arturo pressed.

  “I know, I know.” With a huff of frustration, she concentrated on the barbell, willing it to rise. Almost immediately, the weights began to rattle and shake, but the bar remained glued to the bench.

  Come on, she urged silently, pushing a little more energy into it. The rattling increased, the weights clanking together, but still the thing refused to rise. Dammit. She thrust still more energy at it and this time felt a welling of anticipation inside her as if she could feel the barbell on the brink of movement. They were almost… There!

  The barbell shot straight up into the air, crashing against the ceiling.

  Quinn gasped. “Zack, move!”

  Jason ran for the doorway, but Zack started moving toward the barbell as if planning to catch two hundred pounds of steel!

  “Turo!” she cried, but though the infuriating vampire moved close to Zack, he took no steps to interfere. Was he expecting her to use her magic to push the bar out of the way? There wasn’t time!

  Even as she lifted her hands, Zack caught the barbell with both of his, one leg lunging forward, his entire body absorbing the weight with ease.

  Quinn’s jaw dropped.

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Jason breathed behind her.

  Holding the barbells as if they weighed nothing, Zack turned to her, green eyes glittering with challenge and temper. “When the fuck were you going to tell me that I’m a sorcerer, too?”

  Chapter 2

  Quinn stared at her brother. “Who told you that you were a sorcerer?”

  She turned an accusing glare on Arturo, but the vampire lifted his hands with an innocent shake of his head as the three of them, and Jason, stood in the weight room beneath Neo’s safe house.

  “I’m not a fucking idiot,” Zack snapped, holding a two hundred pound barbell as easily as he might a broom. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out. My sister’s a sorceress. I’ve suddenly got super power. It doesn’t take Einstein to do the math.”

  Quinn met his challenging gaze. “Zack…you’ve also got a magic sickness.”

  Arturo edged toward the door. “I will let you handle this, cara. I have things to see to.”

  “Coward,” she muttered, adding, “Both of you!” as she saw that Jason was following Arturo out.

  “People die from magic sickness,” her brother snapped. “They don’t turn into freaking Superman.”

  Quinn stared at him. “Apparently you have.”

  “Yeah. Why did you tell me you’d inherited all your magic from your mother?”

  “Because until yesterday, I thought I had. Your mom always called mine ‘the witch’. It made sense, especially in light of the fact that I always had weird magical things happen around me as a child, and you never did.”

  He set the barbell back in its rack. “What changed yesterday?” he asked, his voice still stiff with temper.

  “Arturo told me what I believe is the truth, that I inherited my Blackstone magic from my mom, but my Levenach magic…and curse…from our dad. Which makes you a Levenach heir, too. But not a sorcerer, Zack. Thanks to the curse, heirs of Levenach have no magic.”

  It had taken her a while to untangle her own magic heritage, but she’d finally come to believe she was descended from two powerful wizards—the Black Wizard, from whom she’d inherited her Blackstone magic, and Lev
enach. Millennia ago, the two had been mortal enemies, according to legend, until finally Levenach had created an enchanted blade—Escalla—to kill the Black Wizard. As the sword stole his life, the Black Wizard had cursed Levenach and all his heirs, forever stealing their magic.

  “I might not have magic, Quinn, but I’ve gained almost fifty pounds of pure muscle in less than a week. That’s not humanly possible.”

  “No. But I don’t think it would have happened without the magic sickness. You’ve been a Levenach heir all your life, Zack. You didn’t start to change until you got sick.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why did Arturo wait until yesterday to tell you I was a Levenach heir?” His mouth twisted in disgust. “He’s still lying to you.”

  “He didn’t lie,” she said, unaccountably annoyed at her brother’s accusation even if she’d accused Arturo of the same thing. “He withheld his suspicions from me.” Which…all right…was lying by omission. And it still made her mad. “I already knew your magic sickness was tied to the magic of Vamp City in some way. If I could have renewed V.C.’s magic, you’d be fine.” But she’d tried to do that once and failed. And when she’d tried again, yesterday, she’d been determined to succeed even if it killed her. And it nearly had. The only way Arturo had convinced her to give up was by revealing his belief that saving the city wasn’t the only way to save Zack. “When I failed to renew the magic, yesterday, Arturo admitted to me that there was another way to save you—by breaking the curse.”

  Zack scowled. “Why didn’t he tell you that before?”

  Her mouth compressed and twisted. “Because I wasn’t always convinced that Vamp City needed to be saved.” When she’d first arrived, she’d encountered virtually nothing but cruelty and evil in this place.

  Understanding lit Zack’s eyes. “He was afraid that if he told you that you could save me without saving Vamp City, you might do it.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you might have tried.”

  “At first…yes. Probably. But not now.”

  Zack studied her as if considering that, as if not sure he agreed. “How do you break the curse?”

  Quinn hesitated. No one could know where they were going or for what reason. If word somehow leaked to Cristoff ahead of time…

  “I can’t tell you.”

  He scowled at her. “I’m sick of you treating me like I’m still a kid.”

  “I’m not.” But, yes, she probably was, because barely a month ago, he’d still been one—a twenty-two year old college student who’d lived with her and spent all of his time in front of a computer screen with his best friend, Lily Wang. Not until Lily went missing, and Quinn and Zack accidentally stumbled into Vamp City while searching for her, had he been forced to grow up.

  “It’s too dangerous for anyone to know the details,” she continued.

  Zack just stared at her in disgust. “You know, forget it.” He turned toward the door. “You do what you have to do and I’ll do what I have to.”

  Quinn’s heart lurched and she started forward. “Zack, don’t even think about going after Lily.”

  “Why not?” he said, not slowing down.

  This couldn’t be happening. “You may be as strong as Superman, but you’re still no match for vampires!”

  He whirled on her. “How do you know? Did you see me catch that barbell?”

  “Yes! I saw you. You’re amazing and you scare the crap out of me because if you go after her—” Her breath tangled in her lungs, her voice dropping. “I’m terrified you won’t come back.”

  “Quinn…” Zack tossed his head back as if she required more patience than he possessed. “I’m not stupid. I won’t do anything reckless.”

  She snorted. “No? Then maybe you’re not related to me after all.”

  “Says the queen of reckless,” he muttered, but his expression softened and he pulled her against his nearly scalding hot body. “I won’t go after her until the time is right, and I won’t go alone. I promise.”

  It wasn’t enough. His endangering himself was never going to be okay with her. But this was the best she was going to get and she knew it.

  “Okay.”

  Zack pulled back and peered at her. “Where do you have to go to break the curse, Queen Reckless? I can tell you’re getting ready to leave again.”

  “Don’t ask, please?”

  His frustration visibly returned making him look far older than his twenty-two years. In his eyes she saw dawning understanding…and disbelief. “You’re not going back to Cristoff’s.” But she was and clearly he could see the truth in her eyes because he whirled away from her, digging a hand into his mop of red hair. “Dammit, Quinn. Why would you ever go back there?” But as he turned to face her, his features twisted into a mask of disgust. “To save me. You’re always trying to save me.”

  “Not just you. It’s the only chance we have of saving the city.”

  But his disgust didn’t lessen one bit. “And I suppose Arturo’s going with you?” She nodded, earning herself a look of raw disbelief.

  “How many times are you going to let him turn you over to Cristoff?”

  “He won’t. He’s not going to betray me, Zack. He’s changed, you know that.”

  “Do I? My god, Quinn, all I know is he’s the fucking vampire that almost got my sister killed. Twice.”

  He wasn’t wrong about that. “He’s also saved my life. Both of our lives. Besides, I don’t have a choice. We have to break the curse and this is the only way to do it.”

  “Fuck the curse.” Zack grabbed her shoulders with fiery hands. “You can leave this place, Quinn. Almost none of the rest of us can.” In his eyes she saw the same fear for her safety that she’d always felt for his and it eased something deep inside her, this certainty that he loved her as much as she loved him. “Leave. Go somewhere far away and live your life. You don’t need to save me. You don’t need to save any of us. It’s not your job.”

  As she stared into those green eyes so much like her own, she felt his love for her wrap around her heart and squeeze painfully. “I can’t abandon you,” she said quietly. “You know that. And as unlikely as it sounds, I can’t abandon the others, either. I’m the last sorceress, their last hope. Hundreds will die if I don’t save this world.”

  Zack released her with a grunt of disgust. “Most of them deserve to die.”

  “Kassius doesn’t. Neither do Neo or Amanda or Sam or Rinaldo. There are good people here in addition to the monsters, Zack. Though I might be a little single-minded when it comes to you, this isn’t only about you any longer.”

  His mouth compressed and he looked away, then turned back to her fully. “Then let me help you. I’m no longer a ninety-pound weakling, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  “You’re also not a vampire.” The moment the words came out of her mouth, she regretted them. The anger, the betrayal that leaped into his eyes, physically hurt her. While her words might have been true, her quick delivery had been a slap in the face to his pride. But there was no way in hell she was allowing him anywhere near Gonzaga Castle.

  Zack scowled at her. “If you could, you’d wrap me in bubble wrap and pack me away someplace safe where nothing could ever hurt me.”

  She didn’t answer because it was true. It was absolutely true.

  “You risk your life over and over to protect mine. It’s not fair, Quinn. It’s not right. You’re more important than I’ll ever be and everyone knows it. You’re the fucking savior of the world. This world, at least. I’m through being coddled, Quinn. Do what you have to do because I sure as hell can’t stop you. But you’re not stopping me from what I have to do, either. You need to know that.”

  Her gut clenched. “Zack, promise me…”

  He waved a hand, cutting her off. “I’ve already made you all the promises I can. And I don’t even know why I bothered. I’m dying. What fucking difference does any of it make?”

  Quinn sucked in a breath at the harsh truth of his words.

&nb
sp; Regret flashed in his eyes. “Look, Sis, like I said, I won’t go after Lily until the time is right. But that decision is mine, Quinn. Mine.” Without another word, he turned and walked away.

  Chapter 3

  With Zack’s dismaying promise still ringing in her head, Quinn headed down the hallway deep beneath Neo’s house in search of Arturo and the others. The hall was narrow, lit by lanterns attached to the walls at wide intervals, for there was no electricity down here. Life in Vamp City was one of darkness and shadows and she felt that keenly, now. She was terrified that she’d return from this mission to find Zack gone.

  While it pleased her that her little brother was becoming so strong, she feared his growing confidence was quickly outpacing his abilities.

  Jason stepped into the hallway from the main room a short distance ahead and stopped when he saw her, a large, unopened Gatorade bottle in each hand.

  “Are you through with your discussion?” he asked carefully, his eyes friendly.

  “Yes. He worries me,” she admitted, stopping just in front of him.

  “The fever or Lily?” the ex-Marine asked quietly.

  “Both. Lily. See what you can do, please?”

  “I can’t talk him out of going after her,” Jason said. “When he’s ready, he’ll go.”

  Her muscles tightened. “You have to stop him.”

  “No.”

  She gaped at him. “Jason…”

  The look he gave her chastised. “I’ve been searching for my wife for over a year and a half, Quinn. I’ve let myself be captured by one vamp master after another in order to search their castles for any sign or memory of her. So far to no avail, but sooner or later I’ll find her, or learn what happened to her. Or I’ll die trying.”

  He looked away, peering into a distance she couldn’t see. “I never meant to stay here after my latest injuries healed. The only reason I’m still here is that Zack’s become a good friend, the best I’ve had since I arrived in this world.”

  He turned back and met her gaze. “I can’t leave him like this, on the verge of…” His eyes flinched and she knew he’d stopped himself from saying the word death.