Chaos Conspiracy

by Holly Evans

  “Consider yourself claimed,” I said.

  He grinned at me, relief flooding the bond.

  “What are we going to do?”

  The door clicked open and someone walked in with a suit bag, a large bowl, and a couple of vials of fresh blood. Two large men stood outside of the door blocking our exit as the woman placed the things down on top of the large chest of drawers to the right of the door. She walked out without a word and locked the door behind her.

  “We have lunch with him, find out where Kane is, and break him out,” Gideon said as he walked over to the items.

  “It sounds so easy when you put it like that,” I said with a laugh.

  “You’re a strong witch and skilled warrior. This will be a breeze,” he said with a grin.

  He opened the clothes bag to reveal a navy-blue suit complete with shoes. Gideon wrinkled his nose.

  “Navy blue isn’t my colour.”

  I laughed. “Really? You’re worrying about that right now?”

  “No, I’m making you relax,” he said with a grin. “Sit down, I will tend to your wounds.”

  The pain was beginning to kick in and by the gods did I hurt. I’d taken quite a beating while trying to save the guys, and it hadn’t even done me any good.

  I sat down on the bed and sighed.

  “Focus, Wren,” Gideon said firmly.

  I looked up into his beautiful golden hazel eyes and the certainty there.

  “We will not fail again,” he said.

  “Now, I can’t heal your wounds through your shirt,” he said gesturing at my shirt.

  There was no time for prudish thoughts. I had to be in top form to take on the cult for round two.

  Gideon was very gentle and attentive as he gently wiped the blood from the vials over my injuries.

  “Your magic will draw what you need from the blood and use it to heal you. There is a better way, but I am not a blood witch. I only know what your instincts tell you,” he said.

  I tried to ignore what was going on. I’d never used someone else’s blood to heal myself before. It felt so right and so wrong. My stomach turned at the thought of it, but it was working. My magic had bubbled up to the surface and was taking care of my body as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I was repulsed by it, by what I was, but I had no choice. I needed to save Kane and Dante. I shifted my focus to running through what I remembered of the cult building. We had taken two turns to get to the room: the first turn on the right and the third turn on the left. The building appeared to be a simple rectangle, which would make it easier to navigate. I hadn’t seen bars over any of the other windows, but the hills rose up close to the building walls, which would make running away that way very difficult. We’d be exposed, too. If we had to, we’d do it, but it was a last resort.

  Gideon handed me the shirt from his suit.

  “It would be better to wear something clean and fresh,” he said.

  I didn’t want to wear anything from that creep, but Gideon was right.

  “I’m sorry that I’m not as strong or aloof as you’d like, but I will heal, with your help,” he said.

  I stroked his cheek, “I’m sorry. I’ve been a dick to you. I’ve been so absorbed in how much you’ve disrupted my life, I haven’t been thinking about yours.”

  He smiled and kissed the base of my palm.

  “We will be good together, the four of us.”

  I blushed as I felt the pleasurable thoughts he had on that topic. He was certainly bi. The door opened, and Addison stepped into the room. His smile fell the moment he saw me sitting on the dress on the bed.

  “Why are you not in your dress, my love?”

  “I’m happier in this,” I said with a smile.

  He relaxed and smiled. “Then you shall wear that. Come, we have lunch.”

  I stood up and didn’t feel a single twinge of pain. The blood had healed me completely. That was both a relief and a truly horrifying thought.

  FORTY-NINE

  Gideon remained close to my side, his fingers playing over mine as we followed Addison out to the back of the building, where an elaborate lunch had been laid out on the balcony. The views were dull, nothing but hills with more white rocks and scrubby bushes. I kept that comment to myself.

  There were only three seats out there with a low glass table between them. The lunch was laid out on white and gold plates with rose-gold-coloured cutlery. It was all very tacky. The balcony was a simple affair, entirely unlike the mansions I’d been to. The terracotta tile clashed against the white hospital tile in the hallway, giving the look of something that had been added as a last second afterthought. The barrier around the edge of the balcony was a simple chrome bar, nothing we couldn’t slip under. The drop wasn’t too bad; the rocks below were quite likely to break our legs, though.

  “Where is my friend, Addison?” I asked.

  Dante was with the purists, and the longer we sat around playing bullshit games with Addison, the smaller the chances of my being in his arms again were.

  “We will eat lunch, and then you can visit him,” Addison said with a small hollow smile.

  I ground my teeth but went with it. The cult members were close at hand, lurking in the corners and hovering not too far inside the rooms. No doubt they hung off Addison’s every word and wanted to know who this mysterious newcomer was.

  The food was a mix of fresh fruits, perfectly cooked slices of meat, and a number of different types of bread. My stomach growled. I was absolutely starving, but I didn’t know if the food had been drugged. It was a mix of simple foods that I would have leapt on in any other situation.

  “You remember nothing?” Addison asked as he bit into a fig.

  He sat like a king on a throne, poised and entirely in control while being entirely relaxed and at ease.

  “No, sorry,” I said.

  “Please, Sofia, eat,” he said, pushing a plate of meats towards me.

  I picked at some of the ham and found it didn’t taste odd, but there were plenty of flavourless poisons. Gideon sniffed the meat before he bit into it. Addison didn’t pay Gideon any attention, his focus was entirely mine. I wanted to squirm under his laser focus, but I remained calm and still.

  His gaze became slightly glassy as he smiled at something unseen and far away.

  “You were a vision. I knew from the moment I saw you that I had to have you,” Addison said with a wistful smile.

  Because that wasn’t at all creepy.

  “You were fourteen,” he began as I fought to keep the disgust from my face, “and I was twenty. My first wife had died in childbirth, but I knew that you were a gift from the gods. You had such grace and elegance, your smile the epitome of beauty. Still, your family would not allow you to court before your ascension. And so I waited, patiently. You were 16 when you came into your magic, and you were blessed with blood magic. Of course, it had been assumed, given your blood red hair, but once it was confirmed your family were happy to give you to me. There was no place for your magic in their ranks. What fools they were.

  He gave a soft sigh and a look of blissful contentment before he bit into another fig. I took another bite of meat and dared a mouthful of ice water. My body was screaming out for the calories.

  “We were married within three months, and you were the perfect wife. We were madly in love, but try as we might we could not conceive a child. After four years of blissful marriage, I came home badly injured after having protected a village from a group of elves. You were so worried, it was the first time I had seen you cry. It was that night that you knew you would bless me with the gift of your magic.

  He reached across the table, his long fingers stretching to grasp onto mine. I remained frozen in place and relaxed some when he couldn’t reach without leaning across the table. I swallowed hard and smiled politely at the story.

  “The ritual stole away some of your life, but you assured me that it was worth it,” he said as he dabbed at the corner of his mouth with a red se
rviette, “We would be together for many centuries. Over the coming months, you taught me everything of our magic, and I went out into the world and made it a better place. I helped purify the bloodlines and remove the blights from our surroundings. But someone betrayed me, someone locked me deep within a vault. The magic holding me there was too great. I do not know if they expected me to die in there, but my magic, the magic you gave me, had been truly blessed by the Crone. It sustained me until the bindings holding me there broke. I used three impure beings’ blood to bring me back to true life, and that is how this delightful little group was formed.

  “A number of non-supernals stumbled across me taking the blood and fell to their knees in worship. Soon, the word spread, and well, here we are,” he said with a flourish.

  A lithe brunette stormed out onto the balcony with us, her red dress flapping around her long legs. She stood tall with her hands on her hips, rage filling her features.

  “That is not Sofia!” the woman shouted.

  The cult members behind her gasped before they vanished, no doubt worried about the consequences of sticking around. I glanced at Gideon, who tensed, his focus flitting between the woman and Addison.

  “Amy, what makes you speak such things?” Addison said coldly, his hand wrapped around the serviette as though choking the life from it.

  I reached under the table and unsheathed one of my daggers.

  “Sofia died two centuries ago. She is just her descendent. She knows nothing of your love,” Amy spat.

  Addison looked at me with cool calculation.

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-four.”

  “And you have the blood magic of my Sofia?”

  I didn’t answer; blood witches were executed after all. He smiled.

  “The gods brought you to me. You are my Sofia reincarnated.”

  “I’d really like to see Kane now,” I pushed.

  “We will make a deal. You will prove you are a blood witch, and I will take you to your friend.”

  I gave him a positively savage smile and reached inside of him with my magic. I mentally grasped onto his blood and began pushing as much heat into it as I could muster. If he wanted proof, I’d give it to him. He grinned, absolutely delighted, before I felt my magic slip away from his blood unbidden.

  “Amy, take them to their friend,” he commanded.

  Well, at least we were making some progress. Now we just had to get Kane out of there without too much bloodshed. We were vastly outnumbered, which meant we needed to reduce the violence as much as possible so we could increase our chances of getting out there in one piece.

  FIFTY

  Addison ate another fig before he apparently changed his mind and joined us in following this “Amy” down into the heart of the building. There were very few windows down there, the lights overhead pure white and giving off a harsh clinical light that only made the red on white creepier. I didn’t know if that was their plan or if they just had really bad taste.

  The holding room, as they called it, was three stories down with only one route in and out as far as I could see. Gideon was alert at my side and watching for new enemies and ways out. The room was a simple plain room with white walls, white floors, and a black ceiling just to mix things up. Kane sat in a small cage in the middle of the room. A trio of what I assumed were purists were tied down to metal chairs with needles in their arms and blood bags attached. They were being slowly drained and, if we weren’t careful, then Kane would be next.

  “Let him out,” I demanded.

  Addison gave me an infuriating smirk which reminded me a little too much of Dante. Gods be with me, I hoped he was still alive.

  “Anything for you, my Sofia,” he said.

  An older man with short grey hair huffily let Kane out of the cage. Kane immediately came to my side and gave Addison a furious glare.

  “Sofia was the one to trap you,” Amy said.

  Addison looked between me and Amy. This wasn’t going to plan.

  “Why would I do that to the love of my life?” I asked.

  I felt Addison’s magic slip into my blood. I fought to look nonchalant while fighting with everything I had to drive his magic out of my body. It felt like a sick and twisted violation. His magic finally slid away as he walked towards me.

  “I’m sorry, but I need more from you,” he said softly.

  “We go, now,” Gideon growled.

  Amy was trying to close the door and lock us in. Gideon was right, we needed to get the fuck out of there. Now. Dante was counting on us.

  Kane drew his sword from the ether, Gideon caught fire, and I unsheathed my daggers. I definitely needed something more badass if I was going to fight alongside those two regularly.

  Addison casually strolled out of the room. Amy and the cultists, however, flooded the room, and they were pissed.

  They didn’t have much fighting experience and fought with teeth, nails, and weak punches, but there were so many of them. Amy left the fray at some point, leaving us to fight our way through the mass of bodies between us and the exit.

  “Dammit, Wren, use your magic!” Gideon growled.

  “I concur!” Kane shouted as he took a fist to the temple.

  I ducked under a clumsy punch, stepped over the bodies fallen in front of me, and called up my magic. I couldn’t wipe out the entire room. The exhaustion would leave me useless. I slashed at the throat of the middle-aged woman in front of me and reached into the young man with bright blue hair. I crushed his blood in my mind and felt the life essence extinguish within him. He dropped to his knees, dead in the blink of an eye. Another fist came at my head while a foot connected with my lower back.

  I continued to hack and slash at every throat and artery within reach while trying to focus enough to extinguish the life of those further back. My movements were growing slower, but the pile of bodies was mounting around us. We were winning.

  Finally, we had a way to the exit as we jumped over the piles of dead bodies, some of them charred and burnt beyond recognition, and ran into the hallway. Gideon led the way, a walking infernal fire. Kane slowed some and put his arm around my waist to help me keep going. The exhaustion was threatening to overwhelm me, but I needed to keep going. I couldn’t fail Dante. I couldn’t have that beautiful man’s death on my conscience.

  Gideon led the way down the twists and turns. We were met with small resistance that the guys easily disposed of. It was too easy, but I wasn’t going to argue. We burst out into the bright sunlight and kept running down the road. I looked for assassins, fae-vampires, something up in the hills. It never came.

  We made it to the car. Kane helped me into the back seat, where Gideon joined me.

  “I can give you my blood,” Gideon said.

  “No, no, I am not like that,” I said horrified.

  Gideon pulled me to him and held me tenderly while Kane drove like a mad man.

  “We’ll get her lots of food and then go and get Dante,” Kane said.

  Gideon stroked my hair and my eyes closed. I couldn’t fight hard enough to keep them open.

  “Initiated… stronger…” was all I caught from Kane before I lost consciousness.

  I’d never worked that much blood magic before, but I’d clearly found my limit. Of all the times, I didn’t think it could be much worse than that one.

  I came to in Gideon’s arms with Kane stroking my hair and waving something under my nose.

  “How long was I out?” I asked as I pushed myself up into a sitting position.

  “Fifteen minutes. Here, you need to eat. I’m going to make a tracker so we can go and get Dante,” Kane said.

  I bit into the wrap Kane thrust into my hand. He walked over to the armchair and started poking at a small, flat, white pebble. He began painting symbols on it before he rubbed his thumb over it. Finally, he wrapped it in a scrap cut from one of Dante’s shirts. Dante was going to be pissed.

  I ate the following three wraps as quickly as I could while forc
ing the final one into Gideon’s hands.

  “I can feel your hunger, you’re no use to anyone if you pass out like I did,” I said.

  He smiled at me and ate it in two bites.

  “The tracker’s ready,” Kane said as he held the pebble in the palm of his hand.

  “How is that going to show us where Dante is?” I asked.

  “It gives me visions, which I can follow,” Kane said with a grin.

  I really didn’t understand how magic worked. The fact Kane could take a pebble, some paint, and a bit of fabric and turn it into a tracker that gave him visions was just insane. That was the world I lived in.

  Gideon nipped my ear.

  “Time to go rescue Dante,” he said.

  “I’m never letting him live this down,” Kane said with a grin.

  I laughed. “You sure you’re going to see him again after this?”

  He shared a look with Gideon. “Yea, I’m pretty sure.”

  “What are you hiding from me?” I demanded.

  “We’ll talk about it once we have Dante back,” Kane said.

  Gideon gently pushed me into a standing position. Kane gripped the pebble in his hand, and we headed back out to the car to do the second rescue mission of the day.

  FIFTY-ONE

  Kane’s driving was erratic as he clutched the pebble in one hand and had me handle the gear stick when he needed to change gear. I grabbed onto the wheel and stopped us from going off the cliff at one point. He was struggling to see the real world clearly through the vision, and the closer we got the clearer the visions became.

  Gideon gripped onto the back seat with everything he had, leaving deep tears present in the seat when Kane finally slowed down and got away from the cliff edges. There was no way we were getting the deposit back on the car. Rain turned the windscreen into a blurry mess, which made Kane’s driving even worse. He almost ran some poor person off the road. I was doing half of the steering for him by the time I turned the wheel down a narrow road that led up between two of the smaller hills. He slammed the brakes on, sending me flying forward. The seatbelt bit into my skin and I groaned.