***
The hour drive feels like a week, and all I can imagine is getting back and finding Maeve dead. I keep picturing her lying in a pool of her own blood, motionless, and my stomach turns.
Finally I see the ‘Welcome to Denver’ sign and expel a relieved breath.
I pull up ten blocks from the bank and grab my bags from the back seat. It’s a paranoid thought that the hunter’s cars have trackers on them but it’s not so crazy that I would risk parking it outside of the bank.
Walking the rest of the way back, my body screams at me and by the time I reach the bank, I feel like one big bruise.
Inside, everyone is bustling around me and talking over the top of one another. Tavis is standing at the top of the spiral staircase and holds up a hand for them to quiet down. His bespectacled eyes land on me and he practically jumps down the stairs.
“Where the hell were you?” He demands, his hand grazing my ever-swelling face. His face turns from angry to pitiful. “Are you okay? Who did this?”
“I’m fine,” I nod. “I ran into a couple of hunters on my way back but the majority of the bruising is Paros’ doing. Especially around my neck…”
I pop the buttons on the bomber jacket to reveal my throat; showing an array of black, purple and blue.
“Where did you go?” Knox asks, coming from the direction of the rooms and pulling me into his arms. I smile and relax there. “We’ve all been worried.”
Stepping back, he takes in my appearance and groans.
“And for good reason, apparently…”
Lifting his hand, he caresses my skin and I hiss. The contact is bracing, but comforting and after the day I’ve had, comfort is welcomed; which is why I keep him there and nuzzle my face into his palm for a few seconds more.
“I’m good!” I promise them. “Where is Maeve?”
“Theo…” Tavis sighs. “She’s really hurt. She needs blood…”
“I’ve got that covered,” I tell them, emptying my bag onto the dining table. “I brought as much as I could take.”
I dig my hands in my pocket and produce the bills I swiped from the cash register.
“Do you know what blood type she is?” Tavis asks.
There’s no way to know. “I figured we’d go for the most common and if she dies, I was wrong…”
“I might have a better way,” A boy that I vaguely recognise steps forward. “I’m Max Adebayo.”
He’s one of the five that we saved.
“Theo Blackthorn,” I hold out my hand and he shakes it. “What was your idea, Max?”
“My girlfriend,” he says and I notice a touch-more-than-subtle African undertone to his mostly American accent. “She’s a very talented witch with an aptitude for science. She’s focused her magic on molecular biogenetics for years with the intent on being a doctor when she graduated the academy. It’s given her the ability to see DNA the same way that all of that fancy scientific equipment can.”
“Is your girlfriend here?”
“Yes, she was saved with me, thank the gods… and you guys, of course.” He smiles, widely. “Katia!”
I look past Max and see a beautiful black girl with boob-length, dreaded hair. On her knees, she’s holding ice to Penelope’s face and bandaging her sores with ripped up bed-sheets. Getting to her feet, she steps forward to meet me with a tired smile. She is short and her hips are wide, giving her a somewhat hourglass figure. I recognize her from the raid; she’s the girl who closed Maeve’s wound back at the academy.
She holds out her hand and introduces herself to me. “Katia Johnston.”
I smile and take it. “Hi, Katia. Max says you might be able to help my friend?”
“I hope to help everybody while I’m here,” she tells me, enthusiastically. “I don’t want to rise through the ranks quickly or anything, but I’m willing to do whatever’s necessary if you need me to.”
“Well, you’d have to talk to Tavis about that, but I’m pretty sure we could use more people with an interest in medicine,” I say. “Especially after missions like this… Magic can only go so far.”
Her face lights up. “Like I said, I just want to help wherever I can.”
“Come with me,” I say, collecting some supplies. She nods her head and lays a kiss on Max’s lips before following me. I lead her behind the stone wall and in the direction of the bedrooms, checking every curtain I come to, before I finally find Maeve. She’s in Tavis’ bed, unconscious and breathing shallowly.
“We need to know her blood type, and do a transfusion or something to fix her up. I don’t know much about medicine, but whatever you can do… We need her alive,” I explain. “She’s kind of important around here.”
“Is she a witch?” She asks, taking a seat by her bed.
“No…” I smile. “But she is a fighter.”
Katia reaches out and places a hand on Maeve’s chest, over her heart, and closes her eyes.
“I can see her blood moving. It’s slower than it should be and her hearts not pumping fast enough. She’s lost almost two-fifths of her blood already, but I don’t think I can get an accurate reading unless I see have a physical sample…”
“ I don’t want to cut her, not after losing so much...” I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “How much medical experience do you have?”
She smiles and bites her lip. “You know the academy rules, right? No jobs during the summer unless they’re directly related to magic or if you’re working for a witch. No mixing with the mortals…”
“Yeah…” My eyebrow peaks.
“Well, I never respected or followed that rule or any rule, really… I guess that’s why I was chosen for sacrifice.” She sighs. “I interned at a hospital over the past two summers. I say interned, but really, I was more of a spectator. I never got to be hands-on with the patients or anything, but there’s a lot to be learned from observation. The doctor that I shadowed, she was one of the best and I watched her do a million-and-one blood and plasma IV’s…”
“So if I get your physical sample, you can…”
“I’ll have her blood transfused in no time,” she promises.
I nod and take a box of scalpels from the bag and make a small incision on her hand. Katia takes the scalpel and cuts a piece of material from her own t-shirt. She dabs at the wound. Holding the piece of cloth in her hand, she closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, they’re wide.
“She’s AB-negative. It’s extremely rare…”
“Yeah, I know… I’m AB-neg.”
I go through the bags until I find one matching our type and practically throw it at Katia, along with some other supplies, and stand back.
She slips her hand into latex gloves and prepares the drip. Tying-off Maeve’s arm, she finds a big vein and inserts the needle.
“This one should be empty in two-to-four hours and then I’ll administer the next bag,” she tells me. “Two should be enough to do it.”
Relief makes my heart soar and despite only knowing her for twenty minutes, I pull Katia into my arms and hug her, tightly, and fight back my tears.
“Thank you, Katia…” I say, pulling back. “Seriously… thank you!”
***
I leave Maeve under Katia’s watchful eye and I head to find Tavis and Knox. They’re in mine and Tavis’ training room with the door open and I hear yelling before I enter.
“She can’t just go off like that, man. I don’t care how powerful she is! We are a team and we can’t have a loose cannon.” Tavis sighs. “Look, I like her as much as the next guy, but I need to be a leader and I can’t have her out on missions if she’s going to run off like that!”
I still by the door and listen in for Knox’s response.
“She saved the mortal, Tavis.” He defends me. “I was willing to leave her for dead and she wasn’t. She’s amazing, man. I really –” He stops and takes a beat. “I just don’t understand how that makes me any better of a leader than she is.”
“It doesn’t!
” Tavis’ voice is stern. “You should never have made that call. If a person can be saved, we save them. Theo did the right thing, but she did it in the wrong way! She should have told me what she was doing and we could have gone for supplies together… or you could have gone with her.”
He exhales and starts again. “Have you seen her face? She could have died! All because she went off on her own like a lone wolf, as though Maeve is just her friend. She is one of us. They both are! I know Maeve is still touch and go, but we could have lost two members today!”
“And we need every member we can get, right?”
“That’s not the point, Knox. I don’t want this – what we’re doing, here – to just be an army against the hunters, the witches, the demons or whoever else decides they want us all dead… I want us to be the family that most of us have never had. Theo is family. Maeve is family. Penelope, Amalie, Mateo, the new kids, you and I… Hell, even River and Ben.” He laughs. “We’re meant to be a family.”
My heart swells in my chest and guilt settles in my stomach.
“I’m sorry,” I round the corner, finally letting the tears that sting my eyes roam free. “I should never have handled it that way and next time, I promise, I won’t let my emotions get in the way. I screwed up and I put myself in jeopardy because I decided that I needed to save Maeve... I was wrong.”
Tavis stands from the mat. “Knox, let me talk to her for a minute, man.”
Knox stands and walks past me, kissing my cheek and grazing my hand before leaving. My stomach bursts into flutters and I catch his eye. He smiles and leaves.
“I want to be in this family, too,” I say. It’s hard for me to admit but it’s the truth. “At first, this place was a stop-gap to safety, but the past couple of months of being here… I’ve been happier than I ever was at the academy. I sleep on a bed that feels like bricks in a room colder than Antarctica, but every morning, I wake up and smile. Training with Maeve and Zhavia, sparring with you, watching movies in the main room through a goddamn projector, and meeting more and more witches that I never would have crossed paths with in another life… It’s like being free. I don’t ever want to risk that, and I won’t, ever again.”
His mouth upturns slightly and he nods. “That’s good, because I don’t ever want you to not be here.”
“Me neither.” I rush for him and attack him with my hug.
At first, his back stiffens, but then he gives in to the warm embrace and peaceful silence settles over us.
“So…” He says, pulling back with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Are you up for a round or have you had your ass kicked enough for one day?”
I snort. “I can barely stand! Can I get a rain check?”
“Sure!” He chuckles and repositions his glasses on his face – it’s an act so mundane, but it has extraordinary effects on the butterflies living in my stomach.
I lift a hand in a wave and turn away from him, wearing a wide smile.
I get to the door and turn back, holding it open.
“Oh and FYI, Tavis…” I say, biting my lip. “I was the one who kicked the ass today, not the other way around.”
I hear him laugh as I leave and once again, my heart soars.
Dinner time rolls around, but I barely touch my stew. My body is still screaming for sleep and I’m ready to give in, but first I have to check in on Maeve. It’s been three or so hours and I pray that there’s been an improvement.
Rounding the stone wall, I continue on to Tavis’ room and find Katia and Max still sitting with her. Katia has her hand on Maeve. Her eyes close as I stand, waiting for an answer.
“Her heart is beating much faster and she’s half-way through her second bag of blood. She should be awake by the morning.” She tells me with a small smile.
“Any chance of brain damage?” I ask. “ She hit the wall pretty hard.”
Katia creases her eyebrows and places a hand on Maeve’s head. “I can’t tell for sure without opening her up, but as far as I can see, it’s unlikely. She hit the top of her skull and it split her head but I don’t think her brain was affected.”
For the second time, relief washes over me.
“That’s great,” I smile. “Thanks again, Katia.”
I give a small nod to Max and make my way to the girls’ quarters. It’s late and I’m ready to let the covers engulf me.
Before I get there, I run into River. With a scoff, I try to make my way around her, but she stands still, blocking my path.
“Theo, wait…” She puts a hand on my arm and I flinch; my bruises panging. She shrinks back and gives a look of pity. “I’m sorry about Maeve... and, I’m sorry about Anna. I never said it back then because I just thought that she had taken off, you know? I can be a stone cold bitch sometimes, but that’s just because I’m not good with expressing my emotions.”
I’m shocked.
“I need to apologize to you, and to Penelope. You guys were my like best friends and when everything went down and you were gone, Meg, P and I went on our mission… only two of us made it out and I didn’t know how to handle that. I saw Meg get obliterated by a High Priest and…” Tears pool in her eyes. “I guess I blocked it out like I do everything else… But when you took off on your own today, I thought that was the last time I was ever going to see you and the last thing we did was argue. I don’t want that to be how our friendship ends… I don’t want us to hate each other, so I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I almost killed you,” I say.
She snorts, wiping her tears away. “Yeah, well… I guess I kind of deserved it.”
No arguments, here. I open my arms and she falls into them.
“Next up, Penelope ‘I’m so stubborn’ Heron.” She laughs, pulling away. “Wish me luck…”
I do and she’s off in the direction of the main hall as I crawl into bed.
Every toss and turn hurts more than the last, but eventually, I settle into what I hope will be a peaceful and deep sleep.
Instead, I’m forced into a nightmare.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Do you see now?” She asks. “They all must die, Theo. If they don’t, they’ll never stop!”
Karelia and I are standing in a field of bodies. I recognize Solaris and Nina Raven-Hill first, and then I see the family killed by the hunter in the meadow, the woman burned at the stake, the man stabbed through the throat, the teenagers sliced from head to toe, the kids shot playing in the street…
Every dream I’ve ever had, every witch I’ve seen murdered… They’re all lying dead in front of me along with at least three-hundred more.
“All Raven-Hills?”
“I wish I could tell you no…”
“It’s not fair that this is all on me, Karelia. How am I, alone, supposed to stop the hunters? “
“Haven’t you been paying attention? You’re not alone! You have a coven!” She smiles. “I’m not asking you to save the worlds witches, Theo. That’s for you to decide! I just want you to save our line and take out the Jacobian’s.”
“Why?”
“Because there is a war brewing between the witches and the underworld, led by powerful people on both sides and they’re all gunning for your newfound family, first. You’ll have enough to contend with and trust me when I say, you do not want those hunters in the thick of it when it all goes down.”
“If you won’t do it for me or for them…” She waves her arm and gestures to all of our fallen warriors. “Do it for yourself and your coven!”
I jolt awake and I’m still exhausted. I want to turn back over, but River is standing above my bed, shaking me.
“Come on, Theo, get up!” She smiles. “Today the real classes begin.”
I force myself upright and she gasps, covering her mouth with her hand.
“How bad is it?”
Her face scrunches up. “Do you want me to lie to you?”
“Maybe a little?”
“It’s terrible… Like, really bad. It looks like a severe all
ergic reaction.”
“That’s lying to me?” I snort.
“Yes! You look like hell.”
She leaves me with that revelation and practically skips away on a cloud. Things with Penelope must have worked out.
I get up and make my way across to the hotel for a shower. Wiping down the steamed up bathroom mirror, my mouth gapes as wide as the swelling allows. River was right, I’m a mess.
I put my clothes on and head downstairs for a cup of liquid energy. Drinking from the cup hurts my cracked, bruised and puffy lips, but there’s no way in hell I can survive the day without it.
When I’m done, I head back to check on Maeve. I make my way around the stone wall and my stomach does nervous flips. If I look this bad from a couple of ass-whooping’s, I can’t imagine how bad Maeve looks after a major injury.
I get to Tavis’ curtain and take a deep breath before pulling it back.
“Oh,” I exclaim. “You’re awake...”
“I don’t know about that,” she says, gripping her head. “Katia says I’m gonna have a bad scar... But I’m alive so at least that’s something, right?”
“You might have just saved my life yesterday, Maeve.”
“And the way I hear it, you definitely saved mine, so I guess we’re even?”
“I don’t know about that…” I pull up a chair and plonk my feet on her bed, wincing as my muscles scream.
“You look as bad I feel.” She laughs. “What happened?”
“I ransacked a hospital supply closet and stole food from a convenience store ran by Jacobian hunters. In a nut shell, I got my ass handed to me multiple times, handed asses to others multiple times, hopefully saved a kid from a terrible fate and drove, with my ass in hand, all of the way back here in a hunters Mercedes.”
“A whole new woman, ladies and gentleman!” She hurrahs. “You have officially graduated street-kid school!”
I laugh and she yawns.
“You’re tired…” I stand up.
“I’m high on painkillers. They’re awesome, but they make me sleepy.”
I smile. “I’ll let you get some rest! The sooner you’re better the sooner you can teach again and the less chance I’ll have of getting beat up! I’m not going to lie to you, Maeve… There were some pretty close calls.”
SACRIFICIUM (THE UNDERGROUND Book 1) Page 15