Published: May 25, 2020

17

KAYLA

Practicing to control her magic over the next couple of days monopolized her entire attention. Well, some of it anyway. Between the times she couldn’t get her mind off of Garrick, which was virtually impossible seeing that they were stuck in a room together and every breath he drew made her lady bits ache.

Like now, when his large hands rested against her shoulders causing tingles and butterflies to thrash around in her gut. Pleasure bubbled under his touch. His warm breath blew against a suddenly sensitive spot on her neck as he exhaled.

She breathed through it.

He wasn’t all that interested, she reminded herself. She may have been panting like a dog after a bone, but he certainly wasn’t.

Every night, he’d been the perfect gentleman, building a pillow fort between them before they went to sleep, and each morning made sure to take quick tidy showers before giving her the space to do the same. Once they were done getting ready, he immediately insisted they got to work trying to control her magic.

Even his feedings had been a non-starter. He didn’t drink from her neck again; instead chose to sink his fangs into her wrist. After a pinch, not much else happened. She didn’t get the waves of pleasure again or feel the euphoria after. Nothing like their first night.

She’d been officially friend zoned. And that freaking sucked.

“Okay,” he said encouragingly, pointing to the sock she was supposed to transport from the bed to her hand like she’d seen Marnie do with her phone in the kitchen at her house. “Take a deep breath and try again.”

She steadied her shoulders and focused on the plain white sock. Her magic sparked at her hands, but again, it didn’t budge.

She groaned.

“I don’t know how Marnie was able to do it,” she threw her hands up in defeat. “She just summoned a phone out of nowhere.”

“It takes time and practice. We were late to rise this morning, so we’re delayed in practice, but once you get warmed up, I’m sure it’ll come easier. Like yesterday.”

Little did he know, he was the one late to rise. Once the sliver of light brightened the room, she eagerly began testing her magic’s capabilities, effectively making it stretch up over their pillow fort and across the bed. By the time it reached the other side, Garrick jolted off the bed, patting himself wildly, saying it felt like he was under a blanket of fire. She told him it was all a dream and popped off the bed to head to the shower, too embarrassed to admit what she was trying to do.

“And you need to focus,” he continued, bringing her attention back to him.

“I am focusing! It’s not working. I can’t even make my magic go over to the bed. It’s like if it’s not going to you, it doesn’t want any part of it.”

He paused for a thoughtful breath.

“Cha, maybe we try that,” he said pensively. “I will hold the sock. Try to send your magic to me and see if you’ can pick it up.”

She held in a sigh at the loss of contact as he walked to the bed and picked up the sock.

“Now try it.”

Her magic made it to Garrick just fine, but crawling up toward the sock was painfully slow. By the time it got there, a corner of it blackened, then it ignited.

“Shit.” She drew her magic back quickly—a bit too quickly—she walloped herself so hard, she staggered backwards, knocking the wind out of herself. She gasped and bent over, trying to force air into her lungs.

The sock was stamped out and Garrick was at her side a second later.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Fine,” she coughed before using his shoulders to steady herself upright, ignoring the pleasure that erupted under her fingertips every time she touched him. “Are you?”

He didn’t need to answer, she already knew he was. She felt it.

Her magic raced around his hands, checking for wounds, which there weren’t, before lingering on him a little longer than necessary. His breathing went uneven, his eyes darkened. He cleared his throat before taking a step to the side.

“I think we should take a break,” his voice was deeper than normal.

And the friendzone strikes again, she thought bitterly.

“Provisions are here anyway,” he said when she frowned.

Knock. Knock.

“Come in,” she called, picking up the burnt sock from the floor.

The door slid open; the cement grinded against the floor as it hinged open.

“Morning Killian,” she said over her shoulder without looking. Despite trying to get used to seeing Killian bringing them meals, coupled with the fact that he let the length of his long shaggy hair wave wildly around his face to soften himself up, it still gave her the willies to look into a face identical to the Syste.

“Not Killian,” Garrick murmured.

“No, it is not,” the voice answered quickly. “Kayla, you need to come with me.”

She whipped around. “Theo? What are you doing here? Where’s Killian?”

She tried to look beyond his mop of sandy hair down the hall, but Killian was nowhere to be found. He didn’t hold a tray of food in his hands.

“There’s no time to explain, you need to come with me,” he repeated in one breath, holding his hand out, “Not you, vampire.”

“His name is Garrick.” Rudeness. “And I’m not going anywhere without him.”

Theo’s sharp blue gaze tightened. His thin lips opened as if he were going to say something, but he turned on his heel instead.

“Let’s go.”

Please would be nice, she mocked just as scornfully inside of her mind. Garrick noticed her head bobble as she rolled her eyes and grinned, but she realized why. They were finally letting them out.

She wasn’t sure what to expect when the day came, but a bristly Theo and a gleeful Garrick wasn’t on the list. He motioned her forward and she followed Theo down the winding corridor she hadn’t been in since they’d first arrived.

A sinking feeling tightened her stomach into a tiny ball and continued to sink as Theo sped down the hall.

“Hey—why are you going so—”

Boom.

She ducked. Her gaze snatched up to the ceiling in search of the sudden sound. It sounded like a truck fell into a sewer grate over her head and shook the walls. Garrick slowed, looking up at the ceiling as if he could see through it. She stared at Theo with wide eyes.

“What was that?”

Theo plucked at the frays of his dark ripped jeans; the look on his face was unreadable and stiff except for the pressing of his lips together without a word.

Boom.

“Theo,” she said uneasily, pausing in her step, then backing up against Garrick when he didn’t speak. “What is that?”

Garrick was already checking the air, sniffing it.

“I sense nothing,” he said quietly beside her; his dark determined eyes remained on the ceiling. Her palms grew warm.

Boom.

Theo swallowed before pointing at the ceiling, voice urgent, “That is why we have to get you out of here.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. Not one single bit.

“I’ll explain on the way, but we must hurry.”

When he moved down the hall again with a quicker step, she involuntarily rushed after him.

Boom.

“The ceiling is cracking,” Garrick pressed her forward. “What is this?”

“We’re not sure. It started late in the night,” Theo said, giving a single knock against an empty wall before it gave way to a flight of stairs. They started to climb. “Ever since you arrived, they’ve been trying to penetrate our stronghold. So far, our defenses have held, but they are failing. We must move you. You’re not safe here.”

Her thoughts scrambled. “What do you mean, not safe? Where’s my father?” She asked, pausing again as he turned a corner and up another flight of stairs.

“He’s safe for now, but you won’t be if we don’t hurry.”

“What is the threat?” Garrick asked. His broad shoulders held themselves differently than they had in the past few days. This was the legion coming out of him—the soldier readying himself for battle.

“Take your pick. The vampires come at night to try to flush us out. They cannot come during the day because the Blood Oath disallows them to wander our world until nightfall, but that has not stopped them. They’ve sent someone else. Creatures who can take on many forms.”

“Shifters,” Garrick said in realization. “They are working together.”

“We didn’t exactly go out an ask them, but we presume so. We have no defenses against shifter kind. And as you can hear, it’s starting to show.”

Kayla’s heart started a mutiny with her ribcage. It wanted out. “What about the barriers? They can’t get through them, right?”

“The Blood Oath only extends to vampirekind. Any vampire who crosses mage thresholds will burn a death of fire. Shifters have no such restrictions. Come through here,” he said motioning them to a door that looked much like a vault in a bank.

Theo crossed the room and placed his hands against the walls until it gave way to a sparsely lit tunnel. It was much different than the abandoned subway they came here by. It felt like the tunnel of a mine with thick stone chiseled out on either side of them. She could fit through, but Garrick had trouble fitting into the tight space as they moved.

Boom. Boom.

The bangs were coming quicker now.

“How did they even find me?”

Theo’s gaze traveled to Garrick; his eyes were heavy with suspicion.

“You think it was him?” Her thumb pointed back toward Garrick, as she dodged a lamp strung across the tunnel. “How? He’s been with me the entire time.”

“He tried to escape on the first day. Maybe he sent a message out before Pellan could intercept him.”

“From the mage basement?”

“I have no dealings with the vampires here,” Garrick said firmly, grunting past two larger boulders sticking out. “You can ask your mage friend, Marnie. She’s confirmed it already.”

“Marnie’s dead and no one but the four of you knew about this place.”

Kayla stopped abruptly, causing Garrick to stop an inch shy of her. “She’s what?”

“She’s in the hands of the foremages now,” Theo snipped. “She was ambushed trying to evacuate a group to her house, but somehow, they knew where she’d be.”

He tossed Garrick a hateful look before he kept on his path.

“I told Pellan we should leave you and your father to it. Now one of our own is gone,” he muttered, climbing another set of stairs.

She was too stunned to reply. Dead? But Marnie had been so powerful. She had control of her magic. She couldn’t be dead.

Theo paused on the landing to the sub-basement and held his hands on a door and listened. Behind it, a dull roar grew louder.

Boom. Boom.

The sound came from directly above them. Her pulse thickened in her ear.

“Fuck,” he swore. “Come on.”

The dull roar that was behind the door, wasn’t a roar at all. It was chaos.

Screams raced alongside magic shooting from palms as Theo brought them into what looked like an underground car park. People, en masse, were running. Some were gathering children, others trying to find an exit. Running a hand through his sandy hair, he looked down to the end people were running from, where the light was.

“They’re almost through,” he said to himself, but yanked at her arm. “Come through here.”

They weaved through the running bodies, barely making it around the corner without being separated. But she was too busy looking at the terror-filled faces skirting past her. All of this was because she and her father were on the run. She looked for her father’s salt and pepper hair in the crowd.

“Where’s my dad?” she said as a streak of magic whizzed past her face.

“He’s waiting for you. Come on,” Theo grabbed hold of her hand. A spark, hot like lightning, shot to her shoulder.

“Ah!” she snatched her hand back

“Sorry.” The apology was half-hearted as he led them through another identical cement clad hallway with a thick yellow line racing down it.

It was much quieter in here, but she didn’t see any exits.

Boom. Boom. Glass shattered behind them.

“We have been breached,” a voice boomed throughout the tunnel and the hallway they were in. Theo picked up his pace.

“Through here.” He pointed to an air vent just large enough for her to crawl through. She dipped inside, but realized this vent led into a room and not the winding ductwork she was expecting or an exit like she was hoping. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting.

She looked around. They were in a small bunker. Dozens of pairs of eyes were on her as Theo climbed through behind her.

“She is safe,” he announced. The room murmured their relief. “We can go.”

“Good,” Pellan breathed a sigh of relief. “Did you check her?”

“I did.”

“And?” Pellan leaned in curiously.

“Check me for what?” she asked, searching the room, but there was a more pressing question she need answered first. Outside of the council, there wasn’t a familiar face in between them. “Where’s my dad?”

She looked through the crowd again, catching the eyes of Carissa and Killian, whose gazes were downcast, but her father wasn’t among them.

“Your father was on the road with Marnie,” Pellan said before Theo could.

What? The air in the room was sucked away, she turned to Theo. Betrayal heated her cheeks.

“You told me he was waiting for me.”

“I didn’t want to frighten you,” Theo said. “You would have fought me if I told you the party had gone missing.”

“Missing? You told me Marnie was dead.”

“She likely is. They all likely are because of him,” Theo pivoted and before any of them could react, Garrick soared backwards, out of the vent opening with a grunt.

Several electric webs weaved across the opening, blocking him out.

He tried for the barrier, but when he touched it, a spark forced his hand backward, severely burning his palm in the process. He hissed; his eyes became black glassy orbs. Her magic raced to him, but was stopped by the web of magic and couldn’t get through.

“What are you doing? He didn’t do anything. Let him back in,” she said, half in shock. Theo didn’t move, only eyed Garrick with malice.

A low, vicious growl in the distance caught Garrick’s attention. The wolves had found a way in.

Turning, Garrick rammed the forcefield again, but bounced from it. Burns scattered up the side of his body where he met the web of magic.

Seeing him hurt, more of her magic came barreling from her hands, shooting toward the barrier, but their magic was too strong. A blinding white light seared through the hall as her magic rebounded.

“Let him in,” she repeated. “What are you doing?”

“Leaving him to his own kind,” Theo sneered.

“Theo,” Pellan said worriedly. “We don’t know if it’ll work at this stage.”

“It’s too late now.”

The shadow of the wolves in the hall behind him grew larger as they prowled toward him.

The control she had been practicing with Garrick loosened when he looked over his shoulder and crouched into a defensive position.

A large grey wolf jumped into him, knocking him on his back. It snapped and snarled at his neck.

“Garrick,” she shouted, then raced toward the opening. Only, Theo grabbed her and yanked her back. “Let me go.”

When his hold didn’t loosen, her magic erupted. It sparked and pooled at her hands, then cascaded to the floor before a fireball started to form.

“Don’t let it get out of control. Absorb it,” Pellan ordered from behind her.

Several people rushed to her and gripped her tightly.

“Let me go,” she gritted and tried to kick herself out of their hold, but there were too many.

The fireball she’d been creating, started to shrink as another wolf jumped on top of Garrick. She pushed harder, focusing on getting her magic to go to him, but no matter how much force she used, it shrunk.

“Pellan, it’s working,” Theo said watching the misty waves of her essence roll back like a wave retreating from the shore until it met her shoes and yanked her toward Pellan.

“Well, so it is,” Pellan nodded at Theo. They looked at each other like they’d just found the cure to every incurable disease known to man all at once. A sprinkle of delighted murmurs went through the several people holding her back.

He held up a hand and several misty streams traveled across the floor and up onto him. She felt her insides tug as he tried to grab hold of her essence, but it refused to go.

She fought harder.

“Let me have it or I’ll force it out of you,” he breathed. She felt the power of him grow stronger—more overbearing.

Not a chance.

“Let me go and I will.”

A howl and a whimper came from the entrance. She fought against her restraints. A burst of her magic soared from her, making them all stagger. She fell to the floor and scrambled to her feet. Before she could escape, they grabbed her again.

“We should take it from her now,” someone called. “End this once and for all.”

“Take what? I don’t have anything,” she gritted out.

“We don’t know if it’ll be enough power. It has only had days to grow.” Pellan said firmly. Another yelp, followed by several grunts. She looked up; Garrick was covered in fur. Another wave of her magic pushed.

“Look at her, it’s growing faster than we can absorb. It’ll be enough to break the Blood Oath.”

“If she gives it to us.”

“If she won’t. Syphon it,” someone called from the crowd.

“I can’t do that,” Pellan said fiercely.

“What do you think’ll happen when they finish with him,” said another. Outside of the bunker, Garrick groaned. A wolf had taken a bite out of his arm. She struggled against her cage while the murmuring crowed agreed.

She didn’t understand what the hell was happening. But Pellan did, he looked around the room somberly and gave her one last remorseful look. “I wish we could have done this another way.”

He grabbed her forearm and the magic he’d been summoning to himself, pushed inside of her in a full blast.

Just like with the Syste, her insides tore to pieces. Her vision blurred as pain seared across her belly. Her magic fought against him, but it was futile. It was like he put a vacuum to her mouth and sucked her essence from her body, draining her. Her limbs became heavy. Her body drooped.

Pain like she’d never felt surged through her veins like they were burning through her in its wake. She tried to summon her magic, but that made the pain worse. She stared at her palms and heard the echo of Garrick’s anguish beside her. She fought through the pain. She didn’t have to fight them, just get the barrier between her and Garrick to break.

She gritted her teeth and focused on getting her magic to Garrick. She envisioned it traveling from her hands, then across the floor, all the while, hot lava torched her insides as Pellan pulled her magic from her at one end and she fought to get to Garrick at the other.

Blood trickled down her nose.

“What is she doing?” someone asked.

“Fighting me. Absorb it,” Pellan’s yelled between clenched teeth.

When the hands grabbed her again, her magic rebounded. It burst from her, blowing everyone back, she hit the ground with a painful thud.

“Shit,” Theo growled from over her.

She looked up. Their barrier had broken. Her magic raced to Garrick. Disoriented, the wolves backed away from Garrick when it wrapped tightly around him.

One of the wolves looked up. It took a moment for them to recognize the change. But the scout of the group did. It bared its teeth and lowered its head. The rest of them followed.

The mages beside her backed away hesitantly, magic at their palms.

“What have you done?” Pellan’s eyes bulged as the wolves charged inside.

CHAPTER 18 will Be Live Wednesday!

Author’s Note: Talk about all-heck breaks loose. Part 2 will be out Wednesday. I also added a cute bit at the end of the last chapter that I couldn’t resist. Get ready for 2-Chapters a week! I’m going to shoot for a Sunday/Wednesday schedule but it may end up being a Monday/Thursday schedule. I hope you enjoy!

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