More than Magic Book 4: Magic Betrayed
Autorzy
Elizabeth Kirke
Lektury
22,4K
Rozdziały
16
Magical beings are going missing. And it’s our job to look into it. What we find is terrifying. An ancient cult. A forbidden magic. A traitor among us. These people are willing to do anything to keep their secrets. But my friends and I can’t stop our investigation. Even if we’re walking into a trap. What we find will change everything. If it doesn’t kill us first. This kind of magic is supposed to be a myth. But it’s real. And it’s more powerful than we ever could have imagined.
Life in New York
Jen
Dear Rachel,
Can you believe the first 90 days of my internship are almost over?! I’ll move from a stipend to a salary (which means you can stop sending me money, although I appreciate it) and start accruing vacation time.
I want to thank you again for being so supportive of my move. You’re the best stepmom ever! Especially because I know you think I came to New York for all the wrong reasons. Why else would I get a Master’s in History, then turn around and get an internship at a security company you’ve never heard of, in another state… where my boyfriend just happens to work… It’s hard to explain. Okay, maybe not that hard.
I’m a witch.
I know, not the explanation you were expecting. But it’s the truth. There’s so much I want to tell you. So much I wish I could tell you.
“Mar.”
I watched a flame flare to life at the corner of the letter. The paper curled and blackened as the fire moved along, destroying the words I had written. As I watched it burn, I told myself the tears in my eyes were just from the smoke. When nothing was left but ash, I aimed my wand at it again.
“Ahn.”
The ashes sailed lazily though the air as I directed them to the fireplace and dropped them in. A black furry head popped up from the cat tree on the hearth; Rak stood and stretched, watching the ashes float by. He took a step toward me and jumped off the perch. He vanished the moment his feet left the ground, leaving only a few wisps of smoke in his wake. A moment later he appeared above the couch and landed next to me, as gracefully as if he jumped a couple of feet instead of across an entire room. As more smoke drifted down around him, he curled his inky tail over his feet and watched me with unblinking, yellow eyes.
“What were you writing?” he asked, tilting his head a bit.
“A letter to my stepmom.”
A sense of sympathy and understanding passed through our bond. He stretched out and bumped his head gently against my arm. I scratched him behind the ears, feeling the pleasant sensation behind my own as I did.
“I thought it would be easier like this,” I confessed. “I had to lie to Rachel so much when I was living at home, but now everything she knows about my life is a freaking lie.”
“She knows you live with Thomas.”
“Honestly, Rak, that’s one thing I wish I had lied about. Half of the reason Rachel’s upset I’m here is because she thinks I’m doing it just to be with Thomas.”
Sure, it was nice to finally move in together after five years of dating long-distance, but he was a perk of moving, not the reason. For one thing, I had several close friends here; all of them magical beings, like me. I had met a few magics over the years, but never got as close to them as I was to this group. It was probably something about facing an evil vampire together, not long after I first met them. My friendships usually weren’t forged out of a shared fear-of-death experience.
Not that I could explain that to Rachel. Especially not when I made the mistake of telling her Thomas worked for the same company I was applying for an internship with. After getting a Master’s in History – another lie – Rachel couldn’t understand why I’d want to work for a little company like M. E. Security. She said it bothered her that I could talk about what I learned in history class for hours but couldn’t muster the same enthusiasm about MES for even a few minutes. That was because I had no idea what the company did. Or rather, what they were supposed to do. It was all a cover presented to non-magics, like Rachel, who took an interest in them. Their website looked like, and probably was, something out of the ‘90s, and was maddeningly unhelpful. It looked, as Rachel pointed out, like some sort of scam company. It not only worried her even more, but it made her paranoid about Thomas’ morals as well.
I certainly couldn’t tell her that MES actually stood for Magical Enforcement and Secrecy. It was, in a way, somewhat security related at least. The classes I claimed were for an advanced history degree were actually magic classes I was taking at our local MES office. Thanks to my magic coming from my biological mother’s side, nobody knew I was a witch until I met Thomas and the others. It put me behind other witches my age, so I took the classes to build my skills and learn things about my new world that I would have known, had my mother been around to teach me.
Working for MES would give me a leg up, no matter what I chose to do. If a magic didn’t work directly for MES, sooner or later they worked with them in some way. In fact, all of my friends worked for MES. We were in different departments, but it was fun to get to spend time with them. The biggest downside was that Thomas and our roommate worked the night shift together. Once my internship was finished, I’d probably switch to that shift as well, but for now I was stuck with whatever I got. It meant that Thomas and TS were often getting home as I was leaving. I couldn’t be too upset though, I still got to see them far more than I did while living in Maryland.
In addition to his regular duties working for MES, Thomas also doubled as a special agent. Special agents were called in for the really dangerous stuff; feral werewolves, murderous vampires, out of control elementals, and things like that. I sometimes wished I told Rachel that Thomas did something other than boring office work. It would have given me someone else to talk to on nights he was late and I worried he was out on a dangerous job, especially when some of my other friends were out too. TS was a field agent, which meant he was always sent out first. Our friend Dani was a special agent and nearly always out on a job with Thomas, and then there was Charlie, who was just an agent but was still on call for problems that required a fire elemental or needed as many people as possible.
“Maybe I should have waited to…” I trailed off with a sigh.
No, I didn’t regret coming to New York at all. Staying wouldn’t have changed the fact I’d still have to lie to Rachel. And the longer I stayed, the more I’d have to make up. She’d start wondering why I was still long-distance with a guy I hardly saw; one she thought she had yet to meet. She’d never understand that we weren’t in a rush. Five years was a blink of an eye for a magic. Charlie and Dani had been engaged for that long now, with no wedding date in sight, after dating for nearly twenty-five. Thomas and I weren’t in a hurry. If nothing else, at least my stepmother understood that I wanted to be closer to him.
But then, if I had opted for a magic job in Maryland she’d ask all sorts of questions; questions I couldn’t dodge in person. And I’d have to get a job. Sooner or later a twenty-seven-year-old bumming around at home would concern her as much as me leaving had.
I couldn’t linger there anyway; I could still pull off my real age, but the truth was I stopped aging not long after I started using magic. In another five years I might be able to pull off thirty-two and looking good, but not for much longer than that. Once that started to happen, I’d have to slowly withdraw from my non-magic family. Immortality had its drawbacks.
With another sigh, I stood. There was no need to dwell on it. I wasn’t happy knowing I’d be forced to limit contact with Rachel and my sister someday, but I had it better than some. My friends were like one big family. I had a steady job, well, internship, with plenty of opportunity to grow. I had my familiar. And, of course, I was a witch. That was pretty damn great. Even my non-magic cousin had been turned into a dhampir. She’d be in my life no matter what, now.
Thomas lost his parents and familiar to vampires during a massacre at his high school, decades ago. TS was too young to remember it well, but he had been in first grade there and nearly died. In fact, most of my friends had experienced some level of trauma in their lives. Even I lost my father young and grew up thinking my biological mother abandoned me. Never mind a few recent brushes with death since becoming a magic…
Still… I kissed Rak’s dark fur and he purred. No regrets.
I grabbed my half-forgotten dinner plate and carried it into the kitchen. It was the most updated, and finest, room in the old farmhouse. Thomas, TS, and Dani had owned it for nearly forty years. Dani moved out long ago, but practically still lived here, at least it felt like it sometimes. The big house always served as a gathering place for our group of friends, and old habits die hard, especially when you’re immortal. Well, older immortals maybe. I was already thinking of it as “my” house, although part of that was Thomas, and TS, making sure I felt at home.
Just as I started getting lost in a book, my cell phone rang. It was Lynn, my biological mother. She was attacked and changed into a vampire not long after I was born, which left her hospitalized for a month while the turning process completed. Her relationship with my father was strained, mainly because she was a witch and hadn’t been able to get a permit to tell him about magic. When he came home to find his baby daughter alone and his wife gone, he assumed she left on purpose. After that, he raised me alone until he met Rachel, who just happened to be the aunt of my best friend. Then he passed away, just a couple of years later.
Rachel was really the only parent I had ever known and I thought she was the best mom ever. Which made it tough to suddenly have Lynn drop back into my life. Over the last few years the two of us had built more of a friend or sisterly relationship than a mother-daughter one, which I was fine with. The hard part was that since Lynn was a magic, I was able to be honest with her about everything, while I was forced to keep lying to my stepmom. Since I couldn’t even tell Rachel that Lynn was around, it made the lies even harder sometimes.
Nevertheless, when I got off the phone I was feeling better. It was nice to not worry about keeping my story straight and just talk for a bit, especially when Thomas was at work and someone could share my concern that he’d be sent on a dangerous job.
I was feeling hungry, so I started browsing the fridge for a late-night snack. I sensed surprise through my bond with Rak, just before I heard the sound of the front door closing. Someone was talking with Rak, and I quickly identified Thomas’ voice.
“You’re home early,” I said, successfully finding some salsa that would go bad soon. I opened it and took a whiff. Seemed fresh. I closed the fridge and turned to see Thomas behind me, offering a bag of chips, with half a smirk. He brushed a lock of brown hair off his forehead, away from his eyes.
“Thank you,” I said, taking the bag from him.
“Don’t eat that,” he advised, nodding to the salsa.
“It smells okay…” I took another sniff. He shook his head in disagreement, so I shrugged. I trusted his sense of smell over mine. “If you say so.”
He grinned and held up a new container of salsa. “Grabbed this too.”
I laughed and hugged him, careful not to smash the chips. He was taller than me, but not by too much. It was just enough that he could give me a hello kiss on the cheek without having to stoop. He hugged me back. I fit comfortably under his arm, with my ear snug against his shoulder and my head tucked under his chin.
“Are you home for the night?” I asked, as I pulled away.
“Yeah, I finished up everything I needed to do and didn’t have much else going on. Stopped for a pint and then figured I’d head home.”
“TS?”
“He’s still at work.” His green eyes narrowed in concern. “That missing wizard case.”
“Oh.” My stomach gave a nervous flop at the reminder. A wizard had gone missing a couple of weeks ago. He was just the latest in a string of disappearances that stretched back to before my internship started; years before, if you believed the rumors. Several cases had been linked to the same place and now people were starting to get worried. “How was work?”
“Slow.” Thomas chuckled, then a small frown creased his brows. “I had to have a chat with Charlotte today.”
Charlotte. The name was familiar, but it took me a second to connect it to the other intern at MES. She was in the IT department, so I rarely crossed paths with her. Most of what I knew about her was secondhand from Ember, my friend who worked in IT. Even then, Charlotte tended to keep to herself. What I did know was that she had been changed into a dhampir only a few months ago. Only a witch or wizard could be turned into a vampire; if a vampire turned a non-magic they became a dhampir, which were essentially vampires, albeit not as powerful, but still quite a bit stronger and faster than humans. The biggest difference was dhampirs lacked the ability to turn people.
I knew firsthand how overwhelming it was to suddenly discover magic was real and try to navigate a shocking new world. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to have the added complication, not to mention stress, of having to drink blood and finding out I wasn’t human anymore.
Understandably, Charlotte was still having some trouble adapting. As a non-magic, she was a skilled computer programmer, which was a sorely needed job skill among magics, so MES jumped at the chance to create an internship just for her when she expressed interest.
“Is she okay?” I asked. He wouldn’t be telling me they had a talk if it were just a casual conversation.
He sighed and shrugged as he eased himself onto a stool by the counter. I joined him in concern, setting the chips and salsa down as I sat.
“She is now, I guess,” he said. “I got an alert she wasn’t signed up for enough feedings this month and it’s not the first time, so I figured I should probably talk with her.”
Thomas's job at MES was another one of those things that I couldn’t get very detailed about with Rachel. I wasn't sure what a community liaison like him would be doing at what was supposed to be a security company. Thomas dealt with all the magics in the area, residents and visitors alike, to make sure that their magical needs were being met. Among those duties was handling the blood donor schedule for vampires and dhampirs.
Feeding without permission was illegal, as was feeding from non-magics. While vampires could, and did, drink bagged blood, roughly a third of what they drank had to be straight from the source, so to speak; otherwise they'd get sick or worse. They also needed a wide variety. Only human blood worked, which cut out a large percentage of magics who may have been willing to donate. I was sure that some lucky vampires may have had enough of a human network to provide ample blood, but I doubted that someone relatively new to our world, like Charlotte, had that luxury.
As an added perk, if you could call it that, the schedule allowed MES to know exactly when and where vampires would be feeding. It made it easy to track them. If a vampire were to turn someone else into a vampire or a dhampir – which was a crime punishable by death – it would make it incredibly difficult to try and secretly integrate them into our world because using the blood drives would immediately raise red flags.
Assuming that Charlotte did not have a bunch of personal donors, the fact she wasn't on the schedule often enough meant that she was either underfed, and potentially in danger of making herself sick, or she was feeding from innocent people without permission. Not just against the law, but also punishable by death. The magic world didn't tend to be very forgiving of vampires.
“She didn’t seem very thrilled about it,” Thomas continued. “We had a little chat about how much blood she should actually be getting, versus what she is. And I, you know, tried to feel her out a little bit, and make sure that she's not feeding from anyone she shouldn't be.”
“Do you think that's the case?” I asked in concern.
He shook his head. “No, it seems like she just genuinely isn't into it. Can't really blame her for that. It's hard. Especially if you don't even know vampires exist to begin with.”
I nodded in agreement. I remembered how hard adapting to feeding had been for Shannon and she was a huge fan of vampire books and things when she was a non-magic. I used the lull in the conversation to open the chips and salsa, trying not to think too hard about how my cousin’s transition to life as a magic had started out. Shannon had been able to lean on my friends and I as she adjusted, I doubted Charlotte had gotten that sort of support.
“Do you think maybe Charlotte could use a friendly face?” I offered. “I could sign up.”
He wrinkled his nose. “I don't think that would be necessary.”
“You know, I was a blood donor in Maryland,” I reminded him.
“I wasn't thrilled about it then, either. Besides, I wasn't the one responsible for actually putting your name on the schedule.” It was sweet, if not slightly over-protective.
I rolled my eyes fondly at him. “How many people are actually hurt by vampires during blood drives?”
“Not many,” he grudgingly admitted. “You know I'm the last person who holds those stupid prejudices about vampires. But…” He shrugged. “It's not all entirely untrue. Not a lot of blood donors get hurt, but it happens, and I would be pretty upset if it happened to you.”
“Maybe,” I teased gently. “You're just afraid that I'm going to end up meeting some cute vampire guy.”
“You got me,” Thomas laughed. “That's exactly what I'm worried about. Or at least I would be if I wasn't the one doing the scheduling,” he added.
“So, maybe I need to check that schedule and make sure you're not giving yourself any cute witches,” I countered. I dunked a chip in the salsa and took a big bite, as if I was done talking.
“Worried about that, are you?”
“Should I be?”
Quick as lightning, he spun the top of my stool partway around, so I was facing away from him. He gave it a tug, yanking me off balance, and I fell back against him. Before I could even think about adjusting myself, he wrapped one arm around my chest, pulling me tightly to him. With his other hand he brushed my hair off my neck and caught it up in a loose ponytail, then tugged gently to urge my head to the side. He paused, just a beat, so that my brain could catch up with what was happening. Then slowly and deliberately he dragged his tongue up the side of my jugular. I couldn't resist a shiver.
“Tell me,” he breathed in my ear. “Do you honestly think there are any cute witches you need to be worried about?”
I sighed contentedly and arched my neck to him. “I suppose not.”
His chest vibrated against my back, as he chuckled while nuzzling my neck. I felt him inhale, followed by a shudder.
“Regretting stopping for that pint?” I asked.
He nipped me gently. “I have plenty of room for dessert.” I could almost see his expression before he even pulled away. I turned partially and, sure enough, he was wincing with embarrassment. “Was that over the line?” he asked.
“I thought it was clever,” I told him. “And you know, kind of romantic. In a vampirey way.”
“I think the word is vampiric.”
“Shouldn't you know?” I teased. Instead of answering, he plucked the forgotten chip from my hand and popped it in his mouth. “There’s garlic on that.”
Thomas snorted. “Don’t you start with that nonsense. I get enough crap from Dani.”
I chuckled and our eyes met for a moment. “I love you,” I blurted.
He grinned at me, then eased my stool back onto all four legs. “You are something else, Jen.” He said it with a fond smile; it was a phrase he frequently used to express his disbelief at stumbling upon a witch who didn't run screaming from him. I supposed there was a plus side to being raised as a non-magic and enjoying a good vampire romance novel now and again. Certainly better than the witches who were raised to hate them.
He brushed a lock of hair back off my cheek, green eyes gazing into mine. “I love you, too.” Then his nostrils flared. “Were you burning a candle?”
“No, why?”
“You smell vaguely smoky.”
Oh. Now it was my turn to be embarrassed. “I was burning paper.” Thomas just regarded me skeptically and I knew he wasn’t going to leave that one alone. I sighed. “I was writing a letter to Rachel and kind of got carried away and started writing stuff that, you know, I can't tell her. So, I set it on fire.”
It didn't take him very long to figure out what stuff I was implying. Keeping our existence a secret from non-magics was our number one Most Important Law. It was also pretty much the reason MES had been founded.
It was possible to apply for a permit to tell non-magics about us, but the process was lengthy and complicated, and my odds of approval weren't very good. Since Rachel was my stepmother and I was an adult, at least by non-magic standards, she had a very slim chance of getting a permit. I had a better shot with my little half-sister, Emily, since she was at least biologically related to me. Not that it mattered. I would never be able to apply for a permit for either of them.
As if he had read my mind, Thomas bowed his head and looked away from me, unable to meet my eyes. “I'm sorry,” he said heavily. “Jen, I'm so—”
I put my finger over his lips, knowing he was apologizing for far more than just the fact I wanted to tell Rachel and couldn't.
“Don't be sorry,” I said firmly. “You saved Shannon's life. That's worth more than a permit. Don't ever be sorry about that. Got it?”
He kissed the tip of my finger and nodded solemnly, before one corner of his mouth twisted into a weak smile. “I'm still sorry though,” he added softly.
I leaned forward and rested my head against his chest with a sigh. A few years ago, my cousin Shannon, still a non-magic, had nearly died. Thomas was forced to make the split-second decision to save her life: by turning her.
The daring move had worked, but it also meant that if anyone ever found out what Thomas had done he'd be executed, no questions asked. Since a truth potion was part of the process for applying for a permit, I could never, ever risk it. Being able to tell Rachel and Emily about magic wasn’t worth trading Thomas’ life for. But, not being able to apply for those permits was still really tough sometimes, especially when it came to being forced to lie to Rachel about my life.
Thomas wrapped his arms around me. We sat like that silently for some time. It felt so good, so right, that I could practically feel myself falling asleep, lulled by the comforting sound of his three steadily beating hearts; a normal more human heart, a larger stomach-heart for holding blood, and a heart-like organ for filtering blood. Once the strange beating had sounded quite odd to me. Now, the sound had not only become familiar, but I found that if I paid attention I could actually hear the difference between the stomach-heart beating when it was empty, versus full. It sounded like he had actually gotten more than one pint on the way home.
I yawned and he turned the embrace into a tighter hug.
“Tired?”
“A little,” I answered. “But I'd rather stay up, if you want to watch a movie or anything.”
“Actually, I think I'd rather turn in early with you.” He stood and started rolling up the bag of chips, shooting me a sly look over his shoulder. “I think there was talk of dessert?” he teased.
“I still haven't gotten ready for bed,” I said, “I was thinking of showering, but…” I let it hang.
“If that’s an invitation to join you, I’m going to take out the trash and be right there.”
“Beat you there.”
“We’ll see.”
I headed out of the kitchen. The upstairs bathroom, where our room was, was being renovated. So, I headed down to the basement. The bathroom there was better than the original one upstairs anyway. Thomas' first roommate, Dani, was a water elemental. And when it comes to renovating a bathroom water elementals seemed to have their priorities in the right place.
“I'm going to shower,” I told Rak, as I headed through the living room to the basement. “Will you be okay up here?”
“I will if you make sure to block me if Thomas is “showering” with you,” he said, referring to our ability to prevent information from passing through our bond. Thanks to that bond, I could feel his amusement.
“I will,” I promised.
He jumped off the couch and vanished. Even though I couldn’t see him, I could sense exactly where he was and turned to see that he had landed on the radiator behind me. Almost immediately I started feeling the heat from it through him.
“Go have fun,” he purred. “I'll be fine.” He started cleaning his paws.
Nodding, I turned and carefully made my way down the steep staircase that led to the basement. I was almost to the bathroom door when the sliding glass door to the backyard opened. I sprinted, but there was no outrunning a vampire. Thomas beat me by a mile.
“Cheater,” I snorted, following him into the bathroom.
***
“Jen,” Thomas groaned, stirring me from a sound sleep. “Your alarm is going off.”
I fought back a yawn. “Sorry!” I could just barely hear my morning alarm coming from somewhere.
I carefully worked my way out from under his arm, stopping to give him a quick peck on the cheek, and escaped the bed. We hadn’t even made it out of the basement last night. Luckily, there was a nice big bed down here. I followed the sound to my bathroom and found my phone in the pocket of my discarded pants.
After dismissing the alarm, I grabbed the nearest shirt, which turned out to be Thomas’, and pulled it on before heading up the stairs to start my coffee. I made it to the living room and stopped short; there was a huge wolf sprawled on the couch.
Well, the wolf itself wasn’t surprising. The shock was the ball of black fluff curled contentedly on top of it. Rak and TS maintained a feline-canine feud, but clearly all bets were off when it came to somewhere warm and cozy. For a moment, I stood and took in the amusing sight. TS was so large in his wolf form that he was practically falling off the couch. He was on his back, with all four legs jutting out at different angles. One paw, and the large tail dragging on the floor, were twitching slowly like he was dreaming. His massive jaws were open wide, revealing a ferocious set of teeth and fangs bigger than my hand. The imposing picture was ruined by the large tongue comically lolling out between them. That, and the cat sleeping on his chest.
Chuckling to myself, I headed into the kitchen and started the coffee. The sun would probably be up soon and TS would shift back. Sure enough, by the time I had the coffee brewing and returned to the living room, Rak was sleeping on a much smaller human. Not that TS could really be considered small, regardless of what form he was in.
TS was still sprawled on his back with his tongue hanging out and I bit back a laugh. He could shift with clothes, provided they were treated with a potion first, but he had obviously gone to sleep in only boxers. I supposed I was lucky he had on anything at all. It seemed TS, well, all werewolves so he claimed, had a tendency to forget clothing now and again. In just a few short months I had been subjected to a fully naked roommate several times. Thomas seemed unfazed after decades of living together, so I was trying to just roll with it.
Rak opened his eyes, looked around in confusion, then froze.
“Morning,” I teased. “Comfortable?”
He slowly stood, just as TS rolled to his side. I sensed alarm and felt a tingle in my fingers as Rak dug in his claws for balance. TS yelped like a dog and jerked upright, looking around in confusion.
“Bloody hell! What was that?!” Sleep made his baritone voice even deeper than usual and thickened his Irish accent.
“Sorry,” Rak said. He had jumped to the table and was innocently licking his paws. No doubt cleaning off wolf.
TS examined his chest. “You scratched me,” he said indignantly. In all honesty, I was impressed Rak’s claws had gotten though the absurd amount of chest hair.
“I said sorry,” Rak repeated.
“You rolled over and he lost his balance,” I said in defense of my familiar.
“What were you on top of me for?” TS asked.
I sensed embarrassment. “It was cold last night and… your fur… was warm,” Rak admitted.
“Fair enough,” TS conceded. He grinned and arched an eyebrow at me. “I’d ask why you weren’t with Jen, but that’s clear.”
I automatically reached up with one hand to cover my neck. Not that it mattered. Even if the physical evidence had already healed, they both knew.
“I’m going to get ready for work.” I didn’t need to feel embarrassed in front of them, but I did anyway.
TS stretched and followed me. “Don’t mind me, I’m heading up to my room.” He paused and added, “You’re welcome to join me, Rak. If you like.”
Rak nodded in thanks and TS and I headed upstairs.
“Night, Jen,” TS said with a chuckle as he headed into his room. The door closed and I heard a foomf as he flopped onto the gigantic beanbag he used as a bed.
I stopped by the bathroom to check the mirror. Sure enough, there were several faded bruises, each with two scarred punctures in the middle, on my neck. I pulled off my shirt and wasn’t surprised to see a few on my shoulders too. Hazard of dating a vampire. I grabbed a healing potion from the medicine cabinet and slathered it on. Perk of being a witch. The marks would be gone long before I got to work.
