Bloodmagic (Blood Destiny 2) (20 page)

Hearing the clatter of shoes on the marble floor out in the vestibule, I spun round and sprayed fire across the entrance of the office, creating a curtain of flame and effectively blocking it from anyone entering.  Faces started to appear, shouting into the room, but I ignored them and focused my attention back onto the hovering mage instead.  His voice was getting louder and the air in the room was starting to feel heavy and suffocating.

The air runes were increasing in number and getting brighter.  Several started to spin on their axis, getting faster and faster.  I fought back, throwing out flames at every one I could see.  Each time I did so, another took its place.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see the hovering mage’s face getting redder and redder.  I kept on firing, trying desperately to hit each one but avoid setting the mage himself alight. 

I shouted out, “I just want to talk to you!  Please stop this and let’s sit down together and discuss…”

My voice trailed away as the mage himself started to spin in the air.  I felt pressure building in my head.  I fought to call up my bloodfire, to make it even stronger and even greater.  It couldn’t fail me now, not at this point.  I waved my dagger in the air and shouted again, “Please!”

A bass sound started to thump in my ears and I could feel myself falling to my knees.  It wasn’t going to work, he wasn’t going to listen to me.  I pulled my hand away from directing fire at the runes and instead focused on the mage.  Just one shot wouldn’t really hurt him, but it might stop him in his tracks, if I concentrated and didn’t overshoot.  I flung my hand forward to direct the flame, but nothing happened.  I tried again, flicking my fingers forward, willing the fire to appear but there was nothing there.  It was as if I’d run completely out of gas.  I was starting to choke and bright little dots were dancing across my eyes.  I shut them tight and summoned up all the energy I had, trying to muster it into one ball of power and push it through my body.

The thumping in my head was getting worse.  I could feel my whole body starting to shake with each thud.  I pushed open my eyelids only to see one of the runes floating right in front of my face.  My eyes widened, mesmerised by its spinning shapes.  Then, suddenly, it exploded and everything went dark.

Chapter Eighteen

When I came to, I was lying prone on a cool hard surface.  I struggled to get up but found that I could barely move my limbs.  I cracked open my eyes.  The hovering mage from before stood in front of me, although now his feet were planted firmly on the ground.  I tried to reach round to my arms to pull out my daggers, but even with my weakened fumbles I realised that it was pointless and they had already been taken.

The mage bent down and cocked his head at me.  “Do you have any idea how long it has been since someone dared to enter our citadel?”

I coughed and replied weakly,  “This is a nice house for sure, and definitely bigger than anywhere else I’ve been to, but isn’t citadel taking things a little far?”

“Who are you?”  His eyes were cold, sending imaginary bolts of ice through my veins.

I tried to summon my bloodfire back into action, but the mage just laughed humourlessly.

“Take a look around you.  We’ve locked you in a nullifying cage.  No magic you try to use against us will work.  No magic you try to use for anything, in fact, will work.  Now tell me, who are you?”

I looked around.  He was right.  There was some kind of dull metal encasing me inside a small space.  I reached out and touched the bars, receiving a nasty electric shock in return.  It occurred to me that I didn’t even have enough space to stand up in.  Well, this was going to be fun.

He spoke again.  “I am growing tired of this and will say it one more time – who are you?”

“I think the more pertinent question would be why am I here,” I said, licking my lips to try to draw in some moisture.

“You are here because I put you in here,” the mage said disdainfully.

“No, I mean, why did I bother to storm your citadel?  I knew I’d get caught.  I knew that someone would stop me.  But I still came.”

The mage got closer until his nose was almost touching the cage.  “I would assume you are looking for some ridiculous revenge for the fact that we came after you in Scotland.”

I laughed.  Well, I almost laughed anyway, it came out as more of a creaking wheeze than a girlish giggle.  “Revenge?  Really?  If I was after revenge then I’d do more than this.  I wanted – no, make that WANT – to talk to you.”

He rocked back on his heels and folded his arms.  “So talk.”

I opened my mouth to speak when a door behind the wizard opened and a figure entered.  I realised that it was the guard who I’d put out earlier.  He shot me a look of absolute simmering hatred, which managed to extinguish the flicker of guilt that I was feeling.  Hey, he was walking, wasn’t he?  I noticed that his hand where I’d embedded my silver dagger earlier in was all bandaged up.

“Hey,” I called out,  “How are you feeling there, skipper?” 

I immediately regretted that remark when the lead mage casually flicked out a stream of light that shot into the cage and pierced my body causing ripples of agonising pain.  I moaned aloud, my fists clenching and fingernails curling into my skin at the searing agony.  Clearly the cage didn’t nullify magic that was entering it from outside.  Note to self: don’t piss off the people who are holding you captive and can do whatever they want to you.  I reminded myself that what I needed was for them to pay attention to me so I could get them to release Mrs Alcoon.

The guard turned to the mage.  “You have a visitor, sir.”

“Not now,” he said, dismissing the guard with an irritated wave.

“It’s the Lord Alpha, sir.”

My body froze.  What the fuck was Corrigan doing here?  Damnit that guy was like a bad smell.  The mage’s eyes narrowed infinitesimally.

“Fine,” he snapped, “I’m on my way.  Watch her,” he instructed the guard, who smiled immediately with malicious glee.  Oh, excellent.

The mage turned round and glided towards the door, not giving me another look.  Shit, looking at the guard he was leaving me with I might not get another shot at this.

“Wait!” I called out weakly.  “There’s an old woman.  In Scotland.  Well, she was in Scotland, anyway.  Now she’s…somewhere else.  You put her in a coma.  She didn’t do anything, you need to release…”

The mage left, slamming the door shut behind him.

The guard looked down at me and smiled again.  “Oh, we’re going to have some fun, girlie.”

I sighed deeply.  “Please don’t call me that.”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be asking for anything now, are you?” 

He sent out a stream of blue that hit me in the cheek.  I yowled in agony and tried to turn away.

“Now tell me,” he said, sending out another shooting beam of pain at me, “what kind of weird bitch has green magic?”

I didn’t answer.  He flicked his fingers and hit me in the same spot, just below my eye.  Involuntary tears sprang to my eyes, rolling slowly down my cheek. They just made my cheekbone sting even more.

“Answer me!” he demanded, raising his hand up again to show just what I could expect if I remained silent.

I gave in momentarily.  “I don’t know, it was one of your lot that caused it.  What’s the big deal anyway?  So it’s green, so what?”

He flicked his fingers again but this time thankfully up towards the ceiling.  “What are you, colour blind?  That’s blue.  My friends are all blue.  The Arch-Mage who you thought you could attack, is blue.  You, bitch, are green.”

Huh.  I’d achieved even higher than I’d expected.  The Arch-Mage was about as senior a wizard as you could possibly get.  At least I’d achieved some modicum of success then by targeting the most in charge person I possibly could have.  It hadn’t even occurred to me that I might get that far within the Ministry to manage that.  I permitted myself a small smile.

The guard growled and sent yet another arrow of blue flame towards me.  But this time I’d had an idea.  Instead of twisting my head away, I met it face on, allowing the shot to take me in the cheekbone at exactly the same spot where the prick of a guard had hit me before.  The pain was white hot, and it felt as if it was eating away into my actual bone.  A wave of dizziness overcame me.  Once I’d recovered some of my equilibrium, however, I raised my hand to my cheek.  As I’d hoped it came away wet.  I reached forward and smeared my blood across the edge of the cage, doing my best to ignore the painful electrical shocks.

I wasn’t entirely sure if this would work, but if I could use my blood to break through a faerie ring, then it had to be worth a try.  The guard watched me.

“Jesus, you’re pathetic.  Are you trying to knock yourself out?”

I pulled myself up to a crouch and leaned back on my hands to rest my body weight against them.  Taking a few deep breaths and feeling just the smallest satisfying flicker of bloodfire deep inside me, I lashed out at the cage with my feet, striking the exact points that I’d smeared with my blood.  It worked.  The metal fell away as whatever magic that had been holding in place was dissolved by my blood.  The guard’s eyes widened dramatically.  He started pelting me with streams of blue light, over and over.  I bit my tongue, feeling even more blood fill my mouth with its hot iron rich taste.  Drawing up from the well of fire inside me, I threw out green flame towards him.  It met his blue light, forcing it backwards and causing ripples of sparks to shoot out in every direction.

“Fucking bitch!” the guard hissed, then ran out of the door, slamming it firmly shut behind him. 

I crawled out of the cage, dragging myself by my hands.  I didn’t think it was possible to hurt quite this much.  When I finally managed to pull my body clear, I collapsed on the floor, panting and curling up into the foetal position.  I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be messing with any mages ever ever again once this was all over.

Now that I was out of the cage, however, I felt as if I had more control over my own body.  I reached into myself, pulling out threads of fire along my veins, allowing the tendrils of heat to trickle down each leg and each arm, each artery and muscle.  Eventually I was able to stir myself into a sitting position against a wall.  I rested my head against it and waited for the Arch-Mage to return.

I didn’t have long to wait.  The door to the little room was thrown open and the Arch-Mage himself was stood there, balls of blue flame in the palms of his hands and golden runes starting to form again around his head.  Behind him stood several others, all in action stances, ready to take on little old me.  I sighed deeply, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear.

“Please, Mr Arch-Mage.  All I want to do is talk.”

He started to murmur to himself chanting whatever it was he had been when he’d knocked me out previously.

“Uh…sir?  Really, I just want to talk to you.”  I held my palms up towards him in submission.  “If it helps I’ll crawl back into the cage.”

He stopped talking to himself and looked at me.  I widened my eyes slightly and tried to look sincere.

One of the clustered mages behind the Arch-Mage began to protest.  “Your Magnificence, you can’t….”

He held up a hand and the mage fell into a silence.  As impressed as I was by this display of blind obedience, I was finding it difficult not to snort in disbelief at the Arch-Mage’s title.  What was it with Otherworld megalomaniacs?  That reminded me though. 

“Uh, Sir?”  I was damned if I was going to call him ‘Your Magnificence’.  “Can I ask why the Lord Alpha is visiting?”

“I believe you just did,” the Arch-Mage said softly, raising an eyebrow at me and waggling it in a manner that reminded of some stage magician plying fake tricks to an awestruck audience.  “It turns out that he was here for you.  Still is here, in fact.”

Uh oh.

He continued.  “It appears that he is demanding to know why one of his pack members is being held here.  The Lord Alpha wanted to remind me of the Aberstrong treaty.”

I must have looked confused, because he elaborated.  “It’s an old piece of Otherworld legislation.  It came about after the Crimean War.”

“Half a league half a league half a league onwards?”  I asked.

“That’s the one.  Some of the conflict and the, well, the unfortunate deaths, were caused by dissension between shifters and mages who were present at the Battle of Balaclava.  It was believed that had we worked together with clear lines of cooperation and communication, then things would have gone better.  Once the war was over, a contract was drawn up to ensure such issues did not occur again.  One of those includes the clause that neither mages nor shifters will interfere in each other’s business without first brokering a meeting with each head of state.  The Lord Alpha wanted to know why you were here and he hadn’t been contacted.

Naturally, I was going to point out that you are not a shifter and therefore not covered by the treaty.  However before I could do so I was informed that you had broken free of the cage and were rampaging through the College yet again.  He’s still waiting upstairs.”

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

“Sir, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t do that.  Tell him I’m not a shifter, I mean.”  I licked my lips, nervously.

“Yes, I can imagine that you would.  I would appreciate it myself, however if over a hundred years of relative peace between our two groups was not shattered by some nonentity little girl who is trying to pass herself off as a shifter and yet is actually a mage.”

“I’m not a mage, I can promise you that.”

“You can do magic.  Not what we are used to, but I can guarantee that it was magic.  And you broke free from the cage.”  He glanced over at it for a moment and looked almost sad.  “That’s never happened before.  So before we do anything, you are going to tell me what you are, who you are and what in damnation you are doing in my College!”

I looked down at the floor.  I couldn’t tell him what I was.  My mother had hidden me at the pack for a reason; John had kept the truth from me for my entire life for a reason.  In fact, since I’d discovered that I was Draco Wyr, I’d already told four people and I was damn lucky that they hadn’t done anything else with that information.  I was quite sure that there were others like Iabartu out there somewhere who would be willing to wreak all manner of devastation to get hold of some of my blood.  The Arch-Mage might even be one of those others.