Bloodspell (31 page)

Leto stared at her with baleful eyes until she flushed again, before he continued.
For an Aurus,
that signature is as obvious as if you
gave
them the blueprint of your magic,
and that information can be used against you
...
to control you,
to hurt you,
to kill you
!
Leto's mental voice shook with barely concealed fury.
That's why they are so dangerous.

"Oh," whispered Victoria. "But it was nothing."

Doesn't matter,
it was still
your
magic.
Please Victoria,
you need to be more careful.
You must know that there's a lot more at stake here.
People have killed for far less.

The pointed reference to her unique blood and who she was made her feel suddenly very cold, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

"The thing is Leto, I'm just not sure what my purpose is. I mean I read Brigid's journal but I just don't know what it is that
I
am supposed to do." She wrung her hands in frustration. "I am not part of a coven, no one even knows who I am."

Patience,
Victoria.
Our destinies are not always known to us but still we must prepare for them.

"And is that what I'm doing? Preparing? Preparing for what?"

For who you are.

"But what does that
mean,
Leto? Who am I? Please don't tell me I'm someone like Brigid!"

You cannot change who you are,
Victoria.
But you can decide who you become.
If that is similar to Brigid's path or someone else's,
then that is your choice.

Victoria raked her hands through her hair. She knew that Leto was right, but she wanted someone to come out and tell her what she was supposed to be doing.

She had never spoken to another witch except for the one that had tried to kill her up at the mountain. How was she supposed to find others like herself? Christian had said that the Vampire Council was negotiating with the witch clans in Europe, which meant that covens had to exist there and here as well. She would ask Christian if he could find out anything further for her about the witch clans. Perhaps he would even allow her to accompany him on his next trip.

Aside from her loneliness, she worried almost constantly about how to control the blood magic. It only became ravenous when she engaged it, the day-to-day spells and incantations she practiced barely touching on the limits of her personal power. She rarely took off the amulet whose absence had caused her blood to go crazy when she'd killed the witch. She felt stronger knowing that she didn't have to give in to its blood lust as readily as she did without it.

Victoria knew what she had to do but was deathly afraid to do it—she needed to put herself into a situation where she had to actually
use
the blood magic, to get it into a frenzy so that she could have the opportunity to control it and
learn
to harness its deadly potency. Brigid's words resounded like a mantra in her head, the price of the blood was hers to set,
hers
to set.

And there was only one person who was strong enough that she could ask for help creating such a scenario.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" CHRISTIAN said furiously. She could see the muscle ticking in his clenched jaw. Victoria had just finished explaining her plan to him.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared at her, irate. What she was suggesting was completely absurd, she could be hurt or worse, killed.

"Christian, please," she said. "I need to do this."

"Not this way."

"Christian, this is the
only
way!" As he shook his head, turning away, she continued fiercely. "Don't make me find someone else. I'm sure Lucian would be amenable."

Christian whirled back around, his silver eyes flashing fire. "Don't you ever say that! Don't you know what Lucian is? He is a merciless killer!"

"Yes."

Christian swore under his breath. He was caught between a rock and a hard place because on the one hand, he knew that Victoria was right to try to tame the manic desires of her blood, her birthright, but by having him attack her, he felt that he was tempting fate. He wasn't even sure that he could control himself if things got too out of hand. The siren call of her blood was still far too sweet. On the other hand, he really didn't want her running off trying to provoke someone else, like Lucian, who could really hurt her or worse. "Damn it!" he said.

"Does that mean you'll help me?" she asked. Victoria knew that what she was proposing could put them both in a lot of danger. Something could always go wrong, no matter the preparation or precautions. Christian held Victoria's shoulders, noting the defiant resolve in her eyes, and sighed.

"Victoria, you cannot possibly know what you are asking."

"I'm sorry, Christian. I just don't know what else to do, and this seemed like the best way. I need you. You're the only one I can trust."

"So when do you want to do this?"

"Now," she said, waving her hand toward the glass doors leading into the garden. The sky was overcast and it was warmer than it had been during the last couple months, a balmy thirty degrees, not that that really mattered to either of them. Christian blanched.

"It's not that simple, Tori. I need to feed first," he said.

"Fine, go ahead and I'll catch up," she said, the words rushing out.

She didn't want Christian to spend any more time thinking because he would undoubtedly find a way to get out of it. Christian, in turn, felt that Victoria was being far too cavalier about the whole thing. That fact alone exasperated him even more, but his hands were tied. She was headstrong and willful enough to do exactly what she had said—attempt to provoke someone like Lucian, and there was no way he could allow that to happen.

"Fine," he said curtly, and left. As quickly as he walked out the back French doors, he walked back in and hauled her up against him, kissing her soundly, hard and fast. He looked like he had something to say but then decided against it, and kissed her again before stalking out, muttering under his breath.

Victoria exhaled in a rush. She knew how hard this was for him. She deliberated taking off the amulet but then decided against it because she didn't want to put either of them into any more danger than necessary. Without it, she knew she'd be at her blood's mercy. Victoria left the necklace on. She would only use it if she had to. She checked her watch and saw that Christian had only been gone ten minutes. That would be just about right.

Christian raced into the forest beyond the manicured lawn of his back garden. He let the fury that he'd felt after Victoria's request run wild, allowing the beast within him to go free. It didn't take him long to track and capture a young deer. He drank deeply for several long seconds, feeling the life flow through him like a tonic. A whisper of movement in the air pulled him from his semi-trance. He let the deer go slowly and before it could even stand up on wobbly legs to escape into the forest, he was flying with inhuman speed toward the threat. Unconsciously, mere seconds before he reached the target, he smelled that it was human, and he hesitated.

It was enough for Victoria to hurl a ball of energy toward him, which he dodged with practiced ease. His eyes widened as she threw another one viciously toward him. That one caught him squarely in the stomach, and he flew back ten feet crashing into a large balsam fir tree.

He shook off the blow and vaulted to his feet snarling. If she wanted to provoke him, she was doing a stellar job of it. Christian circled warily and leapt into the air to the right. He felt her shift off-balance. He rolled into a crouch and attacked her vulnerable right side sending her flying. Her head smashed against a rock and the smell of blood saturated the air. In a flash he was on top of her with his hands around her throat.

Victoria ignored the stab of pain, and for the first time, felt the blood start to boil in her veins. She invoked a teleportation spell and disappeared from his vice-like grip, appearing behind him.

"Ignis cremo," she shouted. Two giant fireballs flew toward him as the blood began its familiar song, her eyes blackening with rage. It fueled her like nothing ever did. Christian dodged her attacks, moving with unearthly grace as she teleported around him again and again. The air crackled, thick with dry electricity as the two combatants spun and parried with incredible speed and agility. She launched an ice blast at his chest and crowed in triumph as the jagged shards sliced from neck to chest, blood discoloring his shirt. Christian's wounds healed immediately, and he was a blur once more, parrying with a vicious thrust to her exposed back. She fell to her knees gasping as the bones in her spine shattered.

"Curo!" she cried, and obediently her spine was rebuilt and realigned.

The energy sparked like blue fire between her fingertips, her face flushed with exhilaration. She'd barely brushed the edges of her own power even with the complex healing spell. The blood was manic in her body; all it wanted was life, blood, sacrifice, especially now that it had been spilled. It had a life and an energy all its own, but it was her body and her mind ...
her
blood. She was its master. Victoria needed to push it as far as she dared so that she could harness its energy, and for that, she had to be completely in control to take it to the brink and then pull it back. She
had
to know that she could make it obey her otherwise she would always lose to it and then it would always own her.

Christian feinted to the left, his eyes frenzied as he saw the blood pulsing beneath her skin, her face so delectably red, the
smell
of it, so seductively potent. He ran his tongue against his teeth, feeling their sharpness, and flexed his fingers. He raced toward her, at the last minute throwing himself left, exactly where he had seen her eyes shift in the nanosecond before, and he collided with her, smashing her to the ground with his left shoulder. He felt the air leave her body in a loud whoosh and saw pain fill eyes that were so black they looked like burning embers. His brute strength broke her arm easily as she tried to wrench herself from beneath him, and he could feel his mouth filling with saliva as her blood sang its seductive song daring him to take it. But Christian knew that the minute he bit her, it would be over.
He
would be over. She gasped, and Christian couldn't resist, he kissed her, silencing the soft muttering that had parted her lips, while she struggled beneath him.

Then Christian made the fatal mistake of looking into her eyes.

Suddenly he couldn't move a muscle. They smoldered with a terrible black anger even as her mouth returned his kiss. It was as if they were two separate beings, the sweetness of her mouth upon his, and the darkness of her terrible eyes draining the life out of him. Christian could feel her heart racing, the fury of her blood uncontrollable, and he knew that if she couldn't rein it in somehow, he would be lost. Already his hunger eviscerated him, he could feel the holes in his gut as those eyes, so blackly terrifying—hers but not hers, sucking everything from him, taking, feeding ...
killing.
He felt wetness on his face.

Somehow, she'd become the vampire.

Victoria could barely control the tremendous rush of the blood driving her to take every last bit of life from Christian. Its heat burned her eyes as she tore her mouth from the sudden blue coldness of his, her left arm hanging limply, and stared in horror at the rivers of red bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth. It pooled to the ground in a sticky, viscous river beneath him, and she could feel him writhing in pain above her. She knew she was killing him, and it sickened her as much as it thrilled her. Her breath came in shallow pants as the fear took root—the blood magic wasn't stopping! Helpless, Victoria saw the dullness in Christian's eyes and knew that he was growing weaker with each passing second as the blood drained from him like water through a sieve.

Her left arm ached, limp at her side, and Victoria forced the blood magic to heal the injury, directing its fury away from its consumption, from its inhuman desire for death. As her bones mended, she tried to coerce the powerful blood into submission. She gritted her teeth, focusing and pulling the power into her, compelling the beast. It rebelled, furious. She felt like she was splintering under its fury, every cell in her felt like it was on fire and growing weaker by the second. It was relentless! Oh god, she couldn't do it. She'd thought she could control something she barely even understood and now Christian was going to die because of her reckless stupidity. How could she have been so arrogant?

Christian was as pale as death and his lips moved in soundless agony. She could hear the one word echoing over and over in his head like a staccato as if it were the only thing keeping him conscious.

Blood.
Blood.
Blood.

The cold realization hit her then—she
wasn't
strong enough. Christian was dying! In desperation, she called out to the one person who could help them.