Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem #2)(29)

Hard clicks sounded, and I tore my focus away from Darius and shifted it to the newbie vamp edging closer. A strange sort of growl preceded a glob of drool dropping from its mouth.

“That must destroy the rugs,” I mumbled.

Another vampire waited behind the first, impatiently shifting.

Darius barely moved, his head turning just slightly, and a wave of his spicy magic filled the space. The closest vampire stopped where it was, but the one behind it scooted up so they were clustered again. Their bloodlust was rising; I could feel it in the dizzied magic mingling with mine. With Darius’s.

My mind whirled, back to wondering if I could trust him, or if he’d purposely stopped me from escaping.

“Why would you let such a powerful creature hang out in your house?” I asked, watching his face for signs of lying. “Especially when you invited me over?”

“I did not foresee you would use your magic this way. I’ve never experienced it before. I wonder if Emery knows of it.”

I pointed up at the organized mass above my head. “That, you mean? Because lately, I always have that brewing, and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone else.”

Darius’s brow wrinkled as he followed my point. “I don’t know what you are pointing at, but what is happening with your magic is a recent development, and it is not standard.”

“That’s a nice way of calling me weird.” I gritted my teeth as the clicking resumed, those hungry buggers edging toward me again.

Darius glanced over his shoulder. But instead of warning them back, he offered me a slight bow and then stepped away. “I’ll leave you to it.”

As if on cue, the closest vampire broke from the pack and lunged for me.

Eat. Kill. Devour.

Fangs, claws, and sinewy muscle stretched across its bones.

That was all I could see. All that registered.

My body locked in deep, paralyzing fear. Energy pulsed and throbbed around me. Spells rolled through my head, one by one, but the only ones I could latch on to were mostly steeped in feelings. Random thoughts. An image of a sunny day, a magnifying glass, and an anthill.

“How is that helping?” I whispered, watching the creature cross the small patch of hallway between us, intent on reaching me and ripping me open.

I knew I needed to move. To do something other than stand around like a fool. Very recently, I had been better than this. I had reacted.

Why was I locking up again?

The creature’s claw came up to slash. Darius twitched, and I thought he would step in. I thought he would grab the hand.

He stepped back.

“Help,” I begged, a sad, feeble little cry that would do nobody any favors.

The vampire grinned, of all things, and the claw swung at my neck.





14





A shock of power ripped out of my middle, yanking on my ribcage and spilling heat down through my core. Heat turned to fire and filled me to bursting, tingling in my fingers, my toes, and all the way up to my hair follicles. White blasted out from my body, a blanket of white-hot power that punched through the vampire’s middle, creating a hole as big as two of my fists.

The creature didn’t have time to howl. It jerked once, its limbs thrown wide, before it fell to the ground in a pile that quickly turned into oozing black sludge.

My survival magic didn’t stop. It rocketed out again, aiming for the first one’s buddy. Its eyes widened a moment before my magic pierced its middle, the hole smaller but just as deadly.

It howled and clutched at its chest before its legs buckled.

A metallic click sounded down the hall at my back. The soft creak of hinges announced a door opening. A magical presence filled the hallway. Fight. Tear. WAR.

“Go!” Darius shoved me behind him. “Marie! Moss!”

A woman wearing a beautiful crimson evening gown glided into the space. Small and slight, she held her hands up near her chest, worrying one of her nails. Her shoulders were straight, but her bowed head put me in mind of a timid housewife from a 1950s TV show.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

No matter what she looked like, there was no denying the rush of intent filling the hallway.

Marie was by my side in a moment, her hands bracing my shoulders and her gaze rooted to the woman. Moss zoomed in next, taking up a position beside and a little behind Darius.

An ancient sort of power filled the hallway, long dormant and just waking up, like a mummy throwing off the lid of its sarcophagus and slowly sitting up. It was the magic I’d sensed before Darius’s arrival, only stronger. Active.

“I have badly underestimated what it means to be an untrained natural in a pressurized situation. Marie, get her out of here,” Darius said, his usually calm demeanor tense and voice tight. “Hurry! Moss, we must keep Ja confined to this house until she regains sense.”

“What’s—”

Marie lifted me and threw me over her shoulder before I could get another word out.

“And Marie,” Darius said, and she stopped to turn. “Bring back blood offerings.”

I could just see the woman’s hands separate and move to her sides as claws grew from her fingertips. Very little about her posture had changed, but a primal fear I could barely understand crawled through my insides. Moss braced for an attack and Darius stripped down, even now worried about preserving his expensive suit.