Magic Awakens (Dragon Mage Book 2) Read online

  My hands felt hot and I pulled them off the steering wheel with a gasp. The car swerved into the next lane.

  Alec grabbed the wheel and righted us. Thankfully we were alone on the highway. "What happened?"

  With a deep breath, I thought about snow, cold, ice cubes floating in a cold drink. The heat eased and relief washed through me. I had to get this thing under control. Taking back the wheel, I glanced at Alec. "Thanks."

  "You okay? Need me to drive?"

  "I'm okay." Hands shaking, I gripped the wheel tighter and held the feeling of cold in my head.

  "What the hell was that?" he asked. "Looked like you touched something hot."

  My eyes widened in surprise. That was an astute observation. "I kind of did."

  "What, the steering wheel heated up?" he asked.

  "No, I did." I paused, waiting for him to say something, but he remained silent. "I guess that's part of the whole dragon blood thing. I can call fire without a spell. I just have to think about it and it comes."

  "Wow." He stared straight ahead, looking out the windshield.

  "I know," I said. "James said I'd have to learn how to control it. He implied that he could help me learn."

  "So it's not just the fact that you have a thing for him," Alec said. "It's the whole he's a dragon thing. It's so weird. I still can't believe that you're part dragon."

  "Yeah, it's weird for me, too." No longer shaking, I felt like I had regained control of myself, but I wondered how long it would be before I forgot myself again. Part of me wanted to explain to Alec that it was more than just needing a teacher. There was something in me that was drawn to James. I wasn't sure if it was because we shared the connection of being dragons. I wasn't sure if it was simply because of his looks. Either option scared me. I was either going mad, feeling a pull to someone I barely knew, or I was more vain than I thought.

  "Then there's the favor," Alec added.

  "There is that." I thought about it. Maybe that's all it was. The pull to James. Maybe it was the favor I owed him. Was that how it worked when someone was favor-bound? "But he hasn't asked it yet."

  "Didn't he tell you where they were hiding?" Alec asked.

  "He did, but he didn't ask me to do anything about it," I said. "He said he didn't want to use it because the connection would break once he does."

  "Got it," Alec said.

  We drove past a green sign that let us know our exit was coming up. I flipped the blinker on and got into the exit lane. "Here's hoping there's no random monsters waiting for us at the Taco Bell."

  "You can't tell me you think that was random," Alec said.

  "Good point." I pressed down on the brakes, slowing the car. It made zero sense for a spider monster, or whatever that thing was to be at that gas station. "But if it wasn't random, how did it know we'd be there?"

  "No idea, but I'd guess someone sent it," Alec said. "Someone knows you're looking for the missing mages and they don't want you to succeed. Honestly, if you'd gone in alone, or if you'd gone in at the same time as the other two, you'd probably be in the same state as them."

  I swallowed against a lump in my throat. In the moment, I hadn't stopped to think about what the creature was doing there or what could have happened. And Alec's point made sense. Besides the mage order, who knew I was looking for the dragon mages?

  Pulling into a parking spot in front of the doors, I put the car in park. Then, I reached around the seat and felt for a pulse on Lyla's neck. It was still weak, but she was hanging on. I looked over at Alec. "Whoever you're going to call, they better be able to help us find the fennel powder quick."

  He opened the door. "They will." Then he stepped out of the car. Before he closed the door, he ducked down to look at me. "If I'm not back in five minutes, please come in and kill whoever is trying to eat me."

  "You got it," I said, trying to make light of the situation. Internally, anxiety bubbled inside me and I really hoped we had better luck headed our way.

  13

  Tapping a rhythm on the wheel, I waited for Alec. He'd been in there a while and I was starting to get nervous. "Okay, Alec, you have thirty seconds." I said the words aloud, even though nobody would be able to respond to me.

  I started counting. Just as I got to twenty-seven, the door opened, and Alec came jogging out. He held a piece of paper in his hand. Opening the door, he plopped into the seat. "Got it. There's a witch not far from here. She can help us."

  My nose wrinkled. Witches were some of my least favorite people. They were humans who had learned to use magic. Usually just healing potions, communicating with the dead, or sending away demons. They had their uses for humans, for sure, but they weren't anything compared to the magic a mage could wield. They couldn't do anything elemental, no making fire from thin air or anything like that. It wasn't that I begrudged what they did, it was the fact that they so often thought themselves superior to others. And they tended to play up their "witchy-ness" by dressing oddly or acting out how they thought a witch should be. It made me uncomfortable.

  "Next town over," Alec said. "They said we can follow this frontage road and we'll hit a town center. We turn off of main, onto Second Avenue, then...Why aren't you driving?"

  Shaking away my prejudice, I moved the car into reverse and pulled out of the spot. Now wasn't the time for me to care about what this witch would be like. We needed the fennel power. "You say she's got the powder for sure?"

  Alec nodded. "Yes, and she's expecting us."

  "This some old girlfriend or something?" I asked.

  "Not mine, but I think she dated my friend," Alec said.

  "The person you called?" I asked.

  "Yeah," Alec said. He didn't offer any more information about his contact or how he was able to find a witch who just happened to have the item we needed.

  Part of me was suspicious. After all, Tavas had seemed like a friend right up until the point he stabbed me in the back. And Alec hadn't gone into the gas station with the rest of us.

  I glanced at the silent vampire and wished, for the first time in my life, that I could read minds. "Is there anything we should be prepared for?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, this friend, this witch, do you trust them? Are they connected to anyone inside Realm's Gate?" I asked.

  He shook his head. "No, not at all. And yes, I trust my friend and he said she was a friend."

  I thought about Dima and her weakened state. She didn't have long before the poison would be irreversible. My choices were to either trust Alec, who hadn't ever given me reason not to, or take my chances driving around until I found some fennel powder.

  Pressing down on the gas, I sped down the frontage road. "Main Street to Second Avenue?"

  "That's right." He glanced at the paper in his hands. "Then we turn on Maple Place and it's the third house on the right."

  Hoping that I was trusting the right person, I continued down the road. Guilt and fear mingled inside me. I shouldn't be doubting Alec, but it was difficult to blindly trust after everything that happened in the last few days. I wondered if this was how James felt all the time. He didn't even believe I was who I said I was, even after Marco called him and gave him a heads-up. It was a terrible way to live. My heart ached for James. How long had he been alone in that house, worrying that someone was after him? The worst part was, that he was right. They were after him. And they found him because he shifted to protect me.

  Now, two more people were in danger because of me. When this was over, I was going to need to lock myself up somewhere and stop causing trouble. I wondered if James would let me crash at his place. I could disappear with him for a while.

  "Turn here!" Alec shouted.

  With a start, I realized I'd stopped paying attention to where I was. Pulling a tight last-minute turn, I swerved onto Main Street. Thankfully, it was just as empty as the highway had been. "Sorry."

  "It's fine, just keep an eye out for Second," Alec said.

  We drove down a narrow
street lined with small shops and buildings with weathered looking brick. Several of them had the false store fronts that looked right out of an old western movie. My senses tingled as I was bombarded with magic. It felt similar to the way Realm's Gate felt with all of the different creatures living together. The only thing that could explain it was if this town was like home, with more than just a few citizens who had magical signatures. "What is this place?"

  "My friend called it Nowhere. But I don't know what that means, exactly."

  The magic pulsed through me and I felt my power rise. There was an energy here that was different, but I couldn't place what it was. All I knew was that I felt like everything was amplified. I hoped it didn't mean that the venom inside my friends was picking up pace, too.

  A faded brown street sign ahead read Second Ave. I turned onto a narrow tree-lined street. Grass and manicured flower beds filled the space between the road and the honest-to-god white picket fences that surrounded the little single story pastel houses. Main Street might have looked like the old west, but this was right out of the 1950's. I was almost surprised to see it in color.

  That's when I noticed that we weren't just the only car driving down the road, we were the only car, period. "There's no cars parked on the street."

  "It's weird, isn't it?" Alec said. "After so many years living in the city, I didn't have any idea how quiet small towns could be."

  My skin prickled uncomfortably. There was nothing about this place that I liked. The sooner we could get out of here, the better.

  "Turn there," Alec pointed and I turned to the right, onto another pristine white-picket fenced street. These houses were larger than the last street, most of them more modern looking with three-car garages and two levels. The lack of cars persisted, but at least these houses had space to store them away.

  I tried to shake the discomfort I was feeling. Tried telling myself it was just like Alec said, a small town. What did I know about small towns, anyway? For all I knew, it was totally normal to see no signs of human or animal life after dark.

  "There," Alec pointed to a gray house with a circular driveway.

  I turned onto the driveway, overly aware of the fact that this house would be the only one with a car parked in front of it.

  "Let me go ask for her," Alec said. "Then I'll come back for you."

  Alec opened the door and I reached across, grabbing his arm. He stopped and looked back at me.

  I wanted to ask him if he was telling me the truth, if he was still on my side. Instead, I dropped my arm and said, "Hurry."

  Killing the engine seemed like the right thing to do. The noise and light from the car would draw attention. So I sat, feeling the chill in the night air without the heater running, and waiting as the seconds dragged by.

  Finally, the garage door in front of us opened. Alec stood inside with a woman who must be the witch. She wore a long black dress, and several scarves hung around her neck, forming a layer of color under a collection of large amulets on long chains. Her red hair fell in loose ringlets around her pale face. She looked like she was trying too hard to dress the part. I sighed.

  Alec waved me in to the garage so I started the engine and pulled the car in, hoping I wasn't making a terrible mistake, and feeling equal parts guilty and nervous. I hated that I was doubting Alec, but I knew I'd feel better once this was over with and we could get back to saving James and Lyla.

  As soon as the car was inside, the door lowered behind me. I turned the engine off again and opened the car door, stepping out onto the hard cement ground.

  To my surprise, my car was the only one in the garage. Did they even have cars here at all?

  The red-haired woman, who I was guessing was the witch we came to see, walked over toward me. "You must be Morgan."

  "I am," I said, "and you are?"

  "They call me Moonbeam," she said with an airy lilt to her voice.

  It was almost painful maintaining a straight-faced reaction to her name. It was just going to be one of those nights.

  "We were told you have fennel powder?" I asked, ready to get this over with and leave this creepy town.

  "I do," she said. "It's one of my usual stock. It comes in so handy," she said with a smile.

  It was almost like she wanted me to agree with her, or congratulate her or somehow validate her. But I couldn't bring myself to do that. Fennel powder was useful against poisons, but other than that, I couldn't think of another reason I'd ever need it. Maybe they had a rattlesnake problem in Nowhere, California. "I hate to do this, Moonbeam," I swallowed, having a hard time believing I was saying that name out loud, "but can we get that powder and get going? We're running short on time."

  She lifted her hands in the air, palms out, then tossed her head back, then closed her eyes. She stood there unmoving.

  I looked at Alec. "What's she doing?"

  "I have no idea," he said.

  "I'm communicating with the goddess," Moonbeam said. "I have to make sure your friends are meant to live. If we revive them, and this was their fate, it will upset the balance."

  "You have got to be kidding me," I said. "Listen, isn't the fact that we're here in time to cure them answer enough? If they weren't meant to be cured, we wouldn't have been able to reach you, right?"

  She dropped her arms and righted her head. Staring at me, she blinked a few times as if processing what I just said. Was she trying to find error in my logic?

  "The goddess speaks to me," she said. "It's why they let me live here, even though I am not magic born, like you. I'm merely a human who was gifted with magic. In some ways, that makes what I can do even more significant that what you can do. My powers came from the gods themselves."

  "I'm very happy for you," I said. "Now, are you going to help us?"

  "I don't know if I can, the goddess seems to think you need to be taught a lesson." She crossed her arms over her chest.

  This woman was standing between life and death for my friends. I didn't know her, I didn't owe her anything. And I did not like her. Not even a little bit. If she wasn't going to cooperate, maybe it was time for some good-cop, bad-cop. I had a feeling Alec would play nice, which meant it was up to me to be the bad-cop. "Alec, it's been a while since you've eaten, right?"

  "Morgan, just calm down, I'm sure Moonbeam wants to help us, right?" Alec said.

  The witch turned to Alec. "You can't harm me, anyway. I was granted eternal life."

  "Right," I said. "Okay, I'm over this. Please show us where the powder is or I'll test out your eternal life theory."

  My temperature rose, and I could feel the fire inside me vibrating, begging for release. I focused on it. With a grin, I lowered my hands, palms facing the unhelpful witch. One second, my hands were bare, the next a rush of fire spread from my fingertips to my elbows.

  The witch's eyes widened. "What are you?"

  Behind me, I heard the sound of the garage door opening and I glanced behind me for a moment, just in time to see a group of hunters staring back at me.

  14

  I tensed as I squeezed my hands into fists. Scanning the scowling faces in front of me, I did a quick count. There were four men dressed in the typical hunter style. Leather jackets over worn jeans, stakes and other unusual weapons dangling off their belts. I did a double take. These weren't mage hunters, they were vampire hunters.

  Before I could explain anything, I moved in front of Alec protectively. I'd lost him once before to a group of hunters and I wasn't going to let it happen again. "What's the meaning of this?"

  Moonbeam walked over to the group, glancing back at me as she moved. Her black dress swept behind her as she walked and for the first time I realized it had to be made of a lightweight fabric, maybe silk. Who wears a long, black silk dress around the house?

  "Sorry, little mage, I called them here." She stopped when she reached the hunters and turned back around so all five people were staring back at us. "You see, we don't like outsiders here in Nowhere. It's our little haven. No
t the anarchy of the human world or the free-for-all that you find in Realm's Gate. Don't get me wrong, we're open to all kinds here, just not his kind."

  Moonbeam lifted her chin to Alec. "No vampires allowed."

  My brow furrowed. "What? You knew he was coming. It was set up by a friend of his. You should have told us not to come."

  Alec stepped out from behind me. "We're not staying. We just want to help our friends. Then we'll be gone. That's it."

  "I'd like to help you, really I would. I feel bad for the young ladies in the car. And had you come on your own, little mage, I probably would have healed your friends for you."

  If I wasn't already angry at the red-head smiling at me, this would be my breaking point. "First of all, stop calling me little mage. Second, I don't need you to heal my friends, I just need some fennel powder. That's it. Either you have it, or you don't."

  "Oh, I have it," she said. "But I wouldn't ever give it to someone who associates freely with a vampire. Their kind is an abomination against the goddess. She's the only one who should be giving eternal life."

  I could feel the heat rising inside me and was worried I was going to lose control. While I could easily take down the witch, I wasn't sure if I could handle four hunters on my own. And I wasn't exactly keen on the idea of killing five people, even if they were standing in my way. "Hey, I'm sorry some vampire wronged you in the past," I said. "But you're really going to let two innocent non-vampires die over it?"

  "This is your one chance, you can all leave now, or you'll be formally charged with bringing a vampire into Nowhere without permission," she said.

  "Let's just go, Morgan," Alec said. "We can find it somewhere close, I bet."

  I narrowed my eyes, looking at each of the hunters standing behind the witch. They hadn't moved a muscle since the open garage door revealed them. In fact, now that I was looking closer, I realized that all of them looked exactly the same. Under my breath, I whispered a detection spell. The basic spell I used to find magical objects at estate sales also worked to detect the magic in beings. There was no magical signature coming from any of the gathered figures. Either they were all human, or they weren't actually there. My money was on the latter.