Magic Awakens (Dragon Mage Book 2) Page 8

  A smile spread across my lips. "Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen."

  For a fraction of a second, the witch's expression gave her away, as just the slightest flicker of panic flashed in her eyes. Then she pursed her lips, an attempt to regain control of the situation. "Fine. Have it your way."

  "Morgan?" Alec said, shifting closer to me.

  I put my arm out to signal for him to stop. "You're good for a witch, I'll give you that. But you're no match for someone with real magic."

  Her upper lip curled. "Real magic? You think you're so special. Born with the gift. It just means you had it easy." She extended her arms up, and the hunters charged, weapons drawn.

  Alec yelled and tried to drag me toward the car. I held my ground, waiting for her illusions to come crashing down around her.

  The hunters were right in front of us, matching gray eyes, matching stakes raised in each man's right hand. At this distance, I could see through them, and I knew I'd been right.

  "What the?" Alec asked as the hunters ran right through us, vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

  "Illusions," I said. "None of it was real."

  Moonbeam looked pissed. "I'm still not helping you."

  With a sigh, I whispered another spell. It was bad enough that I had to tap into my past to do a healing spell I didn't want to do. Now, she was making me think up non-lethal magic I could use to keep her quiet while I searched her house. She wouldn't be able to see the tendrils that stretched from my fingertips, she didn't have the gift of seeing magic, which is part of what seemed to be making her so angry at me.

  The invisible strings wrapped around her, binding her arms to her body. She stiffened and struggled, trying to break free of her bonds. "What are you doing to me?"

  I glared at her. "Real magic. Not illusions. Now tell me, do you or do you not have fennel powder?"

  Moonbeam pressed her lips together and stared at me defiantly.

  Lifting an eyebrow, I smiled. "You want to play, then?"

  The fire came with ease this time. It was as if it had been simmering dormant under my skin, waiting to come out. Slowly, I approached, getting a sick sense of satisfaction from the look of terror mingling with the reflection of the flames in her eyes.

  "We can just go inside and look," Alec said.

  "I'm not wasting any more time on this," I said, pausing in front of her. "If my friends die, I will kill you."

  I wasn't sure if the words were a lie or not. At this point, an unfamiliar adrenaline rushed through me, fueling the intense anger I felt toward this witch.

  She swallowed. "In my pantry in the kitchen. I keep herbs labeled in bags and jars. There should be some in there."

  I turned to Alec but he was already through the door.

  "You better hope he finds some," I said.

  "Got it," Alec jumped over the steps that led to the garage door and stretched out a hand to me. "You going to turn the fire off or you want to toast this stuff first?"

  Squeezing my fingers to my palms, I extinguished the flames, then I took the jar of powder from Alec.

  "What are you?" Moonbeam asked. "I've never seen a mage do that before."

  I ignored the bound woman, and looked at Alec. "Can you move her out of the way? I need some room to work."

  He picked up the witch and threw her over his shoulder. The woman let out a shriek.

  Quickly, I mumbled the words for a silence spell, then pointed my finger at her. The cries she was making ceased. "That's better."

  I'd now done more magic in the last hour than I'd done in years. Most of my magic was limited to detection spells lately and there was something refreshing, almost pleasant about dusting off this part of me.

  Alec appeared at my side as I stood in front of the open back door to the car. "You want me to carry them out?"

  "Yes please," I said. "Just carefully lay them on the ground."

  Alec nodded, then gently lifted each woman out of the car, resting them on the ground.

  I set down the jar of fennel powder and checked Dima for a pulse, then I moved to McKenzie. Letting out a sigh of relief I looked up at the muted redhead in the corner of the garage. "It's your lucky day, they're still alive."

  15

  Moonbeam made a gurgling sound as she tried to talk and found that she couldn't. I ignored her and focused on my friends. "Alec, see if you can find something to cut through the webbing. I'm going to get them ready."

  It wasn't a difficult spell, but butterflies still filled my insides. Could I still do this kind of healing magic? Taking a deep breath, I recalled the other spells I'd used tonight. They still seemed to work. Maybe casting spells was one of those things you never really forgot. What was that human saying? Like riding a horse?

  Shaking out my hands, I focused on clearing my mind. Now wasn't the time to have a crisis or doubt myself.

  Kneeling down, I sat back on my heels, so I was in between the spider's victims. The purple color had spread from their tongues and both Dima and McKenzie now had purple lips. Veins of purple spread from their mouths through their cheeks. McKenzie even had a few of the lines on her chin. If the poison got much further, they probably wouldn't make it. It was now or never.

  Alec returned with a pair of shears and a box cutter in his hands. "How are these?"

  "Fine," I said. "See if you can get through the webbing on Dima. I'll do the spell on McKenzie first. She's further gone."

  "Is there anything else I can do?" Alec asked.

  "Just stay quiet and don't talk to me until I'm done," I said.

  "Got it, boss," he said.

  Slowly, I opened the jar of fennel powder and tipped some of it into my cupped hand. "I know this is gross, McKenzie, but it's better than you dying."

  I spit into the powder and mixed it with my finger until it formed a paste. Then, I scooped the globs of fennel paste onto my fingers and spread it over her mouth, across her cheeks, and down her chin. The paste would help pull the poison out of her system while I used magic to draw it there.

  Wiping the extra fennel paste on my jeans, I leaned over McKenzie's face, my palms hovering above her heart. I closed my eyes and thought about the spell before I said the words. Usually, I was in the habit of saying spells as quietly as possible. It was a survival move, made it so other mages and people who wanted to hurt you didn't know what you were going to do. This time, I couldn't do that. This spell had to be spoken clearly and with conviction. Right to the ears of the gods themselves. Especially in this circumstance. If the gods were real, if they were out there, I could use any help they were willing to give me.

  One more time, I repeated the words in my head, making sure they sounded right before I tried them out loud. Hoping I wasn't forgetting anything, I cleared my throat, then spoke as clearly and confidently as I could, "Surge, medici, tollere dolor, et sana vulnus, mundate cor meum."

  Something cool started in my toes, a tingling, that rolled through me like a wave, crashing down to my fingertips. The sensation knocked me back and I gasped as I regained my balance. My head felt like it was floating and a lingering taste of something metallic filled my mouth. I reached up to touch my lips, then pulled my hand away. Dots of blood stained my fingers. Using my shirt, I wiped at the blood on the edge of my mouth. I'd forgotten about the higher price of this kind of magic. Being so out of practice made the reaction more intense than it should be.

  "Got her free. Oh shit, I wasn't supposed to talk." Alec looked over at me. He had the guilty expression of a child caught breaking the rules. Then his brow furrowed. "You okay, Morgan?"

  I wiped my mouth again, figuring I must have missed a spot. "I'm okay, just a reaction to the spell."

  "You never said anything about that," he said. "Are you hurt?"

  "I'm fine. It just takes a lot out of a mage to do this kind of spell," I said.

  "Did it work?" Alec was staring at McKenzie. She was still covered in the fennel goop and didn't look any better than she had been.

  "The sp
ell worked, now it's a matter of her body doing the work to rid her of the toxins." I pointed to the paste covering her lower face. "See the purple tint to this? All the poison has to find its way out, then we can wipe off the fennel, and she should wake up."

  A violent shuffling sound echoed through the empty garage. I looked up at Dima's body to see her thrashing. Her arms and feet slammed against the cement floor and her body rolled and writhed. She looked like she was having a seizure. This time, there was no time for preparing myself. "Hand me the jar. The jar. Now!"

  Alec slammed the fennel powder jar into my waiting hand. I poured a generous amount into my hand and spit several times into it, not wasting any time making the paste.

  "Hold her still, Alec," I said.

  He straddled her, using his thighs to keep her body from rolling around and grabbed her arms, pinning them to the ground.

  Without hesitation, I turned my whole palm upside down and rubbed the goop all over her mouth, cheeks, and neck. "Keep her still."

  One deep breath and a moment to wipe the excess paste on my now filthy jeans, then I stretched out my hands over her heart. "Surge, medici, tollere dolor, et sana vulnus, mundate cor meum."

  The words came out easier this time, and again, I was hit with the sensation of something cold, almost like water, rushing through me. Again, it crashed into my fingertips, threatening to knock me off balance. This time, I was prepared and merely swayed before regaining composure.

  Warm, wet metallic blood lingered on my tongue and I brought my hands away from Dima to use my shirt to clean myself up. After this, I was in desperate need of a change of clothes.

  I hoped the blood wasn't getting to Alec. We'd never had a conversation before about what he could handle seeing. Did being around human blood make him struggle or cause him to want to feed?

  Dropping the edge of my ruined tee-shirt, I looked over at him. He wasn't even paying the least bit attention to me. His eyes were glued to Dima, staring at her, waiting for the venom to leave her system.

  He'd abandoned the shears nearby, so I picked them up and spun around to face the still webbed McKenzie. The paste on her face was nearly all purple now, and I couldn't see any lines of poison extending beyond her mouth. It wouldn't be long now before she woke up.

  Carefully, I tucked one of the blades of the shears under the edge of the sticky web and worked my way through. By the time I'd cut through, my hands and arms felt like I'd dipped them in a vat of rubber cement. Forget needing a change of clothes, I needed a shower. And these clothes probably needed to be burned.

  Rolling her to one side, then the other, I did my best to clear away as much of the web as possible. McKenzie's fingers twitched as I pulled the last bit of webbing away from her.

  I leaned over her face, and used my index finger to wipe away a section of the paste from her mouth. Her lips were no longer purple.

  Since my clothes were already done for, I tugged on the sleeve, hoping I could tear it off. It did not work like it did in the movies. Instead, I grabbed the sticky shears and managed to cut off both of my sleeves for rags.

  Using one of my freed sleeves, I wiped all the paste off of McKenzie's face. Leaning in closer to her face, I narrowed my eyes, trying to see if there was any sign of the purple spider venom. Tension eased as I decided it was all clear.

  McKenzie's eyes sprang open and she screamed.

  I was on my knees, hovering an inch above her face, and fell back onto my butt, away from her.

  She sat up slowly, and started brushing off her clothes. "What happened? Why do I feel like there's a million tiny insects crawling around inside me?"

  Alec and I looked at each other, then back at her. Would she want to know that she'd almost been spider food? I wasn't sure I'd want to hear it.

  "Please tell me the million blinking eyes was a dream," she said.

  "Um," I started, trying to decide which parts to say and which to leave out.

  "Hey, what's going on?" Dima's groggy voice came from behind us.

  I launched myself toward her, and before I knew it, I was in a group hug, sandwiched between Dima and Alec.

  "Okay, okay, I get it, something bad happened," Dima said. "Can you let me breathe now?"

  Dima pulled away and wiped the fennel paste off of her mouth, a look of disgust on her face. "Do I even want to know?"

  "And can you at least tell us why there's a bound woman in the corner crying?" McKenzie said.

  Alec released us, and I let go of Dima. I'd forgotten about Moonbeam in all the chaos.

  Ignoring McKenzie's questions, I jumped to standing and walked toward Moonbeam. Sure enough, the witch had tears running down her face.

  I scowled at her. "Upset to see that my friends are alive?"

  She opened then closed her mouth, still bound by my silence spell.

  Wondering how quickly I would regret it, I released her from both spells. She dropped her hands and let out a sob then stuttered a few times, making sounds that weren't quite words.

  "What happened?" Dima asked.

  I looked behind me to see the rest of the group in a semi-circle around me.

  "Are you going to kill me?" Moonbeam asked.

  "We're murderers now?" Dima asked. "Wow, I missed a lot."

  "No, we're not going to kill you unless you think we should," I said.

  Moonbeam licked her lips and swallowed. It was as if she was re-learning how to speak. After what felt like far too long, she finally spoke, "What I told you about the vampires is true. They aren't allowed here, but if you go now, I won't call anyone."

  "What was with all the theatrics and the not wanting to help us?" Alec said.

  "I'm here on a probationary status. I thought if I could catch a vampire and turn him in, they might grant me permanent residency."

  "Permanent residency? What the hell kind of place is this and why would you want to live here?" Alec said.

  "Can someone just start at the beginning for me?" McKenzie asked, clearly frustrated.

  "You're going to have to wait on that, McKenzie," I said. Then I turned back to Moonbeam. "What is this place? Why are there no cars and why do you have to apply to live here?"

  "I told you, it's Nowhere. We're a magical commune. A safe haven for those with magical abilities to live in peace. Without fear of humans or predators like vampires." She nodded at Dima. "They aren't thrilled about Sirens, but with the right reasons, they'd let one in."

  Dima growled at the witch, making her back up against the wall.

  I put my hand up, signaling Dima to calm down. "How are you here then?"

  "Yeah," McKenzie said. "You're practically screaming human."

  "I have mage blood in my line. A few generations back, so it's faint. But I'm a gifted witch, everyone says so," Moonbeam was defensive now.

  "Whatever," I waved her away. "Moonbeam, you're a terrible person. Trying to lure in someone and prevent them from saving their friends. But you clearly don't need any help to feel miserable. It's obvious you already hate yourself and we've wasted too much time already."

  I knelt down and picked up the jar of fennel powder and the lid. There was enough left to do one or two more spells on the bottom. I screwed on the lid. "I'm going to take this with us, just in case. And you, you're going to sit down on the ground and not move until we've been gone for an hour."

  "I will not." Moonbeam balled her hands into fists and took a few angry steps toward me.

  From behind me, I heard the familiar sounds of a binding spell and before Moonbeam could move any closer, she was once again wrapped in magic tendrils.

  McKenzie stood next to me now. "Want me to lock her in place for the next hour?"

  I glared at Moonbeam. I'd tried to feel sorry for her, tried to let her learn her lesson and just move on, but she wasn't getting it. She'd stood in my way and nearly cost me the life of my friends. "Better make it two hours."

  Letting McKenzie work the spell, I walked over to the car and opened the driver side door. "I'm d
riving. Everyone else, in the car."

  16

  So there really was a giant spider?" Dima asked.

  "Yes, it was horrible. Huge, hairy legs, hundreds of eyes," Alec said.

  I turned back onto the freeway, happy to be away from the creepy town of Nowhere and made a note to look it up when I got home. It seemed like something that could use a bit of exploration and I wondered if the Mage Order already knew about it.

  "...Morgan lit the thing on fire and the next thing we knew, the whole gas station was blazing," Alec continued.

  My attention returned to the story of Morgan versus the monster spider at the mention of my name. "I think we've heard it enough times now."

  "That's not the best part," Alec said, either not listening to me, or ignoring me. "You should have seen how Morgan handled that crazy witch and her legion of fake hunters. I mean, I thought we were dead. A whole group of vampire hunters closing in on us. But Morgan didn't even flinch." He paused. "Hey, Morgan, did you know they were fake or were you just lucky?"

  "I knew," I said. "I don't have a death wish. But, seriously, story time is over. We need a plan. Fast."

  "Right," he said.

  "We're still headed to the mines, right?" Dima asked. "The plan hasn't changed due to a few hiccups?"

  "Yes, we're headed to the mine, but what do we do when we get there?" I asked. "That spider wasn't there on accident. It had to have been sent by someone."

  The car was silent as the realization sunk in.

  "You think the Dragon-Bloods knew we'd be stopping at that particular gas station?" McKenzie said. "Seems unlikely to me."

  "Not if they have a seer," Dima said.

  I had been thinking it, but didn't want to say it out loud. If the Dragon-Bloods had a seer, and they knew where we'd be before we went there ourselves, how would we outsmart them?