Bloodspell (43 page)

"That's what happens when you defy me," he said, his tone hard and menacing. Victoria straightened her shoulders.

"Is that supposed to scare me, Gabriel?" she said. Victoria raised her hand and Gabriel laughed.

"Remember, your magic doesn't work here."

"Oh, is that why Holly and I were able to get out?" she said, and was rewarded with the barest flash of unease in his eyes, which he quickly masked.

"No matter, it won't help you this time. And if you try anything your
boyfriend
dies," Gabriel said. He nodded to the three people beside him and they fanned out. Angie remained where she was, motionless. Victoria watched the other two warily. "Oh, and in case you were wondering, they're warlocks and she's a witch so you may as well give in now, and I will honor my promise to you. Devereux can go."

Gabriel feigned sincerity, but Victoria knew that he would never let Christian go, just as he would stop at nothing to control her. She smiled coldly, she could already feel the blood hotly pressing against the inside of her skin, tingling. It was ready.
She
was ready.

"Where is he? How do I know he's even alive or still here?" she asked. Gabriel nodded toward Angie and she walked obediently to the last room, opening the door where Christian lay slumped in the back corner, his hands bound behind his back. Victoria's heart lurched upon seeing his beautiful face, so deathly pale that her knees almost buckled. The wounds on his shirtless body were deep oozing lacerations and she could see the poison infecting the grayish flesh beneath them. It was a spell of sadistically evil proportions. Her hands clenched in a rage so terrifying that her entire body shuddered with it; she didn't even have to draw blood, it came on its own as she brushed her nose, the blackly red smear shimmering on her fingertips.

The time had come.

"You really should be afraid you know," she whispered. "Obscurum!" The entire room was plunged into darkness. In the seconds it gave her, Victoria dispatched the other witch with an energy blast so powerful that her entire body imploded into nothingness within moments.

Victoria could feel Gabriel's wards pulsing outwardly against her, trying to force her magic into obedience, but the blood-craft was far more powerful, especially now that it had already received one death with such ease. She felt its power churning wildly within her and she reined it under control.

"Iacio!" A heavy chest hurtled toward her. Victoria watched it in slow motion as if it were being hurled underwater.

"Impedio," she said, and it came to a dead stop just above her head. She twisted her hands and it rocketed back the way it had come, dispatching its owner with a wet crunch. Her blood whistled, gleeful. She spun to her left trying to get closer to where Christian and Angie were but was immediately blocked by three fire bolts that flew past her head. She whirled around, brandishing her hand in Christian's direction and shouted, "Protectum!" At the very least the shield spell would protect them from getting hit by the blasts in the cavern.

Through the hazy darkness, Victoria could see the two warlocks circling her, one on each side. Gabriel's face contorted with anger and he screamed a lethal pain spell. "Excrucio!"

"Corpus venenum!" roared the other warlock at the same time. Victoria barely had time to use a shield charm against Gabriel's spell, diffusing it completely, before blasting a lightning bolt in return. In the seconds that she saw the bolt send him flying backwards into space, the corporal poison spell from the other warlock hit her dead center in the middle of her body. Curiously, she felt nothing at first and then she realized that her blood was boiling hot, bubbling like lava as it absorbed the most brutal part of the spell. Still, she staggered backwards, a sheen of sweat coating her forehead as her skin glowed red.

"Curo," she said, and felt the immediate cure eliminate the rest of the poison. She could see the warlock who had delivered the spell staring at her with newfound trepidation. At the very least, the poison spell should have knocked her unconscious. Instead, she was barely afflicted.

Victoria inclined her head in gracious challenge, recalling the poison spell he'd cast and flung it back toward him. The warlock blanched and dove out of the way. It missed him by inches. Working her way backwards toward Angie and Christian, she noticed that Enhard had silently entered the room, staying out of sight, and she whispered a non-detection spell to help shroud him in secrecy.

The darkened room was clouded with smoke and dust from the menagerie of spells flying back and forth, and Victoria moved stealthily, searching for Gabriel. She didn't want him anywhere near Christian. Inching herself toward the back, she leaned against one of the walls and edged to the right feeling her way along the cold stone, kicking through the debris that littered the floor.

Just a few more steps,
she thought.

Without warning, a dust-covered hand snaked out from her left and grasped her by the throat. Victoria kicked wildly but her captor jerked her against him, his forearm braced against her neck.

"Not so tough now, are you?" the warlock said, his breath hot in her ear. Victoria flung her head back connecting with the bridge of his nose and the soft tissue of his cheeks, and she heard bone break as his arm tightened convulsively, blood spattering from his nose onto her back. "You'll pay for that," he screamed. "Excrucio!"

She barely had time to react before her blood reacted in her stead, deflecting the blast of the pain spell and rebounding the curse onto the man holding her prisoner. A high-pitched scream burst from his mouth, and she could smell the singed flesh of his blistered arm as he ripped it away from her incandescent skin, staring at her like she was a demon. His skin peeled off in sheets as the pain spell was magnified a hundredfold from the blood magic.

Victoria could taste her blood's metallic desire in her mouth, clamoring for its reward. She gave it. The warlock's face distorted in horror as her eyes metamorphosed from luminous green to darkly black, and her lips shaped the death spell.

"Mortis omnino," she said, watching as his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears bled rivers of red, as his internal organs collapsed. What was left of him folded like string to the floor. Victoria's blood sang and she swayed unsteadily, feeling drunk with its power.

"Illustro!" roared a voice from the other corner of the room. The lights came on blindingly. Victoria's bemused gaze registered that Gabriel had Angie's neck in his hands, his face black with suppressed fury. Christian lay unmoving on the ground to the right of them, about fifteen feet to her left just inside the doorway of the small room. She searched for Enhard and saw him crouching behind a chair, and imperceptibly nodded for him to try to get closer to Gabriel.

"What makes you think I care about her?" she said. Gabriel laughed wildly.

"Oh you should care, Tori. Have you forgotten so carelessly what she does? You think your new magic is safe from her?" he said shaking her body like a rag doll. "That's all she's good for."

"My
new
magic, Gabe?" Victoria mocked with a grim smile. "Don't be naïve. Do you really think the Cruentus Curse can be controlled? And did you honestly think that I would come here alone?" She saw his eyes widen and he looked around calling her bluff. She took an imperceptible step closer toward Christian and met Enhard's eyes.

"Libero!" she shouted, freeing Angie from Gabriel's grip at the same moment that Enhard leapt from his hidden crouch straight toward him, and knocked Gabriel to the floor.

Gabriel looked stunned even as Enhard snarled and tore at his body with ferocious blows. He rolled away and jumped to his feet only to be knocked to the ground again by Enhard, who was lightning fast, his attack unpredictable and fierce. Before Gabriel was even able to gasp a spell, Enhard had him flat on his back or on the defensive, physically running away from him. Enhard moved so swiftly, he was a blur!

Victoria rushed to Christian's side. "Christian," she said, cradling his head in her lap and caressing his face, "can you hear me?" He moaned. She could see his teeth fully extended beneath his lips and she knew it was because of his constant state of unconscious hunger. They were sharp and white and still lethal. Angie crouched near to them and her face was lined with concern.

"Is he going to live?" she asked.

"He's alive but he needs blood, lots of blood," Victoria said. Angie stared at her for a moment and then hesitated.

"He can have mine. I'm human. I mean, not a witch ... sorry ... I mean ..." she said, suddenly unsure of what she had offered. Victoria was amazed at her generosity even now after her own considerable injuries at the hands of her brother. She couldn't believe how badly she had misjudged Angie; she was stronger than anyone she knew.

"No Angie, but thanks for offering. He would probably kill you, he's so hungry that he wouldn't know how to stop," Victoria said. "I don't even know if he's too far gone for either of us to help him."

But Victoria knew that there was only one way to save Christian. She knew what she had to do. She would have to invoke the blood magic, all of it, just as she'd done the last time when they'd fought in the woods near his house. But this time, she would win. She would control it. She had to.

Love was the answer.

Victoria looked out into the main room as Enhard and Gabriel circled each other. Enhard was far too quick for Gabriel's spells to even find a target and Gabriel was far too powerful at self-healing for Enhard's physically punishing attacks to have any lasting effect—it was almost a stalemate but they circled each other in a cautious unchoreographed dance, each waiting for an opening. She stared at Angie and then reached out her hand.

"Curo," she said, squeezing Angie's fingers and watching the marks on her face fade and the swelling disappear. "Get away from him, Angie. He will only bring you ruin, and you deserve so much more than that." The tears leaked unbidden from the corners of Angie's eyes. Christian stirred, and Victoria knew that she didn't have much time.

Christian? Can you hear me?
She waited, her heart so tight it was impossible to even breathe.
Please, Christian ... come back to me, wake up ... please ...

His eyes fluttered but did not open. Victoria summoned the blood magic, pulling on the energy from the amulet, and went as deeply as she ever had into Christian's mind, searching for his subconscious, that silent part of him that she knew would remain as alert as anything else. The part that Fardon had said was always there.

I'm ready,
she said. She almost jumped out of her skin when it responded.

Ready for what
?
Conversationally, as if it had known her all her life.

For you to take me into you.

Silence, pondering.
What will I become
?

I don't know.
Victoria hesitated.
Will you accept me
?

Always.

Victoria stroked his face. None of the books or the journal had said what could happen if she did what she was going to do. For all she knew, they would both die, but either way, Victoria knew one thing—she owned the blood and she would make it bow to her will. She was her own master, and her love was the key. That's what the journal had been saying all along. She had to trust herself.

She stirred, inhaling deeply and pulled Christian close, removing the amulet from her neck. Angie's eyes widened as Christian's teeth grazed Victoria's neck.

"Maybe you should turn away," Victoria said, and Angie gladly obliged, turning her attention to the ongoing battle in the main room. The blood rushed wild in Victoria's veins as if it knew what she was about to do.

"Soporo," she whispered, and it quieted automatically. She kissed Christian's cold lips and drew the barely discernable blade of the amulet across her right wrist, wincing at the sting.

"Cruentus renovo!" she said, willing the blood magic to heal him as she pressed her wrist to his lips. Her heart was racing—her gamble could kill him instantly.

The pressure was soft at first and then stronger as he clamped her hand to his mouth and drew her strength into him greedily, desperately. She brushed her free hand against his hair and his silver eyes opened, staring into hers with luminous faith. She could see the recognition and every emotion he'd ever had since they had met flash through their liquid depths. Victoria was bleeding her life into his mouth and willing him to live, willing him to live for
her
... for them.

"Desino," she gasped, commanding him to stop as her wound closed on its own. She shook her head to clear it as Christian fell back, his lips rimmed in black. She could see the color flooding his skin, the new blood overtaking his ravenous, empty body, and he bucked against its foreignness. His wounds healed instantly as the new blood forced the poisons out, and still he writhed in silent transformation. Angie had scooted herself to the edge of the room, her eyes wide with fear and confusion, and when Victoria looked worriedly at her, she wrapped her arms around her knees rocking back and forth.

"What is it, Angie?" Victoria asked, watching as Christian continued his painful metamorphosis on the floor. She'd known that it wasn't going to be easy.

"You should see what's happening, it's unbelievable," Angie said, trembling uncontrollably. "It's like everything that is you is going into him and right now he is in complete upheaval. His very nature is fighting against it ... everything dead ... against everything so vibrantly alive! It's the most chaotically beautiful thing I have ever seen," she said, excited and terrified all at the same time.

After several tense moments, Christian sat upright and stared at Victoria. His eyes were bright, unsure but so incredibly knowing, it made it suddenly hard to breathe. And time stopped along with her breath when he crushed her to his chest and kissed her with the fierce, aching tenderness of a starving man too long deprived. She tasted a tangy sweetness on his lips and knew it to be her own blood. It electrified her more than she'd ever thought possible. They strained toward each other for what seemed like an eternity, bodies trembling and blood on fire, until he finally lifted her face to his, his thumb brushing the fullness of her cheek.