Magick (Immortals and Magick Book 2) (5 page)

“Everything! Nothing…you need to know why I have to protect you, why I can’t go another night knowing that the only thing that lies between you and Padraigan is a spell.” He didn’t turn to look at me, but I could feel him trying to connect with me, his mind prodding at mine. I wasn’t ready to let him in yet, though.

“Then tell me Noah. Quit leaving me hanging!” I insisted, stamping my foot for good measure. I expected a comeback from him at that, but when he spun around finally to look at me, the pain in his eyes was like a physical blow, taking my breath.

“Padraigan turned my sister.”

I crossed the room to him, wrapping my arms around him in a fierce hug. Even though I wasn’t linked to him emotionally, I could still feel his pain, and his hesitancy to return my hug, though he did eventually wrap his arms around me and rested his cheek on my head.

“My God, Noah, when did this happen?” I whispered against his shirt, holding him closer, wanting to take his anguish away by strength alone. I felt him hitch in a deep breath, as though he was keeping emotion in check.

“Four years ago. She was eighteen. She had a wild streak in her. That was the only thing that you could say was bad about her. She always looked for danger. And she found it one night.”

He set me away from him and went into the kitchen for his own bottle of water. There was enough of the old me left to think wryly that he must feel like he’s at home, or at Gareth’s house, but I quickly stopped that train of thought. This was no time to be petty.

He came back into the room and sat down, tugging my hand and bringing me down on the couch next to him.

“She had gone down to Boston for the weekend. It was the summer after she had graduated high school, and she and some friends thought it would be fun. We really don’t know much more than the fact that they went to an underground bar,” he paused, cocking an eyebrow my way, “you know which kind I’m talking about?”

I nodded, being quite familiar with them thanks to my own slightly wild streak. They were the bars that wannabe’s frequented; the ones with doors that opened to alleyways and opened on loud music and swirling lights; that offered refuge for people who thought they were vampires and sorcerers. Sometimes, though, the real thing showed up. And it was never good for the people who were pretending.

“Anyway, she met him that night. When she didn’t come home from Boston, my parents were frantic. It was not like her to not call home, so they called the police. The police didn’t do anything because she was over eighteen. We had to wait for forty-eight hours to pass.” The frustration that the family must have gone through over that response could be heard in his voice however many years later. He clenched his teeth, his strong jaw working, and I reached out and stroked his cheek. He gave me a weak smile and continued.

“Well, we have our own ways of looking. At first we couldn’t find her, probably because she was transitioning, although I would have thought she would be in so much pain she would be screaming for her mother. Did Anna ever tell you how the change went for her?” He looked at me, and I couldn’t tell from his expression whether she had told him or not. Since she hadn’t sworn me to secrecy, I saw no harm in telling him.

“Oh yeah. She said it was like someone had replaced all the blood in her veins with acid. She compared it to having third-degree sunburn a hundred times over, but on the inside. If she hadn’t had Gareth with her while she was going through it, she said she would have killed herself. She didn’t know how Gareth hadn’t done himself in, knowing how he felt about Padraigan.”

Padraigan had been wreaking havoc amongst my friends for a long time it seemed. He had been Gareth’s sire two hundred years ago, and was now Gareth’s mortal enemy. He had strong emotions over Gareth trying to find a cure for vampirism, and apparently Gareth had also spurned him when Padraigan had made it clear that he wanted Gareth as a mate.

Padraigan also held something over Damien, as well, but so far none of us knew what that was, but I had a feeling Anna knew. She wouldn’t tell us though.

“That’s pretty much what I’ve heard. Anyway, that’s why we think we couldn’t find her at first. Then when my mother made contact with her, it was too late. She had turned, and not just into a vampire either. We could have lived with that. You know that most vampires are like Gareth, right?”

I nodded, lacing my fingers with his, seeing my pale skin against his golden tone. It felt right to be here with him like this, even though it was such a horrible thing for him to be telling me. I was touched that he wanted me to know about it, even though his reasoning was still a little off.

“We had told Gareth about it, thinking that he could help her, maybe get her away from Padraigan, take her under his wing. She and Gareth had always gotten along, and I think she had a crush on him from when she was a little girl.”

I snorted out a laugh. “Any woman with a pulse can understand that.”

He shot me a disgruntled look and I was thrilled to see his pain of reliving this was receding.

“Anyway, he found her one night when she was hunting. That was the first sign that Padraigan had done more than just make her a vampire. She was stalking a couple, and at first Gareth thought she had picked them because of something one of them had done.”

Most vampires hunted the dregs of society for their meals, the criminals and people with loose morals, or they preyed on wildlife. Gareth was also fortunate that he owned quite a few blood banks, and kept a supply at the house when he couldn’t hunt. 

“But he read them, and couldn’t find anything wrong with them. Nothing in either one of them. They were good people, he told us later. I think it hurt him more than he ever let on to know she had become that kind of vampire.”

He stopped speaking and turned his gaze back to the window, where the sun still shown in brightly, gazing at it as if the light could dispel the gloom in his heart.

“He stopped her before she could do anything, and she was not appreciative in the least.”

“What did she do?” I whispered, tightening my grip on his hand and bringing my other hand to his shoulder. He covered my hand with his other one and gripped that one too. A tremor ran through his big body, like electricity was coursing through his muscles. I was tempted to delve into his mind, to read what he was about to tell me; like flipping to the end of a great book that you want to find has a happy ending. Something told me this wouldn’t have a happy ending.

“She attacked him. I don’t know, can’t comprehend, what she had to be thinking to attack a vampire that was so much older than her, and more experienced.” He shook his head, letting it hang, his shaggy hair falling forward.

“She was thinking he wouldn’t hurt her. Knowing the kind of person that he is, she couldn’t imagine him hurting her, even to save himself.” I couldn’t say vampire for some reason, the words wouldn’t pass. I have a knack, a way of putting myself in people’s shoes. I don’t think it’s anything that has to do with being a witch; it’s more instinctual than that. I can picture her there, brownish-blonde hair, like her brother’s, shining with apparently perfect health, blue eyes an unearthly white color flashing in the dark, knowing that Gareth, an honorary brother and honorable man, wouldn’t touch her.

“She was right, at first. He dodged everything that she threw his way, at the same time trying to talk some sense into her. He told her that he would help her, show her the right way to hunt. She refused to listen, insulted him, told him that Padraigan was out to get him. They circled each other forever on that dark street. It wasn’t until she managed to jump on his back and bite into his neck that he finally had to resort to hurting her.”

With mounting horror, I began to realize where he was going with this. I tried not to picture Gareth repelling the onslaught of a vampire out of control, and what he would do to protect himself.

“He tried, I know he did, to not hurt her. My mother saw the whole thing. She sent us to help, but by the time we got there, it was too late. Gareth was gone, and so was my sister’s body, obviously. My mother never said what happened, and Gareth disappeared right after and didn’t come back for two years. I think it destroyed a little bit of him. He wasn’t the same when he came back.”

“He killed her?” I whispered.

He didn’t answer right away and my imagination shied away from what he wasn’t saying. I couldn’t picture Gareth, our vampire hero, killing anyone, unless it was to protect those he loved. In a way, though, I guess he was protecting someone he loved. If he had loved her as a girl, he wouldn’t want her to become a monster.

“He had no choice, and I don’t hate him for that. No one in my family hates him for that. I think that’s part of the reason he stayed away so long. He thought we hated him. I think he hated himself more. Of course, he had to recover from the damage she did manage to inflict, but my mother wanted him to do it at our place. He went to Scotland instead. Every once in a while, we heard he was back in the States, but he never came to see us.”

We sat silent as I tried to ingest all this, as he tried to push it out of the forefront of his mind, back into a little corner where it wouldn’t hurt him.

I still couldn’t comprehend what Gareth had to do, what he was pushed into doing. If she hadn’t attacked him, if he could have captured her somehow…a bunch of
ifs
wouldn’t change history, I knew that. But what if Padraigan had turned her intentionally? What are the odds that he would pick Helene Jacobs as a victim? Padraigan had been after Gareth a long time, and had to know his connection to one of the most accomplished sorcerer families in the United States. Had he done it to separate them from Gareth, to isolate him?

“Noah, what if it was planned? What if Padraigan used your sister as a pawn to get to Gareth? He would know that Gareth was close to your family, and it would be a surefire way to get to him.”

He nodded slightly, agreeing with me. I was shocked, to say the least.

“We thought of that, and it was probably the most likely explanation; otherwise it was way too coincidental, and I don’t buy that. He thought that getting to Helene would draw Gareth out, and it did. He knew that Gareth would be forced to kill her, and he did. He thought it would turn my family against Gareth and that’s where his plan failed. All it did was make my family back Gareth even more and that made him all the more hunted.” Noah’s voice had a vicious edge to it, almost a snarl.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just stayed silent. I let him gather himself.

“I can’t let you be alone, not while this is going on. I’ll sleep on the couch and make myself scarce during the day, but please don’t ask me to leave.”

I was shocked to hear pleading in his voice. Noah wasn’t a beggar and I could tell how much of his pride he set aside to beg me to stay. How could I say no? A part of me thrilled to know that he would be here in the night, a silent protector to watch over me, but I was also scared. Not that he would actually have something to protect me from, but that something more might happen between us. I hadn’t finished figuring out my feelings for him, and I was sure he didn’t know what to make of his attraction to me.

“So, I guess you got over your dislike of witches?” I tried for a lame joke.

“I’ve never disliked witches. I just wanted to rub you the wrong way.” He smiled at me, his grin crooked and I swear I could feel my toes curl.

“It worked. There have been many times I wanted to strike you with lightning.” I replied wryly, a smirk on my face.

“Yeah, well I kind of want to rub you the right way now.” His gaze turned speculative, eyeing me up and down.

I shot up from the couch and put space between us.

“Let’s just stick to you protecting me, ok? Seriously, Noah, I don’t know what I want between us, other than friends right now, ok? I don’t want that animosity between us, but it’s so easy to have it because it’s still just under the surface for me.”

He studied me for a moment, his stare still speculative.

“Okay, we’ll leave it at that for now. I told you I would make myself scarce during the day, so I’ll go pack a bag and be back tonight, okay? I know you’ve got to get the store open, so I’ll see you later.” He stood from the couch and brushed passed, reaching out at the last second and trailing his fingers down my arm.

“Noah, wait.” I turned toward him where he had stopped in the doorway, and he turned to face me.

“I’m real sorry about your sister, and thank you for letting me know. I know it took a lot out of you.”

He nodded and walked out the door, shutting it softly in his wake.