Insidious Winds (16 page)
Authors: Rain Oxford
I took off the scorpion, ignored the protests of my
roommates, and pressed it to Marcus’s heart. A second later, he started
breathing again. I used what I had left inside me to focus all my magic on my
mental abilities. I thought of Vincent’s mind from the vision I had of him. “
Vincent,
I need help
.” I wasn’t sure if I even connected with him at all, because I
suddenly felt as if I had run ten miles. My heart beat too quickly and too
erratically. Without the healing scorpion, I should have had two or three
minutes to live, but I had just burned that up instantly with my magic.
Darwin guided my hand to press the scorpion against
my own chest and my heart began to settle. I was able to open my eyes, although
I was still dizzy. Marcus was still gasping for breath. Only then did I see
that Henry had laid him flat on the floor and had a red cloth to the wound.
Oh… the cloth isn’t red, that’s just blood.
Marcus stopped breathing, so I pressed the scorpion
against his chest again. Darwin tried to argue, but I wasn’t focusing well
enough to hear him. I had nothing left in my reserve after calling to my uncle.
I wanted to heal Marcus like I had Astrid and Darwin. My hand slipped and I
collapsed next to him. The pressure in my chest was growing by the second and I
found myself coughing. I felt like I was drowning, like my lungs were filling
even as the pressure made it impossible to take another breath.
The scorpion was back, the pressure released, and my
mind cleared very quickly. This time, Vincent was standing over me. I looked at
Marcus, who was still dying. “Save him,” I gasped, and then coughed. I realized
as more gore was added to my already crimson-soaked shirt, that I was coughing
up blood.
“The injuries are too extensive,” Vincent said. “His
organs are destroyed.”
“Who can help him?” I asked.
He gave me a pitying look. “A necromancer.”
“Take us to Stephen.”
“You can’t make someone a vampire without their
permission. That’s why the vampire society is regarded as low as they are.”
I took off the scorpion, pressed it against Marcus’s
chest, and glared at the older wizard. “If he has a problem with me saving his
life, he can take it up with me. Take us to Stephen. How long can this scorpion
sustain two people?”
“It can’t,” he said.
“Ten minutes,” Darwin interrupted. “Assuming neither
person is using magic, which you’ve already done.”
I nodded and ended up swaying awkwardly. The pain in
my chest was already returning.
I spaced out for a moment until I felt hands pulling
me away from Marcus. When I opened my eyes, we were in Stephen’s library, but
the vampire king was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was Cody.
Cody was probably the only person who could have
gotten me through the ordeal after Astrid attacked my parents and I shot her.
He was infinitely patient, accepting, and open without letting me do whatever I
wanted. When I vowed to protect him from Astrid, it was like life spit in my
face that he was taken in a car accident because of me. He wouldn’t have been
on the road if it weren’t for me. Then, nearly twenty years later, I discovered
that Astrid had saved him and he never came to see me once. He never even sent
me a letter to let me know he was alive.
For twenty damned years, I thought I was poison to
everyone I cared about. Even what Astrid did was my fault because I let her in.
Lying there, trying desperately to save my friend, I forgave Astrid, loved her
for saving Cody, and surrendered the last drop of any and all prejudice I had
for vampires.
But I wouldn’t forgive Cody.
“Save Marcus,” I said.
The vampire must have seen something in my eyes that
convinced him to give up his vampire traditions and laws, because he nodded and
got to work on Marcus. I didn’t look. I let the lethargy that was trying to
pull me under have its way. Holding on to consciousness meant listening to Cody
save my friend’s life. I didn’t want to forgive him. I didn’t want to be the
good guy or use the lessons I learned about water and healing. I didn’t want
the confusion. Blaming him for years of self-loathing was a relief.
That was when the door opened and Stephen entered. He
was about six-five with black hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a business
suit, as usual. “Good evening, Devon. You look better.”
I looked down and realized I was wearing black
flannel pajamas and my scorpion was actually pressed to my chest with duct
tape. Since my clothes had been soaked with Marcus’s blood, I was glad I didn’t
have to wake up in it. I picked at the tape.
“Take that off and your uncle will go on a rampage,”
Stephan warned.
I left it alone. “Did Marcus make it?”
“He did. Vampires are nearly indestructible. As it
is, a stake to the heart wouldn’t kill us unless the heart is obliterated
completely. No wizard or healer could have saved him.”
“Did he… Does someone have to die to become a
vampire?”
“Their heart must stop, but we don’t consider it to
be death any more than we would say a shifter dies when they go from one form
to another.”
“Is he taking it okay? Did you tell him?”
“He knew upon waking, and he is taking it very well.”
“Can I see him?”
He frowned. “He does want to see you, but I wasn’t
sure if you would want to see him. For the first few years after they are
turned, vampires can be very confused. Most of them don’t understand what they
feel or how to control their needs.”
“I know. I’ve seen vampire movies. I still want to
make sure he’s okay.”
Stephen nodded and gestured to the door. Only when I
sat up and put my feet on the cold wood floor did I notice Darwin in the corner
of the room. He was asleep, bundled up in an easy chair with a blanket and a huge
book in his lap.
“How did he get here?” I whispered. Darwin hadn’t
killed anyone, which meant Vincent risked his life by trying to bring him here.
“He drove himself.”
I got up quietly, not wanting to wake him, and left
through the door. My calf was healed, but a bit stiff. When I passed through
the doorway, I saw Henry in his jaguar form. Stephen shut the door and started
down the hallway. Henry followed us.
A few minutes later, Stephen stopped in front of a
door. “Now, he is still the man you know, but his reactions and instincts are
going to be different. Don’t startle him.” He opened the door and entered
first. Henry pushed his way ahead of me and stopped in the doorway to assess
the situation for a moment before stepping aside so I could go in.
The first thing I noticed was the luxurious colors
and textures in the room. It was definitely not a cage or cell. Then I noticed
the two vampire guards at the door. As if my senses realized that I could no
longer hate vampires for what they were, they didn’t bother me. I could feel
that they were vampires, but it wasn’t a negative sensation as it had always
been before. I wondered what that meant I would feel when I saw Astrid again.
Marcus was sitting on the bed with his arms folded
across his chest, which was covered in a bandage. He seemed to be trying hard
to stop himself from moving off of the bed. He studied me with caution as if
afraid I would attack him.
Marcus had always been in fear of his life because of
his father. He shouldn’t be afraid now. “Does it hurt?” I asked.
He shook his head, his lips tightening.
His eyes were darker, but still blue. “I half
expected purple eyes,” I said, trying to break the tension. “Or do they only go
purple at certain times?”
“It’s a sign of our lineage,” Stephen said. I looked
at him and gaped. His eyes had changed from brown to a deep burgundy, and then
back to brown right in front of me. “Only the vampires with very pure blood
have this color eyes. As such, any person I convert will have burgundy eyes,
but if they converted someone, that person wouldn’t have them. Then again,
there are some humans with latent vampire genes that get converted and end up
with enough purity to have burgundy eyes. It’s pretty interesting and unusual
to see a vampire more powerful than his sire.”
“But Astrid’s eyes are---”
“Like mine,” Stephen interrupted. “She learned a long
time ago how to disguise them and never showed them to you because she thought
you would despise her even more for it.”
“I don’t despise her.” At least, not anymore.
“What about me?” Marcus asked.
“Of course I don’t.”
“Cody told me about you and Astrid. He told me you
hated vampires. Why did you bring me here?”
Because I wasn’t John Cross. “Because I wanted you to
live.” There were other people I knew better than Marcus, including my
roommates, but nobody was more willing to do whatever they could to help
someone than Marcus. Despite living his life in fear of being assassinated,
Marcus would help a stranger off the street just because he could. He was
extremely cautious with his identity, but entirely trusting of people.
He grinned, displaying small vampire fangs. “My
father can’t find me here.”
“Damn,” one of the guards grumbled.
“Hide your girlfriends,” the second agreed.
They were right; a black-haired, blue-eyed vampire
with dimples was pretty unusual.
Marcus’s smile widened. “Hey, am I going to have a
scar? If I am, I want to get a Celtic cross tattoo over it. That would be cool.
No, wait, tats can be tracked. You don’t happen to know a vampire tattoo artist,
do you?”
Henry’s shoulders sagged slightly as he visibly
relaxed his guard.
“Yes, he’s completely unrecognizable,” I said
sarcastically.
“I can still drink soda, right?” Marcus asked
Stephen, no longer listening to me. “Oh, do I have to mix it with blood? Or if
a human drinks a lot of soda, would I taste that? Ewe, what if they have a
disease? Or what if they eat anchovies? Is blood fatty? Is there blood-light?
Are fit people lower calorie than heavy people?”
Stephen’s expression was worried, but he continued
politely pretending to listen to Marcus.
Henry shifted. “We should go,” he said.
“You’re naked!” Marcus pointed out.
“You knew he was a shifter,” I told him before
turning to Stephen. “Is my uncle still here?”
“He was up until an hour before you woke, when Kale
Lucos showed up to harass us about the duties of our peace treaty. I reminded
him that the treaty was void inside my home and he decided to leave, but
Vincent hasn’t returned.”
“We need to get back to Henry’s truck.” Scott’s teddy
bear and the sword were there.
“I drove it here, but we can’t leave yet,” Darwin
said, entering the room. He looked like a kid with the blanket wrapped around
him.
“Where’s your hoodie?” I asked.
“Covered in blood. One of the vamps was kind enough
to go get me a new one and he should be back any minute. We have a debt to
repay. A member of Stephen’s coven saved your friend and so we owe him.”
That didn’t make any sense to me, since Stephen had
gained a new member, which I thought was a good thing for him. However,
Darwin’s father was recognized for his numerous treaties, so I trusted Darwin
to know what he was talking about. Besides, Stephen didn’t look like he was
about to argue with him.
“What is it you want?” I asked.
“That depends. Are you as good an investigator as
they say?”
“Well, I used to be all about discretion, but that
doesn’t seem to be the case in the paranormal world. I’m not going to kidnap or
kill anyone for you.”
“I can handle that stuff myself. My daughter came to
you a month ago and asked you to look into the wizard council’s activities.”
I sighed. “Sure. Why not. I’m going to fail all of my
classes anyway.”
“I will have a word with Logan,” he said.
“No, no. I don’t want any more favors.” Marcus looked
miserable. “I mean, except for saving my friends, obviously. That’s worth a
debt. I’ll look into the wizard council. What is it you think they’re doing?”
“I think they’re planning on making everyone
basically pets for the wizards. From some friends in Canada and Europe, I’ve
heard that the council is designing techniques to torture paranormals. They’re
making collars for shifters that cannot be broken and can emit electrical
charges that can force them to shift or prevent them from shifting. They’re
designing cells to isolate fae from their tribes and the elements.”
“And for the vampires?”
“Poisons that are harmless to humans and fatal to
us.”
“I can plant some bugs,” Marcus offered.
“Wizard magic can fry electronics,” I told him. “How
close do you think they are to achieving these weapons?”
“I have no idea. The main circle of the council is
designed for thirteen men who are supposed to be the most powerful in the
country. They are not, however, the entirety of the council. They are supposed
to have representatives for each of the paranormal factions, but they had a
little trouble with the fae members because a fae from one tribe is not welcome
in another tribe without a trade through marriage or children.”
“They marry children?” Marcus asked.
“A leader from one tribe can have a child with
another and they often have a powerful outsider come in to make the mother have
twins,” Darwin explained. “Then each tribe gets one of the babies and an
unbreakable treaty is formed for as long as both of the twins are alive. If the
pregnant mother cannot be made to have twins, then the baby goes to the parent
who has a higher ranking in their tribe. As long as the child lives, that tribe
is safe from the other’s tribe, but the same can’t be said vice versa.”
“When the council ran into such problems,” Stephen
said, “they did away with any paranormals other than wizards in their ranks.
That was when they decided they could pick and choose the laws they liked. The
inner circle was supposed to be governed by laws that other, wiser members of
the council created. Instead, the inner circle decided that was their right as
well. There were originally inventors who created innovative ways for
paranormals to live in harmony together and with humans, as well as punishments
for law-breakers that didn’t require bloodshed or torture.”
“The original founders created the council to keep
the population of wizards at peace with everyone else,” Darwin said. “The
council today only wants more power for itself. Dad doesn’t want you getting
involved, but he would understand in this case. Dad says the fastest way to
ruin an alliance is to break your word, which includes an unpaid debt. When you
deal with paranormals, you have to understand their traditions so that you know
what you’re getting into when you ask a vampire to help you.”
“Well, I would have done it even if I had known.”
“You should know that anything a coven member does,
it’s the same as if the coven master did it,” Darwin said, not finished. “Thus,
if Cody shot you, it would be Stephen who is responsible. Although he would probably
rip out Cody’s teeth or hang him outside for a tan, he would deal with you
directly to atone for the damage.”
Although I would absolutely never have considered
being an ally with a vampire before, I learned a lot more at Quintessence than
manipulating the elements. I was able to
sleep
in a dorm with vampires
running around. Moreover, I trusted Astrid enough to sleep with her in my bed.
I turned to Stephen and studied the calmness in him.
I didn’t have to read his mind; after letting go of my issue with his fangs and
blood-drinking, I could see him as a person. Not a human, of course, but a
person as much as I was. And if I were to trust any vampire, Stephen seemed
like one of the best. “Thank you for letting Cody save Marcus.”
He smiled slightly. “Of course.” He studied Marcus.
“You seem to be adapting well.”
Marcus stood up, putting him just a couple of feet
away from me. Henry started to pull me away, but I waved him off.
“I thought I was going to be all nuts-oid and try to
kill the first person who smelled like good blood,” Marcus said with a shrug.
“But when I imagined biting Devon, it just seemed weird.” He grinned brightly.
“Does this mean I can go to your school now? There was a really cute ginger
woman I would love to get to know better. You think she’d be into---”
“No way, fangs!” Darwin barked and pointed
threateningly at the vampire. “You touch my fiancé and I’ll be pickin’ your
entrails out of my teeth with your bones.”
Marcus feigned fear. “Wh-which bones? These ones?” he
asked, flipping Darwin off.
Stephen sighed, a shred of his calmness fading. “Are
children not taught any manners these days?”
* * *
Stephen explained to Marcus that he needed to stay at
the coven until Stephen was certain he could control himself. Another vampire
arrived then with a sparkly blue hoodie for Darwin as well as a black
sweatshirt and jeans for me. Henry’s clothes hadn’t been ruined and my leather
jacket had only needed to be washed. After Henry, Darwin, and I got dressed, we
left. The truck was sitting right outside the front door.
“Now that we’re alone, Vincent told me to tell you
something,” Darwin said as Henry pulled out of the driveway. “We’re going to
the council already, but there’s a bit of a rush now…”
“What’s wrong? What happened?” I asked.
“Misty wasn’t the only one to disappear. Two students
from the children’s school and one baby from the orphanage have been… taken.”
He was trying not to assume they were dead. “You’re
right; it doesn’t change much. The fact that Felicity is involved with Grayson
worries me. I know she’s up to no good, and I expect the council is right there
with her. We need to find out which ones if not all of them are involved and
how to stop it. On the unlikely chance they’re not actually involved, Felicity
will know who is, so we can threaten her. If those kids are dead, I will
personally fuck up every person responsible.”