Scorned (23 page)

I nodded and looked around. Her palms were
no longer on mine, but I still had mine face up, resting on my
folded knees. The electricity was in the circle, but that
suffocating weight was gone completely.

“What did it feel like to you?” Miranda
asked.

“Like being buried alive,” I answered. “I
smelled wet soil and I could feel it in my lungs, under my
hands.”

Miranda scowled and I thought I might have
said something to offend her.

“That’s not right,” she finally said after a
moment. “I think I know why you felt that, but let’s just make
sure. If it’s true, then...” she let the sentence drop, but I
wasn’t going to let her get off that easy.

“Then what?” I asked, but she just shook her
head.

“Palms up,” she said.

I did as requested but with more hesitation
than the first time. If Miranda noticed, she didn’t care. She
placed her palms over mine, but not touching this time.

“You’re going to feel a slight tugging,” she
said. “In essence, I’m pulling your power from you. It might feel a
little funny, but it won’t hurt.” She closed her eyes, and I did
the same. Mostly to fight the panic of being buried alive
again.

This magic was different. I felt a wind pick
up around us. It smelled of Autumn and I could see the colors of
red, yellow, and orange leaves swirling around us, though it was
too cold for that and far too early in the year. The wind stayed
mild, swirling around us until Miranda pulled her hands away and
looked at me.

“Wind,” she said. “Wind would be your
manna.”

I frowned.

“What are you thinking?” Miranda asked.

“I don’t know,” I told her, and tucked my
hands in my lap. “I just...this is all against everything I’ve ever
believed, or been taught to believe.”

Miranda nodded. “I understand. Like I said,
there’s no obligation to become a mage. Lady Xiomara would have you
believe that if you have the power you must use it, but that’s not
the case. Tate has opted not to cultivate her power because it
would put her off limits to the vampires. Mages are the enemy to
vampires.”

“I just...I don’t know that I want to
be...this.” I motioned to the tree with its beautiful
ornaments.

“I understand, but know that not every mage
is so...new age,” she said with a smile. “This is how I control my
magic. How I keep it from controlling me. I’m not the strongest
mage, not by far, but I am very powerful. Gavlin is a war mage,
kind of different from the rest of us, but he’s very strong. He
pulls his manna from the weather and he controls his magic by
channeling it all into his battleaxe when he’s not using it. Don’t
let this deter you,” she said, motioning like I had, “but if it
goes against what you believe, it’s not for you.”

I nodded.

“Ready to go back inside?”

I nodded again and we stood as one. I
brushed the dirt from my clothes. “What about your baubles?” I
asked.

“I’ll get them later or maybe donate them if
they get the garden fixed.”

Tate sat next to Pierce getting chewed out
by the sexy blonde, fur-laden man who’d sat next to Xiomara in the
cave. Today he was dressed in loose blue jeans and a thin,
long-sleeved sweater. It also hung loose on his frame, but there
was no hiding how muscle-bound he was. I guessed this to be Gavlin.
He turned ice blue eyes to me and I was struck by how tall he
was.

“See?” Tate insisted, defiantly. “I told you
she was fine.”

“There’s no room for guessing here, Tate.”
Gavlin’s deep voice was admonishing, but not angry. “She’s in
danger. You have to be more vigilant.”

Miranda scoffed and her whole demeanor
changed. The sweet woman I’d spent the last few minutes with was
replaced by what can only be described as an annoyed older sister.
I caught a good glimpse of what their relationship was like. These
three were like family - Gavlin the older brother, Tate the little
sister, and Miranda the mother hen.”

“Vigilant and Tate don’t go in the same
sentence.”

“Miranda, we need to talk.”

Gavlin took her by the hand and led her down
the hall until we were out of earshot.

“That doesn’t sound good,” I said softly and
Tate shook her head.

We watched like nosey neighbors, peeping
toms, whatever you want to call it. Gavlin said something to
Miranda and the news hit her like a fist. She doubled over at the
waist, and I heard her sobs from where I stood next to Pierce. Tate
needed no other prompting. She flew down the hall and gathered her
friend in her arms before I had a chance to grab Pierce’s hand and
squeeze it, hard. He squeezed back and we sat down to wait. I
huddled against Pierce and hoped it wasn’t a foreshadowing of what
was to come for us.

Forty minutes after she went into surgery,
Petrice and the baby came out fine. Pierce and I sat in the room
with Gable and waited for Petrice to come around. We had to keep
the TV off and our voices down, but the girl came through perfectly
fine. The moment she woke up, she asked to see her baby, who was
asleep in the crib.

“It’s a boy!” she said with glee as we put
the baby in her arms. “Anthony Joseph Wisely.”

I smiled. Little Anthony’s face was
beautiful, small and cherub-like. He was almost five pounds, but
very short and chubby. When he looked up at his mother, we took in
a collective gasp at his grey eyes.

I looked at Pierce and smiled. “I want a
baby.” He looked at me, really looked to see if I was serious. When
he saw that I was, he smiled, kissed me on the mouth, and pulled me
tight against him.

We stayed at the hospital that night. They
wouldn’t let Petrice breast feed. They said it would put too much
stress on her body for now. That upset Petrice and her crying
started another seizure.

I eventually joined Miranda, Tate, and
Gavlin in the waiting room and handed Miranda my phone with a
picture of Anthony on the screen. “Anthony Joseph,” I said. Miranda
looked up at me, shock in her face.

“Anthony?” she asked, her voice a horse
whisper as if she might cry again.

“Was that the name of your friend? Anthony?”
Miranda nodded. “We traded,” I said and she looked at me, nodded,
and a small smile lit her face just a little.

“Yeah,” she finally said. “One for the
other.”

I smiled back.

“That,” Tate said, “is the coolest thing I
have heard in a while. ‘One for the other.’ Too awesome! How’s your
niece doing?”

“Alright,” I answered. “She’s still having
seizures, but she’ll be fine.”

I looked at the time on my phone. After six.
It was already dark. I shuddered.

“Yeah,” Tate said. “It’s dark out.”

“We’re going to get something to eat,”
Gavlin said. “Do you want to come?”

I thought about it. I was pretty hungry.
“Yeah, I think I will. Let me tell Pierce.”

“Let Tate tell Pierce,” Gavlin suggested,
though it was really more like an order. “It’s after dark. You’re
not to go anywhere by yourself.”

I nodded. That was fine with me. I did not
want a repeat of last night.

Tate left and came back with a twenty. “From
Pierce,” she said. “He wants something to eat, but he says if you
bring him Chick-Fil-A he’s going to turn you into a chicken.”

I smiled. Pierce didn’t eat Chick-Fil-A. I
did, and suddenly that’s what I wanted.

The four of us went to the food court and
sat down to eat in silence. No one really had anything to say. When
we were done I took Pierce a burger in a Chick-Fil-A bag.

“I don’t want that,” he said. I just
shrugged, pulled out the burger and attempted to take a bite. “Oh,
you think you’re funny?”

“Yes, I think I’m quite hilarious.”

“Where’s my change?”

I shrugged. “There wasn’t any.”

“Man, please.” He made a face like he didn’t
believe me. “There won’t be any the next time I borrow money from
you, either.”

I smirked and let him eat his burger.

Pierce’s cell phone rang and it was loud. He
swore and dropped his burger trying to get to his phone.

“Shit!” He pulled the phone from his pocket
and answered it with a quiet, “Yeah, man.” He was quiet for a
moment. “Alright. I’ll tell her.”

Pierce handed me another twenty. “Gable
needs some cash down in the food court. I want change this
time.”

I smiled, took the twenty, and left.

My mage detail wasn't in the waiting room. I
guessed they’d taken a collaborative bathroom break, so I just went
down stairs. I made sure the elevator was empty before I stepped in
and punched the button for the lobby. When the car stopped on the
second floor, my stomach flew into my throat and my skin started to
crawl up my arms. A man got on, his face hidden by a baseball cap
and a hoodie. He nodded to me and he turned his back as the doors
closed.

“When we get of this thing,” his voice
hissed, “go left.”

“What?” He turned so fast that I forgot to
breathe for a moment and he grinned around sharp, pointed
fangs.

“So sorry I couldn’t get to you the other
night,” he said, and his voice held a bit of a lisp, “but I’m here
now.”

The brand new vampire was one of the
paramedics that were supposed to check me out last night. He took a
deep breath through his nose like he was scenting the air, and when
he looked at me his eyes flashed hungry and desperate.

“She won’t let me feed until you’re dead,”
he said. “I guess I’m just going to have to feed on you.” His face
was buried in my neck before I knew what had happened, but all he
did was smell my blood through my skin. It was all he had time to
do. The elevator doors opened and he gripped my hand so hard, that
I was acutely aware of the strength he held, though I was pretty
sure he wasn’t.

Oh, dear God, save me.

I made a frantic prayer and chided myself
for not having my cross yet again. Stupid me for going into a
hospital without thinking about all the dead people that might rise
again and come after me. But, where were my new bodyguards?

The vampire dragged me along for a few feet
at a speed that wasn’t very human. “Slow down,” I whispered. He
stopped and blinked at me.

“What?”

“Slow down. You won’t fool anyone walking
like that."

My help threw him, but he recovered quickly
and we slowed, though his grip on my hand was still too tight. I
was going to have a bruise and I wouldn’t be able to help Eddy at
all for a very long time.

Three cheers for unemployment!

The vampire dragged me to the morgue. It was
cool, as I’d always expected it to be and all of the dead bodies
were tucked away in their refrigerated cubby holes. There were
three that stood open, though. Three bodies that should have been
dead, but weren’t. Alive and beautiful for all eternity.

Until I kill them.

What made me think I could kill three
vampires? Just because I'd gotten lucky and killed one? Three
vampires waited to drink my blood and drain me of the very essence
of my life. One vampire just wanted revenge and one more yet wanted
something from me, but I wasn’t completely sure what yet. My body?
My blood? My life? My love? I didn’t know, but possibly made me
think I could kill them?

The morgue door shut. I was locked in and
alone with three baby vampires that hadn’t fed. What little I knew
about vampires was enough to tell me that my position wasn’t good,
and I didn’t have much hope for myself. I took a deep breath,
ignored the aching pain in my hand, and made myself do something I
should have been doing my entire life. I made myself be more
observant and took in my surroundings.

The door was far enough away that, if I made
a run for it, I wouldn’t make it before the vampires converged on
me, so I knew that was out as a means of escape. There was another
door on the far side of the room, but I didn’t know what was in
there or whom I might find. It would literally suck if I ran in
there for escape and ran into Perdita or another vampire that she’d
made just to eat me in case she couldn’t get to me. The rest of the
room was perfectly empty except for the refrigerated cubbies that
held all the dead people.

The doors to that room on the far side swung
open as if on loose hinges and the other two baby vampires came in.
One had a grin on his face, the third, a woman, looked very
uncertain. When she saw me, however, her face contorted in such
rage I thought she might actually kill me from the adrenaline rush.
That is, if vampires had adrenaline rushes.

“So it’s your fault we’re like this?” she
screamed, and she was on me before I could blink. She had her hands
around my throat and was screaming in my face like I’d done the
deed myself.

“I had a family! I had children and a
husband! I had parents! Look what I’ve become!”

I choked, trying to tell her it wasn’t my
fault. I’m not the one who killed her, but I stopped trying.

The vampire who had my hand suddenly let go
and the female drove me backward. She was flying, her feet trailing
behind her, and we were rushing at a speed I knew would kill me if
she drove me into the wall. We stopped with a sudden jerk.
Something behind me hindered our progress.

“We’re not supposed to kill her.” The
vampire from the elevator was behind me, holding me so we wouldn’t
plow into a wall, making me a human sandwiched between two
vampires, but I was still choking.

“I want to kill her!” the female said and
tightened her grip on my throat.

“No!” He yelled, and he caught her wrists in
his own and ripped her off my neck, tossing her backward into the
air. I gasped, choking and sucking at the air, trying to get enough
so I wouldn’t black out. I did not want to black out. Not with
three vampires intent on my death.

“We cannot kill her!” the vampire said. “We
must wait for our maker.”

The moment he said the words, I felt Perdita
in my mind like she’d just entered the room. The vampires could
feel her too because the other male vampire said, “What would you
have from us, Mistress?”