The Carver's Magic (32 page)

On any other girl I would probably say she was trashy, but on me, knowing what it means to Dar, they are less trashy.

They are not trashy!
Dar hissed

I laugh even though he is kissing me because I can’t help it. I let my mind wander a moment and then seize on the picture in my mind. I teleported us to a place I always wanted to visit for years. I open my eyes and see beautifully shaped buildings and smell several odd kinds of spices in the air.

"Beth," I can hear the confusion and excitement in his tone. "Where are we?"

I smile at the market swarming in front of us, "Cambodia." I grab his hand and we walk down the many aisles of people selling all kinds of hand made crafts, food and OH MYGOSH! I jump back, "Is that a spider, on a stick?" EEEWWW Gross.

Dar started laughing, hard. A deep chest laugh that almost made me laugh.

He grabs me around my waist and presses his lips to the top of my head, "I love you."

I could tell he wanted to go, but he was letting me experience this, which was so different from the old Dar.

We didn't buy anything, not for the lack of not wanting anything, but we didn't have the currency or the language skills to pull it off. We walked for a few hours, then I gave in and agreed to return to his pack.

Our pack.
He corrected.

I close my eyes, trying to picture the place but something else filtered in. The boy with the black, silky hair. He looks so happy and for some reason I could feel how much Dar missed him. It must have been one of the memories I took from Dar. With his arms wrapped around me I teleport us.

I clear my head and I open my eyes pulling out of his arms. We are definitely not back at the pack land. As soon as I feel the cold ocean air I know I failed. We are on sand, near a large, metal building. I can hear the ocean but I can’t see it. I would say the building looked at big as a hotel with several doors, but it is ugly and dark and I know I would never stay in a place like that, and that thought is the one that worried me most. Why would I teleport to a place I didn’t want to be?

Beth?

"Honestly I have no idea where we are, Dar." I answer his unasked question. I scan the place. I feel something, so I know there is magic around but I can't pinpoint it and I don’t see anyone else so I didn’t know who was here. It doesn't feel right. I really don't want to be here with Dar. It isn't safe.

We need to get out of here Beth.

Just then a woman walked out of a small shed. She has a tight bun, no make up, and she eyes me carefully. Her lips purse as she assesses me. My defensive nature held true and I lift my chin at her.

She recoiled, "New recruits are not allowed without an escort." I know she is trying to sound domineering, but her sallow face made her less threatening and more revolting.

I look at Dar to show that I am giving it some thought. In my mind I say,
There’s something not right here.

Dar grabs my arm, “Let’s go get our escort.”

The lady nods and watches us walk in the opposite direction. Dar walks beside me for a few seconds before he grabs my arm and turns us around. Dar sniffed the air and I feel him still next to me. I heard an ear-wrenching howl rip through the air.

Cort?

"What?" I ask quietly, wondering if I heard him correctly. I look back to make sure the sickly-looking woman didn’t notice we stopped. She punches in a series of numbers at the front metal door of the dark building. The one that creeps me the hell out.

My brother.
Dar leaves me heading in the direction of the creepy-ass building. He moves so quickly I have to teleport to keep up. He had squeezed in the metal door just as it was closing. We snuck in and I swear I’ve never been so worried for another person in my life. Okay I was worried when I saved Cory from the Carvers, but right now really bothers me.

Dar left me again as if he had a one-track mind. And to be honest, if it was Cory so would I. I did my best to keep up as he sniffed, assessing each intersection, hallway, and door.

      
I follow a step behind, because his damn long legs are just too fast. The halls are suspiciously empty. Dar phases into a wolf on the second floor and begins sniffing quickly from door to door. I am tense, not really knowing where we are going or what kind of place this is. I let my fire come to the front, just in case something happens. It should have been my first reaction, but all I could think about was Dar and hoping he didn’t get hurt. Talk about a change in mindset.

Dar stops and I almost run into him. He phases back and I quickly make him some pants after taking off my top. I use my bra to turn it into a tightly fitted tank top with built in bra so that I’m not walking around free busting it. He kicks in the door and follows in with a growl and smashes into something or someone.

I don't think I was prepared for the smell that permeated the room. It was rancid and I worried it would eat through my clothing. When I got my gag reflex under control I could see a wolf on his side. He was cut open from his chest to his lower stomach. I froze for a moment at what I was looking at.

A fat, bald man was screaming as Dar’s wolf was tearing into his ribs. The man’s fist had done nothing to stop him. Blood was everywhere.

I don’t know if this is Cort, but the wolf looks dead. Although I thought he was supposed to have been dead for years, he looks freshly dead. But we aren’t leaving here without him and I will be damned if I let Dar’s brother’s body stay in this hell-hole of a room.

I know he needs to get the cuffs off before I can teleport. I try to push my magic in him to help with his wounds, but it won’t go, again reinforcing that he’s dead. I try once more before I refocus my efforts on the chains and I can feel the body take the magic. No way!

It takes longer than it should have, because I am trying to get the damn cuffs off and push in my magic at the same time, which is not easy. Imagine you are climbing stairs as fast as possible, that’s what it’s like to push your magic into someone.

The silver ate away at his ankles so much so that I think I saw bone in some areas.

"Beth. Take him to the healer's," Dar yells out to me when I drop the last chain. I put one hand on the wolf and held out the other to him. He’s naked with blood on his face and chest. He shakes me off, "No. I’m going to kill them all." His eyes begin to lighten and I know he’s turning back into his wolf.

I close my eyes and transport his brother to the healer’s new extra-large house. We land hard on the wood floors. Sidney screams as she drops her glass of wine. I yell, “Help me dammit!”

She recovers quickly when she sees the wolf. She springs to my side and sniffs. Sniffs!

“It’s Dar’s brother.” I say hoping she understands how serious it is that he lives.

Then she tilts her head as if she’s looking at a ghost, "Cort?" She said his name with reverence and admiration, "I thought you were dead." She was whispering. Covering her mouth.

I bump her with my shoulder, attempting to knock some sense into her. "Can you heal him?" I ask, with coldness in my voice. I need to get back to Dar before he gets hurt, and I don’t have time to worry about her emotional state. I need to make sure the healer can do her job.

The healer didn't answer me. She is mumbling under her breath and rummaging over him, while pinning his skin together. She holds my hand against the stomach and tells me to keep pushing in my magic.

Then she runs out of the room and grabs a bottle, “Cory made this for me.” I don’t know if she was telling me, or herself. She drips one drop carefully on the wound and I can feel the added magic along with mine. Sidney runs away again and comes back a moment later with a shot.

“What’s that for?”

“To keep him unconscious. That potion only gives him a boost, it’s not a cure all. He needs to heal.” She pats my hand, “His lungs are formed again. You can let go.”

He has a lot of scars all over his body. I worry that he has poison in him, too, so I tell my magic to look for it. A moment later I know that there is no poison, those scars are his that haven’t healed. I didn’t even know that was possible. I have never seen a more ragged looking wolf. He is skinny and his hair is nasty and clumpy. And to be honest, he still looks dead.

"Are you sure?" I ask again, because if I let go and Dar’s brother dies, I won’t be forgiven.

The healer nods as she continues to look him over. I watch as tears run down her eyes. Her red mascara is smearing, making her tears look bloody, "Who did this?"

“I don’t know,” I know I am getting loud, but I need to return to Dar.

She let out her breath when she pulled a long, thin, silver colored needle from the dog’s spine. “He’ll live,” she said, and I think she was starting to phase because her teeth elongated. She was able to tap it down because I noticed her nails remained white and she didn’t grow any fur.

With nothing left to say, I teleport back to the building. I arrive back where I left Dar. The room is empty and an even bigger mess than before. I refuse to let my fear get into my head. He’s going to live no matter what.

Where the hell is he?

The fire alarm began ringing. I cover my ears to alleviate the nose.

Dar? Where are you!
I scream, hoping that he can hear my thoughts.

No answer.

I begin to let the fire inside me grow. I take a deep breath and let it out so it circles me. I leave the room, teleporting to Dar.

I am in a large room. There is a circle of people staring at me. I let out another breath, making the fire around me larger. They all step back, exposing Dar's wolf being held down with several silver chains. He is not moving. I step forward and the group steps back again, all except one.

The man that stood out from the others reminded me of Richard, with the same annoying, arrogant smirk. He stands there with his hands at his sides, “Another one? How fortunate.”

Then someone throws something at my feet. The vapors are hostile and attack my nose and senses. I let my fire burn them as they try to enter my body. I cough and shake it off before I narrow my eyes.

The man with the arrogant smile stops smiling. He cuts his eyes behind me and I hear a loud crash. I turn in time to see a large blue light pointed at me. I look back at the man as if he had tried to drown me in feathers.

The arrogant man snaps his fingers behind me and the light turns off. This would have been amusing but my mate is still on the floor unconscious. Whipping around, I see him study me for a moment before asking, “What are you?”

I’m assuming he is talking to himself more than me, which made me happy because he probably means it, he doesn’t know what I am. This is a boon for me.

I look at Dar and I hear the man make a clicking sound in his mouth. As if he could stop me from getting to my mate.

“You don’t want to do that little witch.”

I lazily look at the man and realize he has to be a human. No witch on this planet can control fire like me. Or at least I had never heard of one, “You can’t stop me.”

His smug look was back and it was really annoying, “Oh I think I can. You touch that and your body will be charged with so many volts your brain will fry. Werewolves can reassemble, but witches can’t.” He tipped his fingers into a triangle, “I would know, I already tried that.”

Okay. I’ll bite, “Who are you?”

His eyes sparkled, “Someone who knows all about the supernatural.”

“Good for you,” I said in a bored tone, but mentally I wondered if the council knew about this guy. I mean it seemed like this might be something they should know about, but then again why would the council do anything they were supposed to. I almost laughed at my ignorance.

“Now how about we make this seamless…” His words trailed off and I jumped to the left, anticipating whatever was behind me. I missed the first three darts but I felt four more tag me in the back.

The arrogant man said something, but I had already started to teleport to Dar. I couldn’t see, but I could feel Dar. I told my fire to soften the chains. With the last of my ability to stay awake, I teleported us to his house.

We land on the floor of his house and my body goes limp just as my mind fades to black and a familiar voice says, "This, I can work with."

* * *

My body feels like I am being weighed down by a house of bricks. I can’t move. I call on my fire to help. Slowly my fire loosens the weight and I can open my eyes.

Another few minutes later and I am looking at Sidney, sipping from a blue mug with white writing. Something about it being wine.

“Thank you Sidney,” I don’t know what she did, but I know that she’s here to help or she already helped, but either way I wanted to thank her.

She nodded politely before looking behind her.

I follow her gaze at a crowd of women huddled around the front door. I look at Sidney again, questioning why we have an audience. Sidney huffs before she tips her mug all the way up and finishes the last of it.

My eyes are heavy and I was about to close them when I hear one lady ask in a whisper, "How is Cort doing?" I peer up and look for who’s asking and why she’s in my house asking about Cort. Sidney left the mug on the kitchen bar and sat down next to me.

Now that I was looking, I noticed I was on a cot in my living room and there were two clear bottles on my side. I don’t know what they are, but I can clearly see Cory’s writing on the labels. I look over at Dar and he, too, is on a cot, and he has an IV in his arm. That can’t be good.

Sidney checked my pulse as she answered, "He’s alive, only because werewolves are hard to kill."

Was she talking about Cort or Dar? She must have seen the question in my eyes right?

I was about to ask, but another women asked, “Is it true that he has scars?”

I cut my eyes to them. The healer chastised the young woman with a glare too, “He’s not your business, Clair.”

Dar is unconscious and all these bird heads want to talk about is Cort and if he has some scars? Unacceptable. I clear my throat. When they looked in my direction, it takes a lot of effort not to vaporize them right then and there. Their contempt was clear in the curl of their lips. It is as if I am beneath them to even talk in their direction.