Bound to the Vampire Chapter 10

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CHAPTER 10

Garrick

The shattering of wood and a yell like someone’s soul had been caught in the splinters of the mage’s steps rocketed from the front of the house.

The mage, Marnie, snapped back into the eating room. Fear coated her scent. It had been similar to what he’d smelled from Kayla in the truck, darkening her natural perfume into something sour.

He didn’t like the scent of mage fear, he realized as he looked around the room of mages. But it was Kayla’s his vampire singled out as the one needing protection.

The mage made a sweeping motion with arms that carried a sturdiness to them. She wanted them to follow.

“Come.” Her voice was hushed as she tiptoed from the doorway and into another room.

Kayla’s father moved first, ushering her close to him with a protective arm over her shoulder.

Cha! So much for his protection now. Just a moment ago, the mage they followed was ready to strike her down, and he planned to do nothing to stop it. Then on top of it, he’d let his anger get out of control as he scolded her in front of strangers. Fathers were supposed to breathe life into their daughters, not tear them down. The aged human had no right to call himself a protector of her.

His vampire wanted to snatch the man’s worthless arm away from Kayla and he nearly did, but stopped. These were her people. It was mage business and he didn’t belong in it. He shouldn’t have interjected himself into their quarrels in the first place.

He’d seen the two of them fight in the alley. One moment, they were at each other, and the next, their kinship had returned. He’d be better off steering clear of that complication and focusing on where he belonged.

His place was at his king’s side. He was a legion who should have been journeying back to his home realm with his captain to continue his life in his king’s guard, not sneaking through a mage’s house to escape an unknown foe.

Meddling in the affairs of this realm brought him nothing but danger on this night. It was clear from Kayla’s abduction and the subsequent ambush on her house, her father had dealings with the owners of the auction house. Garrick wasn’t sure what ill business he had with the traders, but he’d have no part in it. Once the threat of danger was gone, he’d find his way back to his old life where he belonged.

The last thing he wanted was to incur the ire of the trading house. The owners were known for their ruthlessness. One slight against them spelled a demise of the worst kind.

Like taking a bounty that wasn’t really his.

A game of Bones was not an authorized transaction for the trading stalls and from the way the shifters had chased them, Kayla was intended as precious cargo. It was known that the owners of the trading house would get first dibs on anything coming into the warehouse. And from Kayla’s sequestering, she was meant for one of them.

All parties involved knew it. Ergo, the game should never have taken place.

But if he could convince the traders this was an innocent misunderstanding and negotiate for forgiveness, he may be able to skirt their wrath. Everything had a price, even forgiveness. His was sure to come with a hefty one; he’d just have to hope the price wouldn’t include his life.

The mage went through several rooms, each one deeper into the house than the last, before stopping at a floral-patterned wall flanked by cases of books.

“In here.” She pressed her hands on the wall. Red mist burst from her fingertips and soaked into the pattern before the entire wall disappeared, leaving a staircase to a lower level.

A cloud of musty air blew into his face.

“Go on.” She motioned toward Kayla and her father, before snagging his shirt collar. “Not you, vampire. You stay with me.”

Part way down the stairs, Kayla stopped. But her father moved in her way so she couldn’t return to his side.

“Your friend will be fine, young one.” The mage waved at Kayla’s father to go. He pulled her down the stairs. She resisted, causing them both to fight with their balance. In an instant, her father’s magic recentered them as if they were on level ground.

“He can’t be harmed while he’s in the house,” her father said quickly.

“Then, let me go with him.” Kayla tried to maneuver around her father, but Marnie groaned.

“Your father is right, young one. The vampire will remain under the protection of the house as long as he’s inside,” Marnie said impatiently. “No one can enter who is not pure of heart.”

With an unsure glint in her green eyes, Kayla stalled, sweeping him with concern, seeking his approval.

Garrick’s chin tilted down in a curt nod to ease her. Against most foes, he could handle himself. The mage didn’t seem like she dealt with many outsiders of her own kind, let alone shifters, so he believed to be good on that front. When Kayla returned his nod, he followed behind the mage into the hall. The wall to the stairs was magically back into place without a sound.

A hollowness formed in his upper chest the further he traveled away from Kayla. But now that he’d separated himself, a fog that he hadn’t realized grew in his mind, lifted.

By the gods, he’d been falling under the guise of a false feeling. He’d mistakenly put his pleasure venom in her when he bit her in the truck and it’d been slowly holding dominion over his mind.

It had caused this indescribable need to protect and claim her. It made him irrational.

So much so, he’d faced a house full of shifters to protect her, leaving him wounds that were slow to heal. And just moments ago, he actually planned to go to war with her father over scolding her.

While the mage’s back was turned, he rubbed at the wound the wolf shifter left behind after he’d bit into him. The skin on the surface was blemish-free, but the wound underneath still felt fresh and hurt like he’d been bludgeoned with fire oil.

It could have been worse.

He could be dead, thanks to the effects of the pleasure venom. Thanks be to the gods that he made it out alive despite it. The effects of the venom would clear from his system in three days’ time once he left her side, which he’d be sure to do soon.

The mage twisted back through the same halls they’d been through. It did not make sense to be confronting a foe they were just fleeing.

“Why are we returning?” he asked.

“You may have Donovan’s daughter convinced you’re some sort of knight, but I’ve been around your kind for a long time, vampire. I know better.”

He straightened, fighting the agitation rising in his shoulders that she’d questioned his honor. “I am no knight. I am a warrior. But I do not wish to cause you harm.”

“So you’ve said.” She scurried through the halls like a mouse running from a predator. Which was not off base. Vampires were natural hunters, but he wasn’t sure this particular mouse wasn’t fleeing from a cat and into the mouth of a lion.

The continuous breaking of the floorboards behind her front door stopped when she raised her arms as she entered the front hallway. So, she controlled the creaking woods in the front.

The mage put her hand on the front door handle and instantly every dimmed light in her house went dark.

The mage only opened the door a sliver, but her demeanor was the same when he’d been on the other side of the threshold. Complete with what he could only assume was a magic smoking stick. She hadn’t pulled it from anywhere, yet it dangled between her fore and middle fingers as she pressed it to her mouth and inhaled.

“I have no vacancies.” Her voice was low, but every word rang with perfect clarity.

Whoever was on the opposite side of the door snarled and moved, but it sounded like the wood planks refused to let him go. “Get my feet out of this damned thing.”

Garrick couldn’t see him, but from the ruckus, he must have been buried to the shins in the mage’s front porch.

Cha, I’d give five chelets to see it firsthand.

“It isn’t my power that compels it.”

“Don’t play with me, witch. Get me out of this thing.” The voice on the other side was deep, definitely male, and from the sound of it, sharp pins lined his vocal box. It was not a pleasant sound.

“That power is out of my reach,” the mage said again, her voice smooth like the silk robes she wore, but her fear traveled off of her in waves. “I couldn’t stop it even if I wanted to.”

“Fine. Who stepped through these doors tonight?”

The mage pulled the colorful silks draped on her body around her as she tucked a fist under her smoking arm.

“What’s it to you?” she asked before pulling the smoking stick from her mouth and plucking off the ashes on the porch in front of her.

“We’re looking for three fugitives of your kind for breaking vampire law in Treehill.”

“Treehill? That’s fifty miles from here. What does that have to do with me?”

“Don’t think you can fool me. I know you witches have your ways.”

“That may be, but it’s impossible to know every Tom, Dick, and Mary Lou who calls themselves a mage these days.”

The man on the other side growled. Her fear coasted its way through the hallway, but Marnie merely put the smoking stick to her mouth again and kept her voice even. “I don’t know any of the mages from Treehill. And I definitely don’t know any fugitives.”

“Don’t try that trickery with me. I know you’ve harbored in the past. Just because I haven’t been able to catch you, doesn’t mean you’re not guilty.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe you haven’t been able to catch me because I’m not guilty of breaking treaty law?” Marnie’s voice remained calm as she took another inhale of her smoking stick, but her fear grew. “I’m sorry you made the trip, but I haven’t seen any fugitives.”

“Who did you let through these doors tonight? We have this house watched and we were told someone came in here not an hour ago.”

“I have visitors all the time. It never seemed of too much importance to you until now,” the mage continued.

“It is now that vampire law is being investigated.”

“By whose authority?”

“Clint’s.”

The mage visibly shuddered.

More wood splintered and clacked from the front porch, followed by a groan. “If you let me out of this, I could show you the papers.”

Red mist curled up Marnie’s frame to her hands and a folded paper appeared inside of them. Apparently, there was no need to let him go to retrieve the papers. After unfolding it, she scanned the page. Clenching her jaw, she crumpled it into her hands.

“Now, tell me who’s in here,” the voice on the opposite side of Marnie lilted triumphantly. “Or we’ll be back to search the place and you can answer to Clint.”

“You should know who’s in here already.” She looked up to the voice, then back at him over her shoulder. “He’s a friend of yours.”

Garrick gave the mage a blank look. He had no friends here. His only friend was his Captain, and at this hour, his best hope had him in the safety of the hotel they stayed in while in the human realm.

“What friend?” the gravelly voice asked.

The mage pulled the door open a fraction more. He met eye to eye with a vampire whose fangs were the only sign of his genealogy. The vampire’s near-translucent skin showed every black vein and capillary in his neck as it weaved up to eyes that were too close together. His flesh seemed nonexistent as his bones were his predominant feature. And even his posture was more animal than civil.

“How’d he get in there? You let him in?”

“Just walked in. You know the rules looking for a bed for the night,” Marnie’s foot anchored behind the door, holding it steady.

The vampire growled and faced him. A coldness filled the hallway as they stared at each other.  Everything in the expression set in the vampire’s porcelain smooth face was just as off-putting as the arrogance in his voice.

Despite it, Garrick offered a salute that was traditional of vampires of this realm out of courtesy—a sign that there may be peace between them.

The vampire spat and didn’t return the gesture. Apparently, there would be no peace.

“He’s no friend of mine,” the vampire said.

At least in that they could agree.

It had been many years since he’d come into contact with a vampire of the human realm. They had no use of blood auctions and therefore the opportunity to cross paths was a rarity.

Although, quite a few vampires remained on this side of the portal, they’d often lived in small covens near cities that made for their hunting grounds. Not in the country near the trading house.

If Asher took issue with him drinking from the source, he would be horrified by what vampire kind had devolved into in the human realm.

They hunted humans for sport as soon as the skies darkened to night. And from what he’d been able to gather from his time at the auction house, they were unable to abstain from killing most of their prey. A civilized vampire learned how to control their bloodlust. Vampires of this realm didn’t.

As evident by the boiling temper of the vampire on the porch who regarded Marnie.

“Did he check in?” he asked; his jawbone becoming more pronounced as he whipped his vicious gaze back to Marnie.

“No, he was a walk-in.”

“Enough with the games, witch,” he roared. “You know what I mean. Did he check in?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re supposed to check his papers. You know the rules. Any new vampire that comes to town has to check in. Clint doesn’t like unknowns roaming his streets.”

“I thought Clint was the one who sent him.”

“Is that what he said?” The vampire’s eyes cut to him.

“When has a vampire ever answered to a mage?”

The vampire on the porch was silent. If he had to guess from the vampire’s pursed lips, never.

“You talk for yourself, vampire?”

“I do.” He held his annoyance back.

“Who are you?”

“I am called—”

“His name is Garrick.”

“You dare speak over a vampire, witch?”

A bubble of fear burst from the mage before she settled her weight to one foot and put the smoking stick to her mouth and inhaled again. Everything in her outward appearance remained calm, yet the scent of her fear grew stronger. “It’s a long name.”

“You will not speak over a vampire again,” the vampire warned. The hatred in his eyes made anger crawl up Garrick’s spine. The vampire didn’t care about pleasantries or servility. He’d only cared about power. Specifically, his power over the mage.

“Well, I don’t have all night for everyone to spout their full names. I’d rather get some sleep tonight before the sun wakes the rest of the world.”

The vampire’s anger flared again. “I’m getting sick of your tone.”

“There’s no tone. I’m only concerned for you. Don’t you have to scurry back to your hidey-holes before dawn?”

Apparently, something she said set him off. The vampire swiped at her. A red spray of her magic wrapped around the front of her as she moved backward into the house.

The vampire’s hand met air, but the moment it crossed the threshold, it burst into flames. These were no slow embers. Every bit of it, from fingernails to wrist, was engulfed in a fireball. In a shout of pain, he pulled it back to his chest, but the damage had been done. His flesh had been burned to the bone. What remained of his hand stretched out before his eyes as he examined it.

“You know the rules, vampire. Only the pure of heart can enter my house.”

The fear that’d been running off of her like river water extinguished the moment she realized the vampire on the porch couldn’t come into the house without being burned.

That is what Kayla’s father meant when he said no harm would come to him while he remained in the house.

The vampire glared at her and bared his fangs. “You won’t be holed up in this house forever. One day, witch, you will have to come outside and no magic porch is going to save you.”

“Should I tell Clint you plan to break treaty laws for your pride?”

“There’s only a matter of time before the Oath runs its course. And a treaty won’t save you. Mark my words, your day will come and you will pay for this. And I’m going to enjoy draining every last drop from you.”

Garrick had no allegiance to the mage in front of him, but the vampire’s threat made him itch to thwart him. Did he treat all mages like this? What about his Kayla? He’d never let the lesser vampire act this way with her.

He inwardly shook himself, clearing his thoughts of the girl his pleasure venom made him ache for. He needed to think of her less.

“I don’t want any trouble here. Tell Clint I’m sorry you had to make the trip.” Marnie changed the subject abruptly, her tone taking on a more cheerful one like she was escorting guests to the door after a pleasant meal instead of fending off a threat on her life. “As you can see, I’m not harboring anyone. My only guest is a vampire just passing through.”

The vampire’s teeth snapped together with a loud pop. He didn’t believe her, but the porch encasing his feet shifted backward, pushing him to the stairs. Once it met the top step, it stilled and rose until his shoes were no longer covered with wood.

A low growl erupted from the vampire’s chest before he looked back at him. “You have twenty-four hours. Check in or be gone before nightfall.”

Garrick clenched his teeth but thought it wise to keep his mouth closed. He didn’t take orders from a lesser vampire, but he didn’t want to war with him either. The vampire seemed primed for a fight.

“Don’t think this is over, witch.”

“You have a nice night, Mac,” she said sweetly even though a plume of fear wafted in his direction.

With that, her porch threw him off.