Bound by Magic Chapter 16

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CHAPTER 16

Garrick

THE CLAWS DIGGING INTO HIM WERE SHARP. The teeth were sharper. All hacking at his skin, sinking their poison into him while he was overrun by wolves.

Get up, his vampire growled. He needed to get to his feet to gain the upper hand, but he could not.

Until he felt her come to him. Not her, although as her magic curled up his body, it felt like her soft caress, soothing him, even after it hardened around him like a shield. The wolves gnawed at it, but couldn’t gain traction.

The pack on top of him growled their frustrations. When another trail of Kayla’s magic found its way to him, his heart fell from his chest.

If her magic was on him, that meant…

His head popped up. Their eyes connected. She’d breached the bunker protections.

It was a thought he and the pack leader came to simultaneously. The wolf’s head snapped up to the open bunker hole. Its head lowered as it growled viciously before it leapt forward. The other wolves followed him inside.

Sharp, shattered, and surprised screams erupted from the bunker. Not all who were inside could disappear and move locations like Kayla’s father or the mage, Carissa. Some of them were trapped behind the wall of wolves howling inside. Magic flew as the mages fought to protect themselves.

He needed to get up. He focused himself on getting to Kayla, but she was quicker. Kayla’s lithe body flossed through the crowd of mages, storming from the bunker to get away from the wolves.

In the throng, she found him. Crouching down, her face filled with worry as she checked his wounds where her magic was the most concentrated. Her touch coupled with her magic soothed the poison and calmed his vampire enough to pick himself up, hanging on to Kayla as he lifted himself from the floor. His body was wounded, badly, but his vampire pushed away the pain. He needed to get her to safety.

They fumbled while he found his footing and focused on the scent of clean air. He needed to get them outside.

“This way.” He moved through the cement catacombs. Kayla grabbed his hand tightly, causing her magic to pulse around him, like it was trying to heal him, as they made it to the street.

Outside, chaos reigned.

Like inside of the bunker, the streets were in turmoil. Mages of all kinds poured out onto the sidewalks in confusion and in fear. In his many years, he had never seen terror like this.

Some were shouting, others crying, most rushing, racing to get away. A mage zoomed past them, some blipped as they scurried down the streets to get away from the safehouse. In their haste, several men knocked into an elder woman. Her silver hair flew into the air as she came down to her knees at his feet. He hoisted her up.

“Are you all right?” he asked, looking into her azure eyes.

She nodded but her eyes were trained over his shoulder in fear. The woman fervently pointed over his back and tried to wrench herself away enough to disappear into nothing.

The wolves were on the attack.

“We have to move.” His grip on to Kayla tightened as they flossed through the crowd, trying to make their way as far away from the mage compound as possible. But the chaos followed them.

He pulled Kayla behind him. She was not as fast as him, but he could not carry her in this state. If he did not find someplace safe for them, the wolves would catch them.

He looked down the street. The city was teeming with life several blocks away. Supernaturals of this realm had a code to remain discrete about what they were. He wondered if the wolves would hunt them in a crowd of humans. If not, it would mask them enough to get to shelter. He held on to that hope and intertwined his thick fingers with Kayla’s delicate ones.

With her hand firmly in his, they raced toward the busy crossways and into the crowd. He glanced back in the distance at the safehouse. Two shifters slowly made their way toward them, dodging in and out of alleyways not to be seen by the human horde going about their business.

Garrick forced them forward, twisting and turning on their path until he no longer smelled the shifters behind him, but the scent of danger did not quell, only simmered.

They’d lost them for now, but it was only a matter of time before they caught his scent and sniffed them out.

They needed to get going. If not for the pain of his wounds, he would have continued on. He needed to rest for a minute, let his body recover some.

He staggered into a nearby alley and bent over, clutching at a painful patch on his arm where a wolf’s bite dug deep. His wounds were slower to heal than the last time.

“Are you okay? Do you need blood?” Kayla was already rolling up her sleeve as she eyed him worriedly.

“No, I can sustain,” he said, pushing her arm away. He needed a lot of blood to fix this. Too much for her to provide. He needed to recover to a point where he could take blood from her without succumbing to bloodlust. “My body needs time to heal.”

She doubted his words, but nodded. Several mages blew past the alley on the run. The screams in the distance grew stronger. It was only a matter of time before they were caught.

Just under the current of the wind, he smelled a shifter nearby. If he could smell it, that meant it could also smell him. The feeling of danger curled up his neck as he looked at Kayla. He needed to find safety for her, but he was in no state to continue running… or to fight.

“We need to find shelter to wait this out,” he said.

Kayla nodded and stepped forward, but he blocked her way. He was a moving target when it came to the wolves.

“Not you. I need to go alone.”

“What, why?” Kayla started to protest, but he pushed her further into the alley.

“The shifters are growing too close and have scented me. I will be an easy target. If they find us on the road and I am unable to fend them off…” His words lost traction in his throat. “I can avoid capture if I go alone. I will find a clear path, then come back for you.”

The worry intensified on her face.

“I have trained many years for this,” he assured her. When another wolf howled in the distance—one that she could hear—she nodded weakly, slid down the wall, and tucked herself between two large garbage barrels.

Fear coated her scent, but she didn’t argue.

“I’ll be back before sunfall,” he said. “We should hide you. What about in here?”

She sputtered, looking at the barrel in disgust. “You want me to… to hide in the dumpster?”

Her green eyes darted to the rusted side of the large metal square. From the look on her face, it was the last thing she wanted to do. Not that he blamed her. Even with the lid closed, it smelled pungent, but it made for a perfect mask.

“It will mask your scent and be safer than if you stayed in the open air. No one will be able to find you.”

Her face contorted as she nodded begrudgingly, gagging as she stepped close enough for him to lift her inside.

“What if there’s a rat in there?”

“There isn’t,” he assured.

“How do you know? Did you look?”

“I can smell their blood. There is nothing living in there.”

“Foremages, I hope you’re right.” She hoisted several pieces of cardboard to one corner, fashioning it into a makeshift chair. “This is disgusting.”

What waited them if they did not find shelter was much worse.

“Cover yourself with the black bags. Don’t make any noise. Don’t come out until I come back.”

“Hurry back,” she ordered him.

Quickly, he poked his head from the alley and onto the street and moved when it was clear.

The legion in him told him to move east since the scent of shifter came from the west. This far away from the mage compound, where the humans were more concentrated, the air was clearer and so were his thoughts.

Life in this realm had become too dangerous for a single legion. His duty was to serve on his honor to his King, not entangle himself in mage business. The gashes on his arms and the chunk missing from his torso was confirmation of that.

Yet, the vampire in him struggled.

He hadn’t put more of his pleasure venom in her and the effects weren’t waning. It should have been extinguished by now, but deep inside of him, something still lingered. Something that swelled his chest whenever she was near to him. Even now, a hole formed in her absence.

He’d asked his father once why he never mated his mother. It was clear that they loved each other deeply. His father told him simply that he’d never fall victim to the mate bond.

“Bonded pairs share more than just love,” his father had said. “Once you are bonded, you no longer belong to yourself and that is a very dangerous thing for a vampire. It makes you inferior. I will never allow myself to become inferior because of a bond.”

At the time, it angered him. To him, it seemed as if his father admitted openly that he didn’t truly love his mother. But now as he rushed to find shelter, he understood.

They had not bonded like vampires, but he felt inferior to the bond already. He’d never be able to protect Kayla in the way she needed. It’d been proven already when he’d been outmatched by shifters, ineffective against mages, and unable to keep them safe. The pain in his chest grew.

He was better as a legion. That had been his strongest attribute. As a fierce fighter and adept warrior, he was not used to this feeling. It made his vampire want to tear the entire world to shreds, ashamed that he was unable to protect his own.

But what choice did he have now?

Get her to safety, his vampire thought fiercely.

Then find my way back to the vampire realm, he countered rationally.

The most carnal part of him growled openly at the thought, the sound echoing around him.

In response, a whispering hiss called on the air. He froze.

Cold city wind blew into his face as he strained his ears to listen. For a moment, it felt like several pairs of eyes were on him, but nothing moved. On this street, a few homes lay abandoned. They could stay here for the night. He didn’t have time to find something more suited.

Days were short this time of year. The sun had already tilted toward the horizon.

He did not have much time.

Down the next street, he found what would have to pass for shelter for the night. An old two-story house with boarded windows and chipped paint looked just the perfect place to lay low. He stepped inside of the abandoned house. Despite the musty smell of rotting wood and the thick layer of dust throughout, it was otherwise empty, and had been for a while.

They would rest here while he healed, wait out the vampires in the night, and head out at dawn to find someone of her own kind for help. Evading shifters in broad daylight would be easy enough if he could remain among the human population.

They seemed to avoid them at all cost. He hadn’t smelled one on this side of the city, where the scent of human was almost overwhelming. This would bring good fortune on this night.

He traveled the same roads back to where he left Kayla to wait him out.

Inwardly, his vampire relaxed when her scent grew stronger. She was safe.

Sunfall had come and they needed to get off the streets and to some place safe before the sky became totally black.

“Kayla,” he whispered, entering the alley. “I have secured accommodations.”

But he didn’t hear her move.

“Kayla?”

No answer. Uneasiness gripped his chest. His vampire rose to the surface.

There was danger. Everywhere. The faint scent of shifter, the eeriness that crawled up his spine telling him that the wolves were prowling through the city, closer to him now, the sickness in him that said he didn’t have long before the poison set, yet, there was something else, just beyond his hearing that irked his vampire.

“Kayla,” he called, lifting the garbage barrel she’d hidden in. It was empty. He checked behind it and the few doors that were lit by dim bulbs at the corners, but she was not there.

Her scent lingered, but it grew weaker the further he went, so he turned back. He narrowed her scent to a patch of building side with nothing but several stories of brick.

He took another breath to be sure. It was stronger here, like she’d been standing next to him. He reached his hand out as if she’d been made invisible to him, but his hand only met the stone. It must’ve been a mage door. The ones only they could open and close by pressing their hands to it. One that he wouldn’t be able to open.

“Kay—” he called again, but stopped.

Shadows at the top of a building in the distance caught his eyeline. He stilled.

The vampires had risen.

They scattered the roofline like ants on the hunt, jumping from building to building above him.

His gaze fell down the stone building and onto the long expanse of the alley. They had the high ground and the advantage. His back slid across the building side as he moved silently. He stared at the wall and prayed to the all gods that she was safer than him.

A light thud fell behind him. At the same time, another shadow appeared behind the glow of one of the backdoor lights before its owner came into view. Him again.

Pale ashen skin and tight dark eyes surveyed him with more mocking than surprise. “There you are. I thought you were only passing through.”

“I was caught up.”

The vampire raised a brow. “I see. You look like shit.”

Cha! He was one to talk.

He’d looked no better on this day than he had when he faced him on the mage’s porch. Mac, if he remembered the name correctly, looked like he died four centuries ago, with his thin waxy skin and morose eyes. But worse was his irritating voice that filled the street with its caterwauling sound.

“And…” Mac tsked. “You didn’t check in.”

Garrick’s jaw cracked as he prepared himself. “I do not wish to war with you.”

“You couldn’t even if you wanted to.” The vampire looked him over with a doubtful look. “But you’ve chosen war, haven’t you? The day you decided to be in bed with the mages? See where that’s gotten you?”

Another vampire dropped from the building top and landed two paces behind him. He repositioned himself so his back was against the building. His eyes blackened to coal, and his fighting fangs came down.

“How do you make your eyes shine like that?” Mac asked. “The witches do that for you?” He didn’t sound like he was interested out of curiosity, but jealousy.

“I do not wish to war with you,” he hissed again.

The vampire in front of him chuckled, holding his hands up in mock surrender and turned back to their original conversation. “I don’t wish to war with you either, but you’ve been bedfellows with our enemy.”

“Can I have this one?” a thin-haired vampire, two heads shorter than him, slithered forward. Her mouth was stained dark pink from dried blood despite only having one fang. “You said next one was mine. It’s my turn to clean the filth.”

“No,” Mac said, but the young vampire was already moving like the wind. So, the vampires in this realm had the same speed.

He prepared himself for the knife she pulled from a pocket on the side of the black cargo pants she wore, but in a blur, Mac caught her hand before she could stab him and twisted it until it popped from its socket.

The tiny vampire yelped, dropping the dagger from her hand with a clang on the ground, and clutched her arm to her middle.

“No.” He seethed. “We’re taking him to see Clint. He’s the one we’ve been looking for,” Mac said decisively when the girl hissed.

“Him?” she retorted and spat. “He’s filth.”

“He deals with mages,” someone agreed from the shadows.

“We should make his death slow,” said another.

“My decision is final.”

The collective silenced unhappily, except one. As the tiny vampire reset her wrist with a groan, she spat toward him again, “How can you be so sure he’s the one?”

“This vampire can cross their thresholds. I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Mac said simply. A few of the vampires gasped in disbelief. “So he comes with us.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Garrick’s eyes darted through the shadows.

Several additional thuds landed behind him, deep within the shadows. Injured, he could not take on the gathering crowd. Their numbers grew as more vampires filled the alleyway and lined the rooftops. And yet again, he found himself outmatched. Mac’s sallow skin upturned at the cheek.

“Seems to me like you don’t have a choice.”