Bound by Magic Chapter 3

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CHAPTER 3

Garrick

GO BACK FOR HER. The vampire inside Garrick snarled as Kayla’s scent became weaker.

His vampire split from him again. It had been more painful than the others. It felt like someone cut them apart with a knife coated in fire oil, burning through him until he was in two parts. With Kayla over his body, he and his vampire were one, reveling in her sweet scent, the taste of her, and how good she felt on top of him.

She gave him her life force willingly—a treasure to all vampires. Especially one in his state, where he’d not quite healed from his bout with the shifters or the magical torturing in the cathedral. With her blood in him, his body healed quicker.

She wants us. Go back. His muscles locked when he turned the corner, keeping him from moving too far past her scent radius. They must go back and thank her with more pleasure.

The duality of his mind made his steps falter. Generally, his vampire was emotions only, having never really split to its own entity. Now, the most carnal side of himself tried to seize control.

It took effort, but he tore himself away from his vampire’s invasive wants. Garrick managed to resume control of his feet and stepped forward, although it was the hardest step he’d ever taken.

He would not go back to thank her with more pleasure. He’d followed the wrong path by forcing his pleasure venom in her again when she was on top of him, pumping her full of his own sort of magic.

Cha! He was becoming delirious if he thought he had magic in him. Pleasure venom was a predatory necessity. An act of evolution. This was why humans couldn’t feel the pain of their bites. Their fangs were coated with a neurotoxin that numbed the skin as their teeth sunk in, rendering humans unable to feel the act. There was no magic in it.

Yet, he’d taken it a step beyond numbing the skin. He pushed as much of his pleasure venom inside of her as he could, making them both unravel to the point where he was almost unable to stop.

Thanks be to the all gods for the young mage called Carissa. Had she not brought them sustenance, he might have been inside of Kayla now, unable to stop the beast from coming out of him to claim her.

That’s not a bad thing. The thought shot through his skull as his vampire paced. Of course, it was bad. It was a false feeling spurred by the venom. For the next three days, it would turn him into a randy youngling, unable to keep from wanting the touch of a soft woman. He needed to separate himself from her before his vampire took over and inflict even more damage.

He’d hurt her already. The thought made his vampire hang back. She’d grabbed him when his fangs first struck her neck, digging her nails into him like she wanted him to let go. Even if she did encourage him after, he wouldn’t hurt her again.

It was better for her if he left her alone.

But she comes for us.

Kayla’s soft steps traveled behind him, navigating down the halls he’d come from.

“Stop.” Kayla’s harsh whisper sounded behind him.

His vampire stopped, a feeling of longing and agitation rocking through him. Both for the wrong reasons.

He longed for her to touch him again, to thread her fingers in his hair, and swirl her tongue in his mouth while he buried himself inside of her until she screamed his name. He was agitated that he wasn’t already swooping her into his arms to do just that. Neither emotion was helpful.

He pressed forward as if he hadn’t heard her. He had no need for this kind of attraction. Instead, he needed to focus on his escape path. He’d been too long in this realm and should get back to his own.

“Garrick.” Her voice was harsher in this form than in its whisper. Kayla sounded like she’d lost her footing behind him. He couldn’t push himself forward anymore.

Finally, he turned around. His lungs didn’t function for a moment. The more he stared at her, the more forceful the pull of his attraction to her.

And her scent… By the gods, it would be his undoing. Deep and earthy and completely thrashing against the last bit of his willpower. He seized the last strand of his control and made himself and his voice gruff.

“What do you want?”

“To keep you from doing something stupid,” she whispered. “You can’t leave.”

“There’s nothing for me to stay for.”

A long pause of silence met him. Hurt gleaned her eyes before her gaze found the floor and studied it.

“You’re right. I… I have no right asking you for anything. You’ve already done so much for me. But I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need your help.”

Her voice was vulnerably soft. His jaw flexed as he braced himself, keeping his vampire from seeking to comfort her.

“My magic is too dangerous to control, but it’s better around you. So, I’m asking you to be around me.”

The elation in his chest made his vampire preen. She needed him. He grabbed ahold of that feeling and threw it down the dark hall behind him. She was among her own kind who’d be much better at helping her than he would. “I have no knowledge of mage power, so I am of no use to you.”

As the words barreled from his throat, a pain sharper than the mage’s power in the cathedral chipped away at his chest.

She gave him the same look she had inside of the hanger when the wolves kept her trapped in the cage, begging him not to leave her.

We can take her with us, his vampire relentlessly argued. He’d only felt this way because of the pleasure venom.

He was the 57^th legion to the greatest vampire empire to ever exist. He belonged in the king’s guard. Their lives would never mix. A mage and a vampire did not make for budding companions in any realm—especially not his. His kingdom would not allow it. They fed on her kind, and a legion did not fall for a non-vampire.

So, no, he wouldn’t take her. He’d wait out the pleasure venom. Once it was out of their systems, his head would be clear of her and he could be on his way. She’d realize what they felt while together was just temporary. Every mage in their vicinity would know it. Their bond was one that would be extinguished once the venom had run its course.

“As I have said before. Your life is here. The mages can help you with your trouble.”

The sparkle in her green eyes dimmed, and everything inside of him fell in tatters.

“I have to go.” He studied her face.

There was a hint of a nod from her, releasing him from her hold. He hated her acceptance. He wanted her to fight him more. Make him stay. Not give in so easily, but she didn’t. He blinked twice, memorizing her face, but a hazy smoke formed in front of him, separating him from Kayla.

His vampire did not like it one bit.

“And where might you be going?” An evenly toned voice materialized from the mist, followed by a body. Pellan’s sharp gaze was on him the instant he appeared. “I asked you a question, vampire.”

The moment Pellan called his magic to his hands, Kayla’s raced under the mage, knocking him over like he’d slipped on ice. Pellan’s limbs flew over his head. Her magic traveled up Garrick’s body as Pellan scrambled to his feet.

He’d only had two experiences with magic so far. Either it hurt or it healed. The only magic he preferred came from Kayla. Hers felt like a warm bath. Soothing his muscles, caressing his skin like she had when she put her mouth on his. Even now, as he watched it crawl up his body, he could feel it relaxing the vampire inside of him.

He liked being protected by her and knowing her protection around him made him fiercer.

See? More reason to thank her with more pleasure.

He forced away the thought from his mind.

Pellan was on his feet much quicker than anyone knocked so hard onto their back should have been. Deep lines set around his eyes as he looked at Kayla in shock, then he hardened. It was the same look a ruler had when a subject had spoken out of turn.

“You will not leave here until we allow you to. It is safer that way.”

Garrick ground his teeth. He’d be let out when he wanted to be; not when some mage deemed it.

“Move from my path.”

“We cannot let you do that.”

“You speak in plural when you are alone.” Garrick cocked his head to one side and bared his fangs. With Kayla’s magic wrapped around him, he was sure he could break free of whatever hold Pellan wanted to put on him.

Several whispers came through the walls. It took a moment to discern it. Voices sang in a tune, a hum at the bottom end of his range of hearing. Then the sound grew louder, hitting his ears like Theo’s magic hit his brain in an earsplitting squall.

The mage held his hand out. The walls erupted in color. Colorful streams of magic raced down the walls and into Pellan’s feet.

“The benefit of being among my own kind, vampire, is that we can take on anyone who threatens us.”

Kayla’s magic broke apart around him, shredding as the aura of color surrounded Pellan. He was growing stronger.

“Do you see her magic, vampire?” Pellan didn’t turn around to Kayla as if he knew what transpired behind his back.

At her hands, Kayla’s magic had gone wild again, like it had in the cathedral. Sprays of lightning-like magic spurt from her hands in uncontrollable waves. She balled her fingers tight into a fist, her nails digging into her palms until bubbles of blood puckered at her skin, but the magic continued.

“This is why neither of you can leave. It’s tied itself to you, and without you, it’ll let loose. Her father says she has suppressed her magic. That makes what she’s experiencing worse. She’s been holding in a power too great to wield on her own. And even as I summon the magic around me, hers won’t obey. In its defiance, it grows worse. And will continue to.

“Do not mistake me, vampire, I’d rather not have one of your kind in the basement beneath the place I rest my head at night. Yet, I am asking because it is crucial. Do you know what happens to magic that has no master? That won’t obey? It will grow stronger and more destructive until it finds what it seeks. If you leave here tonight, her magic will look for you. In doing so, it will destroy everything in its wake until you are found. Leave here and we all die.”

Pellan’s words were final, and based on the scent of the mage’s fear billowing off him, Garrick trusted his words.

“I only ask that you stay until we can settle her power. Once she has it under control, you can go whichever direction your path carries you.”

Garrick looked back at Kayla again. Desperation made her body slump as she tried to control what was coming from her hands. An array of sparks flitted across the floor, growing into embers in the carpet and igniting the walls beside her. Pellan encased her in walls of colorful magic. If the mage wasn’t there, another inferno would’ve erupted. Garrick wished to be at her side, to caress her back and tell her they will find a way to conquer it, but the force around Pellan prevented him.

“Now, do you see why we can’t let you leave?”

Garrick didn’t need to think of his answer. He nodded. The mage’s fear calmed, but didn’t extinguish. The magic he drew from the walls left him and went back to its origins. He moved to the side to let him through.

Kayla’s magic raced to him, meeting him before he got to her. It weaved its way up to the top of his head before darting around his arms like it was searching for something, settling on where he’d been wounded by the wolves but no longer showed a scar, before moving to other parts of him. It was as if her magic was checking for any injuries, having sensed him in danger.

Garrick cupped her chin and tilted her head toward him. Despite the pleasure venom coursing through him, a foreign feeling took hold of him. Pleasure venom made him yearn for her. Looking into her eyes made him soft. A baser instinct called from deep within him.

Something that he knew he needed to stay away from.

But she needs us. She did. Kayla needed his protection.

“We will allow you freedom, vampire. Once we know she is safe, then, if you want, you can go home.”

Home.

That was not a word he’d used to describe where he lived. As a legion, he’d spent his nights in a barrack house filled with forty other warriors. A small cot in a room with four others was spartan, but comfortable.

Being the 57^th rank didn’t entitle him to the lavish comfort his captain experienced. Not that he minded. Give him blood, a soft woman from time to time, and all the chelets he could win from the others playing him in Bones, and he was content to live a warrior’s life. He’d been that way ever since he’d left childhood.

As a youngling, just before he met his full change into a vampire and joined the ranks of his King’s guard, home meant the dwelling he shared with his mother and father. They were an unmated pair with an incredible love for each other and filled their home with it.

Home meant sitting by a warm fire on cold nights, curled against his parents, sitting beside his younger sister who told them stories. Home felt like nurturing in a harsh world. Protection from a desolate one. He hadn’t experienced home in too long. He’d almost forgot what it felt like.

He glanced at an exhausted Kayla as her magic ran up and down him in waves, soothing his vampire, bringing him comfort—feeling like home.

It’s because of the venom. A dark thought flashed in his mind. That meant he couldn’t give in to the feeling.

Even so, a piece of him wished he could.