Bound by Magic Chapter 1

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CHAPTER 1

Kayla

KAYLA SWALLOWED THE KNOT forming at the base of her throat as Pellan watched her and Garrick with a hesitant eye as Theo and Carissa stepped inside the bunker.

Of course, the leader of the mage council would be skeptical of them. Less than an hour ago, she’d nearly burned down a cathedral with the council of Sun City in it because they attacked the vampire at her side. But she softened her face. Garrick was injured and they couldn’t risk being turned away. A vampire horde and a pack of angry shifters roamed the streets above their heads, hunting for her. They wouldn’t make it out alive if they had to go above ground. So, they were stuck in the underground mage shelter, at least for the night.

That’s if the mage in front of them let them in. Pellan had just said there was a lot to explain, but blocked the carved door when Garrick stepped forward.

Sparks of golden light lit in Pellan’s eyes as his magic surveyed Garrick, then her. It was as though he was measuring them the same way Marnie’s porch did, but when Pellan’s magic pulsed, Kayla nearly stepped back. He was powerful; perhaps the most powerful mage she’d ever come across.

Her uneasiness intensified, forcing her to grip Garrick’s hand when his scrutiny flared up. Pellan’s golden gaze flickered to the spot where they connected. Seeing their fingers intertwine, an unexpected glee passed over his face before it doused along with his magic. When he looked at them again, his face was soft and his eyes settled back into their usual brown.

“You are indeed bound,” he said, staring at a fixed point between her and Garrick.

Kayla looked too, but there was nothing there outside of a stretch of her magic patching the gash on his arm. Was that what he meant? She shrugged and said nothing. If it gave them safe harbor for the night, she’d take it.

“Come in,” Pellan’s deep voice rumbled through the underground cavernous tunnel as he stepped to the side and waved them forward. “Your father will be relieved to see you.”

“My father…” Kayla’s voice cracked. So, the mage in the alley was telling the truth. Her father was safe, thanks to the foremages. A rush of relief and gratitude made her shoulders loosen a few inches.

“Yes, he’s waiting for you in the welcoming hall.” Pellan motioned to a place behind him that she couldn’t see, then beckoned them inside.

Garrick went first, searching inside the darkness before moving from the doorway and looking back with a subtle nod. It was safe to enter. She stepped in after him.

Pellan still watched them as if he couldn’t believe what he saw but Garrick moved toward a singular illuminated room at the end of a long corridor. Her father’s shadow paced the room.

“One moment,” Pellan’s deep voice echoed again. The hallway they were in sounded just as cavernous as the underground tunnel they’d stepped out of. “I have to scan you first.”

Pellan stepped toward her, a bit too quickly, because it caused Garrick to growl in warning. Pellan stalled, a stream of golden magic lit his eyes, but he didn’t bring it to his palm.

“I’m only ensuring her magic hasn’t been contaminated in any way. It’s a harmless trace. My magic will weave up her body and come down. No harm will come to her or you.”

Garrick cleared his throat and straightened, allowing him to continue. True to his word, Pellan’s golden magic shot in a spray from his hands and weaved its way from her shoes to the top of her head. There was no pain and it didn’t penetrate her skin. However, when he tried to scan Garrick, her magic formed into sharp purple spires then speared at his golden light, backing him away.

Pellan didn’t fight her. Good. The last time they tried, her chaos magic ballooned out of control. Pellan’s golden light receded, but her magic wasn’t so forgiving. Her purple essence flared around Garrick’s body, turning into a bed of spikes as it weaved across his barrel chest and down the length of his tall, muscle-laden body. It was as though her magic was looking for any residual magic that didn’t belong.

“I will not harm him,” Pellan said quickly. Worry creased his brow.

She felt the spark of magic around her. Theo and Carissa, who’d been hovering several steps away, brought their magic to their palms. Kayla’s reacted. Her magic peeled away from Garrick in a violent eruption, and the stark out of control feeling she felt when her magic went haywire was back.

Foremages, her magic was going to burn down this place too.

“Theo, Carissa, put your magic away.” Pellan held his hand out to stay them. “Hers is on the defense. We need to give it a moment to calm back down.”

Neither of them looked like they wanted to, but they followed his command and extinguished their magic.

They waited. When the intense feeling of magic died down, the volatility of her magic eased. And after an unsettling moment, it smoothed into a ripple coating Garrick’s skin and didn’t move. Kayla exhaled in relief. At least it hadn’t gone out of control again. They all seemed relieved.

Satisfied that her magic wasn’t going anywhere, Pellan took the lead.

“This way,” he said.

As they walked, a warm fire-like glow lit their path on the polished hardwood floor, lighting the room. Kayla finally looked around.

Holy cow.

There was no way this was hiding underground and adjacent to an abandoned subway tunnel. Wallpapered hallways with family style photos adorned the corridor. As they passed the rooms, they looked cozy. Large cushioned and comfortable furniture filled each room. Homey decorations and chunky throw blankets she wanted to wrap herself in draped the sofas. They were warm and inviting.

Carissa caught Kayla staring at the hominess around her. “It’s our safe place,” she said. “Our hideaway. Some of us have safehouses in the city like Marnie, but it’s safer for our kind in here. It’s been around for over a thousand years without anyone even noticing it. It’s an entire building, you know. The front doors are locked tight at sunset. So we came in through the basement.”

“Carissa,” Theo warned. Apparently, she was giving too much information; it seemed.

She shrugged, but Kayla could see the apology in her eye.

“Don’t worry about my brother,” she whispered. “He thinks because he’s older than me by a century, he can boss me around.”

Well, technically, that would qualify him to boss anyone around. After living a century, he’d deserved the right to.

“Mages live for so long?” Garrick asked.

“Longer if their magic is strong enough.” She nodded, then her face turned apologetic as she looked down at the magic still circling his arm. “I’m sorry about the whole arm thing… I’ve never transported a vampire before.”

“It is I, who should be thanking you. You saved us back there.”

“It’s the least I could do after our… misunderstanding,” she said diplomatically, but did look sincere. She really was sorry about what transpired between them. “Had we known… We wouldn’t have…” she stammered, then she finally settled on, “We don’t come across many bonded pairs.”

Bonded pairs. The way Carissa said that implied more than her magic somehow entangling itself with the vampire beside her. It implied… well, that they were more. Which they weren’t. They just met. He’d saved her life and her magic was probably returning the favor.

“But we aren’t…” Kayla trailed off, her lips scrunched to the side. Wow, this was getting ridiculously awkward again. Heat rose inside her chest. She needed space, distance from the vampire who was turning her world upside down. She stepped away from Garrick.

“Together?” Carissa finished. “Well, your magic thinks so. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have reacted the way it did.”

Chem did call her a ticking time bomb. It could have been her wayward magic causing this. It was mixed up and confused. The heat of Garrick’s gaze warmed the side of her face and the tingle that had been between them ever since her magic swooped around him intensified. She cleared her throat and avoided his gaze.

Pellan guided them to the sitting room her father was in.

Inside, her father twisted on his heel, ready to pace another path into the floor. But as soon as the door opened with a creak, his stormy, albeit teary, gaze clashed with hers. The worried armor he carried, dissolved.

“Kay-Kay!” He rushed and pulled her into an embrace similar to the one Pellan gave Theo. Then he kissed the top of her head. “You’re okay.”

“So are you.”

“Yes, I was able to escape the cathedral. I tried to find you, but we were overrun,” he didn’t finish. Instead, he pulled her into another hug.

“Garrick helped me get out,” Kayla told him of their harrowing brush with the shifters and vampires in the alley. It was then, her father met Garrick’s gaze for the first time. They’d been adversarial, and even after she’d explained what he’d done, it didn’t look like her father was any closer to mending it.

On instinct, her magic flared again. She stared at her glowing palms like they betrayed her. Was her magic really going to go after her father?

Pellan cleared his throat uneasily behind her.

“Now that you’ve seen her…” Pellan said to her father, as if continuing an extensive conversation they’d been having before she’d appeared at their door. Her father wordlessly nodded

“Kayla.” Her father grabbed her wrists, careful of her budding magic, but spoke quickly. “I’ve told them about the Rogue—about us being hunted. They’ve offered us asylum, but they have to take you two to isolation for the next day or two until your magic settles.”

“I’m sorry, what?” she asked, perplexed. “Isolation? As in jail?”

“Not jail,” he clarified with an exasperated sigh. “To isolation. As a precaution, while we can get your magic sorted. Right now, it’s not controlled and that makes it dangerous.”

“It’s fine.” Everyone in the room could see that was a lie and as soon as she said the words, her traitorous magic slithered around Garrick’s body and back to her hands. As soon as it hit her palms, they grew ferociously hotter.

“It’s happening again.” Her father tried to pull her attention away. “You have to be calm. If you could rein in your emotions, you’ll be able to control it. Remember, like I taught you.”

“Donovan.” Pellan’s urgent voice broke through their conversation.

She looked at the menagerie of faces in the room. Each mage tried hard not to provoke her magic, keeping their magic close to their palms, but at the slightest glimpse of their essence, her hands burned hotter. Her father was right; she was too dangerous right now. She looked to Garrick. He gave her a nod of reassurance.

“Okay,” she agreed. “We’ll go.”

Pellan rushed them down several hallways, each on a steady decline, and each cooler than the last.

Carissa had said they’d come in through the basement, but the place they were going to was much deeper underground. At the very end of the hallway, a skinny concrete door sat in lonely isolation.

“You two will stay in here. It’s not much, but it’s comfortable.”

“Oh… um… like, in the same room?”

“Yes.” Pellan pushed up the red skull cap that had fallen onto his face, then scratched the back of his neck. “We don’t have many rooms that can contain your power. If your magic gets out of control, the walls will absorb it.”

“What if he gets hurt?”

“Your magic will protect him. Not hurt him.”

Pellan didn’t know her magic very well. It was never a saving grace. It had nearly burned down one of the oldest institutions in the city. Hardly a protector of anything. More like a destroyer. She didn’t have the chance to voice out her concern, before Pellan scooted them in and left them alone.

With him gone, a new heat filled the room. She felt a pull toward the vampire, one that she hadn’t been able to focus on with everything going on.

It’s just nerves, she breathed. It was nothing more than a byproduct of her losing and regaining her magic, then pushing it to its limits.

Right?

The chaos of her magic bubbled as the heat between her and Garrick grew. She wanted to turn to him, examine every part of his body even the bits under his clothes, and let her magic stretch.

Stretch? What the hell? Her chaos magic would kill him if she let it out on purpose. Shaking herself, Kayla filed that thought away and focused on something else.

She needed to distract herself and pray their isolation room was built to handle her destruction. Instead of focusing on her hands, she focused on the room.

When Pellan said it wasn’t much, it wasn’t an understatement. The room consisted of a single bed, because of course it did, a pair of lamps, and walls so high the thought of reaching the ceiling gave her a nosebleed.

She wondered if her father knew they were shoving her inside of a room with only one bed to share with an insanely hot vampire. Probably not or he would have likely braved the rogue instead.

Behind her, a heavy thud at the door made her jump. Adrenaline spiked in her blood and her magic zoomed forward, but stopped dead when Garrick, pale and waning, groaned, then slid down the door.