Blood Wars (The Bloodborn Series Book 2) Read online

  Lucidia let out a long breath and pushed her hand through her hair. “Yeah, I’ll do my best. Where to?”

  “We will meet Harley and Ezra at a rendezvous point near the location where Robin is being held. It’s a hidden lab near Sedona, Arizona.”

  “Got it,” Lucidia said, pressing the gas and leaving the sun to their right.

  Reykon

  When Reykon came to, Noomi’s angry scowl was hovering over him, her fingers snapping a centimeter away from his nose.

  “I leave you alone for twenty goddamn minutes!” she snapped, gripping his collar and hauling him up to a seated position.

  He groaned, shoving her away and bracing himself from falling over. “Give me a minute.”

  Noomi’s eyes narrowed. “You’re different… somehow,” she murmured, turning to Chadwick. “What did you do?”

  Chadwick glanced nervously to Reykon, as if that helped any suspicions.

  “He’s an old friend, Noomi. I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you.”

  She was fuming, but she gave an angry hand gesture for Reykon to go ahead and get up.

  “What happened?” she hissed.

  “Just a little tune up,” Reykon muttered. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Noomi’s eyes scanned across the room, falling on the kitchen table. “Is that…?”

  Chadwick let out a long, controlled sigh and put his hands up in a preemptive calming gesture. “Listen-”

  “You didn’t use that on him! Did you?”

  Reykon’s eyebrows crept together.

  “That book is millennia old. Do you know how many transformation protocol improvements we’ve made since then? Jesus, what did you do to him?”

  “I’ll have you know, whoever the hell you are, I’m a very skilled and highly trained caster, so just cool your jets, Annie Oakley.”

  “Then why was he unconscious?”

  “Growing pains?” Chadwick said with a shrug. “I don’t know. But look at him. He’s great. Right?”

  Reykon’s eyes were fixed on his hands, flexing his fingers and inspecting them in the light. “How should I know? I feel fine.”

  “Hang on,” Noomi said. “Are you that punk that keeps stealing from Ahgenstand’s Library?”

  Chadwick’s body posture turned uncomfortable. “I can’t really speak to that.”

  “You’re the guy that calls himself Robin Hood, aren’t you?”

  Reykon raised an eyebrow. “Come again?”

  “Okay, listen,” Chadwick said sharply. “I am a high-level caster, trained under the old ways, and I know a little bit about ancient transfiguration spells, alright? He’s fine. He’s lucid. I don’t know you, and I certainly don’t answer to you, so back off.”

  Noomi raised both hands as a gesture that she was done.

  “Reykon, our guy’s ready. I have people dispelling the information about what’s really happening out there. We need to leave.”

  “Chadwick comes with.”

  “No,” Noomi snapped, shooting him a look of irritation.

  “I’m gonna have to agree with tall dark and caster, here,” Chadwick said. “It’s not a good idea to show my face in the world just yet.”

  Reykon gave Chadwick a look of steel. “I have searched across the entire country for this girl, and I have sacrificed everything that I once held dear in pursuit of her. You’re coming with us, because I’m done taking chances. We’re doing things my way from now on, and if you have a problem with that, then resolve it right now and be ready in five minutes.”

  Lucidia

  It was still light outside when they reached the town just before Sedona. Lucidia wasn’t even looking at street signs, deep in her own thoughts of strategy and preparation for the fight to come. No doubt the caster that held Robin would have magical reinforcements prepared.

  Ever seen the first Indiana Jones movie?

  Caster defense strategy was a lot like that. Traps, pits, and spells that would defend the place for you, minimal preparation necessary. She’d taken plenty of trainings on it and had been through the advanced line of anti-magic defense drills. Not to mention, her field experience.

  Conclusion: even with all that preparation, Lucidia would still prefer to fight werewolves over casters any day and twice on Sunday.

  One mistake in a caster-battle and you could be obliterated, ripped apart, or damaged on a cellular level. They fought dirty, and they gave it all they had.

  Darian’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “Your blood sugar is quite low. I think you all are hungry, yes?”

  Lucidia glanced back at the kids. “Yeah, but… aren’t we on a deadline?”

  “There is always time,” he said calmly. “Young creatures are so impatient. A few minutes will not condemn us to failure.”

  She raised an eyebrow, suppressing the urge to point out that Clotho had called him the impatient one, but just shrugged and scanned the area for golden arches. “Okay, but I didn’t grab a credit card when we left, so you’ll have to work some magic.”

  He nodded slowly.

  They took a couple turns and then approached the parking lot. Darian fidgeted in his seat, sitting up and peering out of the windshield. Lucidia looked over to see a smile spreading on his face.

  “What’s gotten into you?” Lucidia muttered with a questioning scowl.

  He kept his eyes trained on the line of cars. “I have never been in a drive-thru before.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes,” he said. His bright red eyes were flashing with excitement.

  “Don’t get your hopes up, it’s not Six Flags.”

  “What is ‘Six Flags’?”

  Lucidia thought about the rickety metal rides and cheap thrills constructed by human engineers. If vampires couldn’t handle planes, they’d have an aneurism stepping into one of those. “You know, on second thought, I don’t think you’d like it.”

  Darian shrugged, leaning forward and inspecting the large display of food. “There is so much,” he marveled. “I remember when humans had deep fear of the winters, for concern of starvation.”

  Lucidia ordered for the three food-eaters and estimated what they’d want, opting to be generous on the quantity.

  “Pull ahead to the first window, please,” the voice crackled out.

  Lucidia eased forward a couple feet until they were stopped again, and ran a hand through her hair, drumming her fingers on the side door.

  “Human technology has come so far,” Darian said with an impressed voice.

  “Yeah. They’re great at innovation.”

  They eased forward, coming to a stop just as a young college-age girl leaned over and said, “$17.82.”

  Darian leaned forward, outstretching his hand and peering into the girl’s eyes. Lucidia had to press back in the seat, watching the interaction with a quirked eyebrow.

  The girl (Ashley, by her nametag) had a dazed expression, and reached out her hand, placing it on Darian’s and staring into his eyes. A moment later, she nodded and pulled her hand back, looking like she’d seen an angel from heaven, wings and all.

  “Have a lovely rest of your life, Ashley. I wish you bounty and pleasure,” Darian said in an entirely genuine voice.

  She nodded, still dazed and in wonder, and Lucidia pressed lightly on the acceleration as Darian returned to his seat. Lucidia snickered softly and shook her head. “Bounty and pleasure? What was that?”

  “What?”

  She smiled, waving her hand. “Never mind.”

  She took the bag of food, handing it off to Darian and grabbing the drink carrier. “Thanks,” she said, driving off, and pulling into the lot. “Now you’ve been through a drive-thru.”

  “Yes, it was a marvelous experience,” Darian said. He leaned forward and sniffed the bag, his eyebrows pulling together. “This… this is not good food. Do you consume this often?”

  Lucidia raised her eyebrows. “Do I consume it often?”

  “Yes.”

  “I me
an, I don’t live on Taco Bell, but we’re out here for weeks at a time,” she scoffed, pulling the kids’ happy meals out. “I do love spending your money, but gourmet’s a little sparse on the road.”

  Darian made a noise of distaste in the back of his throat. “Human money means nothing to me.”

  “I’m sure,” she said. “Do you even know how much you have?”

  “I do not even know how the banks work anymore. Our faithful servants handle our House’s funds and make sure we’re in good order.”

  “Well, congratulations: you’re loaded.”

  “If I am so ‘loaded’ then I would feel better knowing my subjects are eating quality food no matter where they are,” he muttered.

  Lucidia laughed softly and dug into the bag, separating out the different orders.

  “Can you wake them up or something?” she asked, crooking her thumb back at the comatose children.

  A few moments later, they opened their bleary eyes and sat up, Darian turned in his seat to greet them.

  “Where are we?” Indigo asked in a half-conscious drawl.

  “The human world,” Darian said with a glimmer of excitement. “Have you ever been?”

  Both children shook their heads and peered out the windows.

  “Is it dangerous?” Indigo asked, craning her neck to see.

  “Not with our strongblood protector to keep us safe,” Darian said with a smile. “She’s been to the human world thousands of times. I have the utmost confidence in her abilities.”

  Lucidia gave them a salute and dug into her own food, glancing at the sun, now only a few hours away from the horizon line.

  Robin

  Charlemagne had waved his hand and released her from the chair, leaving her in an invisible column-like prison matching Calliope’s, only a few feet away. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed.

  The ex-vampire on the floor whose fangs and blood had scattered like a pot of spilled chili groaned and rolled over, now lost in a comatose slumber. As Robin looked at the woman, she couldn’t help but wonder what her month-long coma had felt like to the others. For Reykon, Lucidia. She knew it in her heart that they hadn’t given up looking for her and felt even worse for it.

  Even if they managed to find her, which was a big if, she had no doubts that Charlemagne would kill them. He had defenses set up in this place, surely; a secret lab with sensitive records and his insane, maniacal life’s work.

  “Robin,” Calliope said softly, after hours of tense silence.

  “What?” Robin muttered. She’d sunken against the wall of her prison cell, pulling her knees up to her chest.

  “Talk to me.”

  Robin scoffed bitterly. “What’s to talk about? How we were both stupid enough to fall for your evil brother’s secret plan? Like mother like daughter, huh?”

  “I wish I could make it better, I-”

  “You did this to me!” Robin roared, rising to her feet, feeling her anger surge. But it wasn’t anger born out of her abilities, or the fire burning within her. It was anger for a human girl, a photographer, the real person that had died that night under Jadzia’s comet. “You put me in that circle and you changed me, and why? Don’t tell me you weren’t doing it because Xerxes wanted you to! Because you wanted power just like him.”

  “Robin, I was told that we would be safe after the ritual! I was told that you would be brought into Caster’s Hollow as a new creature, a new being, sent to help us in our fight for justice against the vampires. I’ve made many mistakes in my lifetime, and I’ve caused many creatures horrible, horrible pain, but when the Grand Caster offered me the chance to become the first woman in our race to ever carry a child… I took it out of the wishes that it would bring us into a new era of hope and power and maybe even love. I didn’t know that Xerxes would rise behind our backs, and I did not enter House Demonte that night knowing that one of us was to die.”

  “How can I trust you?” Robin muttered, wiping bitter tears from her face.

  “I am your mother,” she said firmly, her own face showing the same despair. “I only wish I could prove it to you.”

  Robin turned, her fists clenching at her sides, her heartbeat thudding. “You are not my mother,” she hissed. “My mother is a human, and she is kind, and she is caring, and she knows nothing of this violent, possessive, horrible hellhole that you people call a world! And thanks to you and Charlemagne, and Xerxes and Darian and Cain and all the others that want a piece of me, I’ll never get to see my family again.”

  “We were to be a family,” Calliope said, her voice trembling at the edges.

  Robin shook her head, glaring venomous daggers at the ruined caster. A silence slipped between them, tense and cutting. Every second that passed seemed to stretch on in Robin’s mind, so long, but also so dreadfully short, bringing them closer to the precise moment that Charlemagne would walk down those steps.

  “I understand your anger. I understand that there’s nothing I can do to right the wrongs I’ve subjected you to. But know this, Robin. I am so, so sorry for your pain and suffering. I do not have much longer, but please, please know that I regret it all.”

  “You want to make it better? I want to know everything you know about Xerxes Onassis. I want to know exactly what fate you’ve condemned me to. What does he have planned for me and those vials?”

  Calliope’s neck was tense, corded, as she swallowed and turned her eyes to the ground.

  “Tell me,” Robin commanded, the force of her tone shocking her.

  “He began the destruction of the vampire race decades ago. They have much power, you see, surrounded by the little creatures in their strongholds. And Xerxes believes that the casters made a grave mistake, gifting the strongblood race to them so long ago. It gave them a cutting advantage that they haven’t lacked since. He convinced Grand Caster Wyvern to begin looking for other sources to focus our magical energy on. That’s when we found the waste planes.”

  “What are waste planes?” Robin asked.

  “We originally thought they were full of rocks and useless elements, but as more expeditions were launched, we began to find precious materials that conduct magic with an alarming amount of power. The Elite Caster Council decided to claim these planes as property of the Hollow. That’s where it began. We found that one material, the rock which was formed into the vials, was capable of containing such energy that it would sustain life force. Never, not even in imagination, had this power been capable before. By studying it, we were able to determine a molecular design which could be transplanted into a being. Into you.”

  “You got my DNA plan from a rock?” Robin asked with a confused scowl.

  “At that time, we didn’t know what your creation would bring. We’d made earlier versions of you, Robin. We called them the Conduits. But all of them failed, horribly.”

  “What do you mean by ‘failed’?”

  “They combusted. They were imbued with magic, which had been transplanted into them, but their cellular network could no longer sustain that level of energy, so it unraveled, and they suffered horrible deaths. We were at a turning point. But it was Xerxes, Charlemagne, and myself that considered a being of half magical origin and half vampiric origin. Vampires, however, cannot reproduce children in the womb, so we strove for a strongblooded creature and searched tirelessly for a way that casters might bear children.”

  “Kenzo,” she whispered.

  “Yes. Xerxes was able to draw him out. How, I’m not sure, though I suspect he had one of his agents persuade the strongblood. He was aware of nothing, put under a spell that stole every memory, every shred of knowledge. And it worked. For nine months, we kept him and fed the vampires some story about him being held by a warring group of rogues.”

  “But then when I was born, he took me away from you,” Robin said, her tone hardened. “He wanted to keep me safe.” The words were an accusation, a dig, the only weapon she had left at her disposal.

  “Yes,” Calliope said, nodding bitterly. �
��Because of the attention you’d already gotten, and because we knew that Lucidia Draxos kept a watchful eye on you, we chose to allow you to grow up in the human world.”

  A thought popped into Robin’s mind, and her eyebrows pulled together. “Did you ever see me?”

  “What?”

  “Did you ever come to see me, before you gave me appendicitis on my twenty-fourth birthday?”

  “I did,” Calliope said in a sad voice. “It was a soccer game. Charlemagne and I traveled to Portland to check on your wellbeing, to ensure that there were no biological complications, and I saw you score a goal. I saw your little face light up like it was the most important thing in the world, and my heart ached for you. It was the only time I was ever permitted to go near you, until…”

  Robin’s shoulders slumped, and she settled back against the cell wall. “What next?”

  The caster nodded. “Next, we spent years trying to refine the essence rock, the material that would become the vessels, or vials. We tried design after design, but none worked. They were too weak to hold the energy. But, after you were deemed to be biologically stable, Xerxes began the process over again, with another strongblood. At that time, I’d openly rebelled against it, and I began to lose favor with the caster. He shut me out of the process, and I gravitated to Grand Caster Wyvern, who had much appreciation for my contributions. Only, I wasn’t aware that I’d chosen the wrong side.”

  “So more conduits were on the way, though they needed to develop physically before being introduced to their magical side. We tried to imbue them with magic, and it failed because we didn’t have enough power, even here, next to the vortex. They all died. We learned that they were capable of holding the energy, but we had no vessel to transfer it into. Jadzia’s Comet was our chance to begin the ritual that would unlock your true potential and give enough power to ensure that it wouldn’t fail. But our plan was to share the burden of the magical infusion, so that you wouldn’t suffer the same fate as the others. Xerxes betrayed us at the last moment. He conspired with Charlemagne and a spy to turn me into a scapegoat and dissolve the link, taking you as their captive and forcing you to work for them.”