Blood Magic (Blood Magic Series Book 1) Read online

  BLOOD MAGIC

  A NOVEL

  BY

  Ann ATKINS

  Text Copyright © 2015 Ann Atkins

  All Rights Reserved

  A BIG thank you to my husband and my parents. Your love and support means everything to me.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue - New York

  Chapter One - Going Under

  Chapter Two - Beautiful Dreamer

  Chapter Three - Cold Reality

  Chapter Four - Nightmare

  Chapter Five - Mason

  Chapter Six - Questions

  Chapter Seven - Answers

  Chapter Eight - Friends and Enemies

  Chapter Nine - Chaos

  Chapter Ten - Elemental

  Chapter Eleven - Attacked

  Chapter Twelve - A Safe Place

  Chapter Thirteen - Family

  Chapter Fourteen - Training

  Chapter Fifteen - Rainbows and Unicorns

  Chapter Sixteen - Shadows

  Chapter Seventeen - Baku

  Chapter Eighteen - Revelations

  Chapter Nineteen - Unraveled

  Chapter Twenty - Stronger than Hatred

  Chapter Twenty-one - Suspicion

  Chapter Twenty-two - Spaghetti and Brussel Sprouts

  Chapter Twenty- Three - Sentenced

  Chapter Twenty-Four - Insomniac

  Chapter Twenty-Five - Liars

  Chapter Twenty-Six - Joshua

  Chapter Twenty-Seven - Shattered

  Chapter Twenty-Eight - Aching

  Chapter Twenty-Nine - Sacrifices

  Chapter Thirty - Goodbye

  Chapter Thirty-One - A Preemptive Strike

  Chapter Thirty-Two - What Lies Beneath

  Chapter Thirty-Three - Trapped

  Chapter Thirty-Four - Leverage

  Chapter Thirty-Five - Test Subjects

  Chapter Thirty-Six - The Beginning

  Chapter Thirty-Seven - Tomorrow

  Chapter Thirty-Eight - Ashes

  Chapter Thirty-Nine - Farewell

  Prologue

  New York, Seventeen Years Ago

  Immortality. It is a word that need only be spoken to inspire visions of eternal youth and beauty, of perfectly flawless men and women whose timeless beauty will never wrinkle or fade away. A word many humans think they understand. They have no idea!

  Do vampires stay young and beautiful? Yes, we do. We also might live a thousand lifetimes. Watching anyone and everyone we ever get close to eventually grow old and die. We must watch the world around us grow and change, constantly changing with it in order to blend in and survive. Our lives sustained only by taking the life’s blood of others. A lonely, monotonous eternity of darkness that I soon hoped to end!

  It is indeed a sad and strange creature who curses its own existence, but I hated what I had become. I had been planning my demise for weeks. I hadn’t fed for months, spending as much time in the sunlight as inhumanly possible. Sunlight doesn’t affect a well-fed vampire, but a starving one, well that’s another matter entirely.

  My skin had actually begun to tan and even blister in places. My strength was so depleted that I was basically no stronger than an average mortal man. All of this would only make the burning that much easier. A vampire at full-strength would take forever to finally succumb to the flames. Everything had been planned perfectly, but plans very seldom work out exactly as we expect them to. It took only one human female to ruin everything.

  I bought everything I needed at a local gas station that I couldn’t even remember the name of. I was holed up in an abandoned building in the worst part of New York that I could find. I had bought several gallons of gasoline to drench myself in, as well as the building, and a small box of matches. Yes, that’s right, a tiny little match was going to destroy a creature that had lived for centuries. I wasn’t overly concerned about the pain I would suffer; I just wanted it to be over.

  That was when I heard loud voices and screaming coming from outside my self-imposed tomb. The sound of footsteps running swiftly down an alleyway and the opening of the ramshackle back door was deafening! Though it was dark, I could clearly see the outline of a small woman who was gasping for breath. Obviously seeking a safe haven to hide from her pursuers.

  Although it was dark, I could tell that she had light blonde hair and dark brown eyes. She wore a midnight blue sundress with matching sandals, and a golden chain with a blue stone around her lovely neck. I might have been weakened by overexposure to the sun and lack of blood, but apparently my vision had not suffered. My hearing also seemed to be in perfect working order. The blood running through her veins beckoned to me like a siren’s call, and every beat of her heart caused my mouth to fill with saliva and my fangs to lengthen.

  My feet seemed to move of their own volition, as I advanced toward the beautiful, defenseless creature. If I was going to hell anyway, why not have a little snack before the trip? But before I could take another step, her words had me frozen to the exact spot where I stood.

  “I can hear you breathing, you know? Are we going to play hide and seek all night, or are you going to show yourself?”

  The sound of her voice caused the blood lust to lessen slightly, and allowed a semblance of sanity to return long enough to issue this warning, “You need to get out of here now! You have no idea what I am or what I am capable of! Run! Run as fast and as far as you can in the opposite direction!”

  “I don’t scare that easily, Joshua! If I did, what would I be doing walking down the street alone, in the Bronx, at midnight?”

  “What did you call me?”

  “Have you forgotten your own name? In the vision I had you seemed a lot smarter than this! Should amnesia be added to the list of your mental inferiorities? Why don’t you just quit hiding in the dark and come out, so I can see if you at least look like the man from my vision?”

  I was too intrigued not to fully submit to her request. Who was this strange woman? What had she seen? And why in God’s name, if she had the slightest inkling of who or what I was, would she come here?

  “Ah, yes! Dark hair, black as sin, and green eyes the color of the sea after a storm. You’re intimidating, dark and brooding, but not too bad to look at if you’d smile once in a while. I can see you trying to figure me out, but I can’t read your mind, so this will work much better if you ask the questions out loud.”

  “Alright, I will. Who are you? Why have you come here? Exactly what did you see in this vision, and do you have any idea how much danger you are in right now?”

  “My name is Alexandria Summers. I came here because you need help, and right now I am the only mortal or immortal person who can give it to you! As for the vision: I saw you, this building, the gasoline, and the matches. The visions aren’t always clear, but when I saw you it was like you were screaming inside my head. I heard everything you were thinking; I knew exactly what you planned to do, so I did the only thing I could do…I came to save you. As for the elusive “danger” you keep referring to, well, I guess we’ll just have to see how this all plays out. Won’t we?”

  “You know what I am?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  That was it? That was her answer? No explanations offered as to how she has knowledge of the supernatural world. Or why on earth, knowing what I was, she would think I was worth saving.

  “Fine,” I said through gritted teeth, “I’ll play! Exactly how do you know about vampires, and why are you not terrified?”

  “The man I love also happens to be a vampire. He has a good heart. So do you. It’s a little damaged right now but not irreparable. And if you give me the chance, I would like very much to help you heal. P
eople, living or undead, aren’t meant to live solitary existences like you do. If you’ll take the help I’m offering, I will show you a better way.”

  It had been a long time since anyone had shown so much kindness toward me, but I did not deserve it, and I could not accept it, “I can’t! I am beyond redemption!”

  “She wouldn’t want you to do this! She loved you. The memory of her was clear in your mind when I had my vision of you, and I could feel that you loved her too. Don’t tarnish the sacrifice she made by ending your life this way,” she pleaded!

  “I do not want to talk about her,” he growled!

  “No one is asking you to. Listen, come with me; give me a couple hours of your time; if you still decide that you’d rather be a charcoal briquette, I’ll bring some wieners and marshmallows and light you on fire myself! Just give me a chance. Okay?” she said, holding out her hand.

  And then I found myself doing something I hadn’t done in over a century; I reached for and held on to someone else.

  Chapter One

  Going Under

  I dreamt of him again last night; I had been dreaming of him for several months now. It was always the same dream, starring exactly the same man and woman. I always awoke with a perfect recollection of everything that had happened in the dream. I could recite, by heart, every word that they had said to each other, but their faces and names were always a complete blur; it was almost as if I were looking at them through a thick shroud of mist and fog. The harder I tried to see them, the more unclear their images became.

  Today was the last day of summer vacation. It was supposed to be the first day of the school year; I would be a senior this year, but thanks to the freak snowstorm that hit a few nights ago, I was still in bed at eleven in the a.m. I had been awake for almost an hour, but I firmly believed it was almost a sin to rise before at least noon if you didn’t have to; that was when I heard the ping, ping of small, frozen acorns being pelted against my bedroom window.

  I wasn’t terribly shocked by this; I had a pretty good idea of who the pelter was. The frosted panes of glass prevented me from seeing out; I cursed as I struggled to open the frozen shut window and heard someone giggle on the other side. Sure enough, as soon as the window was up, I saw my lunatic friend, Cassie Flynn, sitting on a frozen branch of the giant oak right outside my window.

  “Are you completely insane?” I asked her. “You could have broken your neck climbing that frozen death trap!”

  “Honestly, Allison must you be a drama queen all the time; besides, I didn’t climb up here, I flew! Caw, caw, caw,” she yelled, flapping her arms frantically.

  Laughing, I reached out to help pull her through the window into my, now, very chilly room. As soon as she was in, I shut the window and dived back under the covers, yanking them over my head.

  I smiled, snuggling deeply into my sheeted fortress, but Cassie was having none of that! She laid down right on top of me, crushing my carefully constructed fort and me along with it.

  Pushing her off into the floor, I sat up in a huff, “Has anyone ever told you how completely annoying you are?” I said in a huff.

  “If I didn’t know how much you really love me, that might actually hurt my feelings, Allie,” she said sweetly, while standing up and shrugging off her heavy coat, mittens, and scarf.

  Staring at my best friend since kindergarten, I noticed that her long auburn hair had been curled and hung in loose waves. Her bright blue eyes were lightly lined and framed by long, feathery lashes. Her skin looked like porcelain, and her lips looked plump and shiny.

  “Earth to Allie Chamberlain! What do I have a booger or something?” she said, turning to stare at her perfect reflection in my full-length mirror.

  “No, you’re perfect, as usual. I’m just wondering why you need to look like Miss America to run around the neighborhood climbing trees.”

  “Hello! What if, I don’t know, I ran into Eric on the way over or something? I certainly couldn’t have him see me looking like, well, that,” she said, gesturing toward my messy blond hair and make-up free complexion.

  “Gee, thanks! Remind me again why I like you!”

  “Oh, you know what I mean! You’re very, very pretty, but you’d be freakin’ gorgeous if you wore make-up once in a while!”

  “Okay, you’re forgiven.”

  “Good, now tell me why you look so trashed. Did you sleep at all last night?”

  Deciding to let that little barb pass, I replied, “Yes and no. I slept through the night, but last night’s slumber proved extremely exhausting!”

  “Uh oh, was it the same dream again?”

  “Yeah, but this time it was way different. I mean, I always see the man and woman and hear their conversation, but last night it was really weird!”

  “How do you mean,” she inquired, looking concerned?

  “Well, it’s usually like I’m a spectator. I see and hear everything that’s happening, but last night it was like I was actually inside this guy’s head; I could hear his thoughts and feel what he was feeling,” I finished, looking up to see if she thought I was as crazy as I felt.

  “No, for the zillionth time, before you ask, I do not think you are crazy, Allie!”

  “Then what? I’ve been having the same dream for months. They’re not going away, if anything they’re becoming more frequent and more vivid every time.”

  “Remember when we had that test on the Revolutionary War? We completely forgot to study for that. I flunked with flying colors! You, on the other hand, had this epic dream the night before the test and aced it. That wasn’t crazy. That was awesome!”

  “That was different. It was a real event; it actually happened.”

  “And how do you know this didn’t,” she countered?

  “Well, reason number one is he’s a vampire; reason number two is… he’s a vampire. And reason number three is, wait for it… he’s a…”

  “Okaaay, I get it. But what if he’s just some nut that thinks he’s a vampire? That’s certainly within the realm of possibility.”

  “I guess so, but I’ve only ever had dreams about things that have already happened; or things that actually relate to me in some way. If this guy from years ago decided to have a barbecue, with himself as the main dish; what can be done about it now, and why me?”

  “All valid questions, that would be better pondered when there isn’t a foot of snow to play in outside. Come on, Allie, come join me as we frolic through the frosty flakes of snowy goodness,” she said, as she started jumping up and down on the bed?

  “The only flake I see is you,” I said, laughing, as I threw one of my pillows and hit her in the face.

  “C’mon, Allie? Have some fun once in a while!”

  “I’m really sorry, Cassie. I think I’m just gonna try to catch a couple of extra z’s; try to make up for some of my dream walking.”

  “Fine, be that way! At least say you’ll come to the lake tonight. What else is Bitter Springs, Tennessee good for in a blizzard but ice-skating?”

  “Who’s gonna be there?”

  “Eric, Matt, me, and hopefully you,” she said, with her bottom lip sticking out an inch.

  “All right, I’ll be there. What time?”

  “How about ten o’clock?”

  “Sounds good. See you then,” I said, as she grabbed her coat and headed for the window.

  “What are you doing? Why don’t you use the door for once like a normal person?”

  “Go ahead! Spoil all my fun,” she said, laughing, as she went out my bedroom door.

  I lay awake for a long while after she left thinking about the man who relentlessly haunted my dreams. Who was he? What had happened to him all those years ago? And what could it possibly have to do with me?

  I had slept until two o’clock before waking, and ironically, watching Vampire Diaries on the DVR; which was followed by a trip to the mall to buy new skates, since it was impossible to find anything in my closet. When I got home, I decided to clean my bedroom, fo
r lack of anything better to do.

  My room was highly envied by Cassie, and yeah, it was pretty great, but I would trade my four-poster king-sized canopy bed, my hot tub on the balcony, my ginormous bathroom with its very own Jacuzzi tub, my big screen TV, my huge walk-in closet, my iPad, iPod, and iPhone for the smallest sign that my father actually realized I was alive.

  I also had a mini living room/kitchen in my bedroom, with a couch, a reclining chair, a coffee table, mini-fridge, and microwave. There was also a small dining area with a table and two chairs where I ate. I basically lived in my room, which suited my dad and me just fine.

  Sometimes I asked for outrageous things just to get him to argue with me; hey, at least it’d be a conversation, but it never worked. He’d reach me his black, no-limit visa card and go right back to ignoring me. That’s how I got Charlie, my shiny, candy red, Shelby Mustang Convertible.

  My dad has been a doctor at Marked Tree Lake Memorial since I was three years old, leaving me to be raised by an endless succession of nannies. I always wondered what my life might have been like if my Mom were alive; I never really got very far, because I really didn’t know very much about her. Dad always got upset when I asked about her, so I finally stopped asking.

  I was free to come and go as I pleased. He always asked where I was going and when I would be back, when he was around, but I don’t think he really cared about the answer. Tonight, he would be working at the hospital all night. So I was free to roam and wander and do whatever I wanted: take candy from strangers, hitchhike across the state line, go clubbing, get drunk and play in traffic; it really didn’t matter, because there was no one to stop me, and no one who really cared.

  I was the first one at the lake that night, seeing as how I arrived at nine-thirty instead of ten. I was just so sick of being cooped up in that big house all day; plus, this gives me a little ice time of my very own before the others arrive.