Influential_Magic

chapter 12





“Hold on a minute.” David smiled and flicked a switch on the wall. “No need to let her out just yet.”

Clea’s head snapped up. She sprang to her feet and flew at the door, her fists pounding on the reinforced glass. “David, you son of a f*cking washed-up vampire lord! Who the f*ck do you think you’re messing with? Let me out of here. Or I’ll slice up that pretty faery of yours and stuff the remaining parts down your throat.”

I shot David a look of disgust. “She’s lovely. I can see what you saw in her.”

Clea kicked the glass, making it vibrate, and turned to me. “Shut up, bitch.”

“Witty, too.” The switch David hit must have turned on an intercom.

He ignored me and spoke into a tiny speaker camouflaged in a miniature painting. “What makes you think I’m letting you out? I apologize if I left you with the impression I’m less than competent. Or did you think since we shared blood I would be bound to you?”

I gaped.

What? They’d shared blood? Only mated vamps did that, and it created a powerful bond. Mates shared a passion unimaginable to any other beings. Or so I’d been told. With that passion came overwhelming, all-encompassing lust, love, and pain. But never betrayal. David could torture her all he wanted, but if they were mated, he’d never kill her.

David met my eyes and shook his head ever so slightly.

What did that mean?

Clea moved closer to the glass, her chin lifted and hip jutting out in defiance. “You’re bound to me, you f*cking prick. I can feel it right now.”

Phoebe moved, situating herself next to David. “Sorry, honey. You lose. It’s a spell.”

Clea’s face turned a pale shade of gray. “It isn’t. We’re mated.”

“No,” David said softly. “If you hadn’t been so high last week, you would’ve realized I never drank from you. I told you that vamp dust would kill you someday. Looks like your time just arrived.”

“You did!” she screeched. “I feel your presence in a way I didn’t before.”

Phoebe turned to David. “Damn, she’s slow. Didn’t I just tell her it was a spell?”

David nodded. “I think she’s having trouble processing.”

Our prisoner wasn’t the only one confused. Why had Phoebe worked a bonding spell? And when? I’d left them when I went to the store, but as far as I could tell, they hadn’t let Clea out of the sunroom. What were they up to?

Clea’s eyebrows pinched together as she considered him. After a moment, her expression cleared. “You’re lying. You wouldn’t go through the trouble of creating a bonding spell if you’re planning to kill me. Seems I’d be more likely to cooperate if I thought I was going to die.”

David shrugged. “I had hoped for better cooperation. If you really thought we were mated, you wouldn’t be as keen on killing me.”

Phoebe leaned in. “I cast it right before he arrived. Tricky, huh? You remember the sex-appeal spell you asked for? Well, I didn’t quite give you what you asked for.”

Her lips moved in a silent expletive.

“Now you’re seeing reason.” David smiled. “Let’s make a deal, shall we? You answer our questions, and I’ll consider letting you see another moon.”

Clea glared at David, her eyes blood-red with fury. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to cooperate with you, junior. I don’t give a f*ck who your sire is. Eadric will not stand for this traitorous bullshit. You kill me, and you’ll be dead by sundown tomorrow. Although, it’d be worth it to see your ugly ass in hell.”

“Who do you think sent me?” His predatory smile made me take an involuntary step sideways. Who was this new David? Cold. Calculating. Frightening. “Eadric is just as interested in your extracurricular activities as my companions are,” David continued. “If you don’t start cooperating, he might be inclined to come down here and torture it out of you himself.”

Clea didn’t break eye contact. Only the slight sag of her shoulders indicated she was starting to believe.

David’s smile turned indulgent. “Why were you asking me about Ms. Rhoswen?”

She laughed. “That’s what you want to know? You’re an idiot.” The vamp eyed me. “Sorry, honey. I was trying to figure out how to get him into bed. I wanted to know if we’d need to work out a threesome.”

I suppressed a gag. She was truly atrocious. It was a good thing she was behind glass. David looked like he’d stake her if he had half a chance.

“Okay, that was TMI,” I said. “Now, where did you get the Influence?”

Clea stared at her bare feet in silence. One of her red Jimmy Choos lay abandoned near the door. The heel had broken, presumably when David had thrown her in. Poor innocent shoe.

“It’s simple, really,” I said. “All we want to know is where you got the drug.”

“I can’t say.” Her voice wobbled. “They’ll kill me.”

“Newsflash, sweetheart. You’re dead anyway,” Phoebe said.

Clea clamped her mouth shut. Finally, David spoke. “I have no problem leaving you there until the first rays of daylight start to burn your retinas. I’m sure that will get you talking, but I might be too pissed off by then to worry about what happens to you.”

Clea pulled back, shoulders stiff with anger, and then she spat at the glass. The blood-tinged saliva splattered and one mucus-like string dripped down.

“Classy.” Phoebe wrinkled her nose.

David glanced once at the gob of spit before raising his indifferent gaze back to Clea.

Her lip curled and she kicked the glass once more.

“I’ve got a call to make.” David turned and closed the door with a soft click.

The vamp inside the sunroom hung her head.

“He’s gone,” Phoebe said, tapping the glass to get Clea’s attention. “I don’t blame you for not talking to David. Between us girls, I agree with you. He’s a low-class, sick piece of shit. I’m ready to dust him myself, but if I do, it’ll cost me my job. So, I’m just biding time.”

“The f*cker broke my shoe,” Clea said as she pouted and glanced at her feet.

“Reason enough to end his sorry existence.”

I settled into a black leather armchair beside Link and wondered how long David planned to let Phoebe try her good-cop routine. Clearly, they’d worked out a plan while I’d been gone at the store. It wasn’t in Phoebe’s nature to be soft on a vamp.

Clea’s face turned dreamy. “I’d like to truss him up with a hook through his heart and watch his blood run dry.”

Phoebe chuckled. “That has appeal, but how about nailing his feet to the floor while using a wench to stretch his arms until the bones separate? That sounds much more painful to me.”

“While stabbing him with a red-hot poker.”

I blanched as the pair continued to one-up each other in the gruesome department.

Phoebe turned somber. “Too bad we won’t get a chance to implement any of those ideas. Well, not on David anyway. I’m going to write down the one involving wasps though. I had no idea vampires were allergic to them. Of course, wasps aren’t night creatures, so how could I have known?”

Clea’s head snapped up. “Don’t be ridiculous. Just let me out and the two of us can take David tonight.”

“I can’t. I’m under orders to keep him alive. For now.” A long blond lock from Phoebe’s wig fell into her eyes as she shook her head, expression pained. She slowly ran one hand along the silver frame of the door. “Besides, this entry is tuned to David’s energy. He’s the only one who can open it. But if you tell us who you got the Influence from, he’ll let you out. He has no other reason to see you dead.”

“I’ll kill him for this. One way or another.”

Phoebe’s lips quirked. “You need to work on your poker face. If you give him reason to believe you’ll kill him, he’ll never let you out.”

The library door swung open and David strode in, tall and dark, brimming with power. Link jumped to his feet and growled. I didn’t even bother trying to soothe him.

David ignored him and came to a stop beside Phoebe. “Any progress?”

She shrugged and took a seat in the leather chair next to me. “Some, but I’m pretty sure she was waiting for you to appear before spilling the dirt.”

Clea hissed.

“Or not.”

“Fine.” David moved to the other side of the room and sat behind a massive banker’s desk. “I have some paperwork to finish. If she isn’t in a talkative mood when I’m done, we’ll lock up and send a cleaning crew in the morning.”

“You bastard,” Clea spat.

When he didn’t respond, she ran through a litany of colorful expletives.

“Impressive,” I whispered to Phoebe. She nodded in agreement and picked up a travel magazine from the mahogany end table.

David traveled?

After a while, Clea calmed and mumbled something.

“Excuse me?” Tired of being an observer, I stood and moved to the glass door.

“F*ck.” She ran a nervous hand through her mussed hair. “I got the Influence from Daniels. Lester Daniels.”

“When?” I asked, holding my breath.

“Early this morning, about an hour before daybreak.”

I caught David’s eye before asking, “Was that before or after you murdered him?”

“What?” she demanded with what appeared to be genuine surprise. “Why would I murder my supplier?”

“No idea, but he’s been dead for a good twelve hours. So you either saw him right before his death, you murdered him, or you’re lying and you didn’t get the goods from him. Which is it?”

She blinked, moisture gathering in her eyes. “Those bastards. I told him to watch his back.”

Whoa. Since when did the vamp bitch have feelings? My lips formed into a shocked O. The vampire actually cared about a human? It wasn’t totally unheard of, but I wouldn’t have pegged Clea as the sensitive type.

I stepped closer and leaned against the glass, my tone gentle. “Who did it?”

She shook her head and a pale stream of pink tears slid down her cheek. “It had to be someone from the inside.”

I waited while the vampire collected herself. Then our eyes met, my blue ones imploring her red-tinged green ones.

“It’s your fault, you f*cking sellout.” She pointed a long, elegant finger in my direction. Her deep plum nail scraped against the glass. “You and everyone else associated with the f*cked-up corruption of the Arcane. I told Lester to not trust any of you. Now look where it got him. Dead. F*cking dead.”

“Are you implying Daniels had associations with the Arcane?” Phoebe asked, moving to stand beside me.

“How do you think he got his Influence license?” Clea sniffed.

“He worked for the university,” I said. “The research department.”

“That’s what they want you to think. You of all people should know how they cover their tracks.”

I glanced at Phoebe and an unspoken acknowledgment passed between us. The vampire could very well be telling the truth. The Void branch of the Arcane moved without boundaries. We couldn’t rule out the possibility someone we knew and worked with was trafficking Influence. But why would they? Agents of the Void could get a license easily if they had just cause.

Clea stepped back and sank into a white wicker chair, the pink tears flowing faster.

“Crying won’t help you,” David said, ice in his tone.

The vampire sobbed and mumbled something incoherent.

“What did she say?” I whispered.

Phoebe tilted her head. “I think she apologized to Daniels.”

“Why?”

Phoebe shrugged, unfazed by the sobbing mess in the sunroom. “Maybe she’s holding something back. David, how long until sunrise?”

He stood and joined us. “A few hours.”

“Good. After she’s done with the hysterics, we can get to those torture techniques we discussed earlier.” Phoebe turned to study Clea. “Maybe then she’ll remember what she isn’t telling us.”

“Whoa!” I stepped between them and held up my hands. “I can’t allow torture.”

“She’s a vampire.”

“So is David.”

Phoebe pursed her lips. “I’m not above torturing him if he gets out of line.”

David growled.

A snarling wolf leapt in front of me, teeth bared as he forced David to take a few steps back.

David’s eyes flashed red, a sure sign he’d lost all patience. “Call him off before I end this permanently.”

“Good luck with that. Link wouldn’t be an easy opponent even if a witch and a faery weren’t here to help him.” Phoebe turned to me. “How long do you think it would take the three of us to disable your boyfriend?”

“Damn it, Phoebe. No one’s fighting anyone.” I took a step forward and snapped, “Down, Link.”

David’s lips curved in satisfaction.

It took every ounce of willpower I could muster to not rescind my command and let Link do his worst. “If you ever threaten my wolf again, that pretty vampire face of yours is going to need reconstructive surgery.”

David stared at me, then his eyes crinkled slightly.

“I’m not joking, David. Consider yourself warned.”

His face cleared, and I knew he didn’t believe me. Why would he? Vampires had super-healing abilities. He had no reason to feel threatened.

I turned my attention back to Clea. In the time we’d taken to have our petty argument, no one had been paying attention to the prisoner. Now she stood with a small knife aimed directly at her heart. Where the hell did that come from?

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice steady.

“I know there’s no way you’ll let me live, and I refuse to spend the last moments of my life in service to any of you.” She inched the knife slowly and deliberately into her chest.

“No!” I cried, grasping the frame of the door, searching for the secret opening. My finger caught and the enchanted glass shimmered. Before either Phoebe or David could stop me, I leapt through.

Clea watched me through already deadened eyes, the knife a quarter of the way in her chest. Once it passed through the heart, she’d be gator food. “I knew the witch lied. You could’ve let me out at any time.”

“Did you expect us to?”

“No, but I had to try.”

High-heeled boots clattered on the tiled floor, and I knew Phoebe had moved to stand right behind me. “How about we make a deal? You tell me everything you know about the Arcane and the Influence, and I’ll make sure you live and neither of them hurts you.”

Clea studied me, her expression lined with skepticism. “You’re full of shit. Without your enhanced edibles, you’re useless. You must think I’m an idiot. If they decide to kill me, there’s no way you’re strong enough to stop either of them.”

“You underestimate the power of this particular faery,” Phoebe said, her voice hard. “If she wants you to live, you will.”

It wasn’t a total blatant lie. My power went beyond infusing plants and baking. I could manipulate just about any living thing, which meant I could exert some control over Phoebe if I wanted to. David was another story. Technically, he was dead. My life magic wouldn’t do anything but be sucked into the ether. Complete waste of time.

The air seemed to move behind me and I spun, coming face to shoulder with David.

Clea hissed and something silver clattered on the floor. The knife. She must have dropped it after yanking it out of her own chest. Clea tackled me, and I slammed into David, my entire torso erupting into a burning inferno from the vampire energy. David grabbed me, trying to shove me away, but Clea’s rock-hard limbs trapped me between them. They each grabbled, trying to choke the other one. My ears rang in time with a loud, piercing scream, and only when I gasped for air did I realize the sound had come from me.

I jerked in agony, vaguely aware of Phoebe chanting in the background as the vamp fire intensified. Pain overrode my brain, my world spinning as lightbulbs exploded behind my eyes, and though I knew I was in the crossfire of a death match, everything went weirdly silent.

My world slowed to a dreamlike state and my life force left me. Was this really how I would die? Trapped between two vampires intent on killing each other? Of all the stupid—

A brilliant flash of white light flared. The two vamps froze and fell away from me. I crumpled, landing sprawled on the hard tile floor, its coolness easing the fire from my limbs. Blinking, I stared blindly into the dark twilight of predawn.

A shadow hovered over me. “Wil?”

I opened my dry mouth and tried to swallow.

“Wil,” Phoebe said again.

“Yeah,” I croaked.

“Thank the gods. Can you get up? We need to get back inside.”

“Hmm.” I didn’t move.

“I think the door is going to seal. You have to get up.” Phoebe tugged on my arms.

A tingling of comprehension worked its way into my consciousness. I lifted my head, clamping my hands over my temples as dizziness threatened to claim me.

“Crawl,” Phoebe demanded.

I obeyed, placing one knee after the other as if I’d been force-fed Influence. When I breached the door into the library, I flopped back down, my head landing on something solid. Pain lanced through my cheek and I flinched. My eyes swam, fighting for focus.

“Lie back,” Phoebe said.

I turned my attention toward her soft voice and my eyes cleared. “What happened?”

“I dusted them.”

“Good.” I closed my eyes, allowing Phoebe to place a pillow under my head. “Where’s David?”

“Shhh. Just relax. I’ll get you some water.”

The floor creaked as Phoebe left the room. I lay motionless, waiting. A few moments later my eyes popped open. Wait, what did Phoebe say? I dusted them. Them? As in both of them?

“David!” I shouted, sitting straight up, my eyes locking on the limp male form crumpled on the floor.