“Okay, so what you’re saying is that vampires aren’t real?” I asked him, returning to our conversation and letting Austin’s odd statement slide. For now.
Caleb shook his head slightly. “No, well, sort of. Vampires as you know them from stories were almost always a Blood Mage gone bad. There is a species of demon who feeds on blood and can turn humans, I think, but that’s about all I know. And that might have been made up for all I know. The source is known for spinning bullshit sometimes.”
Austin chuckled, his warm breath tickling my skin as he worked. No prizes for guessing who the source of that one was. Apparently Austin was a bit of a shit stirrer as a kid.
“So what else do you want to know?” Caleb prompted and I stared at the ceiling while I thought for a moment.
“Are you getting better control of it now? I guess that makes sense now why Austin made you leave the room after Gray’s demise. But is this what you were so worried about?” I tilted my head as I looked back to him for an answer, and he blushed slightly.
“Uh, yeah. Pretty much. All blood carries a certain level of magic from the owner of it... That room was bathed in your blood, and Kitty Kat, your blood is like nothing I have ever smelled before. It’s pure fucking magic, and you kind of get hurt a lot. So yeah, I’m getting better control with these lessons, but I’m still scared I’ll slip up and rip your throat out or something.” His voice was pitched low and drowning in raw emotion. I had no doubt that this was not something he’d discussed with any of the other guys... even Austin, if the surprise and concern I was picking up from him was any indication.
“Well, then in that case, I am glad whatever you’re doing is helping But, I want to help too, if there is any way I can. Like... do you need to build an immunity to my blood in small doses or something like how Cleopatra did with snake venom?” I paused, realising what I’d just said and trying not to smile. Now is not the time for jokes, Kit.
“Ha ha, funny.” Caleb rolled his eyes. “Because I’m the Viper? Ironic, isn’t it? That I hate snakes and yet...” He bared his teeth, comically indicating the fang situation, and I snorted a laugh.
“Uh yeah, seeing as we are all sharing and shit”—I smiled apologetically—“I am pretty confident you will get a familiar. So... maybe work on the fear of snakes thing?”
“I second that,” Austin contributed, wiping my wrist off with a cloth and placing his gun down on the table. “You’re all done, Princess. Shall we test it out?”
My jaw dropped in surprise. “Just like that?” I raised my wrist to look at what he’d drawn for the spell. “No need for, like... chanting or runes or anything?”
“Kitty Kat”—Caleb shook his head at me—“we’re the strongest Mages in existence. Chanting and runes on a little spell are for mages... lower case m. Don’t worry, you’ll learn.”
I gave him a vague nod of acknowledgement but was still staring at my new tattoo, inspecting the delicate and intricate lines Austin had inked into my skin. It was a flower, a lily... I think. But it was mostly in shades of gray and black with the only color coming from the petals, which were shaded with a myriad of watercolor oranges and whites. Small spots of black crept out from the center, giving it an almost striped appearance.
“Do you like it?” Austin asked quietly, and I jumped from my quiet focus on the design.
“I love it,” I replied honestly, meeting his clear, green-eyed gaze. “What sort of flower is it?”
“A lily,” he told me while he packed up his tools, confirming what I had guessed. I was no flower connoisseur, so really lily, rose, and sunflower were probably the extent of my guesses. “I’ll just go put this all away, and then we can test out the spell. It’ll be clear pretty soon if it’s working or not, given how crap you’ve been with these lessons this far.”
I rolled my eyes as he left the room, but he was right. Caleb took my hand in his to look at the lily and made a small noise in his throat.
“Pretty, huh?” I smiled, and he nodded.
“Very,” he agreed. “Aus always did love tiger lilies.”
Wait, what?
“Tiger lily,” I repeated in a dry voice, narrowing my eyes at Austin when he walked back into the room. “Of course it’s a tiger lily.”
For his part, Austin just shrugged unapologetically, and I got the distinct feeling of satisfaction from him as he stretched out a hand to help me up from the floor. That did remind me though, I still needed to get payback for my first tattoo. Caleb had already given me a great idea of how to do it too.
“All right, I made the spell a temporary one, just in case there are any weird side effects. It’ll only last a month, and then we need to re-ink a new, stronger one if you want it to be a permanent thing.” Austin looked to both Caleb and I, and we both nodded our understanding. “I’ll teach you a new kiddie spell, and you can repeat it. If you get it right the first time, the spell is clearly working. Got it?”
“Got it,” I confirmed, then watched closely as he drew a symbol in the air and carefully enunciated some words in their mage language. Or was it Mage, with capital M? Compared to the last few lessons we’d had together, this time his actions and words seemed almost easy to follow, so it was no surprise when I was able to flawlessly execute the same spell seconds later.
“Yay!” I screamed when the piece of paper lifted from the table and floated for a few seconds in front of us. “It worked!”
“Thank the fucking gods,” Austin groaned. “This just made our lives a whole hell of a lot easier. Caleb, you want to stay for the lesson or take a time out?”
His twin hesitated a moment. “Are you just going to be going over the basics one at a time?” Austin nodded. “I’m out then. That shit is boring as hell. I’ll bring you guys lunch later.”
Smacking a quick kiss on my lips, he took off out of the den and left me to my magic lesson. This time, though, I was excited. Sure, it was probably going to be boring and monotonous, but without Austin losing his shit at me for being a slow learner or me losing my shit at him for being a shitty teacher... dare I hope this could even be enjoyable?
Okay, that was probably taking it a bit far. But the future was looking just a little brighter for the surly Ink Mage and myself.
“I bet you can’t teach me everything I need to know in a week,” I blurted out without really thinking about what I was saying. Austin’s brows raised in surprise, though, and I wasn’t going to take it back. He’d told me it took Yoshi close to eight years to teach him everything he knew now, so by saying a week, I was pretty damn confident he wouldn’t take the bet.
“You’re on,” he smirked. “If you lose, you have to be my slave for a week.”
My eyes widened, but I nodded. “Fine, but if you lose... I get to tattoo you with whatever I want.”
Austin barked a sharp laugh and shook his head at me. “Done. But no sabotage, or I’ll know.” He tapped his temple, and I rolled my eyes at him. We really needed to work on blocking our damn emotions from each other too.
“Let’s begin.”
10
VALI
Cole and I shifted back to human form again the second we hit the ground, a skill we’d been working on a lot. Half our battle, as dragons, was going to be in not being seen. We didn’t have it easy like the damn wolf shifters. If someone saw one of them out in the forest, they wouldn’t think anything of it. Just a wild animal, right?
Yeah. Not so much if they stumbled across a twenty-foot-tall dragon. Our loss of control during the gala had already pulled far too much media interest, even if it did get us out of a shitty situation.
“How far is it from here?” Cole asked me, pulling out a pair of pants and a shirt from the bag he’d carried in his claws. He tossed the first set to me, then dressed himself in the second.
“Only about a mile,” I replied quietly. “If my GPS tracker didn’t shit itself on the way here.”