Ties That Bind: a New Adult Fantasy Novel (The Spire Chronicles Book 2) (25 page)

Sullivan nodded. “Mister Campbell told me everything. Have you found the items they used?”

“No,” I said. “There were some interesting files in his safe, though. The objects were definitely there recently.”

“How recently?”

“Based on how strong the lingering magic is, I’d say no more than twelve hours.”
I’d also like to say that I am very proud of myself for sounding so professional when all I want to do is collapse onto the floor.

“Where–” Wright interrupted Sullivan by holding a gun up to his face. The hunters looked at each other, then their guns. Sullivan didn’t even blink. “Think it through, Wright. You aren’t in fighting condition.”

“Doesn’t take much skill to fire a gun at this range,
boss
,” Wright spat the last word out.

Sullivan waved a hand around. “There are ten other hunters here.” Said hunters were currently still playing eye tag, so I wasn’t sure what Sullivan was getting at.

“So?” he sneered. “Isn’t it my job to go down with you?”

“We’ve been friends–”

Wright let out a depraved laugh. “Friends? You think we’re friends? You wouldn’t even know who I am if I hadn’t thrown myself at your feet! You don’t know the first thing about me and you don’t care. No, you’re too busy playing nice with those beasts. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were sampling the local cuisine either. Guess I should be calling him a furry instead, eh Morgan?” he called over his shoulder. “Is that how they got your loyalty, ‘friend’?”

“You’re out of line,” I ground out, putting aside how his words resonated with me. My reasons for being angry about Catherine had nothing to do with her race, though. Plus, I may have had issues with him, but Sullivan was still my fath– the head of an Order family. “Stand down, Wright.”

“What’s the matter?” he asked, turning towards me while keeping the gun pointed at Sullivan. “Don’t want to fight a cripple?”

“That’s not–”

“You should show me some respect, kid. I’ve been a hunter longer than you’ve even been alive. I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve.” The rage on his face shifted to smug certainty. I brought my magic forward, but I wasn’t fast enough. Wright pulled something out of his pocket and smashed it on the ground.

Smoke filled the room along with the sound of four gunshots. Everything froze as I tried to reconcile what could’ve happened, but I pushed past it. Summoning up a huge gust of wind, I forced it towards the smoke. Windows shattered, the front door ripped off its hinges, and everyone downstairs was slammed against the wall. Awesome, still using way too much power. Go me.

“Find him!” I ordered as the hunters struggled to collect themselves.

Only two were able to push themselves up and rush out. I’d have felt guilty for knocking out – or worse – the rest of them, but all I cared about right now was the man bleeding out on the floor. Using that area spell in such an agitated state drained me, and I stumbled downstairs, tripping over the last few steps and landing hard on my elbow. I ignored the pain and crawled towards my father.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. The force of the spell had knocked him back as hard as the others. His arm was twisted in a weird angle and his clean white dress shirt was now a deep red, dotted with four darker spots. I knelt next to him, swallowing bile as my knees were soaked by the rapidly forming pool of blood underneath his person. I held my trembling hands over his body and scanned him. His arm was broken, his shoulder was fractured, and he’d cracked his skull against the floor. There was only one bullet left in his body; I had to get it out before I started healing him.

His breathing was raspy as he tried to gurgle something out. I turned him over so he could cough the blood out before placing him on his back again and cupping his cheek.

“Hang on,” I said in a panicked whisper. “Just hang on. I’m going to heal you, but first I need to pull the bullet out. There’s no numbing spell, so this is going to hurt.”

He reached for me. “M-Morgan…”

I shushed him. “Save your strength, okay? Just save your strength.”

Fuck, he looked so pale, so weak. He was fine a second ago and now… I clamped a hand over my mouth as hot tears fell down my face. They only fell harder once I realized my face and hands were now covered in my father’s blood. The tangy liquid slipped past my lips, and I vomited a little, turning to spit it all out before pulling my hair away from my face, ignoring the fact that I was just getting more blood on me.

The bullet was near his lungs, between two ribs. Whispering a quick apology, I dug a finger into the hole in his chest. I winced at his pained groans but continued. His blood felt like fire against my frozen finger as I kept digging.

“I need to open the hole a bit more.” Despite my best efforts, my voice was still shaky. “I’m such a stupid fucking idiot, I didn’t even bring forceps or something to fucking–”

“Morgan…”

“Shut up!” My stupid tears were blinding me, and I violently rubbed my eyes with my muddy sleeve. “Do you
want
to die? Well, you can’t. You’re my dad and I may hate you, but I don’t actually hate you. So, you can’t die.” The words tumbled out of me. The revelation in my words would have hit me hard if I wasn’t currently rummaging around the insides of the only non-cat parent I had left.

“You’re such a jerk,” I said, continuing my cry-ologue in a feeble attempt to distract myself. Anger always worked, so why wasn’t it working now? “You send me away and have a baby with some magic werewolf. Then, you ignore me for eighteen years and only call me back because I have magic and you needed help. You’re a jerk. A stupid, mean jerk. But you’re also my dad and I don’t want you to die, so please don’t die. Please don’t die.”

I repeated the words like a prayer in-between broken off sobs. I could play tough and cold all I wanted, but when it came down to it, I was a lot weaker than I let anyone see. Playing at being strong had never been a problem before, but the dam was broken now. Finally, my nail hit something solid. He didn’t scream out in pain, so I assumed what I hit wasn’t bone. Mumbling another apology and wiping more tears away, I spread the hole further, trying to slide the bullet out.

“Morgan…” His voice was broken, barely above a whisper.

“I said shut up,” I whimpered. “Just shut up. You’re going to be fine, so just shut up.”

“I’m sorry.” His hand trembled as he reached for me again. “I l-love…”

I let out an inhuman whine and blindly reached for his hand, squeezing it tight once I found it. Well, as tight as I could with all the blood making my hand slip around like a baby dolphin. He didn’t seem to care, and the realization that I was holding my father’s hand while he was bleeding to death had me breaking down into another crying fit.

A shadow appeared over me and Alex’s voice rang out. “What–”

“CALL AN AMBULANCE!” I shrieked, crying out in relief when the bullet was finally removed.

I flung it aside and placed my free hand on his torso, my trembling getting worse as I felt how his chest barely moved. I bombarded his body with healing magic, turning my head to cough up the bile that rushed out with my efforts, the normally tangy taste like mud against my tongue. My vision was filled with a blurry golden light as I healed him, whispering that everything was going to be alright.

I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince.

16

I was already soaked in blood, so I wasn’t bothered when I collapsed against my dad’s chest, clinging to him for dear life as I sobbed like a baby. I had healed him. All the bullet holes were closed up and I’d stopped the bleeding, but I didn’t have enough focus to fix his bones. The doctors would have to take care of that. Whether or not his body would make it through all the trauma and blood loss was still a mystery – I didn’t have enough medical experience to know.

“You’re strong,” I whispered in his ear. “I know you are. You’re strong and you’re going to pull through. Do you hear me? You are going to live. It’s not a request, it’s an order. I still have so many things to say to you, to ask you, so you can’t leave, okay? You can’t. Please don’t leave.”

He was too weak to speak or move much – that he was still awake was nothing short of a miracle – but his fingers twitched against my knee. The action made me cry harder, though I was pretty sure anything he did right now would make me cry harder. I didn’t let go until sirens rang and people came rushing in. The paramedics pushed me aside to look over Sullivan, and I laid there as Alex hurried to me.

Everything, from the tips of my boots to the top of my head, was drenched in blood. It was hot, heavy, and sticky against me, the reminder of my father’s mortality rendering me near catatonic. Alex was here, though. He came. I feebly reached for him, my hand bloodying his sweater. He took it, lifting me up against him into a sitting position.

“Morgan, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“He–” I whimpered, staring at the paramedics’ backs as they huddled around my father. “He’s…”

Alex turned my head back to face him. “He’s going to be okay, Morgan. Tell me about you. Are you okay?”

Physically? Maybe. Mentally? Not even close.

“I have to go after Wright. He did this, he has to pay.” I tried to stand up, but the blood under my feet made everything slippery.

“No.” Alex held me down. “You’re tapped out. You haven’t eaten or slept–”

“It’s my fault,” I said as more tears pushed their way forward. Fuck this. The second I got some rest, I was going to cauterize my damn tear ducts.

“It’s not your fault.”

“If I had been stronger, if I’d figured it out sooner–”

Alex gripped my face, his fingers firm against my skin. “This is not your fault. None of this is your fault. You did the best you could.”

“And it wasn’t enough,” I cried, burying my face in his shoulder like a child. “It’s never enough. Lady Cassandra, Lily, and now… Please, Alex, I need to find him.”

He sighed, holding me against him as if he was afraid I’d disappear. “I’m coming with you.”

I shook my head furiously. “No. You’ll get hurt like he did. I don’t want that. I love you, so I have to protect you. He can’t take you away from me. I won’t let him.”

I didn’t notice the words had slipped out, but Alex jumped on them immediately. “You what?”

I pawed at his cheek, sniffling. “I love you. I know it’s the worst possible time ever and maybe it’s too soon and…and I don’t know. But I love you, and I don’t want you to get hurt, so please…”

“I love you, too,” he said in what was barely a whisper. “And if you love me the same way, then you know how much I don’t want you to get hurt, either.”

“
I’ll
heal,” I whined.

“From injuries, not exhaustion.” He pulled me to my feet, and I fell against him as dark spots assaulted my vision. “See? It’s no good to have you pass out mid-fight.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “We have to hurry before he escapes. Tracking spell – get me some of his hair.”

“He’s practically bald.” He was still fussing over me like a mother hen. “And no way are you using magic anymore, not until you heal.”

“Skin, then. Something,” I said, ignoring his last comment. How exactly did he expect me to turn off something that came as naturally as breathing? “His bedroom is upstairs, far right.”

“Morgan, no. Did you hear me?”

“Magic is reflexive. It’s like telling me not to blink.”

“Well, this reflex could kill you.”

He was right. I knew it, but I didn’t know how to stop. I stepped away from him, taking a deep breath to clear my head. “I’ll try, but there’s no mana bar. Magic draws on my energy, and I don’t know how to block it. I can keep using it until I black out.”

He gave me a pointed look. “Which you won’t.”

“I promise to try.”

Alex nodded and pulled me back to him. “Tom is still in the hospital.”

“Lucky him.”

“He might know where Wright is.”

“But–”

“No,” he said. I wanted to set him on fire. Lovingly. “We can track him the old fashioned way.”

I shook my head, catching sight of the paramedics taking my dad away. “Where are you taking him?” Stupid question, but it slipped out anyway.

A woman with short blonde hair stepped away from the stretcher to speak with me. “We’re taking him to the hospital. His vitals seem stable…”

I nodded rapidly, not hearing anything I didn’t already know. “Bottom line, please.”

“We’re hopeful,” she said, giving me a polite nod and excusing herself.

Alex hurried after her and they exchanged a few words before he came back and took my hand. “They’ll give us a ride to the hospital.” When I didn’t reply, he gently tugged my arm. “Come on, you can stay with your dad.”

I leaned against him. “And you? Will you stay?”

He wiped the blood off my forehead and pressed a kiss against the newly exposed skin. “Of course.”

I spent the entire ride with one hand in Alex’s and the other clutching my dad’s.