Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (2 page)

“What’s that?” Kett murmured. His head canted to one side.
 

I reached out with my dowser senses in the vague direction he seemed to be listening. I picked up more glimmers of the unknown but slightly familiar magic.

“You mean the glimmers? I thought it was just trace left by Kandy, but it’s something else.”

“Something else you should have mentioned?”

“Would you have allowed the interruption when there were such important questions to answer and games to play?”

Kett sighed. Such a thing always seemed heavier when he did it. Probably because he didn’t actually need to breathe. “I don’t see any glimmers, dowser,” he said. “But to the east there is … something.”

Well, that was informative. “I’m not a compass.”

Kett pointed in the direction he’d been looking, then turned his gaze on me. “Use the necklace,” he coaxed. He had a real thing for my necklace. But then, so did I.

For years, I had sought out wedding rings that contained residual magic in antique stores or pawnshops. I preferred to collect the rings in pairs, but I occasionally added singles if it felt like the right thing to do. I ran the pad of my thumb across a new solder join where I’d recently repaired the necklace and tried, once again, to quash my immediate thoughts of my dead sister, Sienna. A glimmer of her magic was embedded within this ring. But it would take more than a divorced man’s wedding ring and a hank of hair to find her now. I tried to not believe in absolutes such as heaven and hell, but I was fairly certain she was as deep into the darkness as a soul could go.

Focus, focus …
 

Once again anchored in the magic of the knife and the necklace, I stretched my senses through the dense forest. I couldn’t pick up anything nonmagical, such as animals, as I assumed Kett could. But I also guessed he hadn’t asked me to dowse for owls when he pointed east.

There … just on the very edge of my reach I could sense a … grouping?

“How far is that?” I asked. My eyes were narrowed at the tree a few feet from me, but I wasn’t seeing the grooves in the bark or the dried needles that created a crunchy carpet underneath. I was trying to resolve the feeling of the grouping into a taste I could identify.

“Miles,” Kett answered. His voice was soft and yet focused, deadly focused.

“You think I can dowse for miles?”

“Pay attention, half-witch. What is that? Or who?” The vampire downgraded my title from ‘dowser’ to ‘half-witch’ only when he was chastising me. Though you couldn’t hear any chastisement in his tone, or I couldn’t, anyway. Maybe to other vampires, he’d be dripping with condemnation.

“Well,” I said. “They’d have to be magical for me to pick them up.”

The vampire didn’t sigh or pierce me with an icy glare, but I sensed it was a near thing. The sarcasm was a coping mechanism, as was the chocolate, and the baking, and the trinket making. Just because I recognized the behavior didn’t mean I could stop. I had a lot of coping to do.

“Magical, as in the same magic as these glimmers you failed to mention?”

“Maybe. I’d have to get closer.”

Kett grinned. I could see this smile in my peripheral vision, and even though it wasn’t directed at me, it made me freeze like an over-lit deer. It wasn’t a nice smile. It was a predator baring its teeth. Nice, straight, very white teeth that I was pleased weren’t currently anticipating biting me.

“Let’s get closer,” he whispered. And then he was gone.

∞

Okay, the vampire didn’t just disappear, but he did blur off eastward into the forest.

And great. Now with the running. The running always led places I really didn’t want to go. Like into blood and mayhem. Well, I guess I had just walked into the last batch of that …

I tightened the strap of my sling pack and moved farther into the woods after the vampire. I quickened my pace with each stride until I was running as fast as I dared through the undergrowth. The needles and moss were slippery underfoot. The forest wasn’t my natural environment and running wasn’t my favorite activity. I was more at home in my bakery or on a yoga mat. But my body didn’t mind running. I could, in fact, run farther and faster than I’d ever tried before. Kett and Kandy had been forcing physical training on me. Though I still hadn’t managed to slice the vampire with my knife in our sparring sessions.

I leaped up and over a fallen tree, then cleared the huckleberry bushes on the other side without really trying. I made a mental note to collect some of the red berries before we returned home. Though it took numerous handfuls to make anything substantial, I was thinking of a limited edition cupcake for the bakery …

Though I was still chasing his magic, I couldn’t see or hear the vampire ahead of me among the cedar and fir trees. Of course, I couldn’t really hear anything over the sound of my own labored crashing around. I had probably already scared away any animals that hadn’t fled from the vampire.

I focused on the gathering ahead. I wasn’t sure I could run all the supposed miles between here and there, even though ever since Sienna had forced me — inadvertently or not — to open the portal in my basement, I’d been stronger and faster than I ever had before. Contact with the portal magic had … well, not strengthened my magic, because I think I’d always been this way without knowing. But it had connected me with more of my magical abilities. So I was stronger and faster than I thought, and I healed quickly, though I hadn’t tested that voluntarily.

Maybe I could run miles if I needed to. I just knew that a vampire on the hunt shouldn’t go unchecked. Not that I could check Kett — not if he ever really lost it. But maybe he would hesitate to slaughter too much, too wantonly in front of me, seeing as how he was my self-appointed mentor and all.

The grouping was nearer now, but I still couldn’t distinguish their magic. I hadn’t tasted it before. It was earthy like shifter or witch magic — but then, most of the Adept drew their power from the earth. The spirit of the earth, as Gran called it, was dying, and the powers and numbers of the Adept along with it. Whether this was a natural evolution or something to do with climate change and the poisoning of the earth, I didn’t know. Beyond its earthy base, the magic of the gathering up ahead was tart like the huckleberries that grew in wild abundance in these mountains. And spicy like some sort of red pepper. No, maybe like a sweet-edged onion?

I couldn’t manage to catch up to the vampire without going all out, and I was afraid I’d run out of steam if I did.

The gathering resolved into individual magical signatures as I neared. I picked up my pace as I sensed Kett do the same ahead of me. The low branches of some junior evergreens whipped across my face, but the scrapes healed within seconds. That was still weird. I mean, I was certainly happy to not be walking around with a scratched up face, but feeling yourself heal was definitely freaky. I had been putting off asking Kandy about it. Werewolves healed quickly as well, though Kandy had taken a good week to heal after her run-in with Sienna. ‘Run in,’ was completely understating the actual situation, but I was still having a difficult time dealing with the aftermath of it all in my head.

I could make out five individuals up ahead. But I was also flagging, my breathing quickening and my stride shortening. I pushed through, knowing my mind would give out before my body actually did, because the vampire was pulling too far ahead of me now. He would reach the group easily five, maybe ten minutes before me. It was difficult to judge. I’d never been in a foot race with a vampire before.

Certainly he wouldn’t go barreling into a group of unknown magic users? He was too careful, too meticulous for that. Except that once on a hunt, what if he had a difficult time reining himself in … ?Damn. How did I get myself into these situations? Right, I wandered around alone in the forest with a vampire. I was practically begging for it.

I caught a taste of Kandy’s magic. It was faint, as if shielded. That brought me up short, because it wasn’t in the same direction as the gathering. Kett — though I could still only sense his magic rather than see him — didn’t even pause. Maybe he hadn’t noticed, or maybe he didn’t care. The vampire was just as much of a collector as I was, but while I obsessively gathered glimmers of magic — including the jade stones in my pocket that I’d fished out of the river an hour ago — he collected information on unusual Adepts such as myself.

So, did I leave the gathering ahead to the vampire and the possible slaughter that lay at the end of his run? Or did I ignore Kandy, though her magic felt oddly sluggish and remote?

The vampire didn’t typically to go around slaughtering people. Though honestly, I had no idea how — or on who — he fed. Though I gathered it could be a mutual pleasure, nonlethal sort of arrangement. And Kandy was the nearest thing I had to a friend since Sienna had disintegrated before my eyes. I’d felt my sister’s magic dissipate within the golden power of the portal. I’d let go. I’d let her die —
 

I veered off toward Kandy and left the unknown Adepts to the vampire and fate. I was barely able to take care of myself. The strangers would have to wait while I checked on the werewolf.

∞

I could hear another river in this direction, and I found myself seriously hoping I hadn’t somehow circled back. I was fairly certain we’d been following the Squamish River before, but now that was in some doubt. Logically, I’d been running through a valley surrounded by mountains, so chances were good that there’d be another river around here somewhere.

I almost ran over Kandy. Her magic was that dim. I managed to not step on the green-haired werewolf, but just barely.

“Kandy!” I cried, throwing myself down on my knees by her side. Yeah, I found it difficult not being completely typical all the time. Especially when faced with a friend curled in a fetal position on the damp ground in the middle of the freaking nowhere forest. Okay, I was aware that we were somewhere between Squamish and Whistler, but that was a long distance, like fifty or so miles. On foot.

Kandy moaned so quietly that I wasn’t actually sure she’d made any noise, but the werewolf didn’t open her eyes.

I hunched down to look her over. My first instinct was to touch her, but I was really trying to not just heed my every whim these days. Touching her could be bad for us both. If she’d been spelled, that magic could grab me or react badly to my interference. She didn’t appear to be hurt, not that I could tell for sure given that she healed so quickly. Her jeans were ripped across her thighs, but I couldn’t remember if they’d been like that before. Her snug-fitting, belly-baring T-shirt bore some obscene print as per usual.
 

I needed to figure out if she’d been spelled. Slowly, I ran my fingers down her taut, muscled arm, but picked up nothing beyond the abnormally sluggish pulse of werewolf magic.

I carefully rolled Kandy over onto her back. I could see a vein pulsing in her neck. It looked too rapid and intense — but then, I barely knew anything about human physiology, let alone werewolf. Where her short-cropped green hair grew out shaggily, it fell across her brow, but other than that, she didn’t react. No roots, I noted, even though it wasn’t vaguely relevant. Kandy must dye her hair every two weeks to maintain it so perfectly.
 

She was pale. She was usually so vibrant, so brash and ready with her predatory grin and easy swagger. My heart was attempting to climb up my throat, but I swallowed it back down. This wasn’t the same situation. This wasn’t the same as when Sienna had cut Kandy so badly —

Focus. Focus.

Kandy’s hand lay across her belly, and I noticed her very human-looking fingers were tipped with wolf claws. Had she tried to change? Or had she just been practicing partially changing as she often did?

I touched her hand. Then I noticed the bright spots of magic underneath it, on her belly and across her chest. Five points that were partially diffused into Kandy’s own magic. I could clearly identify the different colors of green.

I hovered my fingers over the brightest — the newest? — spot. The magic felt similar to the glimmers in the forest, and to the gathering in the east.

Though now that I widened my senses from being pinpoint-focused on Kandy, I noticed that the gathering had dispersed.

Then I got hit by a bear.

∞

I didn’t know it was a bear at the time it hit me, seeing as how I was curled into a ball in an attempt to protect my head and neck. It became clear after that, after I rolled away from Kandy to direct the bear away from the incapacitated werewolf. After I slammed against a two-hundred-year-old cedar and twisted my wrist in an attempt to break my badly handled fall. Kett would have lowered his eyebrows at least a quarter-of-an-inch over that tumble if this had been a sparring session. After I straightened, looked up, and kicked the bear in the gut then I saw it was a bear. A nine-hundred-pound, nine-foot-tall-on-its-hind-legs grizzly bear that I had just slammed into a neighboring tree.

I’d never seen a surprised grizzly hunch over and hold its bruised belly before. But then, I’d never seen a grizzly in the flesh at all.

I didn’t stop to celebrate the fact that I’d just kicked a nine-hundred-pound bear ten feet or so, though the display of strength was impressive and unprecedented. Not knowing it was a big, freaking bear probably helped. I widened my stance and pulled my knife. The jade blade was more of a rapier than a sword, and held between the bear and me, it looked like I was threatening to poke it with a toothpick.

Kandy moaned and rolled back into her fetal position.

The bear swung its massive, broad head toward the werewolf. I remained calm, forcing myself to not just start shrieking for Kett. Could a vampire drop a grizzly bear? Could I even annoy it?

“Hey, big guy!” I shouted. “Look here. Look at me. See my shiny knife. No touchy the green-haired one, or I’ll poke you.” Geez. Poke you. Brilliant threat. Hopefully, my tone was doing the heavy lifting. Too bad I didn’t have any bells. Bears didn’t like bells, right?
 

The bear thumped down on all fours. Evidently, my kick wasn’t a long-term sort of deterrent. Even flat on his feet, his head was higher than mine. Couldn’t a grizzly take multiple rounds from a shotgun and still keep mauling its victim?