“You’re always hungry.”
He rolled his eyes at me before lying down and pretending to sleep.
“You can go if you like.”
“No. You might need to tap into my power.”
“Can’t I do that from a distance?”
“Stupid witch. No!”
I huffed at his obnoxious attitude. Why had the goddess gifted me with such a rude familiar? I must have been an evil witch in a previous life.
“Hello?” Alaric snapped, and I realized I’d been staring at Kenji for way too long, having forgotten the others weren’t party to my silent conversation with the little shit.
“Ignore the grumpy mage, pet. Like I said earlier, he needs to get laid.” Zane drew a wickedly sharp knife from a hidden pocket and zipped over to Alaric. Before any of us could react, he had the blade pressed against the mage’s neck. “The recipe calls for blood, right? Does the donor matter? If not, I’m happy to supply some on his behalf.”
“It has to be the spellcaster’s blood, you moron,” Alaric gritted out. A small scarlet line opened up across his throat, and he hissed in anger.
“Call me a moron again and I’ll fucking gut you, mage,” Zane said in a singsong voice while grinning like a lunatic.
“Good luck with that,moron. We both know you can’t hurt me.”
Zane pretended to think for a moment. “I can’t hurt you physically, at least not too severely. But I’m willing to experiment in the hope of finding a loophole. I have a feeling mental torture could work.” His grin widened. “Had many bad dreams lately?”
“You think I’m not strong enough to keep you out of my head?” Alaric spat. “Try it. I guarantee you’ll fail.”
“Oh my goddess,” Glynda muttered. “I hope you brought a tape measure so we can put an end to this dick-measuringcontest, or we’ll be here all day.” She handed me a small athame with a carved black handle. “Here, use this.”
Before I could talk myself out of it, I sliced across my left palm. The sudden sharp burst of pain caused tears to well up in my eyes, but I blinked them away. Spilling some blood was a small sacrifice. If we found Rasmus in time, he’d need a lot more than a few drops of blood to heal, which was a concern. There was a risk I’d end up a dried husk.
Blood dripped into the silver bowl. I wasn’t sure how much we needed, but I erred on the side of caution. When the wound clotted, Glynda handed me a scrap of cloth to wrap it with before Alaric tutted in annoyance, grabbed my hand, and murmured something under his breath.
A warm, soothing buzz of magic shimmered through me. The cut on my hand sealed and vanished. I stared up at him in surprise.
“Healing magic,” he said before shoving me away. My hand still tingled, and when I focused on his aura, I noticed how brightly it glowed. Strands of gold and silver swirled around in mesmerizing circles, spinning ever faster the more I stared. “What?” He frowned at me.
I shook my head and turned away. Was I the only person who saw auras? It sure felt like it. Not that it was an especially useful gift other than being able to sense a person’s intentions from the color. The blacker the aura, the more darkness in a being’s soul.
Zane’s aura was black with violet strands, but I couldn’t sense any true evil in his soul. Just layers of darkness with bright spots. Maybe that was down to his childhood. Or perhaps, like most magical beings, he was a complex mix of dark and light. Neither one nor the other.
Ignoring Alaric’s confused expression, I scanned the spell to make sure I knew the next steps.
“Read the spell while adding the ingredients in the correct order,” Alaric said, looming over me. Surely he didn’t need to stand quite that close.
Zane apparently agreed because he sidled over and shoved his large body between us.
“Hey, I’m happy to fuck off if someone gives me a ride,” Alaric snapped irritably.
“No, she needs you.” Zane curled his lip up in a fake smile. “Just not that close.”
I grumbled at their stupid posturing while Glynda smirked and Kenji yawned.
“There better be some bacon left when we get back,” he bitched. I rolled my eyes at him. Even if there wasn’t any left when Zane took us back to campus, he’d steal more from the kitchen.
Adding each ingredient to the bowl in the order listed took a few moments, but when nothing exciting happened, I looked up at Alaric to see him smirking.
“Recite the spell,” he said. “And you need the item connected to the vamp you’re trying to find.”
