Hendrix shoves me hard out of the way and charges the woman. I crash onto the floor and watch him get hit three times before he reaches her. Her horror at the ineffectiveness of the wounds she has inflicted come out in a scream. He takes the gun and slams it into her face, knocking her down at his feet, before taking off his glasses and roaring furiously at her.
‘W-what the hell are you?’ she stammers, looking at his teeth and eyes.
He wraps his fingers around her throat and lifts her off the ground before dragging her into the room and closing the door. I gasp as I receive access to my magic. Grayson must have heard the alarms. I push myself back onto my feet and tell him I have access before standing by his side to look up at her.
‘You alright, Little Witch?’ Hendrix asks. ‘Did ya get hit?’
‘No. I’m Fine.’ I examine the patches of red on his torso. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine.’ He pulls the woman closer. ‘Bullets can’t kill a vampire.’ He snarls at her, making sure she hears the truth about what kind of creature has her right now. ‘What the hell are ya doin’ here?’ She doesn’t answer. Perhaps she can’t through his grip.
‘Drop her,’ I tell him. He does. Before she can scramble away, I summon my Mental magic. My eyes blacken. ‘Stay exactly where you are.’ She stills. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’m here to kill you all. Filthy vermin.’ She spits at my feet.
‘You know I’m a witch? How? I compelled you to forget.’
‘I knew as soon as I saw you. After the fire broke out, I woke up outside, overcome with the need to get away from the house. On my way out of town, my mark continued to burn. So I followed the pain. All the way here.’
‘Your mark?’
‘Err…’ Hendrix leans down and lifts up her sleeve. ‘Shit.’
‘What’s that?’ It looks like a brand but the pattern is intricate swirls entwined with hard lines and odd symbols.
‘It’s the Hunters Mark.’ He swallows hard as he tells me, ‘She’s a Witch Hunter.’
‘A Witch Hunter?’ I repeat in a whisper, taking a small step back. ‘Hunters are here?’
‘Told ya we should have left her behind in that fire.’ Hendrix nudges me closer to the Hunter. She looks up at us with a stubborn defiance. ‘Make her talk. Ask her if she’s here alone.’ He watches me. ‘Hey! Focus!’
‘Are you here alone?’ I ask her quickly, looking past her to the door.
‘Yes,’ she replies begrudgingly.
‘Why not kill us at the house? What were you waiting for?’
‘Orders. But before I could receive them, the house was attacked. I thought if I carried on pretending to be the owner’s mother, you wouldn’t kill me before I could kill you.’
‘Do other Hunters know where we are? Have they got Gabriel?’
Her mouth goes into a hard line as she fights my compulsion. But she can’t and she has no choice but to answer. ‘No. I’m alone.’
‘Why? Why come after us alone?’
‘Because I wanted to prove to them that a woman Hunter is just as good – better even – than a male Hunter.’
‘You wanted the glory,’ Hendrix scoffs. ‘How did that work out for you?’
‘Better than this is going to work out for you. You’re all as good as dead.’
I grab him before he goes to hit her. ‘Hendrix… Gabriel! We need to find him!’
‘We will. Calm down. I’m sure he’s okay.’
The sirens stop. The alarm falls silent.
‘We really need to get you out of here,’ he says.
‘We need to find Gabriel!’
Hendrix grabs the Hunter. ‘C’mon then. We’ll take her with us. Get some intel about the Hunters.’ He opens the doors to seven men with guns, all pointing at us. ‘Oh shit.’
‘Put your hands in the air and step outside the room or we will… Dear lord… What are you?’ They see our black eyes and Hendrix’s teeth. ‘WITCHES! THEY’RE WITCHES!’ One of the other men grabs a walkie-talkie.
‘The thieves are witches! We need Hunters here. NOW!’
A voice crackles back. ‘Shoot to kill! Hunters are on their way.’
‘GET DOWN!’ Hendrix orders me. They open fire as I dive out of the way. In a quick move, Hendrix grabs the Hunter and uses her as a shield. ‘RUN, LILLY!’ Hendrix orders, as more officers start running up the main steps towards us. ‘I GOT THIS. FIND GABRIEL BEFORE HUNTERS GET HERE. GO!’
He’s off, head first into the fight. My fear for Gabriel’s safety consumes me as I turn towards the stairs at the rear of the museum. The sound of Hendrix roaring and bullets being fired fade the further I run. There is no way that Gabriel would fail in turning off the alarms. Something must be wrong.
There’s a loud crackling noise over the PA system, followed by a few taps of someone’s finger on the mic.
‘Testing… testing… one two. One two. Is this thing on?’
My feet slow and I stop at the very top of the steps.
‘Looking good, Red.’ Toby’s voice mocks over the speakers. I look up and see the camera in the corner pointed right at me. It starts moving side to side. ‘Look. I’m waving at you,’ he laughs. His voice echoes through the stairwell. It bounces off the walls and the stone floors, making it so much louder. ‘Need a hand, Red?’ he asks, in a low tone that was once seductive to me. ‘You look like you need a hand.’
I walk up to the camera and stick up my middle finger. He laughs.
I need to find Gabriel!
I close my eyes and flex out my fingers, searching for him with my Sensativa. But I can’t feel him.
‘You looking for me?’ Toby asks. I turn my back to the camera and keep searching for Gabriel. ‘Or are you looking for my brother?’ My heart stops. ‘I tell you, he wasn’t expecting to open the security guard’s office door to find me, no sir. Turn around, Red. Let me see you.’
Slowly, I turn and face the camera.
‘What do you want?’ I yell at him.
‘I can’t hear you, but if I’m right, you’re asking what I want. Well, let me tell you precisely what I want. You, Red. I want you. So, come to the security office and I will offer you a trade. Gabriel for you. You have three minutes to get here. For every minute you keep me waiting after that, I start cutting. Starting with the hands he had no right touching you with. And be quick. Hunters are on their way.’ The mic clicks off.
I don’t leave a second to spare. I’m acting on pure impulse. I have to save Gabriel! I sprint down the stairs. As I run, I see in tunnel vision. Nothing else matters. I have to get to Gabriel. I run and I run.
‘One minute down.’ Toby’s mocking laughter follows me through every room and corridor. I don’t waste time opening doors. I blast them off their hinges and sprint through the holes I leave behind. Anything that gets in my path is obliterated. Doors. Statues. Priceless artifacts.
‘Run, little rabbit,’ he whispers over the speakers. ‘Come and find me.’
No matter where I turn, I can’t find anything more than the museum’s prized possessions. I have no idea where the security guard room is. But that doesn’t stop me trying to find him. I just keep moving.
‘Two minutes down.’
In the quickest glimpse, I see a woman standing at the base of the steps. Just standing, watching me. She’s in a pair of striped pyjama shorts and a battered and bloody hoodie. She watches me with tears streaming down her face. Her hand is settled on her belly and blood is trickling down her legs.
She’s me. Watching as I run after my monster. She’s crawled out from my subconscious, wearing the clothes I spent so many years in while down in that cellar. The sad girl. Forgotten girl. Lost and desperate to die girl. She did die. Down there in that hole, cradling her empty womb and mourning the loss of a life that had a heart beat for only a matter of weeks. Her ghost never left. She haunts me every day. And as I run past my spectre, her hair starts to turn white. Her eyes lilac. And now, she’s my Broken-self. And she’s screaming. “RUN! RUN! KILL!”
She wants her revenge. We all do. My broken side. My desperate to die side. And the side of me that wants to live and fight and give us all our revenge. But revenge must wait. First, Gabriel must be saved.
‘Tick-tock,’ Toby whispers.
I run. I run and I run.
‘Left,’ he laughs, when I approach a three-pronged corridor. He wants me to find him and I want to find him as well, so I follow his instructions. ‘Right,’ he says excitedly. I turn as he instructs, still running as fast as I can. My feet skid on the shiny floor and I crash onto my side, but I’m up again and running. ‘Down the stairs, Red. Thirty seconds. Hurry!’
I leap down two at a time. My hand grips the stone bannister as I almost fall down them. I land on my knees at their base and push myself back up.
‘Ouch. Did that hurt?’ he asks. ‘Almost there, Red. Come and find me. I’ll kiss it all better for you.’
‘Fuck you!’ I scream, as if he can hear me.
He laughs. ‘You look so mad right now. I do love it when you get angry. Your angry side was always your best side. That… and your desperate need to please me.’ I push down the need to threaten him. That would be pointless. I keep running. ‘That’s it. Through the doors. Hurry, you’re almost out of time.’ The mic clicks off and that’s the last I hear of him over the speakers. I smash the doors to pieces and run through a large foyer with a fountain in the middle. There’s still no sign of him. There’s no sign of anyone. But now, I can sense him. I feel his magic bristling through the air. It’s cruel and sadistic. I stretch out my hand, weaving the sensation through my fingers, and I feel Gabriel’s too, just on the other side of two large double doors made of frosted glass.
I run, faster than I have ever run before. The closer I get, the more I feel them.
My fire comes to me. My arms are burning bright. My red flames cover my skin as I approach the door. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion. My feet go one in front of the other.
I reach the doors and the glass shatters. Chunks slowly fly outwards. They float through the air as if suspended in water. I charge into the main courtyard with the glass roof. And as soon as I do, my magic leaves me. It just… goes! The shattered glass clatters to the floor. My fire abandons me.
Grayson has cut me off.
I’m powerless.
Why? Why would he do that?
Standing in the middle of the courtyard, side by side, under the glass roof, is Ava and Toby. At their feet is Gabriel, bound and gagged. He has a bad head wound and is bleeding from his forehead. His arms are above his head, his wrists trapped beneath Toby’s boot.
‘Oh dear. Has your magic gone? How ever will you defeat me now?’ Toby taunts. Resting over his shoulder is a red axe. He lifts it and points the bladed end at me. ‘You’re late. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
In a swift move, he lifts the axe high above his head and looks at Gabriel. ‘I told you not to touch my girl. Now… you won’t. Ever. Again.’ With an evil grin, Toby brings the axe down, and severs Gabriel’s arm from his elbow.
Gabriel’s howl of agony and fury echo all around us. Blood spills from his severed arm in a thick pool.
‘YOU’RE DEAD!’ I screech, my eyes on Toby. I can’t believe he just did that! To his own brother! ‘I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!’ I charge. I don’t care I have no magic. I don’t care about anything.
Ava runs at me from the side and smashes into me. We crash to the floor. Sitting atop me, she starts hitting, laughing maniacally as she hammers down hit after hit. I block her and look at Gabriel. He’s all I care about right now, and right now, Toby is positioning himself by his other arm, axe still in hand.
‘She’s mine,’ he tells Gabriel, twirling the axe in his hand. ‘Always has been, always will be.’ Gabriel’s eyes watch him closely. He’s pale and shaking with pain. He’s probably in shock. But the anger in his eyes is unlike anything I have seen before. ‘After I’ve cut off your other arm, I’ll cauterise your wounds, so don’t worry. I can’t have you bleeding out. Then, I’ll be taking her. And I know what you’re thinking, yes, Grayson has the Bloodstone. But you see, what I have planned for her, that won’t matter. What I have planned for her will make Ryan, Theo and Grayson look like kittens. You’ll be too busy running away from us, to even contemplate tracking her down.’
Gabriel twists his body and kicks out Toby’s legs. Toby and the axe fall to the floor and Gabriel looks straight at me before nodding to the crazy bitch trying to bash my skull in with her fists. I focus on my own battle, lowering my arms so that when she sees a clear shot, I move aside and she punches the stone floor instead. I hear her knuckles crunch before she falls back, howling in pain, clutching her broken hand to her chest. I shove her off and run towards Gabriel.
His kick gave him a few seconds, but Toby is back on his feet. The blood surrounding Gabriel is growing every second. He tries to stand, but he can’t. Toby slams his boot into Gabriel’s face, knocking him down in a daze. He rolls over… but that’s all he can manage. Toby lifts the axe.
‘HEY!’ I shout, running at him as fast as my legs can carry me. He looks up just in time to see me bulldoze into him. We land in a heap. He drops the axe, but only so he can wrap his arms around my waist.
‘Hey, red,’ he moans longingly in my ear. ‘I always did like you on top.’
Half his face is scarred from my attack last time we met. His skin, although healed, is heavily marked from my flames. It’s far worse than the mark he left on my thigh all those years ago. His attention shifts past me to the roof.
‘Oh… shit!’ I don’t get a chance to look before he rolls us over and covers my body with his. The roof shatters and we’re covered in glass. Great big chunks plummet down. I look up, past him, and see a dozen or more figures, all dressed in black, standing on the metal frame of the once great and beautiful glass roof. In their hands are guns. ‘Well… this can’t be good.’ Toby sits and sends a great wave of his flames upwards and outwards, creating a ceiling of fire between us and them. But they start shooting. Bullets bury into the floor. Dozens upon dozens. And then smoke grenades land all around us. In the chaos, I push Toby off me and crawl to Gabriel. My hands cut on the glass. Soon, I can’t see through the smoke from both Toby’s fire and the grenades. I feel blindly for Gabriel, calling his name again and again. But I’m drowned out by the noise.
My hand finds Gabriel’s blood and finally, him. I pull him into my arms, untie his wrist from his severed limb and take off his gag. He’s painfully weak and barely able to sit.
‘You have to run,’ he tells me. ‘Go. Leave me.’
‘No.’ I shake my head and start getting to my feet, pulling him up with me. ‘Not without you. Never without you.’ I take as much of his weight as possible, draping his remaining arm around my shoulders.
‘I’ll compel you if I must!’
‘Look at me.’ I stare him straight in the eye. ‘If you compel me away and I lose you, Gabriel, I will Break. I can’t do this without you. I can barely do it with you. I need you, okay?’
‘I can barely walk! I’m not getting out of here without getting killed or getting caught.’
‘Then neither am I. Together, or not at all. Now come on. Try and walk before we get shot.’
I half drag, half carry him through the thick smoke, missing bullet after bullet by some miracle. He leaves behind a trail of blood as I guide him towards the gift shop built beneath the central dome. The walls of which are made of clear glass. I push open the door and haul him inside. At least in here, there’s no smoke and we can breathe. The lights are off and it gives us some cover. We crumple to the floor behind a bookshelf and I hold him in my arms. I start feeling for his belt and quickly begin sliding it off.
‘I’m flattered, but I don’t think now is the time,’ he teases weakly.
‘I need to stop the bleeding.’ I wrap it around his stump and tighten it as much as I can. He howls in pain and I apologise over and over. With it in place, he sinks into my body.
‘What now?’ he asks. ‘Are they Hunters?’
‘I think so. Hendrix and I met a Hunter upstairs before we got separated.’
‘You should have left!’
‘I need my magic. Grayson, he cut me off for some reason. Do you have a phone?’
He shakes his head.
‘But I know his mobile number,’ he tells me, pointing to the phone behind the cash desk. Gently, I lay him down and run over to grab it. Suddenly, the gunfire stops and Toby’s fire fades. Outside the glass walls of the shop, it’s painfully quiet. I reach out my hand. Toby’s magic is fading. He’s leaving. Running like the coward he is. But in the smoke, dark shadows move around. The men with guns are here, and they’re looking for us. I duck down with the phone in my hand and crawl back to Gabriel, before pulling him further back into the store so as to not be seen. With him between my legs and my back braced against the wall, I give him the phone.
‘Dial, baby,’ I whisper. ‘Quickly. Before they find us.’
His fingers are slow and cumbersome as he dials. When he’s done, he gives me the phone and slumps into me, exhausted.
I press it to my ear. It’s ringing.
The door to the shop opens. Smoke floods in. The sound of feet crunching on glass makes my heart hammer.
‘Gabriel,’ I whisper quietly into his ear, shaking him. ‘Compel him to leave.’
But Gabriel’s head lolls forward. I have to pin him to my chest to stop him falling. The phone continues to ring. More smoke pours in. Whoever has joined us walks slowly. I see them pass through the shelves separating us, and spot the riffle in his hands. I pin Gabriel closer to me.
Pick up. Pick up.
Gabriel’s arm slides onto the floor and jolts a magazine rack. The armed man stops and spins around. I hold my breath.
The phone continues to ring.
The man turns and leaves, letting the door close behind him.
‘Thank God,’ I whisper. ‘Pick up the fucking phone, Grayson… Oh no…’ A shadow stands outside the glass-wall of the shop. He’s facing us. Then, another joins his side. And another. And another. Four figures, and they all raise their guns.
‘WHAT?!’ Grayson’s voice snaps down the phone. ‘WHO IS THIS?’
‘Grayson, I need my mag-’
The firing starts and I scream. The glass walls shatter as bullets pour in and I throw Gabriel on the floor, draping myself over him. I take a bullet in the leg and one in the arm. I have no idea if Gabriel’s been hit, but I do my best to cover him.
‘HELP US!’ I scream as loud as I can down the phone. ‘GRAYSON! MAGIC! NOW-’ I get hit in the side of my belly and fail to say another word. I drop the phone. The bullets keep coming. Chunks of wall and bits of the shop’s stock rain down on us.
This is it. This is where it ends for me. For us. I grip Gabriel even tighter, taking solace in the fact that I will die here with him, in his arms.
Gabriel’s hand tucks my hair behind my ear as I lift my head and look down at him.
‘I love you, my beautiful girl,’ he says weakly. ‘You have been the best part of my entire life.’ His eyes can barely stay open. ‘You should have run.’
‘Together. Or not at all. I told you.’ I reach up and brush the hair from his face. ‘I love you. So much. So, so much. If I had to go through it all again, just to be with you, I would. I would.’
I lean down and we kiss, one final time. The tug of unconsciousness is pulling me. The wound to my side is deep. Gabriel’s hand falls limp by his side and his kiss stops. I let out a final and desperately sad cry. Another bullet hits my shoulder and I fall off him, landing at his side on my back. I take his hand in mine and look up at the ceiling, feeling the warmth of our blood soaking through our clothes.
Then… magic.
Grayson gives me access.
A furious scream explodes from my mouth, and with it, a shockwave of telekinetic power erupts outwards. The inside of the shop pelts away from us and crashes outwards into the main courtyard. The bullets return and hammer into the men as they soar through the air and slam into the walls. I hear yelling as the others notice what’s happened.
I surround Gabriel and I in a circle of fire and look at him. He’s unconscious and blood mist comes from his mouth.
I can’t imagine my life without him. All those beautiful promises we made to each other, none of them will come true. It’s a pain in my heart that makes me want to die. I imagine burying him. I imagine the Nomads losing the protection of the Kendryk brothers. I see it all, like a film playing out before my eyes.
The light in him, the magic, is growing duller.
Any second now, it will go out for good.
And when I think that thought, my heart swells to such a magnitude, it screams out for the power to save him.
The Arcane realm hears me.
I feel the manifestation.
My Physical magic awakens and I become endowed with the strength of a hundred men. My muscles bloom and renew. I know I could tear up trees or crush a man’s skull. My magic is a storm of power and everything around me comes to life. The red lightning that I gained only a few days ago, streaks out in lines around me, hitting the floor and the walls and the ceiling. Not just from my body, but all over the museum, striking the men with guns. The paintings on the wall ignite and go up in flames. The staircase trembles above me and chunks of marble and plaster fall with a clatter to floor. My emotions spill out of me through my magic and it’s taking everything I have not to explode and take this whole building with me. My lungs feel fit to burst. My head throbs. And every cell screams to life as it accepts this new realm of power. The museum is crumbling around me. It shakes and the ground trembles. My magic is beyond my control as it destroys this magnificent monument to history, bit by bit. I look at Gabriel, tears streaming my face.
‘How do I save you?’ I cry, shaking him. ‘Wake up, tell me how to save you.’
He doesn’t move.
I roll over and rest my head on his chest. I’m slick with his blood. It’s drenched my hair.
Then Hendrix’s words pop into my head. The words he said to me at the oddity museum in Cornwall.
“Magic ain’t in stuff, Little Witch. It’s in blood. It’s all about the blood. That’s where magic really lives. The Bloodstone? Your brand? All of it was made with your blood. Otherwise, the Bloodstone would just be a pretty rock and the mark on your arm would just be a burn. Blood is the source of the power you lot have. And it’s the source of life for my kind. To share blood, that’s real power.”
I take my hand which is shredded from crawling through the glass and reach over to where Gabriel’s arm has been severed. My blood and his mix.
‘Please work.’ I clamp down hard. ‘This has to work.’
I close my eyes. I feel my magic, the new realm of power, and I let it flow through me, through my blood, into him.
‘Heal him.’ I order. ‘Heal him. Heal him. Heal him.’ I repeat the words over and over, willing my magic to obey. Outside, I hear the sound of helicopters overhead. My magic is still creating devastation around me. There’s no denying that somewhere in here is a witch. They start firing down on us. Grenades? I have no idea. I see them land and create craters. I slam my other hand down on the floor. The stone cracks under the force of my new realm of power, and we crash to the floor below. I will not let him die. I get up on my knees and lean over him. In the darkness of the museum tombs, I can barely see a thing. Dust from the broken roof fills the air making it hard to breathe. Everything shakes as they attack from above.
None of that matters. None of it.
There’s a loud groan. Chunks of the roof start coming loose and is crashing down on us, burying us. I lift my hand and hurl as much away from us as possible. My body is still exploding with power. Lightning and fire erupt all over my skin of its own accord. It’s the wrong power. It’s not what I need!
I take a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. My eyes go black.
‘HEAL HIM!’ I roar. ‘SAVE HIM. NOW!’ But the words I say come out as a different language. One I have never heard before.
Arcanian. I spoke Arcanian.
The last thing I see are Gabriel’s eyes suddenly opening, and a blinding white light.
