Foretold: Necromancer's Blight: Book 1 Read online

  “In the last city, her farewell attack killed two blood, and injured three others. Not to mention she almost took out the entire coven of witches. She’s been here for just over five months, so something big is coming soon. We thought maybe you’d be able to help us find her since…” he trailed off.

  I felt a moment of doubt, just how old was Macy when they’d killed her mother. I knew they all turned bad but…

  “Necromancy? You want me to what, question ghosts?”

  Carl shook his head, “We’re hoping you’ll be able to feel her from farther away, or trace the magic from her creations. It may come to that though, if you’re willing.”

  It all felt a little surreal, and way too fast. It was also impossible to be nervous about it, like I knew I would be without Christina nearby.

  “If it’s needed.”

  What was I going to do, say no and let her launch some supernatural terrorist murder spree before she skipped town? I’ve been a sucker for twenty-one years, why stop now?

  Carl smiled, “Very well, you’ll go just after dinner. Matt, take him down to the armory to get him a weapon. He shouldn’t need one tonight, but better safe than sorry.”

  Matt got up, and I followed him after one more glance at Christina…

  Chapter Seven

  Things seemed to be rather tense between us, and I was already having second thoughts about being inside an armory with Matt. There was also something Carl hadn’t been saying, but I wasn’t sure what that could be.

  Matt was grim and silent, until we took the stairwell down to the fourth floor.

  Matt said, “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but stay away from Christina, she’s mine.”

  “Yours? Does she know that?” I challenged, perhaps stupidly.

  He grunted in annoyance, and glared at me, and then he continued down the hallway to a metal door with a keypad. He typed in about twelve numbers, and the door made a snick noise. He pushed it in, and we entered the armory, which was full of ancient weapons, as well as guns. The latter surprised me.

  “Guns?”

  He sighed, “Shifter rogues, it’s better to put a few silver bullets into them before they close. Really, a few clips of silver bullets. You’ll be trained on those last, after you can handle hand to hand, and knife fighting. We obviously don’t use the swords anymore, they’re museum pieces now. Not because they don’t make good weapons for our jobs, but simply because they’re impossible to really conceal well.”

  “Cool.”

  He turned to me, “I moved here two years ago, for Christina. Our race is few in number, and they are basically family units at the heart of things in each city. It isn’t so medieval as arranged marriages, but quite often when a man grows up he moves to a city with available females. They usually let nature take its course then, and it usually does.

  “She is my partner, and she is everything to me. Aim lower, Serena isn’t so bad.”

  I frowned, both at the idea of us divvying up females as if they didn’t get a choice, and the idea of Serena just being not so bad, or merely some kind of a consolation prize. She was a beautiful fiery thing, worthy in herself, it wasn’t her fault I was stuck on Christina and the bond. She also hadn’t sent me any signals except for mischievous friendship. Were all Blood females so hard to read with judgement?

  I had to admit, I was a bit obsessed with Christina. Actually, I wasn’t really sure if obsession covered it anymore. Still not creepy, I hoped, there was an attraction, but a lot of it was simply a desperate curiosity about the mysterious connection we shared.

  Still, I didn’t see Christina panting after either of us, and he’d had a two-year head start, so who knew what would happen? She’d probably find a human, and Matt and I would both be out of luck.

  “Serena?” I asked in a leading voice.

  Matt snorted, and waved at the rack of daggers, “Pick one that feels right in your hands. Don’t worry that you don’t know how to use it yet.”

  He went on as I started picking them up one by one, and pulling them out of the sheaths to feel the balance of them and how they felt in my hand.

  “You aren’t very bright are you. Serena is ready and fully trained, but she doesn’t have a partner and is itching to get out there. You showed up right around the time her father would have requested someone from another city, and when you’re ready for it, you’ll be partnered with her.”

  I shook my head, it was a little too neat and efficient. Partners from other cities, opposite sex, let nature take its course. I’m guessing they didn’t get out and date much either. Military society, a secretive military society, hiding from humanity. Serena was fun, and I liked her a lot, but there was no spark there, not like with Christina.

  There was also the bond to take into account, Christina thought it meant we’d make perfect patrol partners, but no one else knew about it. Which meant they had no reason to pair us despite current circumstances.

  Matt was right, I was stupid not to see it, of course I’d be paired with Serena, she was the one who didn’t already have a hunting partner. Why had I thought they’d split up Matt and Christina’s partnership so I could team up with her? There’d been no doubt the thought had been lurking in the back of my mind.

  Shit, I needed to man up and pay attention to what was going on, and not worry about my damned love life. I was pretty much just drafted into the longest running war, ever. From what I understood not even the middle east had an edge over this war that the supernatural races had with the necromancers, as far as time goes.

  Besides, I was fairly sure Christina didn’t see me that way, the only one who seemed to think so was Matt, and that was due to jealousy and him misinterpreting the bond I had with her. My only consolation there, was she didn’t seem at all that interested in Matt either. Which admittedly, was quite petty of me.

  I picked a dagger that felt comfortable in my hand, it was thin, and about eight inches long. It was also clearly silver. It just felt right, more than the others had.

  “Okay, how do I conceal this?”

  He said, “There are a few different ways. Forearm sheath if you have a long sleeve shirt on, although that works best in winter with a coat. You can wear loose jeans, and cut a hole in the pocket to pull it from a thigh sheath. Personally, I prefer boot sheaths. You don’t have to worry about observant people and bumpy clothes, and it’s faster than fumbling in your pocket, or up your sleeve.”

  “I’ll probably pick up boots then, can we do that before we start?”

  Matt nodded, “Fine, let’s go.”

  Instead of going back to the dorm like I usually did at that time of day, I stayed for dinner. It was good that it was Friday, I had all weekend to get to my assignments. Dinner was a bit awkward, and I spent most of it avoiding even looking at Christina. I wasn’t sure how long my resolve to focus on more important things would last, but it would be doomed to failure if I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.

  I wasn’t even sure that was true, she seemed more important to me than any of it, which was absurd. I wasn’t lovesick, or anything like that, there was just an intense connection between us, or at least, one that I felt.

  I was also disgusted with myself, because I was acting more like a high schooler with his first crush, than a man in his third year of college. I’d never had a woman affect me this much before, not even the actual girlfriends who I’d loved drew me in like she did, and the bond just added a whole other dimension to it. I should just ask her out and get it over with, put myself out of my misery so to speak.

  But of course, I didn’t.

  I’d focused all my attention on Carl, Timothy, and Serena instead. I knew that approach was doomed to failure, and stupid besides, but it was all I had to work with while I tried to figure out what to do.

  I’d never worn boots before, but I supposed I didn’t look too bad in them as we left the store later that evening. I’d worn them out, and Matt had helped me modify one to put the dagger sheath in it while C
hristina had distracted the help. Fun times.

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  Christina said, “We’ll walk around campus, and check out the bar area. Macy has been sending her vamps around here to feed, healthy night life on and around campus. After that, we’ll visit the witches and shifters.”

  “How often have you two actually fought necromancers?”

  Christina replied, “Three times in the last two years. There are a great number of them out there in the world, but they’re very good at hiding, until they start to go crazy. Macy is… unique.”

  “How’s that?”

  Matt rumbled, “She hunts us.”

  Oh, right.

  “The others don’t?”

  Christina shook her head, “Not as a rule, they hide from us. When they go crazy they get sloppy, and usually make a mess of things. They attack us yes, but also everyone else, including normal humans. Macy is… targeted on us and the witches.”

  “Not Shifters and Fae?”

  Matt said carelessly, “They mostly live out of the cities remember? Macy’s a city girl.”

  I snickered, maybe Matt wasn’t so bad after all. Just… possessive.

  “Are we leaving the city tonight then?”

  Matt replied, “I said mostly live out of the city, we’ll meet the pack alpha for the Chicago area tonight, before he goes home. They have a landscaping business.”

  Landscaping?

  I guess I couldn’t talk, half of me was a long-lived race with angel blood, and the other half necromancer. Two races that were at war with each other, and I was going to college for my four-year business degree.

  Life could be absurd at times.

  We moved onto campus and I’d never noticed it before, but there were people everywhere, over forty thousand people went to this university, there were over eleven thousand new freshmen this year alone. It was a veritable smorgasbord of blood snacks, with little nooks and crannies all over campus where an unsuspecting lone student could get pulled into.

  If they were lucky, the necromancer wanted to lay low and would avoid killings, so they’d walk away a short time later a unit of blood short, and a little confused. If the necromancer had really gone around the bend, they might not control their vampires so well, and would most likely bleed out after the vampire ravaged their neck for a drink.

  I shuddered at the thought.

  As far as I knew, Macy wasn’t that far gone yet. Of course, there was always the possibility of a new necromancer muddying the waters here in Chicago even further. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen.

  A few minutes later I sent out a third whip of energy, the third in as many minutes, to sever a ghost and banish it to the afterlife, or wherever I sent them on to. I didn’t bother telling either Christina or Matt, I was sure they’d disapprove of me using my necromancy, or at best be annoyingly concerned.

  I felt the buzz of energy a second or two before both Christina or Matt. Matt turned his head toward that direction, his whole body tensed and he looked grim faced. I recognized the look, I’d seen it the first time we’d met when he wanted to kill me.

  Christina looked grimly in that direction as well, but she also looked concerned. Not for us, for whatever target the vampire may have found.

  It was getting dark, but we didn’t break into a run because of all the people around, we moved as swiftly as possible, without drawing attention, and finally broke into a run when we were far enough off the main walkway.

  It was pure reflex when we got into an alley, like the last three weeks of training to learn how to fight these things never even happened. The undead vampire had his teeth in a coed, and her eyes were glazed over. I already knew if she lived, she’d forget that this ever happened, and probably wonder why she was so sleepy for the next week, as her blood built back up.

  “Stop!” I said forcefully as a blast of energy left me.

  It didn’t do a damn thing though, the vampire had a shield of necromantic power around it, it was protected from my power.

  Matt glared at me, Christina didn’t even bother and just surged forward as she pulled the dagger from her boot.

  Matt went as well, and I felt sheepish as the vampire dropped the coed and turned to attack.

  I tried to relax, which was almost too easy given the circumstances, thanks to Christina’s near influence, and I read the energy around the vampire, looking for the thread that powered it. I guessed if this thing was shielded from my influence, then maybe Macy was close by to make that happen. I didn’t believe a vampire could generate such a shield on his own, nor hold one once away from its master.

  I had no proof of that, just a feeling. My own shield was like… circulating my necromancer energy around my body and back inside. It was all automatic, but I could feel it being done. My energy was also constantly replenished, as it was automatically channeled from wherever the energy came from, within me.

  There was no source of energy for a vampire, not one that replenished anyway, just a limited pool of energy in its heart which worked to bind the spirit and animate the corpse. That energy or magic didn’t move around, and the only way to replenish it was for the necromancer to fill it, or allow the vampire to feed.

  Matt stood close on over watch, in case Christina needed help, but she didn’t appear to. She was keeping it occupied, and kept taking it down when it tried to jump her, while I read the energy, or tried to. It was moving around a lot which made it harder.

  I finally found the link to the shield, and was considering how exactly to trace it back, it was my first time doing this after all, when I felt a second buzz approaching rapidly from behind me. Either Macy had felt me find and touch that thread, or she had incredible damned timing.

  I spun around to meet its charge just in time to pull my dagger, and get thrown backwards against the wall of the building really hard. It made me recall fond memories of my training with Serena, except this opponent didn’t give me a chance to regain my breath and playfully mock me.

  I called for Matt, but it came out as a wheezing gasp, as I raised my dagger and tried to look like I knew what the hell I was doing with it. I didn’t bother to yell stop, both because I couldn’t breathe yet, and also, because this second one had a shield too. Maybe I could overpower it, but even though I wasn’t panicking because of Christina’s presence, I still wasn’t sure what to do.

  I wasn’t sure how much energy that would take, and didn’t want to overdo it, or worse, not use enough and get killed. So, fighting it was. How hard could it be, the dagger had a pointy end, and it went in the vampire’s chest.

  I raised the dagger as it lunged at me, and it grabbed my forearm with one hand, and pushed my arm against the cement. The other hand grabbed my hair and pulled my head to the side, that wasn’t a good sign.

  I heard a curse as Matt finally either heard the ruckus, or felt the second vampire, but he wasn’t going to get there in time. The silver in the knives were like… holding two pieces of copper and sticking them inside of a wall outlet. Much like electricity, the silver was a conductor for the magic, or the necromancer energy, whatever.

  Point was, I didn’t need a knife to control necromancer energy, or to channel it. And what happened next was pure instinct, because I sure as hell didn’t train for it.

  My free left hand came up and pushed flat against the vampire’s chest as his teeth dived for my neck, and just like what I did to a ghost, I sent an energy whip right into his heart, and then pulled all the energy out using it as a conduit, instead of trying to control it again.

  Really though, considering my desperation, and the shield he had in place, it was more like an energy piton, a peg of pure necromancer energy with all my strength. I thought maybe it was overkill, but when a vampire is a split second away from drinking my blood, I should be excused for any overreactions.

  A split second after that, Matt’s dagger plunged into its back, and up into its heart, right before it would have fallen to the ground. I was kind of impressed, he
would have saved me. At most, the vamp would have gotten a gulp or two of blood, if he hadn’t torn my throat out I mean.

  What I hadn’t intended, was to suck in the shield as well, and the energy link that led from the shield to the necromancer. Suddenly, I was draining her as well. I heard a scream of rage, probably a quarter mile away, and then the energy cut off.

  “Thanks, that was her screaming by the way, that way?”

  I looked over in time to see Christina pulling her dagger out of the other one’s chest. I knew I had it bad for the girl, if she could make something like that look sexy.

  The three of us ran in the direction of the scream, but when we got in the general area she was gone.

  “Do Necromancers move that fast?”

  Christina said, “No, but vampires do, she might have had a third with her, for a quick escape.”

  I snickered, “So necromancers ride piggy back, that kind of ruins the whole fearsome reputation, doesn’t it?”

  Matt sighed, “She is fearsome, never forget that she has killed many of us, and many witches over the last five years.”

  I nodded and sobered, “Sorry, first fight adrenaline, I’m a bit punchy maybe?”

  Christina patted my arm, which of course made me feel much more centered as our energy exchanged again.

  I really wish I knew what that was about. I took a deep breath and reported.

  “Anyway, I had the link to the necromancer on the first vampire finally, right before the second one came in at top speed. Next time I’ll be able to find it much faster, I’ve never done it before. Obviously, but now I know how.”

  The one thing I didn’t report was how the second vampire died, I was pretty sure Matt thought he’d gotten there in time, and I was reluctant to explain I went all evil necromancer on the thing.

  Matt nodded, “You did good, relax. I’m not blaming you, just frustrated she eluded us again, I get the feeling she was just playing with us, or perhaps testing Tom.”