A fierce battle raged inside me.
The blood magic’s corruption spread through my power and from there through my body. By design or accident, it took my vision and other senses first. Time and my physical location fell away.
The first assault had caught me unprepared, but after that, I dug in. My body, my magic, and it was going to stay mine.
With more force than finesse, I managed to divide my power and block the blood magic from a third of what was left. It wasn’t much, but I’d make it work.
The blood magic seemed to have a strange type of intelligence. With almost all of me under its control, sensation started to return. The hard surface under me was most likely the asphalt I’d been on when the blood magic took over. Hopefully that meant not too much time had passed, and I hadn’t done too much damage.
Next came other parts of my body. My wand was back in my hand. Since my last memory was of it being some distance away, the blood magic had pulled it back to me.
Sight would’ve been great, but next I reconnected with my legs. Unlike the rest of me, which was under a blanket of not me, a war was still happening in my left leg. The dead spot and its necromancy were holding off the blood magic.
If I could reach my necromancy without contaminating it, maybe I could figure out a way to use it against the blood magic. It was a long shot, but it was the best option I had right now.
From the part of me unsullied by the corruption, I formed an arrow with a single mission: to get to my necromancy. Using most of my limited supply of power, I encased it in layer upon layer of unconnected shields. Each one would burn away, leaving pure magic underneath. If I’d made enough of them, the magic under them would reach my necromancy without bringing along the corruption. If not, then I’d get a front seat to see what happened when blood magic controlled necromancy. If that unhappy eventuality came to be, I could time just how fast everyone would kill me. Given the disaster of this week, it was par for the course.
If breathing had still been under my control, I would’ve held my breath when I released the spell. Instead, I let it go and hoped.
The shields vanished faster than expected, and by the time it bumped into the edge of the dead area, blood magic coated the outside.
It burned through the blood magic between it and the dead spot and surged forward.
The instant my magic and just my magic touched the dead area, my necromancy roared out of its hidey-hole with the force of a winter blizzard.
For a moment, I was sure I’d made a terrible mistake.
Then sensation returned to my left leg, or to as much of it as had ever had sensation. The blood magic was gone.
My necromancy blasted through the rest of me, eating the blood magic wherever it went. It even drifted through my well of magic and chased down every bit of corruption hiding in there.
Blue sky appeared above me, and soon after, the rest of my senses returned. Ignoring the necromancy continuing to swirl through me and my sudden awareness of a dead raccoon by the road, I pushed myself up.
My head swam, and the images went out of focus.
The necromancy settled down, with most of it returning to its hidden retreat. The remainder stayed spread throughout my body and even in my well of magic.
The images united into one. Two officers were on the ground, blood pooling around them. CJ was gone. Maybe the SWAT on the other side of the mall had gotten him, but my concern was for the people racing for the officers. Even from here, I could see the blood magic on them.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
One of the injured officers twitched and fur appeared over his skin.
“Narzel Blast.” The earth felt like it tilted under me as I got to my feet. “Sowil.” I added color to it so no one would hit it. On second thought, I added a division to the containment spell so the injured officers could reach each other.
Still unsteady on my feet, I focused on my goal. Unlike everyone racing for the containment spell holding the two officers, I shuffled toward my car.
If I could get the rest of my gear, I might be able to purify them and get healing charms working with the magic I had left. Until they were purified, paramedics couldn’t touch them, and the blood magic would twist healing spells.
“Pine! Take it down!” Mitchell screamed.
I ignored her and pulled the pouch of purification supplies out of the car. There wasn’t much left, but it would have to do.
“Take it down, Pine! That’s an order!” Mitchell sounded closer.
Rather than figure out which charms I needed, I grabbed the bag of them. My body ached, but I wasn’t swaying and managed to jog toward the officers.
Mitchell met me half way, her cheeks flushed and a vein pulling in her temple. “They’re dying! Take it down.”
In one half of the shield, a pile of shredded clothing and gear was under a wearbear’s feet as it clawed at the divider.
I ran faster.
On the other side, an elf contorted and screamed.
“Pine, answer me!”
“Can’t take it down until they’re purified, or it’ll spread.” Feeling the interior division sag under the bear’s attack, I picked up the pace.
The bag of healing charms ended up abandoned as I rushed to lay a circle of salt around the officers. I ripped the bag for my rune embroidered cloth in my hurry to get it out. Then I had it levitating. With a tweak to the containment spell, the energy could pass but not the officers. I powered up the purification ritual and hoped I had enough to see it through.
All but the fraction of my magic still mixed with the necromancy poured into the spell. It cycled in a wash of light, though not as bright as it had been before. I ran out of magic to offer as the last of the corruption faded away.
The containment spell collapsed as the cloth floated back to me. I shoved it in the pouch and grabbed the bag of healing charms.
The bear had given up on trying to get to the elf and sat, holding its upper body stiffly. From this side, he looked fine, but when I moved to his other side, his fur was matted with blood. CJ had taken a chunk out of the officer’s shoulder, and his arm was crisscrossed with lacerations from claws.
That required a major healing charm, which I swiped the edge of through the blood oozing out of his shoulder before awkwardly setting it on his leg.
The elf was chalky. It was the better part of his current look. His chest had been shredded. Given the amount of blood loss, I was surprised he was still breathing and his heart was still beating. It wasn’t difficult to find an area still seeping and catch a drop of blood on the edge of two healing charms. One went at the base of his throat and the other near his hip.
Until those charms had run their course, that was all I could do for him. Ambulance sirens penetrated the fog I’d been in, and I backed away from the officer, gathering up my supplies and my wand as I went.
Mitchell stepped in front of me, arms crossed, face hard. “What happened here? Why didn’t you follow direct orders?”
The first three answers that came to mind were snarky and rude. The fourth wasn’t much better. Aside from a sharp tongue, inside I was empty and numb. “You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Why didn’t you do more to stop the werewolf? When did you know he was on the roof?” It sounded like she was talking through clenched teeth.
“Contrary to any belief you have about my history, this is the first blood-magic-controlled werewolf I’ve come across. I didn’t know it could avoid bullets and walk through spells.”
“That doesn’t answer either of my questions.”
I sighed, perhaps too loudly given the way Mitchell’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know he was on the roof until I shouted that very information. I had no reason to suspect he was up there. Why would I? Charms don’t do well with elevation changes like that.”
She stared at me.
A trickle of anger replaced the numb sensation. “I did try to stop him. I’m not sure what else I should’ve tried. In the ample free time I have, I’ll do some research.”
“You’re responsible for two officers’ injuries.” She motioned to where paramedics swarmed around the werebear and elf. “They could’ve been killed! They could still die.”
That right there had always been the clan’s argument against directly working with police. They didn’t understand how magic worked. At times like this, the gap between Mitchell and myself was too large.
“I didn’t claw them. I didn’t corrupt them with blood magic. Their injuries aren’t my fault.”
Mitchell opened her mouth but whatever she was going to say was lost under a steely baritone. “That’s enough.” Agent Smith stepped between us. “I want to talk to both of you.”
“Mitchell, handle the scene.” His eyes locked with mine, and I froze like a deer in headlights. “You first, Pine.”
Perfect. Out of magic, so tired I could feel myself swaying, and I was going to get rebuked by another boss. Happy first week as a Special Agent.
