Blood Magic (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 2) (28 page)

“They don’t work on hybrids. That’s why the Convictionites were kidnapping hybrids. They wanted to study them to find a way to control them too.”

“Did they learn anything?”

“Not as far as we could tell,” said Logan. “When you mix magic, there are too many variations. It could take years, assuming it is even possible. We rescued the hybrids before they could find out.”

“That is interesting,” Daisy replied. “So the Orbs don’t work on hybrids because their magic is different from the norm. It’s like their magical frequency is off.” She nodded happily at her own analogy. “And for that same reason, I bet the Orbs don’t work on you, Alex.” Daisy’s smile smelled of lemon and metal. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. I’ve known you were different since the first time we met. You tore through an army of zombies with just your sword and your iron-willed determination. I didn’t buy the act when you were pretending to be human, and I’m not buying it now that you’re acting like you’re just any other mage either. But we’ll get back to that later. For now, Logan.”

“You can break the Convictionites’ control?” Alex asked.

“Not I. You,” Daisy told her. “I believe the key to breaking the Convictionites’ control is to change the frequency of his magic, to shift it just enough that the device and the mages can’t tune in to the signal.”

“Ok, good. Let’s do that,” Alex said eagerly.

“Hold your horses, girl,” Daisy replied. “Manipulating someone’s aura isn’t like baking cookies. There’s no standard recipe for changing what is effectively someone’s essence.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Right, so this is where we come back to you,” Daisy told her. “Tell me what happened after you were bitten by the vampire elf.”

Alex hesitated.

“Spit it out, girl. It could be the key to saving your man.”

That was all the prompting she needed. “After I was bitten, I passed out. But when I woke up, I felt fine. My body had fought off the invading magic.”

“Completely?”

“Not exactly. I sometimes have dreams about vampires chasing me. I turn around and fight them off. Then I feast on their blood.”

“That’s your mind processing your fears. I don’t think it’s a symptom of the change,” Daisy told her.

Logan nodded. He’d said the same thing.

“Anything else?” Daisy asked.

“Some vampires have said I smell different now. I’m a bit faster and stronger. Certainly not anything close to Logan, but better than before.”

“That could be something,” said Daisy. “And what about the big one? Have you craved blood?”

“Logan’s blood,” she admitted. “And only his blood.”

Daisy looked at Logan.

He shrugged. “Well, I am delicious.”

“Have you drunk his blood, Alex?”

She nodded. “A few times. And he’s right. It is delicious.” If you like orgasms for breakfast. “But not any other blood. Other people’s blood is gross.”

“Yes, I thought it was something like that,” Daisy said. “I sensed a hint of his aura in you. Now, I’m going to completely overlook how a mage’s body shouldn’t be able to take on some vampiric traits without changing into a hybrid. Let’s just concentrate on how we can use this odd occurrence to our advantage.” She clapped her hands together. “So, Alex didn’t turn into a vampire or fairy hybrid, but the bite obviously shifted her magic. It upped her adrenaline and speed a bit. And, most importantly for our purposes here, it made her crave the blood of the person she sees as her mate.”

“Wait, come again?” Alex said. “My what?”

“Don’t play coy. I know you’re smitten.” She looked at Logan. “You both are. Except it’s more than that. There’s a bond between you two. I can see it. We need only strengthen it with magic.”

“This isn’t making much sense,” Alex said.

Daisy sighed like she was talking to a moron. She picked up the candy dish and held it out to Alex and Logan. She didn’t continue talking until they each were sucking on a piece of citrus-flavored sugar.

“Ok, what is the most important thing about vampires, the one element that makes them the same?”

“That they are damn near impossible to kill,” Alex said.

Daisy let out an exasperated sigh. It was the same noise every teacher Alex had ever had liked to make when she answered their questions.

“Their need for blood,” Logan said quietly.

Oh. Right. She’d known that one. She was going to blame the crystal strawberry she was sucking on. Dad had always said that the sugar in candy killed brain cells.

Daisy smiled at Logan. Apparently, candy hadn’t killed any of his brain cells, but he was sucking on one of the pink ones. Maybe watermelons were smarter than strawberries. Yeah, that was her story, and she was sticking to it.

“Vampires crave blood,” Daisy was saying. “They drink human blood to fuel their bodies, but it is supernatural blood that fuels their magic. They drink from mages and fairies when they want to boost their magic. When do they drink from each other?”

Alex kept silent. She was pretty sure this was a trick question.

“Vampires exchange blood only with their mate,” Logan said.

“Yes,” Daisy said. “And that’s the answer to your problem. When two vampires exchange blood, it changes their magic. It puts them more in sync with each other. I think if you two perform this blood magic exchange, it will do the same to you.”

“And if Logan’s magic shifts, the Convictionites won’t be able to control him anymore. Just like the Orbs can’t control the hybrids.”

“You’ve already taken the first step,” Daisy told her. “You have drunk his blood. Complete the bond by allowing him to drink yours. There’s a vampire ritual we can use, one that should ignite your magic to seal your bond.”

“And you’re sure this will work?” Alex asked her. “Neither of us is a vampire.”

“Not entirely, but each of you has vampire magic in you. In fact, each of you has vampire, mage, and fairy magic inside of you. Logan because the Convictionites used all three to infuse magic into him. And you, Alex, because you were born a mage but bitten by a vampire fairy hybrid whose magic still lives inside your blood. Yes, we are swimming in uncharted waters here, so there’s no way to be sure, but I really think the bonding will work. If you want it. See, that’s the thing. You have to be sure. Once you do this, you will be bonded by magic until one of you dies. There is no going back.”

“We’ll do it,” Alex said, then looked at Logan.

He was perfectly still. She could hardly see him breathing. And that’s when she realized her mistake. She’d answered for both of them, not realizing he might not want to bond with her forever. Maybe he didn’t even see her as his mate.

Daisy watched them. “I’ll just give you two a moment,” she said, her voice a whisper.

Or maybe that was just Alex’s pounding pulse drowning out everything else. She couldn’t bear to look at Logan’s impassive face, so she watched Daisy walk into the kitchen in her garage and start mixing up a bowl of cookie dough.

“Alex.”

She turned back around.

“Alex, look at me.”

“It’s fine,” she said, focusing on the empty space over his shoulder. “We can try to find another way.”

“Maybe we should.”

His words crumpled her heart into a tiny tin ball, but she just nodded like an idiot. “Ok, I’ll talk to Daisy and see if she has any ideas or books we can read. Something that won’t force us to…
bond
.” She tried—and failed—to keep the pain out of her voice.

His hand moved to take hers, catching her as she turned away.

“Leave me alone, Logan,” she muttered, keeping her face turned away from him. Tears were pooling in her eyes, blurring her vision, but she wasn’t going to let them fall. Badass mercenaries did not cry. Ever.

“Alex.” His voice was as soft as rose petals, but it cut through her heart like glass.

This whole thing was ridiculous. She was ridiculous. Why the hell was she getting torn up over the fact that a man she’d only known for a few months didn’t want to bond permanently with her? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But it didn’t matter how many times she mentally slapped herself. She couldn’t make the pain stop. Hell, she’d been stabbed, and it hurt less than this.

Love hurts,
her dragon said quietly.

No shit.

Alex took a deep breath, stuffing all the pain into the big pit in her stomach. She shoved in all her other emotions too while she was at it. There was no telling how long that would hold. She had to get out of there. She’d walk home. It would give her time to clear her head. Maybe she’d even find something beastly to kill along the way.

“Stop,” he said, holding to her as she tried to stand.

She shook her wrist, trying to break free of his iron grip. He didn’t budge.

“Ok, now I’m really starting to get pissed off,” she said, allowing anger to resurface. Anger was a useful emotion. It covered up despair nicely, and it went really well with her sword. “If you don’t let go, I’m going to shoot lightning into you, Logan.” Her voice dropped to a menacing growl. “And this time, I won’t hold back.”

“Give it your best shot,” he said, his voice equally menacing.

Alex shook her wrist again, and when he still refused to let go, she reached for her magic. She allowed it to simmer inside her anger for a moment before blasting it into Logan. Lightning slammed into his body with the force of a wrecking ball, but even as he fell over the back of the sofa, his grip didn’t falter. He pulled her with him. Alex’s face smashed into his chest, and it felt like hitting a mountain. She slammed the heel of her other hand hard against his stomach, zapping him with another jolt of magic.

His eyes rolled back, and this time his hand sprang open. She jumped up. His disorientation only lasted a second, though. As she darted away, he grabbed her ankle. She hit the concrete ground, catching her fall with her hands. She kicked out, thumping him in the side of the head with the toe of her boot. He growled, spitting a curse, but his grip loosened enough for her to get away.

As he surged to his feet, the sofa rose with him. He hurled it across the room. It crashed against the wall, the force of the impact breaking it to pieces. Green fury pulsed in his eyes, promising pain.

“Missed me,” Alex taunted.

He ripped a second sofa from the ground. It shot through the air, nearly skimming the top off his car on its way to becoming a junk pile against the other wall.

“And now you almost broke your car.” She clicked her tongue. “Your aim stinks. In fact, I think you’ve hit everything in this garage but me.”

“I’m not trying to hit you,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

Something dangerous surged in her, but she piled on lots of extra anger, burying that treacherous emotion. “Well, I can’t promise the same,” she replied, making a run for him.

He caught her foot as it crashed toward his head. Her back hit the ground with a smack, and before she could move, he was straddled on top of her. She pushed up with her arms, but he had them pinned down. She tried to kick him, but he had her legs trapped too. She couldn’t move a muscle—or at least not any useful one. She couldn’t even lift her hand to flick him off.

“When I get out of this, you will suffer,” she promised, her blood boiling with rage.

“What are you going to do? Shoot your little lightning bolts at me?” He smirked. “They tickle.”

“Oh, yeah? And how much does my boot tickle your face?”

“That hurt.”

“Yes. I could tell.” She smiled. “That’s why you threw a hissy fit with the furniture and nearly wrecked your car. Or do you still claim you weren’t aiming for me?”

“I wasn’t aiming for you. I could never hurt you. No matter how much you endeavor to piss me off,” he added with a bite to his tone.

Well, she could bite too. “You are so full of it. If you think you need a sofa to hurt me, then you’re not half as smart as everyone thinks you are. Including yourself.”

“Alex,” he began.

“Save it. I’m leaving.” She was vaguely aware that they’d just trashed Daisy’s garage, but she was too angry to care right now. She’d make it up to Daisy later, once she’d gotten her head back on. “I’m going to give you to the count of five to get the hell off of me, Logan, and then I will use fire this time. Even you aren’t fireproof. One.”

“If you would just listen—”

“Not interested. Two.”

“You are being absurd, Alex.”

“That’s me. Three.”

His hand traced her face. “I love you.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

He drew up of his knives, slashing his forearm before she realized what was happening. “I want nothing more than to bond my magic with yours.”

Wait, huh?
She gaped at the drop of blood beading on the surface of his skin. It called to her, screaming for her to taste it. To taste him. She slammed down her mental wall, blocking her senses.

“But you heard Daisy,” he said. “Once made, this bond is forever. I can’t force you into something I want just because you’re worried about saving me from the Convictionites. It’s not fair to you.”

The fight collapsed in her, right along with every muscle in her body. “You are an idiot.”

He frowned at her.

“Didn’t you listen to anything I told you back in London?” she demanded. “I said I have never loved anyone like I do you. I feel it in my soul. My magic knew it before I did, which is why it never wanted any blood but yours.”

“Then take it,” he said and lifted his weight from her arms.

She reached up and grabbed his arm, pulling it toward her. Her tongue slipped past her lips. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She was about to take his blood into her, when she stopped. “Wait. Not like this.” She took his knife. She slid the blade across her arm, then held it out to him. “We do it together.”

A delicious smile slid across his mouth as it dipped to her arm. His tongue flicked across the cut, licking up the first drop. A choked gasp escaped her mouth as his lips closed over her skin, sucking in her blood in long, heavy strokes that blazed through her veins in burning rivers of pleasure. She could feel the magic in her blood flooding into him, even as she drew his blood into her. Her head was spinning so fast, she thought she might pass out. She wanted so much more than his blood inside of her.