Ink Magic (Ink Sorceress Chronicles) (2 page)

He responded by racing to the window and jumping straight through it, without even bothering about being ripped to shreds by the glass.

I stared out at the ragged mess of glass he left behind. When I turned I noticed Leeza and the older girl staring at me in alarm.

I covered my teeth again, but there was little I could do about the way they filled my mouth out. Also, I think they could sense I was something dangerous.

“
Contact lenses,” I pointed at my eyes.

The new girl nodded in relief, though she still looked afraid. Possibly the blood everywhere didn’t settle her nerves.

“
This is all just a prank,” I said, pointing at the blood.

“
Oh,” the girl said, sounding more relaxed.

Leeza didn’t seem so convinced. She stared at me, confused, but also knowingly, in a way that told me she knew about vampires.

She left the room in the end, after winning the staring contest. I looked after her, wondering what her lack of fear meant. If she knew I was a vampire, why wasn’t she afraid?

I didn’t have time to question her about it; I wanted to chase Daniel while I still had my powers.

I jumped through the window after him, and knew a moment of fear. It was a huge drop. Then I remembered.

I leapt from the windowsill and sailed gently to the ground, letting out a little whoop of joy as I landed, belatedly searching to make sure no one saw me.

I took off running in the darkness and hoped my enthusiasm to catch up to him had nothing to do with how cute he looked.

As my powers waned, I began to think walking alone in the dark might not be such a good idea. It might be my imagination, but I thought I heard footsteps echoing behind me. I took a few quick steps and stopped, hearing nothing.

Picking up my pace, I broke into a slow jog. I’d stupidly thought finding Daniel would happen instantly. Instead I lost him. And now, here I was in the middle of a dark and deserted street.

I came to a complete stop and hearing footsteps behind me, spun, catching sight of a blur of movement into the shadows.

“
Who’s there?”

Nothing.

I started walking again, picking up the pace a bit. Something moved suddenly from my right, flitting into shadow. I should just keep running. People in horror stories never keep running. They always stop and have a look at the thing behind them. I walked boldly toward the figure, hidden in the shadow cast by the roof of a shop front.

I could barely make out the figure in the dark. They looked tall, and impossibly wide.

Something raced by on the other side of the street, disappearing into an alcove.

Two pursuers.

I took off running, as I should have done from the beginning. My pursuers did nothing to hide their footsteps this time.

I run quickly, being tall and pretty much all leg, but my followers kept pace. I heard a third set of footprints join the others right behind me. Racing toward open space, I headed for the light of a busier suburban street. The figure on the left turned sharply causing me to change direction again. I got a quick look at their face and saw pure hatred.

The figure lunged even closer, and I had to veer further to the right to avoid colliding. I got the distinct impression of being herded. Every time I tried to take a different course one of my pursuers pushed me back. I noticed we were headed to an older part of town; an area urban renewal hadn’t yet reached. Most of the buildings stood forlorn and empty. The occasional house showed lights within, but most seemed vacant, either too run down for habitation, or deemed unsuitable for industrial renovation.

The people steered me down a particularly desolate looking street. The kind, I thought, perfect for filming a horror movie in. Then I noticed the street didn’t keep going. It ended.

Great. I really was starring in my own B grade horror. If I kept running I’d end up with nowhere to go. If I turned to fight I’d end up, well, dead.

I stopped in front of a spooky-looking, yellow building. The huge moon above bathed the entire street in an eerie, yellow light reflecting off the old structure.

The figures closed in. Five of them now. Their grinning, cruel faces twisted by the play of shadow on moonlight. The faces almost appeared to move, changing.

“
Hello, girly,” a face loomed nearer. The smiling features reminded me of a hyena. “Don’t you recognize me?”

As she came closer I saw it. I knew her.

She was Leeza Moon, the girl I saved from Daniel.

Leeza shouted an order. I couldn’t quite get what she said. In fact, I don’t think she spoke. I think she . . . she barked.

Two of the attackers jumped at me. I waited until the last minute before ducking out of the way and the pair hit in the middle. None too bright, these would-be murderers.

They both literally snarled in rage, bolting at me. One actually snapped their teeth as if they wanted to bite me. No, not just bite me. Like they wanted to eat me.

“
Don’t taste her. Just subdue her,” Leeza said. “I want Mary to have the first bite. Then when she’s done, the rest of you can tuck in.”

The truth suddenly dawned on me. Daniel Mills hadn’t been attacking her; he’d been trying to save the guy she attempted to snack on at the party.

A series of howls filled the air.

“
No! Don’t transform.”

Transform? What were they?

“
She won’t be able to change if we stay in human form.”

I gasped in surprise. How did they know about my abilities? Okay, I suppose going all vamp at the party hadn’t been my most subtle moment.

“
Hold her down,” Leeza ordered.

The pair circled, more wary after I escaped their clutches last time. They let out a series of short, sharp barks before the biggest one tackled my feet, sweeping me to the ground. The other one landed on top of me, digging her knees into my chest. Of stocky build, her weight knocked the wind out of me. I struggled frantically as a third werewolf kneeled by my head to restrain my shoulders.

Leeza pushed the girl I assumed to be Mary forward. They forced her several steps closer, but she didn’t close the distance. In fact, she looked like she wanted to run away. Her eyes, wide with fear, kept moving between Leeza and me. It reminded me of a very frightened dog.

“
Go on, bite her.”

Mary let out a deep moan and took a step back.

Leeza pushed her more roughly this time so she nearly fell right on top of me.

“
It’s time, Mary. If you want to be part of this pack, you must taste the forbidden flesh.”

Leeza produced a knife from her pocket, handing it to the girl. “Use this.”

“
No,” Mary whined, sounding more like a frightened puppy than a girl.

“
The pack needs to eat. We haven’t tasted human flesh for too long.”

That didn’t sound good.

Mary continued to whimper.

“
If you don’t do it, you can’t stay in the pack.”

“
Okay, I’ll leave the pack then.” Mary took another step back and screamed when Leeza grabbed her by the elbow.

“
That’s not how it works. You know too much. We can’t just let you go.”

Mary stared at her blankly.

“
Either you join the group, or you become what’s on the menu.”

Mary’s eyes widened in comprehension. She didn’t want to be dinner any more than I did.

“
I hear you can buy meat these days,” I said, appealing to their sense of humor. “You know, the kind that doesn’t have a pulse.”

“
I can’t eat something that talks back to me,” Mary said looking to Leeza for assistance.

“
Then cut her tongue out,” Leeza said.

“
No, it’s okay. I’ll do it.” She bent down beside me and whispered an apology in my ear before raising her knife.

“
Remember, we can’t kill her. He wants her alive.”

He? Who did she mean?

Leeza looked directly into my eyes. “A person can take a lot of trauma before they die,” she said, purely for my benefit.

Mary leaned down, searching my body for, I imagined, a tasty spot. She looked at me questioning, as if wanting me to volunteer an arm or something. I shook my head. “You don’t have to do this, Mary.”

“
I’m sorry,” she repeated, bringing the knife to my upper arm.

I thrashed out at her, punching toward the arm holding the knife. She yelped when my fist connected and the knife flew out of her hand.

“
Hold her hands down,” Leeza ordered the others. “Give me the knife, I’ll calm her down.” The look in her eyes was pure excitement.

She licked her lips as she approached and a line of drool dripped from her mouth. The spit landed on my best blouse. Gross.

I wriggled wildly and she held the knife against my throat, which took the fight out of me. I went completely still. If I moved an inch I’d be dead.

She brought the knife to my stomach and plunged down. I screamed in panic but didn’t feel the blade go in.

I looked down. She’d cut my shirt right down the middle and proceeded to slice through the rest of it until it fell away completely. Well, at least I didn’t need to worry about cleaning the drool stains.

Mary went down on all fours and took a leg in both hands. I couldn’t kick her away, not without risking having my throat slit.

Mary’s teeth closed on my ankle and all I could think was how weird I’d look with a bite-sized chunk out of my leg. She applied pressure gently and then bit down. I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain. I waited and waited and nothing happened.

Finally, I opened just one eye to peek. She was nowhere to be seen.

My other attackers looked around frantically, unable to figure out what happened to their companion.

Then Mary dropped to the ground beside me. Her eyes stared straight at me, but they didn’t blink. She didn’t move at all. In fact, she didn’t even breathe. She was dead.

“
Ink Mage!” Leeza shouted.

My assailants scattered; leaving me to fend for myself as a large, dark shape swooped down from the rooftop. He wore all black, and wielded a long, straight sword.

It was the sword guy from the party; Daniel Mills.

One of my assailants dropped to the ground and started screaming in agony. I heard their bones snapping loudly. The flesh beneath their skin writhed. The bones of her face were gone; leaving a wobbling jellified mess.

My tattoo blazed, burning across my skin. Power welled up inside me. As the thing at my feet transformed into a wolf, a pair of sharp fangs erupted in my mouth, embedding in my lips.

“
Ouch,” I said through a mouthful of enlarged fangs giving new meaning to the term ‘bloody lip’.

The other girls had changed into wolf form too and circled around the new arrival. They took turns to attack, and then ran out of range before he could retaliate, reminding me of a Discovery program where a pack of wolves took down their prey by slowly wearing them down.

They didn’t have as much success with a sword-wielding guy. His sword moved at lightening speed jabbing at the werewolf’s faces. One werewolf, underestimating the blade’s deadliness, came too close. The blade sliced through its neck decapitating it in one swift motion.

Despite his almost supernatural skills there were too many of them. One werewolf leapt at his arms, attaching itself like a police dog and shaking its head. Daniel didn’t have time to react before a second wolf latched onto his leg.

“
A little help would be nice,” he finally addressed me.

“
Oh, yeah. Sure.” I flew at the pack, speeding toward him. But when I reached him I kept going, sailing straight past and landing heavily in a pile of garbage bins. Despite having a pair of wolves hanging off him, he took the opportunity to roll his eyes at me.

I decided to stick to walking until I learned how to fly. Grasping the werewolf attached to his leg by the scruff of the neck, I pulled back and surprised myself by throwing the large animal several meters away. I could get used to vampire strength.

The werewolf rounded on me and suddenly I felt less indestructible. It lunged, teeth gnashing toward my face and I raised my hand defensively in front of me, meaning to merely block. Its teeth sunk into my hand. I screamed as the pain registered and pushed the wolf aside. Normally, my feeble shove would only move it a few feet. But this time, with my new vamp powers, the creature flew into the air, landing in a heap and didn’t get back up.

Another wolf lunged at Daniel’s throat, and closed its jaws. Daniel leaned back out of the way. With the flexibility of a gymnast he performed a series of back flips and then shot upward like a bullet.

Okay.

The swordsman landed lightly on a roof twenty feet above. He dive rolled down, like an Olympic diver, but without the help of water to cushion his fall. I expected him to land hard, breaking every bone in his body, but he touched down with the light feet of a cat before summarily dispatching two werewolves with one swing of his sword.