Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6 Read online

  Chapter Four

  Thomas

  Logic forced its way through the pain and I remembered I wasn’t alone. “Danio?” I called.

  I looked around frantically and spotted him a few feet away. I tried and failed to stand, instead I somehow half-crawled, half-dragged myself to him. He was covered in a network of dark, bulging veins as well.

  “Danio?”

  “Yeah,” he groaned.

  He was curled in on himself, arms wrapped around his abdomen, face creased in pain. Oh shit, his stomach.

  “Is your –” I stopped. While Danio had suffered with chronic pain from a poorly healed injury for decades, it had finally healed a few years ago. This wasn’t right. And yet, from the way he was clutching it… My hands balled into fists and I let out a soft hiss. If whatever this was had somehow reaggravated his stomach injury I was going to slaughter them. I swallowed hard. “Is you stomach okay?”

  “No.” Before I could panic, he changed his answer. “Yes.”

  “What?”

  He rolled onto his back with a groan and uncurled, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I think it’s just in my head… give me a minute.”

  “What do you mean it…” I trailed off as his words actually sank in and took a better look at him. I could have kicked myself. It shouldn’t have taken me so long to recognize a shell shock induced flashback when I saw one. Then again, as far as I knew, Danio hadn’t had a bad one like this in years.

  I cautiously reached for his shoulder. He flinched a little, but I kept my hand there. “It’s okay, it’s just me. Can you sit?”

  Danio didn’t answer, but did let me help him up. We sat there for a minute as I gently rubbed his back and kept a wary eye on the woods around us. While I waited for him to recover, I tried to calm myself down. Tethys had sensed the attack and my panic thinking Danio was hurt hadn’t helped. Stomach injury or not, whoever did this was not going to have a good day when I found them.

  At last, Danio heaved a sigh. “I’m okay. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You sure you’re okay?”

  “I’ve been better. Although I’ve also been dead, so probably my scale is a little off.” He shuddered. “That was just a little more landmine-like than I was prepared for. Sorry.”

  “Quit apologizing,” I said firmly.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Danio looked at me and his eyes widened. “Oh, you weren’t kidding about the vein thing.” He raised an arm and examined his own protruding veins. “This is gross. And, drought, it’s really painful.”

  “Is it affecting our circulation at all? Can you sense anything weird?”

  Danio narrowed his eyes and concentrated. “No,” he said after a moment. “Nothing out of the ordinary… I mean, my blood pressure is a little high, but I just had a mm… moment. So that’s not a surprise.”

  “Anything around us?”

  He looked around, eyes rippling with dark blues as he used his water elemental senses. “No… although…” He lifted his hand off the ground and frowned at his palm. “There’s some moisture on the ground that tastes pretty nasty. You getting anything?”

  I shook my head. “It smells awful. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Me neither. Hurts like hell though.”

  I could sense that Tethys was starting to feel better. Either the potions had kicked in or whatever happened was wearing off. I rubbed at one arm, feeling my veins beneath my hand as I did. “Yeah. It feels like my blood stings.”

  He hummed agreeably and we both sat silently, examining our strange wounds.

  “Do you think it’s blood magic?” Danio asked suddenly.

  I snorted. “Of course. What else could it possibly…” My sarcastic retort died as we made eye contact. “You’re not joking!”

  “We went over it briefly in some agent class with MES, didn’t we?”

  “Did we?” I frowned; I had no recollection of that.

  “I thought so.”

  “What did they say?”

  “Mm…” Danio hummed in thought. “Blood magic mm… If you encounter blood magic… I think it’s stand down… do not engage, and… call for a medic, maybe?”

  I crossed my arms and arched an eyebrow at him. “A MES class?” I asked skeptically.

  “Yeah, no. Legion. No wonder you didn’t remember.”

  Tethys was starting to get antsy. “We should head back, can you stand?”

  “I think so.”

  We slowly climbed to our feet and limped back toward the parking lot. Tethys relaxed as soon as he sensed our progress.

  “Did you ever see blood magic in the Legion?” I asked as we walked.

  “Not that I know of; we only ran into enemy magics a few times. It was always just a lot of staring each other down. Although they did have some weird potions and shit in Saigon. So, I suppose it’s possible there was blood magic around.”

  “Do you remember anything useful about it?”

  “Not really,” Danio answered with a shrug. “It has probably changed a lot since I was there anyway. Hell, it’s not even Saigon anymore, is it?”

  “About blood magic!”

  “Oh. No. Don’t engage and call a medic was the extent of my knowledge.”

  “You are super helpful,” I told him.

  “Well, do you know anything about blood magic?”

  Just one thing… “Nothing useful.”

  Danio obviously heard something in my tone, but before he could pry, Tethys limped up to us.

  “We’re okay,” I assured him as he drew close.

  “Here,” he said, offering a couple of phials of potions. “These seem to be helping. They’re just healing accelerants, not painkillers,” he added, as we both noticed Danio eyeing them skeptically.

  We both took one and followed Tethys the rest of the way to the parking lot.

  “You two okay?” Morgan called.

  “Could be better,” I said. “How are you?”

  “Getting there, I think.”

  Tethys leaned heavily against the side of his truck. “What the hell was that?”

  Danio and I exchanged a glance. “We think it may have been blood magic,” I said.

  “Blood magic?” Tethys snorted. “That’s… that’s forbidden!”

  “Forbidden?” asked Morgan. “It’s just a myth, isn’t it?”

  “Either way, we should get back and report. Whatever happened to us hasn’t happened to any agents before,” Tethys said. “We’ve got to finally be on the right track.”

  We elected to share a car back, just in case our conditions took a turn for the worse. I volunteered to drive and nobody argued. If something did happen, it would likely hit Morgan or Tethys before me, giving me time to pull over. And I didn’t want Danio to drive if his thoughts were still elsewhere. It was a long, but uneventful, trip. There was a doctor waiting at MES for us, one who had no idea what hit us. After an exam, we were sent on our way. Morgan’s car was still in the garage and he assured us he’d be fine, so we piled back into mine.

  Danio called an old friend from the Legion, who was a doctor, in case he knew anything. He had never peronsally encountered blood magic, but said it did sound like it. According to him as long we weren’t dead yet, we’d be fine.

  “Staying at our place?” I offered as I drove. We lived closer to MES than Dani did and it was usually where we all crashed after a late night.

  “Sure, thanks.” Danio chuckled darkly, “Char will freak out when he sees me anyway. Maybe this will be gone by morning.” As soon as we got home, he said goodnight and went around the back to our little pond. He’d heal faster in the water and would likely sleep there all night.

  Jen, of course, had waited up on the couch. As much as I would have liked to greet her, I was somewhat relieved she was asleep. I didn’t have the energy to explain what happened. Instead, I carefully carried her upstairs, tucked her into our bed, and then gratefully collapsed next to her.

  I slept until mid-afternoon and still felt
sore when I woke up. While my veins had all receded, they were still incredibly dark. I hoped Jen wouldn’t notice, but I knew her better than that.

  “Good morning,” she teased as I entered the living room. “Was everything okay last – oh my god what is that?!”

  “It’s a long story.”

  She set down her book and straightened, obviously ready for me to tell it immediately. I chuckled and sat down next to her. By the time I was done, she was staring at me in horror. Tethys joined us halfway through, still covered in dark veins like me.

  “And nobody has any idea what it was?” she demanded.

  We shook our heads. The tension was broken by Tethys’ stomach audibly rumbling. Even Jen heard it and laughed.

  “Think I’ll get some breakfast,” Tethys chuckled. “Is Danio up yet?” he asked, as we followed him across the living room.

  “No,” I said in concern. “I should probably check on him.”

  “Or maybe just make him another pot of coffee.” It was my voice, but I hadn’t spoken.

  We entered the kitchen to find Danio sitting at the counter with a mug of coffee. He looked exhausted.

  “I can do that,” I said. “You alright?”

  “Just tired.”

  “Why didn’t you take a sleeping potion?” I was pretty sure he had either been kept awake by nightmares or had just stayed up on purpose to avoid them.

  “That would have involved getting out of the water and I was too sore for that,” he said with a shrug.

  “You should take one and go back out.”

  Danio got up and helped himself to another cup of coffee. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Will you?” I asked, fixing him with a look that made it clear I wasn’t asking about our weird injuries.

  His answering smile was small, but genuine. “Yes. I was kind of… rattled. But I’m okay.”

  “If you say…” I trailed off. I could hear a familiar car pulling up the driveway.

  “Tom?” Tethys asked.

  “Jon’s here.”

  Curiously, I left the kitchen and headed for the front door to meet him. Jon and his wife took me in after my parents died and while we were all very close, dropping by unannounced wasn’t like him. Before opening the door, I pulled his slippers out of the closet and set them out for him. Then, I went out onto the front porch to wait. As he strode up the driveway, a dark shape plummeted from the sky. At the last moment, Fend snapped open his wings and soared along the ground, landing on the porch railing.

  “Hey, Fend,” I said.

  “Hello Thomas.” At the moment he was some sort of bird of prey, although it was hard to tell which with his all black plumage. He bobbed to me, then ruffled his feathers and shrank down into a raven.

  “Thomas,” Jon echoed, joining us on the porch. He was holding an old-looking book under one arm. He raised his other and his familiar flapped over and landed on his shoulder. Jon turned his attention to me and his eyes widened in alarm as he took in the network of veins marring my skin. With a heavy sigh, he asked, “How are you?”

  “It looks worse than it feels,” I offered. “Please, come in Jon-tousan.”

  He bowed his head slightly to me and joined me in the foyer. Wordlessly, he exchanged his shoes for slippers and walked into my living room. Fend flew across the room and landed on the back of a chair. The others had come into the living room to wait.

  “Jennifer, Rak, Tethys,” Jon said in greeting. “Ah, I’m glad you’re already here, Danio. I wanted to speak with you as well.”

  With that, he sat on a couch and gestured for us to join him. He set the book on his lap and drummed his fingers on it for a moment, before studying us quietly. At last, he sighed. “Oh, my boys. I had hoped the report was wrong. Blood magic…”

  “It is blood magic, then?” Tethys said.

  “I’m afraid so.”

  We all exchanged a look of alarm and Jen sighed.

  “I thought I was done being the only one who doesn’t know anything about magic,” she groaned. “But what exactly is blood magic?”

  “Don’t worry, Jen,” Danio said. “I have no idea.”

  “It’s forbidden,” Tethys offered. “That’s pretty much all I know.”

  “It’s how they made vampires,” I blurted. Everyone but Jon looked at me in shock. I always hoped it was just a stupid rumor, but Jon’s lack of surprise said everything. So, it was true.

  Jon nodded solemnly. “Few people know more than that,” he said. “Fewer still have seen it. And with good reason.” He paused, brow creased in thought. At last, he spoke. “Blood magic has been practiced by witches and wizards all over the world for as far back as our history goes. Back to the very first witches and wizards, according to some. Take fire magic, for example, it can do many things; with only a wand and the word mar, one can create fire. But mar can also make heat or light, it can give night vision or take away sight altogether, and fire magic can cleanse or purify.” We all nodded along when he paused. “Like fire magic, blood magic has many uses and forms. But one needs more than a wand and magic word to wield it. Blood magic can only be used by those who have performed ritual sacrifice.”

  “I feel like you don’t mean goats,” Danio said.

  “People,” said Jon grimly. “Blood wizards practice human sacrifice.”

  My mouth went dry. I knew blood magic involved some sort of blood, obviously. But I hadn’t put much thought into it, especially when it was little more than hearsay and rumors. And just when I was getting comfortable being a vampire.

  Jon pursed his lips for a moment. “Throughout history those who use blood magic have been feared and ostracized. Some have been executed. Others have been revered, if not outright worshipped. Some cultures tried to outlaw it, some turned a blind eye, and others embraced it. But then, came the war…” He paused and turned to Jen. “Are you familiar with the war, Jennifer?”

  She nodded and her eyes flicked briefly to me. “Yeah. The one that lasted hundreds of years and impacted pretty much every magic across Europe? The one…” She trailed off and glanced at me again.

  Jon nodded once. “Hai. That one. After raging for centuries, one side decided they needed something more if they were to win. Many history books will tell you they were the only ones to use blood magic.” He chuckled darkly. “European history books. Growing up in Japan we were taught both sides practiced it. Regardless, one side used blood magic in a way no one had before… they used it to create entirely new, powerful, species of magics they could unleash upon their enemies.”

  Once again, we all nodded. Jen reached out and took my hand to give it a reassuring squeeze.

  Jon took a deep breath. “Many of their creations failed, but some succeeded and thrived. Banshees, berserkers…”

  “Vampires,” I whispered.

  He inclined his head in a single nod. “Vampires. When the war was over, most magics agreed that blood magic could not be allowed to continue. A campaign began to eradicate it. Those who practiced had their memories erased. Or worse. All records of it were destroyed, out of fear someone would study them and learn, even if there were no blood casters left to teach them. After that, there were very few places where it was an accepted form of magic. Today, the few scattered blood casters practice in secret.”

  “Is that why the first vampires were said to be the witches and wizards who tried to make them?” I asked. “They used blood magic on themselves?”

  Jon nodded. “That’s what I’ve heard. Blood magic has been used for many things over the millennia. Entire civilizations, magic and non, have fallen. It has been called curses, sorcery, black magic, hexes… There have been blood wizards all over the world, sometimes helping non-magics rise to power, some taking it for themselves. Yamihime no Chi in Japan, the Dark Sorcerer-King in Gaul, the Great Wizard Dewinnos, la Reine de—” He paused and looked curiously at Tethys who had chuckled.

  “Sorry,” said Tethys. “When I was a pup my great-grandad would tell my litter and I that Dew
innos would get us if we didn’t get to bed on time. Never knew he was a blood wizard.”

  “According to the legend,” Jon said. “And that’s what most of these are: legends. I’m afraid there is little more I know about blood magic.”

  “But you’re confident that’s what hit us?” I asked.

  “I said,” began Jon slowly, “that some places continued to practice blood magic. Japan was among them.”

  “Japan?” I cried in surprise.

  “Not during your lifetime.”

  Danio regarded him curiously. “During yours?”

  Jon bowed his head. “Hai. It was not widely practiced. I never personally saw any and it had nearly died out when I was young. The only ones authorized to use blood magic served the O-Mahou Imperial family. But even after it was finally declared forbidden, unlike much of the world, depictions and records of blood magic were not destroyed.”

  With that, he took the old book off his lap and set it on the coffee table. He opened it to a page with a picture that looked like a traditional Japanese painting. We all leaned over to study it. There were three people in it; two were dressed like samurai and holding short swords. No, they were wrong for wakizashi and far too small for katana. I looked closer and realized they were supposed to be wands. The third man was tied to something and… I swallowed hard. He was covered in a network of eerily familiar black lines.

  The picture was captioned and I squinted at it, trying to decipher it. While living in Japan I learned hundreds of kanji, but now I had forgotten more than I remembered. I could get by reading the much simpler hiragana characters, but there were only a couple in the caption. Even if I did know the kanji, they were all heavily stylized and faded.

  “What does it say?” Tethys asked, saving me from having to say it.

  Jon read it in Japanese, then translated it into English. I assumed the translation was mostly for Jen and Rak’s benefit, since they had only been studying Japanese for a few years, but some of the words were archaic and unfamiliar to me.