Blood Dream Read online

  “Aint bein’ from ‘round here. Soundin’ like he from someplace across the sea. Aint knowin’ where. Hammer might know, but he aint sayin’ to me. His magick aint feelin’ like Hammer’s. Aint feelin’ like yours neither. Feelin’… dirty. Like it aint been put together properly. Like… it been stolen or mutated or some shit. I aint knowin’ really, I aint know enough, I only meetin’ him once across the bridge. He tellin’ Hammer to back off out his city or there bein’ problems for us.”

  Lupa studied the building again. No. He had it right. It did feel dirty, and put together… wrong. “Yeah you’re spot on there… I feel it.” Sledge half smiled at her and started pulling his keys out. “We going already? I need to get closer…”

  Sledge looked down at his keys and stuffed them back in his pocket. “Aint even knowin’ I was…”

  Lupa nodded and pushed off the car, the longer they hung around, the longer the magick would last on them, probably why Hammer’s men couldn’t remember getting back. “Ok, let me just get a bit closer, see if I can feel anything else, then we can leave… unless we are checking out the others too?”

  Sledge shrugged and shook his head slightly. Yeah, they were probably all the same. May as well just check out the one. Lupa took a breath and walked slowly towards the building, her skin started to feel hot, the bloodfire building in her. Strange, what the fuck kind of warding spell did that? As she got closer, the magick started to cloud her head. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get the fuck away from here. She shook her head, no, she needed to get closer…

  Lupa placed one of her hands on the crumbling stone wall, feeling her skin start to heat up with the bloodfire, hearing the hiss of the rain as it hit her body and evaporated. The wall felt disgusting against her palm, dirty magick oozing onto her fingers, warning her. Telling her to leave. She closed her eyes. What was she feeling? It felt like unwanted touches. It felt like things being taken from her. It felt like something… wrong… She tried to turn, but it was no longer telling her to leave, it was telling her…

  “Lupa!”

  She felt Sledge’s arms lifting her up. Had she been on the ground? He opened the door to his car and shoved her in. She could hear him climbing in, the loud rumble of the engine starting, and the squealing of tires as they pulled away. But she couldn’t see it. She couldn’t feel it. She could see… sand? Dust? Red bricks… an eye… something… dark… something worse.

  “What you needin’ me to do?”

  Lupa struggled to open her eyes, where the fuck was she? Sledge picked her up, and carried her somewhere, her eyes felt like they were glued together, but the feeling… was it fading?

  “What you needin’ me to do?”

  Lupa forced her eyes open. She was in Sledge’s apartment, sitting on his couch while he leaned over her with a worried look in his eyes. “I’m ok… that was just… fuck. I’m ok. Tell Hammer not to let anyone with magick near there. Could you see… oh shit.”

  She looked down at Sledge’s arms, the skin on his forearms was red and blistered. She must have burnt him. “I’m a’right. Takin’ more’n that to get me, remember.” He sat down on the coffee table in front of her and looked at her curiously, no… looking at her strangely. “What you dun feelin’? I seein’ all that steam come off you, then you started gettin’ all stumbly, but your eyes dun closed. I tried gettin’ you to come back but you weren’t hearin’ me. Then you fell.”

  Lupa rubbed her aching head. She felt fucking violated. “You got something to drink? Or something for my headache? Or both?”

  Sledge laughed, somewhat nervously, and got up, bringing back two glasses, a bottle of scotch and two pills. She looked at the pills, they didn’t look pharmacy issued… fuck it. She put them in her mouth and washed them back with the scotch.

  “Ok… I’ll try explain it… it felt like… all the bad things you can have someone take from you or do to you… not like, fighting. But like… taking your dignity, touching you when you don’t want to be, humiliation… it was wrong. It was like a violation…” Lupa gratefully took the refilled glass from Sledge and downed it, her skin felt covered in the foul magick.

  “At first, it was like it was telling me to get away, telling me to leave, to go home and crawl into bed. But then… I’m pretty sure there’s a second spell underneath that, specifically for anyone with magick, which is why the bloodfire started building in me. My guess is this guy who bought the place is wanting to know if any witches might be coming to try and break it. And now he fucking knows… fuck… but the second spell, it was like it was trying to pull me in, trying to take something from me, that was the one that felt… dirty.”

  Lupa shivered. She felt like all the dark places in her soul had been exposed. That someone had taken them from her. Fed on them. Touched her in a place that even she dare not look. That she would keep locked up until the day the fiery gates of her mind burnt her down to ashes…

  Sledge filled their glasses again, watching her carefully, like he could see those dark places too, those places that hungered for something different, something soulless and bloodied…

  “Aint likin’ it either,” he finally said, lighting a smoke for her and then for himself, “When I touchin’ you… it was like I felt inside you.” He looked away from her, her heart started beating a little too loudly. Had he felt that place? “Feelin’ like I was somewhere I aint supposed to be. When you sittin’ in the car, you scarin’ me. Your skin aint looking right. Lookin’ like I could see inside you, seein’ your blood going in your body, but it dun lookin’… right…”

  Shit. Shit fuck shit. Lupa drained her glass and filled it to the top, ignoring the glance from Sledge as she did so. So this spell wasn’t just going to get inside witches, it would expose them. And not just literally as witches, but inside them. Inside their dark places. Under their skin.

  “You better call Hammer now. No one… no witch who he wants to hide should even walk past those fucking places.”

  Sledge nodded and pulled out his phone, standing up to call Hammer. He wandered out of the room leaving Lupa to look down at herself. She was wet from the rain, her clothes half burnt. Shit, she must look a mess…

  “Hammer wantin’ to talk to you.” Sledge handed her the phone and she took it, finishing the glass of scotch, feeling it warm her.

  “Yeah?”

  “Firstly, I wish to apologize, my wolf witch, I was unaware that you might experience such adverse effects. Sledge tells me you advise to keep any witches I want hidden away from these places?”

  “Yes. There’s two spells, at least on that building.” Lupa tucked her hair behind her ear as she spoke, “There’s the warding, which makes people want to go home, but more… in depth than that, like anyone who is coming for hostile reasons just has an overwhelming urge to leave. Pretty standard, most people don’t even realise. But the longer you stay, the worse the urge gets, which is probably why the guys you sent didn’t remember the trip back. But the spell underneath that…”

  Lupa felt her eyes sting, she cleared her throat and rubbed her head. “It’s to expose witches trying to get near it, but… more than that… it feeds. This magick isn’t… I don’t think it’s all from one bloodline. He might have several witches working on the spell, and from different makings. Because it’s not… put together right. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes, I think I understand what you are saying. I will leave you in the safe hands of Sledge, although I think that’s the first time I have ever said that and it not be a threat. He can let me know anything more. Do try not to torment yourself, dear Little Red, I am deeply sorry you had to experience that.” Hammer hung up, and Lupa put the phone on the table, unsure where Sledge had gone…

  “Aint gotten nothin’ for your legs, but here bein’ a dry jumper if you wantin’ to change…”

  Lupa looked at the giant black jumper he held out and grinned. She could wear it as a fucking dress, and it beat wearing these wet ruined clothes. The way things were going lately, sh
e’d have to go clothes shopping… she shuddered again and went to his bathroom to change. At least she could wear her underwear this time…

  “At this rate I’m going to have to start leaving stuff here…” Fuck. Not the right thing to say. She sat down and stared at the wall.

  “What you thinkin’ you need to do to get rid of the warding then?”

  Lupa accepted the drink he poured her, how many had she had now? Did the full glass count as one or two? Fuck it. “I’ll have to look into it. The main problem is I don’t know what kind of magick has been used. I don’t deal with witches from other places, Hammer is the first person I’ve ever met with magick that hasn’t been built with Organization training. Anyone else… well it was too little to count, never would manifest into anything…”

  Lupa pulled her cigarettes out of her bag and tucked her bare legs underneath her. She felt like she had control of herself again, like the invasion was gone. “We know that different peoples have different types of magick, but once The Organization was started, long before the wolfbloods attacked, then the training was spread across all lands. Everyone with witch blood… well, clearly not everyone, but a lot of people came to join The Organization because it also promised safety… but obviously there were witches that didn’t join… and passed down their own magicks… like Hammer’s family, I don’t know… I don’t have the authority to access information like that though. I don’t deal with other witches, usually, I’m a Hunter… fuck… it could just be witches too weak to join, or uninterested, being magick for hire… fuck knows.”

  Sledge was watching her as she felt herself getting into rambling tipsy mode. She should probably calm down. She didn’t want to think about that magick anymore… although… her headache was gone, and she was feeling pretty good now…

  “Hammer findin’ out somethin’ for the weekend…”

  Lupa let her eyes meet his slowly. Good, he had changed the subject. “Yeah?”

  “Findin’ two camps on the mountain, aint too far from little towns. He findin’ us a place to stay too. Got a friend who has a cabin on the mountain, they be lendin’ to us for the weekend.”

  Lupa raised her eyebrows. Hammer had actually been able to find two salbatici camps? It was hard enough to find one let alone two… “How did he find them?”

  Sledge gave her the look that said she probably didn’t want to know. Right. More things she was left in the dark about. But then, she was probably better off that way on some things… “Well, that makes things a lot easier on the finding part then. How are you feeling about it?”

  Sledge shot her a suspicious look. “What’n you mean?”

  Lupa sighed to herself. Sure, he was a guy who beat up or killed or whatever people for a living, but surely asking how he felt about possibly finding family wasn’t that big a fucking question. After all, he had opened up to her before about things that were deeper than that.

  “I just mean… oh forget it, I don’t know. Are you ready?”

  Sledge grunted and tipped back his glass, not looking at her as he filled it again. Lupa put her glass down and wrapped her arms around herself. How had they gotten so close and yet were so far apart? Why did he make her feel so… confused? She closed her eyes, trying to push away the thoughts of him touching her, why the fuck were they in her head again? And why did she feel like she was falling?

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Lupa opened her eyes to see Hammer looking down at her. What the fuck? What was he doing here? Why was he interrupting her sleep?

  “I see you are awake, my little wolf witch, you have disturbed my dear Sledge, I believe he was quite worried about you. Can you sit up?”

  Lupa blinked. What had he said? Could she sit up? Why would she want to do that? She was comfortable here, she was feeling rather wonderful and cosy… couldn’t he just leave her alone? It was nice here…

  “I am afraid I am going to have to do something a little more drastic, Sledge, I believe there is something inside of her. Would you mind sitting her up for me?”

  Lupa felt Sledge pulling her up. What was he doing that for? Then she felt Hammer lift the jumper off her. Hey, that wasn’t right, why was he trying to get her naked in front of Sledge? Couldn’t they just leave her alone to sleep?

  “Ah yes, Little Red, you have something inside of you. We are going to have to remove it. Can you understand me?”

  Inside her? Had they found the dark place? Were they going to remove it? She smiled. Sure, they could remove it, she didn’t want it. She wanted to lay back down. Was someone laying her back down? That was nice. It was nice laying down on Sledge’s couch. It smelt like him, that deep scent that she hadn’t realised she liked so much.

  “Ow!”

  The surprise brought her mind back. Fuck. What were they doing? Lupa looked down to see Hammer with a scalpel against her stomach, slicing her open. Her vision blurred for a moment and she clenched her fist ready to punch him. Sledge put his hands on her arms and pressed them down gently. She looked up to see him leaning over her, eyes full of worry.

  “What the fuck are you guys doing?”

  “I do apologise, dear wolf witch, but that spell has left something rather nasty under your skin. I have to remove it. Can you understand me now?”

  “Yes I can fucking understand you-ow!”

  She tried to push against Sledge, tried to not scream. But the pain was too much, she cried out and tried to kick Hammer, but someone was holding her feet down. What the fuck was going on?

  “There we go, all done. Just let me sew this back up.”

  She felt something cold on her stomach, she didn’t want to look, but her eyes travelled down anyway. Hammer was wiping the blood off her as he was sewing her up, she looked over to the table and almost threw up. There was a jar with…

  “The dark place…” she whispered.

  “Something like that, Little Red, from the feeling of it, it feels like a dark place indeed.”

  Lupa closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears from escaping her. She didn’t want to cry. She wouldn’t fucking cry in front of these people.

  “There, you are well. Would you like your… the jumper back?”

  Lupa sat up, noticing no one was holding her down anymore, Sledge wasn’t looking at her, neither was… Maccabee, but Hammer was smiling at her with the jumper held out. She snatched it off him, slipping it over her head and pulling it over her legs.

  Lupa looked at the jar. It was black… but what the fuck was it? She reached her hand out to pick it up and Hammer moved it away gently. “I would not advise doing that, my beauty, it has fed on you now, and it will need to be disposed of by someone who has not touched it.” Lupa bit her lip, unable to take her eyes off the snake like thing in the jar, still moving…

  “Like’n the spell curse from your witchy friend?”

  Lupa glanced over to Sledge. “Not quite… that was…” she looked back at the jar, “that was meant for pain… once the skin was opened it… it didn’t feed on me…”

  Hammer stood up, picking up the jar and handing it to Maccabee. Lupa’s eyes followed it. “We will talk about this when you are feeling better, my wolf witch, for now I suggest you stay with Sledge. I will expect you two in the morning.”

  Hammer kissed Lupa’s hand and nodded to Sledge. Maccabee nodding to him as well, but just giving her a strange look before turning and opening the door for his boss. Lupa felt her body relax as the door shut. She hadn’t realised how tense she felt or how tight her chest was.

  “You a’right?”

  Lupa looked over to Sledge, who was now sitting on the table, peering at her like she might break into a thousand pieces at any moment. “I don’t really know… what happened?”

  Sledge rubbed the back of his neck, pulling out a smoke and lighting it. He offered one to her and lit it after she accepted. She waited patiently. “You just… kinda drifted off. I thought you was fallin’ asleep… but then you started gettin’ all… grey. I thought maybe you weren’t breathin
’, but when I checked you were. So I dun tryin’ to wake you up, aint gettin’ any response, and then I feelin’ that feelin’ again. From when I grabbed you earlier. Like when I touched you I was inside you.”

  He looked at her carefully. She resisted the feeling to move her gaze away. What had he seen? Or was it just a feeling he got? Did she really want to know? “I callin’ Hammer, figurin’ he would know what to do. Then he comin’, puttin’ some magick on you to try get you to wake up and… you knowin’ the rest.” He stared down at his hands.

  “What did you see? When… you touched me… was there something you saw? Or felt?” Fuck. Why couldn’t she just keep her fucking mouth shut?

  “Aint so much seein’ somethin’… It was like…” he cleared his throat and looked up at her, “it was like bein’ you. Only not. I was feelin’ what you were, hearin’ you speakin’…”

  Like… bonding. Fuck. What did this mean? Why would someone put a spell on a building that could make you feel what someone else was? Make it as though you were one with someone? Or… was that a side effect they didn’t expect?

  “Did you hear anything?”

  Sledge shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Thinkin’ I did. Thinkin’ it things you aint wantin’ me to know.”

  “Like what?” she breathed.

  “I aint sure you wantin’ to know…”

  “I do… it’s not fair for you to know and I don’t. It’s my damn mind…”

  He sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his tattooed neck, “I hearin’ you talkin’ of your dark place… I hearin’ you talkin’ to you father like a child. I hearin’… I hearin’ you askin’ you mother not to die…”

  Lupa stared at the ground, feeling the panic rising in her. Why had she asked? She… didn’t even remember her so-called parents, how had he gotten that deep… where had she been? She couldn’t breathe. She needed to get out of there. She needed…

  Sledge put his hand on her face, pulling it up to look at him. “I aint meanin’ to.”