Betrayed By Blood

  Chapter 3

  Elijah bounded along the tunnel, through the metal door, water splashing against him as he passed through the river. Moving along the tunnels he now called home, he ran until the outer door came into view.

  He took a deep breath, feeling flesh and bone move with agonising pain as he shifted back into human form. He knelt, splashed his face with water from the underground stream. Elijah braced himself against the wall, breathing hard. Kaylan. She was here. He couldn’t believe it.

  “Elijah?”

  He turned to see Geth. Geth’s dark skin gleamed under the luminescent light. His hair was braided, and a ring glittered on his nose. “What happened?” his friend asked as he pushed open the makeshift doorway to Elijah’s cave, holding out a clean pair of jeans and a black shirt.

  Elijah grabbed the clothes, slipped them on. “Kaylan’s back.”

  “You’ve been watching her again? I thought we talked about this?” Geth asked. “Do you want her to find out about you?”

  Elijah sighed. “She knows.”

  Geth’s mouth fell open. “How?”

  “She hit me with a fireball. I shifted right in front of her,” he explained. Hell, it wasn’t like he had control over it.

  “What did she do after that?”

  “Nothing. I ran away after telling her to stop looking for me.” He buttoned up the shirt, ignoring the ache in his muscles from changing twice in one night.

  “We’ve been through this. You need to stay away from Kaylan. Now she knows what you are, she won’t stop looking. What were you thinking?”

  In truth, he hadn’t been thinking. He had just wanted a glimpse of her again, to make sure she was alright. “I had to see her,” Elijah admitted. “Just because I’m different now doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

  “Well, we’ve got more important things to worry about than your ex-fiancé. I found another body.”

  He flinched and looked down at his hands, half expecting to see them covered in blood.

  “Don’t worry, you didn’t lose control again,” Geth told him. “It’s another victim of the Stardust drug.”

  Elijah breathed a sigh of relief. One of his greatest fears was losing control again and having no memory of what he might have done. “Where is it?”

  Geth led him down the tunnel until it opened up into a larger cavern. Tendrils of light danced around the glistening grey rock walls. Elijah had no idea where the magical lights came from, since they were several metres underground, but he always found this place peaceful.

  The body of a young man who appeared to be in his early twenties lay off to one side. His skin looked pale and waxy underneath the shock of red hair.

  Elijah knelt, examined the body. Blood covered the man’s hands and feet, with deep gouges around his hands and ankles, as if he’d been shackled. He looked worse than the last victim: the others had all been bloodied and bruised, but these wounds appeared much worse.

  “I can’t smell the drug on him,” he told Geth. “Does he have any connection to the other victims?”

  “The only thing the Amaranthine have found that link the victims is that they’re all male,” Geth replied.

  “Any luck in finding out what the money is paying for?” Elijah scanned the body again in the hope he would finally spot something different. A clue, a scent as to who was behind the killings. “Hey, there’s a black burn mark on his left wrist.”

  Geth leant closer. “Nope. Do you think the mark is from the drug?”

  “Maybe. I’ve noticed it on a couple of the other victims as well, but I’m no expert.”

  “Perhaps we should pay a healer to have a look at him.”

  Elijah shook his head. “No, that’s too risky and not worth doing it again. All the healers in the city are either under the Order’s thumb – or too scared to go up against them.” He rubbed his chin. “But now Kaylan is back…”

  “It’s been almost a year. You need to let her go, Elijah.”

  “I just don’t want to see her wasting her life away by searching for me.” He rose. “Kaylan’s the best healer in the city. There’s no harm in asking for her help.”

  “That’s a bad idea. I still can’t believe you showed her what you are now. We’ve all tried talking to Kaylan since your “death”, but she won’t listen to reason,” Geth said. “What do you expect to do now she knows?”

  That was a good question.

  “If I talk to her…” He ran a hand through his hair.

  “I think you’ve done enough damage for one night.”

  Elijah thought back to the moment he’d seen Kaylan again. Same long, blood-red hair, and those dark eyes. The same fire. As they moved back through the tunnels, he told Geth what had happened. Light streamed down, casting away the gloomy shadows.

  “That’s the third attack this week,” Geth remarked. “I need to tell Cedric.”

  Geth turned to leave back down the opposite tunnel.

  “Wait, I could–”

  “You’re not an Amaranthine anymore, my friend. You know Cedric won’t let you come back now.”

  “Fine.”

  Elijah stomped back to his chambers. There was a large room cut into the rock with a small window that looked out onto the rest of his underground home. After he’d been turned, this had been the only refuge in the city he could find without the Order hunting him. Even Cedric, the Amaranthine leader, had turned against him after he’d tried to go home.

  Leaning against the stone column, he sighed. Kaylan was back. He’d been restless by not being able to watch over her for the past few months, but it had been too dangerous. Every time he went above ground, he risked being captured by one the Glistans and being tortured all over again.

  Geth left him alone, and Elijah settled on his makeshift bed. He heard the faint groan from the city above, but otherwise there was only the faint babble of water in the distance. He remembered the look of shock on Kaylan’s face. Damn it, he couldn’t just leave things like this.

  Unable to settle, Elijah decided to go out again. Everything in him demanded he go and find Kaylan. Try to explain things. But what good would it do? They could never be together now. He needed to stay away.

  Elijah went back to the bridge. The faint scent of jasmine still hung in the air as he padded across the road. Both man and beast wanted to follow that familiar scent to its owner. Elijah growled, pacing back and forth. He only felt this restless when he sensed Kaylan’s presence. Seeing her again had stirred up old memories. The pain and heat of fire. Of darkness and agony as his body was forced to change. He pushed away the memory of the night he’d changed and stalked away. Feeling sorry for himself would do no good. Instead, he’d find the ones responsible and have revenge.

  Elijah moved through back alleys and quieter roads. Music and the sound of laughter drifted through the night, but he paid little attention to it. If anyone saw him, they thought him a stray dog, or he moved away before they ever had the chance to make contact.

  After his first change, he’d wanted blood and death. Nothing had been able to stop him from getting it. But his blood lust had sparked interest from the city Guard, known as Glistans. Now there was a price on his head. The sorcerers didn’t stand a chance against him — but the Glistans were another matter.

  He stopped outside the stone walls of the Higher Lord’s house. Home to the Order’s leader. Elijah scaled the wall, feeling the charge of static against his fur from the ward — not that wards detected him anymore.

  He landed easily. Light poured from the windows, feeling like a thousand eyes watching him. The sweet smell of flowers wafted from the pristine flowerbeds as he edged along the wall.

  He’d spent the past year trying to find out what had happened to him and why. Sierra and Geth had never proved Norbert’s involvement with the Stardust drug. More bodies had been piling up ever since then, and the Amaranthine hadn’t found the person behind it. The drug wasn’t just a money-maker. There was more to it than that, and Elijah knew
there was a connection between it and his being turned into a shifter. Others were being turned but so far none had survived – none that he knew of.

  Elijah kept to the shadows as he moved closer to the house. He sank low as he got to the window. Magic never seemed to work when he was in wolf form, and he couldn’t risk being spotted.

  The sound of voices rang out followed by a scream.

  He used his front paws to hoist himself up, pressing his nose to the window. A spell circle stood in the centre of a gleaming oak floor. The figure of a woman in a billowing black robe stood at the head of the circle. Her face was hidden by a long hood. Beside her stood a young woman. Her gold hair fell past her shoulders and her green eyes were wide with fear. The half-naked body of a man with sandy blonde hair lay in the centre of the circle. Only the sound of three heartbeats in the room confirmed that the man was still alive. Elijah’s claws dug deeper into the sill as he recognised the woman as Freya Avilion — Kaylan’s sister. What the hell was she doing in there?

  Blood dripped from Freya’s hand onto the man’s chest, causing smoke to rise, and Elijah let out a low growl. Blood magic was dark and dangerous. This was more than calling a spirit to do someone’s bidding. He had to get Freya out of there.

  Elijah’s muscles rippled as he prepared to make a jump through the window. He drew magic, hoping it would protect him from the brunt of the force.

  “It’s not working,” the woman complained. “Your blood isn’t strong enough.”

  She knelt beside the unconscious man, jabbing a syringe of purple liquid into his right arm. Elijah sniffed, but identify what it was from his position.

  He leapt, threw himself at the window. Static flashed and charged against him, knocking him to the ground. He grunted as the power made his fur stand on end and jolted through his nerve endings. Damn it! No ward had repelled him before now.

  A shrill alarm rang out and a shout told him that they knew about his presence. Elijah growled as the figure dressed in black leather came out of the shadows, he glimpsed green cat-like eyes underneath the hood. A Glistan. One of the elite guards of the Order and dangerous enforcer of their laws. The woman’s dark hair fell in a long black plait, and silver glinted along the three-sided curved blade. Dakrons could channel the user’s power.

  Elijah crouched down, teeth bared and eyes flashing gold as his beast came awake. He could almost taste the woman’s blood. The coppery scent mixed with incense wafted from a crack in the window and made him long for the taste. For the kill.

  “Avock!” she cried. A burst of blue shot from her hand, hitting him in the side.

  Elijah yelped and howled. He couldn’t give up. He had to get in there and help Freya.

  The Glistan hurled knives and curses, forcing him to retreat to the wall.

  He let out a breath, feeling the burn of the last attack. Come on! I need to get in that house.

  “Run, little wolf, or I’ll do much worse,” she told him.

  He snarled. If the beast couldn’t help, perhaps the man could. Bone and muscle popped as he shifted back into his human form. Elijah grunted from the pain. Shifting so often took a lot of energy, but the anger fuelled him now. He muttered a curse and threw a strike.

  She deflected it, muttering another spell.

  Pain tore through his body, ripping through his nerve endings. He shifted, forcing his body to change only intensified the pain. Elijah let out a low howl, then turned and fled into the night.