The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(76)

We haven’t yet uncovered who it was that took control of my mind.

“Maybe if you told me what I was doing wrong,” I begin.

She gives a flippant laugh. “I would if I could. But magic is highly individual. What works for one witch might not work for the next. All I can do is have you watch, and make you mimic what I do.”

On that note, she summons three quick beams of light. They burst from her fingertips. Each hits a bust square in the middle.

The marble statues go flying. They crash into the far walls and join the rubble already there from her previous demonstrations.

“You see?” She whirls on me. “I focused my power on the attack. Not on being showy with flashing lights and booming sounds. Subtlety is the key to all this.”

“I thought you’d be teaching me real spells,” I say. “Not how to destroy marble carvings!” I extend my claws. “I’m more dangerous as a vampire. At least that way, instinct tells me how to kill.”

Even a week ago, that admission would have frightened me. Now? Well, I’ve more readily come to terms with my vampiric self than I could believe.

“These are the simplest types of spells,” Morgan hisses. “All they take is a concentration of energy. You’re not manipulating the magical forces. You’re not weaving intricate patterns with an ethereal energy you cannot see. These provide the base. If you cannot do even that…”

Frustration bubbles up inside. I take aim at the pile of rubble and summon the inherent magical energies lashing through the air. They flow into me like a lightning rod. I have only the barest flicker of a second to concentrate it into a destructive beam like Morgan just did.

The spell flares from my fingertips—no light, no sound—and obliterates the cracked remains of one of the statues.

“Yes!” Morgan exclaims. “Yes, perfectly done, just like that!”

I stare in amazement. I hadn’t expected that to come so easily. Especially not after all the failed attempts.

Morgan starts toward me. “You see, when you just focus, you have all it takes—”

She stops as a violent gust of wind whips her dress up.

She looks at me. “Did you do that?”

“No—“

I don’t get to finish. At that moment a tornado starts up at the opposite end of the room. It sweeps up all the pieces of rubble and blows them into a raging vortex. They spit out of it one-by-one, crashing against the walls with enormous force.

I cry out and duck as one flies straight for my head. It skims so close, I feel my hair blow out by the tailwind.

Morgan grabs my arm. “We have to get out!” she screams. The tornado is flinging bits of rubble everywhere. Projectiles fly at us with deadly speed. “We—“

A huge piece of debris comes straight for us. Morgan casts a defensive spell. A glowing blue orb surrounds us. The jagged rock hits the edge and disintegrates, like a meteor striking earth’s atmosphere.

“Come on!” Morgan shoves me to the door. Behind us the tornado rages on, darting across the floor like an angry caged animal.

The Queen pulls the door open and we stumble out. Just before she closes it, something catches my attention within.

In the middle of the floor, right beneath the point of the tornado, a black hole is opening.

“Morgan!” I scream. “Look at that!”

She sees what I’m pointing at and curses. The darkness spreads, like a blot of spilled ink across a page.

A jagged, crooked arm extends from the darkness. It’s thin as a gnarled branch, and covered entirely in a sickly black slime. Its fingers grip the edge, and it pulls itself up.

One of the most horrendously misshapen creatures I’ve ever seen comes out. It has no eyes, only a wide, open mouth showing rows upon rows of sharp, gleaming white teeth. The teeth are completely at odds with the smooth, inky black of its wide and bulbous head.

A beam of light, a beam of power, shoots out from Morgan’s hands. It hits the creature in the face.

It gives a vicious scream, high and loud, like a hissing, boiling pot of water. And then it—it pushes Morgan’s attack back.

For a moment I’m stupefied. The creature not only repels the spell, it actually forces the beam back toward Morgan.

“Don’t just stand there. Help me!” the Queen commands.

I try to focus and cast another spell but my attention is shot. I can’t look away from the awful creature. I feel almost a… a kinship toward it. Like it’s a part of me, like it’s mine, like I’m responsible for it.

“No,” I snarl, and throw myself at Morgan to stop her attack.

The move takes her by surprise. I crash into her and we both go to the floor. The protective spell she cast winks out. The wind from the tornado howls around us. A menacing force radiates out from that creature, and I feel its triumph as keenly as if it were my own.