Read Online Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) by J.A. Cipriano - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: J.A. Cipriano
Tags: Fantasy
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understand why it worked, do you? You just got lucky and tried it a few times before deciding to carve them into your skin like a crazy person.” I let out a breath. “You don’t have to admit it. The look in your eyes tells me it’s true.” He didn’t respond as I shook my head at him. “A ward is a magical symbol that does something, usually keep bad things away. It’s mostly expulsion magic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are others,” I murmured, moving closer to him and running one finger over the markings on his chest. There wasn’t even a faint zing of power to it. “But most people don’t have the power to, well, power up a ward. You certainly don’t have any innate magic of your own, so how’s it work?”
“The vampire blood makes it work,” Luc said, watching me trail my fingers over the muscles on his chest which was pretty much when I realized what I was doing. I backed away from him so quickly I stumbled and fell on my butt. I sat there, unable to look at him as my cheeks blazed from embarrassment. Had I seriously just felt him up? Seriously?
I turned my eyes toward him. He wasn’t watching me. Instead, he was buttoning his shirt back up.
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” he said, and the embarrassment in his voice was obvious. Had he thought I’d gotten freaked out by all the scars? Well if he did, he hadn’t seen my father. Imagine having the flesh flayed from your bones by a ravenous pack of demons, and you’d get some idea of the scars my father had. And those were just the ones on the surface. Watching him break down under the strain of fighting more and more each and every day was one of the main reasons I’d left.
“It’s not your scars,” I said, getting slowly to my feet. “I just don’t understand why you’d do it.”
“Tattoos didn’t work. We tried that at first, but the wards lost power for some reason. On a lark, I cut one into my skin, but that didn’t work either.” He pointed at a symbol on the underside of his wrist that looked like a winged scorpion. “During my next vamp hunt, the wound got torn open and the ward blazed to life the second vampire blood touched the open wound.”
“Holy crap,” I said, taking a step backward because he obviously had no idea what that meant. I didn’t either, but it didn’t seem good. That was for sure. “You got vampire blood in a wound?”
“Yeah. It’s how we realized how to make the wards work. I had to cut them into my flesh and douse the fresh wounds with vampire blood. After that, getting a little blood on any of the wards powered all of them.” He shrugged like it made perfect sense even though it didn’t. At least not to me.
“Okay,” I said, swallowing back the desire to murder him where he stood. I wasn’t sure why, but something told me this knowledge could not get out. I wasn’t really worried about normal humans doing it, but there were things far worse than humans. Thing with access to blood way stronger than a vampire’s and with magical knowledge so scary, it made the spells needed to start the apocalypse seem like a good idea.
“So, we’re good?” he asked, staring at me. The look in his eyes reminded me of a puppy who had just destroyed your entire house, knew that you were upset with it, but couldn’t figure out why.
The problem was, I wasn’t sure why either. Part of it was his story, but it was something else. It was more that he
shouldn’t
have needed to do that. He was just some guy, some human. We were supposed to protect people like him, not make them do this to themselves. It almost made me want to go back home and start yelling at people. It wouldn’t do any good. It never did. I’d just get buried in reams of paperwork while someone took Luc back to base for study before finding him an indiscriminate unmarked grave somewhere.
No… no, the better thing to do was to clean this place up, to ensure people didn’t have to do this. Maybe I couldn’t save the
“The vampire blood makes it work,” Luc said, watching me trail my fingers over the muscles on his chest which was pretty much when I realized what I was doing. I backed away from him so quickly I stumbled and fell on my butt. I sat there, unable to look at him as my cheeks blazed from embarrassment. Had I seriously just felt him up? Seriously?
I turned my eyes toward him. He wasn’t watching me. Instead, he was buttoning his shirt back up.
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” he said, and the embarrassment in his voice was obvious. Had he thought I’d gotten freaked out by all the scars? Well if he did, he hadn’t seen my father. Imagine having the flesh flayed from your bones by a ravenous pack of demons, and you’d get some idea of the scars my father had. And those were just the ones on the surface. Watching him break down under the strain of fighting more and more each and every day was one of the main reasons I’d left.
“It’s not your scars,” I said, getting slowly to my feet. “I just don’t understand why you’d do it.”
“Tattoos didn’t work. We tried that at first, but the wards lost power for some reason. On a lark, I cut one into my skin, but that didn’t work either.” He pointed at a symbol on the underside of his wrist that looked like a winged scorpion. “During my next vamp hunt, the wound got torn open and the ward blazed to life the second vampire blood touched the open wound.”
“Holy crap,” I said, taking a step backward because he obviously had no idea what that meant. I didn’t either, but it didn’t seem good. That was for sure. “You got vampire blood in a wound?”
“Yeah. It’s how we realized how to make the wards work. I had to cut them into my flesh and douse the fresh wounds with vampire blood. After that, getting a little blood on any of the wards powered all of them.” He shrugged like it made perfect sense even though it didn’t. At least not to me.
“Okay,” I said, swallowing back the desire to murder him where he stood. I wasn’t sure why, but something told me this knowledge could not get out. I wasn’t really worried about normal humans doing it, but there were things far worse than humans. Thing with access to blood way stronger than a vampire’s and with magical knowledge so scary, it made the spells needed to start the apocalypse seem like a good idea.
“So, we’re good?” he asked, staring at me. The look in his eyes reminded me of a puppy who had just destroyed your entire house, knew that you were upset with it, but couldn’t figure out why.
The problem was, I wasn’t sure why either. Part of it was his story, but it was something else. It was more that he
shouldn’t
have needed to do that. He was just some guy, some human. We were supposed to protect people like him, not make them do this to themselves. It almost made me want to go back home and start yelling at people. It wouldn’t do any good. It never did. I’d just get buried in reams of paperwork while someone took Luc back to base for study before finding him an indiscriminate unmarked grave somewhere.
No… no, the better thing to do was to clean this place up, to ensure people didn’t have to do this. Maybe I couldn’t save the
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