CHAPTER NINE: TWO WAYS

~ Marie ~

Several more moments passed, before he slowly moved off her. When the blast had gone off, he’d thrown them both to the ground and shielded her with his body. Marie stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes as she glared at him. He didn’t need to do that. They both had a barrier and she’d made sure to teleport them far enough away. She examined his barrier. It had protected both of them from the debris that had been blown their way and now there were several cracks along the surface. The barrier wasn’t close to shattering but it would only be able to take a bit more before breaking.

“Did something happen in there?” His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. She frowned back at him.

“Someone on the outside triggered the spell.” She surveyed the area. The house was gone. Only charred remains were left in its place. The garden hadn’t escaped the explosion either. Debris crushed several of the flowers and fire had destroyed the ones closest to the house. Only a few stragglers had escaped unscathed. Marie took a step forward to get a closer look when Adrian blocked her path. He had his arm out and his attention was focused on the forest beyond the debris. It took a moment before she sensed what he already knew. Several magic signals were heading in their direction.

Marie quickly dispelled Adrian’s barrier and reapplied a new one. She heard rustling noises coming from the front. Marie tensed as she waited for them to reveal themselves. Three bucks came out of the forest. The deer were about five feet tall, not counting the antlers. The deer stood side by side in an unnatural line. The buck in the middle snorted as its ears went back and it scratched the ground. The other bucks followed suit and also scratched the ground. They lowered their heads just as Adrian turned towards her and lifted her up. The deer charged at them but Adrian easily avoided them. The deer didn’t stop and kept charging at them trying to rake them with their antlers.

“I’ll avoid them. You stop them.”

“Fine.” She didn’t like being given orders but his plan would make things go faster. Adrian jumped back, avoiding another attack, as she began to write out a spell. The deer worked as a group, pushing the two of them back and forth between them. Once she saw an opening, she let the spell go. It hit one of the deer and the animal collapsed to the ground. The other bucks didn’t hesitate and closed in. Adrian dodged another attack, twisting his body so that the antlers passed by her without touching. The motion jostled her, causing the medal to slide out of her pocket. She hesitated before she slammed her hand down on the jacket. Marie missed and it fell to the floor. The other deer rushed in, attacking more aggressively, keeping them away from the spot it landed.

“We can’t let them have it.” She needed to finish this quickly before something else happened. Marie wrote the spell out again. Adrian maneuvered behind another deer and she hit it with the spell. She was about to write out the final spell but a bird swooped in and landed beside the medal. Not good. She quickly hit the bird with the sleep spell but that only put it in danger of getting trampled by the last deer. Marie did the only thing she could think of and teleported the bird to a place out of the way of the stampeding deer. She wrote the spell out quickly and put the last deer down. Marie struggled against Adrian’s hold. “Put me down.” He did and as soon as her feet touched the ground she rushed over to the medal.

Marie looked down at herself but the only thing she had was her jacket. She quickly shrugged it off and used it to scoop up the medal. A quick check of the other pocket let her know that the bottle was still there. Marie didn’t even brush the dirt off before she put the jacket back on. With it back in her possession, she could look for the bird. Adrian walked over with it cradled between his hands. Marie wrote out the spell and sent it towards the bird. Once it was no longer under the magic user’s control, she lifted the sleep spell. The bird shook its feathers before it took flight. The deer had already gotten up and ran away.

“What is that?” She stood up and crossed her arms.

“What is what?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” His eyes narrowed as he glared at her. She didn’t want to discuss the case at all but she had a feeling he wouldn’t answer any of her questions if she didn’t give him something. Marie pressed her lips together as she tried to come up with some way to get what she wanted without giving anything away. Adrian’s frown disappeared as she held out her hand. He took it as she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were back in the room.

She took a seat at the table and waited for Adrian to do the same. He sat down but remained quiet.

“Why do you want to be a part of this investigation?”

“Are you saying that there is no way that Leon, or even me, could be attacked if we continue to take walks in the area?” Marie frowned. There was no way to guarantee their safety. The traps she found in the forest could be triggered by anybody. That included Adrian and Leon. But this and that were two different things.

“This is still my investigation.”

“That’s why I want an equal trade. I will give you what I found at the house in exchange for something in return.”

“What would that be?”

“I want to be a part of this investigation.”

“How do I know that what you have is even related to the investigation?”

“You don’t. But that's not all that I want.”

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“What else?” What else could he want? She didn’t have anything worth giving besides information. She had already agreed to look at Mark.

“I want a favor.”

“For what?” He smiled but he didn’t elaborate. “Legal?”

“Of course.” That wasn’t as reassuring as it should have been. She was irritated by the smug look on his face but what could she do? Adrian had magic sight as well as a vampire’s senses. He could have found something she’d overlooked. Using only what she already had, she had an idea of what was going on but was it enough? Tsk.

“Fine.”

“Do you agree with both of my conditions?” She nodded as she crossed her arms. Marie was more worried about the favor. If she conducted her investigation during the day then she wouldn’t have to worry about Adrian interfering. This wasn’t like the investigation with Mark. His presence wasn’t essential to this case. All she would have to do was keep him up to date to make him feel like he was a part of the investigation.

But what kind of favor did he want that he would prefer to do something like a trade rather than ask her outright?

“Why are all your books thrown all over the room?” Adrian leaned over and picked up a book that was opened face down. The cover formed a tent where it met the floor. He skimmed the page before closing the book and setting it on the table. Adrian looked at the other books that were strewn around the room. “These came from the house. What else did you take?”

“A bottle of dried herbs.”

“That medal also came from there too.” Marie reached into her pocket and took out the bottle she’d taken. She put it on the table before taking off her jacket. “What’s this?” He picked up the bottle and looked it over.

“Hydrangea. It’s supposed to be good for protection.” She put her jacket on the table. Adrian put the bottle back down before he leaned forward. Marie wiggled the jacket until the medal slid out of her pocket. She leaned forward to read the script engraved in the medal. Once she was done with that side, she used the jacket to flip the medal over so she could look at the backside.

“This was used to increase the potency of spells.”

“This looks like the circle used to summon demons.”

“It’s similar but the spell isn’t the same. This right here is the demon’s name but the other symbols are for containing miasma.”

“Why don’t you touch it?”

“If anyone other than the sorcerer were to touch this then they would be burned.” She flipped the medal over and pointed at the script carved near the edge.

“Could you turn that part of the spell off?”

“It’s part of the main spell. If I break one part of the spell, the whole spell would break. I can’t pick and choose which parts of the spell to keep active. If I break the spell, the miasma inside it would leak out.” He leaned back for a moment and crossed his arms.

“You said sorcerer. What does that make you?”

“There’s generally three broad categories that people who use magic fit into. One is a witch or wizard. They are someone who comes from a long line of magic users. Two would be a sorcerer or sorceress. They are usually someone who doesn’t have a lot of magic and instead need to depend on items imbued with magic. The last category is for people like me who don’t fit into the first two categories. They are called mages. Magic user is just a general term for all three.”

“So this medal is a tool that was being used to enhance their magic. But earlier you said it was filled with miasma.”

“Since miasma is a type of magic, it can still be used the same way. The boost to magic is greater but it’s not without risks.”

“What kind of risks?”

“By using this, they are allowing miasma into their body. Miasma is basically toxic magic. This person is poisoning themselves every time they use this. The greater risk is the person having to continually use a demon circle to harvest miasma. Since the sorcerer is tainted with miasma, it makes it easier for a demon to possess them.” That’s usually what happened to sorcerers who used miasma to strengthen their spells. If they’d used a normal magical tool, they wouldn’t need to worry about getting possessed but the boost to magic wouldn’t be as great.

“So would they become ill from the miasma?”

“Yes, though how long until they become ill is dependent on the amount of miasma they use.” And their tolerance for it. Marie wrapped the medal in her jacket and pushed it to the side. "What did you find at the house?” Adrian stood up and pulled a bottle and a pouch out of his pockets. He placed both on the table before sitting down. The bottle was filled with red liquid and a faint magic signal was coming from it. She picked up the bottle and took a closer look. There were small blue flowers floating in the liquid. Marie frowned as she tried to place the liquid.

“It’s blood.” Adrian confirmed her suspicions.

“There are two ways to use blood. Either they are doing blood magic or they are doing a blood ritual.”

“The difference?”

‘“Blood magic involves the blood of the magic user themselves. It’s generally used to strengthen a spell. Blood rituals are used to cast magic on the person whose blood you have taken.”

“Not the Eximius Potion then?”

“No. Blood that would be used to create the potion wouldn’t be considered blood magic or blood ritual. Blood, in that case, would just be considered an ingredient.”

“Even though the potion is used to strengthen?”

“In the case of the Eximius potion, it’s the ingredients together that strengthen a person’s magic rather than just the blood.” She only knew a bit about the potion. Marie never looked into it further since she didn’t need her magic strengthened. She tilted the bottle some more but she couldn’t tell what kind of flowers were being used. Marie would need to consult the books she had taken and hope the spell was in one of those. “This is a blood ritual but I would need to do research to figure out what they are using this for.”

“How can you tell?”

“Blood magic works best with fresh blood and when using your own blood you don’t need to carry it around. Blood ritual works no matter how old the blood is. Someone went to the trouble of placing a spell on the bottle to keep the blood preserved.”

“Which means the blood is old.” Marie nodded. “And this?” Adrian lifted a white pouch and placed it in the middle of the table. She picked up the pouch and examined it. No magic that she could feel. Marie opened it after checking for traps. On the inside of the bag, was some dried herbs and a piece of paper. Marie looked the talisman over quickly before burning the paper up to prevent the spell from activating.

“Communication spell. Though based on the way it was set up, it was more for listening in then for actually speaking to someone.”

“Were they listening in?”

“No. The spell hadn't been activated yet.” Adrian leaned back as he frowned. Marie brought her hand to her chin as she thought over what they had discussed. This was becoming more complicated than just simple spying. This was looking less and less like something from one of the wolves and more like a third party. The only question was why? What did they hope to gain by interfering?