Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

37. It's a Thing: Bria

“I can’t figure out how to remove the receptacle from his body,” Eramund reveals at last, sighing as he straightens himself from how he’s been hunched over Caz’s arm. “That should be the easy part, but it’s as though it’s resisting my magic or something. Unresponsive, more like. It’s embedded in you somehow, Caz, as if once it went in, it set about binding itself to your being.”

Even though he promised he wouldn’t, he used that essence that he attached to Caz’s arm to follow us here. Well, alright. I called and told him to do it. Ever since that meeting yesterday, I’ve been worried about the fact that he only performed a quick fix. I want the problem dealt with, completely this time, and there’s not much else for him to be doing right now besides daydreaming and waiting for word to come in from Pete or Alpha Miles.

“I thought you said it wasn’t a thing,” I challenge him, too frustrated and worried to give voice to the worst part of what he just said.

There’s a caster out there who can do something that even Eramund can’t reverse, which should be impossible. Oh yeah, and if Eramund can’t figure it out, then there’s a chance that he also can’t tell for sure whether it’s still a danger to us. Its true purpose could still be hidden, even from him.

“It’s not,” he maintains. “Well, alright, there’s a thing, but the thing isn’t the problem. What it does is the problem.”

I wait for him to explain, but when I realize that he’s not going to, I sigh heavily. Again.

“And what does it do?” I prompt him, gesturing for him to go on.

“It’s the receptacle for a piece of a caster’s essence, meaning that it absorbs and contains said essence, which as I explained before, is how he followed you.”

If only he could be that straightforward more often, then maybe we could be friends.

“I don’t know. It kind of sounds like the receptacle is more of a problem than the essence,” I argue, wondering why I should have to. It seems rather obvious. “Nobody would be shoving their caster juju in him if there was nowhere to put it.”

He pauses what he’s been doing, a thoughtful expression on his face. It kind of looks like that just clicked for him. I know Tian said that the man hasn’t been sleeping in too long to count, but it must be worse than even he realizes. Eramund is a lot of things, but slow is not usually one of them.

“You know, I suppose that’s a good point,” he concedes agreeably. “And I take back what I said. It is a thing.”

It’s rare that a man with as much ego as he has will admit that he’s wrong, but that victory doesn’t feel nearly as sweet as it should. It’s like celebrating winning a race against someone with no legs. His mind is quite obviously not at its best.

“But I do maintain that the immediate problem has been solved,” he adds. “The essence that was in there before was much weaker than mine, and with mine in there now, there’s not anyone in the world who can push it out the way that I did with the other. You’re stuck with mine, but I’m no threat to you or your operations.”

“I don’t mean this as a joke or say it with intent to offend you, but I must admit that I’m still concerned,” I tell him carefully, fearing that he might lose patience with me and start shouting again.

I suppose fear is the wrong word. Even with as powerful as he is, he doesn’t scare me, and his shouting is mostly just annoying. But more importantly, it’s counterproductive, and I don’t feel like wasting the time or energy that it would require to calm him down. Not when he’s already so exhausted, and now stressed on top of that. Oh, and I’m the one who lost his daughter, which if I had to guess is what’s stressing him out, so there’s that.

“But if I understand how magic works correctly,” I continue cautiously, “then by my understanding, if you can’t remove the receptacle that some other caster placed, doesn’t that make him more powerful than you?”

“In a word, no,” he answers, sounding convincingly confident about it too. “Because first of all, battling against someone else’s spell effect takes more power than placing your own, so failing to defeat someone else’s spell creation doesn’t necessarily make that other caster more powerful.”

He releases the hold he’s had on Caz’s arm and steps away, groaning and sighing as he drops himself into a nearby chair.

“And more importantly,” he continues, “I don’t think that the receptacle is entirely magical, and I believe that to be the real problem.”

“You buried the lead on that one, magic man,” Aspen comments, laughing.

“Yeah, I’ll say,” Caz agrees. He looks freaked out, staring at his arm in disbelief. “What did he put inside me then, if not magic?”

“Well, magic, but also something else that I can’t quite figure out,” Eramund explains. “And yet it responded to my own magic without issue, allowing me to replace the other caster’s essence with my own. But, if I had to guess, based on the fact that you’re a vampire and that whatever it is has very rapidly and effectively embedded itself in your body, then it might very well be vampiric in origin.”

I can’t help reflexively cursing aloud when it clicks.

“He must be working with the vampire that’s taken up residence down there, the one creating all the newborns swarming the place. And either he hired us to throw us off his trail, or he’s stabbing his partner in the back.”

“Or he’s just plain setting us up and trying to stir up trouble with Alpha Miles for us,” Aspen suggests. “Knowing that we’ll ignore all better judgement and do as he says as long as he has Anna Jade.”

“Pete and Alpha Miles had better hurry up. The sooner we can go after Grayson, the better,” I declare, clenching my fists as I fight back my sudden rage.

I don’t like being played, and I especially don’t like that he brought an innocent young girl into it. Whatever he’s up to, he’s just signed his own death warrant. I had been planning to leave him alone once we got what we wanted from him, but now he’s centered in my sights. I know he’s no weakling and taking him on will be costly and dangerous, but it suddenly feels worth it.

“I’m not so sure about your theories,” Eramund considers aloud. “He could be working with a vampire, but contrary to popular belief, a will does not always open a way.”

Oh, lovely. He’s back to speaking in riddles and talking in circles.

“What does that even mean, magic man?” Aspen asks. Better her than me.

“Even if he wanted to partner up with a vampire, that doesn’t mean that it would just work. Not to create something like that,” he explains, pointing at Caz’s arm. “As I said, it’s not entirely magical, but it is partially. Part-magic, part-something else. A vampire can’t just create a receptacle for magic, and a caster can’t just imbue their own creation with vampiric energy. Something else is at work here, something that has allowed both parts to blend seamlessly, when they're not meant to.”

Where my mind immediately goes with that is not something I feel comfortable sharing, not yet anyway, but it’s unsettling to even think about. It reminds me far too much of the sorts of creations and experiments that Pete’s old nemesis Raja was known for. If we’re dealing with another rogue vampire with similar ambitions, or worse, if someone like Grayson has somehow stumbled upon any of her work in some secret lair of hers that we have yet to discover, then the dark, sinister implications abound.

I know it’s far less likely, but the part of me that wants to believe that everything will be alright in the end hopes that Eramund’s just too tired right now, and his magic will work better in the morning. An easy fix to an easy problem, no big deal, worried for nothing. But I’m not naïve enough to actually fall for that.

I already know that we’ve just inadvertently stepped into something much bigger than just some unknown vampire’s nesting grounds, and I have a feeling that I’m going to have to clear all our schedules for the foreseeable future and devote all our manpower to Riptide. But first, we need to get Anna Jade out of there and deposit her safely back home, far away from the waking nightmare. Once we find her, that is.