Surreptitious

Chapter 40: Narrow Escape

“Okay! Okay…” Hope relented, a million thoughts shooting through her head but only one that really mattered – she had to keep Josie safe. “What do you need me to do? How does this work?”

The Necromancer grinned as he could feel victory creeping up on him. “The original Malivore was created by three ancient supernatural beings, as you ought to know by now: A witch, a werewolf and a vampire. Your lineage for all three can be traced back to the very beginnings, therefore I need you – you are the closest to the original creators that I can get.”

“So what do you need? My blood?” Hope spoke quickly, almost rambling, her eyes locked on where Josie was still swinging precariously inside her cage from a quickly unraveling rope.

“Your blood is vampiric, it is only one component. I also need your werewolf saliva, and you need to be the witch to cast the spell.” He tossed a small wooden bowl over at Hope, seemingly choosing to keep his distance from the tribrid – which, under current circumstances, was probably a good idea. “Mix the blood and saliva venom, then use the mixture to draw the ancient triad on your boyfriend here’s forehead.” He snapped his fingers and Landon, eyes still white and blank, slowly walked over to stand in front of Hope with his back to the pit of bubbling mud. “After that I will recite the incantation to you.” He held up his one hand then, finger first pointing towards Hope before slowly swaying in order to indicate towards Josie instead. “Any funny business and you lose her. Understood? You have made your weakness for her abundantly clear.”

Hope scowled, confused, “How did you know it was her?”

The Necromancer laughed then and simply canted his head to one side, amused at how Hope would underestimate him. “Initially I thought the boy was your weakness, but after using him to spy on the school…and especially that romantic dance…I learned the truth about where your heart really resided.”

“How did you even manage to get hold of her?” Hope was indignant. She was also trying to stall.

“I’m tired of all these trivial questions now.” He snapped his fingers and another piece of the rope holding Josie above the pit gave way. She squeaked in surprise and Hope nearly had a heart attack.

“STOP IT!” Hope growl-shouted at him as her eyes blazed a glorious golden hue and her incisors started to grow thicker and longer behind her lips. She near-panted as she tried to keep herself and her wolf under control, but it was the opportunity she needed to gather what she needed. After licking thoroughly over her canines with her tongue and gathering the liquid she could feel pooling in her mouth, she spat it into the wooden bowl. She then used her canines to break the skin on the wrist of her one arm, letting the blood run into the bowl as well before she healed up again.

“Now there’s a good girl.” The Necromancer spoke at Hope as if she was a dog and it only infuriated her more, but she glanced up at Josie’s pleading eyes and allowed it to give her strength. She stood up straight as she shook away the gold in her eyes and the fangs in her mouth retracted. She mixed the blood and saliva in the bowl with her index finger and stepped up to Landon, then started dipping into the mixture in order to draw the symbol on his forehead.

“Repeat after me now, ‘Servus magicae creaturae quae haurit.’” The dark witch chanted and gave Hope time to repeat his words while she directed her magic at Landon. She could feel the spell was strong, she could feel it draining her reserves, and she could feel her heart breaking for Landon. But none of it was as poignant as the fear she felt to lose Josie. So, concentrating was difficult as she kept glancing towards the siphon in her cage, like a trapped bird, but Hope would put more effort into the spell as she repeated the incantation until Landon, eventually, started glowing a strange orange color. Hope stopped chanting once this happened and watched as Landon turned around and walked right into the pit of mud, but he did not sink into it. In fact, the mud only pushed up to just above his ankles as he came to a stop in the middle of the pit.

Hope and Josie both watched with dread, the Necromancer with delight, as the mud started swirling around Landon, creeping up his legs and his arms like the vines of some sort of horrific creeper plant. Eventually the tendrils of dark liquid encased him completely, and at the same time the pit dried up. However, where Hope expected to see a mud golem standing before her, the mud soon dissipated, as if Landon’s body absorbed it all, and he was left standing in the middle of the mudless pit, looking just like he did before.

“Wait, where’s Malivore?” Hope asked in confusion, slightly out of breath.

“You’re looking at him, sweetheart.” The Necromancer laughed before explaining, “Landon is now a vessel for his father. And not only does he retain the same powers his father had, but I tweaked the magic slightly…” The normally demented look on the dark witch’s face turned even darker then as he glared at Hope. Hope got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “He can now also harm his creators – witches, werewolves, vampires – now no one can escape him!”

At these delighted words uttered by the Necromancer, Landon suddenly grabbed onto Hope’s wrists and tendrils of dark liquid seemed to seethe right from his skin and started twisting around her arms. She was about to be enveloped, she knew, and struggled to pull herself out of Landon’s grasp.

Josie screamed and rattled her cage, yanking as hard as she could on the bars. “Hope! NO!” Her temper flared and her heart raced and her blood ran hot and cold all at the same time. She got to the point of nearly hyperventilating when she could feel the strange sensation burning outward from deep within her. Her eyes slipped shut slowly and when they shot open again, they were glowing a bright copper. Her wolf was clearly not going to allow any harm to come to her mate, completely breaking through Freya’s spell that kept it bound in Josie’s subconscious.

She couldn’t shift, but what she could do was to siphon herself. One spell chanted and she was free of her cage and on the ground, another spell followed quickly, aimed at freezing Landon in place in order to stop his absorption of Hope as she continued to struggle against him. It didn’t work, the Malivore reincarnation simply absorbing the magic cast at him. Josie moved quickly and within two or three bounds she was right up against Landon’s back, her hands grabbing onto his shoulders. She started siphoning as hard and as fast as she could, aiming to weaken him enough to let Hope go.

It worked. It seemed that as long as he was being absorbed and not given the opportunity to absorb, he showed a weak spot. Hope broke free as the tendrils of mud dried around her arms, cracked and fell to the ground. With Josie keeping him busy, Hope turned to the Necromancer, fully intent on dealing with him. To her surprise, he was just standing there watching and smiling. “Oooh my new friend looks angry now.” The witch chuckled and motioned past Hope’s shoulder and when she glanced back, she could see that Landon had broken free of Josie’s hold and had now spun around and was backing her up, closer to the wall of the cave. Since Hope was no longer distracting his actions, he was aiming to absorb Josie instead.

Hope muttered a quick spell under her breath and lifted one hand to aim it at the Necromancer; a blast of magic followed which he easily deflected with his own dark magic within a split second, still laughing, if not more. Hope figured that if she could knock out the puppet master, then the puppet would fall as well. But getting to the dark witch was an entire mission by itself. But maybe… She did the same spell again, but this time she aimed above the witch’s head, causing rocky pieces of the wall behind him and cave ceiling above him to crumble and burry him in rubble and dust. The motion also caused Landon to drop to the floor like a lifeless doll.

Hope knew it wouldn’t last long before the evil maniac blasted those rocks out of his way. “We need to get out of here, now!” She held out her hand for Josie to grab and the two ran as fast as they could from the cave and back in the direction of the school.

“I’ll be back for you!” was all they could hear as they ran, echoing from the cave in that demented tone.