The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE David Moody (the red fox clan txt) 📖

a rare one, wielded by very few powerful mages. The limitation (because there always limitations), is that you cannot produce your own. You cannot draw mana from around you and wield it at your will—you are dependent on what others can supply. My limitation is exhaustion. Using my power takes a toll on the body, pulling that energy in, drawing it from all around me and redirecting it, requires every ounce of energy I posses. I will use what little I have left to get us safely back, but as for anything else, I simply do not possess the strength. I would be like a horse ridden too hard for far too long.”

“Your heart would burst?”

“Something like that.”

“Then let’s get back. Maybe Sam and Thistle can do something.” She grunted as she attempted to pull him up, but he was fast asleep; apparently just explaining his exhaustion had put him over the edge. “Shit, shit, shit.” The monsters were everywhere and one was coming headlong for them. She smacked Kalandar a couple of times, but he didn’t so much as stir. She moved, so he was between her and the incoming beast. She figured he’d have a much better chance of surviving, and if things got bad, she might be able to escape while they were feeding. It occurred to her what a crappy thought that was, but in reality, what did she owe Kalandar? And anyway, he’d brought this whole thing on. Maddie got down in a crouch as she braced for impact. Kalandar sighed and rolled over, his ass facing the giant tick. Maddie figured the demon was in for a very rude awakening. She squinted as it got closer; she wanted to turn away or close her eyes, but when it was time to go, she wouldn’t be able to waste a second. The bogalite’s eyes were locked on the duo, its mouth open and drooling in preparation for the feast laid out before it.

“Ahhhh!” Maddie screamed as it charged perilously close. She wasn’t even sure what she saw then; it seemed to be happening in a simultaneously hi-speed, slow-motion effect. The mouth parts were the first to split and crack as they hit something that had been invisible, but now had smears of dark black embedded into the surface. The mouth was forced down into the body, and this just as its eyes burst along the surface. The milky eye gel dripped and mixed in with the rest to create a morbid abstract painting as it rolled slowly down the surface.

“What the fuck?!” Maddie yelled out as the force of the hit pushed herself, Kalandar, and the field a couple of feet backward.

“I am attempting to sleep. If you don’t keep quiet, I will pull your lungs out through your back.”

“Like the Vikings?”

“They thought me an elf, a Dokkalfar, to be specific. Who do you think gave them the idea? Now, if you could be so kind as to shut up, it may keep me from finding other ways to regain my strength.” He had one eye open and locked onto her stare until he was certain she understood him clearly.

She started waving her arms around, convinced that Thistle and Sam would be watching her on the monitors. She wasn’t sure what they would do or even what they could do, but she couldn’t just stay here and watch as helpless people were butchered. She could already hear the distant screams of the damned.

“Oh, and do not leave the sphere I have created; you will not be able to re-enter.” He had hardly finished the words before he was snoring so loudly it was echoing within the protective chamber.

“Think, Maddie, there has to be something you can do,” she whispered. A thought took hold in a tucked-away dark corner of her mind. “That’s right…this ball is made of magic; I can do shit with magic.” A grin spread across her lips, then quickly faded. “But what do I do with it? Okay, the bug moved it, I should be able to do the same.” She placed her hands close to where she figured the edge was, careful not to push through. If Kalandar was right and her hands went outside the sphere…she shuddered. She couldn’t imagine a more enticing appetizer for a meat-eater than her outstretched arms. She concentrated on what she was doing and pushed hard, slightly embarrassed when her actions produced an unwanted outcome.

Kalandar sat up. “Hades is here! We’ve been discovered!”

“What?”

“Sulfur—do you not smell it? When agents of the underworld make their way through worlds, there is a telltale odor.”

“That may or may not have been me.”

“What? Why would you summon them!?” Kalandar was moving his great head around, looking for the new threat. “If I am seen here with you, I will have to eat you. They must not suspect I am doing anything not on the down and down.”

“Just like that?”

“As I said, what is happening is greater than individuals. You would be an unfortunate sacrifice, but one that would need to be made.”

“No one else is here, and I did not summon the underworld.”

“Are you sure? That smell has tanned the insides of my nostrils.”

“This is ridiculous…just go back to sleep. I have work to do.”

He eyed her for a moment. “Perhaps tonight for dinner, you should eat a meal of greens.”

Maddie turned the color of her hair. Somehow she’d become embarrassed, something she didn’t think she’d could feel in front of her present company. He grunted and, as he lay his head back down, he placed a hand over his nose.

“It wasn’t that bad,” she muttered.

“Not that bad? Angels in heaven are praying, believing the end has come.”

Maddie turned back to what she’d been attempting to do. “You can kiss my ass.”

“Believe me, if I have to eat you, that will be the very last thing…” he trailed off into a snore.

“Gotta get back to the hotel.” Maddie felt a grim determination as the front line of the stampeding