Chapter Thirteen: Establishing a Link

~ Marie ~

“Why did you teleport Mark back to the house?” Adrian didn’t take his eyes off the map as he spoke. Mark had already been sent to bed when he started to get bored and fidgety. “If the barrier was as great as he was saying then there shouldn’t have been a need to send him back.”

“I thought you wanted him out of harm’s way.”

“You did it for me?” He gave her a knowing smile before continuing. “Then what about the paper you shoved in your pocket?” She’d been hoping he hadn’t noticed that.

“It’s a talisman.”

“Like the one that burned with the body?”

“That one had a curse written on it. It was better not to take chances with that one.”

“What makes the one in your pocket safer?” He wasn’t going to let this go. Marie reached into her pocket and pulled out the talisman.

“This one was meant for barriers.” He reached out and took it. Adrian flipped it back and forth as he studied it.

“So it would have destroyed your barrier?”

“Of course not.” Marie frowned as an amused smile crossed Adrian’s face.

“Then why did you rush to pull it off your barrier?” When did he see that? Every time she glanced in his direction, he was facing the other way.

“This talisman is meant to drain a barrier until it breaks.”

“I don’t understand.” He held the talisman out and she shoved it back into her pocket.

“A regular barrier has a set amount of power that it uses to deflect attacks. Once the magic is used up, the barrier breaks.”

“But Mark’s barrier is different.” It wasn’t a question. He didn't seem knowledgeable when it came to magic but maybe that wasn't the case.

“I’m the battery for his barrier.”

“So the talisman drained you directly.” Adrian leaned back as he stared at her. “You said that a normal barrier had only so much magic. And every time it deflected an attack, magic was used.” Marie nodded, not liking where this was going. “So then every time the barrier deflected an attack for Mark, it was draining you of magic.” Marie sipped her coffee. She had been ignoring it throughout their conversation and now it was cold and didn’t taste good. She tried not to make a face as she put it back down.

“What’s your point?”

“How big of a drain on your magic is this barrier?” She glanced down at the map in time to see the light on the map stop. Slowly, it flickered. The light flashed a few more times before fading away. Marie exhaled in frustration as she leaned back.

“He’s dead.”

“Damn.” She heard her frustration mirrored in his voice. “Did they realize you were tracking?” Marie couldn’t rule it out but...

“If they had known, they would have led him away.” Adrian leaned forward and placed his finger on the area where the light had faded away.

“There’s mostly gated communities and HOA properties in this area.” The extra security in a gated community would be a problem for vampires. HOAs weren’t any better since people would be inspecting the neighborhood to make sure it met regulations. If this vampire was part of the group trying to frame Mark, they wouldn’t want to pick a place that would make coming and going more difficult. Even with those areas ruled out, there was no way to tell if he would have continued straight or turned. That left too many possibilities. Marie watched as his finger moved from area to area as if he was ruling even more out. Or making a list.

“Do you know anything else about the area?” His finger stopped as he glanced up at her.

“How big of a drain is the barrier?”

“He'll have the barrier as long as it’s needed.”

“We should leave things here for tonight.” Adrian smiled at her as he stood up and left. She quickly shoved her irritation down. He would have to share his information sooner or later. There was no way for him to take care of a demon on his own.

Marie refilled her mug before going back to her study. She placed it down on the table as she browsed the shelves. Hmm. If she remembered correctly, it should be somewhere around here. Marie knelt down and checked the lower shelves before pulling out a book and flipping it open. From there, she searched through the middle until she found the information she was looking for.

A vampire has several advantages when it comes to the hunting of humans. One of those is the saliva of the vampire. Its use in stopping a wound from bleeding is vitally important. Doing so aids in their ability to…

No, that wasn’t it. She skimmed several more paragraphs before she found what she was looking for.

A vampire may give his blood to another for several reasons. Chief among those is the need to control the human to which he has given his blood. With power over the human, the vampire is able to even erase the memories that would prove detrimental to the vampire. Other reasons include communication, tracking and, in certain cases, permanent servitude. These measures, however, can only be used within a small window of time, anywhere from several days to one month, depending upon the strength of the vampire whose blood has been given. Another theory that has been put forth is that vampire blood carries a healing element...

She closed the book. The rest of the text talked about things that didn’t apply to her situation. Now to compare what Adrian had said from what was written here. She thought back to when they made their deal.

*~*~*

Earlier, Adrian had explained his last two conditions. One was that he would be more involved with the investigation. And the second condition...

“I want to create a blood link with you.”

“Why?”

“With a blood link, I would be able to communicate with you over long distances as well as know your location.” Hmm. Obviously, his goal was tracking her movements. He hadn’t liked that she had gone to the apartment without him and that she was questioning vampires on her own. Her gut reaction was to say no. She didn’t want to give him any power over her, even if he only used it to track her movements.

"Does it do anything else?" He stared at her for a long moment. Adrian put this hand over his heart, his eyes solemn.

"I swear as Master of Stone Oak to only use the blood link for tracking and communication." He was telling the truth. The truth spell confirmed it. But there was more to this blood link than what he was saying. And only a fool would blindly trust. Was there anything she could do against this? Off the top of her head, she remembered this was something temporary but nothing more specific. It shouldn’t last longer than a couple of months. That was usually the max for a spell. Tsk. A lot could happen in a couple of months.

"How is this done?"

"There are several methods but it comes down to the same thing. You would need to drink my blood." Her dream from before flashed through her mind. No, this wasn’t like that. "We don't have to go through with this." Marie frowned. She needed to focus on what was happening now. The plan depended on his approval but should she go through with this? Marie knew the answer she would give before she even opened her mouth.

She balanced on her knees as she searched through the cabinet. Marie had climbed up onto the counter and was carefully pulling out cup after cup searching for one she wouldn’t mind never using again. There was no way she was going to use the cup again after this. She felt his presence before she heard his voice.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for a cup.” He glanced down at the array of cups surrounding her. She frowned. Why did it matter to him which cup she used?

“How about this one?” He lifted up her black mug with the chipped bottom. Marie grabbed it from him and put it in the corner as far away from his reach as she could get it.

“Not that one.” An amused smile crossed his face as he went back to examining cups.

“Then how about this one?” He lifted up a pink mug with a white flower printed on the front. Where did that even come from? It didn’t seem like something she would have bought.

“That one’s fine.” Marie put the rest of the cups back in the cabinet except for her black mug. She would need something to get the taste out later. Marie turned around and sat down on the counter so she could slide off but Adrian picked her up and set her down on the floor. He gave her his polite smile but it didn’t erase her irritation. Marie forced herself to calm down.

Adrian bit into his arm using his fangs and held his arm steady over the pink cup. After about thirty seconds, he lowered his arm and handed it to her. His arm might be healed but he was still dripping on her floor. She cleaned his arm and the floor using magic before glancing down at the cup. Marie took a deep breath and closed her eyes before drinking from the cup. She hid her grimace behind her hand as she lowered her arm and dropped the cup into the sink. If it broke, it broke. She wasn’t going to use it anymore anyway.

“The link has been established. We can go ahead with your plan, whenever you’re ready.” Marie ignored his smug smile as she started up the coffee maker. She wanted to wash the taste out as quickly as possible. Afterwards, she had gone to the study to read while he talked to Mark about their plan.

*~*~*

Her irritation rose again. She had only herself to blame for being forced into this position. Marie examined the passage again. According to this, she would have to wait anywhere from a couple of days to a month for the link to fade away. Since he was a Master vampire the link would probably last closer to a month. But there was no way she would wait a month and hope he didn’t try anything on her. After this case, she would go back to the bookstore and search for more books on vampires. There must be something out there to counteract this.

Marie put the book away and turned her attention to the talisman she pulled out of her pocket. Just like she'd told Adrian, its purpose was to destroy barriers. The reason she didn’t just get rid of the thing was because she wanted to copy down the mage’s mark.

A talisman was made of two parts. One part was the spell itself. The spell took up most of the talisman and was written from top to bottom. The second party was the mage’s mark which was normally placed in the bottom right corner. The mark wasn't needed to make a talisman work but many magic users made use of them to differentiate their talismans from others. The script used would be a combination of several script that the magic user felt represented them. It was possible to constantly switch marks but most magic users grew attached to their specific mark and kept using the same ones.

Even though it was possible to find the magic user using their magic signature alone, she still wanted to write down their mark. Based on what she remembered of the curse, both talismans used the same mark so it was likely that it was the same person. She copied the mark on to a piece of paper before burning the talisman. Better to be cautious. She didn’t need any surprises.

Her exhaustion had increased with that last bit of magic. Maybe it would be better to call it a night. Marie eyed her watch. It was only eleven. There was still a large pile of books that needed to be looked through. She chose one off the top and sat down on the floor. Reading until she was sleepy should be fine. Maybe she would get lucky and find something before she did.