Page 23 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

When the glass was blessedly empty, I sat forward in the chair my butt was in and plonked the glass down on the table. I was glad to have that experience behind me.

Usually, when we did something involving magic, I enjoyed it a whole lot more. Or, I lit something on fire and everyone else seemed to enjoy that experience.

This hadn’t been a whole lot of fun for me and I learned basically nothing save for the fact Julian thought water was pure and if you have magic, you can imprint water with whatever you wanted. Or so Julian had said. I still didn’t believe him. But, for whatever reason, I’d done exactly as he’d asked me to and I hadn’t even faked it.

I sat back in my chair and folded my arms over my now churning stomach. I watched in silence as Julian unscrewed the lids on both of the medium sized mason jars, the one half full with some white cream and the black one with the flecks of missing paint on it.

He picked up the sharp looking knife and stuck it in the jar with the white cream. He scooped out a healthy dose of white cream with the knife and plopped it down into the silver bowl on the table. He scrapped the knife off on the rim of the bowl. He then repeated this action once more before setting the knife down onto a white washcloth. He screwed the lid back on that mason jar before placing it back inside his black bag.

Julian picked up the jar with the missing black paint chips and poured a small amount of whatever was inside there into the silver bowl. It was a clear liquid with a foul stench that immediately filled the dining room the second he’d poured it into the bowl. It hadn’t smelled when he’d unscrewed the lid. It hadn’t smelled like anything until he’d poured it out. Shouldn’t it have smelled when he’d unscrewed the lid? I thought so, but I didn’t say anything out loud. He seemed so focused on his task that I didn’t want to disrupt him and break his concentration.

I lifted a hand to my nose in an attempt to keep the smell at bay. It didn’t work. The stench would probably linger in Dash’s dining room for days.

“What’s in that?” I asked in horror.

Julian tilted his head to the side and grinned at me.

“It’s a secret,” he muttered as he turned back towards the table.

He picked up the knife off of the washcloth and dipped it in the silver bowl. He stirred the contents of the bowl with the knife.

I sat back in the chair and pulled my knees up to my chest. I watched him closely as I wrapped my arms around my legs. He was completely and utterly focused on the task before him.

I was fascinated with watching him work. Lines appeared on his forehead as he watched himself drag the knife around in circles inside the bowl. So focused on what he was doing, I swear, I could have gotten up and walked out of the room and he likely would not have noticed. I didn’t mind, I liked watching Julian work. I didn’t get to spend enough time with him, so I didn’t know him as well as I would have liked to. When life slowed down, and things were less strained and hectic, I was going to make a point to spend more time with the guys who I had yet to get to know very well. I wanted that very badly and one of those guys was Julian. The other one was Damien. Just talking to Damien still made me extremely nervous. He was a huge dick in the beginning, but I felt like he’d thawed a great deal towards me and we were making progress towards maybe becoming friends. All those DVD’s he’d bought for me were a step in the right direction. But I wasn’t sure I was ready to hang out with just him alone. I would need someone to be there for the very first time to act as a buffer incase he turned back into a dick.

Julian pulled the knife out of the bowl and wiped it off on the washcloth.

I watched in sick fascination as Julian put the knife to the pad of his thumb and pressed in. He sliced a thin line down his thumb. Red bloomed to life and my breath caught in my throat.

This is what Quinton had been talking about. This was blood magic. And it was happening right before my eyes. I hadn’t noticed any scars on Julian’s hands the way I had noticed with Quinton’s fingers. But, then again, I hadn’t really been paying attention to Julian the same way I did with Quinton.

I was paying attention now.

Boy, was I ever.

He placed the knife back down on to the washcloth. Stupidly, I hoped he didn’t stain Dash’s washcloth with his blood.

Julian held his thumb over the silver bowl and whispered words I couldn’t make out. Blood dripped down from his thumb, plopping into the concoction he’d created for me. He was going to rub his blood onto my face? I wasn’t sure I liked that idea very much and I also wasn’t sure I liked this blood magic very much. I was a firm believer that your blood should stay inside your body. What you shouldn’t do with it was smear it on someone else’s face.

“Uh, Julian,” I mumbled, at a loss for words.

His head slowly turned to the side and his eyes caught mine. My lips parted in surprise at what I saw on his face, in his eyes. His mouth was a harsh line. His eyes were big and bright, lit up by something on the inside that I couldn’t see. He looked intense, focused, and he didn’t look like he particularly enjoyed my interruption.

“Never you mind, I guess.” I mumbled as my eyes quickly skirted away from him, looking anywhere but back into his harsh face.

I had a feeling I just saw a whole new side to Julian that I hadn’t seen before, and it didn’t belong with his sweet side. What the hell? Where had this personality come from? And, could we maybe give it back?

This was the Julian who poisoned scary old ladies.

Julian unscrewed the lid on the smaller mason jar, the one with the white powder in it. He took out a pinch and sprinkled it on top of the smelly goop in the bowl.

He stuck his thumb into his mouth, sucking on it. When he pulled it out of his mouth, there was no more blood on it, he’d licked it clean.

Yes, this blood magic was not for me. This wasn’t going to work out for me.

I sat up straight in my chair, ready to bolt. Another dark look from Julian froze me in place and had me going absolutely nowhere. It was like he’d read my mind and knew I wanted to run away from him.

Well, okay then. It looked like we were doing this blood magic thing.

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