Page 127 of Love Bites

“There is a group of people who want access to the library,” I told her. “We protect the school from them and from others. They are desperate for stronger magic, and their skills are stepping up recently. I suspect the hellhound is their doing.”

“Who are they?” she asked. “Why don’t they just go to a school if they want to learn magic?”

“There are three ways to obtain magic,” I told her. “Three ways that I know of, at least. The first was the original magic, born to the recipient and used freely.”

“The fae,” she said dreamily. “I just learned they were real today.”

“Don’t look so lovelorn about them,” I told her firmly. “The fae are no friends to men. And besides, they’ve stayed on their side of the veil for generations.”

She scowled at me, but didn’t argue.

“Shifters, like me, and other magical creatures also fall into that category,” I explained. “We are born with our power.”

It was an oversimplification, but the premise was sound.

“The second kind of magic is what I’m learning, right?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes,” I told her. “Magic for a price, for those lucky enough to be blessed with a touch of the gift. Pay it forward or pay it afterward, your magic must be earned.”

“What about the third kind?” she asked.

“That is where this order of warlocks comes in,” I told her. “They are not born with magic, and they do not earn it. Instead, they steal it.”

“Theystealit?” she asked, looking horrified.

“It’s not a pretty idea,” I told her, knowing I could not spare her this knowledge. “Your teachers may explain it differently, but the truth is simple. They steal power from a magical being by pulling it out of them by force.”

“You mean, by…by…” seemed not to want to complete the question.

“By killing them,” I said, sparing her the necessity. “Most times by killing them, but sometimes they manage to keep the vessel alive, to drain it as long as possible.”

I shuddered and tried not to think of my council brother, Jared, who had gone missing in these woods two years ago.

It was tempting to think the increase in the warlocks’ power around the same time was coincidence. Could the fiends have captured him somehow and drawn magic from him to power their mischief?

I hoped not. I hoped he had simply run from his fate. Better that the mighty panther was dishonored than to think of him as dead, or worse.

We’d scoured the forest in search of him for weeks. But he’d vanished completely. It would take quite a bit of magic to hide from the full attention of the entire Brotherhood of Guardians. Not even the Order of the Broken Blade could manage such a feat.

Could they?

“What are you thinking about?” she asked softly.

I remembered our bond. While I was sure she could not yet read my thoughts, I worried that she might have guessed at their flavor.

“Nothing, little one,” I assured her. “I don’t like you being out in these woods with things so out of sorts. Let’s pick up the pace.”

After a good stretch of walking in comfortable silence, we had nearly reached my cabin. I would keep her safe there.

And I would make her mine.

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