Lethal charms, p.1
Lethal Charms, page 1
Lethal Charms
Nox: Sorceress: Book Two
J.C. Diem
Copyright © 2021 J.C. DIEM
www.jcdiem.com
All rights reserved. Published by Seize The Night Publishing Agency.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Titles by J.C. Diem in chronological order:
Chapter One
DIM LIGHT FROM ONE of the rare magical streetlamps in the Vampire District briefly illuminated Sorcha as she passed beneath it while stalking her target. The leech was surrounded by her kiss as they headed out to hunt. There were too few masters left now. It would be a bad idea to assassinate the leaders that still existed, so the Immortal Triumvirate were focusing on eliminating the fledglings instead. It was a way to teach the masters a lesson when they overstepped their bounds. The same applied to the alphas in the Shifter District, or so the sorceress figured. She hadn’t killed a master, or an alpha lately.
Sorcha kept her distance from the kiss, even though she’d cast the sound and scent nullifying shield around herself. She followed the link from her assassination order as the bloodsuckers headed eastward. Desperation had forced them out of their modest house in search of food. The master was almost as weak and emaciated as her fledglings. She didn’t have enough energy to conjure up blood for her small brood. Nox could no longer provide enough magic for the masses. Not even being given a reprieve from the Energy Tax this year had really helped anyone.
Her mark was only a few blocks ahead of her now. The leeches were heading towards a bridge that led to the Fae District. The assassin scanned the streets and buildings constantly. She searched for threats and for the master vampire who had killed Eden and Malachi. So far, she hadn’t seen Sebastian or heard any rumors about him. He was the most elusive target she’d ever searched for. Unlike her usual missions, she didn’t have a spell in the back of her head that would lead her to him.
A small scowl appeared on the forgettable face of the illusion Sorcha was wearing. She’d searched the most affluent areas of the Vampire District in the small amount of free time she had, but she hadn’t had any luck so far. The bloodsuckers kept to themselves for the most part. They didn’t exactly stand around on street corners to gossip.
“I wish I could compel people to talk like Eden used to be able to,” she muttered, but she couldn’t hear herself speak, due to her spell. If she’d been a succubus instead of a sorceress, she could have used her talents to ensnare men. They would tell her everything she wanted to know. Then again, Eden’s talents didn’t work on the undead. It probably wouldn’t have come in handy during Sorcha’s personal mission for revenge.
She was contemplating the idea of trying to create a compulsion spell that would work on vampires when a letter zoomed towards her. “Not another one!” she said in dismay. It came to a stop in front of her and hovered a few inches away from her face. It would just keep following her and annoying her if she didn’t open it. She knew what would happen once she did. The two assassination orders would instantly begin vying for her attention. They would battle each other for supremacy until one of her jobs had been finished. This was only the second time she’d received two orders at once, but it was bound to happen more often now that she was the only assassin left.
Bracing herself, the sorceress opened the letter. As soon as she read the message, a second link became established in her head. Her second target was also a vampire. The new spell tried to tug her towards the northern end of the District. “This must be what schizophrenia feels like,” Sorcha said as she tried to juggle both spells at once.
By sheer force of will, she ignored the second order and focused on the first one. Her target had left the Vampire District and had crossed a bridge to the Fae District. She hurried after the kiss until the prodding sensation in her head grew stronger. Instead of fading with distance, the second spell increased in strength as well. A headache was already forming and her skull began to ache. Sorcha knew she wouldn’t be able to withstand the force of two assassination orders for long. She needed to eradicate her first mark quickly, before her concentration was completely ruined.
A lone crow cruised by overhead. It almost seemed to be following her as she hurried after the leeches. The kiss had crept into a neighborhood where human witches and wizards lived. Most of the magic users had abandoned their homes near the river. They now banded together for survival. Red flares suddenly shot into the air in a bright display of color. She figured the humans had erected wards in the event of bloodsuckers invading their territory.
“They’ve cast spells around their houses!” the thin and sickly-looking master vampire hissed. Sorcha could feel the wards that had been placed around the neighborhood. All they did was shoot magical flares into the air, but it was enough to startle the vampires into fleeing.
Sorcha camouflaged herself against a wall and pointed a finger at her target. The vamps didn’t have enough energy to move at their usual blinding speed. They had to run at a human pace, so she had plenty of time to send a spear of fire through her mark’s heart. The fledgling dropped to the sidewalk and her master skidded to a stop as well. She let out an anguished wail, but the other members of her kiss dragged her away.
The assassin sagged against the wall in relief that she only had one spell pounding inside her skull. Now that it no longer had another mission to vie with, the prodding in her head eased back to a bearable level.
Witches and wizards spilled out of the nearby houses onto the sidewalks with their wands raised for battle. “I see an intruder!” an aged, frail old woman screeched. They converged on the dead vampire.
“What happened to him?” a wizard asked. He wasn’t as old as the others who gathered around him. It was probably his night off from his duties at the Magic Guildhall.
“He’s got a hole in his chest that looks like it went straight through his heart,” someone said as they rolled the body over to examine it.
“Must have been one of those secret assassins,” another person joked. Snickers broke out, then they left the corpse and headed back to their homes. A skeleton that was tending a nearby tree shambled over to the body. It bent down to grab the vamp by the arm and laboriously began dragging it towards the closest cemetery.
Sorcha waited until everyone was gone before teleporting to the heart of the Vampire District. She arrived in the foyer of the gothic church that no one in the District ever visited. Hallowed ground was deadly to both the undead and demons. Her next target was only a few blocks away and she exited through a side door.
As she cut through one of the many alleys, the sorceress mused about how dire things had become in the City of Night. It was hard to imagine Nox had ever been prosperous and that the citizens had once been relatively happy. She’d been born after the invasion of soldiers and the undead apocalypse that had occurred afterwards. By the time she’d been trained to assassinate her targets, the city had become a dismal place with little magic left. The Night Cursed population had been condemned to living in compounds in their District after the Drain. Few of them had been left with enough energy to perform their duties. The ones that were still operational were viewed with scorn, derision and fear.
She remembered a conversation she’d had with Kade Sinclair a couple of nights ago. They’d both felt sorry for the Night Cursed beings. The pair had agreed that no one deserved the fate they’d been dealt by the Immortal Triumvirate’s actions. They’d also agreed that it would take someone with enormous power to overthrow them. Their conversation had been treasonous, but no one had heard them. Then they’d kissed and the sorceress had briefly known what it felt like to be happy.
Sorcha forced herself to push the memory of the kiss away. Now wasn’t the time to fantasize about having a relationship with the handsome wizard. After she’d killed Sebastian and had found someone to break her bonds with her rulers, maybe she could think about taking things further with Kade.
Chapter Two
A SQUEAL OF PAIN SOUNDED from just around the next corner. Sorcha cautiously approached the crossroads, then glanced around the corner to see a swarm of rats attacking one of their own. Her upper lip curled in disgust as the horrible rodents tore the rat apart. A few of them chowed down on the body, but the others just watched. Her gorge tried to rise when she saw the bloody, skeletal remains when they were done. She had to clap a hand over her mouth when the animals that had feasted on the corpse promptly threw up.
Turning away, she stopped when she realized something had been very wrong with the rats. She looked over her shoulder to see the swarm was hurrying along the sidewalk. Nothing remained of the body of the dead rat, except for bloodstains and scraps of fur. “What happened to it?” she murmured. Even if the other rats had finished off the fallen animal, its bones would still have remained.
One of the rodents paused and gave her a sly look before it turned the corner and left her view. Her eyesight was sharp enough to make out what had bothered her about the swarm. “They all had pale green eyes,” she said uneasily. They’d also been unnaturally still as they’d watched their friends devour the deceased.
A shudder wracked the sorceress as she continued towards her target’s house. Nothing in Nox should surprise her anymore, yet the rats had been more disturbing than she cared to admit. As far as she knew, they didn’t usually have green eyes. A crow cawed from a nearby rooftop and almost seemed to be laughing at her. She glanced up at it and frowned. “It has green eyes, too,” she said. A sliver of fear slid along her spine, but she started walking again.
Casting her mind back, she realized she’d seen a lot of crows and rats during her missions during the past few weeks. The pests usually hid themselves from sight, but they’d grown increasingly bold lately. Another crow cawed, but it had brown eyes rather than green. The green-eyed bird took to wing and zoomed straight towards the other crow. The pair clashed and Sorcha dodged away from the feathers that fell from their scuffle.
She was glad to leave the fighting pair behind when she reached the corner. The assassin headed in the opposite direction from where the rats had gone. Clouds had been gathering for the past hour. A light mist began to fall, but quickly became more intense. The assassin altered her shield so it kept the rain from reaching her. She avoided another streetlamp when she drew closer to it. It felt like hungry eyes were watching her from the darkness and shadows and they probably were. She didn’t want to draw any attention to herself if she could help it.
If she hadn’t masked herself with the shield, the vampires would have been able to smell her scent and hear her heartbeat. She would have been swarmed and devoured by ravenous fledglings, just like the rat that had been killed by its own kind. “At least they wouldn’t have eaten my flesh,” she muttered.
The address she’d been given was only half a block away now. Sorcha could feel her mark somewhere inside the house as the spell became stronger. The prodding in her head was annoying, but bearable as she circled around the modest building. A high stone wall surrounded it. She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then camouflaged herself against the stone. She was just an indistinct blur of movement as she hauled herself over the wall and dropped into the yard.
Moving into a crouch in the grass that was long enough to reach her knees, Sorcha surveyed the building. The windows were shuttered from the inside, but low light filtered through the cracks of one window. She crossed the yard without bothering to be stealthy. Her shield muffled all noise she made. Not even the sharpest ears could detect her movements now.
Sorcha peered through the cracks in the shutter and saw into a living room. The kiss of five vampires were sitting on threadbare couches and armchairs. Their expressions were miserable and their faces were gaunt.
“Did you hear about Jardine?” her mark said as the sorceress was about to end his life. He was just another lowly fledgling. He would die because his master had done or said something to annoy Lord Kreaton.
Sorcha paused to listen to the gossip that filtered through the window.
“She found a willing blood donor,” the master said dourly. “She calls him her ‘consort’,” he added and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t care what she calls him,” another vamp said in a shrill tone. “I heard she’s now strong enough to conjure up blood for her kiss on a weekly basis.”
Accusing stares were sent at their master. “Where am I supposed to find someone who will be willing to let me drink from them on a regular basis?” he asked in exasperation, spreading his hands wide. “They don’t exactly grow on trees, you know!”
He wasn’t a true master. It was obvious he’d been chosen for the role from the way the others looked at him scornfully. True masters ruled their kiss with fear and respect. They wouldn’t have stood for their fledglings defying them.
“I wish the Night Cursed creatures weren’t locked away in their District,” Sorcha’s target said wistfully. “Remember when we used to kidnap the mimes and feed on them?”
“It used to be so funny when they’d scream soundlessly and plead for their pathetic lives through their overexaggerated gestures,” someone else replied. A few chuckles sounded, then morose silence fell.
“Why don’t we try feeding from the drained Night Cursed beings?” the shrill female asked.
“You know why,” the fake master said scornfully. “Their blood can’t sustain us now that their energy has been stolen from them.”
“They taste funny, too,” the target added, wrinkling his nose in distaste.
“I’m so hungry,” the shrill female complained and rubbed her stomach.
“We’re all hungry,” her master snapped. “Shut up and stop whining about it!”
Sorcha ended their squabble by assassinating her mark with a spear of fire. She teleported away as they shot to their feet in terror. The sorceress had had enough of prowling around the Vampire District for one night. A moment later, she appeared in the living room of her apartment. She had no idea who Jardine was, but she couldn’t imagine who would be dumb enough to willingly become a blood donor for the leeches.
“He must have rocks in his head,” she said as she headed for her bathroom to take a shower. Dawn was only an hour or so away now. It was doubtful she would receive another kill order tonight. Her masters had no idea she could teleport. They assumed she would need to catch a carriage to reach her targets. Despite Lord Dallinar locking half of her power away when she’d been a baby, Sorcha was still more powerful than most of the magic users she’d met. She only wished she was strong enough to break the link in her head that tied her to the Immortal Triumvirate.
Chapter Three
KADE SINCLAIR ATE THE meal that appeared on the dining table for him without tasting it. His thoughts were torn between focusing on his task and thinking about Sorcha. He could still remember the feel of her soft lips from their brief encounter three nights ago. In his dreams, she’d been the match he was searching for. Waking up had brought harsh reality crashing back down on him.
He pushed his empty plate away and it vanished along with his silverware as he stood up. He wanted to get to the Magic Guildhall early. His plan was to lurk in hiding and scan the guildmembers for potential candidates. Five months had passed since he’d formed a triumvirate with Sebastian and Raum. The master vampire had found his match in Eden, but neither Kade, nor Raum, had been lucky enough to locate a suitable woman of their own yet.
The warlock was dressed in brown trousers and a black long-sleeved shirt. He grabbed his dark red cloak and pulled the hood up out of habit. After being shunned for being a half breed for his entire life, it was instinctive for him to hide his face. Human witches didn’t care if he was half fae. They were fascinated by his purple eyes and chiseled cheekbones. Full blood fae scorned him for being inferior. Mixed bloods like him were the lowest beings in the fae hierarchy.
