Words of Power (Alice Gray Book 3)

67

Was this guy serious?

Didn't he know what had just happened? Was he aware of what I was now that the All Seeing Eye was shining down on me? Now that it was shining down on him?

The answer was a clear no, I realised as I looked at his shifting features. All Brother Jerome knew was that he thought he could use me, just like he had been using my father.

It was a sad delusion. That he could somehow employ our weird magic to stop the vamps from dying. I guess I'd have felt some sympathy had it not been for the fact that he would happily tear me apart to achieve that end.

After a long life of servitude, the medieval monk had seen Jonathan, and his aim to control the DPA was finally in sight. A witch of the Device bloodline had been produced with magic so powerful that he could live in his own dimension.

Now that was something unique.

Something that he could use.

If he could only find the means of tapping into it.

When Jonathan was turned, and his life-force absorbed the Baroness's blood, he became the perfect test subject to discover what was possible when the magic of witches and vampires merged.

After all, there was only one other known candidate, and he was far too powerful and well-protected. My father was the only one to merge the magics of the two races since James Device was turned.

A witch-boy made vampire. A vampire with a little something of his old self lingering in the mix. But more importantly, a powerful vampire with none of the devolving magic that plagued the elders.

I almost laughed out loud when I understood how clueless Brother Jerome really was. He thought he could use human science, human invention, to solve a magical problem.

A vampire falling back on the industry of its prey to remove an obstacle to immortality created by cosmic imbalance?

It really was as absurd as it sounded.

There was no way to replace the Earth's dwindling magic other than through the Eye. All the human technology in the world wouldn't change that.

All the time that these truths flashed through my mind, I knew Brother Jerome was closing in. I felt the cold sensation on my shoulder at the same time that Thomas's eyes widened in alarm.

I wasn't scared.

I welcomed the sensation of creeping frigidity that slugged through my veins as Brother Jerome's unsubstantial hand somehow gripped my flesh.

Twisting my head, I let my own smirk meet his. It wasn't enough to make him falter. The arrogance of being right at the very top of the food chain for centuries was not an easy thing to challenge.

So instead I embraced it.

I let him send his dirt into me. That dusty essence of his vampire friends, the ones that had lost their vitality and their magical energy. The joy of his triumph rippled through me along with the particles of dead matter. I wasn't even sure what he thought this would accomplish.

To subdue me definitely, maybe to possess me?

It didn't matter. He was giving me exactly what I needed.

My blood felt heavy and sluggish as it carried the dead grains of vampire dust through my system. Thomas watched me, his alarm turning to understanding as my life-force grew stronger in the light of the All Seeing Eye. He could feel it, the power, just like I could.

It was bright, strong and pure, and it consumed the death-dust that swamped my blood leaving behind a trail of pure energy.

Thomas rested his head back to the floor, and closed his eyes. Anyone else would think he was sleeping, but I could feel the well of intent, the deep-seated confidence that he had in my ability to do this.

The warmth of his belief filled me up until there was no room for doubt anywhere inside me anymore.

I understood it all now. All the components of creation that co-existed on the planet were part of its structure. Even the dead-vamp dust was integral to the fabric that held the magic in balance. Just as it was to the web of silver energy that hung in the atmosphere around us.

And every part of creation could be incorporated into the well of energy that shone down on me from the All Seeing Eye, the source of all cosmological power.

Religion, politics, belief, control.

That was how those in charge had divvied up the Earth's finite magical energy for centuries. But a new age was dawning.

An age of silver.

Uh Alice, are you still in control over there? Read on...