Page 79 of Silver Claw

“Do what?” Rick asked.

Zach looked at his hands, and finally, his eyes cleared. “There was magic inside me. It’s in you now. It’s…” He shrugged, looking for the words. “It’s bossing around the daywalker and ghost bites. Changing them into something good for you.”

I began to tremble. “Zach,” I murmured. “The magic from the bites—and from you—belongs to me now?”

I realized I’d rather have bad magic inside me than no magic at all.

But that was something I’d never admit to anyone.

“Yeah,” he said. “I feel free. Light.” Then he seemed to realize he’d somehow transferred something potentially awful into me, and he paled. “Kait, I hope—”

“I can handle it,” I said, my voice stronger. “Once upon a time, I absorbed magic. I thought that was gone. But…maybe it’s not all gone.”

Rick helped me put my arm back into my shirt. “You’re okay with this, Kait?”

I was more than okay. I was jumping out of my skin with excitement. I was thrilled. I hadmagic. I could feel it inside me, clawing at my insides like an eager cat. I wasn’t sure how to use it, but I knew one thing for certain.

Like all magic, it would come out when I needed it to come out. Just like my psycho, my blood magic, my shapeshifter. Magic left inside Zach from the former county vampire master had mixed with the distorted magic from a daywalker and the unheard-of magic from a vampire ghost, and I was nearly certain that strange recipe had created a magic no one had ever had before.

I needed my blade, because that was the missing piece. The demon piece.

Or was the demon piece already inside me?

Anika believed so. She’d felt it.

But I felt like I needed the blade to direct and expel the magic, like a witch’s wand.

“I feel like I’m getting back to normal,” I said, even though that wasn’t exactly what I felt like. I felt like I was getting something abnormal, and damn me, but I liked it.

I walked to Zach and despite the fact that he wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of person, he leaned into my hug. “Thank you, Zach.”

“I think I did something wrong,” he murmured against my ear, “but I couldn’t seem to help it. I hope it doesn’t hurt you.”

“You didn’t even know it was in there,” I replied, then realized immediately that I was wrong. He’d known something was inside him, though he likely hadn’t known he could somehow shove it into my overly eager and accepting body. But I was the sponge, regardless of what Anika had sucked out.

I was still a sponge.

Not quite as absorbent and maybe a little worn out, but still.

And now I’d have a little something extra with me when I returned to the council the next night. Something extra to help me fight the demon elder and get my blade back. He’d fight fair, whatever that might mean, because the council had “rules.”

It occurred to me that maybe he wouldn’t even be there to fight. That he would have taken my blade and fled, knowing that was the only way to keep it out of my hands forever.

He might also pull me into hell with him, especially if the council asked him to. Maybe they no longer wanted me in their hair.

But I wouldn’t think about that.

“How is Emma?” I asked Rick as I finally began eating my dinner.

“She’s healing,” he said. “She has a long way to go, but it turns out that she has a sister and two brothers. They’re happy to reconnect. All of them knew something was wrong in that marriage, but then Lee moved Emma away and…” He shrugged.“Emma’s sister has already arrived in town. She’s taking care of Emma’s cat.”

“I’m glad,” I said. “And Lee Shope?”

“He’ll be going away for a long time if he doesn’t kill himself first.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “He’s suddenly suicidal?”

“He claims Emma was all he had to live for. He’s on suicide watch.”