Samhain Resurrected: A Codex Blair Novella Read online

  Table of Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Grave Mistake

  About the Author

  Samhain Resurrected

  A Novella in the Codex Blair Universe

  Izzy Shows

  Copyright © 2017 Izzy Shows

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  1. One

  2. Two

  3. Three

  4. Four

  5. Five

  6. Six

  7. Seven

  8. Eight

  9. Nine

  10. Ten

  11. Eleven

  12. Twelve

  13. Thirteen

  14. Fourteen

  15. Grave Mistake

  Mailing List

  Also by Izzy Shows

  About the Author

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  Also by Izzy Shows

  The Codex Blair Series

  Grave Mistake

  Blood Hunt

  The Fallen’s Crime

  Dark Descent

  Wild Game

  Grim Fate

  High Stakes

  Samhain Resurrected

  The Fallen Hunter

  Tainted Light

  Ruled by Blood

  Blood Captive: Origin

  Blood Huntress

  Blood Slave

  Blood Exile

  Space Mage

  Eradicated

  Provoked

  Enslaved

  Recalled

  One

  I didn't think I'd ever been so happy in my life. I was sitting on the couch next to my girlfriend, Emily. She had one arm around my back, and I was leaned in to her, snuggling close to enjoy as much of her as I could. Across the coffee table from me were Shawn and Finn, sitting in their own chairs, and for the first time in a long time, we were just hanging out. I couldn't remember the last time we'd all gotten together for something other than a fight that was about to take place, just to enjoy one another's company and have a fun night. Oh, sure, I'd seen each of them one-on-one now and then, particularly Emily, but all together? No, that didn't happen very often.

  "It's been a damn long time, hasn't it?" Finn said, giving voice to my thoughts.

  I grinned. "Damn long, that's right. When was the last time we did this?"

  "I'm pretty sure it's been at least half a year since we were all together," Shawn said, shaking his head before he took a drink of his beer. "I know it's been a while since I've seen you."

  He nodded in my direction when he spoke, and I flushed.

  "Surely, it hasn't been that long," I said, but even as I spoke, I got a tingle in the back of my skull, like my body knew I was telling only a half-truth. Shawn and I hadn't seen each other in a while, it was true, because we didn't have a lot of cause to get together anymore. I still preferred that he patch me up after a fight, but more often than not, I went to the Wizards of the Council to have them heal me; it was much faster.

  But Shawn I trusted, so I still called him in when I could. Other than that, though, we didn't hang out as much as we probably should. It wasn't that things were awkward between us—we'd stopped sleeping with each other a few years back, and it had been a very amicable end to things—more that we were both very busy.

  "No, I'm pretty sure it's been at least a month, maybe two, since I saw you," he said.

  "Whose fault is that? You've been tied up in your new practice!"

  Shawn was a medic in the army, but he'd retired from that before I even met him, and he'd recently opened his own practice. He was enjoying being his own boss, but it meant a lot of long nights and no days off. He was even worse than Finn about working all the time, and Finn was practically married to the job.

  "Yeah, you got me there. But at least my job has fairly stable hours, unlike you." He chuckled after that.

  "Hmph. I don't get to pick when London needs saving, and you know that," I said. "But, ugh, the trolls last time… I'm glad I haven't seen them since."

  "They really put you through the wringer, honey," Emily said, brushing a hand over my hair. "I wish I could have been there for you on that one."

  I shook my head and snuggled closer to her. "You know I don't want you in those fights."

  "Sexist, is what that is," Finn said, smirking. "You never had a problem with her fighting before."

  "That's not true!"

  "You took her into Tyburn Tree!"

  "He's got a point there," Emily said, but she didn't sound upset. "I kind of miss that."

  "You've got your own battles that you don't bring me into." I wrinkled my nose, not quite enjoying being singled out like this. "You don't let me hunt all the demons with you."

  "Because I know you have a conflict," she said softly, and the room grew quiet.

  We didn't talk about that, about Malphas. I had made it pretty clear early on that I didn't want to say a word about what had happened back at his apartment, when he'd removed the mark from me. He'd been heartless, acting like I was nothing more than an insect to him. Well, maybe more than an insect. A puppy, maybe. A pet for him to play with when he got bored.

  I didn't appreciate that, to say the least. It had hurt, after all that we had shared, after the way he'd led me on, to have him suddenly turn so cold and mean.

  Emily had pushed me on it a few times, when it had first happened, saying that if I talked about it, I could start to move on, at least. But I didn't want to talk about him with her. It just didn't feel right.

  "Anyway," I said, putting a little emphasis on the word. "Finn got to come in on my last case. I'm not being a complete buffoon and going Lone Ranger on it anymore, at least."

  "That's true. You let me in on the dhampir situation," he said with a shudder. "That was a weird one."

  "Why?" Shawn asked, quirking an eyebrow.

  "Oh, you haven't heard this one, have you?" Finn shifted in his seat, an eager look on his face. "Buckle in. It's a good one."

  "Come on, Finn. It wasn't even that bad," I groaned.

  "You just don't want me to tell it because you don't like hearing what a badass you are!"

  "I am not a badass," I muttered, turning my head into Emily's side so that my next words were muffled. "I'm just a crazy lady with magic powers who happens to do stupid things."

  "Badass." Shawn chimed in with his agreement. "Total badass."

  "I'm going to have to agree with them," Emily said, laughing. "I've seen you fight. You're quite impressive."

  "Ugh."

  "So, what happened, anyway?" Shawn said, pushing the conv
ersation onward.

  I shook my head. "I'm not telling it. I'm pretending it never happened, thank you very much."

  "Fine. I'll tell it. You don't even tell it right, anyway," Finn said, and he sounded happy to have the opportunity to tell it. I figured that was what he'd wanted right from the get-go. "So, it all started off the way a lot of her cases do, with odd bodies coming in to the morgue and crime scenes not quite matching up with what we expected. That's how I got called in in the first place. You all know my job; my predecessor knew all about the supernatural world, or as much as any mundane could, and he passed down the mantle of taking care of things and making sure it's all hushed up."

  "Yep, we remember," Shawn said.

  "Good. So, I get called in because, even though the rest of the precinct doesn't know what's going on, they do know that my team and I have a track record of handling weird cases and getting them fixed. That's why they always call us in now, which makes the job a little easier. Anyway, they call me in, and I take one look at things, and I'm like, 'This is a case for Blair. No doubt about it.' So, I give her a call, and she's all, like, 'You're overreacting. It's probably nothing,' as she always does."

  "I do not always do that!" I sat up abruptly, shrugging off Emily's arm.

  "Hell, yeah, you do," he said. "You think I jump the gun on everything."

  "Only because you call me in for every case you get," I grumbled. "You called me in for a junkie overdose once."

  "Hey, there were weird symbols all over him!"

  "He had tattoos. Oh my gods."

  "Anyway, so I call Blair in, and I have to fight with her a little bit to get her to come in, and then she finally comes and takes a look at the scene, and even she has to admit it looks fuckin' weird. I mean, our vic is on the ground, and there's nothing on him that even indicates a struggle. There's no cause of death. The only thing going on is that his mouth is open and twisted into the creepiest screaming-face possible."

  "Screaming-face. That's a great descriptor," Shawn said with a chuckle.

  "Hey, if the shoe fits, ya know?" Finn shrugged. "So, Blair has them clear the room so she can do this special spell of hers where she sees the last minutes the dead guy lived through and maybe get a look at his killer. Only, she comes up with nothing. And I mean, not that she saw an empty room and then the guy just died. She comes up with nothing, as in—well, how did you describe it?"

  "Like there was a block over the memory, something intentionally trying to keep me from accessing it," I said. "Which was the best indicator we could get that this was a supernatural killing. That's the only thing that could block a memory reading like that, and it was definitely intentional."

  "Right. So, she didn't see anything, nothing for us to go on. We tried going through the normal routes, interviewing local supes and all that, but we came up with nothing, and the bodies kept rolling in. The media were getting really snappy about it, calling it a serial killer, and the boss man wasn't happy with me. But with enough bodies, we were able to pick out a pattern for Blair to go on, and she eventually set up a trap for the killer, which he totally fell into like an idiot."

  I snorted. "He wasn't an idiot. He was hungry and looking to eat the first thing he could find."

  "Right. Whatever. So, he falls for the trap, but we didn't know what we were going up against, so it was just me, Blair, and Weylyn," he said, nodding to my familiar, who was lying on the floor at my feet. Weylyn let out a little happy rumble at the mention of his name. "Turns out, dhampirs are really freaking powerful."

  "No," I said, sighing. "A normal dhampir is actually very easy to deal with. See, a dhampir is nothing more than a half-vampire. But this one wasn't just half-vampire, half-human. It was half-vampire, half-mage."

  "How do you know it was just half-mage?" Emily asked.

  I shrugged. "I don't, really. It's just an assumption. The Order, who give out the title 'Wizard', have very strict rules about procreating with other supernatural entities. It's a big no-no. So, it doesn't make sense that a Wizard would have hooked up with a vampire."

  "Right, right. As I was saying," Finn interrupted, glaring at me for getting off-track. "This guy was really strong, stronger than your average vamp, and he could use magic. It was a really bad fight, especially for me. I got my head knocked in a time or two and, he got a bite of my arm, but Blair was going at it like there was no tomorrow. I mean, the way she finished him off…" He whistled admiringly. "She punched straight into his chest and ripped out his heart. How badass is that?"

  I shifted, uncomfortable. "Removing the heart is one of the only sure ways of killing a supernatural. I didn't know what he was or how to kill him, so I went for my best option. It's really not a big deal."

  But Shawn was looking at me with new respect. "That's a pretty big deal, Blair. You broke through his bones."

  "I went up through his rib cage, actually. Much less work."

  He laughed. "Good to know your anatomy lessons are paying off."

  I blushed. "Yeah, well, you've actually helped a lot with that."

  Emily ran a hand over my hair, stroking it a time or two. "When are you going to see how amazing you are?"

  "Ha. Yeah, right," I said, feeling uncomfortable again. I didn't take compliments very well, probably because I'd never really gotten any for most of my life, not until four years ago, when I met my friends.

  "I love hearing Blair stories," Shawn said, then took a swig of his drink and leaned back in his chair. "If I didn't actually know you, I'd think they were great little campfire stories and nothing more. It's like having my own personal TV show."

  "Ha-ha." I rolled my eyes. "Thanks a lot. Topic change! What have you been up to, Finn? How's the little one?"

  Finn had been MIA in my life for quite a while, because he'd had a kid about two years ago, the result of a one-night stand he didn't think he was ever going to see again, but she'd shown up with a two-year-old in tow, and after a paternity test, Finn got thrown into the world of parenthood. He was actually a really great dad, though he wouldn't ever admit it, but he did try his best, and he was learning fast.

  "Lilian's doing really well," he said. "She's about to be enrolled in primary school next year, and I'm nervous as all hell about that. She's so smart, though. I can't wait to see her blow the socks off all the other kids."

  "That's the way to look at it," I said, chuckling. "Get competitive before she even has a chance to make friends."

  "Hey, I'm just proud of her!" he protested. "She's smart as a whip. I'm damn sure she's going to be running circles around me in a few years. I probably won't even be able to help her with her homework after a while."

  "That's not entirely your fault," Emily said, smiling graciously. "I hear the system has leveled up quite a lot since we were there."

  "Maybe Blair can help with her schoolwork," Shawn said, raising an eyebrow. "She's smarter than she likes to admit."

  "Back off. No, I'm not," I said, frowning. "I didn't even make it to university."

  "Because you couldn't sit still long enough to get through a lecture," he said. "But that doesn't mean you aren't smart. You take to just about anything anyone tries to teach you faster than anyone expected. Didn't Diego say as much just the other day?"

  I blushed, again uncomfortable with the compliment, and even more so remembering the one Diego had given me. Diego was my mentor, the Wizard assigned to educate me and guide me through the process of moving from mage to Wizard within the Order. He'd had a hard time teaching me at first, because I didn't take to his particular style, but once he'd figured me out, he'd managed to switch things up to a way that actually worked for me, something no teacher in my life had ever thought to do before.

  I'd always felt like something of an idiot growing up. I didn't get good grades in school, I couldn't make myself pay attention in class, and I lost interest in my homework after looking at it for twenty minutes, tops. But I had to admit I had always been oddly good at firing off the correct information when given the op
portunity to respond orally, and I was rather good at essays, so long as they weren't strictly nonfiction. I had actually earned a lot of my regular money from autumn through spring by writing papers for university students who were too lazy to do the work themselves. They must have been good, because the students kept coming back for more.

  "Blair?" Emily nudged me.

  "Huh?"

  "Finn was asking if you'd be willing to take a look at things with him, when he gets to a point where he's struggling with them."

  I shrugged. "If you all aren't sick of me by then, sure. But that's a few years away, and you're bound to figure out that I'm not worth spending time with by then."

  "Blair," Finn said, sounding impatient. "How long have I known you?"

  "Five years."

  "And the rest of us have known you for four," Emily said.

  "And none of us are sick of you," Shawn finished.

  "Well, that's just because you're all crazy, then," I said, letting out a little huff. I'd never had friends for longer than a year, but to tell the truth, that was probably my fault more than anyone else's. I always ended up pushing people away after I'd known them for a while. I always found some reason to make them hate me, as if it was just to prove the point that no one could ever put up with me.

  But the three of them had resisted all my usual tricks, and they were still hanging around for some reason. It was almost as if they liked me, crazy though that would be.

  "No one's ever accused me of being sane," Finn said with a shrug. "I'll not deny it."

  "I will have you know that I am perfectly sane, thank you very much," Emily said.

  "Oh, yeah? You're a paladin who hangs around with Blair. That's not all that sensible in my book," Shawn pointed out. "She's not exactly the picture of religious passion."