Blood Magic

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Thunk.

I opened my eyes as something slammed against the door.

I whipped the door open and ran outside.

The bat fell toward the grass but rebounded and sped toward the door again.

My spider crouched in the door jamb.

The bat squealed and flew at me. I jumped down the stairs, but it circled and swooped after me.

Hazel bounded out the door and leaped into the air, teeth bared.

The bat dodged Hazel’s jaws just in time and flew toward my neighbor’s yard before turning around.

Was it rabid? Didn’t look like it.

“Stay low!” Bo said.

The bat took a pass at me, and I raised my arm to protect myself.

A searing pain spread down my wrist.

Bo swatted the bat away and it let go of my wrist. A trickle of blood dropped on the steps.

I didn’t exactly like the idea of attacking a protected species of animal, but now I didn’t have a choice.

The bat shrieked as it circled in for another bite. Hazel growled.

I dashed down the steps underneath my porch that led to my basement door, and I grabbed a dusty tennis racket.

I wrapped both hands around it, ready for a fair fight.

A speckled texture on the underside of my porch drew my gaze upward, and then I screamed.

Hundreds of brown bats hung from the ceiling, staring at me. They crawled over each other, rolling like brown boiling water.

I dove up the stairs as the bats dropped and poured over me.

Bo screamed when he saw them too.

“Motherf—”

“Get down!” I yelled.

Ear-splitting shrieks. The flutter of a thousand wings. My face pressed hard against the cement. The tennis racket pushing against my ribs. My wrist throbbing with pain. Just another night in the life of a necromancer…

A whirlwind of fresh air blasted me, and I looked up.

Bo lay on the ground with his hands over his head. Hazel sat on all fours.

The bats formed a long wand over my garage before arching back toward us.

I put my head down again as they blew past me and through the gangway, into the street, leaving behind a cold, ragged silence.

All three of us lay stunned. All of my spiders were on high alert now, and I felt their fear pulsing in my chest. I willed them to remain in hiding.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, out of breath.

Bo crawled to his knees. His hands immediately went to the back of his neck and rubbed a bite mark.

Hazel whined and licked her back. I rushed to her. I parted her fur and ran my fingers along a tidy bite mark. I rubbed a drop of her blood between my fingers.

“Bats in daylight,” Bo said. “When have you ever seen that?”

“I haven’t,” I said.

“Huh,” Bo said after a moment.

“They bit all of us,” I said. “Talk about bad luck.”

Bo rubbed his wound. “No blood from me, though. Some bat is probably digesting formaldehyde right now.”

Bats were common in my neighborhood. Since many of the homes around here were vacant, the third floors made for nice, warm shelters. You might see a bat or two in the daylight every once in a while, but not hundreds of them out of nowhere.

The universe was trying to tell me something. I’ve learned that nothing is a coincidence, not when you’re a necromancer.

My wrist throbbed. I cupped it with my other hand and glanced at my watch.

“Ant’ny’s waiting,” I said. “Let’s go for a ride, Hazel.”

Hazel charged down the walkway that led past my dilapidated w**d garden to my detached garage, wagging her tail excitedly. She looked back at me, waiting for me to hurry up.

“You bringing her with us?” Bo asked.

“I’m not leaving her here alone,” I said, unwrapping an old leather leash from the iron railing next to the back door.

Before I opened the door to my garage, I regarded my narrow, rectangular backyard, the newest battle scene in my necromancy adventure.

Bo said it best. Shizzle was definitely afoot.