Blood Magic, page 1
BLOOD MAGIC
PAGAN ALEXANDRIA
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
The Story Continues
Copyright © 2025 Pagan Malcolm
Printed by P. S. Malcolm
Blood Magic
Cover design by Bianca Bordianu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events 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.
Find out more about the author and upcoming books online on Instagram: @PaganAlexandriaCreative
To Vikki and Omair
Seven Years Before
As the four of us sat around the table, textbooks and papers scattered in front of us, I was reminded of why I hated group assignments so much. I kept my head down and focused on taking notes from my textbook. Together, we had to deliver a presentation on the Great Depression—which was due tomorrow, and we’d made absolutely zero progress over the past two weeks. We were supposed to be writing a speech and designing slides for it. But so far, I seemed to be the only one interested in doing the work because the remaining three members of my group wouldn’t stop gossiping during lessons.
I should have expected as much from a bunch of rich, popular kids.
Sparing a quick glance up, I listened in on their conversation, hoping to politely request some help without coming off like I was a loser.
“...Yeah, she’ll probably invite a lot of boys to the party,” Victoria said casually, playing with the cap of her pen. She had long brown hair that she usually wore in a ponytail and manicured nails with French tips. “But her boyfriend will be there too.”
“Have they... you know, done it?” Blair asked in a low voice, and Victoria raised an eyebrow at her. Blair had a strikingly different look to Victoria—with sparkly eye shadow and choppy black hair that made her look edgy.
“What? Had sex? Yeah, she’s done it loads of times, with loads of guys.”
I frowned, taken aback by their conversation topic, and paused my note-taking.
“With who?” Blair insisted, shuffling closer with wide eyes, and Victoria shrugged coolly.
“I don’t know—she moves around a lot. She’s had a few boyfriends.”
“It doesn’t count unless it’s all the way,” Percy scoffed from my right side, his lips curving up almost knowingly, and my stomach fluttered at the sound of his voice. He leaned back in his chair, and I noticed how his broad shoulders flexed under his sleeved white school shirt. He wore his brown hair with a side fringe. “I heard she’s only done hand stuff.”
“That’s all I’ve done,” Blair sighed longingly, twirling a strand of hair around her index finger.
I felt extremely out of place in this conversation. This was not the kind of thing I talked about with my one and only friend, Darcy—who, unfortunately, didn’t take this class. Otherwise, I might have been more fortunate to have been paired with her instead of these three people.
Victoria’s gaze landed on me—on the way I kept sneaking glances—and she smirked.
“What about you, Fleur? Have you done anything with anyone?”
I must have turned as red as a beet because I felt my cheeks heat as I ducked my gaze back to my notebooks to gather my thoughts. I didn’t know how to respond... but after a moment, I decided to be honest.
“I haven’t even kissed anybody yet,” I admitted finally, with a sheepish smile, and the two girls exchanged a glance like this was astounding.
“What do you mean?” Blair asked, shaking her head. I guess it was easy for her to say if she was doing hand stuff on a regular basis—finding boys to kiss must seem like a piece of cake compared to going that far. Blair glanced over at Percy, who was now watching me as well, and pointed between us while adding, “You two should just kiss right now. And then you will have kissed someone. Boom—done!”
She grinned, clearly proud of her idea, but my eyes widened with shock at her bold suggestion. I hesitantly turned my head and met Percy’s gaze for a moment. He met mine too, reading the reaction in my eyes, and I wondered what he was thinking as his gaze flicked to my lips for a moment. Would he actually kiss me? My heart raced at the thought.
They must have thought their suggestion was so innocent. But none of them knew I’d been harboring a secret crush on Percy for almost a year now—they didn’t realize kissing him was one of my biggest, hidden desires. And I certainly didn’t want it to mean nothing or to happen in history class, of all places. My gaze landed on our teacher, who was busy speaking to another student at his desk across the room, and my stomach knotted at the very thought of doing something so disruptive during class. I couldn’t kiss Percy here—or at all, for that matter!
Finally, I let out a breathy laugh, hoping to brush it off as a joke, and returned my gaze to my notebook. My cheeks were still burning, and I couldn’t bring myself to face any of them. They carried on with their conversation like nothing had happened, but I found myself distracted for the remainder of the lesson, wondering what it would have been like if Percy had closed the distance between us.
“Nice and easy, Cherie,” Margot instructed from where we were crouched in the bushes, as I tracked the rabbit hopping among fallen logs and melting snow with my crossbow. I barely dared to breathe, and years of training kept me from trembling despite the icy winter air.
Quiet as a mouse, I nudged my booted foot into the stirrup at the front of my crossbow and pulled the crossbow string back evenly against both sides of the barrel until it was taut and cocked. I’d done this a thousand times ever since I was a little girl and was old enough to manage the weight of a bow.
I waited for Margot’s next instruction. Her snowy-white hair fell around her face in a bob, and though she was in her late fifties, she looked younger thanks to her rigorous skincare routine. The rabbit hopped a few paces closer to us, and I tensed, holding my breath. Margot lifted three fingers, and I moved quickly but silently, grabbing an arrow from my back and placing it in the barrel of the crossbow. I swiftly aligned the cock vane of the arrow in the barrel channel and made sure it was aligned correctly. Then, I tipped the crossbow just above the bushes and peered through the scope, aiming for the rabbit’s head.
Then I pulled the trigger.
A pop sounded as the bow fired off. I watched the arrow travel at the speed of light toward the rabbit’s skull.
It hopped away before the arrow landed its mark, and I gritted my teeth. Margot let out a shushing sound.
“It’s okay—this is why we’re training,” she insisted, noting my frustration. “You’re improving every day, Cherie. Soon, you will be ready to tackle the real thing.”
A rustle sounded from behind us, and Margot whirled around. Before either of us could react, something tackled her to the ground, and I gasped. A vampire had snuck up on us, no doubt tipped off by the sound of my bow firing. It bared its sharp teeth at Margot as she grappled for her knife, but it had her pinned to the ground with its strong hands. I scrambled to reload my crossbow, heart pounding, fingers trembling. The vampire lunged forward to bite her neck, but I fired, an arrow lodging into the vampire’s shoulder. Its red-eyed gaze snapped to me, angry and depraved of hunger as it snarled in protest. It looked young—maybe seventeen or eighteen, and its eyes were bright red, indicating that it was a newborn vampire.
My distraction had been enough as Margot freed her dagger from its sheath and stabbed it clean into the vampire’s heart, effectively staking it. The vampire let out a choked sound, its gaze glassing over, and I watched as it slumped and began to disintegrate. Letting out a mumbled curse, Margot shoved the crumbling body off her as it turned to ash and dust around her.
“Are there more?” I asked, my voice unsteady as I reloaded again and glanced around the dark woods. Margot brushed the ashes from her black coat as she got to her feet.
“Very likely,” she replied, her voice low as she scanned the area. “The vampire who turned him is likely still here. We should go.” She met my gaze and added, “You did well, Cherie. I’m so proud of you.”
A relieved smile appeared on my lips, but then another crunch made me gasp and glance over my shoulder.
This time, Margot placed a hand on my arm and said, “Don’t move—I’ll take care of it.”
She stalked off toward the sound of the noise, disappearing into the trees, and I swallowed hard, trying to keep my wits about me. I’d encountered vampires before, and I’d been trained in these woods plenty of times. But very few times had we been caught off guard, and I felt unnerved. My gaze kept trailing back to the space where I’d seen Margot disappear, the dark woods only allowing for so much visibility. Minutes ticked by, and I grew anxious.
“Hey, you!”
Eyes wide, I spun around and fired off toward the sound. The male behind me jumped aside as the arrow flew past him, then he whipped his head to me. My throat went dry, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
None other than Percy stood there—his brown eyes wide with shock and hands raised uncertainly. I couldn’t seem to find the right words. What was he doing here? What was he thinking, seeing me out here with a crossbow of all things? Oh God, I’d just shot it at his forehead—
“Are you trying to kill me?” he growled finally, and my mouth slackened. “What are you doing with that thing?”
I began to shake my head, trying to come up with an explanation, an excuse... Very few people knew about vampires and the hunters that killed them.
At that moment, another figure stepped into view at his side—taller, older, and with a striking resemblance to Percy. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it must have been his dad, though I did wonder what the two of them were doing in the woods so late at night.
I suppose they wondered the same about me at that moment.
The man raised an eyebrow at me, looking at my crossbow.
“Are you a hunter?” he asked finally. “I don’t recognize you.”
“I...” I stammered, then managed to pull myself together. “Yes—I’m a hunter. A Guildwood hunter.”
The man wrinkled his nose.
“Well, that explains the poor coordination and reflexes,” he replied. “I thought I told you Guildwood hunters to stay out of our woods.”
It finally clicked. These people were from Salvhark.
“We always train here,” I countered, feeling my confidence build by the minute. “It’s never been a problem until now.”
“Well, I’m telling you now that it’s a problem,” he sniped back, folding his arms. “There’s a newborn vampire loose in here—and given the fact that you nearly shot my son between the eyes, I highly doubt you’re trained enough to hunt it. We’ve been on its tail for the past half hour, and thanks to you, we’ve lost it.”
Percy lifted his chin haughtily in agreement, and I felt all the feelings I’d harbored for him start to dislodge, swirling in a mass of confusion. Percy was from Salvhark—our enemy guild. I didn’t want to believe it, but here he was.
“You can stop looking because we’ve already dealt with that problem.” Margot’s voice called from behind me, and I heard snow crunching as she made her way back over to us. When I looked at her, I noticed a red heart, dripping with blood, in her gloved hand. She held it up for the man to see and added, “And the cause of the trouble. Perhaps you ought to reevaluate who’s fit to be leading vampire patrols in these woods.”
The man scoffed and gestured to me.
“Well, if this is your next generation of hunters, you’re screwed,” he jeered. “The poor girl nearly shot a fellow hunter in her panic. Monsec will be much safer in the hands of hunters like my son.”
He slapped Percy on the back, eyes shining with pride, and bitterness clawed through me as Percy smiled, soaking up the praise. Just like that, all the fantasies I’d built up around Percy revealed themselves to be nothing more than just that—fantasies. Ideas of who I wanted him to be, not who he really was. Because I knew who Percy really was. Weeks of being stuck in a group project with him had made it crystal clear that he didn’t put effort into anything and didn’t care about anything, let alone keeping this town safe.
I’d been blinded by his suave voice, his charming smiles, and the delusional hopes that he might actually talk to me one day and realize that he wanted to take me out on a date. That was never going to happen. I’d been such an idiot, stuck in my daydreams.
Furthermore, I wouldn’t trust Percy to hunt down a single vampire. There was no doubt he’d only gotten into Salvhark because he’d been born into the right family, not because he actually valued the job. Resolve settled in me as I glared at him, and it must have thrown him because he frowned in response. From torturing their victims to experimenting on vampires, everything Margot had told me about the Salvhark Guild was horrible. And not only was Percy training to become a member, but he looked downright proud to be a part of it.
I felt sick to my stomach.
“That is why she’s in training,” Margot replied coolly, and I wished she would stop talking. I didn’t want Percy to know I still needed vampire training—I wanted to be better than him because I actually cared about fighting vampires and keeping people from dying.
I didn’t want innocent people to meet the same fate my father had.
Percy’s father exchanged a few more bitter words with Margot before the pair of them left, and Margot turned to me with a serious expression, still clutching the vampire heart at her side. She forced my chin up with her free hand to meet her gaze.
“Fleur, don’t let anything they said get to you,” she told me. “You are a strong, capable young woman, and I have no doubt that you will be a wonderful hunter one day. And if one thing’s for certain, it’s the fact that you worked hard to earn your spot in Guildwood. Not like that pretty boy back there.”
She winked and offered me a small smile, and I stepped forward to wrap my arms around her. I clung to the woman who was singlehandedly raising me even though she never had an obligation to. She’d given me a home and carried on teaching me what my father had taught me before he died. She was all I had left in this world, and I would do anything to avoid losing her.
The next day, I arrived at the history classroom a couple of minutes early. I was still fuming over Percy from the night before, unable to shake my feelings about him. I couldn’t believe I’d been crushing on his conceited ass for a whole year or that I’d been so flustered over the thought of kissing him yesterday. It felt like I’d woken up from a dream and entered a harsh reality.
To add to my frustration, I’d stayed up most of the night completing the project that none of my group members had bothered to help me with. It was thanks to me that they had a project to present at all.
I knocked on the door of the classroom, and Monsieur Gauthier welcomed me inside. He was a bald man who wore rounded glasses on his nose. Crossing over to his desk, I let my emotions drive me as I confessed the truth to him: I’d been the only one to work on the project. I aired my concerns about failing the grade because of the lack of help I’d received, and I made it clear that I wasn’t happy with how things had played out.
“Don’t worry, Fleur—I know they haven’t helped,” he reassured me, shuffling his papers on his desk. “I’ve been watching your groups every lesson, and I saw you working hard. Leave it to me.”
Shortly after, the rest of the class arrived. We spent an hour going through presentations, and I was the only one in my group who didn’t read the speech straight from the index cards because I’d bothered to memorize and rehearse it. Percy avoided my gaze for the entire lesson, scowling at the floor instead, and I was thankful—Guildwood and Salvhark had been competitors for centuries, and learning that he was my enemy had created a clear tension between us. I wanted to forget about him, forget the entire interaction we’d had last night.
As soon as we finished our presentation and sat down, the teacher walked up to the front of the class to address our group.
