Chapter Seventy-Three
His blood scented the area, only with faint tinges of magic holding him together. Old friend, ex-lover, and somewhat of a complication from my life before settling back here in San Antonio was attempting to bleed out in front of my doorway. Tucking my gun away, I stepped lightly towards Caleb Anders. He must have had a spell in the air close to him, a faint pale glow flickered as I approached as his head jerked up. Fresh blood entered the area from his movement. His blue-green eyes met mine over his copper framed glasses before he sighed.
“Seraphina,” he muttered, gripping a large book on the ground closer to him.
“Crap, Caleb, what the hell happened?” I knelt, avoiding the blood seeping from his neck dripping blood over a thick silver band wrapped around his neck. It looked like a collar, and it sparked with power. I could see where thorns entered his neck from the collar. I touched the collar. A jolt of energy sparked, adding electricity to my fingertip that moved it with searing pain. I felt for a pulse, the jerking heartbeat lower than it should be.
“Help,” he muttered, his awareness fading in and out. He slumped further down, no longer with me. I grabbed the key from my pocket, unlocked my door, and carefully half-dragged Caleb into my apartment, returning for his messenger bag and leather book. Settling him on the couch, I took the bleach cleaner to get the blood over my doorstep and the remains I could see on the stairwell cleaned up. It was a quick job to kill the blood and scent before any of the children or others in the building worried about blood. I tucked away the microfiber cloths to clean in a bowl of bleach and water. Taking the first aid kit, I settled next to Caleb’s unconscious body to take a better look at the collar that was ripping through his neck, damaging everything. He was still oozing out blood, less than when he was awake. I managed to slip some cloth to soak up the blood beneath the collar. I added Neosporin to it, cleaning what I could without causing the collar to rip into him more.
He woke once the antiseptic began to work on his neck. “Jesus, Seraphina.”
“Good morning to you too, Caleb,” I stated, handing him a water bottle. “What the hell is that?”
“Long story,” he muttered, taking the water to drink it down almost entirely in one gulp.
“Appears we have time, Amado; you showed up on my doorstep.”
“I don’t have a lot of access to magic, and I knew where you lived. I used what I had while I can stay awake and away from the others.” I gave a shrug, I had lived here for years, hadn’t heard from him in those years, but given how things ended, it was not a surprise. More that he even bothered knowing where I lived. His family would be disappointed. “I got captured in Denver, this collar was locked on by magic that keeps mine down. In a sense, to keep me in line.”
“Doesn’t seem to be working.”
“I can work without magic, hell I was trained like you, and even if they come for me, I can defend as long as the collar isn’t bleeding me to death.”
“Can those who collared you follow you?” Not a sentence I thought I would ask someone without it being far kinkier than this morning.
“I don’t know, I got out. There are others, I need to get this off and help the other captured mages. You were the closest person I could feel or sense even with the magic cut off.”
“Wait, so you have been kidnapped, collared, there are other mages, and you want me to help? Why aren’t you calling your parents or coven? They would love to ride in on their magic white horses to save the day.”
“No, don’t contact them. Just help with this thing, and I will get out of your hair.” My eyebrow crept up before I could stop it. His family was one of the older mage families of the northwest, they controlled their coven and members ultimately, hence our break-up since I was certainly not approved. “Just leave it, Seraphina.”
“Fine, how do we get your collar off?” I only laughed a bit at that.
“This is not funny, Fee.”
“Really, you show up in weird BDSM nightmare attire full of magic and slavery. And expect me not to have a chuckle? Aren’t I the bad seed or something?”
“Jesus, just help for fuck’s sake.” I pressed the laugh into a snort. “Really, grow up and help.”
“Of course, since you are asking so nicely. So, how the hell do I get your uncomfortable bondage collar off?”
“It keeps electrocuting me. I have tried to yank it off, and that gives more of the burning and stabbing.”
“Oh, did you use the safe word on it?”
“Really?”
“Fine, how do I help you get this thing off, serious this time.” I would help, it was my nature but dragging him through some shit, completely worth it.
“Boltcutter, chain saw, I don’t know but something to cut it off.”
“Stay put.” Leaving him well padded with gauze and antiseptic, I went to my worktable where my tools for anything were stored. The heavy-duty lock cutter would have to do before going to an extreme, which might set him on fire. Pretty sure I couldn’t explain that I set fire to my ex in my apartment to my insurance company. Cleaning the edges, I returned to settle the cutter over the collar. Once the metal touched metal, the collar flared to life. Caleb
