Page 9 of Dark Reckoning
Okay, not a bad mark to have.
“What else does this ritual involve?” Adrian asked.
“You will drink of our essence as we all drink of yours,” Kakashi said. “That will be your blood imbued with your magic. All of our combined essences will be in one bowl, which is also magical. We will all drink at the same time. It will leave us very weak afterward, for about an hour. But that is all there is to the ritual.”
“What if I can't drink the blood since I can only drink Salino's?” Adrian asked.
Kakashi waved his concern away. “You'll be able to drink it once you've been purified. Do not worry.”
“Does that mean he'll be able to drink anyone else's blood?” I asked.
Kakashi shook his head. “No. Only this because his blood will also be linked along with the magic. It is part of the ritual.”
I sighed and scratched my eyebrow before looking at Adrian. I knew he was ready to get the ball rolling. I personally didn't want to do this, but I knew I had no choice. We unleashed an unspeakable evil into the world and we had to stop it. I followed behind Kakashi as he led Adrian and me into the anointing room. It was another place that looked lavish with a large pool in the middle with swirling, sparkling water that looked unusual, to say the least. In fact, the best way I could describe it was that it looked like liquid gray, black, and white marble stirring itself. Normal water didn't look anything like that, and I could sense the magic coming off the water in waves. The ceiling was high and there were both angels and devils carved into the walls, making this room look like a sanctuary.
“Please, undress,” Kakashi said.
I stripped out of my clothes, as did Adrian, and Kakashi's eyebrows knitted at the ring on my cock. “Magical?”
I shook my head. “Pleasurable.”
“Ah, I see. Please,” Kakashi said again, then gestured toward the pool.
“So, is this the only meeting place?” I asked as I dipped my toe into the pool, then snatched it back, shaking the drops of water off. “Damn, y'all couldn't have heated this motherfucker up?” The water was ice fucking cold. As a shifter, I could withstand a lot of intense temperatures, but that shit wasn't normal.
“It's warm to me,” Adrian said as he slipped into the swirling waters. “Feels so good, actually.”
“You think this is warm?” I asked Adrian.
“It's like a hot spring in a way. So relaxing. It's cold to you?” he asked, a curious expression on his gorgeous face.
I nodded, then looked at Kakashi. “What's up with that?” I asked, because if something was wrong, there was no way I was getting my black ass into that water to boil, freeze, or whatever the fuck.
Kakashi nodded. “For dark mages, the water is cold. Deal with it,” he said.
“Why?”
“The magic of the pool is judgmental, you could say.”
“So, it is trying to say that I'm coldblooded because I'm a dark mage?”
He shrugged. “If so, it's not wrong.”
I snorted because I couldn't really argue there. “Okay, so how long do we need to be inside?”
“One hour,” he answered.
I raised both eyebrows. “Will my body acclimate?”
Kakashi sighed. “You won't die from it.”
“Fuck,” I hissed under my breath, then stepped back into the freezing water. “Ah shit,” I said as I began to submerge my entire body. I shivered and Adrian walked over to me and held me close to him, trying to warm me with his body. It was working a little. I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close to me, mainly because I loved him that much.
“You should both go under and do so for a full minute,” Kakashi said.
“Fine,” I said, then looked at Adrian. “You ready?”
He nodded, and together, we took a deep breath and then held it as we sank deeper into the water. It was thick in substance, like a creamy soup, and still freezing cold to me. I felt stuff floating around me and through me, making me shiver even more. Adrian shook in my arms and I knew he must have been feeling something too. I had no way of knowing if we were experiencing the same sensation or not. As soon as our minute was up, we popped up and wiped the water from our faces.
