The Young Mage (Snowbaz /Carry On Fanfiction)

Chapter 9

The tunnels became spots of darkness as we moved, all of them looking identical to each other, I wasn't sure how Baz knew where he was going...maybe he didn't. We soon entered a small room, on each wall was an opening of a tunnel, crossroads. The worst thing about the room wasn't which tunnel we were going to take, but the dozen vampires staring back at us in the dark. Their fangs glowed white in the darkness, hisses echoing off the stone walls. Penny and I moved to each side of Baz and raised our weapons, hers more fearful than mine. Together we must have looked like a poster for some trashy supernatural movie, but the vampires only saw us as threats. They leapt, the three of us branching out to attack the vampires.

As my flame ignited the vampires, I could hear Penny's spells cast under her breath, the shrieks of vampires as crackling fire engulfed them, Baz's grunts as he willed the fire form the magic in his veins.

A cluster of vampires surged towards me. I lifted my weapon and traced a line back and forth, igniting them like candles. "Where'd you get a mini flamethrower?" Penny yelled, moving her back to mine.

"Sometimes is best not to ask questions, Penelope," I replied. I felt her chuckle against my back.

The last of the vampires were taken care of, leaving the crossroads room filled with vampire ash. Penelope coughed, "I think I have a part of one stuck in my throat."

"Gross," I whispered.

"This way," Baz chided, moving towards one of the tunnels.

Penny and I followed.

The further we travelled down the tunnel, the stronger the iron became, the scent burning my nose and stinging my mouth. Baz began to accelerate, moving too fast for me and Penny to walk, so we broke into a light jog behind him. A light began to form up ahead, the darkness going from black to grey. The closer we got to the light, the faster Baz became, I could feel the anticipation and anxiety radiating off of him.

As the light grew brighter, we turned a corner. An orange light glowed in the room, the floor stained red and brown from blood old and new. In the room stood dozens of vampires, all of which had the same symbol of the backwards C and the cross: The Catalyst. On the centre, back of the wall sat a woman, her pale hair flowing loosely down her front, the sharpness of her jaw fitting to the black coat she wore over a royal blue dress. The orange glowing light defined her dark skin, a tinge of grey infecting the brown like a disease...could you call being a vampire a disease? Her hands rested on the silver armrests of her chair, the Catalyst symbol etched into the back of both of her hands. The Queen snickered at our appearance.

"Basilton, it has been quite some time, has it not?" she addressed Baz, her voice soft and warm, yet deceiving. Baz clenched his knuckles.

"Why are you killing mages?" I asked, wanting to speak before Baz overreacted. The Queen inclined her head, flashing black eyes watching me curiously.

"And who might you be?" she asked me.

"No one of importance," Baz looked at me over his shoulder with pleading eyes. I didn't take offence, he was trying to protect me. If the Queen found out I was Simon Snow, the famous chosen one, she would undoubtedly kill me.

"Well 'no one of importance', I'm doing it for what many do, power. You see, mages have had the upper hand over everyone and everything for far too long, they think they can just kill us for no reason as you have obviously just proved today.

"The best way to gain power is to annihilate those who have the most. By killing off the most powerful and high mages, we are weakening the entire species, and when they are at their weakest, we will strike." The Queen moved forwards, her eyes scanning the three of us with thirst and hunger.

"Then why kill of Mia's parents? What do they have to do with all of this?" Penny pushed forwards, her words poisoned with anger.

"Mia? Oh, are you speaking of Mia Lewis? If you didn't know, her parents were spell crafters, they were working on new spells that would distinguish our species, as well as any other species you mages may deem as threatening or hostile."

"It's true," Penny said," My mum told me of the Lewis family, they are known to be very powerful spell workers." I gritted my teeth, innocent mages killed for their power... I'm surprised they didn't kill me off earlier, or maybe I was too powerful for them.

"Basilton," The Queen said, pulling our attention to Baz. "Now you were a brilliant plan." We looked at her puzzled. Bas shifted on his feet, he was just as confused as us. "A child of the Grimm and the Pitch family, one all-powerful mage, sure to bring upon an exceedingly powerful future generation of mages. Then you were turned as a child and all that went to waste.

"As you well know, vampires are infertile, they cannot have children of their own, and so by changing a powerful young mage into one of us, we inevitably destroyed all chances of the Grimm-Pitch line extending. Killing two birds with one stone as they say."

Baz's energy leapt, waves of rage burning off him like I've never felt before.

"Oh, and by the way Basilton," she said. "Your mother tasted delicious, I should know... how else do you think I became queen?"

And that's all it took. Baz roared and charged directly at the queen, hand a ball of heat. As he was about to strike, more vampires stood between him and their queen, soaking up the powerful blow of magic. Penny and I turned, sending out our own plumes of fire.