Amanda crouched down near to Howie and the girls. “Howie, I can’t explain everything to you right now, we might have escaped the immediate danger we were in, but this place is not safe, either,” she said, before turning to the girls. “Yes, this is the Abyss, and we can’t stay here long, we need to leave. We need to get back to the Material world, but we need to move first.”
Looking around her, they were clearly still in the converted church of the Darkside nightclub. The interior of the club seemed basically similar if somewhat decrepit and slowly falling to ruin, so she concentrated and scried the building that was the mirror of her home. The image of the inside of the ruined house appeared in her mind's eye. Everything looked clear, so she concentrated on her friends. “Okay, we’re good to go. Howie, this will feel a little strange, but ye will be fine.”
“Wait, what are we doing?” Howie asked.
“Teleporting,” Amanda said and worked her Magic.
Appearing on the ground floor of the ruined house, Howie let out a worried yelp and put his hands on the floor to steady himself.
He looked around, his eyes wide in fright. “Whoa!” he said.
Amanda smiled.
Part of the roof fell in suddenly. The loud sound of falling stone and debris shattering the quiet of the Abyss.
Falling with the stone and landing on the floor, a huge inhuman thing roared at them from the dust and debris of the collapsed ceiling, its fang-filled maw dripping gross-looking spit.
Amanda didn’t want to waste any more time here. She worked her Magic once again, dragging her friends back through the barrier of Acheron and into the Material world of her front room as colour, light, and noise flooded their senses again.
Liz, who sat in a nearby seat, jumped in surprise as they appeared in the room.
“Jesus!” Liz said, her Aegis flaring up in a reaction to the possible danger. Amanda looked around her, confirmed where they were and relaxed. She stood up, brushing herself off as she looked at her friends to check they were okay. Toni and Tabitha crouched nearby, and Howie sat on the carpet, looking around in shock. They were all okay if a little shaken.
“And, we’re back,” Amanda said.
“Are… are you sure? Are we safe now? What the hell happened?” Howie blurted out.
Amanda felt terrible for putting Howie through that. Such a sudden and scary introduction to Magic was never the best way to find out that it existed. But it had been the only way; otherwise, he would have been dead. She walked over and crouched down next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“Howie, it’s okay, you’re safe now,” she said.
Howie looked up at her, his eyes wide and filled with fear and questions. “What are you?”
Amanda opened her mouth to speak, to answer his question, but then closed it again and had a rethink. “Hold that thought, I will tell you everything, but I just need to speak with my friends here first. Here. Come here, sit down for a moment,” she said helping him to his feet and guiding him to one of her soft, comfy chairs.
Once he was settled, she walked over to Toni and Tabitha, who had stood up and were hugging each other. They separated and looked at Amanda.
“Thank you, Mandy, you were awesome,” Toni said.
“Yeah, that was incredible. I can’t believe we’ve been to the Abyss,” Tabitha said.
“Yeah, how did you do that?”
Amanda smiled and saw no reason to lie. “Well, I’m the Chosen One, you know?”
“The Chosen One?” Tabitha asked.
“You’ve not heard the rumours? They’re all over the Dark Web,” Amanda said, smiling. She quite enjoyed the looks of wonder and awe on their faces. She glanced over at Liz as she spoke and caught her giving her a strange look, with one eyebrow raised. Amanda wasn’t sure what to make of that but turned back to the girls to continue their chat.
“No… we don’t go online much,” Tabitha answered.
“Well, it’s a whole thing, I’ll tell you later,” she said. “Look, you can stay here for a bit. You can’t go back to the club for a while. You can have the same room as the last time you were here, okay?”
The girls smiled at her and a few moments later, disappeared upstairs. Amanda watched them go and took a deep breath. That had been a terrifying moment, but she suddenly felt incredibly alive and full of energy. Maria had said to live life because tomorrow a Nomad could kill you. Well, today was yesterday’s tomorrow, and a Nomad had tried to kill her. Tried and failed. Amanda felt like jumping for joy, she wanted to whoop and holler her lust for life. Taking on a legendary Arch Magus like Nymira was not something she’d thought she could do, but she had, and she’d survived.
Was there really something to this Prophecy?
“Chosen One?” Liz said from close by.
Amanda turned to face her a smile still on her lips, but Liz’s look of concern wiped it away.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, we just had a bit of an encounter with Nymira.”
“The Voodoo Queen?” Liz asked, incredulous.
“That’s the one, and I can finally confirm that yes, she does want me dead,” Amanda said.
“Are you alright?”
“We’re fine. We had to escape through the Abyss, but we’re good,” Amanda said.
Liz looked over at Howie, sitting nearby, staring into the middle distance, clearly terrified. “I think some of you are better than others…” Liz said.
Amanda followed her gaze, and the weight of what she’d just done started to settle on her shoulders. Howie’s life, his view on the world around him, had been shattered and shown for the lie it had always been. Amanda took a deep breath. This would take some time.
- The Syndicate Island
With a long low grinding crunch, the cargo ship ran aground just off the beach of the hidden island. As the sky darkened and evening approached, Lilith steadied herself as the ship came to a halt, and the sounds of the waves hitting the beach filled her ears.
She turned and looked at the man who stood at the helm. She had him under her complete control and hadn’t allowed him to move for days. Fear filled his eyes as he looked at her, and rightfully so. With a minor working of Magic, she spun his head around a hundred eighty degrees. Even from this distance, she could hear the sickening crack of bone as her Magic did its work.
She let him go then and watched him drop to the deck, paralysed, struggling for breath through his ruined throat, but still alive. He’d die soon enough, so Lilith dropped off the edge of the boat into the shallow water and walked up onto the beach. She’d been here before and it was where she hoped to find Mr Black. But for now, she would wait.
Hostile Take Over
The Syndicate Island
The air snapped, and where a moment ago there had been only carefully maintained gravel, suddenly, there stood seven people.
Angel glanced to either side of her, making sure everyone had appeared and then looked around at the tropical environment. It was early evening on the island. The sun was setting to the west and cast a golden glow over the heavens. Before them, lit up by lights both inside and out, sat the Syndicate’s main building, a squat modern affair with glass walls and landscaped grounds. Everything seemed quiet. She could only see two people outside, a pair of security guards who stood outside the front doors chatting idly.
Angel had worked here for several years, firstly for herself and then for Yasmin as an undercover agent. She’d made contacts, seduced several of the employees, and slowly made herself more and more valuable to them until Mr Black had finally taken notice of her.
Things had changed, though. Mr Black had been caught in the nuclear blast on the atoll and had not been seen since. Most likely, he’d been vaporised by the explosion, leaving his organisation and empire free for the taking.
His best people, his most elite guards and most powerful Scions and Magi had been on the atoll with him, leaving a skeleton crew of operational personnel, the board of directors, and an accompanying secur
ity team here to run the place.
Feeling energised, Angel set off.
“Let’s get this done,” she said to her coven as she strode towards the building. “You all know what to do. No killing unless you absolutely have to.”
Her coven mates nodded, agreeing with her, before several of them Ported to other parts of the complex to cover all the exits. Angel continued on with Gabrielle and Uziel at her side.
As they neared the building, the two guards noticed their approach and stepped forward. The lead man peered at them through the darkness.
“Are you okay?” he said, not suspecting anything was amiss.
“We’re fine,” Angel said, smiling.
“Ah, it’s Angel, isn’t it? I thought you were on the mission?”
“I was, and now I’m back.”
“That’s great, where’s Mr Black? And the rest of the team?” he asked.
Angel walked up to him. “They won’t be returning, only I survived. I’m here to take on the position of director,” she said, curious to see what his reaction might be.
“What? What do you mean?” he asked.
His friend, however, was clearly more suspicious, and quickly raised his semi-automatic machine gun, pointing it at Angel. “Get fucked,” he said.
“Jake, calm down, we don’t know what happened,” the first guy said.
“Sure, I do. This bitch here is taking the piss. She probably killed Mr Black and Roxanne.”
“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? Angel has worked here for years, right? We have no idea what’s going on.”
“I don’t believe a word of it. We need to take them in for questioning,” he said and turned to address Angel. “Get on the ground and put your hands on your heads, NOW!” he shouted.
Angel frowned at him. She didn’t like being shouted at, least of all by a Riven. Anger rose up within her and she just couldn’t help herself. With a flare of Magic, the belligerent security guard’s body suddenly pulled itself apart. Skin and bone ripped away and dropped to the ground in a wet bloody heap.
The first guard watched this happen and started to back away as he struggled to keep control of his stomach that clearly wanted to purge itself. He heaved, retching and collapsed onto the nearby grass, being violently sick.
She reached out with her Magic once more and pressed into his mind, and with a quick twist of Magic, knocked him unconscious. He collapsed onto the grass.
“Are we finished?” Uziel asked.
“Patience, Uziel, I’m going to enjoy this,” she said and set off toward the building. She wasn’t too annoyed at Uziel for his comment, but she would not be rushed in this affair. After working as a lowly employee for several years, she hated most of the people here and their elevated idea of their own self-worth. She had seduced several of the chauvinistic men who made up the majority of the managers and aides to the board, all of whom she’d gratified sexually in one way or another. Sex was her weapon, and she always made sure to appear as if she was enjoying it, but each of those acts had been carefully thought out and planned. All in an effort to get closer to her goal through non-Magical means, remaining hidden from the capable Magi Mr Black employed. As it had turned out, that was a very wise choice. Echo Black, a powerful and clever Magus, had remained hidden from her throughout her mission.
But Echo and Mr Black were gone now, and Angel wanted nothing more than to demonstrate her power to the men, and the occasional woman, who she’d seduced along the way. Her true colours were on full display today.
As she approached the main entrance, she could see the employees inside, sitting at their computers and going about their business. This main central hub had an open-plan aspect to it, with everyone working in cubicles while meeting rooms and the manager’s offices were placed around the edges of the space. At the back, a large boardroom could be seen, with the entire board of directors inside in the middle of a meeting.
Her other coven mates were entering through the two other wings of the complex and would be ushering everyone into the central area. Most of the people left here to run the organisation would be in this main room though, the wings were for the now-absent Magi and Scions, along with a few of the more senior directors. Angel’s office had been inside one of the wings, which were not open-plan.
Some of the workers closest to Angel as she walked in stopped what they were doing and stared in her direction. She paid them no mind. Her target was the boardroom at the back and the directors inside, but she wanted everyone to see her, to be aware of what she was doing. Porting straight into the room would not have built the same level of anticipation.
Angel strode along the main path through the room, right through the middle of the workstations and cubicles. Whispers and rumours spread quickly as she walked. She could hear her name being mentioned by a few who recognised her. Halfway through the room, one of the higher-up managers, a man named Lawton Davis, caught wind of her approach and stood up. He had been one of the men she had been working on, engaging in some office sex from time to time to garner favour. However, as she’d gained support further up the chain, she’d used Lawton less and less. He frowned at her as he saw her striding through the building.
He moved closer to the main walkway as she approached him. She didn’t really acknowledge him, but she could see he was on a mission.
“Angel, where have you been? Come here, I think we need to have a talk. And who are these two?” he asked.
Angel found his tone distasteful and disrespectful. She didn’t pause, but as she strode forward, she raised her hand and made a twisting movement as she worked her Magic. Bones snapped inside of Lawton’s body and his terrifying scream made those closest to him shrink back. His body twisted into an unnatural shape, before falling to the floor in a howl of pain that barely sounded human.
People screamed and shouted, some of them surged away from Angel, or from Lawton. Others came forward, curiosity getting the better of them. Chaos erupted from the calm of the working day as Angel reached the doorway of the board room and slammed it open with a ram of Magical energy.
Angel walked inside and with another working of Magic, closed the door behind them. While Gabrielle and Uziel guarded the door, she stepped up to the table.
“Gentlemen, ladies, it’s a pleasure to see you all,” she said.
“Angel,” said Grant Connelly, a board member who she’d been working on. “Can we help you?”
“What’s the meaning of this?” said another.
“Who are you?”
“Excuse me?”
“What the hell?” said someone else. The exclamations blended together as they all talked over each other.
“Quiet!” she said, in a voice that she made sure would be heard. As they fell silent, she started to walk along the edge of the room, around the side of the long table. “Mr Black is dead, by my hand.”
“What?” someone said. A couple of others spoke up too, but their comments quickly died away upon seeing Angel stop and frown at the group.
“Angel,” Grant said again. “What’s going on, what’s the meaning of this?”
“I’m taking over,” she said. “The Syndicate is mine.”
“And what makes you think you can do that?” Grant asked.
She didn’t want to waste any more time on Grant, so she pulled on her Magic and sent its effects at him.
The Magic hit him hard and flung him from his seat. Blood splattered onto the wall behind him as he hit it. His body stayed there for a moment, half crushed, with blood leaking from his eyes and mouth, before dropping to the floor.
“This does,” she said, and let her gaze pass over the rest of the board. A few of them had shouted and screamed at her attack, recoiling from Grant’s lifeless body. But now, they all looked up at Angel in terror.
“Anyone else care to argue the point?” she said.
- The Ocean.
Clancy looked out to sea. Night had just fallen, and through the gaps in the clouds, he could make
out the pinpoints of light in the heavens. The boat moved slowly, riding the waves as best it could. They had a long trip ahead of them, and his passenger seemed keen to get to where he wanted to go. There was no island on any map that he could find at the grid reference he’d been given, but his passenger had paid him well, very well. So, who was he to argue?
The night air had a chill to it tonight, so he went back inside and made his way to the main hold and stepped inside. The room sat in almost complete darkness, but he could make out the vast and deformed body of his passenger sitting in the shadowy corner. In the centre of the room, laid out on a table, a good-looking black-haired girl wearing mismatched clothes remained unmoving.
Clancy looked back over to the figure in the corner. “We’re in international waters now, thought you’d like to know.”
The passenger said nothing, so Clancy chose to back out of the room and leave the pair alone.
Coming to Terms
New York
Amanda crossed the street with Howie, approaching his apartment block. Looking up, she realised she’d not seen this building in what seemed like an age. The last time she’d been here was before she’d become a Magus and her life had changed so completely. Looking at it now, that old life seemed like a distant memory, almost as if it wasn’t her life at all, but someone else’s.
Originally, she’d found this place when she’d been sleeping rough as a teenager after arriving in the city. She’d been desperate for a place to sleep but found it difficult to find anywhere even remotely safe that she didn’t get moved on from almost straight away. This was the first place she had spent more than one night, but she hadn’t been sleeping here long before Howie spoke to her and made offered her a place to stay.
He’d been a true gentleman to her throughout her time staying with him, and for that, she’d always been grateful.
He had introduced her to many of the things she still had an interest in today. He loved bikes and had been forever tinkering with his Honda, something which had rubbed off on her, creating a love for bikes and biking within her as well. Even today, she loved going out on her modified Fireblade and hitting the streets.
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