“Oh…” I had nothing to respond to that. It was most definitely a shimmering deep blue, the same color as the dead corpse I’ll be at some point.
“Wait a minute...Blaaaaaaair!” Blair appeared in Eli’s doorway.
“What?” she demanded.
“Adrian, what color is her hair?”
My eyes darted back and forth between Eli and Blair. What was he getting at? I carefully calculated my answer before I replied, “Golden blonde with a hint of rosy redness to it?”
“It’s dark auburn,” Blair corrected. “Are you color blind? Perhaps Lizzy hit you one too many times on the head?”
Why was it always Lizzy? If anything, I think Blair’s abuse was more life threatening than Lizzy’s. I approached Blair and intensely stared at the long locks of her wavy hair. Come to think of it, when I first met her it was more of a light blonde. It was definitely more…golden rose colored than it used to be.
“Lizzy!” Blair moved out of the doorway so Lizzy could join the party. “And her hair?”
“Uhhh...white? Like a platinum blonde, maybe?”
“My hair is not white, dumbass! It’s a very normal strawberry blonde. I’m not an old lady!” She stroked her hair, checking it like she might be second guessing her statement.
I pulled a curl from my head and strained my eyes to see if mine was also an unusual color.
“It looks dark brown to us.” Blair stated. Well, that was a relief. At least they all saw everything normally, regardless of whether I did or not.
“What color is my comforter?” Eli pointed to the unmade bed in the corner of his room.
“Navy.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“OK, so we established the part of my brain that renders hair color has been damaged. So what?”
“I have an idea. Try these on.” Eli sat at his desk and shuffled around some clutter until he found a pair of goggles, the same ones he had been tinkering with a few weeks ago.
“Why?” I asked curiously.
“Because I said so.” Eli swiveled in his office chair with a cheeky grin on his face. I wasn’t sure who would win the race to push me over the edge first. They were all in equal contention.
The olive colored welding goggles had two large circular cups with clear lenses that suctioned tightly against each eye. I slid them on over my head and adjusted the elastic strap so they didn’t fall down my nose.
“OK, now what—holy shit what the hell is this?” The room was spinning around me in a kaleidoscope of colors. A vibrant concoction of reds, blues, and yellows intertwined to create swirls of purples, greens, and oranges floating through the air like transparent ribbons drifting in the wind. The moving current of haze threw me off balance, and I dropped to the floor. Like a bad acid trip, the room distorted, stretching and contracting in warped dimensions. Nausea overcame me and I grabbed for the garbage bin next to Eli’s desk.
“You OK there, buddy?” Eli patted my back as an ungodly sound followed by my lunch filled his trash bin. “I’ll assume this means the magic energy goggles work. At least on you. I still see nothing.”
“Turn it...off...” I panted in between the gagging.
“Breathe, Adrian, you’ll be fine. You’ll adjust in a minute. Good news, though! It seems like in addition to the super rare ability as a Nullifier, you are also a Paramount! Not many people manifest two powers like that. But you can see magic energy, Adrian! How cool is that?” Eli was definitely more excited about this than I was.
A few days ago, this would have caught me by total surprise and I would have been beyond overjoyed about it. But taking into consideration what I now knew about myself, it made complete sense. This was the next step in the process. His powers were starting to manifest.
“So, take a look at us now. What do you see?” The twinkle in Eli’s eyes made me realize I was, in fact, going to become his human test subject. So much for trying to fly under the radar. This was the exact opposite of what I had hoped to accomplish.
“Eli, you look like a radioactive blueberry. Blair, you’re an erupting volcano spewing molten hot lava, and Lizzy…” I had to be careful with this one. She was beaming whiter than the ghost of a melted snowman who overdosed on milk. “Lizzy, you’re glowing white like a heavenly angel!” Good save, Adrian. Good save.
“Holy shit, I don’t believe it!” Lizzy placed a hand over her chest in feigned astonishment. She already knew I possessed this ability, or at least I would at some point. If anything, she was alerted to the fact my time was running out quicker than we expected.
“How could I be both?” I ripped the goggles off and pushed to my knees, staring at Eli while playing the same clueless role as Lizzy. “One ability absorbs magic, the other basically creates it. That seems counter intuitive. Wouldn’t they just cancel out?”
“Well, that’s where your luck runs out.” Did I ever have any luck to begin with? “They won’t cancel each other out, they’ll constantly feed off each other until one overpowers the other, or they completely overpower each other and go poof!” He exploded his fists in the air to simulate my brain spontaneously combusting into a bloody mess.
“I’m going to explode?!” Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, something else always surfaced to reassure me that yes, in fact, there was always something worse that could happen.
Blair inserted her theory on the subject, leaning against the wall by the doorway. “You will explode if you can’t control it. One ability will ultimately supersede the other. Unless you train to control it. It will be difficult, but I think you can learn to control both.”
Eli wagged his finger in the air. “Perhaps, but let’s be realistic here. A month ago he could barely use any magic. What are the odds he could fully master two of the most difficult forms of magic before something unfathomable happens? I say we try to hone your Paramount magic...it’s definitely more useful than your nullifying skill.”
Lizzy then voiced her opinion, fully aware of the underlying matter. “He’s been training with his Nullifier ability. I think we have a better chance of sticking with that than starting with something new.”
I clapped my hands and pointed at Lizzy. “Yes...she’s totally right. My best chance of not exploding into some abstract street art on the side of a building is to stick with the Nullifier ability I’m already partially familiar with. Done. Case closed. So, what’s for dinner?”
It won’t work. The last of the party decided to say something about the matter. In my head, of course.
You’re not in control yet, you sadistic freak.
A solid metal object slammed into my chest, knocking me to the floor. Then a crack of lightning electrified my ribcage.
“You suuuure you want to endure this excruciating pain rather than control every type of magic known to man?” Eli held his hand out, the heavy metal object on my back cracking my spine as it pressed me deeper into the carpet.
“Y-Yes,” I squeezed out with the last of the air being crushed out of my lungs.
“Alright then. It’s your demise. Oh, sorry, that was probably not the best choice of words.”
He was right though. It was my demise. I had already accepted the fact I was going to die anyway. Whether the two pieces of magic would clash or the Paramount ability would take over, I’d lose in the end. I didn’t really have much hope that I, Adrian Cotter, purveyor of no magical knowledge whatsoever, would come out of this alive.
My training began bright and early the next day. But this time, it was different. The tension in the air hung so thick Lizzy could slice through it with her blade. I felt like I was marching into battle knowing no matter what happened, it would end with my funeral. Blair, Eli, and Lizzy pushed forward, though, like there was still a chance I could survive.
To master the Nullifier ability, I first had to learn to control it on my own terms. Right now, it seemed the switch only flipped on in times of desperation, when I thought I was in serious danger.
After a bit of research by Eli
, we had a better understanding of what we were dealing with. My training would determine how much of a magic attack I could negate, how much magic energy I could absorb before I overloaded, and how long I could store it before it disappeared. That’s right, even though I had no magic of my own, my Paramount magic aside, I could actually store magic for later use. Unfortunately, that was the hardest part of all seeing as my ability would constantly threaten to drain whatever I was trying to stockpile. Even the extremely talented Nullifiers had trouble with it, and could only retain large amounts of energy for a few hours at the most. When I had unknowingly absorbed Blair’s attack, my body overloaded on magic and my defensive instinct kicked in, spitting it right back out less than a second later.
Thanks to Lizzy’s training, I had a basic concept of how to dissipate the magic energy to stop a magical attack from harming me, although it was the most basic of basic abilities. I could probably block something with the strength of a cotton ball, not Blair’s lightning or Eli’s bone crushing magnetic abilities. Something told me I wasn’t going to be attacked with rolls of toilet paper.
To acquaint me with stopping different types of magic, Eli loaded a paintball gun and shot me with all the magic spell bombs he could get his hands on, plus some special ones of his own. He could have simply thrown them at me but no...he thought the threat of the gun in my face shooting a glass orb at 200 feet per second might push me just a tiny bit further. Brutal, but practical. Within a few days I couldn’t take it anymore and my need to stop the insanity overcame me as I successfully absorbed the energy from each attack...then immediately spit it right back out at him.
The main concern with a Nullifier’s ability was that the user had no magic to fight back unless they could absorb some kind of energy first. That was where the watch my mother gave me came into play. It was impractical, but in a bind, Porky suggested I could activate the magic in my watch, absorb it into my body, and blast it out as necessary. Unfortunately, the response time wasn’t reliable. It could take me precious seconds to absorb the energy and release it. Seconds in a fight could mean the difference between living and dying.
We also learned that Nullifiers also possess a sort of healing ability. It turns out as my body eliminates the magic energy from an attack, it reverses the effects of the damage created too. It wouldn’t save me if I received a fatal injury, but it could delay the process long enough until I received the appropriate medical attention. Paramounts could heal as well, and had much more sophisticated abilities to heal both physical and magical wounds. This was a skill that required actual medical knowledge of anatomy and how the body worked. Knowledge I definitely didn’t have, but clearly the man trapped inside me did.
Every day, they ramped up the intensity on my training to push my limits. Lizzy continued teaching me her hand to hand combat skills, since I wouldn’t always be able to rely on my magic ability. She said she’s seen many colleagues who have become so used to relying on their magic, that when it failed they could do nothing to save themselves. I knew a thing or two about failing magic.
A few weeks had passed by, and while I was nowhere near being a master of my skill, I was confident I could hold up in a skirmish with the police—if they attacked me from 100 yards away and tiptoed over to my body.
The more I trained, the worse the nightmares got. The shadow made his return and he was back with a vengeance. The voice began having more in depth conversations with me, both inside and outside of my dreams. I had to wonder if maybe I was doing something wrong, like maybe all this training was actually somehow favoring him instead.
I found myself tossing and turning trying to sleep. I was tired as hell, but I couldn’t quell the thoughts buzzing around my head like a swarm of angry bees. I still had so many questions, and it seemed like every time I sneezed I had five more.
Clearly, sleep was not in my future so I decided to make good use of the extra time. I changed into a pair of jeans and threw on a winter jacket, deciding to go for a walk to clear my mind. Technically, I was still on house arrest and I wasn’t supposed to go out on my own, but I needed to do something to occupy myself.
I went to grab my gloves on my way out of the bedroom, when a white business card slipped off the top of the dresser. It was the one Raven handed to me the night of the auction. I flipped it over and read the message.
Find me when you’re ready.
Desperados on Allington Ave.
Chapter 29
M y eyes widened at the name mentioned in the note. Desperados was a well-known bar associated not only with the Black Mark, but other gangs and criminal organizations around the city. It was a safe haven...where leaders could conduct business on equal grounds. It was a place where no one asked any questions about who you were or what you did, and no one cared as long as you took your violence elsewhere and kept it outside the bar.
Also, no one in their right mind would consider attacking a bar packed with a militia of armed criminals. Even the police. You’d be jumped before you had both feet in the door, taken to an undisclosed location, tortured to death, and thrown into the river. Not my definition of a fun night out.
I supposed I could pay the joint a visit. After all, I was the infamous manslaying Obsession Killer now. I’d fit right in.
With everyone asleep, I easily snuck out the front door and walked the four blocks through the frigid city streets to a bustling bar called Desperados.
The illuminated neon sign could easily be seen from down the street. A glow of vibrant blue and green lights mixed together as it dangled from the side of the building over the entrance.
The buzzing bright lights caught me in a trance, and I hesitated outside the front door, second guessing myself on whether entering the bar was a good idea. What was I even thinking? Of course it wasn’t a good idea, but I was doing it anyway.
I pushed the clunky wooden door open and froze there like a unicorn at a frat party. Everyone locked their eyes on me, but didn’t want to say anything because they didn’t know if what they were seeing was truly real. An unsettling silence fell upon the room at the unexpected new visitor, their brooding eyes stabbing me like a human pin cushion.
Unease overcame me, but I ignored their stares and eyed a stool at the corner of the bar overlooking the lounge where at least fifty very intimidating men and women were pounding down beers and playing billiards.
My new outlook on life was that I had no life. If they wanted to kill me here and now, so be it. I had nothing to live for. No matter how much I trained, I was a dead man anyway. Eli and Blair didn’t know that eventually the Paramount ability would take over regardless, taking my memories with it. I have to admit I was also a little curious, though. I had never been able to reliably use magic, so I wanted one last hurrah before I kicked the bucket.
I observed the dim room diligently, keeping a watchful eye on my surroundings. Once I sat down, the noise resumed and everyone went back about their business.
The bartender saw me pull out a stool, and reluctantly left the giggling woman playfully flirting with him to take my order.
“Gin and tonic.” My go-to drink of choice.
“I.D.” The bartender was a middle-aged man, well-groomed with slick, black hair combed over to the side. A close shaved goatee did a poor job at hiding his pockmarked face.
I rolled my eyes at the man’s request. Seriously? Did he think an underage high schooler would try to sneak a drink at a bar like this? I pulled out my obviously fake I.D., the one Eli had given to me, and grudgingly forked it over.
“Thomas Peacock?” He let out a mocking laugh and returned the plastic card. “That’s a good one. I’m just playing with ya. You’re quite famous around here. I just wanted to see what you were calling yourself these days. Do you prefer Tom? Maybe Tommy? Sir Thomas Peacock?” A cocky smile crinkled his face. I challenged his insult with a warning stare, but it didn’t faze him. He was probably used to it, working in a place like this. “Alright, gin and tonic coming right up. By the way,
the name’s Colton. Nice to meet you, Mr...Peacock. We have one rule here. Stay out of trouble. If you have a dispute to settle, take it elsewhere. Got it?”
I nodded.
“Good. Welcome to Desperados.”
He placed a highball glass on a thin cardboard coaster in front of me. Tiny bubbles snaking around the square ice cubes created mini volcanic eruptions of seltzer as they popped when they reached the surface. I squeezed the lime and smelled the clear, fizzy drink to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. Not that I’d be able to tell if it was.
I sat pouting at the bar, watching as even some of the city’s most violent, noxious criminals had friends to hang out with. No one approached me or made eye contact. I had hoped I might find Raven. I had some more questions to ask her, but she didn’t seem to be here tonight.
The only words that came out of my mouth for the next hour were “Another gin and tonic.” I sat there, a million thoughts buzzing around my head until I caught a glimpse of a woman with copper hair poorly disguising herself sneaking a peek at me. She blushed, gazed down at the bar top, and timidly covered her embarrassment by brushing her side swept bangs behind her ear.
Having been made, she stood up from her stool across the bar and headed in my direction. If being the Obsession Killer did anything for me, it gave me the ability to attract psychopathic women. I assumed she would be no different.
Her thick hair was pulled back into a messy bun, a golden necklace resembling a twisted vine dropped to her chest. The silky cherry red cocktail dress somehow shimmered in the dimly lit bar. Her long arms wrapped in lace swayed as she glided across the floor, a revealing slit running up the side of her leg halfway above her knee flashed her bare thigh with each step.
She pulled out the stool next to me and sat down, crossing her legs and leaning on the bar top. I took one sidelong glance at her, swiveled back around to face the bar, and continued enjoying my drink.
The woman sat there for a couple minutes, mumbling inaudible words over the obnoxiously rowdy room as she fidgeted with the giant daisy pinned to the side of her head and then looking for something in her purse. She then turned to me, hands resting under her chin like a sappy high school photo.
How to Hunt a Menacing Magical Shadow Page 23