by Harry Nix
Juno was quite fixated on it so Alex eventually suggested that they check out the Corvus outpost. Anything to take her mind off the fact that apparently Juno’s grandmother was going to kill them all. So now they were out at midnight in the darkness, watching the outpost.
“Would they normally be patrolling like this? Or are they on some kind of alert?” Alex asked.
“Give me the binoculars again,” Juno said. She examined the outpost and then nodded. “I think they're more stirred up than they would normally be. Maybe Bailey spread the word.”
She passed the binoculars back to Alex who returned to scanning the building.
“If this is just an outpost what does their main compound look like?” Alex asked.
“It’s somewhere in Baxter but there’s no way a non-Corvus mage would see it. Just like Juno’s house, they have wards and a variation of the concealment spell that tells you to look away,” April said.
“Sounds a bit like the Great Barrier,” Alex commented.
“You’re kinda right. You might glance at their building, but then look away, like it’s not of interest to you,” April said in agreement.
Alex watched the guards. They only stayed in the same spot for three minutes before changing positions. It seemed an excessively high level of security.
“What if we grabbed one of those mages and tortured it out of him?” Alex asked.
“Torture a pain mage? That just makes them stronger. Also, the sickos like it,” Juno said.
“I don't have any of my supplies here, but I can probably whip up something we could use to drag it out of them, but it still depends on how strong the spells are on their main compound. Even if you have a precise address you might not be able to see it,” April said.
Alex scanned over the outpost again, seeing the walls weren’t high enough to stop a leaping werewolf. That was what the spotlights and patrolling mages were for.
Just as Alex was imagining how he would jump the walls he realized he was doing that thing again: forgetting that he wasn't just a werewolf but also a mage as well.
He could cast a concealment spell on himself and then jump the fence. Maybe he could enter unseen. That meant probably going in alone however and after having his hand ripped off by a little old lady brought back from the dead, Alex was starting to think the old saying about the strength of the wolf being the pack was actually true.
They stayed up on the rooftop for another half hour, the three girls eventually walking off to sit down to chat about the past, sneaking out of the house and back and often almost being caught by Juno's grandmother and mother.
Alex kept watching the outpost and the guards moving on their scheduled routes. Eventually he was rewarded for his patience when a car approached, pulling up the gate. A mage came to the window to check something and then the gate opened, the car driving inside.
Alex got a glimpse inside the outpost. It appeared the guard could either open the gate directly, or called in for someone to do it.
He resumed idly scanning the buildings again, wondering what kind of magical protections were running on the outpost. Although today's burning of the curtains had been a disaster according to Juno, Alex had learned he could manifest a flame some distance from his body.
He'd have to investigate more. Perhaps he could start a fire in their outpost without even being there, distract them and then break in.
Alex had Howey’s advice running in the back of his mind. Acts of asymmetrical warfare were to impress a wider audience, to gather people to your cause and Alex knew that although he and the three girls were quite strong was no way they could take on this outpost alone.
The plan to travel out to where the werewolves lived to gather them was the strongest option.
Shortly after deciding it was time to go home, Alex spotted a man creeping down the alleyway below. Something about him raised the hackles on the back of his neck. A moment later his suspicions were confirmed when Alex saw the flicker of a small screen. It was a mage up to no good.
“Get Boris running and leave the trunk open. I’ll grab him and then we’ll go,” Alex whispered.
“That could be the necromancers though. The old lady could be here, What if this time she rips off something that we all need?” Juno whispered back.
“Well it’ll be a really painful day for me to regrow it, won’t it?” Alex said, grinning in the darkness.
“I’ll come with you,” Nia whispered.
They quickly went their separate ways, Juno and April scaling their way down the building fire escape on the other side to make their way back to Boris.
Alex and Nia waited on the rooftop. The mage had settled in the alleyway, the screen above his head flickering code. Alex tried copying some but could only grab fragments of code, which he stored for later study.
After estimating that Nia and Juno would be at Boris by now, Alex and Nia leaped off the rooftop, landing in front of and behind the mage.
He yelped in shock and fell backward, straight into Nia who put him into a chokehold. Alex grabbed the front of his robs and brought up a long claw close to the mage’s face.
“Be quiet or you die, right now,” Alex said with a growl in his voice. The mage was young, maybe only twenty or so. He immediately nodded as best he could with Nia’s arm around his throat. Alex quickly stripped the rings off his fingers and checked he wasn’t carrying anything else.
Then the pair of them ran through the dark, Nia easily carrying the mage like a sack of potatoes over her shoulder. They got to Boris, where Juno clamped the mage cuffs on him, and then threw him into the trunk.
A minute later they were gone, heading off into the darkness.
“We can't take him home. Where are we taking him?” Juno asked.
“Abandoned factory,” Alex said. He was casting analyze on the mage's rings. He’d been wearing four but only one of them actually had a spell on it. There other three were merely decorative. He’d been carrying a shield ring which seemed to be a very poor quality, considering it hadn't activated when Nia had grabbed the mage around the throat.
Alex stashed them into his bag and then they sped through the night until they reached the abandoned factory.
They parked inside and Juno sat the bedazzled flashlight down to light the area.
“I want to do good wolf, bad wolf,” Nia said in an excited whisper.
“I want to be the bad wolf!” April said.
“You’re not even a wolf,” Nia said.
“Okay, bad half nymph half earth elemental.”
“I want to be a bad witch,” Juno said.
Nia groaned. “We can't all be bad. Someone has to be the good one.”
“I'll do it,” Alex said, wondering if the three of them had done this kind of thing before.
With that he opened the trunk and helped the mage out, being gentle with him. He led him over to sit on a small step.
“You okay?” Alex asked.
The mage was clearly terrified, his eyes darting everywhere as he looked between the four of them. Alex could see that the mage cuffs hadn't activated. He hadn't bothered trying to cast a spell.
“What’s your name?” Alex asked.
“Stephen,” he said.
Suddenly Juno appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Stephen’s robes.
“Stephen what? Master of horror, Stephen King? If that's what you're into, we got plenty of horror and blood for you if you want it!” she yelled at the mage, giving him a shake.
“Hey, hey is no need for that,” Alex said, gently pushing Juno away and try to keep a straight face.
The moment she was gone, a handful of dirt landed at Stephen’s feet. There was a chime and then vines burst out of it to wrap around his legs, creeping up to his knees.
April walked out of the darkness, looking like a malevolent she-demon.
“You ready for me to throw some dirt on your balls?” she said. “Maybe grow some vines to castrate you?”
“Please don't hurt me,” Steph
en begged.
Alex tried to signal to the three girls to turn it down about ten levels but they weren’t really paying attention to him. Nia was stalking back and forth, flexing her claws, looking like she was ready to slice bits off Stephen.
Alex stepped in front of him and blocked his view, crouching down in front of him. He shifted back from his hybrid state to human. He saw Stephen blink at him, as though he’d never seen a werewolf shift before.
“You know who I am?” Alex said in a soft voice.
Stephen nodded.
“What's my name?” Alex prodded.
“Alex Lowe. The werewolf who’s a mage as well.”
“That's right. I'm guessing you're a necromancer. Why are you and your friends trying to kill me?”
Behind him, Alex heard a whoosh of a fireball as Juno summoned one to a hand before extinguishing it, and doing it again, causing Stephen's eyes to go wide.
“I don't know. I was told where to go, what to do. They don't tell me anything else,” he said.
“Who told you?” Alex said.
He had to give it to the kid. Even though it was clearly terrified with the three girls stalking around he held his resolve. Alex shuffled closer, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“If you tell me what your boss’ name is, we going to let you go so you can take a message to them. If not, then I’m going to leave and these three will do whatever they want,” Alex said softly. He heard a slight chime of magic behind him and the vines tightened on Stephen's legs. The young mage frowned and then grimaced in pain. He looked across the four of them before hanging his head, defeated.
“His name is Artemis Lore. He’s the head of our enclave, Xavo,” Stephen said.
“We need more death boy, and quick before I fry you,” Juno threatened, coming close with a fireball in her hand.
“That’s it. We were told to kill Alex,” Stephen said.
“How do you keep finding us?” Alex asked.
“Got your neighbors, the ones used to live below you. Artemis knows a tracking spell that works on the newly dead who were close to you, like physically close. It’s getting weaker though, which is why we couldn’t find you precisely tonight.”
Alex looked at Juno and April but both shrugged like they’d never heard of this before.
“Here’s what is going to happen Stephen. We’re going to drop you off in town and you’re going to tell your boss that Alex Lowe wants a meeting. I’m going to write my phone number on your arm, so don’t lose it. You’re going to message me so I can call you back. At some time, I’m going to call with a location. Your boss, and only your boss, will meet me there. If this doesn’t happen then we’re going to find you and you don’t want that,” Alex said.
Stephen nodded and gulped but had a look on his face like it didn't quite believe it was true. Waving the girls off, Alex helped Stephen to his feet and then April canceled the vine spell, setting him free.
Before Alex put him in the trunk again, he used a pen to write his phone number on Stephen’s arm, going over it multiple times. With Stephen in the trunk they set off back into the city in silence, aware that Stephen would be able to hear them.
Eventually, Juno pulled into a random alleyway and they set him free, removing the mage cuffs and then driving away without another word.
As soon as they were around the corner out of sight they started talking again.
“So, what's this plan exactly dear leader?” Juno asked.
Alex shrugged and rubbed his eyes. The late nights were wearing on him.
“Well, I figure we call them, make them go from one place to another so they can’t set up an ambush and then finally send them to somewhere like a mall food court with lots of witnesses. I'll talk to this Artemis, see if I can get them to back off or otherwise extract some information out of him. Worse comes to worst he learns not to upset an angry werewolf.”
“We could have just tortured that kid to find out where they hang out, though,” April said.
“Yeah, or cut his hand off and leave him alive as a warning, instead of the whole interview thing,” Nia said. Alex nodded, realizing the three girls are feeling far more bloodthirsty than he was.
“I wanted it to be a gesture of good faith to send him back unharmed,” Alex said.
“I think you forget they've literally ripped off your hand and could have killed you,” Juno said through gritted teeth.
Alex realized his suspicions were right. The three of them were far more upset about what had happened the other night than he was.
“How about this doesn't work out, we can just go crazy and kill them all, okay?” he said.
“Deal,” Nia said, flexing her claws.
As they headed for home, Alex sat back with Nia snuggled up against him and wondered if setting Stephen free had been a good idea. The wolf part of him was more than happy to torture and execute him… but there was something about how young he was, so unprepared with a single poor quality ring that told Alex that Stephen was little more than a disposable foot soldier.
Alex still knew foot soldiers were responsible for what they did and in a war could be killed just as anyone else but he just couldn’t shake the idea it was wrong to kill someone so young.
11
No living person had entered the abandoned building in years. Well, perhaps it was more accurate to say no living person had entered the abandoned building and escaped alive.
The roof had seen better days and was pockmarked and broken in places, allowing both the moonlight and weather in. Inside spread about the place were piles of clay, gravel and sands of various colors and grades. It looked like a Tibetan monk’s mandala ready to be made.
At precisely eight, three tiny balls of light glimmered into existence, the three controlling mages being sticklers for punctuality. They drifted down to the ground, each landing in a pile of materials.
Quickly, three crude shapes of men formed. Soon the various sands and gravels coalesced to form expressive faces and clothing. All three were still in disguise of course. Despite the security of this type of meeting, they were incredibly cautious still.
It wasn't long before the three golems stood up and made their way to the center of the building. Clay and dirt formed into chairs and a table and each sat.
Knox,” said one of them.
“Eric,” said the other.
“Titus,” said the third one.
It was an important part of the ritual that they said their true names, which would be unheard by anyone outside the spell.
Knox looked around and then let out a sigh. “Where's Prince?”
“Fashionably late as usual,” Eric said.
“I don't have time to wait for him. Does anyone want to explain these rumors about Alex Lowe?” He glanced at Eric but then his gaze fell on Titus and stayed there.
“I did as I was asked. We killed every single werewolf we found,” Titus said.
“But yet you didn't. He escaped and has been hidden for twenty-three years. And what about his parents?” Knox asked.
“They're dead,” Titus said.
Knox waved his hand irritably. “Unless you saw the bodies directly, I'm assuming they're alive.”
Titus snorted in disbelief. “They're alive but it just in hiding for twenty-three years? A witch, a Chaos Witch by the way, is going to stay away from her son all that time? An Alpha is going to stay away from their last surviving child? I doubt it. They're dead.”
He crossed his arms, the gravel that formed them rasping in the night.
“All those lies about the attack on your building, which by the way was razed to the ground. Why should I take your word on it?” Knox said.
“What does it matter? Alex Lowe is the problem, not his long-dead psychotic father or mother.”
“He wasn't psychotic. He went wild. There is a difference,” Eric said quietly.
“Gone native have you?” Titus asked.
A fourth golem came striding out of the dark. His chair formed u
p from clay and dirt. Unlike the others which were simple, this was elaborate, like a miniature throne.
“Prince,” the newcomer announced. He sat on the chair and crossed on leg over the other.
“Precision matters. Like with a stake to the heart. A few inches the wrong way and it fails entirely. The vampire then rips your throat out. Better to get it right, do it nice and clean,” Prince said.
“Punctuality matters too,” Titus muttered.
For a moment the four men regarded each other.
“My sources tell me he's been in contact with the necromancers. Kidnapped one of them and then set him free. He wants to meet,” Prince said.
“Should be simple enough to set up an ambush then,” Knox said.
“One would think so. Yet he has survived multiple attacks. Even had his hand ripped off and still he lives,” Prince said. Although he was speaking to the group his gaze kept flicking to Titus.
“I don't care whether we ambush him, burn his house down or drop a bomb on him. He needs to be dead as fast as possible,” Knox said.
“Why not just leave them alone? He’s young, with mates to fuck. Just let him be and maybe he lives an ordinary life,” Eric said.
Knox shook his head. These were the same arguments from Eric they’d heard decades ago.
“We obtained one of the rings that he ‘edited’,” Knox said, making air quotes with his fine sand fingers. “It's flawless. There is no signature in the ring, no scent to him. It has been perfectly done. He's not on the path where he does such things, and then uses the money to buy a big TV and a house for all his women.”
Eric stood up and walked around as though he needed to stretch his legs. Of course the golem needed no such thing, but perhaps Eric was doing the same back from where he was casting the spell.
“Do you know what happens when forging steel?” he finally said. “If you hit hard enough you can break it but anything less than that and it just makes the steel stronger. Now I've gone along with many plans over the years, including the original one but I am telling you this – you must not hammer Alex Lowe. Unless you can obliterate him with overwhelming force you are going to do nothing but make him stronger.”