End Stage

by S A Magnusson

  But was I the kind of person to let a single setback define me? I knew I wasn’t. I wasn’t about to allow anyone – even someone I cared deeply for – define me like that. I held onto Jean-Pierre’s eyes, watching him. “I want to help,” I said.

  “Then I would like that.” He got to his feet, and reached the door to the kitchen. When he did, he paused and looked back at me, arching his brow. “Are you coming?”

  “Now?”

  “I thought you were wanting to help.”

  I got up, took another sip of the tea, and glanced down at how I was dressed. “I need to change first,” I said.

  “By all means.”

  Heading back to my room, I glanced at my belongings, slipping into jeans and a loose-fitting T-shirt. It was going to be warm enough out today that the T-shirt would be all I needed. I was tempted to grab for the wand, but I left it behind. Instead I took a handful of coins, stuffing them into my pocket, and prepared for the possibility I might need to use spell coins for whatever Jean-Pierre might need of me.

  When we reached the living room, he was waiting for me. There was tension in his posture, and he eyed me appraisingly. I couldn’t tell if he was concerned for me or for himself. When it came to Jean-Pierre, I suspected it was the latter.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “We shall go,” he said.

  2

  I don’t know why I should have been surprised for Jean-Pierre to have a limo waiting for us, but I still was. I had grown accustomed to traveling by transport spells, getting carried from one place to another with little more than a blink of an eye. Traveling by car was far more traditional – and slower – than I was accustomed to.

  “This isn’t attracting attention or anything,” I said, reaching the door to the car. It wasn’t so much a limo as a town car, but there was still a driver. Jean-Pierre held the door open for me, and I climbed inside, glancing over at him as I did. When I took a seat, he closed the door behind me, walking around the car to get in the other side.

  Once inside, he said not a word before we took off.

  I couldn’t see the driver well, but he was dressed as a limo driver would be. A black suit. Sunglasses. And gloves on his hands. I tried to think of all of the movies I had seen about car drivers, and I kept coming back to crime thrillers where the driver was dressed like this, more like a getaway driver than a chauffeur.

  “Where are we going?”

  Jean-Pierre looked out the window, and he pressed the tips of his fingers together as he did, breathing softly. “There has been an incident.”

  “You’re going to have to be a little bit more specific. In my experience, there have been a number of incidents since I’ve come to know the magical world.”

  “This one does not involve the vampires.”

  “Then why are you concerned?”

  “This one involves others who help maintain the Veil.”

  The Veil was a magical barrier which separated our world from that of creatures of incredible power like the fae and the demons on the other side. Crossing the Veil was taxing for me, and it was taxing for those who crossed to our side. When they did, a part of them was changed and weakened, and this protected us. There were those who believed the Veil was impenetrable, but I knew better. Those who spent time around dark magic users knew the Veil wasn’t nearly as impenetrable as most of the mage council thought.

  Even with that being said, the Veil still served a purpose. Without it, the fae would come across and would have access to all of their power and abilities. By diminishing them, we were not nearly as endangered as we would be otherwise.

  I hadn’t heard anything about the mage council having any issues, though I wasn’t sure if I would. Barden might share something with me, though it was just as likely he would keep it to himself. His role in the mage council was tenuous, tied to the fact there were still those on the mage council who didn’t care for someone like Barden, someone who had been a dark magic user his entire life, now serving openly on the council.

  That left the shifters, though ever since I had first been introduced to the magical world, I’d had little experience with the shifters.

  “If it’s not the vampires, and it’s not the mage council,” I said, looking at Jean-Pierre, meeting his gaze, “then it’s the others.”

  “There has been more activity out of the north,” he said.

  “I didn’t realize you tracked such things.”

  “We keep a close tab on movement.”

  “Why? The vampires and the shifters aren’t enemies.”

  “Not enemies per se, but not exactly friendly, either. The vampires have set themselves apart from all races,” he said. “When you are like us, and your power comes from a different place, unlike those whose power comes from the other side of the Veil, you find you need to use it differently.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “We have always kept ourselves apart,” he said.

  “Always?”

  He tipped his head in a nod. “Always. There has been no reason for us to intermingle with them, other than regarding the Veil. That was the only time when our peoples would ever interact.”

  “And something has changed. You wouldn’t have come to me with this if nothing had changed.”

  “Something has changed,” he said.

  We turned off onto the interstate, and accelerated quickly. The driver sent us hurtling along the road, moving faster and faster than I would have thought safe, but the faster we moved, the more I became aware of Jean-Pierre’s concern. He wouldn’t be driving us as quickly, so there had to be something he was worried about. For him to be so worried, I needed to be concerned.

  “Where’s Barden?”

  “Barden is preoccupied,” he said.

  “Is he preoccupied, or are you keeping him from me?”

  Jean-Pierre frowned. On him, it was little more than a pout, and it did little to change his distinguished appearance. “You know I would not keep you from him, Dr. Stone.”

  “I don’t really know what you would do, Jean-Pierre. At this point, I don’t know a lot about anything.”

  “You said you wanted to come with me to help.”

  “I do, but I also want to know a little more about what you want my help with.”

  “The shifters have called for a meeting.”

  “A meeting?”

  “It sounds benign, but I can assure you there is considerable concern on the part of the vampires. That is why I have been dispatched here.”

  “You’re on the council. You dispatched yourself.”

  “The council agreed there was a necessity for one of us to be a part of this.”

  “What’s the issue?”

  “The issue is that there is a meeting. When it comes to the vampires and the shifters meeting, such things are not done lightly. As you have no doubt inferred, our people do not always get along, and because of that, such meetings can often be dangerous. The Veil protects us to a certain extent, and it certainly ensures we don’t engage in open warfare, but even subtle acts can have lasting consequences.”

  I had to wonder why he was telling me this and what he was leaving out. When it came to Jean-Pierre, it was possible there were things he wasn’t telling me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they might be. What would he be keeping from me, and how might it matter to me? That was what I needed, mostly because I needed to be re-engaged in the magical community. I had separated myself from the medical world since returning, mostly through taking time off for myself. It was the first time I’d done that ever since gaining employment as an attending.

  Perhaps this is exactly what I needed. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that it was a good thing Jean-Pierre was bringing me with him, but I didn’t know why I was the right person for it. I didn’t have enough magical talent in order to ensure we would be safe if it came down to a battle of abilities. The shifters had their own magic. While it was different from that of the mages, it was ce
rtainly far more powerful than the magic I possessed.

  Any shifter would be able to overpower me, but I doubted that was something Jean-Pierre had overlooked. It meant he wanted me for a different reason. There had to be runes he was concerned about. And if that were the case, then he wanted me to be there in case they needed to be triggered.

  “What do you need triggered?”

  He turned his attention away from me, looking back out the window. He continued to press the tips of his fingers together, his knuckles turning white. “It’s possible you will need to ensure they do not leave their grounds.”

  “Why do you think I would be able to do that?”

  “Because you are powerful, Dr. Stone.”

  I started laughing before realizing he was serious. “I’m not powerful. I have some ability, but…”

  “You have some ability, and your ability is something not easily replicated by other full-fledged mages. That is why I need your help.”

  “Just that reason? It’s not about me being your familiar?”

  “You serving as my familiar means I can trust you, but it would not be the only reason I would have you come along.”

  Perhaps now was the time to ask him what it really meant to be his familiar. What powers would I be granted and how would I be strengthened? In the time since I had allowed him to feed on me, to formalize the bond, I’d not come to understand what it meant for me. There had been no obvious change within me, and no obvious increase in my power.

  “What is it, Dr. Stone?”

  I stared at him for a moment, debating how much to ask. It wasn’t often I had an opportunity to question Jean-Pierre, and most the time it was a matter of him being difficult to reach. I had a marker that allowed me to summon him, but I’d rarely used it. I was afraid if I attempted to use it too often that it would create problems for him, but I also knew that attempting to use it meant he would have to find a way to respond. In order for him to do so, he would have to find his way to Minneapolis. Doing so was dangerous to him.

  “I haven’t experienced any real change.”

  “What change were you hoping to experience?”

  “I was hoping I would have some benefit from serving as your familiar.”

  “And you don’t think you have.”

  “I haven’t.”

  “Are you so certain?”

  There were aspects of the connection between us which had changed. When I had been on the other side of the Veil, I’d been aware my strength had been greater than it should have been. My endurance had been more, but beyond that… There wasn’t anything for me.

  “I don’t know that I’ve detected anything,” I said.

  “You are human.”

  I looked at him askance, smiling. “What’s your point?”

  “My point is that you are human and not even a full-fledged mage. Without any significant ability, you should not have been able to tolerate your time on the other side of the Veil nearly as well as you did.”

  I watched him, wondering what he knew of my time on the other side. “I haven’t told you anything about it.”

  “You did not need to.”

  “You have ways of following me?”

  My hand started to go to my neck before I caught it. I didn’t know exactly what he was capable of doing and whether he was able to detect me through his connection, but I didn’t think he was able to observe me. It didn’t seem likely he had a way of watching from afar, though to be honest, I didn’t know. When it came to Jean-Pierre and his abilities, it was difficult for me to even think about what he might be capable of doing. He was an old vampire – impossibly old. The longer I’d been around him, the more certain of that fact I was.

  “It’s not so much about having ways of following you as having ways of finding information. Your time across the Veil wasn’t restricted to just you.”

  “Barden wouldn’t talk about it.”

  “No. I doubt Barden would share anything, especially if he believed it would get back to me.”

  “John Adams.”

  Jean-Pierre smiled tightly. “I admit I’m a little surprised you went to him for help.”

  “I needed someone who could help me.”

  “But the man who attempted to attack you?”

  “Which was exactly why I thought I should go to him.”

  Jean-Pierre stared at me quietly. His mouth was pressed into a tight line, and a sense of disappointment radiated from him. I wasn’t sure if he was using an ability for me to detect it or whether it was more a matter of him just demonstrating it so clearly to me, but I decided it didn’t matter.

  “Without John Adams, I doubt I would have survived.”

  “You had a way of crossing on your own.”

  “I did, but…” I frowned at him. “You don’t need me to help you across the Veil.”

  Jean-Pierre shook his head. “I have no interest in crossing the Veil. I must acknowledge a curiosity about what exists on that side, but I recognize my limitations.”

  “I don’t know how limited you’d be.”

  “I have no magic of my own, Dr. Stone.”

  I sat back in the seat, watching him. He continually told me that, and yet everything about vampires suggested they had power, even if it wasn’t magic per se. Regardless of what the vampires wanted others to believe, they certainly did have some abilities, and one ability allowed them to influence others. What was that but a type of magic?

  Then again, I doubted that ability would be useful against the fae. I’d seen others with power on this side of the Veil, and I recognized the nature of what they were able to do and just how different it was from the vampires. The magic on the other side and the power there were far greater than what existed on this side. Without any particular abilities, it would be incredibly difficult for any vampire to survive for long.

  “What did you do with John Adams?”

  “Do you worry about him?”

  “I don’t know how I feel about him.”

  “An interesting comment from you.”

  “Why?”

  “I would have thought that given what he was responsible for, you would view him differently.”

  “I understand what he was doing,” I said.

  “You believe him.”

  “I’ve seen that kind of pain before,” I said.

  John Adams turned away from me, staring out the window. “The pain of a father losing a child? Are you so certain he felt that pain and wasn’t fabricating it?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know how anyone could fake it.”

  “You’d be surprised at what some people are able to do.”

  We sped along the interstate, heading north. I rarely left the city these days, and certainly not on long road trips. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the time available to me. Now I was an attending physician, I had far more time available to me than I ever had when I was in residency. Weekends were free more often than when I’d still been studying. Maybe I should embrace the opportunity to travel. I had always enjoyed traveling. Despite staying within a familiar area for my medical school and residency, I enjoyed seeing more of the world. With an attending’s salary, I had money to travel, too. But then, it wasn’t fun to travel without having somebody else with you. I would have preferred different company even now, but at least I wasn’t heading north on my own.

  I didn’t like thinking about Brad like this again, but over the last few weeks, I’d found myself trapped in the same cycle.

  “You should call him,” Jean-Pierre said.

  “Call him and ask what?”

  “Is there no chance for your relationship to function the way you want it?”

  I smiled at him. “I don’t really have any idea how it can. He doesn’t have any connection to the magical world, and without that, he doesn’t know where he fits.”

  It was more than that, though I wasn’t about to share that with Jean-Pierre. It was more than just Brad not knowing where he fitted. It was about him not kno
wing where I fitted, not after learning what I was. I had seen it in his eyes. I remembered it far too clearly. The moment I’d shared with him I had magic – and had proceeded to demonstrate it – he had looked at me with at first amusement, then surprise, and finally horror. It was a sequence of emotions which had hit me far harder than I had expected. I would never have expected to suffer like that from Brad. In the time we had been together, I’d never expected him to be the one to hurt me.

  But then, it was the questions which came after that had been the hardest. “Was it your fault I was in the hospital?” he asked.

  I remembered sitting on the sofa, wanting to reach for him, wanting to take his hands, and yet being forced to sit stiffly. Everything in my body was exhausted from having crossed the Veil, and yet it was a conversation we’d needed to have.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I was attacked.”

  “You were. They were trying to make a point.”

  “What point is that?”

  I took a deep breath, meeting his eyes, forcing myself to do so. I was looking for a sense of affection, something, but there was nothing there. It was an emptiness. “Matt Gillespie works with others like me. Well, not like me, but they have about as much power as I do.”

  “Gillespie is like that?”

  “I didn’t know it.” I said it as if it would make everything better, even though I knew it wouldn’t.

  “And he knows what you are.”

  That was where the hurt came from. “I didn’t know what I was until I met him. And then he tried to hurt me. He tried to hurt you. He tried to hurt everyone I cared about.”

  Brad looked away, and his entire body was rigid, his jaw clenching, and he squeezed his hands into tight fists. I wanted to reach over to him, but I didn’t think it was the time.

  “So I was attacked because of you.”