The ground trembled as it raced at me. I waited until the last possible moment and sidestepped, striking its neck as it charged past. It roared in pain, at least I’d like to think it was pain, and lashed out with an arm, clipping me in the numb shoulder.
I spun around a kick designed to break me, barely managing to evade the ogre’s leg. The kick missed my midsection and crashed into a thigh. Running was no longer on the option list, as a lance of pain shot up my leg.
I was beginning to wonder if my techbrace was malfunctioning or just plain sadistic.
I limped back as the ogre circled around. Its body language was speaking fluent violence as it roared, charging at me.
I slid over to the wall, keeping it to my back. The ogre closed the distance, intent on massive maiming. I stepped back, making sure my back rested against the wall. The last thing I wanted was to bounce off the ogre and the wall.
It closed on me, outstretching its arms in what appeared to be the start of a fatal hug. Cait flashed red and released the charge. I felt my body press up against the wall, cracking the brick. The ogre received the full blast in the face and flew back, cratering the wall behind it.
It fell face first and lay still.
I picked up Sliver, and what remained of Thorn, and began shuffling away. I just needed to make it to the vehicle Honor had lent me. Down the street, a 1970 Plymouth Duster in blood red waited to whisk me away. SuNaTran enjoyed using odd colors for some of their cars. It was a bit underpowered compared to my Cuda, but it had strong lines, a powerful enough engine, and, most importantly, a rune-covered, ogre-proof, enhanced chassis.
Supernatural Transportation, or SuNaTran for short, provided a car service for the supernatural population. SuNaTran provided discreet service any time of day or night to any of the five boroughs and beyond—for a price. They provided transportation. I use the term ‘transportation’ loosely since each Rolls Royce Phantom, their signature vehicle, was just a small tank disguised as a car.
If I could get to the Duster, I could put some distance between a certain mauling and me. I hadturned the corner of the alleyway when I heard the rumble. Worst case scenario, I could use the emergency teleport I had Cecil install.
I’d say getting beaten to a bloody pulp counted as an emergency. The teleport would key to the closest neutral zone, in this case probably the Central Archive. I’m sure Honor would love to have me just appear at his place. I wondered how long it would take before Rahbi blasted me as part of an Archive breach.
I made a note to myself that if I made it through tonight, I’d have her reprogrammed sans sarcasm. The roar behind me let me know that the ogre had turned the corner, noticing me.
I turned and gripped Sliver. If I was getting dusted tonight, the ogre was coming with me.
FIVE
The threat of death has a way of doing one of two things: causing mind-shattering panic or mind-numbing calm. I entered the calm of facing repeated life threatening situations, put my weight on my good leg, and gripped Sliver with my working hand.
“So this is what death looks like,” I muttered under my breath as my vision began tunneling in. “So much for late retirement.”
The ogre turned to face me and crouched. It leaped in the air and never landed. I felt the displacement of air, as several blades flew silently past me and into the airborne ogre. It burst into dust mid-leap.
“Maybe you are getting too old for this,” a familiar voice said behind me. “He wants to see you.”
I turned to look into the face of Honor’s second-in-command, Rahbi.
“I had the situation handled, but thanks…for… the…assist.”
The ground tilted sideways, and rushed up to tap me in the face as I lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes again, I lay in a hospital bed. I shifted my weight with a groan. The last thing I needed was being read the riot act by Rox.
I moved my arm around and felt little to no pain just some stiffness and the occasional twinge. After being an ogre’s punching bag I should be one large bruise. Someone had worked some magic on me…literally.
I looked around, and realized I wasn’t in Haven. I was about to ask Cait where I was, when Rahbi walked in. This wasn’t going to be much better than being dressed down by Roxanne, but if she was here, that meant I had to be near to, or inside, the Archive.
Rahbi was the eye to Honor’s storm. She was the calm in the center of the chaos. In my opinion, this made her the greater threat by several orders of magnitude.
She was a little over five feet tall, making her roughly the same height as Luca. Pale gray eyes and jet-black hair down to her shoulders offset her brown skin. The rumors were that she was as powerful as Honor, and that she came to the Archive after burning down a sect in her home country.
I didn’t know for sure, and frankly didn’t care. Today she had saved my ass.
“Welcome back,” she said. “You have a novel way of ‘handling’ situations.”
“This isn’t Haven.”
“Amazing powers of observation. No, this isn’t Haven.”
“Thanks,” I said with a groan, as I sat up. “What is this place? Where is this place?”
“Central Archive Medical.”
“I didn’t know the A
rchive had a medical wing.”
“That’s kind of the point. What were you thinking, going up against an ogre armed only with a knife?”
“I was thinking about not dying.”
“You were doing a horrible job of it, even if the blade was runed.”
“I underestimated the situation.”
“I’d say. You’re lucky Honor had me running surveillance on the Abyss.”
“Ah, you got to see me in action,” I said, resting my head back against the pillow. “How did I do?”
“Poorly,” she answered. “Are you certain you trained with Luca?”
“Surveillance on the Abyss?”
“We’re tracking the Redrum X, and then you walked in,” she said. “Why were you there?”
“Luca asked me to check on one of her contacts.”
“And you felt going in there alone was the best way to do that? A club owned by Stone Trolls?”
“I was just going to ask some questions.”
“After what happened with Bruce, I would advise you to stay away from the Abyss, maybe even that entire part of the city.”
“Had no choice,” I said. “Didn’t think they would overreact that way.”
“You killed one of theirs. How did you expect they would react?”
“Less lethally? A few words before the whole ‘unleash a deranged mage’ portion of the evening started?”
“Did you know about the Warden?”
I remained silent, but that was answer enough.
Rahbi glared at me.
“What? I did as he asked,” I said. “You have an issue with that, take it up with him.”
“I did. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“No, thanks. Between a pissed off you and a pissed off him, I pick you.”
“Good point,” she said with a nod. “I’d do the same.”
“Besides, he wanted your reaction to be authentic.”
“I almost authentically killed Grey and his apprentice.”
“It was a calculated risk. Honor felt you wouldn’t take that kind of action unless you were absolutely certain he did it. You weren’t, so you didn’t.”
She shook her head. “He’s been spending too much time around you with these black ops.”
“How is he?”
“Irritated and cranky.”
“I see. He’s fully recovered then.”
“That explosion nearly took out his office,” she said. “I think he underestimated the power those runes represented.”
“What kind of runes were they?”
“You’d have to ask him,” Rahbi answered. “His knowledge of runes and casting is vast. It’s not an accident that he’s an Archivist.”
“Well, I know he wrote them and asked me to give the book to the Warden, with some story about patching up old wounds and access to forbidden information.”
“It worked.”
“If he wanted to see Stryder that badly, why not just send him an invite?”
“Grey is a Night Warden and naturally paranoid. He never would’ve answered.”
“Might have something to do with the Kill On Sight order you have out on him.”
“There is that,” she said. “Honor wanted to see if he would take the risk of coming here in spite of the KOS.”
“If you ask me, Grey and his whole crew are unhinged, but that’s just my opinion.”
“This coming from someone who was going to fight an ogre with just a knife, one good arm, and one good leg.”
“Touché,” I said. “Grey doesn’t owe me. I was surprised he even made the trip.”
“So was Honor.”
“Does he know who’s creating these creatures? The hybrid at the Abyss is above average intelligence and dangerous.”
“There’s a Tenebrous involved, but there’s something more. The Widows have been active.”
“Shit, that means Tigris.”
Rahbi nodded. “That’s the same conclusion Honor came to, and why I was at the Abyss tonight.”
“Thanks for the assist, by the way. That Ogrummer hybrid thing didn’t feel like cooperating.”
“You mean it was going to kill you right before it unleashed the ogre on you.”
“Yeah, that, and it was intelligent.”
“It’s a Rummogre. Flows easier.”
“Somehow, I don’t think they care what they’re called. What they are is dangerous and decidedly lethal. The one in the club smashed my informant into a wall, without even breaking a sweat. Luca is going to be pissed.”
“That was a situation beyond your control,” Rahbi said. “Did you reach out to her?”
“Luca isn’t answering my calls,” I said. “We aren’t exactly on the best of terms at the moment.”
“I informed her about the incident at the club when we arrived,” Rahbi said. “She didn’t seem interested. Or was very good at pretending she didn’t.”
“Did she ask about me?”
“What do you think?” Rahbi answered. “This is Luca we’re talking about.”
“She was beside herself with worry? Tears?”
“You must be thinking about someone else—not Luca, the Iron Maiden.”
“I strongly suggest you never let her hear you call her that.”
“Wisest thing you’ve said today,” Rahbi answered with a nod.
“I’m going to need my case,” I said. “Medkits are almost gone, and Thorn is scrapped. I’m going to need the backup.”
“After what I saw, you may need a Thorn cannon, not handgun.”
“A sense of humor? Imagine that. Next time you’re facing an ogre-rummer hybrid, make sure to give me a heads up so I can observe how it’s done.”
“No point,” she said with a smile. “It’d be over too fast for you to take notes.”
“My case please.”
“I’ll go pull it out,” Rahbi said. “Get dressed, he’s waiting for you.”
SIX
I headed upstairs, using the private elevator, bypassing the staircase next to the coffee shop. The second level of the Archive was reserved for rare books, which were sealed behind glass cases. After the recent explosion, the second level had been made off-limits. Some of the renovations were still taking place outside of Honor’s office.
I paused before approaching the office door and stood looking around, taking in the Archive. The interior of the Central Archive reminded me of a large dojo or meditation hall, with heavy Asian influences, focused on empty space and wood. Several tiered levels contained rows and rows of books. The center of the floor space contained neatly arranged desks and large tables for study. On every table sat several bankers’ lamps with green glass shades.
I used to think this was a design preference on Honor’s part, but now I knew better. The layout was purely defensive. Keeping the books out of the center of the floor actually kept them safer. They were protected by the walls, and any blast could be contained to the center of each level, funneling the energy inward and away from any of the books.
The damage appeared to be mostly cosmetic, a testament to the strength of the Central Archive’s architecture and the defensive runes Honor had in place. I approached the door to his office, where more of those runes faced me. I imagined getting access to the rare books would be near impossible now.
If you wanted a rare book, it required either Honor or Rahbi to access the case, before escorting you to a sealed reading room. Some of the books were never allowed out of their cases. The most dangerous and rarest books were inside Honor’s office. I stood at the rune-covered door, took a deep breath, and knocked.
The door opened slightly, inviting me into the office.
Honor’s office was first on the list of repairs, from what I could see. It looked like it had made it through the explosion unscathed. He sat behind his desk, wearing his usual mage-casual attire—jeans, boots, and a dress shirt—unlike most mages, who dressed sensibly in rune-covered enhanced suits. His hair, which had been long before the explosion, was consi
derably shorter now, He kept the beard as stubble. It was like looking at a GQ Gandalf model .
“Are you sure there was an explosion in here?” I asked, looking around. “Place looks unscathed.”
Every wall held cases filled with books. All of them were protected by an intricate network of runes and fail-safes. I noticed an extra layer of hi-tech security, providing a laser lattice in front of each case. He was finally listening to me.
“I can assure you, there was an explosion in here,” he said with an edge to his voice.
I raised my hands in surrender.
“Don’t look at me, I was just the messenger. I told you, just send him a regular invitation. You had to go with the elaborate plan and almost get yourself blown to bits.”
I examined the heightened security around the books. The lattice looked lethal, and I noticed he had changed the runes around the cases. It was an impressive array of potential death.
No one was getting to those books…without losing a limb or two, at least. He was meticulous about order and organization. There were no books strewn about the office. A place for everything, and everything in its place was his favorite motto and way of life. I dragged over one of the footstools that doubled as my chair whenever I visited him. He stared at me impassively as I brought it over in front of his desk. It wasn’t my fault it felt like it weighed close to a ton and scraped the floor as I pulled it in place.
Aside from the desk and the bookcases, his office was mostly empty space, except for some footstools to reach the higher shelves. He never kept chairs for guests in his office.
“Are you done?” he asked, staring at me. “Or would you like to relocate some of the furniture from downstairs?”
“These things are much heavier than they appear,” I said, looking down at the footstool. “Would it kill you to have one chair in here for guests?”
“I don’t have guests, which means I don’t need a chair besides my own.”
“You’re looking good,” I said, making myself comfortable, “considering you blew yourself up.”
He nodded. “It was a bit more explosive than I intended.”
“Convinced Rahbi,” I said. “She was nearly lethal.”
The Magekiller Page 2