Shadowborn's Terror: Book IV of 'The Magician's Brother' Series

by HDA Roberts

"You wouldn't discover anything, but I suspect that a lot of your course work would suddenly and inexplicably vanish two days before it's due in to the examining board."

  "You wouldn't!"

  She turned to give me an evil look.

  "Withdrawn," I said quickly, "I always knew you were perfect, never made a mistake, I'm sure."

  "Good boy, I'm glad you can learn. It makes me worry less about future demon-related eatings."

  "Seriously, this is already getting old."

  "Unlike the people those demons ate. They're dead."

  "Alright, this is now approaching poor taste," I protested.

  "Taste, you say?"

  Alright, I knew this was comeuppance for all the bad jokes I'd made at her expense, but this was getting ridiculous!

  I put my hands over my ears and she laughed, pulling them away to smile at me.

  "Everything will be fine," she said seriously, "And I'm glad that you're taking it like this. A human life should never be a cheap thing, Mathew; it's an immense comfort that you know that."

  "Thanks."

  Hopkins portalled me back, and we emerged outside Kimmel House. She gave me a hug that was spotted by a clutch of students, who giggled, causing Hopkins to swear creatively once they were gone and hit me when I sniggered.

  "See you tomorrow, Matty," she said, "You going to be alright?"

  I nodded, "Thanks for giving me the kick I needed."

  "Always happy to lay hands on you," she said before realising what she'd said and hitting me again.

  "Ow! I didn't even laugh!" I complained.

  "You were laughing in your head, I could feel it," she said before spinning and walking away.

  I smiled, feeling a bit better and Shadow-Walked back into my room.

  Just because I could.

  In the days that followed, I found it easier to put the mess behind me. Cathy made me feel a little better every time she held my hand, or... did other things with me. It was all helpful. Bill's combination of outrageous gossip and evil humour drew me back into the real world, and the weight hanging from my heart started to ease.

  I knew that it wasn't going away for a while, if ever, but that was important. I was determined never to make a mistake like that again.

  So, things started to return to an even keel. Bill asked for more money. Apparently he had a girlfriend in Stonebridge, and I fervently hoped that didn't mean anything tawdry, he was spending a lot of money.

  Friday rolled around.

  I swear, when people have bad news, they always deliver it at night.

  It didn't start off so bad...

  Now, when I was asleep, I was out like a light. I slept deep, and I didn't wake quickly, which is why Tethys could get away with so much; I honestly had no earthly idea what she was doing.

  It started with a slow movement over my hips.

  A very pleasant one, actually. The pressure built ever so slowly, at such a rate that I only slightly woke up, and it wasn't enough to register a problem. The movement turned into a gentle grind, and I reached out, still mostly unconscious, towards the source of this rather pleasant phenomenon.

  I found shapely hips and tight leather, and my hands moved around to a bottom I suddenly became aware I was unfamiliar with. Still trying to come out of sleep, I smelled the barest whiff of rotten eggs as I squeezed something soft and warm.

  Rotten eggs? That was familiar. Where did I know that smell from?

  Well, the obvious answer would be sulphur, but why would that be in my roo-

  Brimstone.

  Demon!

  I slammed a set of mental shields into place just as a pair of moist and warm lips fastened onto mine. My eyes snapped open, revealing Gabrielle straddling my hips. Her hands found my shirt, grabbing on as she let out a little moan. I felt her power squeeze my shields and thoroughly fail to penetrate. I grabbed her shoulders and tried to push her away, a stupid idea if ever there was one. Physically, she was about twice as strong as Tethys, and Tethys made me look like a baby jellyfish going up against a Great White shark.

  Gabrielle took both my hands in one of hers and pushed them to the bed above my head before sticking her tongue deeply into my mouth. I attempted to protest, but she just held my head in place with her free hand.

  I bit her tongue, she just laughed, it may have had the same texture as a human tongue, but it was far tougher. And I nearly chipped a tooth on what I was certain was some sort of stud.

  Potential danger to my soul and freedom, it was sexy as hell. But enough was enough. I called my Shadows and they wrapped around her torso, yanking her off me and pinning her to the ceiling. I shook my head to wake myself all the way up before glaring at the Demon, who was smiling down at me, her arms and legs pinned by coils of Shadow. I cast a muffling spell around the room.

  "Can't you just call like a normal person?" I asked.

  "I can't imagine that being anywhere near this fun," she replied.

  "And you didn't think it might be an idea to stop any of that?" I asked Rose, who was standing in the corner.

  "You were doing just fine," she replied, "my action was unnecessary.

  "That, and the winged freak likes to watch," Gabrielle said.

  "That is a blatant lie!" the Angel replied, glaring at the woman on my ceiling.

  "Pfft, please, you think you're the only one who watches him? I've seen you," the Demon replied, "and I've seen what you do while you're watching."

  "One more word and I'll banish you," Rose said, blushing.

  "No you won't," the Demon said with a giggle, "Without me you'd be back to the goody-two-shoes beat, and you don't want that, do you?"

  "Do I need to be here for this?" I asked, "And by the way, you two are just ruining Christianity for me."

  "In that case, do you have some time to hear about the gifts the Dark Prince offers?" Gabrielle said in a tone of voice that reminded me of a Jehovah's witness Burglar had intimidated once (don't ask me how. Burglar had been known to run away from ducks, goodness knows how he frightened off a grown man).

  "Dracula?" I asked.

  Rose sniggered, Gabrielle glared at her.

  "I'm a Demon, who do you think I'm talking about?"

  "I don't assume, you could be moonlighting," I replied lightly.

  Rose burst out laughing, it was a thoroughly wonderful sound and warmed the corners of my soul.

  "Oh shut up!" Gabrielle said, "And let me down, this is undignified, and all sorts of interesting."

  I shrugged and let her go. She fell straight down and landed perfectly. Rats, I was hoping for a face-first impact.

  "Nice try," she said with a glare.

  "I might say the same to you," I replied.

  She licked her lips, looking me over. I met her eyes, my Shadows close and ready.

  "Next time, Shadowborn," she said huskily.

  "Doubt it."

  "You wouldn't be the first to say that."

  "He would be the first to hold you off not just once, but twice," Rose said helpfully, "And after you had a free shot, too, are you slipping in your old age?"

  Gabrielle's glamour slipped and she appeared in her full red-skinned, black horned glory. Still sexy, by the way; even more so, if that's possible (I really need to deal with those issues). Her every curve and feature was just that little more sensuous, more inviting, even the black and spiky tail at the base of a bony crest over her backbone. What I had taken for gloves, way back when, was actually black, toughened skin over her forearms and hands with razor-sharp nails on the ends of her delicate fingers. Her four curling horns stretched above her hairline, and her eyes became an even deeper crimson.

  Just looking at her, I knew that if she's wanted to, she could have filleted me without any effort whatsoever. I mean, she wasn't allowed to, but she could.

  "I can take him right now, and there's nothing you could do to stop me," she said in a growl.

  "I disagree with your assessment, but even if it were true, even if I couldn't stop you, h
e could," Rose said, gesturing at me, "already rather demonstrated his willingness. So why don't we just leave this one alone for the moment and get back to the task at hand?"

  Gabrielle turned to look at me again while I scratched my head, trying not to yawn. Her glamour fell back into place and she stepped away.

  "This isn't over," Gabrielle said, as much to me as Rose.

  "Can't I just stipulate that you're the superior seductress and just skate over the eternal battle of wills?" I asked tiredly.

  "No."

  I sighed, "So, what brings you by?"

  "We're curious as to when you're getting back to work on the problem we brought to your attention," Rose asked.

  I suddenly had a sinking feeling.

  "I already solved that problem," I said, "Didn't I?"

  Gabrielle snorted, "Even if you'd disposed of the distribution channels, the warehouses, the dealers, the pushers, the masterminds, the designers, the enchanters and the drivers, you've still only managed to destroy one of the labs. Labs, plural."

  "Oh no," I said, "There's more of them?"

  "It's a nation-wide enterprise; did you really think it was being supplied from that one tiny base? Get your head out of your arse, Shadowborn," Gabrielle said.

  "Bollocks," I said, using my Will to pull my mobile to me from the chest of drawers, scrolling through to Price's number. The Angel and the Demon were gone before I'd finished dialling.

  Price was not happy when I told her about the other labs, and she promised to get back to information gathering. I left a message for Tethys telling her the same thing. I didn't want to wake her. She'd be cranky.

  Bugger, bollocks and crap!

  I thought this was done! Damn it! Damn it to hell!

  The last lab had left me little better than a drooling wreck, and now there were more?

  Just... bloody hell!

  And also there was the small issue of getting groped by a pureblood demon! How the hell am I going to explain that at the Pearly Gates?

  Or to Cathy?

  Chapter 13

  I decided to keep the intrusion to myself. I was supposed to keep the whole 'Liaison' thing under wraps anyway, and so I figured that nobody really needed to know about Gabrielle's antics. Hell, I wish I didn't know. That whole mess was just... confusing.

  So I pushed it to the back of my mind, which didn't really work, because an impending catastrophe was a difficult thing to ignore. As a result, I was thoroughly distracted when I walked right into the lynch mob.

  It was the following Monday and I was on my way back to Kimmel House after Magic Class. It was about ten, the class having run long as Hopkins and I had our usual debate, which rumour was now saying was down to sexual tension. A rumour Bill was helping along for his own amusement, the bastard.

  It was dark, not that this was a problem for me, and I actually had a little spring in my step as I anticipated a warm shower and my comfortable bed. I was walking across the fields, flipping through a couple of notes I'd taken in the class, which had included a lecture about the Fairy Realms; information I knew would come in handy one day.

  I'd just crossed through the arch leading to the Big square.

  "Mathew?" said a small voice from ahead of me. I looked up to see one of the second years, a girl called... Kelly Ashton, I remembered after a bit of thinking.

  She was a pretty little thing, her eyes and nose running with tears and snot.

  "Yes? Are you alright?" I said, walking towards her. I stuffed the papers back into my satchel, completely unsuspicious, but worried about the poor kid.

  "I don't know," she said, letting out a sob. She started crying, great wails of sound that concealed the footsteps behind me until it was far too late.

  There was a whistle, a crack and my world exploded with stars before fading to black.

  I woke surrounded by torches and tied to a post in the middle of a copse of trees.

  I couldn't believe that I'd fallen for that... again. That was almost exactly the same way I'd gotten the bloody scars on my face. Crying girl, trap, club to the back of the head. It was embarrassing; fool me once shame on you, fool me twice and nobody would ever let me forget about it, and I already had 'accidentally getting people eaten' to live down.

  I groaned in pain as I started moving; my head was bleeding freely and I could feel the blood oozing down the inside of my collar. I felt the effects of Spelleater amulets on my Well and tried not to throw up as the world spun around me. That meant a concussion; terrific. Using Magic in such a state was unwise to say the least. Almost as dangerous to me as it would be to them.

  Of which there had to be about thirty, arranged in a semicircle around my stake. They wore Windward Academy rain coats, hoods over their heads. About a third were girls, I could tell by the cut, which surprised me. I knew that there were a great many boys around school who disliked me, but I got on quite well with the girls. I started to pick out features in the crowd, a nose here, hooded eyes there. I knew some of those people, considered some of them friends, acquaintances at the very least.

  I tried to move, but found that I was tied up tight by my arms, legs and ankles; there were twigs at my feet.

  Kindling?

  Then I smelt petrol. It was soaked into my trousers and the wood.

  No... they wouldn't!

  "Mathew Graves! You are accused of witchcraft and altering the minds of your fellow students!" said a voice I recognised, Stone, the son of a bitch, "How do you plead?"

  "Traditionally speaking, an accused Witch has the right to representation," I replied, getting some saliva into my dry mouth as I started focussing hard, trying to get my aching head to work properly.

  "How do you plead?!" he repeated, he had a road flare in his hand and was wearing one of the amulets. I had no doubt that he intended to immolate me no matter what I said.

  The crowd started shouting, some threw things at me, they hurt when they hit.

  "The fact that I'm tied to a method of execution would tend to indicate that pleading with you is an exercise in futility," I replied calmly, playing for time, hoping I could talk my way out of this before things got really ugly.

  "Smart mouth," Oxley said from under his hood, "We'll see how smart he is when he's burning."

  "You could talk to my ashes and still find something smarter than you, Oxley," I replied.

  He stepped forward and socked me in the gut. I gagged and dry heaved, which made the crowd laugh.

  "Something else to say, funny man?" Oxley said.

  "Oh yes," I gasped, "But I'll be saving that for your trial."

  "Oh you won't be saying anything ever again, Graves."

  I snorted, "Whether you win or not, you're going to prison for a very long time, Oxley. Kidnapping, assault and conspiracy to commit murder. That's approximately... fifty years in prison, for each of you, about double if you let Storm throw that flare, because then you become accessories to murder. I doubt Storm himself ever gets out for premeditated murder, assuming of course that his grandmother doesn't simply eviscerate him."

  There was uncomfortable muttering from the crowd. Had they really not thought this one through?

  "Oh, didn't you realise that murderers go to prison?" I said icily, "That's what you're doing here, by the wa-"

  Storm punched me in the face and stuffed a rag into my mouth.

  "Don't listen to him! We know he lies; we know he gets in your head! We're on the side of the angels; don't let this Shadowborn freak get to you!"

  He snapped the top off the road flare and ignited it.

  "Does anyone have anything to say on behalf of the accused?"

  "I thought I might offer an opinion," said a familiar voice, a very angry familiar voice.

  Stone turned, a look of horror on his face as all three Spelleaters were yanked away from the group and into Vanessa Kron's outstretched hand, where she crushed them with brute strength and dropped the mangled pieces to the ground. That was funny because Spelleaters cost somewhere in the n
eighbourhood of two hundred grand, if they were well made. Whoever those kids had borrowed them from would be hopping mad.

  Stone shook in fear as my sister came over to the stake, waving her hand to throw the kindling out of the way. She gestured and force parted the ropes, the gag slipping out of my mouth. She caught me before I could fall and drew the petrol out of my clothes before igniting the resultant ball and burning it away. She lowered me gently to the ground.

  She looked horribly ashamed as she attended to my wounds, working quickly and efficiently. My head tingled as the wound closed and my mind cleared. Thank God she'd turned up. If I'd had to fight my way out, then I wouldn't have had the control to take the amulets, my Shadows would probably have torn someone to pieces in my state.

  When she was finished, Kron stood and turned towards the crowd, her eyes boring into her great (times twelve) grandson before shifting over the whole assembly.

  "You are a disgrace," she said acidly. The kids flinched back, "This young man stood between you and an army of monsters. He risked his life to keep your school and your persons safe. And you... animals repay him with murder?"

  Kron glared at each and every one. I heard Kelly Ashton start crying again.

  "Mathew Graves is a Sorcerer, do you understand what that means?" she asked, "It means that the second he woke up, he made a conscious choice to try and talk to you rather than just killing each and every one of you, as I would have done," this last directed at Storm, "You just tried to lynch the most decent Magician you could ever hope to meet. So, congratulations, you've just proven that in the half a millennium since the witch trials began, humanity has not advanced at all."

  She helped me to my feet. I was still a little dizzy.

  "As for you, Tyler Magnus Storm, you are no longer a member of my family," she said, glaring at the boy, "As of this moment, you are unwelcome in my home or any city where I hold sway. If I should see you again, I'll make you suffer like you wouldn't believe."

  He nodded, crying again.

  "The rest of you will go to your headmaster tomorrow. You will admit what you did, and you will accept punishment. If you don't, then I'll come back," I felt her throw a pulse of terror into her words. It was actually an elegant bit of Magic, transmitting the emotion directly into their minds by means of sound; it made me even more impressed with Lady Time, "You don't want that, do you?"