Dauntless

by Thomas G. Atwood Jr.

  “Humans,” Drake said, contempt dripping from his voice as he watched the guard leave. “Well, Kacey, how are you?”

  “I’m tied up at the moment,” I quipped, glaring at him. “What do you want with me?”

  “I want you to burn and die, and have the privilege of pissing on the ashes.” Pyrus cleared his throat, causing Drake to snarl at him. “Unfortunately, we have a VIP coming to town, and she wants the pleasure of seeing you intact.”

  “Well isn’t that nice. The big, bad, corporate titan has a boss. Tell me something, do you have to go ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ to whoever it is?”

  “Cute.”

  “I thought so. So tell me, how does it feel to be a flunky?” Drake took several steps toward me, flames burning in his eyes as he stormed over. “What, you don’t like flunky? How about toady? Goon? Mook? I know, lackey!”

  Drake walked over to me and slammed his fist into my stomach as Pyrus grabbed his arm. He glared at Drake, who held his hands up.

  “You hit like a girl,” I spat back.

  “You think this is funny, don’t you?”

  “I think it’s hilarious. An impotent little weasel has a complex filled with guards to deal with Laurie and me. Do we scare you? Are you frightened of two weak, little, teenaged girls?”

  “You’re cocky. With one phone call, I can have your little friend gutted.”

  “If you even think about hurting her, I will rip these handcuffs off me and kill you. I will burn anyone and everything you’ve ever known or loved.” Drake chuckled and leaned in close until his head was an inch from mine. I slammed my head into the base of his nose. Bone snapped under the blow, and he howled in pain as he stumbled away. He pulled an ivory handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it to his nose, wiping up the spilled blood.

  “You must think you’re so tough. Kacey Alexander, so high and mighty. Did you even once stop to consider what you’re fighting for?”

  “I’m fighting to save this city from people like you.”

  “And what happens when the people of this town become feral? What happens when people see you for what you are? Humanity has a history of punishing people they view as different. If they found out what you could do, they would swarm this city with soldiers! They would find every Mage they could, drag them from their beds, just to line them up and execute them. I am fighting for the future of my people.”

  “You’re trying to start a war! Do you think humanity is that evil?”

  “Oh please, they’re worse, and you know it! They kill each over the color of their skin, which God they worship, and which arbitrary lines on a map they live in. Do you expect that they would accept us, men and women with the power to change the world with a thought? So before our guest arrives, I want to know what Sentinels are planning. I want to know what they’re going to send against us, how well armed they are, and what they know of my plans.” As he spoke, Pyrus reached into his pocket and produced a pair of steel knuckles. He slipped them on and flexed his fingers as he walked over to me.

  “Please,” Drake added.

  “Go to hell.”

  Drake snapped, and Pyrus slammed his fist into my stomach. I gasped and coughed, struggling to draw in air. Pyrus struck me several times in rapid succession before pulling back to rub his knuckles.

  “You know, the problem with torture is that you have to be careful,” Drake remarked. “You cut open the wrong artery, nick them in the wrong place, and it’s all over. Your subject is dead, and you don’t get any answers. It’s…maddening.”

  “Tell you what, let me out of this chair and we can save you that frustration. I’m that accommodating,” I spat back.

  “That’s not a problem with you,” he said, manic glee lighting up his face as he grinned. “I can cut into you all day, rip through your flesh and burn you in every way imaginable. Your powers will stitch you back up and keep you ready for more. I can keep you alive for months if the mood strikes me.” He snapped again, and Pyrus slammed his fist into the side of my head. My vision swam, and blood flew from my nose. A metallic taste flooded my mouth as the sticky liquid bled into it. My eyes struggled to focus as the dull impact hit me several more times.

  “You want to wait between strikes,” Drake said as my vision came back into focus. “If you’re too quick—”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Pyrus spat at him.

  Every instinct in me screamed to give in. I wanted to give him what he wanted to know or come up with a convincing enough lie. I opened my mouth to speak and then I remembered Laurie. I remembered the cuts and gashes that marked her body like a road map; the skin flayed from her body and the digits they sliced off her. She was in the same situation I was, and the same man carved her up.

  Rage poured through me like molten steel at the memory. The pain became a far off memory as the anger made my vision red. A dozen fantasies and desires played through my thoughts; each focused on making Drake pay for everything he’d done. I wasn’t going to give him a damn thing. I was going to kill him.

  “You should see someone about these sadistic tendencies of yours, Drake. They can get you on some sweet meds, put you up in a padded cell. Who knows, they might even find you a decent roommate to play checkers with.”

  Drake snarled at me as the beating continued. I moved the chains across the chair until I could grip my hand. I struggled to remember the escape artist tricks my mom taught me as the world fell into a haze. I focused and felt white hot energy surge at the command. It wiped away most of the pain, and the sickening taste of blood vanished as the cuts healed. I smirked back up at Pyrus as my abilities washed away the pain.

  “What’s your problem with me?” I asked. I grabbed my thumb while he was pacing and grimaced as I pressed against it. The bones in my thumb snapped under the pressure, and I let out a small yelp. The resulting pain almost didn’t register as I repeated the process with my other hand. “Come on. You kidnapped my friend, sent your goon over there to bring me in, and burned down my school. This is personal for you.”

  Drake ignored me as he motioned toward Pyrus

  “This is about Morrigan, isn’t it? So what, Mommy doesn’t love you, and you have to beat me up to make yourself feel better? You’re pathetic.”

  “You know nothing,” he hissed. “You are her favorite. That woman has done everything she can to make sure that I don’t give you the death you deserve. You have done nothing of value, yet she prefers you to me. I take over one of the world’s largest companies. I give her the funds she needs to follow through on her little schemes. I even raise an army so that we can take our rightful place as rulers of this pathetic world. Yet you’re the one she tries to protect. Why?” he asked, flinging a chair across the room as he stalked toward me. “What makes you so special?”

  “For starters,” I said, slipping my hands out of the restraints and dropping down to the floor. “I know how to slip a pair of handcuffs.” I heard a slight popping sound as my fingers returned to normal. I rolled to the side of the room where a wood-cutting ax lay. I grabbed the weapon and hurled it as hard as I could toward Drake. The heavy weapon soared toward him, but Pyrus deflected it with ease.

  “Go,” he said, snarling at Drake. “Finish the ritual. I’ll take care of the girl.”

  “She’s mine. Morrigan told me I would get to deal with her.”

  “Go. Before I break you and use the shattered pieces of your spine to pick your flesh from my teeth.”

  Drake gave me one last glare before he opened the door and slunk out. Pyrus walked over to the table and sat down, watching as I stalked over to him. I stumbled from the pain and disorientation that continued to flood my vision as the magic tried to heal me. Pyrus set a small cup in front of me a
s he backed into the far room.

  “What is this?” I asked as my vision cleared and the last wound closed.

  “Tea. It’s the vile English kind that the pansy prefers, but it will help you regain your strength.” I hesitated, and he rolled his eyes. “If I wanted you dead, I’d snap your neck like kindling. Poison is tacky.”

  “I don’t get you,” I said, drinking the steaming hot liquid. “Half the time you want to kill me, and the other half you’re giving me a tea party.”

  “It’s not about you. I tortured you, wounded you, and left you an exhausted mess. I will not have anyone say that I executed a teenage girl in that condition. If I am to kill you,” he said, going to the far wall and tossing one of the swords that hung there, “you will be armed. You will be healthy, and you will be fit for battle. I am not an executioner. I am a warrior, and I will act with the honor that title requires.”

  I unsheathed the weapon and moaned as the caffeine banished the fatigue that bore down on me. “Thank you.”

  “In another life, I believe we might have been friends,” Pyrus said, a soft scowl on his face. “I will regret killing you today.”

  “I won’t. You used innocent children as a lure to draw me in, you hurt my father, and you’ve tried to kill me, and you’ve done God knows what else. You deserve to die.”

  “I have faced the greatest armies this world has ever seen. I have met men who could destroy a mountain with the wave of their hands. I have faced down heroes, villains, the great and the mediocre. Every one of them has all fallen to my sword. You will be no different. I will rip the beating heart from your chest. After you have breathed your last, I will hunt down your father, your boyfriend, and that strange man who saved you from the police.”

  “Why? Why the hell do you do any of this?” I asked, shaking my head.

  “It is my purpose. I am carnage. I am blood. I am an inferno that will burn across this land, filling it with agony and death until I find the one man who can give me the honorable death I seek. That man,” he said, drawing his weapon, “is not you. So come, child. You have earned a warrior’s death. Let me give it to you.”

  I hurled myself at Pyrus without thinking, almost flying as he stared at me with the anticipating grin of a child on Christmas morning. He parried the strike, but the tip of my blade ran up his chest, cutting his shirt. He glanced down, raising a single eyebrow at the damage. We danced across the room. The sound of crashing steel echoed like thunderclaps. Each strike of his caught nothing but air as I twirled and spun outside of his reach. My weapon arched toward his chest, and he grabbed the razor-sharp item as if it was a pesky insect. He squeezed down on the blade, unhurt by the razor sharp edge until it shattered in his grip.

  He grinned like a shark eying its prey as he tossed aside his sword. His fists crashed into me again and again, sending my vision reeling. I tried to block, but each time he would grab my arm and toss me across the room. The wood of the log cabin cracked each time as if the building itself couldn’t stand against his assault. I was nothing more than a punching bag as his fists cracked ribs, broke arms, and shattered limbs. Each time I willed precious magic into the wound and felt it heal in seconds. He snarled as he beat me time and again. Rage burned in his eyes like wildfire as he tossed me around.

  “Defend yourself, you useless child!”

  “If I must.” I grabbed a poker from the fireplace and threw it toward him. The white hot steel split the air, searing one of his eyes as it crashed into him. He bellowed in pain, clutching at the wound as blood dripped between his hands. I tried to strike him again, but his hand shot out, gripping my neck. I struggled to draw in air as his vice-like grip closed on me. He slammed against the wall, hard enough to cause it to explode outward. I winced in pain as he drove me through it, the impact sending my vision reeling, and the shards of wood and glass tearing my skin. He glared at me, blood flowing from his wounded and blackened eye.

  “You took my eye,” he grumbled, pulling me up to look him in the eye. My feet dangled, helpless as I searched around for anything to help.

  “Sorry,” I gasped. Water from the broken pipes sprayed like sprinklers. The deluge covered Pyrus, washing away the blood and drenching his clothes. A single power cable sparked, the yellow light shooting into the air and winking out before it touched the ground. I reached over, desperate to grab the cable that was out of reach. Pyrus shook me hard enough to send my head snapping back. The impact caused a white haze to fill my vision but left me close enough to wrap my fingers around the cable.

  “You are weak,” Pyrus grumbled. “Had you been an actual warrior, you may have stood a chance. But you are a mewling infant. Battle is glorious; it’s chaos and thrill should fill you like a fine wine. You hide from it, retreating when you should advance, defending yourself when you should slaughter your enemy. You are a tremendous disappointment.”

  “And you need to shut up,” I replied, ripping the cable from the wall and driving it through his ruined eye. We both howled in agony as ten thousand volts careened through us. My body jerked and spasmed as electricity coursed through every inch of my body. Red burns covered my arms as I collapsed to the ground, the world became hazy and faded to blackness.

  Chapter 23

  “Kacey. Kacey, wake up.”

  The voice echoed like someone shouting at a canyon. I couldn’t understand the noise, and waved my hand as if I was shooing away a pesky insect. My eyelids felt like anvils as I opened them, seeing Aidan’s smiling face beaming at me. Every muscle in my body ached, and they screamed in protest as I struggled to stand. The devastated remains of the cabin greeted my vision, and I groaned as I saw the pool of water that soaked my clothes.

  “Are you okay?” Aidan asked, helping me up.

  “I’m fine. How long was I out?”

  “A few minutes. I saw the last of the fight, and I raced over.”

  “Good. Pyrus?”

  “Dead,” Aidan replied. I glanced past him and saw Pyrus’ corpse laying on the ground. The stench of human waste hung heavy in the air, forcing me to gag and step away. His missing eye was a black, smoking crater in the middle of his face. His skin was a pale and cold blue. I let out a quiet sigh as I stepped away. My stomach twisted into knots at the sight.

  “I killed him,” I whispered, unable to take my eyes off the corpse.

  “It was in self-defense,” Aidan returned.

  “I know,” I said. Despite that, it felt like a hand was squeezing my heart, and each breath was a challenge to bring in. He was a monster, a brutal warrior who lived to kill. Still, I imagined a family sitting down to dinner, waiting for Pyrus, unaware that he’d never come. Aidan glanced up at me, his emerald eyes watching as I paced in place.

  “Kacey, we need you. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I said I’m fine,” I snapped back at him. He rose, giving me a pat on the shoulder as he walked over.

  “The first time is always terrible,” he said, his voice quiet and soft.

  “Does it get any easier?”

  “You…you learn to deal with it. To shove it deep down inside while you get the job done. If you need to talk about it…”

  “We have a job to do.” I couldn’t tell him that the carnage bothered me. How the stench of the burnt flesh hung in my nostrils, sickening me. How the remaining eye stared, unmoving at the leaking ceiling. His eye was dull and empty with no lust for combat, no flash of rage. I never imagined a corpse would be so still. The thousands of minor movements and gestures people show were gone, leaving a cold, still, body on the ground. He wanted an honorable death; a voice seemed to reassure me. You gave him what he wanted. Despite that, it felt like someone plunged m
y heart into ice water. Goosebumps crawled up my skin, and I rubbed my arms in a lame attempt to remove them.

  “Where is everyone else?” I asked, struggling to remove the image of the corpse from my thoughts.

  “They’re waiting for nightfall.”

  “Why?”

  “Drake has vampires that work for him. Ripper wanted to strike the camp, take out Drake’s entire operation in one quick stroke.”

  “Speaking of, where are we? I was unconscious when they brought me in.”

  “Gold camp.” I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head as I glanced at him. “You don’t remember? This used to be a mining camp…”

  “For gold, I’m guessing.”

  “You would be correct. There’s an old legend. A mine shaft collapsed, trapping two dozen miners inside. Legend says they had to eat each other to survive. Urban legend says the spirits of the miners still haunt the place.”

  “Clever. So they picked a venue that has shitty mountain roads and a heap of superstition. Smart money says no one’s going to stumble on them doing any of this.”

  The two of us slunk out of the ruins of the cabin and into the overgrown forest. Guards in black uniforms patrolled from building to building; rifles slung at the ready. Large, wooden towers stood at the corners of the camp. Each had massive spotlights covering the ground, illuminating the area. All of them had a man pointing a huge gun into the clearing below. Aidan and I slunk from tree to tree, careful to move in absolute silence. One guard walked to the edge of the forest. He was massive, towering over me and with the build of a dedicated bodybuilder. He clipped his weapon to his vest and reached into his pocket to produce a small pack of cigarettes. I swooped in as he reached for his lighter. I slammed the heel of my foot against his knee and grabbed his neck as he toppled over. He grabbed my arm and struggled to free himself, but I pressed hard against his neck, causing him to gasp for air.