Shadow of the Apocalypse

by D. L. Harrison

  She listened as he explained what he wanted, the contacts that got them the badges would scrub their names and ID’s out of the system within an hour. They’d have new ones within a week. Not just badges, full identities. They’d also be transferring money from their accounts, and the rest of it as well, in an untraceable manner.

  On the good side, she hadn’t had to use hellfire.

  He hung up and said, “We abandon the rentals with the weapons, burn our cards and IDs, and then grab Cinna and Caroline and go. I doubt with all the leads cut they’ll find us in Chicago, but we’ll have to lay low for a while. Maybe in Corpus Christie? We won’t have any cash or cards for a while, which is going to suck. Still, we have about an hour and can make a cash withdrawal.”

  He opened the door, and they were greeted by several police cars and other first responders.

  She barely suppressed the shocked giggle when Jacob just flashed the badge again and sauntered by all the cops like he had every right to. None of them were challenged, and they escaped in the havoc and confusion.

  They were on a bus headed north, no identification, but they had cash. She’d even used a memory spell in the depot, no one would remember them buying tickets when they saw their faces plastered on the television later that day. So far, no one on the bus had given them a second look, but she imagined most people hadn’t heard the story yet.

  She sat next to Jacob, with Carl and Allison in the seats across from them. Jace sat with Cinna behind them, and Caroline and Meri were behind Carl and Allison.

  “So, what do you think will happen?”

  Jacob shrugged, “Over my pay grade. Chances are we’ll just ride it out, the humans saw some crazy things, but no context or real information. We’ll have new identities, be twelve hundred miles away in a different major city. Humans won’t be hunting shifter, witches, or soul eater groups anytime soon, because they don’t know about them. Even if they did, they’d never find them, except maybe us.

  “I’d be surprised if most didn’t think it was a fraud or something. Even many of the humans that saw it live in the arena with their own eyes will question what they saw and have doubts. They’ll wonder if it wasn’t all some kind of stunt. Humans don’t want to believe in the supernatural. Some in the government will be all over it, but without any leads or an idea where to look, they’ll dead end and eventually move on. Either way, it will be the analysts and leaders in our town that will make any decisions on coming forward, and they’ll communicate that out.

  “We’ve been in the open before, for far longer than we’ve been hidden actually, it was only after the inquisition and witch hunts that we really put a cover on things. Humans in general handle the idea of us protecting them from monsters just fine, it’s the governments that would deal with it badly. I imagine that’s the only reason we’d come out, if the government starts to hunt us we’d want to get into the public’s eye.”

  He took her hand, his felt warm and nice in hers.

  She nodded, “Alright, I suppose that’s possible. If most think it’s a hoax, then the ones that saw it and believe will be laughed at and disregarded like the UFO nuts. What about facial recognition, won’t they pick up our new IDs as soon as they’re in the system?”

  He shook his head, “We can get around it, our contacts do something to the photos. Don’t ask me how, or exactly what, but the computer won’t find matches. Our biggest risk is someone that recognizes us on the street, which goes back to laying low. We’ll have to stay out of the public eye for a while even across the country, which won’t be difficult since most hunts are at night. By the way, those UFO people aren’t crazy.”

  She peered up at him sharply, and she caught the corners of his lips twitching.

  She squeezed his hand, and he chuckled.

  “I suppose I’ll survive on workouts, studying, and hanging in the lounge for a while.”

  He smirked, “We could probably arrange dinner and dancing, if we shift our appearance a bit.”

  She tilted her head, “Are you asking me on a date?”

  He frowned, “I suppose I shouldn’t, but if you’re okay with a platonic date, I really do want to get to know you better.”

  She nodded slowly, “What if the woman you get to know doesn’t exist? Isn’t that just as bad as exploring a more intimate relationship?”

  He sighed, “That’s a good point, but I don’t think I care anymore. I already care about you, despite my efforts, so it’s already too damned late. You…. You’re an amazing woman Lily.”

  She grinned, felt a little breathless at his admission, and tossed off with false nonchalance, “I suppose that would be fine.”

  He gave her a confident knowing look that made her weak in the knees, it was a good thing she was already sitting down. She loved a confident man, and he was that, not cocky, just confident and strong.

  She shrugged, and finally admitted, “I suppose you’re growing on me too.”

  She started to wonder just how solid that platonic part was, in their future platonic date.

  The trip home was long and roundabout. They took the bus all the way up to Dallas which took six hours with all the stops, then the alpha for the Dallas team picked them up in a van. The van was in the leader’s name, and they drove it north after dropping him back off home. That was about a fourteen-hour drive from Dallas to Chicago, but it took sixteen with gas and meal stops. They were exhausted, but she was happy to be home as she found her bed in the mansion and passed out.

  “Damn Carl, looking good, I’d hate to mess that up,” she teased.

  He did though, lost a couple of more years, and now he looked somewhere between twenty-six and twenty-eight. She suspected he’d stay there, but that was just a guess based on Jacob’s apparent age. They were sparring that morning, on the theory her and Meri just knew each other’s moves far too well. It’d been time to switch things up.

  Cinna’s laughter tinkled, as she fired an emotion at both Lily and Carl to get her to laugh at her own joke.

  She almost did too, but managed to shift her instincts to prevent it, barely, as Carl lunged forward and they each blocked, parried, or dodged each other’s flurry of blows. It wasn’t until Carl kicked her a little too slowly that she got the upper hand for a moment. She twisted as her hand grabbed his ankle and swept out his other leg as she tossed the first one up and to the side.

  Carl flipped in mid-air and was dumped onto his stomach, but he flexed his hard and wiry body and popped back up on his feet before she took two steps back.

  “Not bad, for a girl.”

  She ignored the obvious taunt, or at least answered with her body, as they came together again to exchange blows. She had most of her shifting in speed, though there was some strength in there as well or Carl would just shrug off her blows. She redirected his momentum, or simply moved out of the way of his strikes, she didn’t truly block or oppose his force directly at all.

  Cinna blasted them both with anxiety and compassion.

  It was a strange combination, but she had to fight to keep her will sharp and not wince away as her fist made contact with the aforementioned good-looking face. Still, she hesitated enough that Carl dumped her on her ass this time.

  She decided to stay down there a second, and catch her breath, while she glared at the giggling Cinna. Her friend was too much sometimes.

  “Having fun?”

  Cinna beamed, “A blast. I have the whole pregnancy shield thing too, so you can’t get revenge.”

  She snickered, bowed her body, and did a backflip back onto her feet.

  She wasn’t really upset at all, she enjoyed the soul eater’s cheery mood and the challenge that Cinna brought to her morning sparring.

  Carl said, “I’m more familiar with her antics, but I have to say it’s a good thing most soul eater rogues don’t come even close to being as clever with emotional attacks. It’s what makes her such a good part of the team.”

  She nodded, and then relaxed a trifle as she backed off.
It’d been a good workout too, moving so fast for so long. Minutes of sparring felt like hours of effort at the speeds they fought in. It was probably less than that of course, they weren’t sixty times faster than a human, but it felt like it effort wise.

  Her whole body was burning, and her muscles were sore in a good way.

  “Thanks for playing, Meri and I were just getting too used to each other’s styles.”

  Carl grinned, “Anytime.”

  They broke up then, and she hit the shower.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The hot water and steam always felt great after a workout, and she felt a little muscle sore but otherwise fantastic as she headed down to the lounge. Her body was limber, bounced back fast, and she felt ready for anything. She imagined part of that was the relief of finishing the warlock hunt and being back home as well. She liked the hunt and protecting humans, but truthfully, she could do without one quite so exciting for a long time.

  Allison smiled when she walked in and looked fantastic. The witch had on a thin red sweater dress with white accents that hugged her lissome curves and barely made it down to mid-thigh. It was very flattering on her.

  She looked down at her jeans and light blue shirt, “I feel underdressed, what’s the occasion?”

  Allison blushed, “Just felt like wearing it today, I know we can’t go anywhere. Well, Cinna and Caroline can check up on the soul eaters and coven, since they weren’t at the arena and not on camera.”

  She nodded slowly, “Just felt like it?” she asked in a teasing voice full of innuendo. She had the feeling she was wearing it because of Carl, and she felt a twinge of guilt for teasing her shy friend about it.

  Allison replied, “Be nice.”

  She smiled, “You do look fantastic, that dress was made for you. So, what’s the plan today?”

  Allison said, “You know you have all the basics. It’s pretty much study and advanced visualization techniques from here on out, which is what we’re going to do today. It’s a play on something you’ve already done, except it’s a bit more mature. Remember when you made your pipe, so you could still capture another witch’s attacks?”

  She nodded, “I do.”

  Allison nodded, “Well this change will be a permanent change to your hollow sphere shield, if you want of course and feel comfortable with it. It will help with both defense and offense. There are several ways to do it of course, you need to choose the visualization you feel is more natural to you. You can use the concept of a pipe that can be closed on both ends, or you can use the concept of an airlock on a space ship, with two doors.”

  She nodded slowly, “What am I doing with that?”

  Allison said, “Visualize your sphere as less rigid, I mean so that it will change dynamically, it will stop and block attacks, still solid in that way. Picture your sphere with one of those pipes, or airlocks, for every single thread that you’re connected to. In essence, creating millions of small capture pockets. It’s advanced because there’s no way to do that one at a time, you need to be able to visualize it as a whole, without worrying about the count. Make your sphere dynamic and interactive, believe that it is, and it will be. If a new person or animal walks into your range, your sphere will automatically make a new airlock, or pipe.”

  She frowned, “I can see the advantage in defense, I could capture spells from a whole coven of witches at a time. But that seems very complicated.”

  Allison nodded, “That’s why it’s called an advanced technique, but in truth it’s relatively easy, don’t focus on all the life-threads and all the little steps, focus on your sphere and the end result of what you want it to do. Your subconscious mind will make it happen. I think you’re ready for this. It also means you no longer need that inner block, you can have your sphere around your node without a second layer blocking your body. The spells will be stopped in the small airlocks around the edges of your sphere, or pipes.”

  She was still thinking about the visual to use, but she thought learning more might help her pick.

  “I get the defensive, you said there was an offensive advantage as well?”

  Allison said, “Yes, you can build your web unreactive spells in the locked pipes, or airlocks. Fill them with magic, close the inner doors, then build two, five, or twenty of the same spell, then release them all when opening the outer doors. Of course, for web reactive you’ll still be limited to one target, since the inner door needs to stay open as well, for the flow.”

  She nodded absently, as she considered it. She’d always considered the life-web as liquid life, and life force as a stream of some kind, so it made more sense to her to use pipes. Even the first time she’d made a cruder version of that advancement she’d used pipes. Airlocks sounded cooler, but they weren’t as intuitive to her mind.

  She pictured her sphere with a two valve pipes on the inside of it, one pipe for every web-line she was connected to. She imagined her sphere would shift, and it’d create the pipes or remove them as needed. That part was the hard part, she’d have to imagine it until her subconscious mind fully took care of it and she didn’t have to think about it anymore.

  Then she willed it to happen.

  “I think I have it.”

  Allison immediately hit her with a spell.

  She opened the outer valve with a though, and took the spell in. If it’d gotten through she’d have felt warm, but nothing bad would’ve happened. She closed the outer valve, and then swallowed the spell whole with her soul eater ability. Sure, it would’ve dissipated in just a minute or so, but why waste the life energy?

  Allison said, “Good.”

  She asked, “Is this what you use?”

  Allison shook her head, “The structure yes, but there are also subtle filters added. You’ll get there, we can’t do it all at once, your subconscious needs to be trained step by step, or it can all go bad. We should study until lunch, and I’ll be testing your new sphere setup occasionally.”

  She replied, “Good enough. I do have a question though, before we start. In my dream I didn’t have to flash out my whole aura and make myself vulnerable for a split second to cast spells in the real world. My aura kind of… sent out a thin tentacle whip to deliver the spell, while the rest of my aura stayed tightly protective against my body.”

  Allison frowned, “I’ve never heard of that. We can experiment if you want? That sounds very useful. It would be plain bad luck to get hit with a spell when your aura is expanded for that split second, but it is possible.”

  “Sounds good to me, I’m not sure where to start. I remember clearly visualizing a whip of aura striking out at the demon, I also remember the visualization for the actual spell, but I’m not sure how the whip was used as a conduit to deliver it.”

  Allison tilted her head, “So you didn’t send the spell down the whip?”

  She shook her head, “I don’t think so, which is the confusing part.”

  Allison pursed her lips, and then closed her eyes.

  Curious, she cast the spell to give herself the ability to see auras. It was a fairly simple spell Allison had taught her last week, one she could have just made up if she’d thought about it. All she had to do was want to see and perceive auras, the magic took care of the rest.

  Allison’s aura whipped out at her several times, but it didn’t deliver a spell.

  She waited patiently.

  Allison shook her head, “It’s impossible. A spell is as quick as thought, and the aura whip is instantaneous as well, it isn’t in existence long enough to send a spell down it.”

  She tilted her head, what if the whip wasn’t a conduit, but the actual delivery system?

  “What if the tip of the aural whip is holding the spell? The spell is like the metal tip of a spear.”

  Allison’s eyes widened, and she shut her eyes for a moment.

  She saw Allison’s aura whip out and she felt a spell bounce off of her aura.

  “Awesome, how did you do it?”

  Allison was practicall
y bouncing with excitement on the couch.

  “You just told me how. Just visualize releasing the spell into your aura, and your aura whipping out and delivering it on the tip. The end of the whip kind of encases it to keep it together, then releases it into the target’s body. This is… awesome.”

  She smiled, and then gave it a try as well. It worked just fine, and it made sense. It was subtle, and no wonder she missed it given the excitement of the dream from her past.

  Allison said, “I wonder what else we’ve forgotten, get your memories back so I can pick your brain.”

  She giggled, “Yes, maam. Right away.”

  Allison blushed, “You know what I mean.”

  She thought she did, she’d never seen Allison look so excited about magic before, which was saying a lot, Allison loved being a witch.

  “Did I ever thank you, that was pretty amazing what you did to filter the gas.”

  Allison blushed, “I’m just sorry it took so long to think of it, I’d been so focused on defeating Jenna’s magic and getting through, I didn’t consider the obvious of just surrounding her magic with mine without fighting hers until it was almost too late.”

  She was grateful for that, she’d been about to do something similar with hellfire, as she attacked Jenna with it. The scary thing was there was a part of her that was almost disappointed Allison had made that unnecessary. Even then, she wanted to feel the thrill and power of wielding the magic of hell. She probably always would, and she would resist. She had to, always.

  She nodded, “Study time?”

  Allison nodded in agreement.

  The two of them studied until lunchtime.

  Chapter Twenty

  All eight of them were in the lounge. It appeared to her that Allison’s choice of dress was a success, carl couldn’t keep his eyes off her at all during lunch, and that trend seemed to be continuing during their afternoon free and relaxation time.

  Fortunately, Jacob’s week was over, and Carl was a much better cook. She’d really enjoyed the steak stir fry he’d made, and she felt full and content on the couch. It’d been a good morning, both for the workout, and in her witch class with Allison.