The Paragon Element (Book 1)

by Jeff Hale

  But MAGE couldn’t control everyone. There were those too powerful for even MAGE to lay a finger on, like fae and demons, and creatures made of pure Aether. Then there were shifters and vampires, Aetherically infused creatures that derived power from the Aether but, aside from a rare few, could not directly wield it. They usually had ways of dealing with their own though. So then, again, why was I being sent in to deal with this shifter? Could her own kind not even regulate her?

  I was beginning to worry that this shifter they were sending me after might fall into the ‘couldn’t control’ category. Despite everything, she had somehow slipped through their radar until now, which meant she was terribly old and powerful, or had an old and powerful patron. Either one meant that I was in far over my head. I had to wonder then, what in the fuck was MAGE thinking sending me after this person? Sure I was gifted, but that didn’t explain this assignment, one way or the other. I was either too gifted for it, or not powerful enough. Either way seemed strange and negligent.

  Of course, there was another option, and that worry from earlier prodded at me again. Maybe MAGE and the world organization were slipping for some reason. It still seemed highly unlikely to me. I’d seen MAGE’s database and it was large and extremely impressive, with information about every single instance of Aetheric activity in the past five hundred years. But if they were slipping now, it would mean that something huge was going on that no one knew about.

  I exhaled heavily. Too many unanswered questions surrounded this whole thing, and I didn’t have the time or luxury to contemplate them anymore. Her house was just in front of me, set back from the road by a long driveway, and all I could do was play it out and hope I didn’t end up dead. I took a look back over my shoulder. The bus stop and the Santa Fe were several blocks back, leaving me feeling exposed and vulnerable with so much open space around me. There were several lights on inside the house, and in the dimming daylight I could see a couple of old cars and other junk strewn on either side of a half dead yard. I drew one of my daggers, walked cautiously up the gravel walkway to the door, and knocked loudly.

  “You’re under arrest by order of MAGE and the U.S. government. Come quietly or be taken by force,” I called out, using the procedural warning to suspects we were to arrest.

  The door blew outwards with enough force to send me flying backwards. And there in the doorway was a large creature, half wolf, half woman. She looked almost like your stereotypical movie werewolf: shortened snout, pointy ears, humanoid body with fingers that ended in wicked claws. Her fur was white with grey streaks, a deadly supernatural animal, but you could still see the intelligence that blazed in her hazel eyes. She snarled in fury and charged towards me, claws back, prepared for a devastating double swipe once she got within range.

  I stood and quickly rolled to the side, drawing my second dagger and igniting them both. She spun to face me and circled cautiously. This was not something in some sort of rabid rage. She was calculating and dangerous. Her eyes caught my every movement. She struck out, quickly, brutally, but it was a simple feint. She was testing me. What had MAGE sent me into? She struck out again, and this time she paid for it as I slashed her across the arm with one of the flames from my dagger. She howled in pain and hopped back several feet. She tilted her head to one side, giving me a curious look, then she raised one claw to the sky and the winds started to whip into a fury.

  I conjured my shield immediately. There was a ton of old junk lying around outside her house, and as the wind picked up, it began to move the debris about. The winds got heavier and soon even the larger chunks of detritus were starting to lift off.

  The winds lashed around me with enough force to push me back a bit, and I had to dig my feet into the ground in order to not get swept up into the forming whirlwind. I ducked and rolled to my left as the hood of a car came hurtling towards me, then looked and saw the shifter motioning with her hand at a bumper.

  As she gestured, it rose into the air, and once it got to about head level with me, she made a forward snapping motion with her hand and the bumper came sailing towards me. I had a brief moment where I had to wonder if the bumper and the hood belonged to the same vehicle.

  I stood and rushed towards her, hopping to my right as the bumper got close. I figured that threat was dealt with, but all of a sudden she motioned again and I felt the bumper connect with the back of my head, the blow softened only slightly by my shield. I stumbled and fell forward, sliding in the gravel towards her.

  I shook it off and regained my footing. Dust, sand, and small rocks were flying through the air all around and although my shield dealt with a good majority of it, visibility was near zero. I knew if I didn’t think and act quickly I would lose her.

  I concentrated on slipping into Aetheric Sight. Once I did I saw her standing off to my left, about twenty five feet away, and that distance was increasing as she ran from me. I shook my head and launched my blade in her direction. It hit her in the leg and she tumbled to the ground, her yip of pain cutting through the howling winds.

  The winds were dying off enough for me to see her in normal sight as I moved towards her—which meant she could see me as well. As I got closer it looked like she was trying to concentrate all her energy on a particularly large boulder not too far away. I was maybe ten feet from her when a large whirlwind sprang up around the huge rock, lifting it from the ground. It hurtled straight for me and I had nowhere to go. I had no choice but to recall my daggers back to my hand and reignite the blades.

  Ignoring the shifter, I readied myself and dug my feet into the ground once more. As the boulder flew towards me I held my blades up and a shiver of fear went through me. After everything I’d been through and fought, it was going to be a god damned piece of rock that did me in. That chunk of rock was far too big for my shield to be of any effect and was going to shred right through it. After that, it was going to cave my chest in and crush my skull. I was going to die here. And I had MAGE to thank for it.

  They had sent me after this shifter without even having the courtesy of telling me that she was a fucking shaman. Shamans were shifters with the rare ability to manipulate the Aether like a sorcerer. MAGE had either been completely incompetent or there was a Council member who had pulled strings to give me this assignment to get me killed. That thought, above all else was really pissing me the fuck off.

  Growling through clenched teeth, I swung my blades in a downward arc as the boulder got to me. I felt Aetheric energy surge through me and as my blades connected with the boulder, it shattered into a fine dust, which then burned up in my shield.

  I blinked. Then I blinked again. Somehow I had mustered enough physical power to obliterate the boulder with my blades. All that anger I was feeling had somehow pulled Aetheric energy into my body to augment my strength. I felt fatigued now, as the residual power left me.

  I looked to where the shifter lay on the ground. She was staring at me with eyes wide in shock and disbelief. I began to move towards her and she somehow managed, even with a bum leg, to get up and start charging me again, this time drawing up rocks and pebbles to armor her and encase her claws. She swatted me with a backhand that raked my face and sent me airborne again. As I landed I got buffeted by more detritus.

  She was pissed now, and I could see her wounds beginning to heal up. I staggered to my feet and she rushed me again, taking my leg out from under me and continuing past me. As I landed I felt something in the leg crunch. I bit back a cry of pain. I was pretty sure it wasn’t broken, but I doubted it would support me enough to chase her down. I had no choice; arrest wasn’t an option anymore. I threw my dagger, sending as stream of flame along with it. It caught her in the back and a surprised noise came from her. She twitched, took two more unsteady steps, then crumpled to the ground.

  I crawled to where she was and I didn’t need to check for a pulse to tell that I had killed her. MAGE was gonna be pissed. That was okay. I was pissed at them. I was ready for a showdown if it came to it. Sure, I might end up
incarcerated or executed for it, but so be it. I was not putting up with this bullshit anymore.

  I pushed the signal button on my dagger. I didn’t have a clue if anyone had seen anything, but who knew? Especially with me flinging fire around the way I was. After they showed up to deal with any potential witnesses and retrieve the body I caught a teleport from an air sorcerer back to MAGE HQ.

  I decided to fill out and hand in my report to Ms. Galaway right away. I limped heavily into her office, probably looking like I had had a tumble with a meat grinder and come out on the losing end, and dropped the file on her desk.

  “If MAGE wants an agent on something like this again, they can get someone the fuck else! That bitch was a fucking shaman, and they wanted her fucking arrested? I was lucky to get out with my life intact, let alone without having to kill her in the process! What the fuck were they thinking when they handed this assignment down?! Huh?! Especially with this little information?!” I was yelling at her, but I didn’t give a shit at the moment, I had to get this out.

  “I never thought I’d be sent on such an obvious suicide mission, and I am not about to start letting them send me on them now! She knew I was coming, Coleen! She knew MAGE had sent me! What the fuck?! No, you know what? I know. I was sent by MAGE to be a sacrifice to this bitch ‘cause even MAGE was scared of her and wants her to stay away. That’s it, isn’t it? Well fuck that, and fuck them!” I was breathing a little heavy now, and felt slightly drained, but I felt infinitely better.

  “Are you done, Kerensky?” Ms. Galaway asked calmly, watching me. “Because if you are, I can start to explain some of this, now that I’ve been let in on some of the details. You were sent to arrest the shaman, but to eliminate her should she resist. You were to go in, incapacitate and detain her so that we could learn more information about the lich she’s been working with. We trained you to use your head and think on your feet. The higher ups figured that if things got too ugly, that you would manage to bring her down and they could send in Investigations to get any pertinent information from her house. Granted, now she can’t be questioned, but the lich is now without a fairly powerful ally and we may still find the information we need. You operated well above the call of the assignment. The Council is very pleased with you.”

  “Wait. Now we’re dealing with a lich?! Oh, how fucking wonderful,” I said as I plopped into one of the chairs in front of Coleen’s desk. I winced as I settled into the chair, my leg complaining, and feeling aches and pains that my righteous anger had let me ignore earlier. A lich was a vampire who had the powers and abilities of a sorcerer in the same way that a shaman was a shifter who had sorcerer abilities.

  “So are you on board for the rest of this case?” Coleen asked, giving me a sympathetic look. I nodded, knowing that a lich was going to be nothing but problematic at best. I didn’t even realize we had a vampire population in the city in order to even have a lich. Something kept them from coming here. Maybe it was the heat.

  “Yeah, sure, not a problem, as long as I’m not used as a guinea pig anymore.” I sighed as I picked up a report form from her desk. “I have a sinking feeling my week isn’t over, is it?”

  “No, we will need you here, and possibly out doing more field work. Bianca told me that we’d need you out to help when it came time to deal with the lich. For now go get yourself looked at by a medic.”

  “Am I ever supposed to have a day off, or even sleep for that matter, with this line of work?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “Jesus H fucking Christ! You made a joke.”

  “Oops, guess you might start thinking I’m actually a person now, and no that doesn’t mean that I’m going to have sex with you on my desk.”

  “Damn, had to try.” I smirked at her as I carefully stood and left her office to do as she suggested.

  I had a feeling it was going to be a long week.

  EIGHT

  Turned out it was as long of a week as I had feared. The Investigations department didn’t find anything in Elsa Dietrich’s house. So, of course, I was being blamed by MAGE for fucking up and killing the wolf bitch. As a result, I was told to go about my life and that MAGE would call me in for my next part in the case. I got the idea that it would be awhile, but it was only a couple of days later when it happened.

  The sound of my phone ringing woke me. I checked the time. Five-fifteen in the morning on a Wednesday. Who the fuck was calling me this early? Whoever it was was going to get an earful. Once I had the energy to give them one that was. I hadn’t gotten much sleep, and my brain was refusing to work. I stared at the phone in puzzlement and finally realized that I needed to flip it open and put it to my ear for it to work properly.

  “What?” I asked irritably.

  “Sorry for the early phone call, Aerick, but I need you to come in. We have some information to give to you about the case,” Bianca’s sultry voice purred over the phone.

  “Can you jus’ give it to me through an e-mail or somethin’? I asleep,” I muttered.

  “Sorry, Aerick. The Earth Councilor himself went through a lot of trouble to get this information, you’ll need to come in and speak with him,” Bianca said, suddenly sounding more business-like.

  “Okay, but only ‘cause you sound sexy. S’only reason I’m not yellin’ at you for callin’ me this early,” I said, rolling off my futon and landing on the floor with a hard thump.

  “Really now? Thank you for the compliment, but maybe we should keep this professional… for now,” she replied in a low voice.

  “Whatever you want,” I said, finding my cigarettes and lighting one. “I’ll be in as soon as I’m feeling slightly human again.”

  “I’ll see you then.” She made it almost sound like a promise.

  I hung up the phone, got myself ready and headed out. It didn’t take me long to get to MAGE HQ at this time of day. It was just before the first big traffic rush. As I entered I was immediately accosted by Bianca.

  “You’re here, good. Follow me. Dan’s waiting for us,” she said, putting a guiding hand on the small of my back.

  I’d usually tell her to back off, but considering that she held my job in her hands, and quite possibly my life, I let it go.

  “And Dan is…?” I asked, arching a brow.

  “The Councilor of Earth. He’s a patient man, but we shouldn’t keep him waiting,” she replied, and I noticed a slight tremble in her voice.

  “Why do you seem nervous about seeing him?” I asked, worried now. They were equals, there was no reason for her anxiety, and that put me on edge immediately.

  “It’s… difficult to explain. Suffice to say that he is in some ways my superior on the Council, and holds far more sway and leverage than me at the moment,” she said in a low voice.

  We walked in silence to the elevators. Once inside, she traced a glyph on a metallic pad and I felt the elevator begin to move, but I also felt a lurch in my stomach and a hint of energy as the elevator seemed to displace. This was the first time I had been on the Councilor floor. As I stepped out of the elevator and into a small central lobby, I was greeted with four hallways, each one decorated in a different color. Yellow for air, green for earth, blue for water, red for fire, while the lobby was done in alternating blacks and whites.

  As we turned down the hall to the left, I saw a man walking towards us. He was around six-foot one, had on a suit shirt and slacks and a nice pair of dress shoes. No tie or jacket. His pale head was shaved bald, and his confident swagger screamed upper class as he approached us with both hands in his pockets. He stopped right in front of us.

  “Aerick Kerensky. A pleasure to finally meet you. Dan Ritter. Earth Councilor. How are you holding up?” he asked as he put a friendly hand on my shoulder and offered the other one to shake. In fact he was very friendly overall; his demeanor, his stance, everything said ‘trust me’, which made me even more wary of him. I ignored his offered hand

  “Just fine. So what’s the Council’s sudden interest in me? First
, Bianca, which is understandable, since she’s of my element, and now you?” I narrowed my eyes slightly, scrutinizing him.

  He removed his hand from my shoulder and placed both hands back into his pockets after he realized I wasn’t interested in small formalities. His grin was still there, unshaken. “Hey, it’s not every day we have a Prodigy in the house. We’re all interested in how you turn out. I see that Bianca here is keeping you on a short leash. Has she given you her… customary greeting yet?” he asked, the last three words coming out heavy with double meaning.

  “What do you mean by ‘customary’?” I asked, trying to sound innocent. I had an idea as to what he meant, but I wanted him to make an outright accusation. Bianca cleared her throat, and when I glanced in her direction, she gave me a look that said that she didn’t want to go down that road.

  “She has a habit of bedding her favorite agents. I’m surprised with you being a Prodigy of her element she hasn’t made herself… available,” Dan said, giving Bianca a once over and flashing a smile that said screamed ‘used car salesman’. Or pimp. Or politician. All the same really. None of them could be trusted.

  “Really, Dan. That’s in the past. I haven’t done that in years. Are you still holding that out thinking that it’ll give you a bargaining chip within the Council?” Bianca said, crossing her arms under her breasts, making her blouse buttons work even harder.

  “You can’t be trusted to keep your agents out of your bed, Bianca. All of the Council members feel that way. That, and your less than stellar agent record, and you’re barely a Councilor anymore. Step wrong just once and you’re gone,” he said, venom clear in his voice.

  “Wait, what do you mean less than stellar agent record?” I asked, suddenly nervous about my job.

  “Bianca has a tendency to let her agents slide in terms of protocol and procedure. That, and they tend to be… volatile at best. You are one of the few that has kept to procedure in a long time. Well, you and Chris Weaver. You two are the only reasons that she still has her position,” Dan said coolly, motioning at me with his chin. His reference to Chris Weaver wasn’t surprising. Chris had the best record of all the agents in our branch and was a powerful fire sorcerer to boot. Some said that he was as powerful as any of the Council members.