by Harry Nix
Alex wasn't sure if this was the distraction Ruby had planned, but he knew the old witch would use it to her advantage if she could and so, together, they ran, heading to the agreed meeting spot at the rear back corner of the mansion.
“Over here!” Ruby shouted out from the darkness. She seemed to appear from nowhere, shifting out of the dark beside the mansion, clearly using a spell to keep herself concealed. She still had the box of crystals, which was now half empty.
“Hey Juno!” Ruby called. Alex turned and saw April and Juno coming running from the other direction, their shoes gone and hiking their dresses up. Most worryingly, Juno had a splatter of blood across her face although Alex could see it wasn’t hers.
“There is a werewolf pack attacking out the front and some mages too,” Juno said, skidding to a stop.
“Let’s just do what we came for. This way,” Ruby said in a commanding tone.
“Where did you go?” Alex asked the two of them as they followed Ruby.
“Where did you go? We just went to explore for a bit. When we came back the two of you were gone,” Juno retorted.
April spotted the necklace Nia was wearing.
“What happened there? Did it activate?” she said
“Yeah, and ended up starting a fire downstairs. Amongst other things,” Alex said.
“We’re here. You three stand guard. Alex, lift me up,” Ruby said. She carefully placed the box of crystals on the ground . Nia, April, and Juno each took the crystals within, fanning out in case someone approached.
“What other things happened?” April asked.
Alex put his hands together, and Ruby stepped into them, Alex easily lifting the little old lady up off the ground. He saw a brief flicker of a spell screen above her head and then she touched the window. Alex saw it flare red for a moment. It appeared there had been some other barrier in front of it, invisible, which quickly cracked and broke into pieces.
“There was a tapestry down there with this black writing on it that came off and hit me in the head,” Alex said.
“Now is not the time,” Ruby said quickly casting another spell. Alex realized, in all the pandemonium, he hadn’t done the most basic and easy thing, so he quickly brought the spell screen up and cast Know Thyself. At first glance, everything looked normal, stats and spells, but as he flicked over to a new page, he saw it was full of the scratchy runes. He also saw it had wiped out some of the code he had taken from the Great Barrier spell, overwriting it. It looked like he'd lost some of the pages of numbers. He still had the image of the werewolves and the light.
The black scratchy runes were in a separate place of their own now, and although there was an execute button at the bottom, it was grayed out.
“I think it gave me part of a spell,” Alex said. With Ruby standing in his cupped palms, he couldn’t bring his hands up to manipulate it, and he was too hyped up from what was happening to do it mentally.
When he had first seen spell code it had been gibberish: symbols and numbers, sometimes images that had slowly changed to readable code. The runes were completely unreadable to him. As a glanced over them, he felt like they were sharp somehow, as though he was looking at a collection of knives and if he reached in the wrong way it would cut him badly.
“Come on, let's go,” Ruby said. She had the window open now and scrabbled through it.
“And go!” Juno said, throwing a sleep crystal. Alex saw one of the no-neck guards come around the back of the mansion. Juno hit him right in the face with a sleep crystal, and he dropped unceremoniously to the ground. It was then that Alex noticed there were a few other sleep crystals scattered around the place, probably from Ruby earlier on, setting them up like a minefield.
Alex didn't really want to go inside again, not with the fire alarm blaring and hurting his ears, but he couldn’t leave Ruby in there alone. He hauled himself up the windowsill and inside, landing softly on thick carpet. The room he entered looked the same as the one he and Nia had been in: bookcases, ornate furniture, that feeling of immense wealth, and knowing that the sofa alone cost more money than he’d ever made in his entire life put together.
“Over here,” Ruby said, waving him on. Alex wasn't quite sure why he did it. Perhaps it was the image of Prince, putting his arm on Roma, and her grimacing and bearing it. As he walked over, he scratched a single claw across the top of the sofa, tearing through the fine leather in a juvenile act.
“Stop it. We don't need them blaming werewolves more,” Ruby said crossly. She held out her hand to Alex and it was only after a moment he realized what she wanted; to share some of his magic. He put his large clawed hand in hers, then Ruby turned towards a bookcase—or so it appeared—and began casting a spell. It pulled on Alex's magic so sharply it was like having a tooth ripped out of his head. His natural mana almost went to zero immediately, so he started drawing on the others. First the sex magic, which drained, and then the pain.
Ruby grunted as the pain mana flowed from him to her. He could see her spell screen above her head. Whatever she was doing seemed like twenty spells at once, compiling, connecting, compressing over on top of themselves. After a moment, the bookcase rippled as though the image was water and a stone had been thrown into it. Then it vanished entirely, revealing a large, solid, vault door. Ruby’s spell completed, and her palm burst into flame then narrowed, going from golden to red to blue and on the edge of ultraviolet. She pressed her palm against the vault door and then traced a circle. Alex had to look away from the glare, noticing that Ruby had pulled on bedazzled goggles at some point. After a moment it was done and Ruby pulled Alex forward.
“Kick it for all your worth,” she said. Alex let go of her hand and kicked the circle as hard as he could. Pain shot up his leg, but the door gave way with an enormous clang as it fell inwards into the vault. The hole Ruby had cut was still molten, but the old witch just skipped through it, landing the other side. Automatic lights inside the vault flickered on. Alex had to briefly shift back to human form to get through the door, otherwise it would have burned him. Even as it was, he charred part of his suit getting through.
“This is what we came for,” Ruby said.
In the vault there was a stack of gold bars, something Alex had never seen outside of a movie, sat in the middle of the room. Nearby were plinths, similar to the ones he'd seen in the private museum, and sitting on them were necklaces and other gems.
“Take two bars of gold. I’m gonna get the gems. Nothing else,” Ruby said. He didn't argue. The screaming of the fire alarm was still going and although he could feel magic all around him, he could tell something big was happening outside. There was the occasional surge in it, signs of a distant battle being fought.
Alex had to shift to hybrid form to move the gold properly. The bars were enormously heavy. He took one in each clawed hand then turned back towards the door. Ruby had grabbed some of the jewels and gems off the plinths, stuffing them into the pockets in her bag, before waving him back to the exit. She was gone in a flash through the door, which was still hot. For a moment Alex looked at the pile of gold. He didn't know how much gold was worth of course, but there was no doubt that there were millions of dollars of it here. It seemed foolish to leave more of it behind. Perhaps they could come back.
“I said two bars, let's go right now,” Ruby called from outside. Alex reluctantly followed her, his arms straining with the weight of the gold. He burned himself getting through the door. Thankfully, his natural mana was recovering and began to heal him immediately. Ruby was at the window and out in a flash and Alex followed her. He looked outside to make sure no one was in the drop zone.
“Watch out below,” he said, then pushed the two of gold bars out. They landed with a solid thud, one of them embedding into the grass. As Alex climbed out, he spotted a few more of the no-neck guards who were sleeping on the grass. They must've come around the rear of the mansion doing sweeps and were hit with sleep crystals.
“Shift back to human, take your jacket o
ff, wrap the gold in it, and then don't touch it and shift back to hybrid. It’s too heavy for the shifter charm to take, so you’ll have to carry it,” Ruby said to Alex. He did as she instructed, seeing that the suit was definitely ruined from being charred. Soon he was back in hybrid form, the gold bundled up in his suit jacket.
“This way,” Ruby said. She led them on a path through the impromptu minefield she’d created, back around the side of the mansion, heading to the car park. It was only when they got around the corner that the full extent of what was happening became apparent. There were werewolves, at least twenty, attacking like mad things. Witches and mages alike stood side-by-side, casting great and terrible spells, fighting them off. As they ran towards the battle, an enormous fireball hit a werewolf, burning his arms and legs off in an instant. The werewolf didn't die, however. He was on the ground, a head on a limbless body, thrashing around, blinded and blackened, snapping his jaws.
Ruby ran straight towards this chaos, Alex struggling to keep up while carrying the gold. People were screaming everywhere, still flooding out the mansion. A dark shape suddenly shot across the battlefield, tearing a werewolf's head off. For a moment, Alex saw it was Prince, his suit bloody and his face feral with long fangs protruding from his mouth. His fingers had grown claws much like the werewolves. He moved like smoke, vanishing from the headless werewolf, and suddenly appearing back up on the roof of the mansion again before leaping down once more.
It was no wonder the magic was stirred up as there were spells detonating everywhere. Vines were growing out of the ground, ice shards and fireballs flying. Alex spotted three golems made out of dirt tearing a werewolf to pieces. One of the werewolves spotted them, and bounded towards them. It was a female werewolf in hybrid form, her claws and jaws dripping with blood. Her eyes were red and bloodshot. Alex saw she was frothing at the mouth.
Juno threw a ball of ice at the werewolf but swore immediately. Her magic must've dropped because although the ball hit the werewolf, it barely slowed her, merely frosting across her shoulder. April's vines shot up from the ground but weren’t fast enough to grab her. Alex saw a flicker of Ruby’s spell screen and then she flung her hand upwards. The werewolf who was bolting towards them, insane and vicious, was suddenly flung up and over them. She nearly went as high as the mansion before crashing to the ground far behind them.
“Keep moving,” Ruby called. Alex risked looking behind him and saw the werewolf had got to her feet and was shaking her head. She was injured but not out.
They ran into the battleground proper. There were bits of dismembered werewolf and body parts everywhere. One of the werewolves had taken down a mage and was slashing away at his throat, although the mage was long dead. Something great and terrible flew over their heads, a spell that Alex only felt. He turned and saw Isabella standing calmly on the mansion steps, moving her arms around as though she was a conductor. She’d cast the spell. Alex turned to see it land where five werewolves had been facing off against a group of witches. There was a crack, like a stick breaking, and then they simply fell apart as though they were toys, their arms, legs, and head disconnecting from their bodies in an enormous spray of blood. The witches ended up drenched but then cheered as their adversaries died.
In the chaos, Alex saw a familiar face—the fae assassin. For a moment the roar of battle vanished and all he was acutely aware of was how exposed he was. He had his spell screen up but his hands full, carrying the gold.
She had gold dust pooling in one hand and a wickedly sharp dagger with a green blade in the other.
Then there was a snap and something impossibly fast streaked by Alex and then away.
The fae’s head was gone, cut from her body, which toppled to the ground.
The noise came roaring back and over the screaming and the distant fire alarm, Ruby whistled. Jeremiah got the signal, Boris bouncing over the grass towards them. He pulled the wheel, sliding sideways and coming to a stop, the doors flinging open. They all dived in, Alex barely inside before the door slammed shut and Jeremiah punched it. He ran down a crazed werewolf without a second thought, the crunch of it leaving a bloody spot on the windshield and fracturing a line across at. There were other people getting into cars, trying to escape, and somehow Jeremiah dodged around them, murmuring as he went.
Ruby was still casting spells, waving her hands as she did. For a moment, there was a sickening lurch and he felt as though he was being squeezed on all sides. Then suddenly they were past a burning car and out on the other side into the darkness. They hit another werewolf at the gate who was screaming in rage. This one's arm went through the broken windshield and then was torn off, landing in the back seat.
“Gross!” April yelled, pushing herself away from it.
“Don't throw it out!” Ruby commanded. Alex shoved it down to the floor, unwrapped the gold bars and dropped his suit jacket on top of it. The arm was still twitching, its claws flexing.
Alex looked out the back window. The werewolves who were attacking were almost all dead. There was an orange glow lighting up the mansion. The fire that had been started below had obviously taken hold. As they roared away, he heard fire sirens. Alex could only wonder what the Great Barrier would do with the firefighters seeing the torn-up werewolf bodies?
“Well, not a bad evening all up,” Ruby said, her spell screen finally disappearing, the old witch relaxing with a sigh.
“The canapés were quite good,” Juno said turning to Alex. “Did you get one of those prawns on a stick with bacon wrapped around it?” she said.
“Witches,” Alex groaned, sitting back and closing his eyes. He brought up his spell screen and the scratchy runes, then immediately dismissed it. Now that they were away from the madness, it felt more dangerous, as though it were a pile of razor blades and even looking at it was shoving his hand in.
April shuffled across to him and touched his arm, putting her head on his shoulder. Alex reached across to pat her hand. After seeing what had happened with the amulet, there were questions she needed to answer. Who had told her to retrieve it? But it could wait for now. They were all alive and lucky to be so.
20
“Prince!”
The vampire practically swore his own name and then kicked at the jewels around his feet. Although he was fuming, he took a moment to admire his golem, formed as it was out of rare precious gems, flecks of gold, and assorted rare coins. Isabella's apartment was a work of art itself, and this half of it was dedicated to a summoning room which in some places was ankle-deep in gems and gold.
“Eric.”
“Henry.”
“Isabella.”
The others had formed quickly out of the jewels and gems but when Isabella appeared she drew every flake of gold in the room towards her, even pulling some of it out of the other golems, forcing their bodies to reconstitute themselves with what was left. The flakes spiraled together, forming a golem that moved with liquid ease and glimmered like a living statue. Even through his anger, Prince had to admit: damn she had some style.
“Tradinium had nothing to do with it,” Isabella said.
“It wasn't Xavo although and I doubt they could have pulled off anything like that anyway,” Henry said.
Eric coughed, his glittering golem holding its hand to his side.
“I do not believe it is Corvus, however, I suspect Titus may still be involved,” he said. He summoned a chair out of the glittering gems and sat down.
“What happened to you?” Prince asked, his ire momentarily forgotten.
“A slight disagreement with some werewolves,” Eric said.
“Well, I've met the boy and—” Isabella said.
“I'm sorry. Are we just going to ignore that half my mansion burned down, and I lost most of my private collection?” Prince said. Isabella had summoned a chair for him, but he was standing, finding it hard not to pace.
“It doesn't matter,” Isabella said.
“It doesn't matter? Perhaps I should burn down this place. Sca
tter your wealth to the winds and then you can tell me it doesn't matter.”
Isabella reached down and picked up a handful of gold coins and gems. She lifted them up and then let them pour down through her fingers onto the ground.
“None of this matters. All of this is just a means to an end, and that end is approaching fast. You know you can't take any of this back with you. You haven't forgotten that, have you?”
“It was still worth a fantastic amount. I could have sold it and used the funds for war so, yes, it does matter,” Prince said. He saw Eric and Henry roll their eyes at each other. “Just because I choose not to live in squalor here doesn't mean I’ve forgotten what we’re doing,” he snarled and kicked at the assorted coins near his feet, but finally sat down.
“Can we return to the boy now?” Isabella asked.
Prince waved his hand irritably.
“He is soft, unprepared. I think he hasn't fully chosen,” she said.
“We need to kill one of his wives, I said that,” Prince said. He took a breath and shifted in his chair. The vampire miles away attempting to calm himself. He knew he was being petulant, but he almost felt too far dug in to stop now.
“I know where Titus left the drained werewolf bodies,” Henry said.
“I’m not sure that's enough. We lead him there, show him some dead bodies? It doesn't suddenly transform him into the weapon we need,” Isabella said.
“I was sure it wasn't Tradinium. The last time I spoke with Knox he was ranting and raving. Thankfully, his fury is focused on Titus right now,” Eric said and then let out a cough. The golem was still holding a hand to its side.
“He's complacent or scared. I don't think he’s ranting because he’s about to send a force of mages to Baxter. I think his ranting because he's afraid,” Isabella said.