Beginner's Luck_An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by J. A. Cipriano

  Elias got up slowly, still looking concerned. “I’ll do that,” he said. “But Seth, I want you to be careful with this watch. You don’t know enough about it, and if you end up somehow engaging the secondary function … well, you may regret opening whatever it’s keeping locked.”

  “I’ll be careful, I promise,” I said. “I’m not going to mess with it too much. But the shifting thing is really handy, especially when a bunch of people are trying to kill me.”

  “All right. That’s all I can ask,” Elias said as he headed for the library door to unlock it. “Now, I think there may be a party going on outside this door. We should probably join it.”

  I laughed. “Good idea.”

  Just as we both stepped out of the library and Elias was locking the door back up, I caught sight of Mist pushing through the crowd toward the back of the room. At least all that bright blue hair made her easy to spot. She was wearing a shimmery silver dress that was more gauze than material and clung to her curves in a way that practically made my mouth water.

  “I knew I’d find you two hiding out back here,” Mist said as she broke through and entered the short hallway. “So, what’s going on, a secret conference or something?”

  “Nah. I was just filling in the old man on my new life as a giant, flashing target,” I said as I slipped an arm around her waist. “You look incredible.”

  “Thanks,” she said, blushing as she leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Hey, Elias. Awesome party, as usual,” she said.

  Elias nodded and smiled. “Thank you, my dear. And now I believe I’d better mingle with the guests before they get nervous.” He gave the two of us a long look and raised an eyebrow. “By the way, I’d recommend a third-floor bedroom. They’ve been aired out more recently,” he said and waved as he walked into the crowds.

  Mist managed to blush even harder. “I guess we’re not as discreet as we thought, huh?”

  “I’m pretty sure he knows everything that goes on in this house,” I said. “And he doesn’t mind, obviously. So … third-floor bedroom?”

  She giggled and slipped a hand in mine. “Sounds good to me.”

  18

  We ended up spending almost an hour in the bedroom, and it was a very good hour. When we eventually snuck back down like a couple of guilty teenagers, the party was still going strong. We made our way around the balcony, chatting briefly with a few people we knew along the way, and eventually got clear to the stairs.

  “Did you want to hang out up here, or should we go down and get some drinks?” I said.

  “Drinks first. Then we socialize,” Mist said as she slipped an arm through mine. “I want you all to myself for a little while longer.”

  I grinned. “Yeah, I think I need to catch my breath for a few minutes, too.”

  As we started down the stairs, my Soul Amulet started to flicker, and then pulse with a soft glow. “Well, shit,” I said as I slowed and glanced down. “That’s probably not good.”

  Mist looked at me and gasped. “Isn’t that the amulet I sold you at the Trove?”

  “Yeah, it is.” I stopped in the middle of the staircase and stared out across the crowd, looking for anyone who might be focused on me. It didn’t take long to figure out who’d tripped the amulet’s alarm, and my gut gave a little twist when I recognized him. Long dark hair, pointed ears, dressed in battered leather wraps and boots practically up to his asshole. Cayn himself. “Who the hell let him in here?” I muttered under my breath.

  Cayn saw me looking at him and gave a very unpleasant smile. Then his lips started moving. I couldn’t hear him over the noise of the party, but from the direct stare and the way he held himself, I could tell he was casting a spell. Before I could react any further, he gestured sharply toward the bottom of the stairs. The air shimmered, and something big and black, sort of dog-shaped, semi-transparent and snarling stepped out from the nothing.

  I glanced at Cayn again, and this time I made out the shape of the single word that left his lips.

  Fetch.

  “Oh, shit.” I took a step toward the beast, keeping my eyes on its glittering red gaze. So far it was moving slowly. “Mist, you need to go back upstairs and stay there. Somewhere away from me,” I said without turning around.

  “Why, what’s going on?” she said. “Oh my God, is that Cayn?”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw the Collector heading back through the crowds toward the exit. “Yeah, but it’s not him I worried about. It’s the dog.”

  “What dog?” Mist nearly shouted as a few heads started to turn toward the stairs.

  Okay, so this was the same kind of creature Golar had talked about. Nobody could see the damned thing but its intended target … me. “Never mind, just go!” I called back as the dog-thing let out an unearthly howl that seemed to shake the room, even though no one reacted.

  Summon me, Princess said suddenly. I’ll take care of the beast.

  “No, you’re still not rested enough,” I said as I moved another step down and called the combat dice to my hand. “That thing might be able to kill you, and I’m not taking that risk.

  And you don’t think it will kill you? she said.

  “I guess we’ll see.” I tossed the dice on the stair, and my roll landed on six. Hopefully, energy blasts were better than nothing. “Get out of the way!” I shouted at a trio of giggling girls who were headed toward the stairs and already within a few feet of the alterhound.

  They gave me dirty looks until I fired off a green bolt at the dog. Then one of them screamed, and more people started to take notice.

  Unfortunately, all they saw was me blasting a spell at nothing. The green beam went right through the insubstantial dog and hit the floor, leaving a small scorch mark as it exploded into harmless sparks.

  That was when the dog charged me.

  I summoned the dice back to my hand and sent them back to alterspace, seconds before the black creature leaped. I dove aside, but it caught my arm and its teeth sunk into my flesh. With a fierce growl, the alterhound whipped its massive head around and tossed me over the banister.

  I hit the floor on my back and groaned, scrambling to my feet quickly as gasps and shouts circulated around the room. If I couldn’t blast the damned thing, at least I had to lead it out of here, away from all these people. I tapped the roulette watch twice and moved back as the dog sailed over the railing, landing on all fours right where I’d been seconds before.

  The watch landed on 27, and as I shifted into alterspace, the world around me shimmered into grainy, flickering monochrome ghosts.

  Everything, that was, except the dog. Now it was very solid and very angry.

  I turned and sprinted across the ballroom, passing right through people on the way, ignoring all the murmurs and cries as everyone tried to figure out what the hell just happened. The alterhound thundered along behind me, shaking the ground as it ran. Once I got outside and past the crowds, into Elias’s empty private drive, I turned to face the creature and fired the remaining five blasts from the dice at it.

  Two of them actually hit the damned thing, drawing a few pained yelps and the stink of singed fur. But the counter on the watch ran down before I could throw the last three, and the attacks did nothing once I’d shifted back out of alterspace.

  Those two blasts weren’t nearly enough to stop the hound.

  “Goddamn it,” I said aloud, looking around for something I could try to use as a weapon. The watch wouldn’t work again for nearly thirty minutes, and I definitely didn’t have that long before I was dog chow. The beast was already shaking off the effects of the bolts and coming toward me again.

  “Seth!” a woman’s voice called from behind me. “Here, take this.”

  I whirled around just in time to catch sight of Zorah, who was wearing a pair of strange-looking leather and brass goggles. She tossed a long, slender metal object at me, and I caught it reflexively. It was bronze, about three feet long with a wicked point at one end. Kind of looked like a railroad spike mount
ed on a sword handle.

  “Great,” I said as I walked back from the advancing, snarling dog. “What is it?”

  “It’ll kill that damned thing, that’s what,” she said. “Hurry!”

  She didn’t have to tell me twice. The alterhound loped toward me, picking up speed, and when it lunged at me with spittle flying from its gleaming fangs, I crouched low and drove the spike into its breast as hard as I could.

  The dog let out a gurgling whine and thumped to the ground, landing on its side with semi-transparent black gunk oozing out around the spike. Its sides heaved a few times, and then its red eyes rolled back into its head as the creature shuddered into stillness.

  I shuddered out a breath and looked at Zorah, who’d stopped several feet back. “How did you know …?”

  “I was following Cayn. I’m sorry, but I can’t stay,” she said as she removed the goggles and shoved them in her jacket pocket. “You can keep the weapon. Looks like you might need it.”

  “Wait a second,” I said as I took a step toward her. “Can’t you—”

  “I have to go.” She shook her head, spun on a heel and just about sprinted down the drive, toward the main road.

  I sighed and watched her for a minute, and then shuffled over to the dead alterhound and yanked the bronze spike thing out. It came free with a nasty, wet sucking sound and a loud crack. The blade was solid, but the black blood coating it was spectral and shimmering like oil.

  Perhaps you should call it a night? Princess said with concern in her voice.

  “Nah, Cayn’s long gone,” I said. “Besides, they’re gonna want to know what all that was about.”

  I suppose. But let me repeat … please do not get yourself killed.

  “Believe me, I’m trying not to,” I said with a grimace, walking toward the lawn that bordered the drive. As I knelt to wipe the blade clean on the grass, two figures came out of the house and headed toward me. Mist and Elias, both of their faces tense with worry.

  I could hardly wait to explain how I’d been attacked by an invisible dog.

  19

  The morning after the party, I woke up ridiculously early with a snarling stomach, thanks to a too-early dinner followed by a steady stream of alcohol. Fighting that alterhound hadn’t helped much, either. At least I’d made sure no one else at the party had gotten hurt, and things had settled down once I’d more or less explained to Mist and Elias what happened, and Elias had told everyone that things were fine.

  Apparently, no one had noticed Cayn coming in, and no one saw him leaving. But I knew I didn't imagine him there because Mist had seen him too.

  A quick look in the fridge convinced me to go out to breakfast. Not that I didn’t have food; I just didn’t want to be bothered cooking any of it. I showered and dressed, and as I headed out the penthouse door to the elevator, Princess said, Maybe you should stay home today. I don’t like what happened last night.

  “Yeah, I’m not too thrilled with it either.” I shrugged. “But I’m not going to let Cayn or Joad or anybody else force me into hiding.”

  Not hiding. Maintaining the home base advantage, she said. Besides, it can’t be considered hiding, since they probably know where you live.

  “If that’s supposed to make me feel better, it didn’t work,” I said, smirking as I thumbed the elevator button to head down. “And you just proved my point. It’s not hard to figure out where I live so any of these assholes could attack me here just as well as out there. Which means I might as well go out and enjoy myself if they’re going to come after me anyway.”

  I patted my trench coat to make sure the dog-killing spike was still in there and found my thoughts turning to Zorah again. How she’d shown up just in time and claimed to be following Cayn, even though he was already gone when she got to the mansion. How she conveniently had to leave, right that second, without answering any questions.

  Admittedly, she had saved my life or at least saved me from being delivered to Cayn in a bloody heap. Because the Collector had definitely told the dog to fetch.

  Princess made a sound of displeasure as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. I still don’t like you going out alone, she said.

  “Well, I won’t be alone. I’ll have you,” I said as I stepped into the elevator car and hit the lobby button, watching the doors close.

  Obviously. She didn’t sound convinced. You will summon me, should anything happen?

  “That depends on how you’re feeling,” I said, idly watching the small, silent TV screen above the elevator panel that played a constant news feed from the normal world. Celebrities and politics and other shit I didn’t have to think about anymore and hadn’t for years. “Like I said, I won’t risk losing you.”

  I feel better, thank you for asking, she said. I mean it, Seth. Don’t hesitate to summon me.

  “I won’t. But I don’t think I’ll have to.” Sure, it felt like half the city was after me, but I could handle it. I’d dealt with plenty of vengeful assholes before. Down here, fighting off opponents was practically a way of life.

  The elevator stopped, and I walked through the lobby and stepped outside. It may have been eight in the morning, but it was still nighttime in the UV, like always. Today the weather wizards had gone for a pleasant sixty-five with low humidity and a warm, gentle breeze. I’d gotten used to living in the never-ending night, so much that on the rare occasion I visited the rest of the world, it felt alien to see the sun in the sky.

  Last night’s experience at the Black Cauldron had been interesting enough that I felt like trying a new place out for breakfast this morning. I remembered a little café with sidewalk tables a few blocks off the main Restaurant Row that I’d never checked out, so I headed straight down Wizard Way, the main avenue through the heart of the city. Since most of the people around here were night owls, the few early risers tended to stick to the main drags, and it wouldn’t hurt to be around witnesses.

  Just in case Joad got it into his head to attack me again.

  Seth? The tentative voice in my head surprised me since I’d thought Princess had gone back to sleep. I think … I might have remembered something last night. About my past.

  “You did?” Okay, that was unexpected. Princess never talked about her amnesia, and she’d never even indicated that she wanted to remember her past. “What about it?”

  I’m not sure yet. Princess paused, and I could feel her searching for words. It had to do with that creature, the hound. Something about it … frightened me. But it was a remembered fear. After another hesitation, she said, Does that make sense at all?

  “Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Not that particular dog, but a memory that they exist,” I said as I passed the intersection of Wizard Way and Restaurant Row and slowed to glance down side streets. “Right?”

  Yes, exactly. She gave a soft sigh. Something tells me I don’t want to remember my past. There is a great darkness there.

  Her words were chilling. “Well, whatever’s back there, it’s not going to catch up to you. I won’t let it.” I spotted sidewalk tables down Familiar Lane and headed that way. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

  Thank you, Princess said softly. Though honestly, if it’s as bad as I feel it is … you may not be able to.

  I decided to worry about that when we knew more. But whatever it was, wherever she’d come from, I’d make sure I didn’t hurt her. “Well, just let me know if you remember anything else,” I said as I neared the café and read the sign above the door: The Wilting Flower. No wonder I’d never eaten at this place, with a name like that. But I was already here, so I might as well give it a try. “Meanwhile, let’s get some breakfast.”

  You enjoy yourself. It’s time for my early morning nap, Princess said. I promise I will eat later.

  “All right. You’d better,” I said, still a little worried about her. She hadn’t had much of an appetite since Joad and his damned Agony Orb. “Goodnight, Princess.”

  Her answer was a wordless, contented shiver o
f sound as she curled up and slept.

  I’d no sooner seated myself at one of the sidewalk tables in front of The Wilting Flower when a bleary-eyed, white-haired waitress who looked like she should’ve retired thirty years ago came out through the doors with a plastic self-serve coffee pot in one hand and a dark blue mug in the other. She headed for my table, squinting at me. “Haven’t seen you before, so here’s the rules,” she said as she put the coffee pot and mug in front of me. “We don’t do tea or crappuchinos here, none of that fancy stuff. You get coffee for breakfast if you want it, water if you don’t. This is the menu.” She took a small plastic square from her apron pocket and slapped it down.

  With a slight frown, I leaned over and read the brief list printed on the plastic-coated paper:

  BREAKFAST

  1. Just Keep the Coffee Coming

  2. Not That Hungry

  3. I’d Like Some Food

  4. Starving

  5. Massive Hangover

  6. Surprise Me

  I blinked a few times, picked up the menu card and turned it over. There was nothing on the back. “Interesting choices,” I said. “So, what’s for lunch, Three Martinis through Haven’t Eaten In Weeks?”

  “It’s not lunch time, is it? It’s breakfast time,” the waitress said shortly. “So you get breakfast. And don’t bother asking me what’s the special, because everybody does. It ain’t funny.”

  “Got it,” I said with a smirk. “Okay, I’ll take the number six. And I’ll keep the coffee.”

  “What a surprise,” the world’s oldest waitress deadpanned as she snatched the menu back. “Don’t you try flirting with me either, Mister Sir. I’ve got offers out the wazoo, and I don’t have time for all of you men.”

  “Damn. There goes my plan for the evening,” I said.

  She glared at me, then whirled and stalked back into the restaurant.

  I decided I liked her.

  While I waited for my surprise breakfast, I fixed myself a steaming cup of coffee and took a tentative sip, fully expecting the stuff to taste like hot tar. But it was surprisingly good. In fact, it might’ve been the best coffee I’d ever tried in the UV.