Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  People started to panic.

  She walked to the front of the group. “If you talked to the Guardian last night and accepted his offer, whatever it was, that fire is going to burn you. It’s here to take you as a trade for whatever you promised the Guardian.”

  “He promised us the future. He said the Daimon Gate wouldn’t take us. And what he said is totally true. They just burned Ryan,” someone in the crowd said.

  “The Daimon Gate and Eudaiz do not discriminate against people based on their origins.”

  “We don’t even have an origin. We’re doomed,” someone else said.

  “I will cross back to the Daimon Gate. Fifi will go with me. Will you, Fifi?”

  “Yes.”

  “As you can see, she is like you. She isn’t going to stay here to be burned by the blue fire.”

  The crossroad lit up with a burning red fire.

  Someone in the crowd shouted out, “Are you saying the red fire won’t kill us? We have a better chance with the blue fire.”

  Another person said, “At least the Guardian has been helping us and the village. What have you done apart from taking us out of the bunkers of the brotherhood? Who are you?”

  “I don’t have time to explain it to you. I’m a Eudaizian. I know my universe as a true Eudaizian. All I can say is that the crossroad fire will not kill innocent and virtuous people.”

  “What was Ryan guilty of?” someone asked.

  Lyla looked at Cayson then returned to the crowd. “He wasn’t guilty of anything. But he traded his life to save those he loved.”

  “What kind of man would do that?” someone else asked. “This must be a scam.”

  Lyla zeroed in on the person who had just spoken. “That’s what virtuous men do. That’s what true Eudaizians do. If you are not worthy, you will die in the fire, be it the red or the blue. Now I am going in. My only advice is that if you want a chance at a better life, come with me.”

  “Why should we trust you? You’re young. What do you know?”

  She turned toward Linx. “Do you understand what’s going on, Linx?”

  Linx grinned. “Yes.”

  “Will you go with me?”

  “Yes. The fire only burns bad people. My parents said I am a good person. So I will go with you.”

  Lyla arched an eyebrow at the person who had just made the comment. “Linx has just addressed your concern. She is one of yours. And she’s barely five.”

  “Five and a half,” Linx corrected.

  Lyla looked at Michael. “Promise me you’ll be fine, Michael. What happened with you in the fire before…are you sure you can control it? I’ll never forgive you if you lie to me now. If you die and burn in hell, I will go down there to yank you out—and then punish you. Are you sure?”

  Michael nodded.

  From the back of the crowd, they heard people screaming. The blue fire had gotten a handful of people. They burned to ashes right in front of everyone.

  Lyla raised her voice. “Blue fire is certain death. Follow me, and you will at least have a chance.”

  She took Linx’s hand and ran toward the crossroad.

  Michael ran next to her. Cayson and Fifi followed.

  The heat was incredible. But it was like a miracle. Even when the flames of the fire touched them, it didn’t burn.

  The crowd saw that. They rumbled in amazement. The blue fire crept closer. A handful of people from the front stepped into the crossroad to follow Lyla. They walked into it just like her. Intact.

  More people followed.

  The heat intensified as they walked deeper into the field. But still, nobody was burned.

  More and more followed them in.

  A man at the back screamed in agony then burned like a torch and exploded into fiery particles.

  Lyla turned and addressed the people before they panicked. “Do not let guilt affect you. There will be a voice in your head telling you that you’re guilty of something. It will remind you of your sins. Remind you of what you regret. It will offer you a chance of redemption.”

  Michael turned and looked at Lyla as she spoke as they continued to walk.

  Someone person burned in the red fire. The rest continued walking, but a number of people started to shake.

  Lyla continued, “Whatever happened in your life that you regret, remember, if you continue to live and make yourself worthy, you will pay back all your debts. No one, and no god, has the right to give you redemption. You must prove that you’re worthy to yourself. Sacrifice yourself only for those you love. You don’t have to give yourself to any god or higher power.”

  More people burned. Some in the group started to turn around, running toward the blue fire instead. Those who had remained in the back by the blue fire had burned to ashes. But even so, some people in the crossroad ran back and were burned instantly.

  “Stay and be true to yourself, and you will survive,” Lyla shouted at them.

  More ran to the blue fire.

  More burned in the crossroad fire.

  They were close to the border. She could see it.

  She glanced at Cayson, Fifi, and Linx. They were all okay.

  More people burned.

  “Open the Gate!” she shouted.

  The Gate slid open, revealing the rolling hillsides on the other side. A large screen hovered in the air, showing the control room and Gale focusing on his tasks.

  “Welcome,” Gale said and glanced at the. Lyla smiled at him. She knew he had seen the fire and wanted people to cross over to the Daimon Gate as quickly as possible.

  She turned around to see that only a handful of people were left. The majority had either been burned by the crossroad fire or had run back and perished in the blue fire.

  Then she noticed that the survivors were children.

  Children were innocent. They didn’t know the difference between innocence and corruption. They weren’t guilty because they didn’t know guilt. That was how they had survived the fire, whether it be red or blue.

  She looked at up the screen again and saw Gale, and she squinted at a shadow behind him.

  She heard Michael cough.

  “Oh no, Michael, you promised me! Whatever it is you’re thinking, it isn’t your fault. Michael, look at me.”

  He coughed more, and more, and then slumped to the ground.

  Chapter 17

  Gale winced as the cold moisture from the stone floor seeped into his skin. He opened his eyes groggily and immediately registered the reality of the situation. He scrambled up on to his feet and darted toward the monitor.

  “Lyla, are you okay? Is Michael okay?”

  From the monitor, he saw Lyla stand up from the ground. Tears streamed down her face.

  “I’m sorry about Michael…”

  Gale felt a gun muzzle at the back of his head. He turned around. He remembered it now. He had been hit in the head. “You’re Lyla’s deputy!”

  Marconi shrugged. “Well, I’m the acting chief…that sounds about right. Are you taking in illegal migrants, Gale?”

  Gale quickly took inventory of the scene. He was in the final stages of getting Lyla and Michael out of the into the Daimon Gate. He was on the floor of his own computer control room. A couple of other members of the staff were sprawled on the floor as well. By the look of their bodies, he guessed they were dead.

  “You don’t have jurisdiction here.”

  Marconi chuckled. “I don’t need it. My task is finished after this.” He approached the control panel. “Now close the Gate.”

  Gale turned. On the monitor, the blue fire had eaten into the red fire at the crossroads. It was chasing Lyla and her people as they ran toward the Daimon Gate. If he closed the Gate now, they would be burned by the blue fire.

  “You can’t close the Gate yourself?” Gale said and earned a smash in the head with the gun barrel. He fell to the floor.

  Lyla continued to run toward the open Gate.

  “I can’t close your Gate, but it doesn’t mean anyone c
an get in and survive.”

  Marconi smiled to himself. He could get mercenaries to stop Lyla at the Gate, but there was no one stupid enough to be in the crossfire. But he always had a solution for everything. Lyla ran into the Gate with Cayson, Fifi, and the children. None of the other adults had survived. But that was good enough for him.

  He smiled and entered a command. A curtain of light beams streamed down, surrounding the group of people. Marconi spoke into the microphone at the control panel. “Cayson, you falsified information in the Daimon Gate, and that’s a death sentence. Fifi Anton, you entered the Daimon Gate illegally. That is also a death sentence. And Lyla, you are an accomplice in bringing illegal migrants into the Daimon Gate and Eudaiz. That is also a grave offense.”

  “My father traded his privileges for the crime I committed,” Cayson said.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry! I think I made a mistake and just accidentally erased any records of a trade agreement for privileges in the system.” Marconi chuckled. “I’ll have to execute you on Gale’s behalf.”

  “You don’t want to kill me, Marconi,” Lyla said. “I can tell by your low skill level that you're not the Shadow, but I know you work for it and bugged our system.”

  Marconi smiled. “I’m low skill? All right then, show me what you’ve got!”

  “Your employer wanted you to infiltrate our system, and to do so, you’d want to take over my position. You hacked some minor database somewhere, and you found out about Cayson and Fifi. You hired the brotherhood to create confusion, forcing me to do some personal investigation and take time off work so that you could take over.”

  Marconi grinned. “Very good!”

  “Your employer also wants you to capture as many profiles or identities as possible. You figured out the multiverse traveler groups are easy targets, and you fed the info to the brotherhood.”

  Marconi nodded. “I’m impressed.”

  “What your employer didn’t tell you is what will happen if you kill off an important Eudaizian profile.”

  “Is that your way of asking me not to kill you?”

  Lyla smiled. “Have you ever questioned why your employer wanted you to collect all kind of profiles and destroy the originals after you collected the information?”

  Marconi stopped smiling.

  Lyla continued. “It’s because Eudaiz is the origin of the project. Your employer is building something modeled after Eudaiz, so he didn’t want to destroy important subjects in Eudaiz. I am one of these important subjects. To demonstrate, why don’t to check your account. Type TX25GyQ.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Just do it.”

  Marconi typed in the command, and his face went pale “You have access to my personal profile?”

  “Top-level access.” She smiled.

  “Who are you?”

  “You’ve worked with me for years and still don’t know my true identity. And now you expect me just to tell you? I’m disappointed, Marconi.”

  Marconi gazed into the screen. “What do you want?”

  “You can’t give me what I want. Given you have such low-level skill, I won’t need you for the station anymore.”

  “I can explain.”

  “You’re fired, Marconi,” Lyla said and smiled at him.

  No, she was smiling at someone behind him. Marconi turned around. It was Michael. He opened his mouth to say something, but Michael put the gun muzzle into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

  “Planning to kill your boss is a very bad idea,” Michael said.

  Chapter 18

  A short time later, Lyla walked into the Daimon Gate control room, smiling at Gale who sat on the floor rubbing his head, and instructing the medical staff to patch up his gunshot wound.

  Michael approached. “Sorry, I should have been faster.”

  She smiled. “No worries. As you’ve said, I’m a talker. I could have dragged the conversation out for hours if you needed me to buy you that much time. How are you, Gale?”

  “I’ve been better.”

  Michael smiled at her.

  “What?” She blushed, she was sure of it, because she felt the heat on her face. It was embarrassing because she had no control over it.

  “Congratulations on your first field combat experience,” he said.

  “We have casualties. That can’t be good.”

  “It was a lot better than what I’ve seen before. Plus, Fifi is the first successful gypsy applicant to Eudaiz. I think that’s huge.”

  “I don’t think she likes to be called a gypsy.”

  “I think gypsies are cool. I met an angel gypsy couple.”

  “Are you making this up?”

  Michael grinned. “No. It’s the truth. The couple is Jael and Charmine. Don’t take my word for it. Ask Gale to check the system.” Michael shifted back and forth on the balls of his feet then said, “It’s time for me to go, I guess.”

  “Care to stay for tea? Cayson is cooking dinner for us tonight.”

  “I guess he replaces Ryan now.”

  Lyla looked away.

  Michael turned her face back and tilted her chin up. “He’s happy, you know. On Earth, people have a cliché that says Ryan is in a better place right now. I don’t know about that, but I know for a fact that Cayson and Fifi are together. Any parents would be happy to see that.”

  “Hey, guys!” Gale called from behind them. “Take a look at this.” He swung a monitor around toward Lyla and Michael, wincing because the movement hurt his injury.

  On the screen, a message appeared:

  “Pilot test completed.

  Citizens gained: 59.

  Citizen lost: 1 Marconi Hale.

  Full-scale operation status: Ready.

  Target: Six billion, five hundred citizens.

  Thank you for your cooperation, Lyla J. LeBlanc. It has been fun and fruitful.

  See you in the next round.

  Shadow.”

  Gale gasped, “You’re a LeBlanc? You’re royal?”

  Lyla raised an eyebrow.

  Gale lifted his hands. “I didn’t see a thing. You’re just my friend, Lyla.” Then he scurried outside.

  Michael shook his head. “Fifty-nine to one. We are such losers!”

  Lyla shook her head. “Cayson and Fifi are together, happy forever after. Fifi is the first multiverse traveler migrating to Eudaiz. While the multiverse discriminates against the gypsies, we embrace diversity. The fifty-nine who perished will raise awareness in the multiverse that identity is not merchandise. If they want to migrate to a virtuous universe, all they have to do is to be worthy of it. For thousands of years, these issues have never been settled in the multiverse. We’ve only tackled the surface of it, but at least it was good progress. All things considered, I think we’re winners.”

  Michael stared at Lyla. “Now you’re scaring me. You’re talking like a politician.”

  “We don’t have that position here!”

  “See, that’s why it’s scary. It’s in your blood!” He shuddered exaggeratedly, making her laugh.

  The robot Zin spun his wheels, rolled into the room, and presented a pink paper to Lyla. “My apologies regarding the color. It was supposed to be red.”

  Michael looked at Zin’s costume. “What are you supposed to be now, Zin?”

  “A werewolf.” Zin did a spin.

  “You look like a werewolf, but just one suggestion…you might want to swing your costume around. The tail is supposed to be at the back. Having the tail poking out in the front like that might hurt some male human’s ego!”

  “Thank you. You are so kind, Michael. I will fix the costume.” Zin wheeled happily out of the room.

  Michael turned back to Lyla. He saw the look on her face and asked, “What’s up?”

  “The next round has already begun. On Earth, Vietnam, Ha Long Bay. 3000 people burned into thin air in broad daylight.”

  “Where, did you say?”

  Lyla looked at the pink paper again. “Ha Long Bay, North V
ietnam, Earth.”

  “That’s where I was turned and became an Iilos citizen,” Michael said. “Your father destroyed a legion of multiversal mercenaries and soldiers there among the 3000 elusive islands.”

  The end

  >>> GRAB THE FIRST BOOK NOW <<<

  SHADOW HUNTER TRILOGY

  Book 0: FIRE AT CROSSROAD

  Book 1: SHADOW SEEKER

  Book 2: SHADOW KEEPER

  Book 3: SHADOW DESTROYER

  >>> GRAB THE FIRST BOOK NOW <<<

  The Mage Team

  David J. Normoyle

  The Mage Team © copyright 2017 David J. Normoyle

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Art © 2017 by Rebecca Frank http://bookcovers.rebeccafrank.design/

  Edited by: Tom Shutt

  First eBook edition: June 2017

  www.davidjnormoyle.com

  The Mage Team

  A power-hungry necromancer is seeking a world-ending artifact. Only the mage team can stop him—if they don't kill each other first.

  Slate Blackthorn is a vampire hunter who's ready for anything—except for being teamed up with a vampire. However, with the threat of an undead apocalypse looming, Slate and the rest of the mage team will have to learn to work together.

  The magical artifact is kept in an enchanted safe within an impregnable tower. To get to it before the necromancer, the team will have to overcome an assortment of challenges including mages with machine guns and fighting robots, lethal mindtraps and bloodthirsty demons.