Black Dawn

by Andrew Dobell

  - Bratislava, Slovakia.

  Liz crouched behind the side of the car next to Xain and Orion as bullets slammed home into the vehicle from the Initiated men they were facing off against.

  Xain rose from his ducked position and fired before a fresh salvo of shots forced him to duck back down.

  ‘Easy my big black ass, Orion,’ Xain shouted to his partner in crime.

  ‘Quit your complaining, you’re enjoying this as much as I am,’ Orion shot back.

  ‘Yeah, but I’m better at this than you are,’ Xain said.

  ‘In your dreams dude.’

  ‘Would they be wet dreams?’ Liz piped up.

  ‘Oooh, sick burn man,’ Orion said, mirth in his voice.

  ‘You’d best not be taking side’s blondie,’ Xain quipped as he popped up again for another shot. ‘Liz, one of the targets broke right, down there, you see?’

  Liz watched the man run off between two buildings, ‘Got him,’ she said and strengthening her shield, ran in a wide arc that kept her clear of the fire team but brought her in behind the man who had run off.

  She followed an intercept course and allowed her Magic to guide her. Knowing she’d meet him at the crossroads up ahead, she leapt at the last moment and delivered a savage knee to the side of the man’s head before he even knew that he was being attacked. He dropped to the floor with a cry of pain, the Essentia in her attack had weakened his Aegis, and with him down for a moment, she extended her hand towards him and blasted him with Magical energy that caused his Aegis to spark and spit with power as it tried to resist the Magic. But the Aegis was weak and with a shower of rolling blue energy the Aegis dissipated, allowing Liz to deliver a knockout punch fuelled with more Essentia.

  She stood above him, breathing hard, her heart pumping.

  ‘Damn girl, you got the moves,’ Xain said from behind her.

  She turned to look at him. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

  ‘Shit ain’t over yet, come on.’

  Generals Gambit

  New York

  Nov 28th

  ‘…so then we head off and chase down the rest of the gang, they’re hiding in one of the warehouses so we sneak in and move through the building, taking them out one by one. Xain gets us to split up and I end up taking on two separate guys on my own.’

  ‘Wow, really? Sounds like you’re doing well,’ Amanda said.

  ‘She’s doing great Red,’ Xain said. They were in Amanda’s kitchen, stood around the Island in the middle of the room. Amanda sat on one of the stools, her legs crossed in her usual scruffy jeans and fitted top. She nursed a steaming cup of hot chocolate as she listened to Liz’s story, with the occasional interjection from Xain and Orion. Liz stood in front of Amanda in leggings and a baggy jumper, her platinum blonde hair loose and falling over her shoulders. She seemed full of energy and didn’t seem capable of keeping still as she related the story of the latest mission she had been a part of with the boys.

  Amanda brushed her loose hair back behind her ear as she smiled at Xain and Orion. Xain stood close to Liz wearing all black practical, almost military style clothing with a long black leather duster over the top. Amanda admired Xain’s physique, she’d always appreciated a toned body and Xain filled out that tight top of his rather nicely. She pulled her eyes away and silently chastised herself, what had gotten into her? Ever since that first night with Maria she’d had sex on the brain. She’d seen Maria a couple more times since then, the nights getting a little wilder with the addition of some magic into the mix. Now she was eyeing up Xain? It was interesting to know that she still felt attracted to men as well, not that she would have been bothered, either way, it was just interesting. But she didn’t really want to give him a ride, she just appreciated a fit and toned body, like most people surely.

  He stayed mostly quiet while Liz ran through the details of what she’d been doing with them.

  Orion sat on one of the stools around the corner of the Island from Amanda, playing with an apple from the fruit bowl that sat nearby him. He wore black like Xain, but his long coat was made from cloth and he wore what looked like a modern minimalist suit beneath it.

  Looking at them, Amanda couldn’t help but associate the pair of them with two characters from a couple of action films, so much so that on occasion she had even called Xain, Blade and referred to Orion as Neo, especially when they wore their long coats.

  ‘So when’s the next mission you’ll have need of her for?’ Amanda asked when Liz had finished relating her story.

  ‘Nothing definite yet, but we’ll have something soon.’

  ‘Will you be coming to the Ball tomorrow night?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ Xain said.

  ‘We’ll be there, so will grumpy,’ Orion said, referring to their companion Steven Loomis who Amanda had met a couple of times.

  ‘And Balor?’ Amanda asked after their Scion friend.

  ‘No idea, we’ll ask him,’ Xain said.

  ‘Excellent,’ Amanda said. They had finished their conversation and were saying their goodbyes when Amanda had the feeling in her head that someone wanted to speak with her via a Mental Link. With the boys out the door, Amanda asked Liz to give her a moment before opening the Link, knowing it was Shaun before she committed.

  ‘Amanda, we have an issue, can you come down?’

  ‘Be there in a jiffy,’ she sent before turning to Liz. ‘Alright action woman, sounds like somethings up, want to tag along?’

  Liz smiled, ‘Sure. Where are we headed?’

  ‘We need to speak with Shaun,’ she answered and guided her apprentice into the basement and into Shaun’s basement room.

  Shaun stood behind Vanessa in his black top and combat trousers. What was it with people wearing black? She thought. There were so many other colours out there. At least Vanessa gave the room a splash of colour in her pink top and blue jeans, her dark hair tied back and out the way as she tapped away on the keyboard and worked the Mouse.

  ‘What’s the craic then Shaunie my boy?’ she said as she walked in with Liz at her heels.

  Shaun looked around blinking away an incredulous look off of his face, he’d probably started to get used to Amanda’s sarcastic manner. ‘We’re not entirely sure. We’ve had a report come in from the Knights of Newark Coven that they were assaulting a building with a group of Inquisitors inside it. We asked them to hold off, but I think they’ve gone in.’

  ‘Inquisitors? I thought we’d sent them packing?’

  ‘We did, and we didn’t have any reports that a new group were in the city.’

  ‘Could they get in without anyone knowing?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Sure, that wouldn’t be too difficult. Seems odd that the Knights knew of it, though.’

  ‘Have they been in touch since?’

  ‘No, nothing. That was just a few minutes ago so, it’s probably still going on.’

  ‘Where is it?’ she asked. Vanessa pulled up a map on one of the screens showing the location of the building the Knights had attacked and its position relative to Amanda’s house. It was fairly close and if this really was the inquisition, then this new safe houses proximity to her home did not feel good. It could easily be a coincidence, and just their ambient Magic guiding them where they needed to be without them really knowing it, but the thought that they might know where she lived gave her shivers.

  That could be dealt with later, though, if it even became an issue at all. First things first they needed to get to this new Inquisition safe house and see what the situation was.

  ‘Come on,’ Amanda said to Liz, it’s only a couple of minutes away, we’ll bike it.’

  ‘Really,’ Liz said, following her into the garage.

  Amanda tossed her one of the helmets, ‘Pop your lid on and climb on, she said as she swung her leg over her Fireblade Motorbike and pulled her own helmet on.

  Liz climbed on behind her as she gunned the engine and the machine roared to life. The Garage door had a
lready opened most of the way as Amanda had telekinetically flicked the switch to open it with her Magic. Pulling away she swung out into traffic, her ambient Magic making sure she exited at just the right time into a gap in the cars.

  Liz held on tight around Amanda’s waist as she gave the bike some power and shot along the streets, weaving between cars, her Magical luck opening a gap up for her, keeping the lights at the right colour and the traffic cameras looking the other way.

  Less than two minutes later, several blocks away from her house and much closer to the Hudson River, Amanda moved into a side street with just a few cars parked up and a handful of people wandering along the sidewalks. The street didn’t have much down it, just a few boarded up shops and commercial units, a perfect place for a hideout. Amanda pulled in behind the Camper van that she recognised as the mobile home of the Knights of Newark. Looking around with her Magical Senses, she could quickly pick out the building with the fading remains of an Aegis and quickly noticed the way the Essentia around the building moved about quickly and seemed to be being pulled into the building in sudden surges. The tell-tale signs of a fight between Magi.

  Amanda jumped off the bike and banged on the back of the Camper Van with the base of her fist. After a brief pause, movement could be made out from within until the back door opened and a face popped into view. He had messy hair and a jacket over a T-Shirt that looked to have a Star Wars design on it.

  ‘Amanda? Are you alright?’

  Amanda raised her eyebrows in mild surprise, ‘Me? Are you alright is more like it? You contacted us.’ This was Mike, the Magi in the Knights who felt most at home behind a computer. He’d be monitoring the rest of the Coven as they went into the building.

  ‘Only to let you know what was going on, I think it’s mostly over now, though. We ruined them.’

  ‘You guys, the Knights, took on an Inquisitor squad?’

  ‘Yeah! Don’t look so surprised. I mean, we had a bit of help, but we took them on.’

  ‘Help?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Well yeah, but…’ he said, never finishing the sentence as Amanda pulled the other door open and stepped into the back of the van. For such a small looking van on the outside, it appeared deceptively big on the inside. No doubt with a bit of Magical enhancement. Crouching slightly to keep her head from banging into the ceiling, she looked at the bank of computer screens on the table and side of the van. There seemed to be video feed coming in from a number of the Coven members and she could see Magi from some of the other New York Covens in there with them.

  ‘What the hell…’ she said, feeling a little bewildered by this. She turned back to Liz, ‘We’re going in,’ she said, and moments later, they Ported into the building.

  They appeared in the center of a very large room on the second floor that had been trashed by the fight. Furniture had been smashed, bullet holes peppered the walls, and in amongst it all, there were a number of bodies. Mostly Crusader Knights, the Inquisitions main troop type. These guys were usually human with magic items like swords and such but were not to be underestimated.

  On Amanda and Liz’s appearance, a number of the Magi that were stood in here raised weapons or readied Magic, only to recognise Amanda and lower their weapons or stifle their Magical attacks.

  Amanda immediately recognised members of three Covens in the room, all of them had recently moved to New York and had introduced themselves to Amanda on their arrival. The Knights of Newark she’d known were here, the other two Covens, though, were The Tyranny Effect and The Tigers Claw.

  They were all scattered about the room, giving the place a search, or hunting through the pockets of the dead Inquisitors, or talking amongst themselves. One of the Magi from the Tyranny Effect sat tapping away on a laptop.

  Amanda turned to Denton Klein, the leader of the Knights of Newark, dressed in a trench coat with Jeans and messy brown hair. He had a rugged but not unattractive look with a fierce personality and eyes that twinkled with energy. He smiled at Amanda as she walked over, he’d been talking with one of his Coven mates, Debra who also wore jeans and a jacket.

  ‘What the bleedin’ hell’s going on here?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Just fighting the good fight Mandy,’ he said. She wasn’t sure she knew him well enough for him to be calling her Mandy, but she let it slide.

  ‘I can see that. You took on a group of Inquisitors?’

  ‘Yeah, why, is there a problem?’ he asked.

  Amanda paused a moment and took a breath. She wasn’t actually sure if there might be a problem or not. These Magi were only doing what she’d done countless times before, fighting those who would have them dead, and so far at least, they seemed to have handled it pretty well. So why did she feel a little affronted by this? She’d said before to several people that this wasn’t her city, she wasn’t the new Queen of New York, and the other Coven’s could do as they pleased really, and yet, something wasn’t right.

  ‘I’m not sure. This just seems, strange.’

  ‘What? That we got the tip off first?’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Amanda said.

  ‘The tip off, we were given Intel that these guys were here and the information was good. We weren’t the only ones either, he finished, indicating the other Covens.

  ‘Who gave you this tip?’ She asked. Something about this felt wrong.

  ‘I’m not sure, Mike’ll know.’ He put his finger to his ear to listen more closely to the reply from his Coven mate in the van outside. ‘Mike? How did this tip come through?’ he said and listened to the reply. ‘The Dark Web? You got a message? Aaah yes, I remember now. Thanks, Mike,’ he said and looked up. ‘One of Mike’s informants on the Dark Web told him. I think these guys had the same tip,’ he said, indicating the other Covens in the room.

  ‘Any idea who these guys were, other than Inquisitors?’ she asked.

  ‘Sorry, no. I think the leader is over there somewhere, though,’ he indicated.

  ‘Thanks, I’ll check it out,’ she said and turned away to see Christina Lewis, one of the other members of the Knights crouched down beside a motionless body on the floor that Amanda recognised right away.

  ‘Aaah shite,’ Amanda said, and ambled over and stood next to Christina. The body on the floor was Jessie Maynard’s, the same Jessie who had escaped the Inquisition just a few days ago. She had a large ragged and oozing wound in her chest and looked very dead.

  ‘How long has she been like this for?’ Amanda asked Christina.

  ‘I don’t know, a little while. It happened right after we first came in. Jessie was too eager for some revenge,’ Christina said and stood up next to Amanda. Christina always looked quite striking in her Goth clothing and makeup. Her black hair that had been backcombed looked pretty wild today. She wore a corset top with a short black skirt made to look like a cut up and ragged ballerina’s tutu, and wore ripped fishnets and big black Biker boots on her feet to finish the look.

  Amanda looked over Jessie with her Magical sight and could see that her Anima Mundi still resided inside her, but it had already started to pull away from her body.

  ‘Damn it,’ Amanda muttered.

  ‘Can’t you bring her back? Are you able to do that?’ Christina asked.

  ‘Technically yes, but I’d be on shaky ground with the Council. Her Anima Mundi, her Soul, has already started to detach from her body. I could re-attach it, but that would be Necromancy in the eyes of the council, so the answers no. Sorry.’

  ‘I thought it took longer than that, it’s only been maybe fifteen or twenty minutes.’

  ‘A violent end speeds up the process, and that’s easily long enough for the process to start,’ Amanda said, feeling somewhat helpless.

  ‘Can’t you make an exception? No one would know, Christina said, looking at Amanda now. ‘She was nice, I liked her.’

  ‘I liked her too, and I’m sorry, but the answer is no. I don’t like these poxy rules as much as you, but it’s not because of the “rules” that I can’t do this.
She’s already leaving this world and moving onto the next, there’s a natural order to these things and it’s not for me to interfere with that, which I suppose is why the rules are there.’

  Christina crossed her arms, she didn’t like that answer, Amanda could tell. Amanda had a healthy disrespect for the rules, she didn’t like authority and when someone said to go one way, she would often go the other, but never blindly. She did what she thought was right as that was always most important to her. When it came to things like this, that were quite literally life and death, it wasn’t something you took lightly. She’d spoken to the council about this topic at length, and making a habit out of resurrecting people would be something that the Council took seriously and would get you looked at in detail. It had led to many otherwise great Arcadian Magi making that step onto the dark path of the Nomad.

  Amanda had no desire to follow the same path.

  ‘You’ll sort her out won’t you?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Of course, leave it with us.’ Christina said.

  Amanda left her side and looked around for Liz, she’d wandered off since Porting in here and Amanda could see her picking her way through the debris.

  Continuing on her way, she walked over the broken furniture and found three bodies on the floor towards one corner of the room. Two were just Crusader Knights, but the other looked like an old man and had Magical energy still within his body. This had been a true Inquisitor, and a powerful one. She walked over to his side and moved to get a better look at his face. She had to move the leg of one of the Crusader’s, but a second later she got a good look at him and stood there in a daze for a moment. She recognised him. She’d done enough research on the Inquisition to know who this was, but she couldn’t quite believe that he would be here. She stood up and looked over to Denton. He stood talking with Mercy now, the leader of the Tyranny Effect.

  ‘Denton, Mercy, do you have a moment?’ she asked.

  They wandered over and came up beside Amanda and looked down at the man she stood over.

  ‘What’s up Chica?’ Mercy asked. Amanda glanced at the striking woman beside her with her red-ish purple hair that cascaded over the shoulders in waves, complimenting her purple bomber jacket that she wore with black lycra leggings and sneakers.