twice cursed mage 05 - claimed

by J. A. Cipriano

  “See to the others,” Asmodai said as a horrific gash that sort of reminded me of the unblinking always watching eye of Sauron tore through the air in front of me.

  A man of average height wearing jeans and a generic white polo shirt stepped from the rippling void and looked me up and down. Other than the sneer plastered across his thin lips, he was so plain looking, I’d have never been able to describe him any better than saying he was sort of lightish-darkish and tallish-shortish.

  This was the type of guy who would be lost in a crowd and forgotten twice as fast. If this was Asmodai, he certainly didn’t look at all like I expected, especially since I’d seen a real life succubus in action. I mean, he was the demon of Lust, wasn’t he? So why was he so goddamned forgettable? Shouldn’t he have been so fucking manly and awe-inspiring that I’d doubt my own sexuality?

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” I said, trying to back up a step and failed because my back was already to the billboard. Fuck. If he tried something, I wasn’t sure what I could do to stop him. Then again, maybe my cat demon would help me? After all, hadn’t she wanted to take a bite out of him? Well, now was as good of a time as any.

  “You need to stop killing my people. If you don’t, I might get angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” Asmodai snorted derisively.

  “No need to Hulk out,” I said, trying to give him a disarming smile. “We’re just talking here.”

  “Do you mock me?” His hand shot out and wrapped around my throat. He lifted me a foot off the air before I could blink.

  “No,” I squawked, reaching up and gripping his wrist as his fingers tightened. It hurt like hell, but at the moment, it didn’t seem like he was trying to choke me. Small blessings, I supposed.

  “Good.” He pulled me close and looked deep into my eyes. I got the distinct impression he wasn’t actually looking at me, but was searching for my demon. Part of me hoped he’d find her. “Why do you resist my claim over this city?”

  “Well, that’s a funny thing—”

  He cut me off with a slap to the face that rattled my brain in my skull. “I did not ask you, worm.”

  “Oh, well in that case,” I said, bowing my head in mock subservience as I called out to the cat demon. Her presence flowed around me, and as it did, I got the distinct impression she was licking her chops. “Sorbeo.”

  Chapter 19

  Have you ever tried to drink from a fire hose? Well, using my energy absorption spell on Asmodai, Lord of Sin, was kind of like that. You know, if the hose was the size of a tanker truck and it was spitting methamphetamine-laced Red Bull right into my veins. To say it gave me wings was a goddamned understatement.

  My shirt burst into flames before crumbling to dust, and as it did, I felt wings of ash burst from my back. They stretched upward beyond my head, arcing above me and revealing veins of fire pulsing along the blackened membrane spread between the twin outcroppings of bone jutting from my back. My skin took on a decidedly darker tone as the blackness on my right hand crawled over my flesh.

  Crimson sigils lit up across all of my exposed skin. Flame the color of blood leapt from my tattoos in a geyser of fire that rippled around us in a cyclone of death as my bat-like wings beat at the air.

  Asmodai’s eyes went wide as he tried to pull his wrist from my grip, only he couldn’t because at that moment, his power flowing into me welded us together.

  A laugh I didn’t think I could make rippled from my throat as I pulled Asmodai’s hand free of my throat with less effort than it’d take me to swat away a cobweb.

  “How can this be?” The Lord of Sin said, trying to pull his hand free. As struggled, a smirk broke out across my lips.

  “Hello, Consort,” my demon said and her voice was the victor’s cry as he watched his enemies’ women driven before him. “Miss me?”

  Fear unlike anything I’d ever seen spread across Asmodai’s face. He swallowed hard enough for his adam’s apple to bob in his throat and pulled away with renewed vigor. As he did, my eyes narrowed, and I lazily waved my left hand at him.

  Bloody fire sprang from the billboard, melting the metal into slag that climbed up his legs and lashed him into place.

  “How can you be here?” Asmodai cried, his words a chocking miasma of fear and pain.

  “Thought you could just lock me up and throw away the cage?” I arched an eyebrow at him as my left hand poked him hard in the chest. His bones cracked and his chest tore open in a spray of blood that splattered across my face.

  I leaned in close to him until we were eye to eye, and as I did, I saw my own reflection in his gaze. My eyes had turned into vast whirlpools of emptiness. Purple, orange, and red sparks danced through my hair.

  “No, Mistress,” he said, dropping his gaze to his burning feet.

  “Look at me, whelp,” I snarled and my words melted the flesh from his bones. He screamed, but did not try to pull away as he sank to his knees in front of me and looked up.

  “As you wish,” he replied, turning his face up toward me. Blisters marred his once pristine flesh, and that was in the good spots. The ones not reduced to bits of ash that flaked away through the air like bits of burned paper.

  “Why are you harming my subject, Consort?” I asked, my leathery wings beating the air and sending a torrent of ash and debris rippling through the air between us. The smell of sulfur hit my nose as I watched Asmodai squirm in place.

  “He was killing what is mine—”

  I cut him off with a slap that tore him free of the binding and sent him crashing into the billboard with enough force to splinter the wood.

  “Is not everything of yours, mine? If I so chose, I could order you to slaughter all your precious subjects, and you’d have no choice but to obey.” I released the grip on his right arm, and as I did the surge of power thrumming through my veins stopped in an instant. “Be thankful I have not done so.”

  As those last words left my lips, the cat demon receded inside me, taking her ashen wings along with her and leaving me standing there in front of the demon. He took one look at me, looked like he was going to say something, stopped, and fucking vanished into a puff of smoke.

  I shook my head, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. I mean, I felt fucking great, but standing there, I got worried. My demon was becoming increasingly restless, and while I wasn’t positive if she’d been totally in control of me, she’d certainly been directing my actions. It was scary as fuck. I wasn’t quite sure why she’d done that, since she’d seemed to reveal herself.

  “Why did you do that?” I asked, peering inwardly to find her licking herself. She peered up at me in a lazy, sated sort of way.

  “What do you mean?” She narrowed her cat eyes at me.

  “Asmodai seemed to recognize you. Isn’t staying hidden part of the fucking plan?” I asked, raising my eyebrow. “He took the fuck off. Right now he could be getting an army to come down and kill the fuck out of me.”

  “He will not.” The cat regarded me in a way that made me think she thought I was very dumb.

  “Why is that?” I asked crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Three reasons.” She stood and stretched. “Reason one is because no one will believe him. Reason two is that now he won’t focus on what you do to his people because he’ll be too busy trying to figure out what to do. It will give you time to hunt down the rest of his minions without more meddling.”

  “And reason three?” I asked, wondering why no one would believe Asmodai, the Lord of Sin. I’d fucking believe him, but then again, if I was another demon like Vassago or Mammon, I might think he was pulling one over on me. Maybe she had a point.

  “Because I have sucked all of his power from him, and I wish him to recharge before I eat him. He is too tasty to devour in one sitting. Either way he will die soon enough.” She sidled up to me and as she did, she transformed into her Corpse Bride form complete with swirling black holes of despair for eyes. “After all, that is what you promised Mammo
n without even consulting with me, isn’t it?”

  “That is not at all the same thing,” I said, and as I did, she reached out and touched my cheek with one pale as death hand. A chill rippled across the core of my being and my knees started to shake.

  “It is, in fact, the very same thing, Mac.” She pulled me close to her, and as she did, the whirlpools in her eyes felt like they were sucking in my soul. “Now be a good little minion and make the blood of our enemies run like a river.”

  She vanished, and I found myself standing on the platform as the sounds of sirens filled the air. The cops were close. Way too close for it to be good. I took a moment to glance toward Maya’s corpse. Fuck. It was one thing to fail her completely, but another to have to leave her body here. I felt like I should do something with it, but at the moment, I was out of options. No, I needed to focus on what mattered. Maya was dead and that meant she’d be visiting the morgue. I could get her from there and give her a proper burial later.

  “I’m sorry, Maya,” I said, swallowing hard as I tore my gaze from her body and looked for a way to escape my current predicament. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a way off this blasted billboard that would get me on the ground before the cops showed up with totally unreasonable questions like “what are you doing up there?” and “what the fuck did you do to that poor ceramic cow?”

  Actually, that wasn’t true. There was another way off this rock. It was just going to hurt like a son of a bitch. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other options.

  “After I kill these fuckers, I’m taking a vacation,” I said, and stepped off the platform while spinning in the air so my back was too the ground. “Necto.”

  Chapter 20

  “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news,” Jack said into his cellphone as he pulled up in a bright blue pickup truck that looked fresh off the lot. I was waiting for him on a bus stop bench a few blocks from where I’d fought for my life on the billboard. I’d made it out of there in the nick of time. I’d barely turned the corner when a metric ton of both cops and agents belonging to agencies with assorted letters for names swarmed the area. If they’d found me, I’d have my happy ass on my way to Guantanamo right about now, or worse.

  Thankfully, I’d been too quick for ‘em. You have to get up pretty early to outsmart this little black duck.

  In a surprising bit of luck, I’d even managed to recover Mammon’s cane. It’d been suspiciously easy to find because it was lying only a few feet from where I’d landed on the street. While it wasn’t glowing anymore, I’d still felt power thrumming through it when I’d picked it up.

  “What’s that?” I asked into the phone at my ear, but as I did, I watched him click his phone off and drop it into his cup holder before looking at me expectantly. Guess he wasn’t a “talking on the phone” kind of guy.

  I sighed and pulled open the passenger door and found myself staring at the glowering vampire. The car still had that new car smell. I wasn’t sure where he’d gotten it since he was supposed to be surveilling the junkyard, but I was glad he’d gotten it since I needed a ride. I hadn’t even needed to tell him where I was because, evidently, he’d installed a tracking app on my phone. I’d never been more displeased and pleased with someone at the same time before.

  “Try not to mess up the leather seats,” he said as I slammed the door shut. “I may be an ancient vampire with near unlimited resources and a series of portraits done of me throughout the years by everyone from Da Vinci to Monet, but that doesn’t mean I like buying a new truck every couple days.”

  “Cry me a fucking river,” I said, resting my head against the headrest as he pushed the truck into gear and took off down the road. Anxiety riddled me as I forced myself to stay calm. Maya was dead and Jack had said we’d need her to save Ricky. I wasn’t sure how we were going to manage it now, but there had to be a way. Sure, it might not be easy, but I was going to break out Ricky one way or another. After all, you either do or do not, and I was most certainly not going to do not.

  “You’d have a lot more friends if you weren’t such a cock all the time,” Jack replied with a sigh.

  “Firstly, I charged into a dark cave to save your buddy Duane, so I think I’m a pretty good fucking friend. Secondly, I’m still not forgiving you for the whole ‘tracking app on my phone’ thing.” I glared at him, glad to have something to distract me from the futility of trying to figure out how to infiltrate a place I’d never seen. “That’s some NSA bullshit right there.” I arched an eyebrow at him. “Besides, you’re an Indian. I doubt you’ve met Da Vinci.”

  “Yeah, I’ll just have to console myself with the small fact I don’t give a handful of warm shit about what you think.” Jack let out a slow breath. “So as I said, ‘good news and bad news.’ Which do you want first?”

  “Is the good news that you came to pick me up?” I asked, hoping he had some kind of plan to siege the place sans Maya.

  When he didn’t respond, I opened my eyes and looked over at him.

  “No. It’s that I got you some clothes so you aren’t running around like the hero in a romance novel.” He gestured to the backseat as he spoke. Which was also when I realized I was still shirtless. No wonder those teenagers had been gawking at me while I waited on the bus stop. It seemed like something I should have noticed, but honestly, I was still sort of recovering from the whole “I’d grown demonic wings of ash” thing. Trust me. It fucks with a guy’s head.

  “What’s the bad news?” I asked, turning to see a duffel bag sitting in the back of the extended cab along with a pump action Mossberg shotgun. Well, at least he was prepared this time. I reached back and grabbed the duffel bag.

  I pulled it into my lap and unzipped it to see a pair of blue jeans, a white chamois shirt, and a belt buckle the size of fucking Texas. Never mind. I changed my mind. Jack was a fucking idiot. I mean, I was going to wear the clothes, but I wasn’t super excited about looking like Jack’s fucking clone. The only upside to having a belt buckle like this was that I could probably beat someone’s skull in with it.

  “There’s a barrier around the junkyard. I can’t get in. You might be able to get in, but I sincerely fucking doubt it. As it stands, no one is getting in there.” He let out a slow breath. “Duane might be able to help, but I doubt he’ll even wake up for another day or two.”

  “What about bullets, do those get through?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or a truck. We could just drive a gasoline tanker into the place and blow it up. Ricky will survive. She’s a werewolf.”

  “Nah. When I said barrier I meant it. Think force field.” He fumbled in the air for a bit. “I can’t think of an example, but yeah, you ain’t getting through it.”

  “Well, that sucks,” I said, trying to keep the despair out of my voice. “Guess I’ll have to figure something out when I see it.” Admittedly, I wasn’t super confident about it, but if push came to shove, maybe I could get my cat to do some heavy lifting. I was willing to bet she could tear that barrier to shreds if she put her mind to it.

  “Guess so,” Jack said, squinting in the rearview mirror. “Better do it quick too.”

  “Why?” I asked, pulling on the shirt. It fit perfectly, which was kind of nice for once. Then because I had nowhere else to do it, I slipped off my scrub pants.

  “Do you have to do that here?” Jack asked, pointedly looking away and scowling. “The glare off your pasty ass is going to make me go blind.”

  “Well, if you want to pull over, I’ll be happy to change elsewhere,” I replied, pulling on the jeans. There were no underwear, so commando it was. Well, you can’t win ‘em all.

  “No can do. We’re being followed by a huge fucking osprey, and if I had to guess, I’m pretty sure that means Maya’s mom is watching us.” He made a tsking noise. “Not so good at killing folk are you?”

  “I’m plenty good at killing folk,” I replied, glancing at the rearview mirror. I couldn’t see the bird because of the angle, but I believed Jack anyway. “But I’m even b
etter at drinking beer.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Jack said and flipped on the radio. Van Halen’s Running with the Devil came on, and as it did, I saw a smirk flash across Jack’s lips.

  “Fucker,” I said while pulling on a pair of wool socks. “I swear you’re trolling me with the radio.” I slipped my feet into a pair of Wolverines and immediately felt better because I wasn’t wearing sandals. It was nice to be dressed for ass kicking for once, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t look like a fucking Texas marshal ready to kick some ass while smoking a cigar.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t like Van Halen,” Jack said, grinning at me as I buckled the huge belt buckle. “If you don’t, I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”

  “We’re friends?” I asked, eying the last thing in the duffel. Another silver Desert Eagle. The damned things were harder to get than a nun’s panties so where had he managed to find two of them? Still, I wasn’t complaining.

  “Well, I’m more of a well-wisher in that I don’t wish you any specific harm.” He shrugged, not taking his eyes from the road.

  “Whatever you say, Moe Szyslak.” I smiled at him and pulled out the Desert Eagle. I weighed it in my hand before tossing it back in the duffel. It wouldn’t be good for what I had planned. “Now pull, over. It’s osprey season.”

  Before he could do anything, I’d grabbed the Mossberg from the backseat and rolled down the window. The osprey loomed large in the air behind us, and near as I could tell, it was close enough to take a face full of buckshot.

  “Are you out of your goddamned mind?” Jack cried, reaching for me as I sighted the osprey with the shotgun.

  “Do you even have to ask?” I asked right before I pulled the trigger. The sound shattered my hearing as the blast caught the osprey center mass and reduced her to a cloud of blood and feathers that fell out of the sky like a stone. I pumped another shell into place and fired again as she fell because, you know what, fuck her.