Spectrum of Magic Complete Series - Spell Breaker - Fate Shifter - Cursed Stone - Magic Unborn - Libra

by D. N. Leo

  The man had no eyes. He held his hands out in front of him, and in the middle of each palm was a large, monstrous-looking eye. The pupils were slitted like those of a cat, and they gave Orla the creeps. There was no way that this . . . thing was supposed to be in Chiyo’s house, so she did the one thing that she could think of. Orla curved her fists and sent jets of flame at him, setting him on fire. He stumbled around a little bit, setting a few things around him on fire as well, but Orla did a good job of controlling the flames.

  A shadowy figure danced in through the open door, darting in and out of the flames with such speed that Orla and Lorcan knew it wasn’t human. When the figure paused in front of them, they recognized the fox from the temple. The fox ran up the stairs like she owned the place.

  “You take Palm-Eyes, and I’ll take care of the animal,” Orla said, and before Lorcan could speak, she ran after the fox. She crested the stairs just in time to see the little red tail disappear into Chiyo’s room. Orla swore. Now she’d have to protect that hoity-toity bitch, and she wasn’t thrilled about that at all. When she threw the door open, however, the room was empty except for the foxy woman digging through Chiyo’s belongings. Orla planted herself in the doorway and cleared her throat.

  The fox-faced woman stood up. As she had shifted from her fox form back into human form, she was wearing nothing but a tiny red bikini. Orla blinked. The suit must be designed from a special material designed to protect the woman when she morphed into different forms. On top of an exquisite face, Orla had to admit that the woman had a flawless body. It must come with the fox genes, Orla mused.

  “What are you doing here? I didn’t like you at the temple, and I don’t like you now. What are you looking for?” She hoped that her sheer bluntness would startle an answer out of the woman, but she was wrong. The woman turned back into the little fox and darted out of the room between Orla’s legs, scampering down the stairs. She screamed out for Lorcan to grab her at the bottom, but she didn’t know if he could hear her over the crackling of the flames.

  By the time Orla made it to the foot of the stairs, the foxy woman was back, standing over the body of the man with eyes on his hands. She tilted her head back and opened her mouth in a mournful sound that Orla and Lorcan had never heard before. The woman stared them down, and then she began to scream for Chiyo. Chiyo, of course, didn’t answer because she still hadn’t come home yet from her date.

  “Look, I don’t know who or what you are, but listen to me and stop that wailing for a minute!” Orla’s angry voice pierced through the woman’s screams like a hot knife through butter. In utter shock, she stopped her strange noise and looked at Orla. “Thank you. Chiyo isn’t here right now, but I want you to know that she’s protected. So back off and leave her alone.”

  The woman shook her head. “If Chiyo is with that boyfriend of hers, then she’s going to be in trouble.” The woman turned and tried to leave, but Orla and Lorcan were hot on her trail. Waving her hand in an intricate pattern, Orla removed the flame from the building and swung the door closed. She and Lorcan were now in pursuit of the little fox, but it was very difficult to see her in the early morning light. Neither of them were exactly dressed for a manhunt, but they would have to tough it out. They needed to find out who and what this fox was, and why she was after Chiyo.

  Chapter 17

  Orla and Lorcan followed Fox Face as she darted through the city. It really was a lot easier to follow someone when there weren’t hundreds of people in the way. As they trailed this mysterious creature, she led them farther and farther away from the center of the city. After a while, it looked like they were in a part of the city that was crammed full of warehouses for the various businesses in town. Fox Face hauled open a door to one of the larger warehouses.

  Orla and Lorcan watched from a distance for a few minutes to see if she would come back out. When she didn’t, Lorcan swore and motioned for Orla to follow him. The two of them crept in through still-cracked door, and the scene that met them was a grisly one. Chiyo was tied to a pillar in the back of the empty warehouse, her hands above her head and her feet barely touching the ground. There was a group of mooks threatening the young doctor. Tears were running down her face.

  The conversation was in Japanese. Lorcan pulled out his palm device and turned it on. It captured the sound signals, and soon English text flew onto the little screen.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never seen a key!” Chiyo cried.

  A thin man paced back and forth in front of Chiyo, a malicious smile on his face. “Maybe I can help you remember.” He snapped his fingers and four mooks came from nowhere, a platform balanced on their shoulders. They set the platform down, and took the dirty blanket off of the misshapen form wriggling underneath. Orla gasped and had to put her hands over her mouth to stifle it. On the platform was Goro, Chiyo’s boyfriend. His hands were tied behind his back, and he had a heavy manacle around his neck with four chains coming down to attach to four iron rings on the platform. He was kneeling, and he had what looked to be a dirty bandana in his mouth as a gag. When he saw Chiyo, he struggled, trying to break free and get to her. Orla felt tears in eyes when she saw that. She shifted and turned back, seeing Lorcan looking at her. He kissed her on the cheek.

  “Now, maybe you can tell me a little more about the key of Psuche?” the man’s voice slid out like poisoned silk. Chiyo yanked at her restraints, and Lorcan saw blood running down her wrists.

  “I don’t know anything about it! I’m just a doctor! My grandfather had the antique business, but it died with him in the earthquake! Please, let us go. I swear I don’t know anything.” She was crying now.

  Orla wanted to jump in for a rescue. She hopped up, but Lorcan held her back. “We’re seriously outnumbered,” he said.

  “Poor little Chiyo. It looks like things are going to get worse for you before they get better. Think hard. Is there anything that you remember? Anything at all?” the man grumbled.

  Chiyo was silent for a few minutes. “All I can remember is that it was a metal key with a stone on the top of it. I don’t remember what kind of stone—or even if it did anything special. I was only a child, and I had nothing to do with the antique business. That’s all I know, I swear. Please, just let us go.”

  The man stared at Chiyo hard, like he was trying to see down into her very soul to determine whether she was telling the truth. “I believe you. I really do. The only problem is, the mooks don’t.” He spread his arms wide in an ‘I don’t know’ gesture. Chiyo’s eyes grew wide with fear, and he swung his head in Goro’s direction.

  “No, no, please don’t do that!” Chiyo cried.

  The man pointed at Goro. “What about you? Do you know?”

  Chiyo shook her head. “No no, he doesn’t know anything.”

  “We have no use for him then,” the man concluded and signaled the mooks. One of them drew a katana from a sheath at his side, walked up soundlessly behind Goro, and slit his throat with one swipe. Chiyo screamed and fainted.

  Lorcan had reached his limit. He stepped out into the open space. Orla started to follow, but she was grabbed from behind. Lorcan and Orla turned around, ready for a fight, when they saw Fox Face.

  “You’re going to need more than just the two of you.” The fox woman’s voice was low, and she was trying to speak urgently to Orla without anyone overhearing her.

  Before Orla and Lorcan had a chance to respond, Fox Face stumbled backward until she was almost even with the pillar Chiyo was tied to. She didn’t even know what hit her. The mooks had made them and had attacked from behind.

  Fox Face stood up slowly, rubbing her rib cage, wheezing. Men poured out from nowhere, attacking them from left, right, and center. Orla was separated from Lorcan. Three dangerous-looking goons approached her. She stepped back and saw about ten of them pounding on Lorcan. She clenched her jaw. You forced me to do this, she thought as she curved her hands into fists and sent fire balls flying at the criminals. She soon cleared
out the three who were attacking her. She turned to Lorcan and saw he had knocked down five men, bare-handed, but before she could do anything, a goon standing behind Lorcan pulled out a knife and stabbed him.

  Lorcan slumped to the ground.

  Chapter 18

  Orla thought she had stopped breathing. She darted forward, and fireballs flew at the criminal like fireworks. In the haze of confusion, smoke, and the smell of burnt flesh, she didn’t realize she had cleared the entire gang out with her fire and Fox Face had just knocked down the last man standing.

  Orla knelt down in front of Lorcan, gently stroking his cheek. “Lorcan? Can you hear me? Talk to me, baby.”

  He groaned and opened his eyes. “I hate it when women are still standing, and I’m the one lying on the ground. You’ve got to teach me some of that magic of yours.”

  “Sure thing.” Orla helped him sit up.

  “I’ll heal, as you’ve already seen.”

  “All right. But it’ll still take a while. Now stand up for me.” She slid her arm around his waist. “There you go.” He stood up straight, stumbled a few steps, then straightened up again.

  “I’m okay. Where’s Chiyo? Did you get her out yet?” Orla shook her head. She slowly led Lorcan toward the other end of the warehouse where Fox Face was standing.

  Lorcan tried not to lean a lot of his weight on Orla. He couldn’t quite figure out how his healing ability had been triggered before. At the moment, he didn’t think it was working. The wound on his back was searing, and blood was streaming out. His vision became more blurry by the second. He walked a few more steps with Orla’s assistance and then started to stagger. “I . . . I don’t think I can . . .” he slurred out and then dropped to the floor in a heap.

  “Oh my God!” Orla cried out. She looked up and saw Fox Face approaching. She still didn’t trust her, but she really didn’t have a choice at the moment. They carried Lorcan to the corner where Chiyo was tied up, and leaned him against a pillar.

  “He’ll heal. He’s like us. But all creatures have different ways of healing. He might have to shut down his system before the healing can start,” Fox Face said.

  “What? What do you mean by he’s ‘like’ you?” Orla snarled.

  “I thought you knew.”

  “Knew what?”

  Fox Face shook her head. “We have other matters to see to now. I’m not yet sure about him, so it’s better not to make assumptions.”

  “The hell I’ll let you get away with this. The last time it took hours for him to recover from your knife. Now you’re say he’s like you? Like what? A werefox?”

  “I said I’m not sure.”

  Orla grumbled some profanity and then pulled Lorcan into her, resting his head on her shoulder. She flipped the back of his shirt up and could see his wound was starting to heal. She looked up at Fox Face and saw a faint smirk flash across her face, but she let it go for now. She leaned Lorcan back again on the pillar. Then she went over to Chiyo and started to pick the lock on her manacles. Fox Face admired Orla’s skills.

  “Wow, you’re good.”

  Orla looked at her, then decided to swallow her snarky response. She lay Chiyo down to the floor and came back to Lorcan. “We have to get out of here soon. I don’t know when they’ll be back.”

  “I agree. We can’t stay here for long.”

  Orla gestured at Lorcan and Chiyo. “Can’t go anywhere with these two dead-weight bodies here.”

  “It’s dangerous here. I know a place where we can regroup. But we’ll have to wait until these two can walk by themselves. At the moment, I hope the Gods here would protect us.”

  “Here? In this warehouse? Since when that God has changed his style of residence?” Orla asked.

  A wave of sadness poured from Fox Face’s eyes. “On this very ground used to be an old temple that was abandoned generations ago. The people in the city think it’s haunted, so they don’t come here, and they’ve never had the nerve to bulldoze it down.” There was a wistfulness to her tone, and it softened Orla’s temper just a little.

  “Why do people think it’s haunted?” she asked gently.

  Fox Face looked down at the ground at her feet.

  “This temple used to honor us Kitsune, but almost everyone has forgotten us now. There are still those select few that come here to honor us or pray to us for help, but that number dwindles more and more with each passing year.”

  “You were after Chiyo. Same with the mooks. You’re after the key, too. Do these gangsters know you?” Orla did her best to keep her anger at bay, but some of it bled into her voice anyway. Fox Face dropped her gaze. She didn’t want to answer, and Orla realized that she really didn’t have any way of making her if she didn’t want to. She wasn’t a bully, per se, unless she had to be one to finish a job.

  Lorcan began to stir. Orla went over, and seeing him open his eyes slightly and smile at her, she knew he would heal quickly from this point. She kissed his cheek. Lorcan was beginning to get that twinkle back in his eyes that said he was alert and ready for danger. His injuries seemed to be healing as quickly as they had at Chiyo’s house.

  Fox Face spoke up again. “I want to apologize for not introducing myself. My name is Mori. I’m a werefox, a creature of folklore. Even though we sometimes walk as humans, we never forget who and what we are. In order to keep ourselves secret from the world, we tend to go underground a lot. That was how I met the Yakuz.”

  Orla was very sick and tired of hearing that word and not knowing what it meant. “What exactly are these Yakuz?” If she had to fight them again, then she wanted to know what they were up against.

  “They are humanoid in form, but they have certain, otherworldly features to them. The man you killed in Chiyo’s apartment? He was a tenome, a Yakuz. You could ask her boyfriend for more information if the mooks hadn’t killed him. There are myriad creatures and people belonging to that group—even I don’t know all of their names. They are very powerful, and the Kitsune stays out of their way.” She blushed at this debasement of her breed, but it was the truth, and so she had to reveal it. “The eyes in the man’s palms don’t see only the mundane as humans do, they see the ghosts of souls past and what they did when they were alive. He was sent to her apartment to find out what she knew about the key of Psuche. I don’t know what he saw, but I know that he didn’t gather any information from Chiyo, and the fact that the two of you killed him will slow down the Yakuz as well. Take pride in what you’ve done. Not very many otherworldly creatures could have rid themselves of him if he had come knocking, and here you are, two humans, taking out one of the Yakuz by yourselves.” Mori sounded impressed, even though it was obvious that she was trying to hide that fact from them.

  Orla narrowed her eyes. “But you seemed sad when the Palm-eye died.”

  Mori looked at Orla, “Did I?” Then she came back to her usual silent mode and ignored Orla unanswered question.

  They heard a clanking sound at the far end of the warehouse.

  “Oh hell, they’re back already.” Orla stood.

  “Yep.” Mori darted over, standing next to Orla. Lorcan grumbled and tried to stand up. Orla used one hand to squash him back down to the floor. From the far end of the warehouse, a group of twelve menacing men strode in.

  Chapter 19

  “How many of them can you take?” Orla asked Mori as she gestured toward the coming men. Orla looked around and grabbed a steel bar close by. Lorcan tried to stand up again. She darted over, not squashing him down this time but dragging him behind the pillar. Lorcan’s eyes sparked with anger, but he couldn’t resist—Orla was much stronger than he was at the moment.

  Mori watched the couple with amusement and felt an unusual feeling slash at her heart. It felt like a pain, but she wasn’t sure exactly what it was, so she let it go. “I can take five of them in my human form,” she told Orla.

  Orla glanced at her. The beautiful woman was in bare feet and wore only her swimsuit. “What about in your fox form?”

>   Mori grinned. “Well, as an animal, I don’t count. But I can take all of them.”

  “Arrogant bitch. Don’t be greedy,” Orla snarled.

  “I’ll leave you a couple then.” Mori grinned again.

  Orla hated to admit it, but she was starting to like this foxy woman. She shrugged. “Well then.”

  Mori said nothing further, shifting back into a fox effortlessly. She stared at the group of men.

  The mooks were charging now, showering their sparks of power all around them, showing off. Orla growled under her breath, and from the corner of her eyes, she saw Lorcan carrying Chiyo, still unconscious, toward the back of the pillar.

  The attackers’ clothes all had a symbol, and it stood to reason that this was to show that they were members of the Yakuz group.

  “The girl! Get the girl!” They mangled the words in English. Orla wanted to throw her hands over her ears because the voice was so gravelly that it almost hurt to listen. “Give us the girl, and we’ll let the rest of you leave here in one piece.”

  “There were three ladies here, actually—one alive, one unconscious, and a female fox. Which one do you want?” Orla asked.

  Orla put herself between the group of criminals that now blocked the only way into and out of the temple and the unconscious doctor who had been half hidden under the altar. She could see that Lorcan had moved to where he could protect Chiyo and still fight if it came to that. The little red fox stood somewhere between Orla and Lorcan, glaring at the gang in defiance. One figure at the back of the group stood out. It was taller and dressed more elaborately than the rest. Orla took this to mean that he was the leader. With a wave of his hand, he sent his minions out to fight his battle.