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

by D. N. Leo

  “No,” she said firmly. “You’re not going to shift now. You’re not going to die. You have to stay with me.” He struggled again but couldn’t loose himself from Mori’s hold. “Get the boat, please,” Mori directed Orla and Lorcan.

  “Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?” Lorcan asked.

  Mori shook her head. “It wouldn’t help him. We have to get him to the temple, where the key is. It’s a sacred place, it will heal him.” Lorcan stared at her in disbelief, but as Orla rushed toward at the boat, he followed her.

  “Do you really think that’s best for him?” Lorcan asked.

  “Mori knows best. We should take her word.” She gestured at the boat. “It looks like you’ll have to drive this beast. Ever driven a motorboat, smarty pants?”

  “I’ll look for the ‘on’ button,” Lorcan said, letting Orla go to help Mori bring Roy to the boat.

  Mori sat at the back of the boat, Roy in her arms. He was weakening by the second. In no time, they were sailing across the sea, Lorcan having figured out how to operate the boat. Roy shivered with the cold breeze. Mori gathered whatever she could find to keep him warm, but it didn’t seem to help. His face had turned pale as a sheet, and his lips had blackened. She just gathered him into her arms and rocked, saying things in Japanese.

  Orla didn’t need Lorcan’s translator to know Mori told him she loved him and he had to stay alive for her. It was all too familiar for Orla, the things a desperate and woman in love would say. But Orla wasn’t sure Roy could hear any of it. Orla didn’t realize, but tears were streaming down on her face. She felt the warmth of Lorcan’s body when he wrapped his free arm around her shoulder, his other hand manning the steering wheel.

  Roy opened his eyes and muttered something. Mori called out for Lorcan and Orla. Lorcan slowed the boat and rushed toward the back.

  “Where you come from, is it a safe place?” Roy asked.

  Many responses flashed through Lorcan’s mind, but he simply nodded.

  “Can you take Mori with you?”

  Mori said something in Japanese—Orla knew she was begging Roy to stop saying things that sounded like his last words. But perhaps they were. Lorcan nodded again.

  There was a loud bang on the side of the boat.

  Lorcan thrust Orla behind him and moved toward the origin of the noise. At the front of the boat, he saw the whirlpool. In the center of the swirling water, an electric blue shape was surfacing. It had a long snout with fringe hanging from the bottom jaw, and it looked almost exactly like one of the ancient Japanese dragons he’d seen depicted in fairy tales. It had a serpentine build, and its head was large enough to swallow the boat whole. It stared at them, opening its enormous jaws wide, and shot a jet of water which hit the hull of the little boat with such force that it punched a hole in the bottom. That meant they’d soon be swimming. A second jet tore through the old wood. The third jet wasn’t water, but looked like a pure bolt of lightning.

  “We have to jump!” Lorcan said.

  Chapter 33

  Lorcan threw Roy overboard and jumped in after him. Mori and Orla followed. Roy sank like a stone, and he was too heavy for Mori to pull to the surface. Lorcan swam to her and grabbed Roy, floating to the surface with his unconscious body. The boat had not sunk yet, and it blocked their view of the monster. The group quietly tread water, moving silently toward something that looked like land in the distance.

  When they looked back, they saw more lightning strike the boat, causing it to catch fire and explode. They swam for what seemed like hours to them, but finally came to a small island where they could drag their tired bodies from the water and flop in the sand. The sky in the direction from which they’d come looked inky black, illuminated here and there with lightning bolts.

  Mori said nothing but scrambled toward Roy and performed CPR. Tears streaming down her face. There was no response from Roy. More wiped her tears and tried again.

  It was too quiet.

  Except the sound of water hitting the shore, they heard nothing else. But Mori wouldn’t give up on Roy. She tried again.

  A short time later, Roy spat out some water and took a deep breath. He was breathing, but barely.

  Lorcan looked at both Mori and Roy. Orla knew he was furious at how hopeless their situation was. Then he pulled out his wrist unit.

  “Oh my God, don’t tell me it’s damaged. It’s our only way back to the Daimon Gate, Lorcan.”

  “It’s fine. I’m going to call the Host for help. We don’t have any other option, and we don’t have time to explain to Mori about the multiverse. The dimensional travel and all that. The last thing we want is that she freaks out . . .” Orla raised her hand it stop Lorcan.

  She turned and ran toward Mori, pointing behind her.

  “Look out!” Orla shouted.

  As soon as Mori turned to look and turned back, Orla landed a punch on the side of Mori’s face, knocking her out cold. She turned back to Lorcan. “Does that help?”

  He nodded and punched commands into his wrist unit while Orla dragged Mori toward a large stone, away from the wind.

  After Lorcan had called, a beam of holocast appeared. Inside the beam was the hologram of the Host of the Daimon Gate, and he didn’t look happy. “You’re on a mission. It’s inappropriate to directly contact me like this.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. But this is urgent, and we need your help. We’re so close to getting the key. But the man lying there, he’s been poisoned by those who stole it from you. He’s the only one who has access to the key. We need to save him.”

  From the distance, in the dark, Orla raised an eyebrow as Lorcan lied right to the Host’s face—without his usual obvious squirming. Most of the time, lying was her job.

  “Lorcan, I’m not the right person to call on this matter for several reasons. I cannot help you regardless of how much I want to. The right person to contact is Ciaran.”

  “Ciaran! But how can I contact him? He’s in another universe. Not only . . .”

  “That’s the only plausible way I know. I’m sorry. I have to go.” The Host and the light beam of the holocast vanished.

  Chapter 34

  “Wait,” Lorcan said helplessly, although he knew the Host could no longer hear him. Then he saw a small object lying on the sand. Lorcan picked it up and grinned at Orla. “Wicked old man,” he muttered.

  “Hush. What if he can hear you?”

  Lorcan grinned again. In his hand was a wrist unit. It must be the communicator that connected directly to Ciaran. Lorcan entered the commands, and a holocast arrived, casting a circle of light in the sand. Inside it stood Ciaran LeBlanc, with a face that God had created when he was in a very good mood and the body of a warrior. Ciaran looked to be in a hurry, his hair tousled and his shirt unbuttoned. Ciaran was astonished to see Lorcan at the other end of the holocast.

  “Lorcan?!”

  Lorcan nodded.

  “Do you realize you just hit the panic button of my private contact?”

  “By private contact, do you mean your father?” Ciaran’s eyes darkened, and Lorcan’s requested more time to explain before Ciaran leaped out of the light beam and slit his throat. “The Host gave me the unit because I’m on a very important mission for him, and I need your help. He trusts me with the information about your relationship. You know the Host is not supposed to interfere with anything outside the Daimon Gate. He risked his life giving me this unit to contact you because he knows what I’m doing is important.”

  Ciaran stopped pacing. He nodded. “After the prank I pulled on my father, I deserve this.”

  Lorcan remembered vividly how Ciaran had tricked his father to get some information past the Daimon Gate’s scanner. It was a big deal, and Ciaran felt remorse about it. The worst part was that Lorcan had helped Ciaran to carry it out. “Don’t be too harsh on yourself. It wasn’t exactly a prank. You needed the disc—it was important,” Lorcan said. “Same with this now, Ciaran.”

  “All right. What do you need?�
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  “If you come a bit closer, you’ll see a man lying in the sand. He’s been poisoned.” Lorcan walked toward Roy so Ciaran could follow him. The light beam circling on the sand around Ciaran shed enough light for him to see Roy.

  “My father asked you to call me. Does that mean this guy couldn’t be saved by any earthly means?”

  “We’re stranded on an island. He might not last long—even if I could get medical help here.”

  Ciaran nodded. “All right. I’ll get my medical doctor. But he’s never been to Earth before, and I can’t risk him stepping outside the holocast. I’ll have to bring your guy inside.”

  Lorcan nodded. “One more thing . . . Roy is a werefox. I think your doctor should be aware of that.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “A werefox is . . .”

  “I know what a werefox is . . . by superstition only. I can’t believe you’re using the term as if they exist in the real world . . .”

  “Why would you say that?” Mori darted out from the dark toward Ciaran, followed by Orla, who was trying hold her back without success. “Please try to save Roy. We’re werefoxes, yes, but we’re not bad people.”

  “I didn’t say that you were.”

  Mori shifted into her fox form, and then shifted back. “If you didn’t believe, now you’ve seen it. Now you should believe. Please help him. Please.”

  Ciaran could see the devastation in Mori’s eyes. He nodded and entered a command into his wrist unit. A tall young man in his thirties with blonde hair and an angelic face arrived. “Please step back,” Ciaran said and then expanded the light circle. The two men approached Roy. The circle gradually grew wider until Roy was lying inside it under the bright light.

  From the distance, Mori gasped. “They look so human. Beautiful.”

  Orla smiled. “I don’t know about the doctor, but Ciaran is human. He’s from London.”

  Inside the light circle, the doctor examined Roy, shook his head, and discussed something privately with Ciaran. The conversation seemed intense. Ciaran paced back and forth a bit, then came to the edge of the light and signaled Lorcan to come close to the light wall.

  “I can’t talk to the woman, Lorcan. Please ask her to stay over there.” Lorcan turned around and saw Mori trying to move closer and Orla struggling to keep her away. Lorcan gestured for them to stay.

  Lorcan put his hands into his pockets and spoke to Ciaran. “If you can’t save him, just say it.”

  “It’s up to you. I need your decision.”

  “Why me? Why not his woman?”

  “She’s too emotional. She’d agree to everything. You called me here. You’re responsible for this, so you have to make the decision. Can you honestly tell me Roy is trustworthy?”

  Lorcan realized he hadn’t a clue. Their encounter had been too short for him to tell. Lorcan shook his head. “I don’t know. We just met him. But he protects Mori—he loves his woman. And he took me into his home the day before yesterday, without even knowing me. I was in bad shape, and he kicked my ass just to shake me up. After an earlier attack, the poison was eating him up, but he still drove us to the dock. He knew he was going to die, but all he worried about was keeping Mori safe.”

  Ciaran nodded. “That’s good enough for me. The doctor can’t cleanse the poison already in his bloodstream, but the corrupted blood can be replaced with a clean substance.”

  “Substance?”

  “Yes . . . kind of like a special type of blood. It has several good attributes, but the down side is that once we use it, we can’t simply take it out and replace it with normal human blood. He’ll be partially Eudaizian.”

  “It’ll turn him into an alien?”

  “Whatever you want to call it—it’s just terminology. You live in the Daimon Gate, so technically you and Orla are aliens as well.” Ciaran cocked an eyebrow.

  Lorcan nodded and raked his hand though his hair. “Right, right. Sorry, I’m awfully confused right now. I guess the blood isn’t the biggest issue here?”

  Ciaran nodded. “Right. What I have to put into him is a secret substance only used for important people in Eudaiz. I’m in charge of more than six hundred billion citizens in Eudaiz, so I can’t afford to risk anything when it comes to security. If Roy turns against us, if he gives a sample of this substance to our adversaries, I will have to kill him. Do you understand that? Can you relay that to his woman after this?”

  Lorcan nodded.

  “The substance is only sustainable in the Eudaiz environment, so he’ll have to be our citizen. And as you know, we don’t adopt people easily. If his woman isn’t qualified, we might be able to take him only.”

  Lorcan shook his head and felt a pang of pain in his chest. This was all too familiar to him. It was the exact scenario he and Orla had faced when they were torn apart because of her family sorcery, and that was the reason he had entered the Daimon Gate. Lorcan knew he’d been lucky to cheat their way in, and now they were paying for that cheat. But what if Roy couldn’t pull it off? That meant the decision made now would set them apart forever, should Roy survive.

  “This should be Mori’s decision.” Lorcan shook his head.

  “No, this should be Roy’s decision, but he can’t speak for himself right now. You called me here. I’m willing to risk our substance to save him. But the next part you will have to decide for him—and take complete responsibility if things go awry.”

  “Why does it have to come to this?” Lorcan raked his hair again.

  “Welcome to my world. He hasn’t much time. What do you say?”

  Lorcan turned and looked at Mori. Then he turned back to Ciaran. “Do it.”

  Ciaran nodded at the doctor. The doctor pulled out a small box containing several pieces of compact medical equipment and crouched next to Roy. Ciaran was right next to him for assistance. Ciaran knew the exact procedure. After the doctor injected something into Roy’s arm, Ciaran held his body down when he tensed up and convulsed. He tilted Roy’s head to the side so that he wouldn’t choke when he vomited. Ciaran took his shirt off, wiped the black blood from Roy’s mouth, and cushioned his head.

  From a distance, Mori’s eyes widened. “Is Ciaran a doctor?”

  Orla shook her head. “Not really. But he has a wealth of knowledge, and he cares a lot for a great many people. He’s a good man.” Orla was thinking that she was glad she and Lorcan had decided not to betray Ciaran. She glanced at Lorcan, and when she saw him looking at her, she knew he was thinking the same thing.

  Roy seemed to settle. Ciaran snapped a wrist unit on his right wrist and then came to the edge of the light. “What he has now is temporary,” he said to Lorcan. “We will fully charge him in Eudaiz. The wrist unit must stay on him at all times, or he will die.”

  “How temporary?”

  “I’d give it a week. As for you, never use that button again. Return the unit to my father. If you ever need to contact me, this one is yours.” Ciaran put another wrist unit on the sand. He turned to signal the doctor it was time to leave.

  “Wait,” Lorcan said. “Brandon attacked us in the Daimon gate and wanted us to expose your activity to the council. We didn’t. Your father knows about it now. I thought I’d let you know.”

  “Brandon? Prince of the Red castle?”

  Lorcan nodded.

  Ciaran rolled his eyes and shook his head. “All right, I’ll handle that. Thanks.” Then Ciaran, the doctor, and the light beam vanished.

  Chapter 35

  When the sun came up at the horizon of the magnificent sea, Roy stirred and awoke. Mori gathered him into her arms and burst into tears. “A magical man came and saved you.”

  “Well, it wasn’t exactly magic. The work Ciaran and the doctor did was completely scientific. How do you feel, Roy?” Lorcan asked

  “I feel like I could move a mountain.” Roy stood. He was six feet tall, but at the moment, he seemed to grow two inches taller, and he was glowing with energy and virility.

  “You look well,
” Orla said.

  “I should ask Ciaran for some of the substance for myself!” Lorcan muttered. Then he whispered into Orla’s ear about Roy’s one-week lifespan. Orla squealed and walked away, waving her arms in frustration.

  Lorcan looked at Roy and Mori. “She didn’t like my joke,” he hastily explained as he scurried after Orla.

  When Lorcan caught up with her, Orla lowered her voice so Roy and Mori wouldn’t hear. “One week? How are you going to explain that to him? How are you going to tell Mori?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. Plus, he won’t exactly die within a week—but he does have to go to Eudaiz. As long as he’s alive, we can sort things out, right? Let’s try to look at this in a positive light, shall we?” Orla contemplated and then nodded.

  They returned to Roy and Mori at the beach. Lorcan spent some time discussing the wrist unit with Roy, letting him know how important it was to keep it on at all time. He gave Roy a sketchy description about what had been done to save him, but he withheld the information about one-week life span on Earth. Roy seemed to be open enough to accept whatever information Lorcan offered.

  Once Roy’s briefing was finished, Orla moved on impatiently. “Now that the stupid birds have the map, we’ve got to hurry to get to the key before they do. We need your help on that. How long is it going to take to find the key?”

  “It’s not far away—just over there.” Mori pointed to a strip of land floating close to the horizon.

  Lorcan squinted as he looked to where she pointed. “Right, let me just call in a chopper,” he said sarcastically.

  “Really?” Roy asked.

  “No, not really. I don’t have access to resources like that.” Lorcan rolled his eyes.

  “Then how are we going to get there?” Orla asked.

  “We’ll have to swim,” Roy responded.

  Mori dove head first into the cold water. She swam like a fish. Roy followed. Lorcan rumbled and dove in at Orla’s push. Not much later, they’d reached the stretch of land Mori had showed them. It had looked farther than it actually was. As they gathered on the dry sandy beach, Mori glanced around, and her eyes clouded. “They’re here. The Yakuz are here already.”