Primal's Wrath: Book VI of 'The Magician's Brother' Series

by HDA Roberts

  "Doubt it. I'm an enthusiastic participant in the Graves-bashing. I really don't like you very much, Lord Shadow."

  I laughed and she grinned.

  "If there should be a problem, or fallout, of any sort, as a result of this, I hope you realise that you can count on my support?" I said.

  "I hope that you likewise realise that you can't count on mine?"

  "I do. My offer stands."

  That surprised her. She finished off her drink and stood, offering me her hand again. I shook it.

  "Thank you for the coffee, Graves."

  "My pleasure, your Grace."

  We saw her out and adjourned to my Library.

  "This could be a problem. It feels like the start of an avalanche to me. So quiet, practically nothing, but then one small stone dislodges another, and another. I smell big problems in the offing," Cassandra said, pacing back and forth.

  "Agreed," Tethys said. "And it couldn't have happened at a worse time. So many of our assets are tied up with the Aurelia, I can't divert too many to this without bringing the whole house of cards down."

  That made me frown again, "You don't suppose that the Aurelias are poking at our flank somehow, do you? Causing trouble for me like I am for them?"

  "I doubt it. Corruption isn't really a thing around here. If the Aurelias are involved then it's with a true believer, someone who actually believes in their cause, and I shouldn’t think that there are too many of those in the Stonebridge Conclave," Cassandra said.

  I rubbed my eyes, "And the morning started so well."

  "Yeah it did," Tethys said with a smirk.

  Cassandra rolled her eyes. "What do we do?"

  "We try to find Glass and make sure he's still breathing. If he is, get him back to Stonebridge so he can stall whatever mess is going on," I said. "Then we try to wrap up this Vampire nonsense so we can focus our attention on the important things."

  "Like keeping you from getting exiled," Tethys said with another smile.

  "Looking into buying our own country isn't looking so silly now, is it?" I replied.

  "Love, it never did," Tethys said, her eyes sparkling.

  I laughed. "Well, with all that in mind, we'd better start Phase Four on the Aurelia, then."

  "It's a bit early," Tethys warned.

  "How long do you think?"

  "Give me... three days to get the last of my ducks in a row. Any sooner, and we'll miss a lot of their resources. That's the bare minimum I need, and we'll still miss some."

  "Okay. Three days, then. I almost feel sorry for them."

  "Really?" Cassandra asked, giving me the eyebrow.

  "I said almost."

  Chapter 26

  And that was a long three days. What little joy I got from the idea that the Aurelia problem was nearly solved got ruined by the thought of the brand new problem in the Conclave.

  Thankfully, my family was there to distract me.

  My parents hadn’t really had a holiday for a very long time, certainly not together, and they were making the best of a bad situation to catch up on years of missed movies and TV, unread books and all those little hobbies that they’d wanted to try, but never really had the time for.

  And, of course, they parented any offspring that came into range. I think they were a little backed up on that, too.

  Mostly, this fell on Des, as I was generally either at University or working in some capacity. He seemed to appreciate the attention... at first. But as time went on, I think that he started to feel a little smothered, spending more and more time in Cassandra’s gym, a place neither of my parents frequented.

  Des trained with anyone willing to take him on, practicing Magic and martial arts alike. It gave him confidence, and that, inevitably brought back a little of his normal cockiness.

  As you might imagine, cockiness in Blackhold... it generally didn’t end well.

  "Say it!" Ross snarled, having locked my brother into a horrific contortion on the floor of the gym. She had her arms and legs locked around my brother, squashed into all sorts of strange parts. Neither of the wrestlers looked very comfortable.

  "Never!" Des squeaked.

  A squeak was the best he could manage with his throat being slowly closed off by one of Ross' legs.

  "Do I want to know?" I asked Cassandra, who was standing against the wall with Lacy and Rodger, the latter a new Warden Cassandra had just finished vetting. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with a shaved head and strangely light green eyes. I didn’t know him well, but he seemed like a good man, calm and competent, if a little stiff and overly formal with me. He jolted to attention at the sound of my voice

  "I'm told that your brother bragged about his special training," Cassandra said, trying to hold back a disappointed scowl (and failing). "I am further informed that Ms. Ross told your brother that, even with training, she could still beat him with one hand tied behind her back... you can imagine how things went from there."

  I groaned.

  "I believe that the loser was to admit that he is the winner's 'bitch', and that said loser would then perform a variety of services at the discretion of the winner for a pre-set period of time," Cassandra said, now looking a little mortified.

  "Oh Des..." I said, rubbing at the tension headache that had suddenly appeared on my forehead.

  "It's not like you could have done any better! She tricky!" Des wheezed, somehow catching our conversation even with his ears wrapped up in Ross's thighs (not sure I'd have been able to concentrate in such a situation; that girl had some rather spectacularly gripping thighs... see what I did there?)

  "Him? Well, you’re right there, he's even girlier than you!" Ross said; she barely seemed to be exerting herself, wasn’t even breathing hard.

  I frowned.

  "Well, she has a point," Cassandra said, seeing my expression.

  "I'd disagree with you, but... yeah," I admitted with a sigh.

  "Matty!" Des squeaked.

  I sighed again, "Come on Lexi, off my brother before you break him," I said, moving forwards, knowing I was going to regret sticking my nose in Ross-related business.

  "Oh yeah? Make me, little boy!"

  "Number one, you're not that much older than me; number two, you're currently too distracted for a second fight and... number three, sorry, but I would murder you."

  "Really?!" she snapped, releasing my brother and darting to her feet. "How about new stakes, then. I win and you both serve as my bitches for the week."

  God, but alpha personalities are so easy to prod...

  "Interesting... and if I should win?"

  Seriously, it was like taking candy from a particularly lazy and stupid baby.

  "Then I'll be your maid for a whole month."

  I pretended to think about it.

  "Counter-proposal. If I should win, then you agree to never again bet servitude with my brother, and... you have to be nice to me."

  "How 'nice'?" she asked with eyes so narrow, they were practically shut. I swear, the way she’d tensed up, you'd think I'd asked her to do something inappropriate to livestock.

  "Basic politeness, human decency, you know, the staples when you're a guest in someone's home."

  "Oh," she said, frowning. "Uh, sorry, I thought you meant... never mind."

  Wow, really didn't like men, that one...

  Cassandra sniggered, and I shot her a venomous look, which just bounced off, as usual.

  Des crawled out of the ring with two numb legs and threw me his gauntlet. How they went from duelling with Magic to trying to throttle each other was beyond me, but it takes all sorts, I guess...

  "You have to win, Matty, I can't take a maid's costume for a week."

  "No, you really don't have the legs for it."

  "It's not funny! She's a sadist!"

  "Well, that's women for you."

  "What was that?" Cassandra asked dangerously.

  "Nothing, your worship."

  "That's better."

  I stepped into the ring,
"Best of three, standard rules?" I asked.

  "What, afraid of a little High Magic?" Ross sneered.

  The strangled noise that tried to make its way out of Cassandra was a thing of beauty.

  "Okay, why not? No restrictions then. Cassie, would you count us down?"

  "Sure," Cassandra came and stood by the edge of the circle next to Des, whose legs still weren’t working.

  "Both ready?"

  We nodded.

  "Three, two, one, Duel!"

  Ross was through a Portal in less than a second, leading with a fist that went right through my... Illusion's head, disintegrating it instantly.

  "What the hell?!" she sputtered.

  "Illusions. Fun, aren't they?" I said, reappearing at the other end of the circle.

  She scowled, "You cheated! How can you be over there already? You must have moved before we started!"

  I laughed, "Or I went through your own Portal, or, and I can't see how you hadn't already thought of this... this might not be the real me, either."

  She swore and tried to spin in time to evade my attack. She failed and the chime went off as my wall of Force smacked into her gauntlet's Enchantments.

  She glared as I released my Illusion. Cassandra was red in the face trying to hold in a laugh. Sure, she may have hit me (a lot) for pulling this trick on her, but she didn't seem to mind when I did it to other people.

  Ross swore creatively. Not a great sportsman, that one...

  "How the hell did you do that?" she said, once she'd petered off.

  "I can show you. It's not hard if you have any aptitude for Will Magic, and Space Mages generally do."

  "That's projecting shapes with your mind, right?"

  Good grief, she could learn this stuff at a public library...

  "That's the one," I replied, containing a sigh with immense effort.

  Will-based manipulation was the basis for all Spells, the manner by which Magicians altered reality; 'shapes with your mind', for heaven's sake...

  "Round Two," Cassandra said. "And hurry up, you're not the only one who wants a crack at the boss today."

  "Did you just call me the boss?" I asked, my eyes lighting up with delight at her slip.

  "No!" Cassandra replied, going redder.

  "Yes you did!"

  She glared.

  "No you didn't," I corrected with a heavy swallow.

  "That's better. You're really pushing your luck today."

  I harrumphed and turned back to my duel.

  The second round began and twelve 'me's' appeared around the ring.

  Lots more swearing. She really was very creative, I think some of it may have been in Swahili.

  Ross threw out a Warp-Sphere, which was actually quite impressive, even if she couldn’t aim for toffee. Those, by the way, were weaponised Portals, chaotic compressions of space and gravity that would happily pull apart any matter that they hit. Many Space Mages never learned how to cast those without compressing parts of themselves through a micro-singularity, so Ross’ stock rose a couple of points.

  She started tossing them at my Illusions. Not a great idea. Warping Magic used up a lot of power, most High Magic did, even for those with the Affinity. Illusions... they cost hardly any energy at all; barely a drop, a dribble of power compared to what she was doing, and none of them were even the real me! She essentially exhausted herself blowing at smoke.

  She started breathing hard after catching five. I let the others dissolve and reappeared, sitting cross-legged three feet from her.

  "So... what did we learn?" I asked sweetly.

  "To never underestimate your opponent!" she snarled, hurling another Warp-Burst at me... well, at, you guessed it, another Illusion of me.

  She stomped her foot in frustration and snarled around the ring.

  "Fight like a man! What's wrong with you? You scared?! Fight like a bloody man!"

  "Okay," my voice trembled through the Shadows as the last of my Illusions dropped away, revealing me surrounded by my Shade Armour. It was a very complex Spell, the defence I broke out when Demons came to play, thousands of overlapping layers of micron-thick Shadow, packed with regenerating and strengthening Spells. In structure, it looked like a suit of medieval armour, though more rounded and organic. It was, perhaps, overkill for a drained Wizard that didn't know what she was doing, but I was making a point.

  She laughed.

  "You really think that another Illusion is going to scare me?" she said, lashing out lazily at my chest... where her hand hit with a dull 'thunk'.

  Her eyes trailed slowly up to my head.

  "Oh," she said.

  I have to admit, there was no quit in that girl. She tried to punch me in the face. That couldn’t have been fun. Even with the Will energy she wrapped around her fist, it would have been like punching steel.

  I didn’t think anyone knew that many curse words, but as far as I could tell, she never used the same one twice...

  Finally, she finished swearing and stood glaring at me with her bruised wrist tucked protectively into her armpit.

  "We done?" I asked, my voice sounding rather sinister though my Spellwork.

  "Like hell!"

  She bull-rushed me, trying to tackle me to the ground, but I was held in place by Will and Magic, not gravity. Essentially, she just ended up giving my armoured torso a vigorous hug. Eventually, I looped a finger through the back of her belt and lifted her off her feet one handed.

  Her chime went off, but it was almost incidental as she was too busy thrashing to hear it. It looked like she was trying to swim through the air, it was hilarious, but I didn’t dare laugh in case I made it worse.

  "Cassie, what do I do? I think she's flipped her lid."

  "Shut up!" Ross snapped, her thrashing coming to a halt as if my voice had brought her out of what could only really be described as a moderate tantrum. "And put me down!"

  I dropped her and she stood up with great dignity, straightening her clothes. She glared at me, one of her eyes twitching, her face red as a tomato. She opened her mouth, to start swearing again, I thought.

  "Fine, you win," she spat instead.

  Before I could reply, she put her nose in the air and stalked off in a huff, hurling her gauntlet at a table on her way out of the room.

  Cassandra, Des and I watched her go, and I dismantled my armour.

  "That is a woman with a lot of anger," Cassandra said, shaking her head.

  Des and I nodded.

  Though, I have to say, she was also a woman of her word. She was scrupulously polite after that, if a little quiet. Not that I was complaining, I was just happy that she wasn't sneering at me all the time or otherwise belittling me.

  However, to my intense worry, she started attending Des’ training sessions with him. I could only imagine that boded ill for my future health and happiness.

  That was a nice little distraction, and helped me to put the wider world on the back-burner for a few minutes. Thankfully, I didn’t have to be patient for too much longer because, finally, that Saturday, Tethys dropped the long-awaited hammer.

  We were in her little command centre when it happened, sitting in those same seats at the back. Tethys was on the phone with one final contact, the last piece that needed to get into place. All eyes were on her, each of the eight technicians tense and waiting.

  "Good, well done, Mister Green. Carry on,” she said.

  She put the phone down.

  "Go," she said with a nod.

  The place exploded into activity. Emails were sent, calls were made, and over the course of the next hour, twelve hundred years of gathered wealth, property and power simply vanished.

  On Tethys’ order, a colossal web of contacts and associates went into action all over Europe. Companies cancelled contracts, Fund Managers dumped millions of Euros worth of stocks and shares, properties went into receivership... it was a financial tornado that swept away the wealth of the Aurelia and dumped it all into the waiting arms of my Succubus and her Vampir
ic partner over at the Red Carpet.

  We even closed the bank where the Aurelia had been keeping their liquid capital. That had been tricky work, and not even slightly legal, by the way. That was the last big duck we’d needed in place, involving bribes, blackmail and vast amounts in relocation costs. Rather than anything as drastic (and expensive) as buying the bank, we’d simply arranged to get a hold of their records... which we then turned over to the French internal revenue service. Cruel, but effective. Those accounts were frozen by the end of the day, and the bank’s business suspended less than an hour later.

  By the time any Aurelias realised that something was fishy, there was nothing they could do. Everything had just happened too quickly to stop. The companies that kept them supplied stopped trading; the money that paid for weapons, fuel, shelter and any other logistics dried up overnight.

  And (this was the best part) as far as the Vampires knew, the only people who had access or even knowledge of their accounts and business practices were... you guessed it, their Elders.

  It was at this point that they really turned on each other. Elder blamed Elder, regional leaders blamed one another, territories fractured into smaller pieces as individuals or families grabbed what little they could.

  The Elders tried to restore order, but they didn’t have anything like the credibility to succeed. Their denials fell on deaf ears; they had been doing their best to pinch everything in sight only the day before, after all.

  Fractured, fragmented, penniless and under investigation from several national governments, House Aurelia ceased to exist less than four days after Tethys gave the word. A war fought and won almost exclusively in the realms of high finance, with just a little Magic thrown in to get the ball rolling.

  And, of course, Tethys and Price were in place to take advantage of the opportunities this created in the stock market. I couldn’t begin to understand what they did, but I’m fairly certain that it would be defined as several different kinds of (very profitable) criminal conduct, so I kept my nose out of it.

  The Vampires themselves remained, but the House, and all the grudges it contained, was gone, which was the best and most important part. Without their unity, their common purpose, I doubted if any of them would even give me a second thought in the hard times ahead, and all without me being so much as under suspicion.