The Dark Storm

by Kris Greene

  The officer examined the cut on his arm and frowned at her. “It’s gonna take more than a little to save your little ass, sweetheart,” he told her.

  Asha raised the disc above her head and let the officer’s blood run freely down her wrist and arm. “Sometimes a little bit goes a long way.” She invoked her power and her bloody hand began to glow. “Come on, big daddy. Bleed for Mama.”

  At first there was nothing, but then the officer felt the tingling in his arm. The tingling increased to a throb and eventually an intense burning. To his surprise the blood began to flow freely down his arm. He tried to place a hand over it to stop the blood, but it only increased the flow. Soon he had lost so much blood that he couldn’t stand. Blood pooled at the feet of the other officers as their partner bled to death before their eyes.

  “If you get out now, this won’t have to get ugly,” Asha warned.

  An officer holding a small black machine gun stepped out. “You little black bitch, I’m gonna air you out for what you did to Sarg!”

  Asha frowned at his racist comment. She rubbed the remaining blood together in her palms until both her hands were red and slick. She could feel the dead officer’s energy seeping into her hands, and she savored it. The blood on her hands glowed brilliantly. “I gave you a chance to leave, but now you can’t.” Her voice was heavy with power.

  The officers tried to raise their guns, but she was already on them. Asha gracefully dodged their kicks and punches, laying a bloody palm on each of them as she passed. By the time the officers were able to get a handle on things, Asha was standing on the other side of the room. There was something about the unnatural sparkle in her eyes that made them afraid, and they were right to fear the young orphan.

  Using the blood, she traced a rune on the floor and laid her hand over it to give it power. “As it was with the people of my mother, and her mother’s mother, the blood is the essence of life and death. Gentlemen, I give you the latter: die!” The word struck each officer like a massive heart attack as the blood magic of Asha’s ancestors did its work. One by one they fell over, bleeding from every hole in their bodies, dying slowly and painfully. Asha could’ve ended it quickly, but she wanted them to suffer.

  “Pitiful,” Moses said as he approached the dazed Gabriel. Moses could feel the power coming from the young man and it made him giddy. He had been ordered to capture the boy for the dark forces, but Moses had his own plans. A tendril detached itself from the band holding Gabriel and gently raised the arm of Gabriel’s overcoat.

  When Moses saw the living tattoo his eyes grew wide. “What trickery is this?” Moses demanded. When Gabriel didn’t answer, Moses slammed him violently against the wall. Moses leaned in so close that their noses were almost touching. “You wear the mark, but you are no vessel. Riel is a liar and a fool.”

  A small sound escaped Gabriel. At first Moses thought Gabriel was sobbing, but as it got louder Moses realized it was laughter. He tried to snap the young man’s neck with the shadow, only to have it dissolve in a crackle of lightning. “It is you who are the fool,” Gabriel said in an alltoo-calm voice. As if by magic the trident appeared in his hand, pulsing violently.

  Moses recoiled in horror when he saw the storm cloud in Gabriel’s eyes. “The Bishop has returned?” Moses backpedaled.

  “And with him comes the Storm.” Gabriel pointed the trident and unleashed its fury.

  Asha barely avoided Moses’ body when it went sailing across the warehouse and smacked into a wall. One side of his face was badly burned, and there was a gaping hole in his chest. Tendrils of shadow flailed wildly from the demon’s wounds. Gabriel stepped through the wreckage, gripping the Nimrod. An officer who wasn’t quite dead clutched at Gabriel’s pant leg. He gave the officer an emotionless stare before crushing his jaw with the heel of his sneaker.

  “All I wanted to do was find my grandfather.” He blasted the demon’s writhing form with a bolt of lightning from the head of the trident. “I didn’t ask for this thing to come to me.” He hit the demon again, knocking him into another wall. “I didn’t ask for any of this!” Gabriel threw the trident with everything he had. The twin points barely missed Moses’ jaw as they lodged themselves in the wall, pinning him around the throat.

  “Kid, we gotta get outta here.” Asha grabbed Gabriel by the arm. He turned to her and just stared as if she were speaking a foreign language. “Man, are you hearing me?” Something rolled against Asha’s foot, drawing her attention. It was a black tubular object, with a flashing red light on top of it. She looked over at the pile of officers, and the one who had called her a black bitch was smiling. When he gave her the middle finger she saw the small silver ring dangling from the object and realized what it was.

  “Fuck!” was all she was able to blurt out just before the room was engulfed in flames.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Rogue found himself lying facedown on the concrete, across the street from the boarded-up building. When he tried to get up, he felt something shift at his side that stole his breath. He looked down and saw a shard of wood jutting from his ribs. Moving to a sitting position, he removed the wood and examined the wound. The wood had pierced his skin, just below his body armor. The wound was small, but it was deep. It would need medical attention, but he had bigger problems.

  Rogue patched the wound with a bit of shadow and headed back for the warehouse. From the inside he could hear the cries of battle and gunfire. When Rogue got within three feet of the building he heard the sound of thunder and a bloodcurdling scream. He smiled, knowing that Gabriel was holding his own against the shadow demon, but the smile was wiped from Rogue’s face when an explosion rocked the building.

  The night sky was lit up like a summer afternoon, with glass and flaming embers raining all over the block. Rogue managed to dive out of the way just as something heavy slammed into the ground. It landed so hard that he thought it was a kitchen appliance, but when he looked it was a person . . . two people actually.

  Asha had managed to erect another magical barrier just before the grenade went off. It absorbed most of the blast but still didn’t save her and Gabriel from being sent flying through the side of the wall. She was knocked senseless, but he was already getting back to his feet, holding the Nimrod.

  “Are you okay?” Rogue asked Gabriel.

  Gabriel checked himself. His clothes were scorched and he had a massive headache coming on, but he was otherwise unharmed. “I don’t think anything is broken.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Asha groaned. She tried to stand but found it difficult. Rogue helped her to her feet but kept his gun trained on her. “Is this how you treat everybody who saves your ass?”

  “It’s not often I find my ass in need of saving. Who are you and what are you doing here?” Rogue eyed her suspiciously.

  Asha batted her eyes at him. “My name is Asha. I like long walks in the park and candlelit dinners,” she said sarcastically. “Dude, we’ve got a building full of dead cops and a pissed-off shadow demon on our hands. How about we save the questions for when we’re out of here, huh?”

  A ghostly wail pierced the night, drawing all their attention back to the warehouse. A massive blob of shadow oozed from the side of the ruined building. The blob detached itself and went airborne, reshaping itself into a bird of prey made completely from shadow. The only signs of its host were the blue eyes staring maliciously at the trio.

  “That is not good,” Asha said, looking up at the shadow creature.

  “I think a spell would be more useful coming out of your mouth than stating the obvious, kid.” Rogue drew the revolver from the left and opened fire on the shadow creature. The enchanted bullets tore holes in its frame, but the shadows quickly filled them. The creature roared something at Rogue before striking with its talons. Rogue dove to one side and countered with a hard right to the side of the creature’s head, but his gloved hand passed right through the shadowy form. A massive wing slammed into Rogue’s back, sending him flying. Before h
e could right himself, the shadow’s claws tore through his coat and struck his body armor. Rogue slipped a small vial from his pocket and spun on the creature, chanting a spell as he did so. The vial shattered on the shadow and the liquid inside exploded in a bright blue burst.

  With the Nimrod flaring, Gabriel charged the shadow creature. The Nimrod ripped a hole in the beast’s chest, spraying shadow all over the street. The shadow creature howled and took to the air, circling back for Gabriel with its talons bared. Gabriel dodged the strike and lopped off one of its wings. The shadow beast crashed awkwardly into a parked car, setting off the alarm. Its eyes flashed rage as it charged full speed at the young man.

  Asha had composed herself enough to work another barrier spell. The creature crashed into it headfirst, shattering the barrier but throwing itself off balance. Asha quickly slashed the palms of her hands with her thumb rings, spilling blood down her palms and wrists. She flicked the blood onto the creature and stepped back. With her bloodied hands raised she uttered a single word: “Burn.” The shadow beast’s body was engulfed in crimson flames, sending it into a panic.

  “Run!” Rogue shouted to Asha and Gabriel. With their combined powers they could slow the creature, but Rogue knew they weren’t properly armed to destroy it.

  Asha and Gabriel took off after Rogue, with the screams of the shadow beast in their ears. The voice in the back of Gabriel’s mind urged him to stand and fight, but he wasn’t listening. He saw Asha sprint out to his right and Rogue sprint to the left. They’d almost reached the corner when Rogue was lifted off his feet. Gabriel turned around and saw that the beast had grown another wing and was making off with his only chance at finding his grandfather.

  “Wait,” Gabriel called after Asha.

  “Wait my ass; we gotta get outta here before that thing comes in for seconds,” Asha said.

  “Asha, I can’t just leave him like that.”

  Asha looked at him to see if he was serious, and as she feared, he was. She could’ve left the young hero to it and saved her own ass, but she still needed to bring him and the Nimrod back to Dutch. Her mind told her to come back and retrieve the thing from Gabriel’s corpse, but there was no guarantee that it would still be there. Grudgingly she agreed and they ran off after the creature.

  Rogue felt like his ribs were being crushed as the creature tightened its grip. He tried to bring the enchanted revolver around, but a strand of shadow knocked the gun away. With a screech, the creature bit into Rogue’s collar. The pain was so intense that he couldn’t even compose himself enough to think of a spell that might help him. There was only one thing for him to do if there was going to be even a remote chance of survival, but he wouldn’t do it unless he absolutely had to, and from the way things were looking, he did. Rogue was just about to call the change when something slammed into the shadow beast. The beast howled and released Rogue, drawing a sigh of both relief and dread from the mage. One the one hand, he was free, but on the other, the beast had released him five stories above the ground.

  Rogue tried to use his own shadow tendrils to stop his fall, but he was weak from the loss of blood, so his descent was only slowed. Rogue bounced off the hood of a minivan and crashed into the street. Most of his body was numb, and the parts of him that weren’t numb were in intense pain. Through blurred vision he saw the boy and the young witch attack the shadow beast. They were a powerful duo, but Rogue knew they didn’t stand a chance against the demon. Seeing no other option, Rogue called to the demon within him.

  Gabriel welcomed the trident when it reappeared in his hand. The shadow beast was now flying in an awkward pattern, wounded from the trident. The smell of death in the air spurred Gabriel to action as he took off to engage the wounded demon. He was about to plunge the trident into the wounded creature’s underbelly when bands of shadow slithered from the ground and bound his legs. He raised the trident to cut himself free, and it too was wrapped in shadow. The shadow ripped the trident from Gabriel’s hand and slammed him to the ground. Before he could even scream he was mummified in shadow.

  Asha cursed the overzealous young man as she watched him get wrapped up in shadow. The relic had probably been their best bet of making it out alive, but he’d lost it to his heroic heart. The creature whipped tendrils of shadow out, tossing debris at Asha, which she was able to dodge. It was badly wounded, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous. She circled the creature at a distance with its hateful eyes watching her the whole time. With the proper spell poised on her lips, Asha closed in on the shadow beast.

  The beast roared and rose to meet the attacking witch, but to its surprise she split into three. The creature slashed the duplicates, only to have those multiply. By the time the shadow beast was able to determine which the real Asha was, she was perched on its back holding a black dagger. The dagger’s blade was dark and smooth, reflecting no light. The handle had been carved from the arm of a mortal infant and cured in its blood. The sacrificial dagger was the only thing Asha had left to remember her mother by and the most powerful physical weapon she had.

  “Back to the shadows with you.” She infused power into her words before plunging the knife into the beast’s spine. The beast thrashed, knocking Asha off its back. She hit the ground in a roll, crashing into a pile of trash. She righted herself, expecting the dagger to have dissipated the black magic, only to find the creature still standing and tendrils of shadow rushing her. She raised her hands to counter, only to have them bound in shadow. The shadows pulled her roughly to the ground and dragged her towards the awaiting jaws of the winged beast.

  A flash of black darted across her line of vision, and she was suddenly free from the shadow bands. The creature howled as gashes began to open up at different points on its body. When she was finally able to scramble to safety she got a glimpse of the creature’s tormentor. From the shape of it she knew it was the other shadow caster, but he no longer looked human. A patch of midnight sprinkled with brilliant stars that were roughly the shape of a man stood defiantly between Asha and the shadow demon.

  Rogue lunged into the air and tore into the beast with shadow claws. Pools of blackness dotted buildings and cars as Rogue slashed the shadow beast. The beast countered with fang and fury, tearing a chunk out of Rogue’s shoulder. The mage expelled a wave of shadow, knocking the creature backward, and took a minute to examine the wound. At the rate the shadows were spilling from the wound he knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold the form long. He had to finish it quick.

  Rogue launched his shadow form into the air, turning his fists into large shadow blades. Pieces of his form were knocked away as he closed on the beast, but he would not be denied. In a double-crossing motion, Rogue severed the beast’s head. The great beast reared up once, before falling to the ground, dissipating as it went. When he finally connected, it was little more than dozens of shadow splotches on the ground.

  Rogue’s shadow form staggered backward and came to rest on the bumper of a car. The darkness began to drip from him, exposing the haggard man beneath. His glasses and his ribs had been broken in the fight with Moses. With the protective shadow gone, blood now flowed freely from his shoulder and torso. When he tried to take a step he fell to his knees.

  “Are you okay?” Gabriel rushed to his side.

  “No, but I’m alive.” Rogue coughed. Blood and shadow spilled from his lips when he spoke.

  “Rogue, we’ve got to get you to a hospital.” Gabriel helped him to his feet.

  “I think we’ve got bigger problems.” Asha pointed at the pools of shadow that were inching back together.

  “Let him come.” Gabriel powered up the Nimrod and pointed it at the pools.

  “No, we might not be able to beat it again. We gotta get to the car,” Rogue insisted. Gabriel and Asha were able to help him to the car. Rogue didn’t look like he was in any condition to drive, but he didn’t trust anybody with his baby, so he made do. The headlights landed on the shadow that was starting to take the shape of a man again. Ro
gue managed to muster a weak smile, just before he gunned the Viper and smashed the shadows.

  “So, what’s your stake in all this?” Gabriel asked Asha once they were away from the warehouse.

  “What makes you think I have a stake in anything?” Asha asked as if she didn’t know what he meant.

  “Don’t bullshit me, Asha. I didn’t realize it at first, but I know you were at the Triple Six. I felt your magic.” Gabriel recalled the confrontation in the alley outside the club.

  “What you felt was Azuma. He’s my familiar,” she admitted.

  “Your what?” Gabriel was confused.

  “A conduit. The witches can channel power through the familiars, and vice versa,” Rogue explained.

  “You’re awful versed in witch etiquette, mage.” Asha looked directly at Rogue, letting him know that he wasn’t the only one who knew things.

  “Listen: let’s not stray off the subject. Why are you following me, Asha?” Gabriel demanded.

  “I wasn’t following you, Gabriel. I was investigating the disturbance in the city and just happened to come across you in the process,” Asha told him.

  “So, the king and queen sent the Hunt to sniff out the Nimrod?” Rogue asked.

  “Not exactly. I’m kind of conducting my own investigation. Look, the important thing is that we may be able to help each other here. Maybe the coven can come up with some clues as to what’s going on. I can take the Nimrod to Dutch and—”

  “Girl, I was born at night, not last night. There’s no way in hell that I’m gonna let Dutch get his hands on the Nimrod. For all that, I might as well deliver it to Titus myself,” Rogue said.

  “And the mages would be better suited to handle it?” Asha shot back.