Katie popped the trunk and stood outside. I stayed covered until I heard his challenge. Then I jumped out with my staff.
As soon as I’d gotten my ward up, I focused my fury on sick bastards who’d attack gentle women. By the time the buzzing began in my ears, I had a real good mad going. So much so that my ward weakened.
So, I pointed my staff at Rogers and yelled, “HOLARTHON, ASSOMME!”
He’d created his own protection, but it stood no chance against my venom. His barrier crackled as it vaporized, and most of the force of my stunning spell hit him full-on, freezing him in place.
I started casting another spell, but he vanished.
I couldn’t fight an enemy I couldn’t see, so, to strengthen my barrier, I concentrated my mind on the limestone outcropping at Carter Pass. I backed up to a large van so Rogers wouldn’t be able to hit me from behind.
I stood waiting until his lightning spell hit me from left side—or, rather, it hit my ward. Surprised, I turned to see where the spell had come from, but the asshole remained completely invisible.
With little alternative, I taunted him. “Aren’t you the tough guy? You attack an innocent woman, happy to ambush her, but you haven’t got the balls to face a man. Your face ought to glow yellow, coward.”
Gill had taught me that staying invisible was a lot of work, and it required intense focus.
I kept up the insults. “Rogers, you’re a baby. Too weak to fight. Still running away, hiding like a little kid.”
Either the guy ran out of energy, or he lost his focus. Either way, he popped into view between two SUVs in front of me. As he did, he pointed his staff and hit me with another lightning spell. It was damned strong, and it took out my ward with a loud hiss. My skin burned, and I could hardly stand the pain for a few seconds. Taunting him hadn’t been the best idea, but at least I could see him again.
He ran at me with his staff and swung it at my head while I was still frozen. He caught me above the right ear. Damn, that hurt.
And it pissed me off. The son of a bitch had almost knocked me out. I couldn’t concentrate well enough to make magic for a few seconds while the pain was dissipating, but I could move again. I swung my staff as hard as possible. That smashed through his ward.
I dropped my weapon and charged at him with both arms swinging. My first shot with a reverse punch landed on his shoulder and spun him around. He scrambled to hide behind a huge cottonwood in the greenbelt next to the parking lot.
My head was still woozy, but I remembered the right technique. I chased him around the tree until he stumbled and then hit him on the side of the head with a lunging punch.
He staggered back. I charged, hoping to put him down for good, but he’d recreated his barrier. Then he dashed around the side of the building where the hairdresser worked. He ran behind a huge dumpster.
But I remembered sweet Katie, almost at his mercy, and rage filled me as I tore after him. When I cornered him between the dumpster and the building, I yelled, “HOLARTHON, CHOQUE!”
Red lightning burst from my right hand, blasting through his ward. And before he could do anything else, I rushed him and planted a front kick in his crotch.
He screamed with pain and twisted away. I focused on his eyes, smashing them with punch after punch. His screams increased. That only encouraged me to hit harder.
Finally, he dropped to the ground and curled into a ball, and the buzzing stopped. I’d won again.
I stood over him, bent at the waist, trying to catch my breath. A moment later, Katie drove up and hopped out.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I nodded. I’d come out of this fight better than most.
She picked up the staff that I’d dropped. “Look, it’s already got a picture of him carved into it.”
Sure enough, Rogers’s ugly mug sat at the end of my row of opponents.
Katie threw her arms around me, still holding my staff, and hugged me.
“We have to move fast,” I said.
She nodded and let me go. Before anyone could take notice of Rogers, I grabbed him and tossed him into the back of Katie’s car. Then I took all of his power. It flowed into me with that delicious warm rush I was really beginning to enjoy.
Katie drove us back to the ranch. She kept praising me, and I finally said, “I didn’t have any choice. I wasn’t going to let him chase you back to the ranch.”
Diana and Tess celebrated when we arrived, but my fury grew as I thought about Hudson and his gang of monsters.
“He’s going to pay for doing this,” I told the others. “I can promise you, he’s going to pay.”
Diana shook her head. “Don’t go looking for revenge. Maybe this will convince him to stop coming after us. This has to be embarrassing as hell among his kind, and we’ll be able to watch the reaction on their network.”
I couldn’t agree. “We can’t ignore this attack from Hudson’s fighters. They’re a danger to all of us. I don’t know what I’m going to do, and I’m not going to do it today, but I have to do something. He’ll see our inaction as a sign of weakness.”
Tess bit her lip. “Sometimes, you have to be strong enough to be willing to appear weak.”
“All these guys understand is raw power,” I said. “Ask Gill. I think that’s all that’ll stop them.”
-o-o-o-
THE REACTION WASN’T LONG in coming. I sat in Diana’s office, and she turned her computer monitor so I could see it. The first forum post heading was, Where’s Rogers? Should be back by now.
It didn’t take long for everyone to start pissing on Hudson. My favorite post read, Sid should lose his head. We all look like fools. How many of us have Murray and/or O’Rourke beaten in the last three months? Seven!
I’d lost track, but there were way more than seven faces on my staff. “You know, they’re eventually going to figure out that Forsberg lost, too. After they do, they’ll close his account.”
“I’m already ahead of you on that score,” Diana said. “I’ve hired a hacker to use our current access to create a backdoor so we can get into the network whenever we want. We’ve already infected their server. She also hopes to be able to read private messages between individuals soon.”
-o-o-o-
Saturday, December 21st
Radiance Tapas and Grill, Boulder, Colorado
I MET WITH ORAN at a new Spanish restaurant that Diana had recommended to pay him another five grand. As usual, I didn’t understand why Oran wouldn’t cut out the middle man, but Diana insisted I pay the money.
“Congratulations on your victory,” Oran said. “You scared the shit out of Hudson and his crew.”
I snorted. “We all know Diana is the main person who scares the shit out of them. When she walks into a room, she looks like the living embodiment of the Mórrígan. It’s thrilling to watch.”
Oran faked a laugh. “She and I have had our ups and downs, but I have to admit she has style.”
“Sure, and I can’t remember when I’ve had more fun taking down an asshole. But, enough about that. You have your money. Why not let me go. I’ll put your meal on my tab.”
“I’d still like to arrange another horse ride.”
For almost an hour, we sparred without me learning a damned thing new about the guy.
-o-o-o-
Brigid’s Community Ranch, Boulder County, Colorado
THAT EVENING, THE CLAN celebrated the winter solstice. We shared traditional Irish food, and Diana had managed to get two kegs of draft Guinness from Ireland. I sat with Diana, Tess, Crystal, Katie, Laura, and Rascal. He didn’t care for colcannon, but he loved the bangers.
After I finished telling everything I could remember about my conversation with Oran, I asked, “Any comments?”
Diana spoke first. “I’m suspicious of everything about him these days, but he’s supposed to be leaving soon.”
“I don’t know what else to do,” I said. “We ought to let h
im figure things out for himself for a while.”
Both Katie and Crystal nodded.
“As for the fighting with Hudson’s crew,” I said, “I’m really hoping for a lull. In the last three months, I’ve knocked off at least a dozen sorcerers. It’s a lot to process, and I’m still crunching up that last scumbag in my head. I’ve had more than enough fighting for a while.”
Laura patted my hand. “We haven’t paid as much attention to that as we should’ve. Every fight takes a toll, and you’re so easygoing that we forget the strain it puts on you. Plus, all that magic has to be seducing you, telling you what a great phenomenon you are. It’s particularly hard to cope with when it happens fast. Another month in Brittany, or anywhere else far away, might be the best answer.”
“Don isn’t going to like him taking off,” Katie said. “I talked to him recently, and he thinks more training is essential. For instance, he hasn’t begun to teach Ian to use his staff.”
“I agree,” Diana replied. “No more trips.”
Chapter 15
LATER THAT EVENING, WHILE we were sitting on the sofa in our apartment watching a home remodeling show, I gave Laura a backrub. One of the commercials showed a clip from an old favorite movie of mine.
I pointed at the screen. “Did you ever see that movie, Jeremiah Johnson? I feel just like him.”
She yawned. “Never heard of it.”
“Robert Redford is Johnson. He’s a fur trapper in the Old West. He collects an Indian wife and a son through this weird series of events. Then, he’s approached by a U.S. Cavalry officer. The guy wants to go rescue some settlers.”
She faked a snore. “Is there any romance?”
“No, but lots of fighting. The problem is that only Johnson knows how to get to the settlers, and the only route goes through an Indian burial ground. The cavalry officer insists they have to save the settlers, so Johnson does the dirty deed. The settlers escape certain death.”
Laura closed her eyes. “You’re getting to the interesting part, right?”
“Yeah. You’ve got no place to go, so chill out. Of course, the Indians go nuts. They kill Johnson’s wife and son, and they come after him, too. Everywhere he goes in the forests and mountains, he’s attacked by some warrior popping out of the blue. Beginning to sound familiar?”
She sat up. “Oh, yes.”
“This goes on for years, I guess. Every so often, some hot-shit brave decides he’s ready to take on the great Satan. Johnson beats them every time, but they keep on coming. He can never rest.”
“You know the feeling,” Laura said. “What happens in the end?”
“Eventually, the Indians start to think of him as a god. They still ambush him, but they also build a shrine. At the end of the movie—I can’t remember exactly how, but he finally convinces the Indians to leave him alone.”
Laura’s eyes flashed at me. “Wait a minute. You spent all that time building up to the punchline, and you can’t remember it?”
I sighed. “I don’t think the movie really says, except that he keeps putting one foot in front of the other until they give up.”
She jabbed me in the ribs with a sharp elbow. “Well, I have a couple of comments. First, you get that movie and figure out how he convinced the Indians.”
I gulped. “Okay.”
“Second, I don’t think a truce is likely in your case. Hudson isn’t the kind of guy who compromises. He may double down, or he may get killed by other sorcerers, but I don’t see him offering a truce.”
I thought for a minute. “You’re probably right, but the good news is, I’m not alone.”
My beloved nodded. “You can get some rest, because you have friends who’ll watch over you.”
That was a huge blessing. “Hudson’s ace card is Oran. I think we all expect this battle to come down to a fight between me and him.”
“More reason to drag it out as long as possible.” Laura let out a huge sigh. “You can’t beat him in a straight-ahead battle yet, so we need to keep him on our side, or at least in the middle, until you get stronger.”
So far, though, he’d been getting stronger faster.
-o-o-o-
Sunday, December 22nd
I STAYED UP LATE watching Jeremiah Johnson, which I’d downloaded.
I’d planned to sleep in, but Holly called. “A truckload of pigs headed for Texas just overturned on I-70 near Genesee. It snowed again overnight. We’ve been asked to take a dozen. Can you help?”
“Sure,” I said through a yawn.
I headed in to the hospital, and Holly and I healed injured animals all morning. The hospital wasn’t normally open on Sundays, only the emergency room, but because I was already there, the receptionist asked me to take a call from a frantic man who’d specifically asked for me.
“My daughter’s pony is too sick to move. I beg you, come to our house.”
I was a sucker for a sob story involving a little girl. “Where are you?”
He gave me an address north of town. “Turn east when you get to Rudy Road. It’s a single-lane dirt track. Our house is a mile east of Highway 36.”
I had no trouble finding Ruby Road, and I drove east on the snowy lane about a half-mile before I reached a locked gate. Then, in my mirror, I spotted someone driving up behind me. I figured it was the guy who’d called me, but when he got close, Gill’s medallion shot daggers of pain into me.
Some son of a bitch has set me up!
The sorcerer’s car blocked me in, so I couldn’t turn around. The bastard jumped out of his car and used the end of his staff to punch through my driver’s side window.
“I challenge you for magical power,” he said in the same voice I’d heard on the phone. I recognized the face—Sid Hudson, the leader of the Boulder crew.
I didn’t try to run, because there was nowhere to go. Instead, I jumped out of my car and built up my wall. As soon as the asshole could move, I hit him with a lightning spell.
“HOLARTHON, CHOQUE!”
He’d managed to get his own wall up, so my spell did little harm. I calmed myself and recalled all the things Gill and Don had taught me. I needed to maintain a strong focus on my ward first.
Hudson threw several more spells at me, but my barrier held. Then, I wondered why the bastard had lured me to a remote site for an ambush. He’d taken advantage of a healer’s soft heart.
“HOLARTHON, ASSOMME!”
My stunning spell shattered his protection, but that was all. I wanted to try a second stunning spell, but I didn’t have enough anger left in me.
More than anything, I was confused. I’d been attacked too often recently to resent it as much anymore. I didn’t even know why Hudson had come on his own rather than sending another assassin.
Whatever his plan was, I attacked him with my fists and feet. My first kick missed his crotch because he turned his body in time, but I caught him on the hip. That slammed him sideways, and he almost fell into the mud and snow next to the cars.
I lunged at him, but my feet slipped, and I dropped to my knees.
He tried to punch me, but I had longer arms. My fists found his face three times before he got another ward up.
Since I couldn’t hit him again, I created my own barrier and concentrated on it for a few seconds to make it as strong as possible.
The son of a bitch hammered me with a series of jolts. There wasn’t much I could do against Hudson, though. I’d used up all my anger. Then I remembered a spell that didn’t use anger at all: Gill’s favorite spell, the mirror ward.
Hudson’s bolts kept coming, and they weren’t weakening, but my shield vanished. Before I could get hit directly, I thought, Holarthon, réfléchit.
BOOM! Hudson’s lightning bolt shot back at him, catching him by surprise. He had no chance to escape, and the bolt laid him out flat in the mud and snow.
I thought he was finished, but, after a few seconds, he tried to get up. I’d had enough crazy shit for
one day. When he climbed to his hands and knees, I lined up to kick him straight to the head.
But before I connected, I was blinded by a brilliant flash and knocked backwards.
-o-o-o-
Monday, December 23rd
Rose Community Hospital, Boulder, Colorado
I WOKE UP HAZY in a strange room. A familiar voice cut through the fog.
“Relax. You’re going to be all right,” Gill said.
I tried to roll over, but the bed I was in was too small. His hands held me and kept me from falling.
“Calm down. You’ve suffered quite a blast. Hudson tried to kill both of you with a car bomb.”
I remembered the horrible pain and being launched through the air. “Who saved me?”
“Holly, and magic itself. Hudson shouldn’t have been able to use any weapon against you except for his staff, but magic doesn’t understand high tech. It tried too late to protect you from the explosion. The bomb was more powerful than magic’ protection. Luckily, Holly showed up a minute or two after the kaboom and kept you from bleeding out.”
I was still confused. “How did she know where I was?”
“Diana called her. Right before Hudson attacked you, he posted a message on the sorcerers’ network, claiming he’d set a trap for you. He was going to beat you or kill the both of you. Diana called Holly, and she heard from the receptionist about your house call. She raced to the spot, but she was too late to do anything more than to put you back together. Your face was mush, and your left arm was dislocated at the shoulder, still attached only by some skin and a few tendons.”
I reached over and felt it. It seemed fine. Gently, I moved my arm in the socket. No pain. “She did a great job.”
Gill nodded. “She couldn’t revive you, though. When the ambulance arrived, they brought you here.”
“I had Hudson beat, and I was about to kick his head off. He was a suicide bomber?”
“Yep, the car bomb blew him to bits.”
I smiled. “Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. So, the bomb scrambled my brains?”
“Severe concussion, the ER doctor said. You’ve been out almost a full day. He’ll have to examine you to see if you’ve suffered any permanent damage. I’ll let them know you’re awake.”
Sanctuary: The Sorcerers' Scourge: Book Two Page 17