Only in hell could a scorpion grow so large. The damn thing had to be three feet tall, and triple that in length if you counted the tail. Its claws were big enough that they could snap off a limb. Its mandibles twitched, and a small amount of spittle dribbled from the creature’s mouth. It was hungry, and I was dinner.
The tops of two more tunnels in the sand started moving my direction. There was no way I was ready to take on three of these things, so I needed to act quickly. Apparently the scorpion had the same thought. It dipped a claw into the sand and flung it toward me. At the same time, its deadly tail plunged forward. The sand bounced harmlessly away on my shield, and I rolled away from the tail.
Before I even found my feet again, the tail was lashing out. It missed, but it was more luck than any actual skill on my part. The tail darted back again as the scorpion moved to the side, keeping me positioned in front of it. Tired of being on the defensive, I created a whip of fire and lashed out at the creature. Its claw moved up to deflect the strike. I expected the fire to eat right through the claw and sever the limb. Instead it bounced away, only leaving a black scorch mark.
So fire wasn’t going to be the answer. The tail darted out again, and I moved forward. I lashed out with a blade of flame, just testing to see if it made a difference. The blade bounced off of the thick armor on the scorpion’s leg, and then the leg twitched out, sending me flying. I used my gift to slow my fall, and turned back in time to dodge another strike. The other two scorpions were within fifty feet of us now. I didn’t have too much longer before I would be overwhelmed.
The scorpion moved, positioning me so my back would be toward the arriving scorpions. I had to act now, but what could I do? Then it came to me all at once. How do you get rid of a bug? You smash it. I focused on creating two pockets of dense air. When they were ready, I moved my arms out wide and brought my hands together, creating a thunderclap. The two walls of air followed my hands and met in the middle with incredible force. The gooey remains of the scorpion were still hitting the ground as the next two burst from the sand.
These two were much more aggressive, charging directly for me. I managed to create a shield of dense air in front of me to keep them at bay while I fed more of my magic into the earth. A boulder tore up through the sand and, at my command, crashed into one of the scorpions, sending it sprawling onto its back. As the creature tried to right itself, I brought the boulder down on its friend, creating another sticky mess.
The third creature managed to get back upright just in time to be smashed into bits. I was feeling pretty good about this now. If the best they had was more of these scorpions, I could probably take on ten at a time. With a thought, I broke the boulder into five large chunks of rock and started to spin them around me in a slow circle. The pieces would act like a shield but could also be cast out if needed. The spell in our world would have taken quite a bit of power. Here it felt almost effortless.
I scanned the crucible. Seeing nothing on the horizon, I shouted into the air, “Is this all you’ve got?”
Nothing happened for a moment, and then I heard it. The sand was churning off to my right. After a minute or two, I could see the giant mound of sand moving toward me. Well, if that was another scorpion, it was the granddaddy of them all. The sand it was displacing made me wonder just how big the thing could actually be. At the rate it was moving forward, I wouldn’t have to wait long to find out.
The massive creature burst from the sand. It was easily four times as large as anything I had faced so far. It had to be twelve feet off the ground and at least thirty feet long. It lowered its head as its massive tail went up and looked at me. At first all I could see was the massive barbed stinger. It had to be at least three feet long. No way would I be able to survive a hit from that. With thoughts of the creature’s tail still fresh in mind, I realized that something was moving on the scorpion’s back, maybe more than one something.
“Oh, shit.” Not the granddaddy at all. More like the mother of all scorpions.
The creature started to shake, sending the smaller scorpions flying from its back. The creatures landed and turned toward me. I had been feeling cocky a moment ago, but now I was facing eight of the scorpions and their momma. This had just gone from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. The giant scorpion stepped back, and her babies rushed forward to claim their prize.
This was it. I was in for the fight of my life. The eight scorpions launched forward with incredible speed. I sent the rocks I had been spinning around my body outward, and they tore through the carapaces of the first four scorpions, rendering their insides into paste. The giant scorpion roared and started to move forward. The rocks I had left were merely pebbles. Gathering all of them together in one giant cluster, I sent them hurtling at one of the remaining scorpions. The creature turned into a cloud of green goo as the rocks tore through its body. The remaining three scorpions had closed the distance, and the first deadly barb whistled through the air as it plunged toward me.
Dodging around the stinger, I had just enough time to leap back from strikes from the other two. They slowly circled. If they found a way to surround me, I was dead. If Momma got here before I dealt with them, I was dead. The three tails flashed forward again, and I managed to dodge two of them; the third hit my shield, sending me to my knees. There wasn’t time to think; my brain just fired on instinct.
Instead of moving, I focused on my spell. It had to go off perfectly or I wasn’t going to see April again. The tornado I built in my hand was ready just as I heard the sound of the tails rushing toward me again. I set the bit of magic on the ground and anchored myself to the earth. The tornado ripped into life the second I let it go, pulling all three scorpions into the air. One of their tails managed to scrape against my shoulder as they were ripped apart and flung away.
Rising to my feet, I could already feel the effects of the scorpion’s venom coursing through my body. I called on a spell Marcus had taught me. He called it cleansing waters. A rush of water dropped from the sky and cascaded over me, washing out the poison. In my panic to heal, I must have overdone the spell, and now the entire crucible was storming. Through the darkness and rain, I could see that the giant scorpion had finally made it back into the fight.
The sheer size of the creature had me worried. Would one of my rocks even be able to break through the scorpion’s shell? Just how thick was the damn thing’s plating, anyway? There was only one way to find out. I started calling toward the earth, trying to pull another boulder from the ground. At the same time, I froze the rain around me and sent the frozen droplets toward the beast.
One of the scorpion’s massive claws rose up, and it deflected the attack. The ice shards might have made a scratch on the creature’s shell, but if they did, the damage was almost imperceptible. This was crazy. I was going to have to fight this thing somehow. I felt like I was stuck in a late-night Godzilla film, except this time Godzilla wouldn’t be here to save me. The scorpion roared, and its massive stinger reared back to strike.
The barbed stinger screamed through the air toward me, and I slipped just out of reach. It buried itself into the muddy sand with such force that I wasn’t rolling away but flying through the air. The scorpion didn’t waste any time closing the distance between us. One of its massive pincers slammed into my shield, sending me spiraling backward. The rock I was pulling from the earth might not get here fast enough to be of any use to me. I had to do something else.
Spinning my finger quickly in my hand, I created another tornado. I pulled the frozen raindrops into its center and quickly flung it toward the charging scorpion. My aim was slightly off, and instead of it rushing toward the center of the beast, it was heading toward its legs. Just as the tornado hit, I electrified it. The blue light crackled against the scorpion’s wet carapace. It reared back, stunned for a second. One of its eight legs had been ripped cleanly off. That didn’t seem to slow it down as it recovered from being stunned and charged forward again.
The giant stinger came
down again, but I was already on the move. The electricity seemed to have an effect on the giant creature. It was moving slower now and maybe just not from the loss of a limb. Maybe a larger strike would be even more effective. Reaching a hand toward the sky, I focused my magic and called on the power of the heavens. I brought my hand down in a violent arc just as the scorpion’s tail lashed out again. The lightning bolt slammed into the center of the scorpion’s body. The jolt sent the tail just wide of me, but again I found myself flying through the air.
The boulder I had been working to pull from the ground finally broke free of the sand. The scorpion’s body was smoking, but I doubted it was dead. With the rest of my strength, I sent the six-foot hunk of rock skyward. When it reached the top of the crucible, I brought both of my arms down in the same violent arc. The scorpion started to move toward me, but I could already hear the rock screaming down toward us. It hit dead center on the creature’s head. The head exploded in a shower of green liquid. A horn sounded and echoed throughout the crucible. I had done it. Somehow I was still alive.
I realized it was still raining, and with a wave of my hand, I stopped the storm. I could see a lone figure running through the sand toward me. As he closed the distance, I realized that it was John. I ran forward, and as we met, he pulled me into a vicious hug.
“Jackson, that was incredible!” he shouted, picking me up off of my feet before setting me back down and pulling away. “That storm was fantastic.”
“I’m not even sure how it happened. I just needed to get rid of the poison from the stinger.”
“Are you hurt? Let me see.”
I turned my shoulder to him, and he placed a hand over the wound. I could feel the skin knitting back together. I looked up into his concerned face and couldn’t help but smile. It felt good to be cared for. It felt good just knowing my dad was alive. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and laughed. It had to feel good for him to know we were one battle away from going home. He turned me gently so we were facing the way he had entered the crucible, and we started to walk back through the quickly drying mud.
CHAPTER 15
APRIL
We rolled up to a no-tell motel on the outskirts of Vegas. I promised Marcus he would get his chance to be on the strip after we wrapped up our mission, but for now, we needed to stay where no one would notice us. The motel didn’t look like much from the parking lot. It was a squat one-story building painted in a fading white and peeling green. If the dirty-looking windows were any indication, the inside wouldn’t be much better than what we were seeing now.
“April, are you sure you want to stay here? I mean, staying closer to the strip might let us blend in, and it wouldn’t be so . . . gross.”
“I’m sure. But hey, we have a company credit card. I promise you that when we get these demons taken care of, that I’ll get you the best suite money can buy.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, and I think we deserve a night out on the town.”
“I didn’t pack my little black dress for nothing.”
Marcus slammed his hand against the dash. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I climbed out of the car. I knew exactly what Marcus was feeling. I missed him too, but hopefully this job would keep us busy enough that I could forget for a while. Then we could relax for a night or two before heading back home.
A bell jingled over the door as I walked in. The man behind the desk swiveled around in his chair and frowned at me.
“We don’t serve minors here. Sorry, sweetie.”
Sometimes I wished that I could just knock the crap out of people. I mean, what, because I was short I was sixteen? And what gave you the right to call me fucking sweetie? You ran a dingy hotel two hours outside of Vegas. Maybe you shouldn’t be the first to rush to judgment. I did my best to shove those thoughts to the side as I walked toward the counter. “I’m not a minor,” I said, smoothly pulling out a credit card from my wallet. His eyes lit up at the sight of it. They must be in hard times indeed if a simple credit card could make you smile like that.
“I’m going to need to see some ID to go with that.”
I pulled out the fake driver’s license that Adam had provided me. Fake was kind of the wrong word for it. The driver’s license was real. I didn’t know how he got them or if they had been manipulated with magic, but they always worked. The name on it matched the credit card that I had in hand. Only the details had been a little obscured. Instead of being almost twenty, I was twenty-three. Just old enough not to raise any suspicion, at least I hoped.
“This is a pretty good fake, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you.”
Something about this guy was starting to rub me the wrong way. “Listen, I want a room. The ID and the card are mine, and I expect that even you can figure out how to run the card through the machine.”
“I’ll give you one chance to leave before I call the police and report you,” he said with a grin, tucking my license and the credit card into the drawer in front of him.
Now I understood what was going on. He was trying to run a scam. Intimidate a younger woman traveling by herself and she would probably just leave. Maybe he had a partner who would ring up some charges before the card got canceled. Either way, I was done with him.
“I’ll go as soon as I get my card and license back.”
He flashed a disgusting smile. “I couldn’t give that license back to you. I’d be contributing to your delinquency.” Marcus walked into the lobby. “Now scram. I’ve got other customers.”
Marcus walked forward and slid an arm around my shoulders. “Babe, what’s taking so long?”
The man behind the counter flinched as if he had been smacked in the face. “I was just ringing up the room for her now.” He fished my license and card out of his drawer and grabbed a key from the wall. He swiped the card and handed it back to me, along with the license. “Anything else I can help you with?”
“Yeah, where is a good place to get some grub around here?” Marcus asked.
“If you’re not going all the way into town tonight, then you could go to Macie’s Diner. It’s about a mile and a half down the road. They have amazing pancakes. Tell them Earl sent you.”
“Thanks.” Marcus took the key and walked out of the door.
I stood facing the man, letting him know exactly what I thought about him.
“You better run off, sweetie. Your man is waiting.”
I wondered just how many women he had run this kind of scam on or had done something worse to. He seemed like the kind of slime ball who could be guilty of just about anything. Without much of a thought, I darted around the corner and hit him in the face. The stiff uppercut drove him off of his stool and sent him crashing to the ground. His head cracked against the tile floor, and he lay there unconscious. I reached down and healed him just enough to make sure he wouldn’t die. I gave his memory a slight tweak and then walked out of the door to join Marcus as he wrangled our bags out of the car.
It wasn’t strictly ethical to alter someone’s memory. In fact, it was frowned upon, bordering on illegal. I had lost my temper, and the last thing we needed was the local yokel to take offense. Plus, the slimy bastard had deserved it. All the same, when Marcus raised an eyebrow, asking a silent question, I just smiled and grabbed my bag. “Let’s just get the job done so we can get the hell out of this place.”
“I know what you mean. That dude was creepy as hell.” He smiled and pointed toward room number seven. “Will you be ok in there alone while I go and grab us some food?”
“I don’t think that will be a problem.” A small smile crept across my face. In fact, that particular problem had already been solved.
We entered the room, and Marcus gave it a quick magical blast. It would short circuit any kind of camera or listening device that could have been in the room. The last thing we needed was someone listening to one of our conversations. Surprisingly, the room itself was pretty clean but dated.
The two queen-sized beds took up ninety percent of the room. The rest was dominated by a single dresser with an older tube TV sitting on top of it.
Well, we wouldn’t be getting any movies in here. I’d be surprised if the damn thing was even in color. I tossed my bag on the bed and walked over to the bathroom. Again I was surprised by how clean it was. All of the fixtures and the tile were old and worn down, but at least whoever cleaned the place took some pride in their job.
Marcus was gone when I walked back into the room. The guy had good taste in food, so I knew he would bring me back something delicious. While Marcus was getting the food, I pulled out my laptop and tracked down the address we were heading to in the morning. If everything went well, we would only have to spend one night in this crap hole and then we could move into the heart of Vegas. As much as I downplayed it for Marcus, I was excited to spend some time on the strip. I had only seen it in movies before. Now I would get to live it.
MARCUS HAD MADE another food run for breakfast, and the slimy clerk was right—the pancakes were great. With a cup of diner coffee in hand, I walked back into the office to turn in our room key. The clerk flinched a little when I came in, and rubbed absently at his jaw. I handed him the key, and he printed our receipt.
Seeing him today made me think he was a harmless old coot, but it hadn’t felt that way at the time. I started to feel a little guilty about hitting him, but then I saw where his eyes were focused. In reality, I had done a service for women everywhere. It was too bad he wouldn’t remember it. Thoughts of hitting him again flashed quickly through my mind, but I shoved it aside. We had real work to do.
Marcus was behind the wheel, and the passenger door was open. As soon as I sat down, he punched the gas. “Whoa there, take it easy. We’ve got all day to sort this out.”
“The faster we wrap this up, the faster we get to our luxury accommodations.”
The Rising Darkness (Ascendancy Legacy 5) Page 11