Vision Quest (The Demon's Apprentice Book 3)

by Ben Reeder

  “What about a spell for light?” I said as we drew up beside my best friend.

  “Of course I know light spells,” he said. “Every idiot learns those in first yea—”

  “Then cast the brightest one you can in front of us!” I said as we surged past the Falcon. A shadow hound hit the front bumper and disintegrated, then another as I pulled in front of Lucas.

  Gage looked at me with a frown on his face, then moved his right hand in a complex gesture and uttered “Fotizei!” A bright ball of light appeared between his fingers. The inside of the car got blindingly bright, and I had to close my right eye with my head turned a little away.

  “Can you focus that a little?” I asked as I squinted at the road. The front bumper shuddered a few times as I mowed down more hounds.

  “Aktina,” he said a moment later, and the inside of the Mustang stopped looking like a firefly’s ass. The light narrowed and seemed to intensify. Ahead of us, a shadow hound got caught in the narrowed cone and became an expanding cloud of black vapor. “Foteinóteros!” Gage called out, and the beam got even brighter as I poured on the speed. More and more hounds made black blossoms against the force of his spell as we plowed through them. Only a few hit my bumper, and none of them got close to the Falcon. I risked a look in my rearview to make sure Lucas really was okay, and saw Orlaggish astride his steed, a six-legged monster that looked like a cross between a beetle and a horse. Of course, my luck being what it was, it ran like a horse, and it ran fast.

  “We’re almost to the edge!” Gage said. I tore my eyes from the demon behind us and looked ahead. Sunlight showed beyond the edge of the shadowed zone, but I could also see another shaded place on the road maybe half a mile beyond it. I wasn’t sure Orlaggish was the kind to just shrivel up the second he hit sunshine. He was a creature of shadow, not darkness. The smart money was on him being stronger than the nasty little surprise I’d dropped on him and surviving until he got to the next batch of shadow. And betting against demons was never a good plan.

  A hundred yards away from the edge, I gestured for Lucas to keep going, then pulled to my left and hit the brakes. The Mustang slewed to the right and Gage’s spell faltered as Lucas sped past us. I reached over and grabbed the white-marked hopper from his lap and changed the incendiary load out for it.

  “Are you nuts?” he asked. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Loading the dice,” I said as I turned the car around and started heading back toward Orlaggish. Shadow hounds dove to either side as we approached, parting like the Red Sea … if the Red Sea was black, and made of Infernal hounds. Behind me, Junkyard growled, and I could see his hackles up.

  “Even your mutt doesn’t think this is a good idea,” Gage said. Junkyard barked at him and bared his teeth.

  “Don’t call him a mutt,” I said as I sped toward the bad guy. “And get that light spell handy again. We’re gonna need it here in a second.” As the distance between us closed, I started to agree with Gage; this was a bad plan. I only knew Orlaggish’s name and little about him. As we kept going and he kept getting bigger, I began to realize that he was huge, easily eighty feet tall on his mount. He came to a hill, and I could still see his head and chest above it as he came closer. Then he was over it, eighty feet tall if he was an inch. Even from the top of the next hill, we were at the same height as his waist. I hit the brakes again and grabbed the Ariakon as I pulled the steering wheel to the left.

  “Aim at the mount!” I said as we screeched to a halt with the passenger side facing Orlaggish. Gage lit his spell up again and pointed it straight at the mount’s compound eyes. It skidded to a halt and reared back, front legs and mandibles waving even as they started smoking. In a heartbeat, I had my door open, my left foot on the ground and the paintball gun steadied on the roof of the Mustang. I pulled the trigger as fast as I could, aiming high and center. My target was at pretty much maximum range for the CO2-powered pistol, but it was also just freakin’ huge.

  Seven of the holy-water-filled rounds hit it. The results were, to say the least … explosive. Holes the size of manhole covers appeared in its body, and one of the legs was blown off by the last shot. Orlaggish leapt off of its body as it fell forward, and I tossed the paintball gun at Gage as I slid back into the seat. The back wheels spun on the asphalt as I hit the gas, and I twisted the wheel around hard. The demon got small in my rearview mirror pretty quick, and we raced toward the edge of the dark zone.

  “Fasterfasterfaster!” Gage said as he turned in the seat and looked out the rear window. Junkyard was perched on the back seat with his paws against the top, barking at the thing following us.

  “Working on it,” I said, and shifted into third. The line between shadow and sunlight got closer, but Orlaggish didn’t get any smaller in the mirror. I shifted into fourth and started to gain some ground on it, but not nearly enough. “Come on,” I said as we got closer. “Get to the end …” We hit the edge and were suddenly bathed in light. Heat washed over us and I let up on the gas. The Falcon was pulled off to the side of the road a couple of hundred yards ahead, and I coasted until I was even with him, then turned left across the road and opened the door. Lucas almost bounced out of his car, his face creased with worry. I grabbed the LeMat and got out.

  “We’re not out of the woods yet, are we?” he said as his gaze focused on the gun. I shook my head. Just then, forty feet of pissed-off demon lunged out of the shadows. Where his mount had been a mix of bug and horse, Orlaggish leaned more to the tentacley end of things from the waist up, with what looked like an octopus for a head and a pair of thick tentacles for arms. Black orbs were set above a ring of tentacles around a beaked mouth. I brought the gun up and thumbed the hammer back, then lined the sights up on one of its thick legs. The gun bucked in my hand when I pulled the trigger, and a split second later a gout of flame sprouted from the side of his leg. He let out a trumpeting roar and tried to take a step forward.

  Before his off foot hit the ground, he was yanked back by an invisible force and staggered back a step. He leaned into the step and tried again, only to find himself held in place. The stone I had dropped on his shadow was holding him in place like a tether that had reached its limit. I aimed at the other leg and pulled the trigger, but no smoking wound appeared after the gun went off. I thumbed the hammer back again and pulled the trigger once more, this time with better success, blowing a hole in his knee. Smoke started to rise from his skin, and he turned his bulbous head to look back toward the darkness.

  “Dude, he’s gonna bolt!” Lucas cried out. I wasn’t about to let that happen. I put another round in his right leg, and he fell to one knee.

  “No, he isn’t,” I said, and shot the bent knee. More smoke rose from the exposed skin of his back, and his green skin started to blacken under the sunlight as he flopped on the ground.

  “What are you doing?” Gage said from behind me. “He’s trying to get away.”

  “You don’t let demons get away,” I said. “Sends the wrong message.”

  “Just what message is that?” he demanded.

  “Don’t fuck with me. It’s bad for your health.” Flames shot from the middle of the demon’s back, and his cries became agonized screams as the sunlight did its work. One tentacle reached back toward the shadows, gripping the road’s surface and trying to pull the rest of him back to the cover of darkness. Flame engulfed the slime-covered arm, and it was charred to black in seconds.

  “Then at least put it out of its misery,” he said. I turned and raised an eyebrow at him, then headed back for the car.

  “I think misery’s part of the message, Winnie,” Lucas said from behind me. Gage almost made it back to the car before he threw up. But at least he was quiet once he got in.

  Once I got back up to the speed limit, I pulled my phone out and hit the speed dial number for Dr. C.

  “What happened?” he asked as soon as he picked up. I didn’t even bother to ask how he knew. We hadn’t been on the road long enough for me
to be calling unless something was wrong.

  “Someone sent a demon after me,” I said.

  “How much of a demon?” he asked.

  “Upper Abyssal, servant of one of the Eleven Abominations. Shadow hunter, tough enough to Walk during the day and handle sunlight for about a minute. Think one of the bounty hunters from Empire, only about forty feet tall. Nothing I couldn’t handle.” I didn’t mention his name, partly because I didn’t want his attention on me anymore, but mostly because Dr. Corwyn wasn’t likely to know who he was just by his name. The Magi were still way behind when it came to Infernal politics. Demon lore was pretty much a forbidden subject with them, and all nine Hells worked hard to keep their business away from prying eyes. The only info that tended to get out was what they wanted people to know; just enough to make a deal, basically.

  “Where are you now?”

  “South of Abilene,” I said. “Whoever sent him is going to think twice about trying again. I made sure he was hurting pretty damn good when I sent him back.”

  “Have you contacted your mother?” he asked. I bit my lip for a moment and tried to come up with an excuse that didn’t involve not wanting to make her worry. “That’s what I figured. That’s good. Minimal contact is best. I’ll let her know.”

  “Thanks,” I told him.

  “I’d tell you to head to Fort Worth to seek Master Moon’s protection, but I know you won’t. I’ll alert the Council. Get back as soon as you possibly can.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said. “I will. Poor Winthrop’s going to need some therapy.” I ended the call over Gage’s half-hearted protests and pushed the pedal down a little closer to the floorboard.

  “How did you know?” Gage asked after a few minutes, pausing and turning a little pale before he tried again. “How did you know how to kill that thing back there? How did you know its name?”

  I glanced over at him and let out a little snort. “They didn’t tell you my nickname when they told you to come watch me?” I asked.

  “The demon’s apprentice … I thought that was just an affectation,” he said.

  “Nope. Pretty much the only thing anyone ever gets right.”

  “It certainly explains a few things,” he said. I turned my head and gave him a full-on glare. “The rough edges,” he explained.

  I shook my head and pulled out a CD. “For that, you’re going to listen to the same CD until we get home,” I threatened. The opening notes of Satriani’s Super Colossal erupted from the speakers, and I leaned back into the seat to enjoy what was left of the ride.

  Chapter 3

  ~ Most cowans suspect the existence of the Veil, but fear too greatly the wonders and terrors they might discover beyond it to seek it with great enthusiasm. ~ Ben Franklin, Letters To a Young Mage

  “Why didn’t you call me when it happened?” Mom demanded. I sat there and didn’t say a word, feeling like I was six all over again. “Why did I have to hear this from Dr. Corwyn?”

  “I thought it was best that he limit contact,” Dr. Corwyn said from where he leaned against the doorway into the kitchen. “It made it harder to track him.” I nodded in agreement, but Mom’s expression didn’t change.

  “Tell me why I’m supposed to believe that’s a good thing,” she said.

  “You have the most powerful connection to him,” Dr. C said. “If I wanted to scry for him, I would have waited for him to contact you and trace him back through the bonds between you. With him in motion, it would have been the only way to pinpoint his location.”

  “You had to choose between limited protection and complete invisibility,” she said. She nodded and her features relaxed a little. “It makes sense, and I would probably have done the same thing. I still don’t like it.”

  “For what it’s worth … neither did I,” Dr. C said. For the first time since I’d made it home, his face broke into the barest hint of a smile.

  “And I’m fine, Mom,” I said. “The Sentinels caught up to us in Oklahoma City and followed us home from there.”

  “You’ll pardon your dear old mother if I don’t find that exactly comforting.” Her tone was only half-joking. Mom had never had much use for the Sentinels. The Conclave’s combination police force and military had technically arrested me twice a few months ago, and I’d faced a death sentence from the Council for the things I’d been forced to do while I worked for Dulka. But keeping me out of a demon’s hands had been their job in the first place, and Mom wasn’t ready to forgive them for failing so spectacularly at that. For that matter, I didn’t have a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings for most of them myself.

  “I took care of the one demon on my own anyway, Mom,” I said. “Dr. C left the LeMat with me for the drive home, and I had my paintball gun. And …” I hesitated, not really wanting to say the next part out loud. “Well, Winthrop actually helped. He’s what, a senior?” I asked Dr. C.

  “Yes, he’s an upperclassman, in his ninth year.”

  “That’s a lot of high school,” I said.

  “Magick is a demanding subject. Since you mentioned it, we can’t let your training suffer, especially not now. Winthrop will be evaluating your skill levels, and if he ranks you at anything less than apprentice, the rest of your summer is going to be even harder.”

  “Yeah, Draeden mentioned prep classes or something. So, what do I have to do to make apprentice officially?”

  “Be able to scribe a spell onto a written medium and cast it, cast spells onto items that remain stable and release them later, cast spells from foci efficiently and consistently, cast a spell with a non-specific tool such as a wand, and cast at least one spell with no tools.” He looked at me as he said the last part with a skeptical expression. From behind him, I could hear footsteps on the stairs, probably Gage coming down to complain about something else.

  “I can already do almost all of that,” I said. “I mean, I still need to get my own wand. And figure out the whole casting spells without a focus.”

  “Just buy a wand,” Gage said as he slid past Dr. Corwyn. “Unless you can’t afford one.”

  “No apprentice of mine buys his first wand,” Dr. C said with a little heat in his voice.

  “As you say, sir,” Gage said with a quick bow of his head. “Might I ask how far along your apprentice is in the crafting of his wand?”

  “About a day behind where he’s supposed to be,” Dr. C said as he gave Gage a sharp look. I could almost have chipped the ice off of his words. “But that can be remedied, if you don’t mind making a couple of stops with Chance tomorrow.”

  “Of course not, sir,” Gage said, sounding like he was anything but thrilled to tag along with me.

  “That means you’re going to have to go to Bjerning Depository,” Dr. C said. “You’ve put that off for too long, and you’re going to need the currency.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he gave a tilt of his head that challenged me to even try. He’d already shot down every argument I’d made. Only one in a thousand trees might produce wood suitable for a proper wand, and it might take me months or even years to find one. A wand-wright like Arianh-Rod probably had what I needed on hand. And she would be able to show me the right placement for gems and metals in the piece I did choose. More importantly, her services weren’t cheap, and in terms of the world behind the Veil, I was pretty much flat broke. Except for the six-thousand-plus trade points I had in bearer chits from Bjerning Depository. I took a breath in and blew it out through my lips, down to my only real objection. I really didn’t want to go to the Underground. Dr. C straightened his head and frowned, and I understood his argument as clear as if he’d said it out loud.

  Deal with it.

  I let my shoulders slump and gave him a minute nod before I looked away.

  “All right, I’ll go,” I said.

  “Yes, you will,” Dr. C said as he straightened and stepped away from the doorway. He pulled a small cloth pouch from his pocket and handed it to me. “Once you’re done there and have your wand blank, come to my place and we�
�ll get you started on your wand and work on your lessons. I wouldn’t expect him home for dinner for the next few nights, Mara.”

  “I usually don’t,” Mom said. “At least you tell me ahead of time.” Dr. C made his exit, and Mom shooed us out of the kitchen. “If Shade comes over, she’s more than welcome to stay for dinner,” she said. “And the door to your room stays open.”

  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” I said as Gage headed up the stairs. I headed out the back door and pulled my phone out of my pocket.

  A few minutes later, Shade was pulling up on her bike and pulling her helmet off. She didn’t even bother with the gate; instead, she just put her hand on the fence and vaulted over it. Her feet had barely touched the ground before I had her in my arms, my lips nuzzling her neck. With a soft sigh, she tilted her head to the side and pressed her body against mine. When my teeth grazed her skin, she gave a short gasp and one hand slid up behind my shoulders to hold me against her. I bit down on the smooth curve where her shoulder met her neck, and she trembled against me, her breath escaping in a moan. Her teeth found my neck a few seconds later, then we were locked in a kiss that was deep enough to drown in.

  “I missed you,” I said when we came up for air.

  “Mm-hmmm,” she said as she buried her face in my shoulder again. “Noticed that. Gods, I missed you so much.” Her other hand slid up the back of my shirt, while my right hand slid up along her spine. I stopped when I felt her shoulder blades on either side of my hand … and nothing else.

  “Are you …?” I asked as I pulled back to look her in the eye.

  “Nope,” she said with a wicked grin. She pulled back and took my hand, leading me to the bench swing by the back porch.

  “You know my mom wants you to stay for dinner,” I said once we were snuggled up together.

  “She always does,” she said. “And you’re going to be trying hard not to stare.”