by Ben Reeder
Metal screeched in protest as Ryker tore himself free of the gate’s decorative bars and got to his feet again. Shade shook her head as he staggered forward. With a yell, he took a couple of steps and leaped into the air, his fist back, knees drawn up under him, a perfect-looking flying punch. Shade jumped to meet him.
When they met, I expected traded punches or something. Instead, it was like they stopped in midair, then spun around somehow and just … fell. Ryker hit the ground with a sound like a slab of beef on a butcher’s block, and Shade landed with her feet on either side of him. Her fist came down like a pile driver, and Ryker’s arms and legs flailed once as he let out a wheezing sound. He gasped and retched as he struggled to get to his feet, but Shade seemed to be done fighting fair. She grabbed him by one wrist, planted her feet wide and twisted her body, sending him flying into the square stone column that supported one of the gates. As he staggered away from the shattered stone, she grabbed him again and repeated the process with the other column. And he still tried to get up.
She let out a growl and walked over to him, grabbed him by the throat and proceeded to use his face like a punching bag for about a second. I didn’t even want to try to count how many times she hit him. But when she let go of him and stepped back, he stood there for a moment, then his knees wobbled and went out from under him. As he sat there on his butt, he managed one more weak swing before he flopped onto his back.
“Dear Lord!” Gage said. “Did you kill him?”
I looked at him with my mystic sight, but his aura was strong, and the spells on him were still there, though fading. I looked over at the unconscious form of Lucinda, and saw something completely unexpected. Hovering over her were the two matrices I’d constructed the day she’d first cast the compulsion spells on me. One looked half-depleted, which explained how she’d been able to fuel Dulka’s spell focuses even after he’d been banished. They must have transferred when she’d kissed me, since I’d been in the process of severing the two right when her lips had touched mine.
“The augments Dulka gave him should heal him, but he’s not gonna be happy about it,” I said. I grabbed my backpack from the back seat and walked forward, leaving Gage to follow or wait. As I passed Lucinda, I knelt and put my hand to her temple and whispered “Vox probrum, aufero quod transfero volo.” It was an old spell that let me pull my own energies off of someone else and bring them back to me. The tingle of magick spread up my forearm as the energy-filled lattices attached themselves to my aura again.
“I believe your father has refused your challenge,” Gage said as he caught up to me.
“Yeah, I’m going to say that’s a pretty solid no.” I paused for a moment and took the chameleon charm off my pack and handed it to him. “That should keep you from drawing any serious fire, but stay under cover and stay behind me.”
“You can count on it. And Chance … bonne chasse.” I smiled at the French, the same benediction Jeremy had given me earlier. Up ahead I heard a single gunshot, then a man screamed. Gage hastily put the charm on and faded from sight.
Shade was waiting for me when I made it to the portico. One goon was laying crumpled by the door, one arm and one leg at decidedly unnatural angles. Off toward the garage, I could see an easy dozen cars. The old man must have put out the call for all hands on deck.
“Was he it?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “There was another one,” she said, her voice deeper and rougher. “I think he’s in Kansas by now.”
“Well, knocking’s out of the question,” I said as I turned to face the door.
“Hey little pig, let me in,” Shade growled.
I stuck my hand in my pocket and grabbed the TK wand. “Not by the hair of his chinny chin chins,” I said and pointed the wand at the door. “Ictus!” The doors flew off the hinges with a boom and took the three goons behind them along for the ride. Shade leaped in and punched another guy who had been standing off to one side. I stepped through as a fifth goon came around the corner with a Taser in hand. I popped him with a knockout shot and he dropped. I heard the pop of a Taser being launched, and Shade stiffened beside me as the gun clicked and sent current through her. She snarled and yanked the wires loose as I put two shots into the goon at the top of the stairs who had tagged her. I headed into the house, the threshold not even slowing me down since the old man had made me a resident here days ago. When I got to the lower hallway, I turned right and saw half a dozen goons waiting for me.
“Obex!” I spat, and the shield went up. A trio of paired Taser leads sparked as they bounced off the shield. I dropped it as the other three men rushed forward, and sent a broad wave of telekinetic force their way. They tumbled like bowling pins, and Shade leaped into the middle of them before they could get back up.
“Chance, behind you!” I heard Gage say, and turned to fire a round from the Ariakon. The guy coming up behind me dodged to the side and raised his Taser, only to find himself blinded by a flash of brilliant light from Gage. I nailed him with the second knockout round and nodded a quick thanks to Gage’s blurred outline before I turned back toward my objective. Ahead of me, Shade was pounding the last of the bigger group into submission. She looked up after her fist slammed into the face of the last of them.
“You good?” I asked as I walked up to her. She nodded and let the guy drop to the floor.
“I don’t hear any others except for whoever’s in there,” she said, pointing to the door into my father’s study. I gave her a nod, then turned to face those doors. While I’d served Dulka, I’d hated them. Whenever I came here with my old boss, it was usually to get yelled at and to take a beating. Not tonight though. I was about to give my father a taste of his own medicine. But, being my father, he was a tricky bastard, and I’d learned from his example.
I took a calming breath and closed my eyes, then opened my Third Eye, the source of my mystic sight. When my eyelids lifted, the physical world was slightly out of focus, but the energies around me were clear as day to me. Four auras were on the other side of the door, with two in the middle of the room and two spread out to either side. One of the two in the middle had the reddish-black smear across it that I’d seen a hundred times before. If I had to guess, the old man was hiding behind one of his men. The other three were nothing pretty, either. Each of the goons’ auras was stained with the dark red that bordered on the purple of violence, with the putrid green of greed running in streaks through them.
“Four inside,” I said softly. “Two in the middle, the other two here.” I pointed toward the two spread-out auras, and Shade nodded. “Gage, over there, beside the door. Stay down until we give you the all clear.” There was a shifting blur on my left, and I waited while he moved.
“Chance, are you out there, boy?” my father’s voice came from the other side of the door. On my right, Shade mimed taking a deep breath, and I smiled.
“I’m gonna huff, and I’m gonna puff,” I said as I drew on the stored energy I’d taken from Lucinda.
“This is your last chance to—” the old man started to say.
“ICTUS!” I roared. The doors didn’t come off the hinges. They exploded. The guy in front of the desk caught the residual energy from the blast and went sailing over it as I saw my father dive for the carpet. Chips of wood stuck in the front of the desk, the drapes, and anything softer than cherry wood. I raised my shield with a whispered command, then stepped into the room as the other two men were picking themselves up off the carpet.
“And I’m gonna blow your house down,” I said. Shade went for the guy on the right, and I put two knockout rounds into the one on my left. The guy behind the desk stood up, and I saw a familiar face. Elias looked at me, then at Shade, before drawing a blade and rushing Shade. My shot went wide, and before I knew it, he had one hand around her neck and the blade at her throat. She stiffened as the point touched her skin, and her eyes rolled down to look at it.
“That’s right, bitch, it’s silver,” he said as he transferred it to his
other hand. His right hand came back up with a heavy revolver and he pointed it at her head. She whimpered for a second and her eyes went to the gun as her nostrils flared. “Oh, ya smell that, huh? Smell the silver in those bullets? Yeah, I blow your head off with these, your bitch ass stays dead.”
My father came out from behind his desk, a smaller pistol in his hand, this one trained on me.
“Put the wand and the gun down, Chance,” he said. “Now, or your girl’s brains are my new wallpaper.” I looked at Shade, who seemed to have her fear under a little better control. I focused my will on the revolver and let my breath out through my mouth.
“Do it, punk!” Elias said as he thumbed the hammer back.
“Necto,” I breathed. “It’s okay, babe. He can’t hurt you now,” I whispered, knowing that of all the people in the room, only she could hear me. She nodded and shifted her feet slightly.
“Hell with it,” my father said when I turned to him. “Kill the little bitch.”
“Capio!” I snapped as Shade moved. The old man gasped as bands of telekinetic force closed around him and slammed his arms down to his side. Shade grabbed Elias by the wrists and twisted. There was a series of wet snaps as his right arm bent in places it was never supposed to, and he let out a high-pitched shriek as the gun and knife tumbled to the floor.
“Rursus! I said, and my father flew backward to slam into the wall. Shade bent forward and sent Elias flying across the room to slam into one of the bookshelves. As he fell headfirst onto the floor, she reached down and picked up the silvered dagger. With his right arm cradled to him, Elias pushed himself into a sitting position, then twisted his arm around for the butt of the pistol still holstered under his left arm. Shade tossed the dagger into the air, caught it by the point, then flung it across the room. It hit Elias in the shoulder and drove him back against the bookshelf. He let out a shrill scream that resounded through the house and didn’t let up until he ran out of air. Then, after a sobbing breath, he screamed again. After a few seconds, I put the last two knockout rounds into him.
“Thank you,” Shade said as she rolled her eyes and massaged her blistered fingertips.
“Any time,” I said as I walked toward my father.
“What do you want?” my father said as I got closer. “Money? No, wait, I’ll get the charges against your mother dropped. Whatever you want, I can get it for you, Chance. Be reasonable about this. We don’t have to be enemies here.”
“What I want,” I said as I pulled him down to look me in the eye, “is to watch you burn in Hell. I want to watch you squirm in a jail cell. I want to see everything you made me build for you blow up and burn while you watch it happen. But you know what I really want? More than anything else in the world?”
“Whatever it is,” he said quickly, “I can make it happen.”
“I want you to give Lucas’s parents back,” I choked out, and he went pale.
“Son, I’m sorry about—” he said before I slammed my fist into his face. Blood gushed from his nose as his head rocked back.
“I am NOT your son!” I shouted at him. “You will NEVER call me that again. Swear it on what’s left of your soul.”
“I won’t, I probise,” he mumbled.
“Say it all,” I yelled at him. “Every word of it. On your soul.”
“I probise,” he began haltingly, “on by soul … I won’t call you sund again.” His eyes widened a bit as I felt the power of a mage-given promise rush through him. Evidently, Dr. C had been right about his summoning Dulka making him mage enough to count. I gestured and he flew back against the wall.
“You’re about to lose a lot of money, old man,” I said as I kicked his trash can aside and knelt beside the desk. I lifted the flap of carpet under it and exposed the safe set in the floor below. Then I pulled the list of info I’d stashed from my back pocket and looked up the combination.
“How did you …?” he asked as I spun the dial.
“I’m an apprentice mage with an good teacher,” I said as the final number came around. “You’d be amazed at what I know now.” I turned the handle and it came open with a soft click.
“Chance, please,” my father said when I drew out the black cloth sacks in the safe. “Listen to me, you don’t know what you’re doing here. You can have half of my money, hell, take three-quarters! Just don’t … don’t do anything with those.” I reached back into the safe and pulled out the bank books and credit cards, finally grabbing the stack of compact disks at the bottom. Each one had a series of names written on it, and if I was guessing right, blackmail info on each of the people named on the front. Dr. C and I had talked about these, and remarkably, he’d agreed with me about what to do with them. I turned and set them on the desk.
“Shade, can you hang onto those until we can get them into the right hands?” I said as I grabbed the bags and went to the fireplace in the wall to my right. I tossed the focus bags onto the grate, then went to the painting beside the mantle and swung it to the side. This combination was digital, so it went faster.
“Chance, wait!” my father cried out as the bolts clicked open. I looked over my shoulder at the old man and smiled. Jeremy had warned me about the trap inside. Once I had the door open about three inches, I slipped my hand inside and felt for the wire that was connected to a hook set into the door. Once it fell free, I opened it the rest of the way and looked inside. A metal plate had been set up to hold a grenade of some kind with a two-inch-high metal ring around the bottom. The pin had been straightened and pulled partway out, leaving only a fraction of an inch to go before it came free. I reached in and carefully pushed the pin back in, then pulled it out of the safe. The side read:
Grenade, Hand
Offensive, MK IIIA2
My father flinched as I set it on his desk, then I went back to the safe and pulled out the banded stacks of bills and the smaller black bag behind them. There was a stack of fake passports, but I left those for the cops.
“Take what you want, s—. Anything in there you need. Just leave me something to work with,” the old bastard said, his voice now starting to rise in pitch.
“Everything you have,” I said as I reached back into the safe and pressed against the back, “came from me.” The false back fell forward, revealing the last bag of focuses, the most critical ones. Everyone who worked with him personally, except Elias and a few of his hand-picked cronies, had compulsion spells on them, and he kept those focuses separate.
“I’ll get it all back,” he said. “No matter what you do, or how much you destroy, Dulka will help me rebuild. If we make a deal, we don’t have to part as enemies. You don’t want that.”
“Lucas sent Dulka back to Hell,” I said as I tossed the focus bag onto the grate with the others and turned to face him. “Your contract with him is null and void, just like you asked me to do once. Remember? Well, now you get your wish. Your soul is yours again. And you already made an enemy of me when you killed my best friend’s family. Cross me again, and I’ll do more than destroy your life.”
He let out a harsh laugh. “How can you do worse than that?” he asked.
“You can still walk and you have use of your arms,” I said as I walked up to him. He went pale as I called up Hellfire. “And so far, you don’t have any brain damage. Yet.” He gulped and looked away from me.
“Chance, time is running short,” Shade said as she looked at her cellphone. “Collins says the police are on their way. They’ll be here in ten minutes.” I nodded and turned toward the fireplace, my left hand blazing with Hellfire.
“Miterre!” I spat, and a ball of the blue-black flame streaked across the room. It hit the focuses and disrupted all of the spells at once. The result was more than a little spectacular. A multicolored shockwave slammed through the room and knocked us all staggering. My father dropped to the floor as the explosion of magick disrupted my TK spell for a moment, but Shade was on him in a heartbeat. Even Gage was visible for a moment before the chameleon charm reset.
“I swear, I’m gonna-urk!” he gurgled as Shade’s hand closed around his neck.
“You won’t do anything,” she snarled in his face. “See, I have a monster inside me. Sometimes, the only thing that keeps it on the right side of a very thin line…is the feel of your son’s arms around me.” She tilted her head and bared her teeth at him for a moment. “If you hurt him, if you hurt us … I will rip your heart out of your chest and eat it in front of you. And if you’re lucky…that will be the first thing I do to you.” She let him go, and he fell to his knees, with his hand clutching at his neck.
“I’m going home now,” I said as I tucked the money and other goodies in my pocket. “You will not bother me again. Or my friends. Or Mom or Dee. Between what’s here, and the evidence on your computer, you’re pretty much screwed.” He smiled at that, and I turned to go.
“That computer is clean!” he cackled, his voice still rough. I kept going, and his laughter was suddenly cut short by the sound of a fist against flesh.
“His computer isn’t clean, is it?” Shade asked when she and Gage caught up to me.
“Nope,” I said. “I put the same keystroke logger on it that he put on the one in my room, then looked up every incriminating piece of business he had. Jeremy even scanned in his secret ledger. And if they talk to Jeremy … my father isn’t going to see sunlight for a long time.” Her hand found mine, and we walked to the car in silence from there. When we got to the gate, Gage headed for the Mustang, but I walked with Shade to her bike.
“We made quite a team tonight,” she said as she put her arms around my neck.
“Yeah, we did,” I said. A line from Sex Metal Barbie came to mind. “And you … you were the belle of the brawl. You kicked serious ass tonight.” I looked into her eyes, and remembered the moment at the circle. My heart pounded against my ribs as I kissed her. “Shade, I realized something tonight. I guess it’s been true for a long time, but ... I just couldn’t put it in perspective until tonight. When you tried to step into the circle with me, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved or happy as when it stopped you.”