Bella Flores Urban Fantasy Collection

by R D Martin

  “What did you do to her?”

  “Oh, not me, Cher. It’s all you.” He laughed as though it were the funniest joke in the world.

  Fire blossomed in her stomach, burning away her antipathy for him. He’d hurt her friend and now there was nothing he could do to stop her.

  Throwing up both hands, ignoring the pain flaring in her shoulder, she formed the magic into a blue-white stream of liquid fire and flung it at his smirking face.

  The blaze arced across the courtyard, creating new shadows and killing them as fast. An instant before it struck the boy in the face, he turned to the side and dodged. It was a move straight out of a movie and could have inspired a new dance craze as the flame passed by.

  Stunned by his reaction, she hesitated less than a second before flinging another spell. A cone of wind picked him up, tearing at his dirty clothes and flinging him ten feet across the courtyard, slamming him into the stone wall by the exit gate. Impacting with a heavy thud, he grunted and slid to a heap at the bottom.

  Karina’s scream tore through the air, swelling in volume until Bella could hear nothing else. Twisting her head, she saw her arc as though struck in the back, though her arms remained stiff at her side. As the scream died into a whimper, her head fell to the side again.

  A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and the look of agony plastered on her face was enough to rend Bella’s heart. Taking a step forward, she paused at the sound of coughing.

  “See,” the boy replied between gasping breaths. “It’s all you. You hurt me and she gets hurt.” The boy staggered to his feet like a drunk after last call. The drip of blood from his lips ruined his smile as he lifted his head to stare at her. “I told you, I win.”

  “Stop it. Stop it now.”

  “Oh, it don’t work like that, Cher. I stop it and you’re just gonna kill me. No, no, no.”

  “Please, let her go. I’ll, I’ll do anything you want, just don’t hurt her.” Even as she said the words, her mind raced to figure out an answer for this. How could she keep Karina safe and kill this man?

  “I know you will, Cher. And what I want you to do right now is just stand there.”

  It was all the warning she got as his spell crashed into her.

  She felt as though someone attached her to a power plant and flipped the switch. Every nerve in her body stood on edge as pain raced through her. Her hands and arms curled up on themselves, holding tight to her chest, and her legs refused to hold her weight. Crashing to the ground, she didn’t feel the impact as her head bounced off the cobblestones. Some deep part of her mind recognized she was shaking, but she had no control over anything. When it felt as though her lungs might explode in her chest, the pain ceased.

  Great gulping breaths of air invaded her lungs, and her head swam in the simple pleasure of breathing. Everything else though was a wash of pain.

  “That,” came the boy’s voice as he loomed over her. “That is for Charlie, you bitch. He ain’t never getting out of the hospital.” As if electrifying her wasn’t enough, he reared back and kicked her in the stomach.

  The sweet air in her lungs vanished at the impact, and pain jabbed straight into her gut like a knife, threatening to make her vomit. If she hadn’t been curled up in a ball before, she was now.

  Feeling pressure build again as he summoned magic, she tried to access her own power, but the fog of pain slowed her.

  Through a veil of tears she watched his hands come together in a movement so familiar it felt like an out-of-body experience. His palms slapped together with a resounding crack before opening wide. White arcs of electricity jumped back and forth between his hands, humming with power and giving the air an ozone smell. Through the hum, she recognized the single word he spoke.

  It was like a slow-motion movie scene. His hands twisted, palms facing her, and the humming electricity changed direction and form. Instead of dancing sparks, a stream of lightning shot at her and her world went white.

  The pain from his first spell diminished to a pinprick compared to what flowed through her now. Nerves already on edge burned with an electric fire and her entire body spasmed as every muscle pulled taut. The creak of bones on the edge of breaking thundered loud in her ears while her organs squeezed themselves together, huddling tight to keep away from the source of pain. An eternity passed, then another, and the pain continued.

  Eyes wide and mouth agape in a soundless scream, she watched the flow of power end though it didn’t seem to register with her body as it arched on the ground. Though her muscles relaxed enough to let her fall limp, her nerves continued to jangle and a sheen of sweat covered her as her body fought the agony.

  Pressure built again, and she didn’t have the strength to wince. Terror froze her heart and she whimpered. She could feel death coming for her and she closed her eyes to accept it.

  There was no smell of ozone, nor the crackle of electricity this time. Instead she felt fingers of air slide across her skin, wrapping around her like a gentle cocoon. The fingers lifted her from beneath, holding her firm as her body left the ground. The cool movement of air helped clear her head and chased some of her pain away, though she wasn’t fool enough to believe it was on purpose.

  “There now,” the boy said. Fingers curled through her dark hair and pulled her head back, forcing her to look in his face. “You still with us? Good. Wouldn’t want you to go too quick, would we?”

  His dark, crazed eyes stared into hers and she shivered as she felt his enjoyment of her torture. In the alley she’d believed him to be a scared boy, but head tilted back and neck exposed to this person, she understood a single truth. This boy was a killer, plain and simple. Neither regret nor remorse existed in him, and he’d walk away from her bloody corpse without looking back.

  “Why?” she croaked, barely able to say the word through a voice still hoarse from screaming.

  “Why?” His mocking words and oil slick smile were a slap in the face and he knew it. “Why am I doing this? Oh, Cher. You are just too precious.”

  Releasing his hold on her hair, he stepped back, tilting his head to the side as he looked at her. His eyes flitted back and forth between her and Karina as though the two were birds and he was trying to decide which to pluck first.

  “I only,” she started, but froze as her cocoon of air tightened, squeezing her already fragile form.

  “No, Cher, you don’t get to talk. You’ve caused me enough trouble already.”

  Turning his back on her, he stalked to Karina. Reaching out and lifting her chin, he examined her unconscious face before letting it drop again.

  “You want to know why I’m doing this? It’s simple. I owe too much and this clears my debt. Kill you and I get everything back.”

  “Money? I’ll gi—"

  “No, you stupid woman!” he shouted as he twisted around. His face contorted in a mask of rage. In four steps his face was inches from her own and she could smell the rot on his foul breath. “You think I want money? He doesn’t take cash, doesn’t give credit. I don’t want your money.”

  “Then what, what do you want?”

  “What I want,” he said, stepping away from her as if she were diseased. “What I want is my soul.” Reaching for the collar of his dirty shirt, he yanked down hard. The flimsy material ripped, exposing his bony chest.

  A thick black tattoo decorated his upper torso. She’d never seen its kind before, all swooping and spiraling patterns that made her eyes hurt to follow them. Though they bent and twisted, every line seemed to converge at a large empty space above his heart, the only patch of clear skin on his chest.

  “He has it, took it for payment. But he promised, he swore he’d give it back if I did one thing for him.”

  “Who is he?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. “What does he want?”

  The smile on his lips curled into a frown and he dropped his eyes like a child about to admit breaking the cookie jar.

  “La Nuit, the Baron. He took it. I
didn’t have a choice. I had to save my brothers. They’re family.” Though his southern drawl was thick, she could still hear a tinge of sadness in his voice. “But now, now I got a chance to get it back.”

  His head popped up and the madness in his eyes wiped away everything else.

  “He wants the shell you stole. I know you got it, too. Put a tracking spell on it. You thought I was just a dumb hick, didn’t know my ass from my elbow, didn’t you? I’m smarter than you think. I’m smarter than everyone thinks.”

  His laughter made her skin crawl.

  “It’s, it’s upstairs. Go, take it. Just, just let us go.”

  “Oh no, Cher. I’m not letting you go. I’ll get the shell, thank you, but not before I’m done with you. You took my family from me and now I will take something from you.”

  Striding back to her friend, he ran the back of a finger across her cheek in a caress that turned Bella’s stomach.

  “You ever seen a leech, Cher?” He asked over his shoulder. “The swamp’s full of them. Small, slimy little things that just latch on like they givin’ you a kiss. Then they suck your blood until they can’t hold no more and fall off like a fat lump.”

  Running his finger down the side of Karina’s neck, he stopped at the top of her shirt.

  “The thing is, they don’t want to kill you. No, they just want to take a little and disappear again, wait for their next meal.”

  The cocoon of wind around her eased as she felt the pressure of his summoned magic. He had to be reaching his limits, holding two women hostage and flinging spells like they were nothing. Everyone had limits.

  Any movement she made was like trying to swim through a pool filled with honey. Her arm rose painfully slow, but it rose.

  “That’s what he is, you know. A leech. He sucks the power from people so he can live longer. He keeps to his word though. Only takes a bit, not enough to hurt nobody.”

  With his back to her, he couldn’t see her arm rising, but she could see his hand drawing a complicated series of lines on Karina’s neck. Where the tip of his finger passed, a white line with blue edges appeared, standing out bright against her skin.

  “Wait, stop. What are you doing to her?” Bella demanded, still struggling to bring her arm up. She needed to move faster, needed to stop him, but the pressure on her arm, weakening as it was, still forced her to strain.

  “Well, Cher. La Nuit needs to feed and pays for every meal I bring him. You two, y’all gonna be his dinner and he’s gonna drain you dry.”

  Beads of sweat broke out, streaming down her neck as she struggled against the magic holding her. It was a race. Either she stopped him now or they were both dead. Her arm jerked as she forced it through the wall of air surrounding her. Her eyes flitted back and forth between her hand and his drawing on Karina’s neck.

  One chance. She had one chance. She had to hit him with everything all at once. Arm straight, pointing at his back, she twisted her hand in such slow motion it was agony.

  “Done,” said the boy, connecting the last glowing line to the rest of the glyph. The design flared bright before dimming and sinking into her neck like an invisible tattoo. “Now it’s your turn.”

  He spun around and the look of gleeful enjoyment shifted to shock as he stared at her palm pointed straight at his face, making him freeze in place.

  It was like she had all the time in the world. Opening herself to magic, she allowed it to flood into her, filling every part of her body. Her mind, still ringing from her thrashing, formed the intent, and her arm gave it direction.

  Her hand flared and liquid fire blossomed in her palm like a rare flower and covered the distance between them in less than a heartbeat. There was no fancy move capable of saving him this time and the flame engulfed his head, burning hot enough to turn everything it touched straight to ash.

  The spell holding her up disappeared, dropping her to the cobbles below, and a scream rent the air.

  Scrambling to her feet, she dived for Karina, already summoning magic for a healing spell. Throwing herself on the flailing figure, she released the magic, pulse after pulse, praying she was in time, praying she could do something.

  Opening her inner sight, she delved into her friend, moving the magic where it would do the most good. In the space between thoughts, she found the spell connecting the woman to their dead attacker. Though the spell’s creator was already dead, his spell continued on, ripping and tearing at her on a cellular level, unzipping her like a winter coat.

  Moving the flow of power around her, Bella sent one stream to heal the damage already done and another to surround his spell. Healing Karina was easy enough, but the dead man's magic was a worm in the core of an apple. Filling in the space behind it would do nothing as long as the worm continued eating. The spell was crude though, done in haste, and threads of magic peeled off it even as it moved. Grabbing one thread, she pulled and the magic snapped, turning to mist in her hand and causing the entire spell to shudder.

  She didn’t need finesse for this, she realized as another thread broke at her touch. Summoning all but the smallest part of magic, the part needed to keep Karina alive, she tore into the spell like a madwoman, ripping and slashing without care. Under her ferocious attack, the spell dissolved, returning to the mists of magic.

  The moment the last thread vanished, her friend’s screams cut off as though flipping a switch. Surveying the damage, Bella directed the magic to fix both the path of destruction left by the destroyed spell and the damage she’d done to stop it.

  Watching the magic fill Karina was like watching a pool fill with glowing water, and Bella slumped as her friend’s breathing returned to normal. The glowing pool continued to rise, filling first her legs before continuing to her torso, chest and arms. The slow crawl continued, unstoppable until, reaching her neck, it disappeared as though never existing.

  Frowning, Bella sent her consciousness back into Karina’s body. There shouldn’t be anything stopping her spell, and their attacker was dead. So what was this? What she saw made her stomach flip and blood run cold.

  A chasm, large as a canyon and darker than any night, loomed large in her vision, swallowing her magic as though it were nothing more than the trickle of a stream cascading into an endless well.

  Moving in as close as she dared, she examined the magic siphoning away her healing spell. Its form and shape were much finer than the crude construct she’d torn down. The warp and weft of the spell gave it a flexibility she’d never encountered before. Staring at the construct, she wondered how the kid could create something as advanced as this, but the rest of his spells were a shambling mess.

  Sending out a fine weave of magic, she hesitated before contacting the black spell. Mixing magics was dangerous at the best of times, but without knowing what the black spell was or how it worked, she risked both of their lives.

  Even with the healing magic flooding the rest of her body, Bella still felt the woman’s painful convulsions, and they made the decision for her.

  Holding her breath, she prodded the foreign magic with her own. The black spell bent and twisted, trying to avoid contact, but she persisted. With a jab as quick as a snake strike, her magic pierced the near edge of the magic, combining and mixing with it as she tasted its construction and intent.

  A hot wind, sour and corrupt, washed over her. The black source latched on to her magic, absorbing it and making it part of herself. The enormous strength of the spell grabbed her magic, pulling her in like a fish on a hook. And like the fish, she fought back, pulling on the line connecting it.

  A low moan filled her ears and she realized she was the one making it. As the black spell worked on pulling her in, greasy tendrils of it peeled off and wrapped themselves around her weave, using it to crawl toward her like snakes on a branch. The tendrils parted her magic, absorbing it and adding the power to its collective as it drew ever closer.

  The more she tasted of the darkness, the more she became convinced of its purpose.

  He
r blood burned and her heart beat loud in her chest as she sent another spell lancing toward the darkness even while it oozed in its implacable journey toward her. Everything she understood about the black magic told her one thing. The boy hadn’t lied. This spell was sucking the life from Karina and it intended to do the same to her if it could. Her spell struck, bursting across the surface of the darkness, dousing it like a bucket of cold water. The black spell buckled and writhed.

  Beneath her ministrations, Karina jerked as though struck, and Bella’s heart leapt in her chest. With her healing magic filling most of her friend, she should have been able to see the source of the pain, but there was nothing. It was as though the impact she felt was nothing but a phantom reflex.

  Turning back to the darkness, she attempted to dissolve more of the spell, splashing it with a greater portion of magic.

  The darkness pulled back, retreating from the attacking magic, and Karina’s scream pierced her concentration with the shock of a needle popping a balloon. Her heartbeat, slow and steady before, took off like a shot, beating so fast Bella couldn’t tell where one stopped and the next started. In the physical world, her body arched off the ground, lifted by the racking pain of the battle inside.

  Cutting the flow feeding the black mass, she turned her attention back to her fallen friend, repairing the new damage as fast as she could while berating herself for a moron.

  She should have realized a dark spell would protect itself against attack. Anything she did to hurt it would only cause it to eat away Karina’s life even quicker.

  Withdrawing her magic, she opened her eyes in time to see the rictus of pain spread across her friend’s face recede, leaving her looking as though she’d fallen asleep. The sheen of sweat covering her face belied the possibility of it being a natural sleep though.

  What was she to do? Trying to tear away the magic attached to Karina only caused it to devour her life faster. And if Bella sustained her, she only fed the dark spell more, making it harder to remove.