Zero Sum

by B. Justin Shier

  My head was spinning. Kit? As in Kit Carson? In the early 1840’s, Kit Carson and John Fremont mapped trails to the Pacific Ocean for the U.S. Government. Two streets in Las Vegas were named after them. They had passed right through here on their way to the ocean. I thought for a moment. The book! The book Albright had given me was addressed to Kit. Stars above, was that what Albright was trying to tell me? Were the restraints the Department placed on him somehow related to this?

  A whimper distracted me. I looked across the table to find Anna Bathory sitting with a meal in her lap. It was the woman Hans had snatched. Blood dripped from the nape of her neck. She looked at me in desperation. Trey stood to Anna’s right. He was gnawing on a candy bar. He looked totally indifferent to the woman’s pleas. I guess it was just another day in the office.

  Sadie knelt down in front of me and wiped the matted hair off my face. She looked…tired. “Dieter, when Fremont dammed the flow of mana coursing into Mexico, it crippled my country. Countless thousands have died. Destroying the Flow threw off the mojo of the entire region. Commerce faltered. Social cohesion broke down.” She gave me a sad smile. “Thanks to Fremont and Carson, my childhood was a living hell. Dieter, do you have any idea what its like to be a magus without access to a leyline?”

  “Sure.” I’d grown up without a leyline too. “It wasn’t so bad.”

  “You barely have any mana to call your own. The rest of us? We’re tasty treats.”

  “And nutritious!” Hans replied.

  “South of the border, every last thing that goes bump in the night is hunting us. My baby brother is dead, Dieter. Dead because I couldn’t muster a simple hex. In the States I could have roasted that Were with my eyes closed.” Trey chuckled. “And it’s all because Fremont decided to intervene in the Imperiti world. Everyone knows it’s true. He dammed the flow and doomed us all. But tonight we’re gonna finally set things right.”

  Sadie paused to listen to the conversation going on in her ear.

  I grimaced. She was still monitoring our radios.

  “Duty Calls, Dieter. I have to set up for Lambda. I’ll be leaving you with the Duchess.”

  I flexed against the plastic ties, but they only cut further into my flesh. Seething, I grunted and tried harder. How many people had Sadie killed? And her parents, they had liquidated an entire DOMA campus. Men, women, and children—all dead. Two hundred years worth of injustice or not, these crazies had to be stopped. How many of my friends from High School were down on the Strip right now, waiting tables, serving drinks, or sweeping up. What had they done to deserve this? What had they ever done but try and scrape by?

  “Sadie!” I shouted. “You’ll pay for this. Do you hear me? I will make you pay.”

  “Doubtful, Dieter,” she said walking away. “Enjoy the overhaul. I’m sure you’ll see the world differently in the morning.”

  “Sadie!” I screamed. I wanted to tear out her throat with my bare hands.

  “Shhhh,” Anna said, placing a finger over her bloodied lips. The once trembling woman was nestling in Anna’s lap. Blood rushed in surges out of her opened neck. “Now, now, my little magus, you’re an interesting one. Do you have any idea how rare you are? My sister should have claimed you on sight—but then again, wide-eyed idiocy is her most endearing trait.”

  The woman in Anna’s lap began to shiver as more and more blood rushed out of her.

  Anna smiled and ran her fingers through her hair.

  I recognized the motion. She’d done the same to Rei.

  “Oh well, little sister’s loss is my gain. With you, I’ll be able to accelerate my plans by months. He’ll be a fine pet, don’t you agree, Hans?”

  I had no idea what Anna was talking about. I didn’t really care. My only concern was Lambda. On the other side of the building, gunmen were setting up. Their heavy weapons were pointed at the chalk circle I’d carefully drawn and primed. I didn’t dare look left and give away Rei’s position. She was still hidden under huge AC unit, but I couldn’t sense her through the link. She was probably still unconscious.

  I sagged into the yellow lawn chair.

  We were all fucked.

  “Can I turn him now, Anna?” Hans inquired. “Can you smell the rage in him? This little one makes me quiver.”

  Anna reclined in her seat and turned her attention to Carrera’s efforts.

  “Do it,” she said.

  Not cool, man.

  I strained against the plastic wrapped around my wrists, gnashed my teeth and forced past the pain. Blood trickled through my fingers as the plastic cut straight to the bone. They wouldn’t yield. In desperation, I tried summoning forth mana, but my tank was empty. Setting up those circles had spent the last of it.

  “Damn it,” I growled. Dante had grown up near vampire territory. Based on the creepy shit he’d told me in the evenings, if Anna or one of her brood ‘turned’ me, she would have me in her thrall. No matter how resistant to mental control I was, I would be beholden to her will. It would be the end of me. Dieter Resnick would cease to exist. The product would be unidentifiable. Yes, the new creature would have my skills and memories, but it would have an entirely new agenda. I thought back to those monsters feeding in the condo and nearly gagged. I would be hers. My will would be stolen. I would turn on my own kind—even turn on my friends.

  A terrible image flashed into my mind: Jules lay under my weight, screaming as I tore into her neck.

  I would drain her dry. I wouldn’t even care.

  My heart raced as Hans approached. His serrated canines gleamed in the moonlight, and I roared in frustration. He merely smiled—and tore open his own palm.

  I shivered. So that’s how it was done. I had to ingest it.

  Hans leaned over me. “Say, ah,” he ordered.

  I jammed my mouth shut and twisted away from the blue-tinged blood pattering onto my cheeks. Hans merely grabbed hold of my jaw, arched my head, and forced my mouth back open. I spit out what I could, but with each gasp I took, the delicious poison spread further and further into my system.

  And it was delicious. It was the greatest thing I’d ever tasted.

  Hans firmed his grip, forcing more down my throat. His blood filled my gut with warmth. I could feel it forcing its way through me, but all my body did was clamor for more of it. As the warmth stretched passed my elbows, I gave into despair. My friends were going to die. My city was going to die. My soul was lost. They would turn me and use me. I had failed utterly.

  My thoughts turned ever darker.

  I told myself that if only I had more power, if only I had the strength to resist the change, I would turn them all to ash. I would level the entire tower. I would make this unjust world cry out for mercy. I made absurd promise after absurd promise, closed my eyes, and wished them so. I wished with every ounce of my being—and yet again, something inside me tore.

  Despair not, my child.

  “It’s you again,” I grumbled. It wasn’t a whisper anymore. It was a full-blooded voice.

  Everything is fine, my child. Drink the shadow dancer’s blood.

  “Are you nuts? I don’t want to become one of them. I am I. I want to remain whole.”

  Hush. This cannot intrude on our relationship. Everything will be fine. Drink.

  “Rei?” I asked the darkness. But I already knew the answer. This wasn’t Rei. This wasn’t the weft-link. This was something closer. This was the hand that had always enveloped my heart.

  No, my child, I am not she. But we like her, don’t we? You admire the heart. I admire the teeth. We sensed it. She feels like us. That is why the pairing called to us. That is why we admitted her into our circle.

  To say I had no idea what the fuck this voice was talking about was the understatement of the decade. “Who are you?”

  I am yours. You are mine. We are we. But your kind craves names, yes? If what I am requires a name, you shall already know it.

  And I did. “Hara. Your name is Hara.”

  If that is my name,
so I am named.

  “What are you?”

  My child, plumb the depths of your soul later, now is the time for focus. Let me guide your hand as I have done in the past. Trust me. Feel—through me—the flows. Awaken her. She has already repaved the path. Awaken that which was born with her.

  I was out of options. I could accept Hara’s guidance or surrender to Anna’s will. It was an easy choice. I handed over the controls—and we bit down savagely on Hans’ foolishly placed hand.

  It was so obvious now. Why had I not thought of it before?

  We dug our teeth in and swallowed. Again and again we swallowed. We forced the sweet filth down our throat like the marvelous nectar it was. We forced past the revulsion and drank like a ravenous beast.

  Hans grimaced. He tore his hand away, leaving a piece of his palm behind.

  We spat the chunk of flesh at him and laughed.

  “Svarte magus,” Hans cursed. He turned to Anna. “The cute little bastard bit me. A bit early for that, dontcha think?”

  I was past rage, past reason. My friends were about to walk straight into an ambush. Jules. Dante. Roster. Sheila. Ichijo. Maria. Monique. They would all die if I failed. And in that instant, I finally understood Albright’s words. In a real battle, defeat is unbearable. I was prepared to sacrifice anything to avoid it. I focused on the most horrid outcome—the very one I loathed to face—and it fueled me. It erased the pain. It wiped clear the doubt. It purified my focus. No matter the costs to my body, no matter the pain, no matter what horrors awaited me—I would succeed at this cast. I prepared the transmutation in a state of liquid fury.

  Anna stood up and dropped the limp girl to the ground. “Impossible,” she muttered. “He should be pliable by now. Check his blood.”

  I ignored her. Hara had pointed the way. I could feel the weft-link’s conduit like a highway stretching out before me. It was ready, waiting for a flow of mana to ignite it. Hans bit into my neck. The pain was profound, but it merely refocused my rage. I wanted them to burn. I wanted to turn them both to ash.

  “A dhampir?” Hans exclaimed. “And he’s been marked!”

  Anna’s eyes danced between Hans and I.

  “She lied to me. That muddy-blooded twit…” Anna’s lips drew into thin, tight lines. “There isn’t time to fix this. Find me Rei Acerba.”

  Hans’ bite had done damage. Blood was coursing out of my neck in pulses. I could feel it soaking my pants. I ignored it. I focused even more of my will on the cast. Creating mana from life—I’d never even considered it. And inside my own body? It was the work of a lunatic.

  Good thing I’d just about gone crazy.

  I pressed my palms flush against my spine. Gritting my teeth, I released the extraction field straight into my gut. The surge of power ruptured my stomach like a bombshell. I screamed in anguish as vicious spasms of pain wrenched through my muscles. My bowels boiled. Delirium shook my mind. But the transmutation was already prepared, the conduit already established, and the target already set. I didn’t need to stay awake to make it work. Heck, I didn’t even need to stay alive.

  “Hey, Hans,” I managed. “Thanks for the fuel.”

  I looked up into the heavens and let the mana fly.

  The volatile ball tore forward as though tethered to a set of rails. It was tracing the route of the weft-link, the invisible conduit between Rei and myself. The night sky burned as it tore across the cement leaving a streak of molten glass in its wake. Two Talmax mages were in the way—and then they weren’t. With a roar of heat and wind, the bulge of power vanished off the side.

  Hans reached into his pocket and fetched a cigarillo. “Well, that was…flashy.”

  I sagged in my lawn chair. The cast had unsorted me badly. My Ki was a garbled mess.

  Talmax agents looked at one another in stunned silence. Two of their number had just vanished before their eyes. A troll scratched at the back of his overgrown head. An assistant dropped a bundle of herbs. He scrambled to fetch them before the wind pitched them over the edge.

  “Right, then,” Hans said, taking a draw from his smoke, “time to find cousin.”

  A strange creak broke the peace. It was followed by a deafening metallic boom.

  The AC unit Rei tossed must have weighed a few tons. I watched it float into the air like an overgrown marshmallow before it plummeted back to earth. A bitter sense of satisfaction spread over me. I hadn’t just sent mana to Rei. I’d sent her my feelings. She was replying in turn. I remember the first scream vividly. I remember the feeling of contentment that came with it. Peace settled over me as the automatic weapons roared. Metal clanged against metal. Flesh yielded. Fluids spilled. Around the perimeter the violence went, a merry-go-round of horrors. She was drawing closer every second, leaving a magnificent parade of pain and suffering in her wake.

  Anna cursed in three separate languages before skewering me with a glare. “You are a most annoying brat,” she growled. “But she shall fatigue soon enough. Trey, go and buy some time.”

  Trey nodded, unbuttoned his shirt, kicked off his flip-flops, and dropped his drawers. Moving forward, his whole body shimmered. Bones crackled. Flesh tore and shuffled. Trey was a Were, and a monstrous one at that. The giant beast cracked his furry knuckles and yawned. His torso would have reached my shoulders. His footpads were the size of my thighs. Grey fur bristling, he stood between Anna and the perimeter. Carrera’s lieutenant, Carlos, shouted out new orders. Many of the gunmen who had been guarding Lambda’s translocation circle, along with all the mages that could be spared, ran over to bolster the line. Rei’s progress had benefited from the all the confusion. Anna’s simple adjustment had shifted the balance. Now she would have to face a concentrated force in the open. Not the ideal terrain for one lone Nostophoros.

  I was starting to worry when Rei made her reply known to them. A decapitated head came flying out of the sky. It landed next to me with a thwap. Troll by the look of it. His eyes had been gouged out.

  “That’s plain nasty,” Hans commented. He lit another cigarillo and laughed.

  A bloody claw grasped the edge of the deck. The tips of the fingers looked as sharp as blades.

  Carrera’s lieutenant, Carlos Rojas, took a step back. “My God,” he muttered. “That’s a Nostophora Despierta. Containment circles. Now!” The mages scrambled into a strange formation. It looked like a tortoise shell made of hands. The Imperiti gunmen could only look at one another in confusion.

  “Nonsense,” Anna shot back. “It’s just a naughty little girl.”

  Trey stepped forward. Rei was already lifting herself into view.

  Hans dropped his smoke.

  I gaped.

  Rei wore the remains of my jacket like a bloody cape. Her fangs had grown long, and fine membranous scales covered her flesh. They reflected light like delicate sheets of foil. Rei’s muscles flexed and quivered. She took air in quick shallow gasps.

  The air around me grew electric. Spells were charging. Carrera’s goons weren’t taking chances. They would surround her and pummel her.

  “Don’t you dare,” Anna snapped back at them. “She’s a royal.”

  Catching my eye, Rei tried for a smile. Giant fangs don’t lend themselves to pleasantries. It looked like a snarl.

  “Bravo,” Hans cheered. “You almost pulled one off, Baby Rays! Mazal tov!”

  Anna, her hands knotted at her sides, gave Hans a withering glare.

  “Sister,” Rei said in a fluid hiss. “Give me the magus.”

  Anna didn’t reply. She stood ramrod still, her face unreadable. The two Bathorys passed the next ten seconds in utter silence. Vast oceans of killing intent tickled across my skin. I forgot to breath. I forgot to blink.

  “Please?” Rei offered at last.

  “What do you think you are doing?” Anna spoke quietly, but any fool could sense the rage burbling below. “Rei Acerba, this is a breach of our laws. The king has granted you no such allowance. In fact, you were explicitly ordered never to attempt a manif
estation.” Her eyes blazing, Anna jabbed a finger in Rei’s direction. “You’re not fit to manifest, you muddy-blooded freak. Even Theodus acknowledges it.”

  Rei cocked her head and the air grew cold. “Give. Me. The. Magus.”

  Anna snarled, and her aura spread across the observation deck like a red-hot blast furnace. The air grew heavy. I struggled to breath. It felt like pound after pound of unforgiving mass was being piled directly on top of my chest. Rei stood firm, but she was like an ant fighting against a thumb.

  “You will not embarrass us again,” Anna roared. “You shall answer to Theodus himself. Sir Easton, place Dame Rei Acerba under arrest.”

  Trey nodded. “With pleasure, duchess.”

  Trey had been itching. He burst forth, claws wide. The ground thudded under the weight of his legs, and he accelerated to a surprising speed. Rei seemed to let him close. Her hefty grey aura was blowing calmly in the breeze. But then I looked closer. Rei’s aura was shifting. It was quivering at the tips. At the last possible second, her whole aura flashed, her body shifted right, and she drew a hidden blade. The short sword was about two feet long and as transparent as a sheet of glass. In one fluid motion, Rei swept the white-hilted blade in front of her. An airy note sounded, and in the breathless silence that followed, there came a mournful refrain.

  Trey Easton continued off the tower. He was in two pieces.

  Setting her eyes on her elder sister, Rei sheathed her blade and smiled.

  “You lost to Sheila?” I interjected.

  Her eyes still locked on Anna, Rei shrugged. “It is much more difficult when your opponent has a brain.”

  Enraged, Anna snatched me by the collar. “You little shit. You drew her a blade from the Midden? Who the hell are you?”

  “The name’s Bond,” I replied. “James—”

  Anna shook me like a Polaroid picture. My brain had started rattling pretty good (okay, I deserved it) when the temperature dropped below freezing. Rei snarled, and Anna froze in her tracks. I raised an eyebrow. Maybe she was right to. The air kinda smelled like magic.