Cloak Games_Blood Cast

by Jonathan Moeller

  Murdo glanced at me, his face shadowy in the dim light. “If you had to choose between Russell’s life and asking Connor for help, which would you do?”

  “Good point,” I said, swallowing.

  “But unless I miss my guess,” said Murdo, “Lorenz is going to show up soon, and he’s going to show up in force. His best option now is to kill both you and me and make sure that no one lives long enough to report back to Connor. Then when Connor summons you, you’ll just have disappeared, and Lorenz’s hands will be clean.”

  “We kill him,” I said, “or he kills us.”

  “Pretty much,” said Murdo. “Makes things simple, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  We stood in silence for a while, watching the parking lot. I glanced at Murdo’s face from time to time, noting the strong shape of his profile outlined in the dim light from outside. I thought about what Russell had said, how he had wondered if Murdo and I were together.

  “Rory,” I said.

  “Yes?” he said, still watching the parking lot.

  “Thank you for doing this.”

  He blinked and glanced at me. “Like I said, I thought you got dealt a bad hand. I’m just trying to balance it out a little.”

  “I know,” I said. “And I appreciate it. But…you don’t have to.” I shook my head. “I’m not the woman you’re trying to rescue from Nicholas.”

  “If I save your life now,” said Murdo, “then you’ll be alive to help me rescue her later. Elegant, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Russell said…”

  “What did Russell say?” said Murdo.

  “He wondered if we were together,” I said, watching his reaction.

  Murdo blinked and then snorted. “Your father must have had a smart mouth.”

  “Why? What does my father have to do with anything?”

  “Because the smart mouth is clearly genetic.”

  I laughed. “It might be. He died when I was five, so I never got to find out.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Murdo. “I shouldn’t pry.”

  I shrugged. “Why not? Thanks to Lorenz, you already know everything important about me.” I hesitated. “And…you’ve kept faith with me, Rory. Thank you. You didn’t have to, but you did.” I touched his arm. It felt very firm beneath his sleeve. “I…well, just thanks. Thanks.”

  He looked at me, and there was something electric and intense in his gaze. It made me shiver down to my toes. I wondered if he was going to try to kiss me. He had a girlfriend, someone he loved enough to take insane risks to rescue. I wondered if I would stop him if he tried to kiss me. Because if I was honest with myself, I didn’t want to stop him…

  A flare of light caught my eye.

  “Rory,” I said, my voice a little hoarse.

  “I see it,” said Murdo, turning to look out the windows.

  A pair of headlights had turned off the street and drove into the parking lot. It might have been just someone needing to turn around, or perhaps an RV looking for a place to park for the night.

  But it was a white van.

  And five more were driving behind it.

  “Get ready, everyone,” said Murdo, keying his radio. “They’re here.”

  Chapter 12: Let’s Set Some More Stuff On Fire

  I took a deep breath, drawing my magic to myself.

  There was a chance, I suppose, that the white vans didn’t belong to Lorenz. That maybe painters or electricians or something came in to work an overnight shift at the Ducal Mall. But contractors would have the logos of their companies on the sides of their vans.

  The unmarked vans came to a stop near the construction trailers, and I waited, resisting the urge to hold my breath.

  The doors on the vans opened, and orcs and undead began spilling out.

  “It’s them,” said Murdo.

  I watched the orcs, my left hand opening and closing into a fist over and over again.

  There were not as many as I expected. We must have taken a toll on their numbers during the last few fights. There were a bunch of undead, though, and in many ways, the undead were more dangerous than the blue-skinned orcs. You could just shoot an orc in the chest. To take down one of the undead, you either needed to shoot it right through the head, a magical attack, or a whole lot of fire.

  Fortunately, Murdo was a good shot, I had magic, and we had arranged for a whole lot of fire just inside the doors.

  “How many?” came Vander’s voice over my earpiece.

  “About sixty, orcs and undead both,” said Murdo.

  “Do you see Lorenz or Vastarion anywhere?” I said. I hadn’t spotted the Rebel Gatekeeper or the Elven necromancer anywhere within the group.

  “No,” said Murdo. “Maybe they’ll stay within the vehicles until…wait.”

  There was a flare of grayish light behind one of the vans.

  Murdo’s frown sharpened. “Is that a…”

  A curtain of grayish mist rose up between two vans, seeming to shimmer and flicker, and through the curtain of mist, I had sudden glimpses of a bleak plain covered in gray grass.

  “Yep,” I said. “It’s a rift way. Lorenz or Vastarion must have opened it. They’re calling in reinforcements.”

  The last word had barely left my lips when the reinforcements started pouring through. There were anthrophages, dozens of anthrophages, and they didn’t bother with their human guises, remaining gray and gaunt and spiny. More undead rushed through the rift way, both human and orcish, their glowing eyes shining like eerie green stars in the twilight gloom.

  “Shit,” I said.

  “They know Russell is here,” said Murdo. “They also know you’ll be with him. But they don’t know that we figured out they can track us. I think Lorenz means to swamp us under sheer weight of numbers.” He nodded. “He’s definitely given up on taking Russell alive. He means to kill us all.”

  “Great,” I said. Only fair, I suppose, since I meant to kill him. “Then he’ll hide out there and let his mercenaries and undead do the dirty work.”

  “Probably,” said Murdo. “It is the most sensible tactic under the circumstances.”

  “All right,” I said, stepping out from behind the pillar. “Then it’s time for our most sensible tactic under the circumstances. Ready?”

  “Yes,” said Murdo. “Keep your radio on. We might need to communicate in a hurry.”

  “I will,” I said.

  “Nadia?” came Russell’s voice in my ear. “Be careful.”

  “No one’s as careful as I am,” I said.

  Murdo snorted but gave no other response.

  I crossed to the balcony, seized the steel railing, and vaulted. It was a twenty-foot drop to the floor below, but I cast the levitation spell and came to a gentle landing on the concrete. At once I cast the Cloak spell, wrapping myself in invisibility, and I drew out the Royal Arms .45 pistol from my shoulder holster, the gun heavy and cold in my fingers.

  Then I took a deep breath and walked outside.

  The muggy summer air washed over me, and I saw the orcs and the undead milling around the vans. The gray haze of the rift way snapped out of existence, which meant Lorenz had brought in as many reinforcements as he could.

  I took five quick steps to the right, raised the pistol, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.

  My aim was good, and the top of an orcish mercenary’s head exploded in a spray of blue blood. No one noticed at first. The orcs, the anthrophages, and the undead were still getting into position, and probably Lorenz and Vastarion were arguing about strategy. I shot two more orcs before the others realized that something was wrong.

  The reaction was impressive.

  Some of the orcs began bellowing orders, and others raised their AK-47s and started spraying gunfire in my general direction. Since I was invisible, they couldn’t see me, but it would only take one stray bullet to kill me, so I ran back towards the mall doors. Several of the anthrophages dropped to all fours and started prowling forward, sniffing a
t the ground. The Cloak spell could turn me invisible and even mask my scent, but it did nothing about the scent trail I had already left on the ground, and the anthrophages had a keen enough sense of smell to pick it up.

  Time to move.

  I jogged further to the right, jammed my pistol back into its holster, and dropped my Cloak spell.

  “Hey, assholes!” I yelled. “Lorenz! Come and get it!”

  The orcs snapped up their AK-47s, taking aim. The anthrophages started racing towards me. The undead just rushed forward, glowing green eyes fixed on me.

  I took a step towards them and cast the Splinter Mask spell. Silver light shivered around my fingers, and nine duplicates of me appeared nearby. I sent my will through the spell, and the duplicates all charged at the enemy, some of them casting spells, some of them shooting. The effect on the orcs and the anthrophages was immediate. Some of the orcs began shooting at the duplicates, while others fell back. The anthrophages and the undead charged at the illusionary projections.

  And while they were all busy doing that, I cast some more spells.

  I first cast the Shield spell, shaped to deflect kinetic force, and a half-dome of pale light appeared in front of me. Holding the Shield spell and the Splinter Mask in place at the same time was a strain, but I did it.

  And I had enough concentration left over to cast more spells.

  I hurled a sphere of compressed fire into the midst of the firing orcs, and the explosion ripped through them, killing a dozen and setting their corpses on fire. I flung a volley of lightning globes into the anthrophages, and blue-white sparks leaped up and down their gaunt gray forms, flinging them to the ground. A mass of undead started towards my position, and I threw another fireball. The explosion ripped through them and sent them sprawling to the ground.

  But by then my illusionary doubles were collapsing. If too much physical matter passed through them, the spell became unstable and collapsed, and the anthrophages were trying to tear them apart. One by one the duplicates winked out. Right about then the remaining orcs realized where I really was, probably because I was holding that Shield spell in front of me.

  A dozen of them opened up with AK-47s on full auto.

  If they had done that yesterday, I would have died on the spot. But Vander had taught me the Shield spell, and I held it against the assault, though just barely. My mind screamed with strain as the bullets bounced off the Shield, and it felt almost exactly like doing an overhead lift, my arms trembling with fatigue as I tried to hold the barbell over my head.

  I stepped back, released the collapsing Splinter Mask spell, and cast the ice wall spell. I created a curving wall of ice in front of me and the mall’s massive glass entrance, and the bullets slammed into the ice.

  That wouldn’t last long, and it would only take the anthrophages a few seconds to run around it, so I sprinted through the mall’s doors and into the eastern wing. At once I cast another spell, catching the railing of the second level in a telekinetic grip, and I jumped. I pulled myself through the air in a broad arc, grabbed the railing, rolled over it, and landed on the floor with a thump.

  Murdo was at my side in an instant. “You’re okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Better get under cover.”

  I got to my feet, and we ducked behind our chosen pillar. I heard the crash from outside as the undead punched their way through the ice wall. A second later the orcs and the anthrophages and the undead stormed through the mall doors and into the eastern wing. I watched as they spread out, watched as they looked around for me, my heartbeat a thundering drum in my ears. Just a little more. Most of them were in the mall proper by now. Just a little more…

  Now!

  I cast the Splinter Mask spell again, summoning magic and holding my will in place. I only created one projection this time, putting it just beyond the edge of the mines below. The image looked battered and bloody and bruised, my coat torn and shredded from bullets. I made the image drop to one knee, panting with exhaustion, and then bend over and throw up a lot of blood.

  Maybe that was overkill.

  But it worked.

  The anthrophages howled their metallic hunting cries and charged forward. The orcs roared in triumph. The undead were silent, but they rushed ahead nonetheless. All of them converged on the illusionary image.

  “Now!” I hissed.

  “Detonating,” said Murdo, hitting a button on his phone. “Everyone, take cover.”

  We ducked behind the pillar. One heartbeat passed. Then two.

  And then…

  Thunder filled the world.

  The noise was immense, and so loud it seemed to press on my entire body rather than just my ears. The entire Ducal Mall shook like a car hitting a speed bump, and I heard a weird clanging ringing noise that I later realized was the sounds of tens of thousands of steel ball bearings hitting the floors and ceilings at once. Fire bloomed below the balcony, filling the eastern wing with harsh light, and the shock wave blew out the glass of the entrance, sending thousands of shards tumbling into the parking lot. The pillar I was crouched behind vibrated like an overtaxed engine, and for an awful instant, I was sure that we had miscalculated, that the entire eastern wing of the Ducal Mall was about to collapse into a pile of concrete and steel and empty overpriced shops.

  But the noise faded away, and I heard snarls and screams from below.

  “Rockets!” shouted Murdo into the radio.

  He leaped to his feet, raising his rocket launcher, and I followed him. I had a second to look at the main floor below. Flames burned everywhere, and the force of the explosion had torn most of the enemy apart. I saw very few things that looked like actual corpses, but lots and lots of pieces that had once belonged to corpses. The blue orcish blood and the black slime of anthrophage blood was spattered everywhere. But quite a few of the undead were still on their feet, and some of the anthrophages had survived.

  Murdo fired his rocket, and further down the balcony, I saw the plumes of fire as Russell, Vander, and Robert all followed his example. We just had time to duck behind the railing again, and then the four rockets went off, another colossal roar echoing through the mall. I wondered how far the noise of the first explosion had carried. Too much longer and this entire place would be swarming with Homeland Security officers.

  I surged back to my feet and looked over the railing. The rocket blasts had taken out a bunch of the remaining undead and anthrophages, but some were still standing. Murdo snapped up his M-99 and started firing single, precise shots that drilled through the anthrophages’ heads. I cast a spell, calling a tight sphere of fire and holding it gripped in my will. I sent the sphere zipping forward, and it drilled through the head of the nearest undead, and then I sent it zigging and zagging through the rest of the undead, blasting tunnels through their foreheads and sending them to the floor as Murdo shot anthrophage after anthrophage.

  My spell dissipated, its power spent, and I gathered magic to cast again, looking for my next target.

  Except…

  I blinked in confusion, trying to see through the smoke and the flames.

  Except I couldn’t find any more targets.

  Murdo’s M-99 fell silent, though he didn’t lower the weapon. I looked back and forth, but I couldn’t see any orcs, undead, or anthrophages on their feet.

  “Did…did we get them all?” I said, stunned.

  “Think so,” said Murdo. “Captain Ross, do you see any targets?”

  “Negative,” said Robert, his voice hard and clipped. “I don’t see anything moving.”

  “Come on,” said Murdo, and I nodded. “Keep an eye open.”

  I followed Murdo as we ran down the length of the balcony to join Russell, Vander, and Robert.

  “I think all the targets are down,” said Robert, the emptied rocket launcher still in his arms. Next to him, Russell was busily reloading his.

  “Our trap,” said Vander, “might have been overkill.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  The
explosion had destroyed the lower level of the eastern wing. The plastic sheeting covering the unfinished shops had been torn to shreds, and the blast of the antipersonnel mines had shattered every single window on that floor. It had also ripped apart every single orc, anthrophage, and undead. A dozen fires burned on the walls and the floor. The floor itself looked like the drain of some hellish butcher shop. It made me a little queasy to look at it, but I felt absolutely no guilt. The anthrophages were monsters, and the undead had died already. And if the orcs had wanted to live, they shouldn’t have come after my brother and me.

  They had wanted to kill us, but we had killed them first. Sucks to be them.

  “When it comes to a firefight…” started Robert.

  “There’s no such thing as overkill,” he and Murdo chorused in unison. I wondered if that was a common saying among the men-at-arms of the Elven nobles.

  “I completely agree,” I said. “Did anyone see Lorenz or Vastarion?”

  “No,” said Vander.

  “I didn’t, either,” said Robert. “I don’t think he was with the attack.”

  “Great,” I said. I suppose it had been wishful thinking to hope that Lorenz and Vastarion would have gone up with the explosion. “He must be outside with the vans. If we hurry, we can catch him before he escapes back to Venomhold…”

  “Robert!”

  Alexandra’s voice crackled in my ear.

  “Alexandra?” said Robert. “What is it?”

  “They’re here!” said Alexandra, her voice tight with alarm. “Lorenz and Vastarion. They’re trying to break down the door! They’re…”

  The voice cut off.

  Robert looked at me, his eyes wide with alarm.

  The horrified realization shot through me.

  Lorenz’s plan had been a trick all along.

  I knew how Lorenz thought. He had come after Russell and me with brute force twice, and I had beaten him and gotten away both times. It was time for him to change tactics. He had wanted to capture Russell to control me…but what if he captured Alexandra and Felix and Jill and Rusk and threatened to kill them if I didn’t cooperate or surrender? That was exactly how the slimy bastard thought. If he couldn’t kill me, and he couldn’t beat me, he would find a way to coerce me. Vastarion must have been able to locate them with his magic.