Clipped Wings

by J. P. Rice

  The Celtic Gods had stressed that rule when they had appointed me as the magical guardian of Pittsburgh. A human who used dark magic or was a threat to my life was fair game, but everyone else was off limits. I’d gotten special permission in the past when I knew a job could get messy but would ultimately be for the greater benefit of the whole.

  We hit the city and cruised by Lincoln Financial Field, heading south. Rolling by the towering structures scraping the sky, it looked a little like Pittsburgh. Different, but similar. Most people on the sidewalks were wearing suits or some sort of Eagles, Flyers or Phillies gear, whether it be a jacket or winter hat. They loved their sports teams.

  “It’s just two blocks up here,” Jonathan announced, pointing straight ahead. “There is the compound.” He tapped his window.

  I leaned in front of Glenda and turned to the right. Holy shit. That was certainly a compound. The building wasn’t tall, but it stretched out along most of the block. It had a Victorian look to it with a raised clock tower in the middle of the building.

  Jonathan put his hand behind the driver’s seat and pointed out the back window. “That black building right over there is where you’ll be stationed. We will get you access to the roof, then wait for you to get set up. Then we will make our entrance.”

  Roman parked the car on the side of the road and the rest of us jumped out into a chilly Philly afternoon.

  Chapter 19

  I pulled out the tripod stand and set up the sniper rifle. Glenda was already set up and lying on her belly, looking through the scope. She said, “There’s five guards outside the building.”

  I conjured up a small speaker to work in conjunction with my listening spell. My phone was sitting in the chest pocket of my jacket with Jonathan on the other end. I plucked it out, and said, “Jonathan. We’re set up now. There are five guards in the entrance way. My listening spell hasn’t taken effect yet.”

  Jonathan’s voice came through the phone, “Okay. I’m exiting the building now. I’ll wait on the sidewalk for a minute, but I can’t wait much longer than that.”

  “I understand. You don’t want to look shady.” I attached the Bluetooth headphone and shoved the phone into my pocket.

  The spell still hadn’t yielded any results, but time was up. Looking through a pair of binoculars, I watched the vampires from the Purple House cross the street and head for the gated entrance way. Why wasn’t this spell working?

  Jonathan walked up to the first guard at the entrance and slid a small card through the chain linked fence. The man looked at it for an excruciating period of time and handed it back to Jonathan. A gated door opened toward the street and the vampires from Pittsburgh scurried inside.

  I heard a crackle in the air. A spark of magic. Then it sounded like interference on a record player. A voice sounded from my conjured speaker.

  A gruff man’s voice said, “It’s a small, unexpected group from Pittsburgh. They have to be here for the portal.”

  Oh shit. They were onto Jonathan.

  The voice continued, “Do not let them in. I repeat, do not let them in. Stall them until we can get the portal out of here. Then kill them.”

  I spoke into the Bluetooth, “Jonathan. We’ve got problems. They know you are here for the portal. They’re going to try to kill you guys.”

  Jonathan didn’t respond as I’d expected since he was standing in front of the first guard. I dropped to my belly and lay down behind my gun. I closed one eye and put the other one up to the scope. Watching Jonathan through the scope felt too dangerous with a nervous trigger finger, so I grabbed the binoculars again.

  Glenda didn’t have this problem and kept watch through her scope. I wondered what Jonathan would do now. There wasn’t a plethora of choices on the table.

  I didn’t have to wait long.

  Two more men rushed out through the front door of the complex. By the time I looked back at Jonathan, his fist was springing forward and smashing into the closest guard’s skull. The guard’s head exploded like a red piñata, landing on the gray walkway.

  The other guards acted quickly, pulling pistols out of their hip holsters. Del Rubio and Timson charged ahead of their leader and attacked the guards.

  Jonathan moved left and right like a flash, streaking from one side of the entranceway to the other. It almost looked like stop motion. One of the guards charged at Jonathan, who simply held his ground. This guard didn’t have a gun, but he appeared to be a tower of power, tall and thick.

  The big guard threw a slow, looping hook that Jonathan ducked easily. As he rose back up, Jonathan unleashed an uppercut that connected under the man’s chin. The shot unhinged the man’s jaw and the bottom half of his mouth dangled grotesquely.

  The dazed man stood in place as Jonathan extracted his long ivory claws. He turned an open palm to the sky and jammed two claws into the guard’s eyes. Keeping his claws inside the man’s head, Jonathan jumped in the air, pressed his left shoulder into the man’s chest and rolled over the tall man’s shoulder, landing behind him.

  With one quick yank, he broke the man’s neck. I couldn’t hear it, but I felt it in my bones. Watching the action, I’d nearly forgotten I had a job to do and put my eye to the gun scope. The Pittsburgh and Philly vampires were so intermingled that I couldn’t get off a safe shot.

  The quick, unnatural moves of the vampires made it even more difficult.

  Glenda said, “Door. They’re coming out the door.”

  She fired and as I adjusted my sights for the door, I saw a man drop. Boom. Another vampire charging out the door fell in a heap. Boom. The next man bit the dust. Glenda was good.

  Two men busted out the entrance. Glenda said, “I’ll take the right.” Boom. Her man dropped.

  I exhaled and put the crosshairs on the man’s chest. Boom. The guard’s chest exploded and he fell on his face. After that kill, the men stopped pouring out the entrance door to help the other guards. When I focused on Jonathan again, he had jumped behind one of the guards and was in the process of breaking his neck.

  Then gunshots on the street level broke out. The obvious concern hit me. Cops. We had suppressors, but if the cops figured out where the bullets were coming from, we were fucked. Now that the loud gunshots were erupting on the street, the cops were certain to check it out.

  I turned to the right. “Glenda. We can’t get trapped up here. The cops are certainly on the way so maybe we should split.”

  I was starting to go cross-eyed, so I pulled my head back from the scope. I noticed a man running across the tennis courts, off to the side of the entrance way. He was carrying a duffle bag, but he was struggling to get across the courts, which indicated it was heavy. The fucking portal.

  I said, “Glenda, look. Is he running away with the portal?”

  “Looks that way to me. You want me to light him up?” Glenda asked, her eye still close to the scope.

  “No. At least, not yet.” I spoke into the Bluetooth, “Jonathan. There is a guy with what we think is the portal, trying to escape across the tennis courts.”

  Jonathan’s voice came through choppy, out of breath. “Kind of busy staying alive.”

  I knew he wasn’t referencing the Bee Gees and I worried that the portal was going to get away.

  I turned to Glenda. “They are all tied up with the guards. If we run down the steps or take an elevator, that guy will be long gone by then. We’re fucked.”

  Glenda jumped up, closed her eyes and started to shake wildly. I watched her exhale, and then a wash of reddish brown fur cascaded over her face and down over her body. Her clothes began to fray and shred. Within moments, she stood on top of a tall building in Philadelphia in full fox form.

  I was confused. “I don’t understand how that is going to help.”

  “Just hug me from behind around my neck and I will show you,” she announced as she walked closer to the edge and picked up a pistol and a balled-up piece of black fabric. Jonathan’s friends had left a nice cache of weapons on the roo
ftop but I wasn’t sure what the other item was.

  I followed her instructions and wrapped my arms around her neck. She said, “Whoa, easy there, buddy. Don’t be copping a feel.”

  I still didn’t know what her plan was as we penguin-walked right up to the lip of the building. Her knees bent, and without warning, we launched off the side and plummeted toward the ground. My heart threatened to stop, not that it mattered, as we were falling like a rock.

  A strong, ruffling sound hit my ears and we began to slow our rapid descent. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but we suddenly floated back and forth, like when you drop a flat piece of paper. We were still falling, but at a very slow rate.

  We gently swayed back and forth as if we were on some magic carpet or something. Turning to my left, I could see a flap of furry fox skin causing wind resistance. I turned to the right and noticed the same thing. She was like a flying squirrel. She didn’t have wings, but she had the furry, parachute-like membrane stretching from her armpit to her hip.

  We floated down and gently landed in the middle of the street, stopping traffic. People on the sidewalks yelled and screamed while others just watched with their jaws dropped. Glenda unraveled a loose black dress and slid it over her fox figure as she began to shift back into a human.

  Through the commotion, I ran over to the tennis courts, but the duffle bag man was nowhere to be found.

  Glancing to my right, I saw the guy trying to blend into a crowd of people, but I noticed the black bag strap over his shoulder. I turned to Glenda. “Why don’t you help those guys try to escape? I’ll go after the portal.”

  Glenda nodded as she held up the semi-automatic pistol and turned. She went toward the entrance way and I raced down the street. Police sirens sung in the distance, but the stopped traffic was probably making it difficult to get to the scene. It also made me wonder if our getaway car had been blocked in too.

  Sliding those thoughts aside, I tracked after the man in the green suit, who kept peeking nervously over both shoulders. As far as he knew, I was just a regular Joe. A diehard Philly fan roaming the streets.

  The smell of burnt beef danced in the South Philly air. I closed in on the man and wondered what attack to use. Reluctant to bust out some serious magic on the street, I went with a simpler attack. Closing my fist, I reached back and clocked him upside the head, right in the ear.

  His knees wobbled and he crashed to the ground. However, he wasn’t knocked out and still clutched at the duffle bag. I tried to rip it away, but he wasn’t giving up the package. The man made it back to his feet as we wrestled over the bag.

  I firmed my grip and yanked on the bag, pulling the older man with me. My feet kept sliding back. The smell of burnt meat intensified. As I pulled on the bag with all my strength, the man released it and I fell backwards.

  Chapter 20

  As I got back to my feet, I realized that I had backed into an outdoor cheesesteak hut. It was a tiny kitchen with picnic tables set up around the facility. The employees had evacuated after the gunshots, leaving huge piles of meat and onions burning on the flattop. A nasty smoke lingered in the kitchen, filtering out through the ordering window off to the side.

  When I became fully upright again, a straight left jab nailed me on the bridge of my nose. Stunned, I dropped the bag and took a step back. We were crammed in this tiny place with a smoking flattop to my left and a series of sinks on the right. I only had about the width of three feet to work with.

  Like a fool, I hadn’t called my magic to the surface because I didn’t know what could happen in Philly. It wasn’t Pittsburgh and they could look down on magic practitioners, ending with me getting arrested. Especially, smack dab in the middle of the city. I still should have prepared it to go.

  The man lunged for my throat and grabbed hold, his thumbs smashing my windpipe. Rarely would I condone a move that I’d learned from the Three Stooges in a life or death fight, but I straightened my middle and forefinger and poked him in the eyes.

  He didn’t shout ‘Wise guy, eh,’ but he did yelp in pain. While he tried to deal with the pain, I grabbed a handful of uncooked beef sitting on top of the pile and threw it in his face. I was glad no one was around to see these comedic, yet effective fight moves.

  As he frantically wiped the meat away, I connected with a straight right jab to his chin, mashing some steak into his skin. Furiously, he wiped all the meat off his face and came at me again. He threw a straight right punch that I ducked, and as I rose, I clobbered him in the gut.

  He huffed in pain and doubled over, holding his midsection, his face dangerously close to the sizzling flattop. I grabbed the few remaining wisps of hair on top of his head and mashed the side of his face onto the grill.

  He shouted in pain as his face sizzled, and the smoke of burnt flesh rose from the grill. I felt somewhat bad as I listened to his tormented screaming. But this was a dangerous game and people got hurt, sometimes scarred for life. He was a vampire, so although he would heal from this damage, it was going to leave one hell of a mark.

  The man stopped struggling. Stopped moving completely. Oh fuck, I hadn’t meant to kill him. I let go of his face and he collapsed onto the rubber kitchen mats. Remembering the cops could show up any second, I stepped over the vampire, grabbed the bag and exited the smoky shack as if nothing had happened.

  Citizens were screaming and running down the streets and sidewalks creating a chaotic city scene. Whistling a calm tune, I fought against the evacuation to get back to the area everyone was running from. The action. I made it back to the tennis courts and saw Glenda and Del Rubio near the entrance way.

  Del Rubio’s nose had been smashed sideways and his face was covered in blood. Glenda pointed at the bag. “Is that it?”

  I nodded, tapping the bag. “It is. Where’s Jonathan and Timson? We need to get the fuck out of here.”

  Del Rubio said, “That’s a problem. Timson is dead and Jonathan has been captured and dragged inside the building.”

  Glenda informed me, “I hate to say it, but Jonathan might be dead at this point too. He killed about five guards.”

  I said, “He didn’t kill them. They’re vampires, so unless he staked them or got holy water into their bloodstream, they aren’t dead. Just hurt.”

  “Most of those guards weren’t vampires. Just normal humans.”

  I felt like I was going to be sick. Even humans working with vampires were off limits. I really hoped I hadn’t plugged any humans or I would have a hell of a lot to answer for. “Fuck. We can’t just leave him behind on the assumption that he’s dead.”

  Glenda asked, “So what do you plan to do? We can’t just sit here waiting for the cops to arrest us.”

  I smirked. “Plan? I’m gonna do what I do.”

  Glenda cocked her head to the side. “And what the hell does that mean?”

  I handed her the bag with a smirk still on my face. “Time to make shit happen.”

  “What is your plan?” Del Rubio asked as he sopped up some of the blood on his face with his sleeve.

  I explained, “I’m going in. You guys take that portal back to the car and then post up on that roof again if you can. Don’t shoot the redcaps. Okay?”

  Glenda answered, “All right.”

  I turned to Del Rubio. “Don’t shoot the redcaps.”

  “Got it.” Del Rubio nodded.

  I said it one more time. “So the redcap plan is in effect. Hurry up and get that to the car. Once I see you two coming back, I’m heading in.”

  They scurried up the street, blending into a wave of citizenry and disappearing from view. As I scanned the area for cops, I primed my magic and understood that this was a stupid plan. But I had to do it. It wasn’t just for Jonathan or myself. It was for Reg.

  My best friend had specifically said that he needed Jonathan to raise him from the dead. If I left Jonathan behind, Reg would never rise again. And I had a code where I didn’t leave anyone behind. Whether it be Felix, Burn or someone I’d recently
realized to be a bloodthirsty vampire. He was on my team for this mission and that meant I would die to save him. But I would die with honor.

  It was hard to explain unless you’d had your life saved before.

  I could feel my magic, warm and bubbly below my flesh, ready to go. Del Rubio and Glenda jogged down the street toward me, hunched over and out of breath. They gave me a thumbs up signal as they headed for the hotel across the street.

  Showtime.

  Walking calmly up the sidewalk, I hooked a right through the busted chain linked fence and into the entrance way. The Larimores had removed the dead bodies, but there were streaks of blood all over the ground and small chunks of flesh and bone were still strewn about.

  I tried to avoid the tainted areas, but that quickly became impossible and the sole of my shoe settled in a puddle of blood from someone who had been living and breathing only minutes ago. The metallic, coppery smell offended my nose, and all the burnt steak meat on that flattop couldn’t cancel out the scent of death, heavy and thick in the windless Philly air.

  As I neared the door, I caught a whiff of expensive cologne, strong enough to overpower everything else. The door popped open and a young-looking vampire greeted me with his arm extended, pistol in hand.

  I held my hands up in the air. “I’m not looking for trouble. Just send Jonathan out and we’ll be on our way.”

  “Shut your mouth. In fact.” He lowered the pistol and held it behind his back as he leaned out the door, inspected the street and sidewalk and pointed the gun at me again. “Get in here.”

  Just what I wanted. I walked in the front door of the Larimores, one of the most powerful vampire clans in Philadelphia. The young vamp jabbed the middle of my back with the end of the barrel, directing me down a hallway with a checkered floor.