Demons and DNA (Amplifier 1)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  The magic on my spine shifted again — Fish’s tattoo this time — telling me that the nullifier was crossing back around to my position.

  Soon. Soon, I wouldn’t have to listen to another word out of the witch’s mouth. She’d pay for trying to own my past. There was no way back from killing her now. She’d be just another stain on my already sullied soul in a few minutes.

  “You knew, didn’t you, Aiden? That the amplifier and her clairvoyant were grown in vats? Trained killers. The uber-Adept. Created by your father, for the Collective.”

  Aiden closed his eyes, pained. But when he reopened them, his face was stony, blanked of expression.

  “We’re all killers in this clearing,” I said.

  “But you were a bad girl, Amp5. You didn’t follow orders. And certain things didn’t go according to plan.”

  “Your plans,” I said mildly.

  “Yes. You ruined my plans. And I haven’t been able to get near Azar since. But now you’ll come back into the fold. I already have the clairvoyant and the nullifier. And with you, the telepath and the telekinetic will follow.” She turned to grin at Aiden. “And your father and every Azar sorcerer who stands with him will fall.”

  “You haven’t gotten to your point, Silver.” Aiden’s tone was smooth, inviting. A conspirator in a cage. “How do you plan to tame the amplifier?”

  “Oh.” She giggled. “I skipped over that part. You see, Amp5 has met my demon before. She knows she’s no match for it. And after that bloody interlude, she escaped my attempts to do away with her …” She glanced at Aiden, conspiratorially. “She’d caught your father’s eye. You know how that is.”

  “I do.”

  “Then you understand why I couldn’t have that. Anyway, she beguiled Mark Calhoun …” Silver Pine wheeled around as if she might have previously forgotten about the sorcerer sprawled on the ground just behind her. Taking quick little steps, she crossed to him and placed her bare, dirt-crusted foot on his shoulder.

  He didn’t react.

  Without being able to feel his magic, I wasn’t certain Mark wasn’t already dead. Dread deepened into a yawning pit in my stomach.

  “Him and his team … well, Amp5’s team, really.” The witch peered down at the sorcerer, blinking. Magic churned around her, then sank down into her skin.

  Relief flashed through me, just enough to ease the dread before it overwhelmed me and forced me to react irrationally. I could feel the witch’s magic over and above the presence of some sort of dampening field in the clearing. But that field didn’t quite mask her power, perhaps because she was the caster.

  And any magic I could feel was magic I could use.

  “I wouldn’t have sent them against her when she decided to be naughty, except I didn’t have many others in the compound at the time,” the witch continued, still seemingly oblivious to all the players settling into place around her. “And I needed a force, you understand.”

  “Of course. The amplifier is formidable.”

  Aiden’s casually delivered compliment further soothed the anxious anger setting an itching sensation in my palms and feet. Itching for me to move. All this talk, talk, talk wasn’t for me.

  Silver snorted. “To a point, I agree. Anyway, she should have, could have exited the building. But she went back for the others.” She nodded toward Christopher. “So that’s my leverage. The clairvoyant will never leave that cage unless the amplifier agrees to lay down her weapons and join my cause.”

  The demon shifted, tugged forward by the invisible strings that bound it to the witch. It unfolded its massive three-clawed hands over Christopher’s cage. Its talons were more than long enough to torture — and to eventually kill — Knox through the bars.

  Silver looked at me smugly. “You were never meant to function in the world on your own. None of you. Each day must be filled with an endless dread. An understanding that you will never be fulfilled because you walked away from the only place you belonged.”

  I sighed, rotating my wrists and shoulders to keep them loose, giving my blades a spin. “I’m not big on the blathering, witch. But since we’re all stalling for time, shall I list some of the mistakes you’ve already made? Would you like to see how your death is coming? Or shall I just surprise you with it?”

  She snorted. And as if in response to her derision, the demon wrapped its tail around Christopher’s cage and lowered its head, red eyes glued to me.

  “Illuminate me,” she said. “If you’re capable.”

  Daniel stepped out from the forest behind me.

  Though still looking at the witch, I spoke to the nullifier. “Are the cages yours? Your construction? Imbued with your magic?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you build in a back door?”

  “A back …” He exhaled harshly. “No. But that would have been a good idea.”

  “No matter,” I said, sheathing my right blade across my back to free up one hand.

  “You were illuminating me,” Silver Pine snapped testily. With her black gaze on Daniel, she started gathering power from the clearing. The churned earth between us began to writhe and roll. That magic I could most definitely feel.

  “Actually, I’d rather show you.”

  “Really?” Daniel asked, stepping in front of me. “I’d rather you made a list, because it gets me off the hook for fucking the witch, doesn’t it? I’d rather leave that here.”

  Silver sneered at the nullifier.

  I sighed, settling my hand at the base of his neck. “Fine. Mistake number one, thinking that any of the Five could ever be turned against each other.”

  She laughed, filling the clearing with the sound of her bone-grating amusement. “How childish of you. Your bonds, forged with a shared childhood that has scarred you irrevocably, are unbreakable?”

  “Actually, Emma’s talking about the blood bond.” Daniel sucked in a breath as I let my magic flow into him through the tattoo on his T1 vertebra. My blood tattooed under his skin, forever bound. “You know the one, don’t you? Enforced by the Collective in our early teens?”

  Silver Pine’s eye twitched.

  Daniel laughed. “Seems the witch was too low level to get that memo.”

  “Mistake number two,” I said, ignoring Daniel’s commentary. “This one goes way, way back, and you are so utterly arrogant not to have learned this lesson seven years ago. I’ve already proven I’d rather die than be controlled by you, witch.”

  She opened her mouth to counter.

  But I was done with the talking.

  I stepped around Fish, the nullifier now teeming with magic as I pulled my second blade again. He settled his left hand on my back, and a shield snapped up into place around me, a cool barrier of intense magic. “Mistake number three, putting Christopher in a cage constructed by his blood-bonded brother.”

  Silver spun back to look at Christopher.

  The clairvoyant opened his blazing white eyes, fixing them on me. “Wait. Wait. Step left, duck, left again, roll right.”

  I saw the moment the witch realized her miscalculation. She shouldn’t have lured me by kidnapping Christopher along with Aiden. She shouldn’t have kept Knox conscious so she could taunt me with him — perhaps having planned to torture him in front of me as she’d done with Aiden. And she should have known that cages of Daniel’s construction wouldn’t completely nullify Christopher’s clairvoyance.

  The same would have been true if she’d tried to cage me or Bee or Zans. Because the blood bonds the Five shared worked both ways. We could access each other’s magic, pull strength from each other — but we also couldn’t completely block that same power if it was used against us.

  But none of that mattered, because I was already moving forward, already ready for anything the witch could throw at me.

  Magic poured forth from the witch as she attempted to snap a barrier into place around the clearing — the preset spell I’d assumed existed but hadn’t been able to feel earlier.

  That barrier fizzled
, but not before the magic lashed back at the witch, stealing a chunk of her power. Enough that she swayed under the brief assault.

  Daniel chuckled. Apparently, he’d booby-trapped the witch’s own trap on his circuit around the clearing.

  The earth churned before us, demons swarming from the ground as if they’d been hidden beneath it. Teeth and claws splintered and shattered against Daniel’s shield.

  I continued moving, taking one step at a time, patiently closing the space between me and the witch.

  Paisley leaped out from the forest — a snarling beast the size of a large lion. She landed on top of the cage that held Christopher, bellowing an undulating challenge to the hulking demon above her.

  The demon shrieked as it rose. Its dreadful voice cut through Daniel’s shield and rampaged through my mind. I stumbled, but found my footing again.

  The demon began tearing at the bond that held it tethered to the witch, trying to answer Paisley’s challenge.

  “No!” Silver screamed. Streams of black energy flowed from her fingers to the ground. “To me! To me!”

  I pressed forward.

  Daniel’s shield cracked under the sheer volume of demons the witch was throwing at us. If Mark Calhoun’s life force was helping her fuel this overwhelming assault, he might not survive it.

  I pushed that thought away, though. I couldn’t do anything about Mark right now. I could only deal with what was in front of me. Bringing my blades forward, I pressed the tips against Daniel’s shield.

  The black witch managed to get the greater demon under control, pulling its attention from Paisley and directing it toward me.

  Finally.

  “Ready?” I asked Daniel.

  He nodded, dropping his hand from my back. I would stand against the demon on my own. He would rescue Christopher.

  “Wait,” I murmured, feeling Daniel’s shield tightening around me as he withdrew it. “Wait.”

  The demon was almost within striking range, actually knocking its smaller kin out of the way as it crossed to me.

  But it was the black witch the demon really wanted. Really craved.

  No greater demon wanted to be controlled, and eventually, each and every one turned against its summoner. Frankly, I was surprised that Silver Pine was strong enough to have held this creature for so many years.

  Paisley grabbed the side of Christopher’s cage in her massive jaw and started dragging it toward the treeline.

  I ran the clairvoyant’s instructions in my mind — Wait. Wait. Step left, duck, left again, roll right.

  The demon was before me, appearing even more formidable swathed in moonlight than it had seemed on the rooftop in LA.

  But I hadn’t had Christopher or Paisley or Daniel with me on the roof that day.

  And the demon wasn’t the objective anyway.

  “Now!” I cried.

  Daniel and I darted left at the same time, ducking under the demon’s first attempt to maul us. We both lunged forward under its arm, slashing at its ribs with our blades.

  It bellowed, spinning to swipe at me again. I jumped to the left, decapitating the lesser demons in my way. Daniel went right, doing the same. The dual movement confused the greater demon just long enough that I was able to cut the tendons on the back of its wrist and elbow.

  Daniel got clear.

  The demon homed in on me.

  I slaughtered two more lesser demons, then rolled right to avoid a third, making it to my feet and coming up face to face with Silver Pine.

  She released a torrent of black magic that hit me directly in the chest. At the same time, I slammed a kick to her gut.

  We each flew backward. I tumbled directly into the greater demon’s path. Silver fell against Aiden’s cage.

  The demon was waiting for me.

  Aiden was waiting for Silver.

  The greater demon knocked aside the swarm of lesser creatures reaching for me, raising a massively clawed foot to stomp me, just as it had done on the rooftop. I rolled across churned dirt covered in the ashes of the demons we’d already vanquished. Multiple sets of claws raked my back as I tried to crawl toward the witch.

  Aiden thrust his hands between the bars of the cage, snagging Silver’s long black hair and yanking her backward. He banged her head against the bars, twice. She hit him with a massive pulse of magic.

  He went down without any attempt to break his fall.

  Silver stumbled forward, holding her head and trying to get her bearings.

  All the lesser demons stilled. The greater demon hesitated, shifting its attention to the black witch.

  Exactly as I had expected it would if her hold on it slipped.

  My back was on fire as I made it to my feet, barreling toward my goal. I’d lost my blades but it didn’t matter. Death was still waiting for me to make my move.

  Seeing me coming for her, Silver hit me with a spell that crushed my lungs.

  But I didn’t have to breathe to hurt her.

  Suffocating, I latched my fingers around her wrist as she raised her hand to finish me.

  I dragged her against me, mouthing the words more than speaking them. “I don’t die that easily.”

  Spinning, I held the black witch as a shield between me and the greater demon. Then I took her magic, ripping it from her relentlessly. The lesser demons slunk back into the darkness, but they didn’t try to flee the clearing.

  Silver screamed and screamed.

  The greater demon lowered its head, waiting, regarding me with blazing red eyes.

  Christopher and Paisley shifted forward out of the forest on my left. Knox bent down, retrieving my blades.

  Daniel moved around behind me, opening Aiden’s cage, then dragging the sorcerer from it.

  I took all the power the witch had at her disposal, feeling the shift in magic as the bond that tethered her to the demon transferred to me.

  Then I dropped her at my feet.

  She was panting and shrieking, but I only had enough attention for the greater demon. I’d never done what I was planning on doing — but I had no choice now. With all of us together, we might have been able to vanquish Silver’s servant. But there would be casualties.

  “Oh, demon lord,” I cried, throwing my hands out to the sides and making a production of it. Greater beings liked a show. “Take your captor and the bond she forced on you. Depart this land with your kin, never to return. I free you willingly and will never call you forth.”

  The demon opened its maw wide. Then it chuckled, the sound rasping against my soul, deadening my heart.

  It reached one clawed hand forward and scooped up Silver Pine. It tore her head off. Then, raising her over its thrown-back head, it gulped down her still-spurting blood.

  “Holy fuck,” Daniel muttered, stepping up beside me.

  I didn’t take my attention from the demon. Even with the stolen magic and the stolen bonds, I wasn’t completely certain I had the ability to cement the bargain I’d just made.

  The demon tore Silver Pine apart, eating her in pieces and enjoying every bite.

  Paisley threw her head back, howling in victory.

  The tether I’d collected from Silver along with her magic thinned, as if the demon was gobbling up that magical connection along with the witch.

  Then the tether and Silver were both gone.

  The demon looked at me, flattening and slightly tilting its head. I wondered if it remembered me.

  Daniel raised his sword, nullifying magic flowing out from him to gather around our feet. Christopher stepped beside us, holding my blades at the ready.

  Paisley let out a rippling snarl, then howled again.

  The demon straightened, turned, and took a step toward the forest. The earth opened up into a churning black hole of magic underneath the creature. Then it disappeared, pulling all the magic and all the other demons that the witch had called forth from the clearing with it.

  I spun back, looking for Aiden and finding him propped up against the cage that had once con
tained him. He’d been watching me. Every moment. He saw me for who I really was. The idea was intoxicating, when it should have been terrifying.

  Daniel dropped to his knees beside Mark Calhoun, already pulling rune-marked bandages from the sorcerer’s pockets.

  “Alive?” I asked, stepping up and leaning over the nullifier. Mark hadn’t moved, but the sigil carved into his chest appeared to be slowly crusting over. The spelled wound would have been tied to Silver’s magic and would disperse with her death, despite how much of that magic I still held.

  “Give me a moment.” Daniel slapped a series of bandages onto secondary wounds on Mark’s forehead, neck, and arms. Then he hovered his hands over the sigil. “His magic is all torn up. See to the sorcerer.”

  I pivoted, kneeling beside Aiden without further prompting. His magic was dim. The spell that Silver had hit him with was chewing on what remained of his power.

  I held out my hand, laden with Silver’s magic. “This belongs to you, I believe.”

  Aiden sighed, closing his eyes. “If I take your magic, you’ll think that’s all I want of you.”

  Christopher hunkered down beside me. “Emma isn’t offering her power, sorcerer. She’s simply gifting you the witch’s magic.”

  Aiden opened his eyes with a snap. He had missed the part where I’d drained Silver, or perhaps it hadn’t been obvious. It wasn’t an ability that many amplifiers wielded. Maybe none aside from me.

  Aiden took my hand. I gave him the power I’d stolen from Silver as gently as possible, but he still sucked in a breath and pressed his head back against the cage. I let the witch’s magic flow from me, careful to not add my own into the mix.

  Christopher straightened, crossing away and speaking with Daniel in low tones. I didn’t hear what words they exchanged. The sorcerer had me locked to him with his gaze, almost mesmerized.

  As had been the case since the moment I’d set eyes on him.

  Aiden’s grip on my hand tightened. When I didn’t pull away, he slowly tugged me closer.

  I allowed him to do so, settling across his lap. He placed his free hand on the back of my neck, brushing a soft kiss to my lips.