by B N Miles
But he knew he couldn’t do that. They wouldn’t listen to him anyway. All three of his girlfriends could take care of themselves.
“Cassie, around back,” he said.
Cassie laughed. “Like always.”
“Lumi and Jessalene with me. We’re going to knock, ask nicely if he’ll come out, then make him come out if he refuses.”
“And if he runs?” Lumi asked.
“That’s what Cassie’s for. She’ll shift and take care of him if he tries to get away.”
“Could be other ways out,” Jessalene mused. “I mean, he’s a professional assassin.”
“Could be,” Jared agreed. “But we have to go forward like there isn’t.” He looked around at all of them. “This is going to be dangerous. If any of you want to back down—”
Cassie punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t be a goon.”
He grinned. “Sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have said that.”
Lumi stepped up and touched his cheek. “Maybe you want to sit this one out.”
He took her hand, removed it from his cheek, and kissed her. “All right. I get it.”
“How’s your Need?” she asked quietly.
“Not bad. You?”
“About the same. I think I’ll be good.”
“All right. Don’t push yourself too hard. You don’t need to go comatose again.”
She smiled and tilted her head. “But if it means you’ll fuck me…”
“Won’t give you heroin this time.” He grinned. “So give me consent right now.”
“Enough you two,” Jessalene said. “Are we ready?”
Jared nodded. He walked to the trunk of his car, popped it open, and took out his backup service weapon. Jessalene took it without comment, checked the slide and the magazine, then tucked it into her jeans.
“Let’s go.” He shut the trunk and walked toward the house with Jessalene and Lumi flanking him. Cassie jogged off, moving around the block.
They walked toward the house again, and this time they didn’t get accosted by Vampires. Jared reached the stoop first and stepped up. He knocked a few times and waited, but didn’t hear anything inside.
He wasn’t surprised. He knocked again and called out. “Hank, if you’re in there, open up.”
Again, nothing. He lingered then looked back at Lumi, who nodded at him. He reached into his back pocket and took his lockpick set out then got to work.
Lumi stood over his shoulder. “Just use magic,” she said.
“I can do this.” He frowned a little as he worked the tumblers. “Quieter this way. Uses less energy.”
She sighed and Jared felt her energy surge. She used a complex spell to deconstruct the lock itself, breaking it into pieces. It melted away like hot wax, dripping down the front of the door. Jared got some of it on his hand, but it was cold as ice. He flicked it off and put his picks away, giving her a look.
“Showoff,” he said.
She grinned sweetly.
Jessalene stepped between them and shoved the door open. Jared could see the quiet determination in her eyes, and he admired her for that. There was no fear as she stepped into the safe house of a known assassin.
He followed close behind her, and the pair of them stopped as they were confronted with a veritable jungle of plants.
It was green everywhere—plants in pots, plants growing from the ceiling, vines wrapped around every surface. Flowers the size of a grown man grew between cracks in the floorboards. It looked like a jungle, with leaves the size of large dogs, stems the size of fire hoses. The floor was covered with a carpet that looked like it was made from leaves, but it shifted and twisted beneath their feet. Jared couldn’t see any furniture, and the room smelled musty from the humid plant surfaces. “What the hell is this?” Jessalene asked.
Jared stepped past her, reaching for his power just as a vine descended from above the doorframe, whipped around his legs, and yanked him off balance.
38
Jared staggered off balance and slammed against the wall. Another vine quickly came curling down, wrapped itself around his neck, and started to squeeze. He gagged and struggled to reach for his magic, but Jessalene was already there. She touched the plants and they curled away from her like terrified snakes, their bodies writhing and twisting in the air.
“You okay?” she asked.
Jared took a breath and nodded. Lumi came past them, her power drawn into her. “Wait,” Jared said.
She looked back at him with a frown.
More vines came snaking from the room. Jared reached for his power and formed a memgram, one he’d been practicing. Spark of light in a vacuum, ancient gaseous swirling clouds of star energy and a primordial power flashes into explosive fire, consuming the black.
Flames ran down the length of his arm and curled out onto the vines. He concentrated, keeping the circumstances of the room in his mind, as his fire beat them back, burning half of them into ashes. But even though his flames tore through the plants like paper, there were still more, a thick jungle of them crowding the room. He had no clue how so many plants could fit in one space.
Jessalene shoved through the foliage. Jared could feel her aura, restless and angry. It lashed out against him, and he saw the plants moving back away from her, dancing and curling away. She was using her magic, forcing the plants to bend to her will.
“Jessa, wait,” Jared said as he reached Lumi’s side. She looked up at him and nodded. “Don’t burn the house down,” he mumbled.
Together, they used fire to clear back the plants. More vines snapped and whipped at them like angry, demented snakes. Other plants, like giant Venus Flytraps, tried to tear at them with their teeth, but Jared set them all ablaze.
The priori flowed through him like pleasure, like joy. He growled with the rush of it and he could tell Lumi was feeling the same way. The last time he fought alongside a Magi like this was back during his days as a member of the Fist, back when they’d slaughtered any that opposed them.
The memory made him falter. He clenched his jaw as a vine slashed across his face, going for his neck. Lumi’s fire burned across it, singeing Jared’s skin. He grunted but nodded at her as the pair of them kept burning through the plants. The room began to fill with black, acrid smoke, curling and twisting around the dying plants, but more green pushed through, growing at them. Jared clenched his jaw and continued to call his fire, burning, slashing, cutting his way through the mess.
They made it across the room and found a hallway. “Jessa!” Jared shouted. “Damn it, where did you go?” He burned another vine that slid from the ceiling and moved down the hall. There was an empty room on his right, just hardwood floor and white walls, and a bathroom at the end. The tub was full of brown water, so dark that he couldn’t see the bottom, and ripples marred the surface from something moving deep inside. He had the strange desire to put his hand in there, but he had a feeling he’d never bring it back out.
Lumi called to him from the hallway. He found her burning more vines in the living room. “Stairs,” she said. “This way.”
Jared followed. Together they burned a path to a set of steps. The vines there had retreated toward the ceiling, and Jared had a feeling Jessa had moved them away when she passed. Jared and Lumi went up the steps, burning the vines that lashed at them. As they reached the second floor, the plants stopped attacking, and just grew out enough to refill the downstairs. It stank of burned wet plant matter and jungle humidity.
He reached the top first and gestured for Lumi to wait. Dropping the memgram made the Need come rushing back through him, but pushed it away. He reached for that meditative state, the flow state, the blackness that allowed him to keep going despite the screaming Need in his ears. It was hard to pull it through him with his heart racing and his mind spinning.
“She shouldn’t have run off,” Lumi hissed. Jared glanced back at her and realized she was suffering from the Need too. They’d have to handle that later. “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “And we haven’t found Hank yet.”
“He could have her.”
Jared nodded, jaw clenched. “Focus,” he said.
Lumi didn’t respond. She took a few deep breaths. When she was done, Jared crested the steps, his power on the edge of his mind. Ice and shield memgrams came back the fastest for him, but fire was catching up. He had flames in his fists. The blue-red flames were dancing, skin-melting hot. He could incinerate this whole house, but he knew it would likely take the whole block with it.
That was the danger of an unleashed Magi. Pure, raw, indiscriminate power.
“Jessa!” Jared hissed. The upstairs was a long, thin hallway with four doors, one to his right, and three more staggered along its length. There was nothing on the bare white walls, nothing on the creaking hardwood floor. The plants were all downstairs, and nothing grew up here.
He heard a noise further along. He glanced back at Lumi, nodded at the door to their back. She frowned and stepped toward it, turned the knob, and went inside.
Jared moved down the hall as Lumi cleared the room to their backs. The first door he came to was ajar. He found a mattress on the floor, a blanket folded neatly on top. There was a simple wooden end table with two drawers, a single lamp, and a phone charger hanging along its top. There was nothing else, not a scrap of trash or paper or clothing.
He moved on. “I know you’re here,” he said, letting his voice get louder. “There’s no other way out.”
He checked the next room. Empty except for a laptop computer sitting in the center of the space, the screen on. He was tempted to go in and look at it, but it was too obviously a trap.
He moved on. The door at the end of the hall was a bathroom. It stood open, empty except for a shower curtain.
The final door was on his right. He lingered there for a moment, heart beating fast. He looked over his shoulder as Lumi emerged from her room, shaking her head. He nodded, stared down at the doorknob, and reached for it.
“I wouldn’t.”
The voice came from the other side of the door, clear and strong. He didn’t recognize it, but he had a feeling he knew who it was.
“Hank?” Jared asked.
“I have your girl,” he said. “Jessalene, right? Very pretty. Lovely Dryad. Disgusting that a Dryad like this would ever spend time with a Magi like you, but I supposed I’m not one to judge.”
Jared’s body tensed. “Let her go.”
“Oh, no,” Hank said, laughing. “No, I’m going to force-feed her poison then shove her corpse out. While you will be busy trying and failing to save her life, I will escape.” Jared heard a laugh, low and horrifying. “How’s that sound?”
Before he could speak, Lumi pushed him aside, pressed her hands to the door, and let her power spike through her.
39
The door burst open in a spray of wooden shards. The wood splintered like rockets, sharp and speeding into the center of the room, then stopped and hung mid-air like underwater mines. They halfway filled the room, hovering just a few feet from where Jessalene stood, with a taller Dryad standing just behind her, a long, curved knife help up against her throat.
Jared slipped past Lumi and brushed a few wooden shards out of the way. They fell to the ground with a dull thud. Jessalene’s eyes were wide with anger and terror. The gun he’d given her was on the ground a few feet away, and she was bleeding from a gash on her forearm. More blood dripped onto the ground and stained her shirt in patches.
Hank stood behind her. He was tall and thin, with short dark hair and light gray eyes. His skin had the greenish pale color that all Dryads had, and he wore lightweight tan pants and a simple black t-shirt. There was a backpack on the floor behind him, a desk pushed against the right wall, and another computer on top of it. A rolling chair was tipped onto its back, one of the wheels still spinning, like Jessalene had surprised him while he was sitting in front of the computer.
“Don’t move,” Hank said. He pressed the knife harder against her skin, on the edge of cutting her. “First wound was a warning.”
“Let her go,” Jared said, anger building in him. “Are you okay, Jessa?”
“Poison,” she grunted.
Jared’s eyes moved to the wound on her arm. Hank let out a laugh.
“Not a bad one,” he said. “Paralytic. But the next wound won’t be so minor.”
Jessalene clenched her mouth shut and tilted her chin toward Jared. He knew that look, knew what she wanted, but he ignored it.
“Let her go,” Jared said. “I’m with the Meta Marshal Service, and you’re under arrest.”
“Marshals?” He laughed. “I thought you were with that Vamp bitch.”
“We’re not with Nikita.”
“Makes sense. She wouldn’t use Magi.” Hank tilted his head. “And I’m assuming you’re not Medlar?”
Jared jerked his head at Lumi. “She was. And she’ll burn this block down if you hurt Jessalene. We’ll both rip your spine from your throat and string you up by your intestines.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Hank said mildly. “You Magi, you’re so creative when it comes to smiting your foes.”
“Let her go,” Jared said again.
“Here’s the problem with that.” He twisted his lips into a sneer. “If you’re a Marshal and she’s a Medlar, I’m guessing the plan’s gone sideways, well and truly fucked. Which means my reason for being here is now a moot point, and it’s time to get out. But I can’t rightly do that if I let my only hostage go.”
“There is no getting out,” Jared said. He reached for a memgram, one he hadn’t practiced much, but let the power flood through him. Formless shapeless bodies in a formless shapeless void bubbling and shifting between solid and gas and light and finally becoming solid becoming person and dancing on invisible strings. The wooden shards closest to Jared burst outward, making a path for him toward Hank. They flew around and stopped behind and to the side of the Dryad, their jagged ends directed at his neck.
Hank laughed. “Nice trick. Doesn’t matter.” He pressed his knife harder on Jessalene’s neck. She winced but held still. “Make me break her skin and she will die.”
“There’s nowhere to go.”
“So I suppose we’re at an impasse.” He pressed his lips together. “Why is a Marshal chasing me down?”
“No questions,” Lumi said, but Jared held out a hand.
“You murdered Wen Bet,” he said.
Hank laughed. “I was hired to kill the Elf, yes,” he said. “That’s true.”
“Why? And by who?”
He shrugged. “Ask her. She knows.”
Jared glanced at Lumi. Her face darkened. “My family hired you,” she said.
“Of course. As for why, I don’t know, and I don’t care. That’s not a question a professional asks.”
Jared took a breath. They’d assumed all of this already, but hearing it confirmed made some things fall into place. There were still so many outstanding questions, but at least he was starting to see the forest, if not the trees.
“We need proof,” Jared said. “We need a body.”
“There’s a farm out in the suburbs, another half-hour north of the Dorvahn land. I buried the Elf there, underneath a large maple tree. I think he would’ve liked it.”
“We need coordinates.”
Hank nodded at the computer. “On there.” He narrowed his eyes in concentration. “Now, you have what you want. It’s time I get what I want.”
“We can’t let you go.”
“But you can. I’m going to walk past you with little Jessalene here. You move, you do any magic, and she dies. Believe me, I know what you’re capable of, but I also know this: I killed a three-thousand-year-old Elf, and I’ve killed much worse. I can take this girl down with me.”
Jared didn’t move. He stared at Hank for a long moment. The killer stared back, his cold eyes unblinking, unmoving. The man’s body was ropy with veins and muscles, and Jared knew in that instant that h
e wasn’t bluffing. Hank could murder Jessalene in a heartbeat, faster than Jared could use magic, faster than even Lumi could call forth her power. There was no stopping him if he decided to cut Jessa’s throat wide open, and once that happened, she’d be gone.
He reached out and touched Lumi’s arm before speaking. “Go slow,” he said, and touched the priori again. He took control of the wood shards and made them all drop to the floor.
Hank smiled. “Good choice. But you two move first. Out in the hall.”
“No,” Lumi growled. “Why did my family hire you? What do they want with all that land?”
“Not my concern, little Magi,” Hank said. “Now, if you care about this girl, you’ll move.”
Jared could see Lumi struggle for a moment. He felt her tense, touch the priori, and gather her strength. She could destroy Hank, break his body into atoms, ice the blood in his veins, but not fast enough to keep him from killing Jessalene. He knew she wanted to do it, could feel the desire flood through her. Lumi had killed before, killed easily in the past, and it was nothing to her anymore. She’d grown hardened by years of use.
He could tell she wanted to question Hank more. He knew there were gaps in her understanding, places where her family did things she couldn’t comprehend, and those gaps drove her wild with anger. He’d felt all that when they’d slept together, when they’d had their brief moment of communion.
Lumi had lived her life in ignorance. She’d been a tool for her family, possibly the most powerful Magi they’d had in a generation, but they used her and never bothered to treat her like a human being. It left her scarred, angry, and broken. But she was still going, still moving forward, and Jared had to admire her for that. The Magi left a long string of horribly scarred people in their wake, and Lumi refused to be just another one of their victims.
That was why she got away. Because she knew, deep down inside of her, that if she stayed with her family they’d drain her dry of all her power and leave her as a husk. They’d feed her to the house, let it consume her, let it take everything she had.