Blood shot out and he screamed as he fell to the ground, his tongue flapping beside him. Someone grabbed me by the back of my head and slammed it into the floor. I sent an elbow to their gut and then flipped them over my back.
They landed a punch to my face, bouncing my head back. I could see at least six more coming for me. Telling myself that now wasn’t the time to panic, I used my telekinesis to hold them still, while Trent wrapped his lasso around the person under me, yanking him forward.
The lasso lit up blue, as it went around the person’s throat, and then the smell of burnt flesh filled the air as it burned the man alive. Trent and I weren’t always so brutal in a fight, only when the alternative was death.
Vane and his men would kill us if they could, and I was willing to do everything I could to stay alive and get Celina and the others to safety.
Three came up on Trent, and one used his telekinesis to lift him in the air while he put pressure on his throat, choking him. Trent’s lasso was back on his arm, and he whipped it out, though it was clear he was losing strength.
The lasso wrapped around the waist of the man with telekinesis, and then thick metal spikes came out, impaling the man through his stomach and guts. The man’s eyes went wide as his hands fell to the side, and then Trent was free, and the man was lying in a pool of his own blood.
Trent then turned to the other two, his lasso back in his hand. Turning from that scene, I didn’t duck quick enough as silver energy hit me in my left shoulder, and someone else threw a punch to my face.
I fell back, feeling as if my whole body was aflame. Damn, it hurt. Blood leaked from my shoulder, and the person who’d hit me in the face drew back to do it again.
I raised my right hand, not sure I could move the left one. Then I used my telekinesis to rip the person’s throat out. Another blast came my way, probably from the person who’d hit me the first time, and I rolled on the ground, falling hard on my left side.
I grunted as my shoulder hit against the hard floor, then ripped the spine out of the guy who’d attacked me, before coming to my feet, and separating a woman’s head from her body, who’d had her hand out ready to attack me with fire.
Also, I noticed that some of the Dox had joined us in the fight, the ones who were still able to move that was, and I couldn’t help but admire their refusal to give up or back down.
It went on like that for a while, us hitting and taking hits, but when the dust finally settled, Vane, Lexnu, and five of their people were still standing.
A few of the Dox lay on the floor unmoving but even more were gathered together, still standing, Celina included.
Apparently, that wasn’t enough for Vane though, because he waved his hand, and the five left charged us. One tall, skinny dude, who I’d seen punch a hole through the floor earlier came at me.
He had super strength, so one hit from him, and I’d be no more. I didn’t even give him a chance, instead, I reached out my right hand, and used my telekinesis to rip his heart out.
Two dudes charged Trent, moving fast. He ducked low, his lasso smacking one dude across the face, burning and cutting him in the process. That dude fell away, and the lasso went around the arm of the other guy, the spikes coming out again, cutting into the man’s skin, ripping him down to the bone. He let out a scream, and then Trent hit him in the face with the lasso, spikes still out.
One of the Dox hit another one of Vane’s men so hard, his head bounced back and went at an odd angle. Had the Dox not been weakened by Vane’s abuse, a hit like that, using super strength, probably would have taken the dude’s head off, but the effect was still the same. This guy wouldn’t be getting up again.
The last one to charge us was a woman with red hair. Most people from Mellen had power over energy and this woman was no different. She shot rapid fire blasts at Celina, who fell back, then used her own silver energy to wrap around the woman’s legs and squeeze until it cut through the woman’s flesh and bone.
Then there were two. Vance and Lexnu stood side by side, the bodies of their crew all around us. Blood covered the floors and walls, and random arms, legs, and heads were scattered every few feet.
The scent of blood, body fluids, and burnt flesh was heavy in the air, but I refused to cover my nose. This was a fight I’d willingly participated in, and some of those bodies were Dox members, so there’d be no turning away.
I could see the vein in Vane’s head jumping, but he tried his best to look unaffected. “You know, this little rebellion of yours-”
Silver energy wrapped around his neck and his eyes went wide as Celina grunted and fell to her knees. She was using all the strength she had to cut through to his bones, and I figured he too, must have been weakened from the fight because he tried but his silver energy only hit widely around the room. Celina’s breath came quick and short, but she pressed on until he dropped to the ground, and her energy crushed his throat. Vane was a threat because he had so many men and women at his command, without them, well...
As for Lexnu, the Dox with super strength hit him one time in the face and his head snapped back. Then it was just the remaining members of the Dox standing, along with myself and Trent, bodies and blood all around us.
Chapter 7
I opened a portal to the skilled hospital I’d used for Celina before, the one with the natural healers. It took some time, but all the Dox made it through, including the ones we had to carry, those who’d fallen, as none of us were willing to leave them behind.
Celina and the Dox had contacts on Sergin, and Celina had called them before we left, to give them the details of what had happened.
The healers at this hospital were good and thorough, and it took about five hours before everyone was cleared to go. My shoulder was a lot better after they’d healed it, though it still ached a little.
I sat down on a chair in the waiting room, happy that my client was okay but tired and ready to go home. Trent sat beside me. He’d only had a few scrapes and bruises, so he didn’t figure he needed any healing.
I ran fingers through my hair, pushing it back. The Dox were a brave group of people and their resilience and commitment to make the world they lived in better touched me deeply and gave me a lot to think about, and from the look on Trent’s face he had a few thoughts percolating through his mind as well.
Celina walked up, her and the guy with the brown hair that was so much like her own. Both of them looked a lot better. The guy’s right eye was still missing because healing energy was time sensitive. If too much time had passed, then there was nothing they could do to heal you. On that same note, the D would probably be carved on all the Dox faces forever.
Celina looked a lot better. Her bruises were gone. Her eye was no longer hanging, but back in its usual place, and she seemed to have a renewed energy about her. “This is my brother Jisen.” She pointed to the guy beside her, and he nodded at both myself and Trent. “Thank you, Rekia. For that night in the alley, and for coming back to check on me,” she said.
“So, the Dox is a group trying to bring order to Mellen?” I asked.
She nodded, and I saw some of the steel from before fly back into her eyes. “The top six get everything. You want to open a business on Mellen? To keep it protected you have to give them twenty percent off the top, no questions asked. All grocery stores, department stores, and things like that are either owned by them or they take a large part of the profit. They control everything, while the rest of us continue to kill each other in the streets.”
“Some of us want to change that,” Jisen said. “There are a lot more Dox on Mellen than people know, and we’re making moves, reaching out to other worlds, trying to get help.”
Celina let out a sigh. “We don’t know how to do this, but a few worlds like Sergin have already agreed to come in and help us set up some kind of structure. We don’t want to lean too heavily on one world, too easy for things to go awry.”
“Yeah,” Jisen agreed. “It’ll probably be twenty years before thing
s settle into what they have on Sergin and some of the other places that are helping us, but this is a start.”
I agreed with that, with everything they were doing really, but I did have one question. “Celina, how did they find you on Ricken?”
Celina shrugged. “Best I can figure someone from Mellen came there to visit or do business, saw me and let it slip. I don’t know, but there was a traitor among us. That’s how they caught us the first time. One of Vane’s men got close to one of the Dox, no one knew he worked for Vane.”
She shook her head, and the look of betrayal was deep in her eyes. “They killed a lot of us that night. I saw them bust Jisen’s head open. I thought he was dead.” Her voice faltered a bit on that last part, and she let out a deep breath.
Jisen gave his sister a sad smile. “The last I knew you were on the ground bleeding. When I came to, they told me you were dead in an alley somewhere. Those of us they kept alive, they would beat daily and question, trying to get us to give up the rest of the Dox, but we never said a word.” A look of pride crossed his face and Celina gave his hand a squeeze.
“Where are you going now?” I asked since I was sure the rest of Vane’s men, as well as the other big six, would be looking for them, and the big D carved into their faces might as well have been a beacon.
“I talked to my contacts on Sergin. They're going to set us up with housing and employment while we work on bringing order to Mellen. If you’re willing to open a portal and send us back there. I have the house we are to report to.”
I was more than happy to oblige.
“HMM. I DO LOVE CANOS,” Trent said, popping the small, round, yellow fruit into his mouth. Canos were kind of like a cross between a grape and a banana. I didn’t know how else to describe them, except to say they were very sour, something Trent and I both liked about them.
We were at my house on Yello, and canos were native there. Because of what I did, and the kind of life I lived, I kept houses on multiple worlds, never knowing when I might need space to breathe or to just hide away.
Yello was a nice easy place, and I often came here to relax. Right now, we were lying on the white rug of my living room floor, and the fireplace was lit up with a nice blaze, making it feel warm and toasty.
I downed a little of my beer then set it to the side. “I’m just glad my client is safe.” Celina had informed us they’d made it back to Sergin safely, and so far, things were okay. Either way, I’d be keeping a check on her for as long as she wanted me to.
Trent’s eyes softened, and he put his hands on either side of my face. “You’d go to the ends of any world to protect your clients, wouldn’t you?”
I nodded because it wasn’t even a question. If I’d promised them safety, then I’d do everything I could to make sure they had it.
Trent leaned over and placed his chapped lips against my own. “And I wouldn’t take you any other way.”
I let out a contented sigh, as I fell into the kiss, because like always, he knew exactly what to say.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED! If you would like to read more about Rekia and Trent, please check out my books Crooked Magic and Rogue Magic. These two also have a new book coming out soon, to find out when please feel free to join my newsletter. When you join, you will also get exclusive stories and be the first to know about deals and promotions. https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/h2l3b2
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Run Away
by Kat Cotton
NIGHT TIME WAS THE hardest time. Nights I scurried around, hiding like a rat. I hated nights. I hated the darkness. Mostly, I hated the streets with the damn cops with questions in their eyes and the men whose eyes held totally different questions knowing no one on this entire planet would give two shits about what they did to a runaway.
I slept during the day. I slept in libraries and I slept in parks. At night, I stared into the darkness and prayed for morning.
Tonight I headed for the abandoned house I’d seen earlier in the day, hoping it was safe. Tonight of all nights, I wanted a safe place. Even if it was just for a few hours, I wanted something that felt like home.
When I’d run away, I’d only thought about what I was running from not what I’d run to. Because there was nothing. Nowhere to run to, not a thing other than this emptiness. All I’d ever known was the circus. Even when I’d stepped outside the gates, the towns had been foreign places, full of strange wonders I never needed to understand.
The night I left, I grabbed the fifty bucks I’d saved, thinking it was a fortune but I soon learned. Fifty bucks buys you jack shit in the real world.
For a while, I’d had no problem rolling rich jerks for their wallets. The longer I was homeless, the harder that got. Because, I couldn’t deny it, I stunk. I stunk worse than Stinky McClure, who bragged he hadn’t had a shower since 1985.
Showers had never been my friend but I sure as hell missed them now that they weren’t so easy to come by. Even the stupidest of those rubes got their back up when they could smell me coming.
Even when I washed myself, my clothes stunk and had become encrusted with dirt and muck. An oil stain smeared over the front of my hoodie and my jeans had a big rip down the leg, not in any kind of fashionable way. Soon I’d have to do something desperate. Robbing’s no good but sometimes it’s the only way.
This house wasn’t bad, as far as abandoned houses went. I walked through the empty rooms, all smelly and dusty but I’d gotten used to that. At least this one didn’t stink of rat piss. That was something to be grateful for.
I put my hand in my pocket and touched my treasures. The stub of a candle and a box of matches, a stick of chalk and a new treasure in a scrunchy paper bag.
Damn candle was nearly done. When I got to the back of the house, away from the streetlights shining through the windows, I flicked the light switch, just out of wishful thinking. Damn me. That light flickered on. Paydirt.
The old kitchen reeked of neglect and mold. Wallpaper hung in strips and greasy dust covered every surface. I walked over to the sink and turned on the taps just to check. A loud clang scared the hell out of me. I jumped back then lurched to turn the tap off. Before I could, it clanged again then rusty water spurted out. I let it run for a while until it went clear then washed my face.
I thought about stripping off my hoodie and jeans and giving them a rinse out but it was a cold night and I’d be naked until they dried. I cupped my hands and took some long drinks of that water then I kept walking through the house looking for a safe spot.
The lights worked in the next room too. It’d been a bedroom once. The bed remained in the center of the room but I’d bet you two bucks that there were mice nesting in that mattress now. Hopefully only mice and not rats. But even rats weren’t the greatest danger.
I’d take the rats over the junkies any day.
Back in the circus, Miss Lizzie could see lights around people. Auras she called them. She’d tell me about them, what the different colors meant. I’d ask her what color she saw around me and she’d say I was too young for her to know. But Miss Lizzie lied. I knew that well enough. She could see my color but she didn’t want to tell me. And I imagined that’s because she saw pure black.
I couldn’t see colors around people but I could sense them. I just needed to touch a bit of flesh and I’d know right away if they were good or bad. Of course, most folks are a big swirling mess of both, and often the parts they think are good are really the bad parts, and the ones they think are bad are good. But there are some people who are almost all light, and some that are all darkness.
But junkies aren’t like that. They’ve got missing parts. Like all the good and bad parts are obliterated in them and there’s just a big hole full of need. That’s why I’d rather rats than junkies. At least rats are honest. Junkies would roll you for your last dollar and steal the filling out of your teeth.
I pulled some of the blankets off the b
ed. They weren’t too bad, just a little damp smelling. I made myself a comfy looking nest
First things first. I got the chalk and drew marks on the carpet. Sigils was what my Ma had called them. I wasn’t sure these sigils worked or if they meant anything – probably just a stupid carnie superstition—but there’s no way I’d settle anywhere without them.
In the circus, we’d had them painted on the walls and door of our van. All my life I’d been told you couldn’t let the bad things in. Maybe it was superstition, but it made me feel better. I sure didn’t want to test it out.
Even if I didn’t sleep, you never knew what those dark corners held, and you never knew why a house had been abandoned. This looked like it’d been a decent place not that long ago. You don’t just walk out and leave a decent house to rot, not unless there’s already something rotten around.
Once I was safe in the middle of the circle, I slowly opened the small bag wanting to draw out the moment. Every crinkle of the paper held a promise.
When I got out the small cupcake, I held it to my nose to breathe in the sweet goodness. I’d spent so long picking it out that the woman had gotten angry. Guess she didn’t want some smelly bit of human trash messing up her fancy store. But I didn’t want just any cake. I wanted the perfect cake.
Pink frosting topped the tiny little cake in its case of pink stars. I smoothed out the paper bag and set the cake on top so not even a crumb got wasted. A stupid indulgence that took some of my precious money but just looking at that little cake made my heart lighter.
Then I lit the candle stub.
“Happy birthday,” I said to myself. Then I whispered my name. The name I needed to forget but maybe this once it was okay to whisper it into the darkness. Or maybe not. “Jayne,” I added. My new name. A name so common no one paid it the slightest attention even if they bothered to ask me for it.
Street Spells: Seven Urban Fantasy Shorts Page 16