by Ben Reeder
“Thank you, oyabun,” Kim said, bowing deep.
“For what? We did nothing.”
“Indeed,” Kim said as she straightened. She winked and Hikaru laughed. “It was most helpful. With your indulgence, I would go with my beloved.”
“Go with my blessing, Kim-chan.”
“It’s off to war we go,” I said.
Evidently, Dr. C had the same rule I did about his girlfriend not riding in the back seat, because I ended up there with Amanda while Kim sat up front with him.
“So, how did I end up knowing...whatever that was?” I asked.
“Through a process similar to the Horus Gaze,” Kim said. “I shared the memories of my training and experience with you, but nothing else.”
“And what did I end up sharing with you?” I asked.
“Very little, fortunately,” Kim said. “Your mind is an unsettling place.”
“No shit,” I said. “Just ask him,” I pointed to Dr. Corwin. “He got the full treatment.”
“Is that how you found your apprentice so quickly?” she asked him.
“What?” I asked. “How would he do that?”
“No,” Dr. C said. “Chance’s skull is pretty thick. It was Ren that led me to you.”
“Who is. Ren?” Kim asked, her eyebrows coming toward each other without furrowing. “We never heard of him.”
“He’s a sprite,” I said. “I’m surprised Hoshi never mentioned him.”
“You own a sprite?” Amanda said, her voice tight. Her expression had gone from neutral to a fierce glare that seemed like she wanted to pin me to something and dissect me.
“Amanda,” Kim said with a shake of her head. “Don’t.”
“No mother,” Amanda said. “How can he, of all people, turn around and enslave another living being?” She turned to me, her eyes bright with anger.
“It isn’t like that, Amanda,” I said.
“No? What is it like then? Do you pay him? Or do you just not work him as hard as other masters? Do you let him tend your garden for you? Allow him to hunt pests and fairies?”
“Back off, lady!” Ren said, appearing between Amanda and me. “Chance is my friend. So if you don’t lay off of him, I’m gonna put a dart in your ass!” Amanda recoiled, then looked past him to me.
“You brainwashed him,” she hissed.
“Hey, I’m right here!” Ren said. “And no, he didn’t brainwash me. He asked me if I wanted to come live with him, and he made the Academy give up my contract to him. He couldn’t free me, so he did the next best thing. He doesn’t make me do anything for him. He asks me, and I can say no if I want. I have my own home and my own garden and I come and go as I please. I’m as close to free as any sprite has been in seven decades. So shut. The Hell. Up!” He leaned forward, his wings red as he thrust his finger out and raised his voice on the last sentence. Amanda leaned back, her eyebrows climbing toward her hairline. She looked past him again, and I shrugged.
“You’re on your own,” I told her.
“I… apologize,” she said slowly. “For speaking ill of your friend.”
“Say it to him, too,” Ren said.
“I’m sorry, Chance,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking. I assumed… too much.”
“You remind me of me,” I said to her. “Only without the anger issues.”
“So,” Amanda said to Ren, “you followed us without being seen. An impressive feat, if you could hide from my mother.”
“I’m a sprite scout,” Ren said. “If I don’t want to be seen, you won’t know I’m there.”
“So, are you taking me back to prom?” I asked Dr. C.
“No time,” he said. “Besides that, sending you out of harm’s way didn’t work. I might as well have you where I can keep an eye on you.”
“What happened to the last line of defense?” I smirked.
“It just got a lot closer to the first line of defense,” he said. “I just hope you’re right about where the Horde will show up.”
“He is,” Kim said.
“How do you know?” Dr. C said.
“That’s a question best left for later,” Kim said with a smile. She turned and winked at me, then laid a hand on Dr. Corwin’s arm.
“You’re as bad as he is,” he said as he pulled to a stop.
“He could only have learned it from you, beloved,” Kim said. Getting out, I saw we were in an old industrial park not far from where we had made our earlier stop before prom. Dr. C led us to the side of one of the metal sided buildings where Donovan waited with T-Bone and Cross. Across the way, I could see the contingent of Sentinels waiting beside another building. Ren flew down and landed on my shoulder.
“We have incoming,” he said. “Bunch of werewolves, most on motorcycles.” A second after he said it, I heard the rumble of motorcycle engines, and a group of headlights became visible as the bikes rounded the corner. Sinbad rode in front with a group on Harley’s in a wedge behind him. Vortigern’s limo drove behind the bikes, leading a double column of cars and trucks. Shade got out, her feet bare now, and her corsage gone from her wrist. I moved from our hiding place to meet her next to Sinbad.
“You came,” I said, offering my hand to Sinbad.
“Of course we did,” Sinbad laughed. “I may be an old wolf, but I’ll never turn down a good fight. What’d you tell him, pup?” he asked, turning to Shade.
Shade’s cheeks turned almost as red as her hair. “I was a little... vague.”
Sinbad shook his head and scowled. “There was a time when I would’ve slapped the bullshit out of you for that, girl,” he growled. “But now you gotta live with the truth coming out. You mighta had your reasons for it, but you don’t involve me in your games, you got that?” She nodded, her shoulders slumping.
“I’m sorry, Sinbad,” she said.
“Don’t apologize to me ‘til you apologize to him,” he told her, then turned to me. “And you, kid, need to figure out how and when to keep a secret with a were’. You two need to figure this shit out with each other before you start making nice with everyone else who has to deal with your BS. You both got that?” We nodded. “Good. We got a fight to win. So get your head in the game. Corwin, where do you want us?”
Shade and I walked away on our own while Dr. C came out to talk to Sinbad. “So, which one of us should apologize first?” I asked.
“You know I’d never skip out on you when it’s important, right?” Shade asked in a rush. “Even when I’m pissed, I’ll never let you down. Because I’d hate it if you ever thought I was like that, or if you ever thought….” She stopped, her eyes searching mine.
“Never,” I said. “No matter how mad I get, or stupid, I know you have my back. And I’ll always be there when you need me.”
“I do know that,” she said, then stepped up close to me. “You don’t go through the things we have and let little things get in the way of the big stuff. It’s just...I get scared sometimes, and I don’t know how to do normal. Or healthy. I feel like a kid again, like I don’t know what I’m doing or what’s going on and…” She paused, then leaned in and nipped at my neck before she buried her face in my shoulder. I put my arms around her and held tight.
“You know you do that to me, too,” I said. She nodded against my body and squeezed tighter.
When she looked at me again, her face was set in a frown, her expression fierce. “I love you and my wolf loves you,” she said. “And I don’t know how to deal with that, sometimes. But it isn’t going to change. But,” she whispered, looking up at me with wide, vulnerable eyes,, “how do I know it won’t change for you? I’m terrified of giving you my heart and soul and having it ripped away.”
“There aren't words big enough for this, Shade,” I said. “I could stop breathing easier than I could stop loving you.” I leaned in and bit at her neck harder than I usually did, making her gasp and arch her back.
“You,” she panted, “are a cruel, cruel man.”
“Not just to you,” I said, my own
breath coming a little faster. “But time’s not on our side right now.”
“I know,” Shade said as she stepped back. “We should be dancing and making out right now.” I shrugged and look around. Lucas hefted my backpack and gave me a thumbs up as he walked past, his own duffel bag slung at his side. Vortigern glared at me as he got out of the limo, but he went to join Dr. Corwin.
“Probably,” I said. “But I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be right now. Except one.” I kissed her like there was no tomorrow, not caring who saw us or what they thought. “And if we survive...who knows?”
She winked at me. “If? Speak for your squishy self, mage boy. I plan on surviving this fight. You better have the same idea.” She kissed me and padded off to join the growing crowd of weres’, leaving me to head back over to Dr. C.
In minutes, the street was clear again, and the area seemed deserted. Then, all we could do was wait.
Or so we thought.
No sooner than I had made myself comfortable on the ground with my back against the building, the was a green flash from the east, and my skin started to tingle. The feeling was almost an itch, a sense of wrongness that was hard to pin down and just as hard to ignore. Then, in the distance, the screams started. I squeezed my eyes shut hard at the images those sounds conjured up in my already messed up head. Unlike most of the people around me, I didn’t have to imagine what was being done to the cultists who had been dumb enough or unlucky enough to actually summon Gedeon and his retinue. Because very few beings on the planet could contain an Arch-Duke of the Abyss, and even fewer knew the proper wards to contain him. And Gedeon was a patient demon.
“Oh, God,” Lucas whispered beside me. “Did we…?”
“This isn’t on us,” I said. “They summoned him, and they ignored the warnings about his power. And they would have killed Monica if they had found her.”
“Then I’m kind of hoping we did have something to do with that.” I held my thumb and forefinger almost touching.
“Chance, it’s Ren” I heard in my ear. “You have incoming, and man, there are a lot of them. They’re heading south on-”
“South? Why are they going that way?” I asked, standing and heading for the corner of the building.
“I dunno,” Ren said. “Maybe because the road goes that way. Or maybe because your….wait a second.”
“What?” I almost yelled.
“They just...stopped. And they’re just milling around. Like a herd of cattle. Wait...now they’re starting to head your way. But they’re a couple of blocks south of you.”
“Damn,” I muttered. “They’re past us.”
“What?” Lucas said. “How?”
“They went south first, not west. We can’t move everyone over in time.”
“Can we get them to come to us?”
“You might be onto something,” I said. “Sinbad! I need a ride!” I yelled as I jogged past Dr. C and Kim. The full-throated roar of a Harley and a cone of light announced Sinbad’s arrival in the middle of the road.
“Where we goin’ kid?” he asked as I got on.
“To start a fight.”
Chapter 17
~ Wizards are crafty bastards. Never trust that anything is what it seems with them. ~ Synrhodi’ir, Chancellor of the Infernal Archive
Sinbad’s bike slipped between buildings, bounced across parking lots and over curb and sent gravel flying behind us as he took the shortest route between two points.
“Corwin’s gonna be pissed,” he laughed as we shot out from between two buildings.
“He can ground me if I live through the night,” I said. “Gedeon and his crew are south of us. There’s absolutely nothing between them and hundreds of kids but air and bad planning.”
“And you think you can get a bunch of demons to show up at your ambush all by your lonesome?”
“No,” I yelled over the roar of the bike. He skidded to a stop in the middle of the road, and we found ourselves facing a score of demons. “I just have to convince one.”
Gedeon’s retinue was comprised of mostly humanoid looking demons, with a few of the lower caste insectoids and one tentacled monstrosity to round things out for diversity’s sake. Gedeon towered over them all, wreathed in flame with black smoke billowing away from his body. They were heading across the road at an angle, and all heads and eyestalks turned our way. I got off the bike and stepped closer.
“Hey, Gedeon, you said you were looking for me,” I yelled. “Well, here I am. Now what?” Gedeon let out a roar and pointed at me. As one, the retinue turned toward us and broke into a run. I’d challenged him publicly, and his own ego aside, he couldn’t afford to lose face by ignoring me.
“That ain't much of a Horde,” Sinbad yelled when I jumped on back of the bike. He gunned the engine and took off back the way we came from.
“It isn’t all of it,” I yelled back. Behind us, the thunder of hooves, feet, and insectoid legs pounded against the pavement.
“Where’s the rest?” We shot out from a narrow alley and bounced onto another road.
“Still in Hell, waiting for him to summon them.”
“Yeah? When’s that gonna happen?” he asked, twisting the handlebars to the right and heading for another opening.
“As soon as he sees the Maxilla in play,” I said. Demons poured out of the gaps between buildings, screaming for blood in Infernal. We angled toward another gap and narrowly missed the side of the building on the right as Sinbad made the turn without slowing down. He twisted the throttle and we surged through the narrow gap. When we shot through the opening to the street, Sinbad hit the brakes and we skidded to a stop. A group of demons had emerged from the alley on either side of us and had the street blocked on both sides of us.
“Don’t think you thought this through very well, kid,” Sinbad growled.
I pulled the wand from my jacket. “Ictus latior!” I yelled. The wide blast of telekinetic force slammed into the middle of the line and bowled over everything in a ten foot swath. “Well, go!” I said. The demons back away as we rode toward them, and I could hear Gedeon bellowing behind us. I sent a couple of blasts into their ranks to keep them scared as we passed.
We shot past them and they took off in pursuit. Sinbad drove past the two buildings where our people were waiting, then did another screeching stop, this time coming to rest with the bike turned sideways. I got off and turned to face the approaching demons.
“I’ve got this,” I said. Further up the road, I could see Dr. C moving toward the edge of the building. I shook my head and turned to Sinbad. “Keep him from jumping the gun… and from waiting too long.”
“Okay, kid,” he said. He gunned the bike and roared away. It was time for a little grandstanding. I stepped forward and slipped the battle gauntlet on, then took my hawthorn wand in my left hand.
“Flagro,” I said, and a bright red beam of pure heat emerged from the crystal tip of the wand. Slowly, I drew a line in front of me that stretched across the road. The red beam left flames in its wake that died seconds after it passed. The horde slowed, and Gedeon stepped forward.
“Come on, Gedeon!” I yelled. “I’ve drawn a line in the sand and I’m challenging you to cross it.”
He stepped forward and spent a moment looking down at me, then he started laughing. “Look at the little apprentice. You think you can challenge me? Ha! Kill him for me.” The gathered demons went still for a moment, then moved forward with a yell.
The insectoid skittered out ahead of the rest, its many legs clacking against the pavement. I held my ground, even though I felt the pucker factor going up. In my peripheral vision, I could see Sinbad holding Dr. Corwin back. Under my breath, I muttered “Obex latior,” and turned my right palm forward. Sinbad let go of Dr. C when I put my hand on the butt of the LeMat. A split second later, the bug demon bounced off the invisible wall I’d put up a few yards away. Gedeon barely slowed down as he walked through it. The bug clattered along behind him, and they both stopped a
few feet away from me. The bug demon’s bulbous eyes never moved, but it kept turning its head toward its master, then back to me.
“You really thought you could stop me?” Gedeon laughed as his burning arm reached for me.
“Stopping you was never the point,” I said, taking a step back. His hand froze in place. “I needed your attention on me while you moved your whole army into a trap.” He straightened up and started to look around, and I drew the LeMat. The bug demon started to move toward me as I thumbed the hammer back, and when it reared back to strike, I pulled the trigger. The incendiary round hit it in the gaping maw that it revealed, and the pair of grasping mandibles on either side of the opening went flying to either side when its chitinous skull exploded. Demon brains sizzled against Gedeon’s burning torso, and Dr. C unleashed the opening salvo. Lines of fire, shards of ice, bolts of lightning and white hot globes of plasma tore through the flanks of Gedeon’s massed forces. Jagged stone erupted from the street, impaling dozens in the center, and someone sent a blue black orb sailing into them, leaving holes in in everything it touched. Demons screamed as their physical forms were destroyed, but their ranks still held. Death on the mortal plane held no terror for them, but Gedeon’s eternal wrath did. He raced back to the ranks of his minions, yelling in Infernal patois all the way. Gouts of fire erupted from his hands and splashed against waiting shields. Sheer power hammered against careful construction and found itself well matched. Still, a destructive spell will eventually wear down any shield, and I could see the strain starting to show on the faces of some of the Sentinels trying to maintain them.
As the protective wards started to show the first signs of faltering, Sinbad brought the weres’ into the fray. Unfazed by physical damage, they fell on the demon horde with abandon, tossing demons around like ragdolls, forcing Gedeon to stop his assault as his ranks began to thin. He raised his arms and started chanting, and more demons started appearing in bursts of purple light, this time more of the bug and crab minions. Wolf claws and teeth scraped against chitin but drew no blood, and pincers started reaching for limbs and throat. One wolf fell, its head shorn from its body. No amount of healing was going to fix that. Other demons started to devour the fallen weres’ body, and the tide shifted back toward stalemate. Hybrid wolves drew back from the edge of the fray, sides heaving, their fur glistening with gore, too much of it their own. Some of the wounds weren’t healing, and I could see the concern etched in Sinbad’s frown.