Warlock For Hire: Arcane Inc. Book 1

by Sean Stone

  I heard nothing from Ashley for the next few days and finally I accepted that that was it for the two of us. Margie was wrong. Our time was up, we’d done all we would do together. I concentrated on finding Shay and whoever he worked for. All the power was still gone and I needed to find it. I didn’t need the magic for anything, but I wouldn’t feel right until it was back where it belonged. And far away from the likes of Shay Donahue. Unfortunately, they’d done a good job of hiding it. I tried tracing it the same where I had before, but I got no results. It was like it had disappeared off the face of the earth. It looked like I was just going to have to forget about that too. Maybe it was for the best. Having Craig kill himself in front of me had been my warning to back off. I should learn from my mistakes. I hadn’t backed off with Killian and look where that had got me. Almost dead. I couldn’t afford to fuck things up again.

  It’s odd you know. When you hear about people killing people, there’s always stories about how hard it was. How they couldn’t get on with their life afterwards. Nothing was ever the same again. The guilt consumed them. Do you know what I mean? The thing is, I was fine. No guilt, no big voids left in my life. Everything was exactly how it was before. I didn’t even care. Maybe that’s just the kind of guy I am. The kind that can kill a man and walk away. I’d do it again ten times over without even thinking about it.

  I got a call from the police that afternoon asking me to go down to the station. I went down there about an hour later and was taken straight through to an interrogation room. One plain clothes officer entered. He was a tall beefy bloke. He closed the door and swaggered over to me. He sighed loudly before sitting down and then throwing a file on the table.

  “I’m Inspector Richards. You’re Edward Lancaster, right?” he said. I noticed the tape wasn’t recording. It wasn’t on the record. Informal for now.

  “Yep. What’s this about?” I asked. I already had an idea.

  “Have a look.” He nodded at the file.

  I pulled it towards me and opened it onto the first page. I was immediately greeted by the pulverised head of Killian Myers. Not that anyone would know that’s who it was. Or even that the pulp had once been a head. “Jesus!” I exclaimed and pushed it away.

  “That’s what I said. Do you know who that is?” he asked.

  “Nobody now,” I said. He smiled bitterly.

  “His name was Killian Myers. Heard of him?”

  “Nope.”

  “Really? Because he had a book in his hotel room. There was an awful lot about you in it. And I have officers who claim they saw you at the murder scene.” He raised his eyebrows, waiting for a reply.

  “Well, they must’ve been mistaken,” I replied. I needed to be careful; one wrong word and I could be charged with murder. Although, how could he possibly suggest I did that?

  “And the book?”

  “What was in it?”

  “All sorts. Apparently you’re a warlock,” Richard’s said. No humour in his tone.

  “Well, that’s ridiculous. Sounds like this Kevin Myers was insane.”

  “Killian Myers.”

  “Right.”

  “So where were you at noon on the 28th of June?” he asked.

  “Oh,” I pretended to think. “I think I went for a walk. At Whatman Park,” I said. Whatman Park is far enough from Broadway Bridge that I couldn’t be connected. How anybody could connect that to a human anyway was beyond me.

  Inspector Richards leaned back in his chair and contemplated me. His expression was impossible to read. Finally, he spoke again. “Myers was the kind of man who did what he wanted. If something got in his way he bought it and told it to move. Did the same with this police force. There were a few of us not happy about it, but we were outnumbered. I’m not sure if he deserved that,” he tapped the file. “But I think the world’s better off without him. If you think of anything that might be useful give me a call.” He whipped out a business card and pushed it into my hand. “And if I need anything I think I know where to find you.” He got up and left the room without another word. I tucked his business card into my pocket and took myself home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  A week after I’d killed Killian I was in Muggs having a bit of dinner and watching the world go by. Business had been slow, but I was making just about enough to get by. I didn’t hear any more from Inspector Richards and I assumed he’d decided I wasn’t a suspect. Probably given up on the whole case. There was no way he was going to solve that one unless magic got exposed to the world in the next month or so. I finished off my tea and picked up the local newspaper which had been left in my booth. Apparently Broadway Bridge had been cordoned off because the council was testing out a new fireworks display. Was that really the best way they could explain a column of fire and an exploding river? I wondered how many people believed it. Then I realised they probably all did. People are so wrapped up in their own little words that they rarely stop to question anything. They were all too engrossed in Facebook and Twitter. Watching videos of animals doing stupid things. Listening to podcasts were people prattle on about stuff that doesn’t even matter. Looking at pictures of other people’s dinner. Constantly telling the world what they’re up to in some desperate attempt to make their life seem fulfilling. If they just paid a bit more attention to the world around them then they would have noticed the existence of several other races by now. But instead, they carried on living in their own empty little worlds where vampires and warlocks were things of fiction.

  “Put the newspaper down,” somebody said and to my surprise I did. Completely against my own will my arms moved and placed the newspaper on the table. I looked up and saw Shay standing at the edge of the booth. I was surprised to see that he looked like he might have washed. “Don’t move,” he said, seeing I was about to punch him. I remained perfectly still. He’d managed to slip me my own mind control serum. I still needed to settle on a name for that. Mind control serum sounds alright, right? “I had the barmaid put it in your tea,” he said. He slid in opposite me and smiled, revealing all his yellow wonky teeth to me.

  “I thought you were smart enough to disappear,” I said, grimacing.

  “Ha! You wish. No, no. I want a bit of payback after what you did to me,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to get it now. I’ve got orders. No harming you. Yet.”

  “Whose orders?” I asked. I knew he wasn’t going to tell me but I had to try.

  “Rachel’s,” he said, and my heart almost exploded in my chest. The woman who’d murdered my parents because I wouldn’t go with her. I’d been hiding from her for years. Moving from town to town, keeping a low profile. Staying under the radar. And now she’d finally caught up with me. I knew I shouldn’t have drawn so much attention with all those little shows, all those business cards. I thought I could keep it under control. I was wrong.

  Shay burst out laughing when he saw the look on my face. “You remember her then. She’s been looking for you for some time you know. She told me you’ve been running from her for years. Refusing to do what she wants, even for money. But then you settled here. You thought you were safe. Big mistake. You upset her, Eddie, you upset her a lot. And now, she’s coming to get you.”

  I didn’t know what to say. My throat was dry. I would happily face Killian Myers a hundred times over rather than face the woman who murdered my parents. I thought back to Craig’s death and finally realised what the lesson was. She wasn’t warning me to back off, she was trying to teach me that when I made the wrong choices people died. Just like my parents had. “When?” was all I managed to say.

  “When she’s good and ready. Until then, sit tight,” he smiled one last time and then got up and left.

  I don’t know if he’d done it deliberately, or if he’d simply forgotten I was under the influence of the serum, but I was unable to move. He told me not to. I really needed to work on an inoculation, now more than ever. I’d tasted my own medicine and it was worse than bitter. The serum lasted just over twenty-fo
ur hours. That’s right, for twenty-four hours I was sitting in that booth. Nobody even cared. Bobby asked what I was doing when it was time to close the pub, but once I’d explained my predicament he just laughed and left me there. So twenty-four hours later I finally managed to get up. I was starving hungry and dying for a drink, but I didn’t trust anyone to serve me anymore. That sodding serum could be in anything I consumed. Only I could prepare my own food and drink now. Like Mad-Eye-Bloody-Moody. I’d just have to wait until I was home to drink.

  Once I was free of my own serum I considered fleeing. Just going home, packing up everything I didn’t want to leave behind and hitting the road. But what was the point? Let’s face it, I’d been running since I was thirteen years old. No matter where I went she would always find me. Not necessarily because she was particularly good at finding people, but because I was terrible at hiding. I couldn’t help drawing attention to myself. And when she did find me she would kill the people I cared about. I’d lost so many friends and foster relatives to Rachel. No, enough was enough. It was time to stop running, stop hiding, and face her. I couldn’t spend my entire life looking over my shoulder. Besides, if I left she’d just use Matt and Emma to draw me back, and if I refused she’d kill them. My only option was to wait and prepare for her arrival. I had no idea what she would do when she did arrive, all I knew was that I needed a defence. She had my magic. She had my serum. I needed to find ways to combat them both. I needed to beat her.

  As I was leaving the pub, I heard a text message come through. Dreading the number I was going to see I pulled out my phone and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t from Rachel, or Shay, or anyone unpleasant. The name read: Ashley Sheridan. I opened the message. It was one word: drinks? Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad after all. Maybe, just maybe, I could get the girl and everyone could live happily ever after. Ha! Not bloody likely.

  So there you go. If you hadn’t noticed we’ve pretty much come to the end now. I told you it was a cracker didn’t I? Maybe you don’t think so. If you didn’t think that was a bloody good book, though, then why the hell did you read right up to the end? You’ve only got yourself to blame. Some of you might be disappointed that I didn’t get the girl. You were hoping for a beautiful romance to take place. Let’s be realistic here, at which point in the story did I have time to form a romantic relationship? There were people trying to kill me and what not. I was busy. Maybe next time. So yeah, I guess you’re expecting me to give a little summarising speech now? Maybe a little monologue full of morals and lessons to be learned? Well, forget it.

  If you enjoyed this book you can get the next one Warlock Wanted free by joining my reader’s list. .

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  Also by Sean Stone:

  The Cedarstone Chronicles

  Cursed

  The Cult of Osiris

  The Ancients

  The Cedarstone Chronicles Books 1-3

  Arcane Inc.

  Warlock for Hire

  Warlock Wanted

  Short Story Collections

  Horrors from Cedarstone

  Horrors from Cedarstone II

  Horrors from Cedarstone III

  Keep up-to-date by visiting seanstonewriter.com

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY