by K. F. Breene
“It’s complicated,” Reagan said. “Anyway, with the Guild’s directive to bring in Penny and the Rogue Natural—”
“I don’t understand why you can’t remember his name,” I said.
“I can, but taunting you is great fun.” She grinned at me. I scowled back.
A manic light started glimmering in her eyes.
I tore my gaze away. It wasn’t worth an altercation.
Her sigh said I’d made the right decision.
“Marie has been monitoring Penny’s situation for Darius,” Reagan said. Marie was a middle-tiered vampire that I’d fought with when we’d broken into the Mages’ Guild compound in Seattle. Given that I hadn’t seen one hair on her beautiful head since I’d set foot in New Orleans to get trained, I had no idea how she’d been keeping tabs on me. “She’s worried enough to call Darius back into town. They have word that Guild scouts are already here, and in enough numbers to make him nervous,” she said. “But they’re in a watchful capacity at the moment. Red said he’s seen them hanging around. They don’t engage with anyone, but they’re on the ground.”
Red was a shifter that primarily hung out in the French Quarter. He’d contacted me in my first weeks, saying he was Reagan’s acquaintance and welcoming me to the city. He’d instructed me to contact him should I need anything, which I’d thought was really nice of him.
Shivers crawled up my spine. Knowing the Guild was coming was different than hearing they were already here. It felt like the door to my house had been flung open, inviting burglars inside.
“It is only a matter of time before they have more numbers than this town can handle,” Reagan went on, moving away to lean against the archway again. “The Magical Law Enforcement office has seen increased calls about magic gone wrong. Darker magic. When they show up to investigate, they can’t find any relevant evidence leading them to the perpetrator. Whoever is practicing these spells obviously knows how to skirt around the system.”
“The MLE office is filled with a bunch of desk jockeys.” Callie shook her head. “If they hired you to sort it out, you’d have the mages caught in no time.”
Reagan’s jaw clenched and her eyes flashed. “I’m supposed to lie low. You know that.”
I didn’t, but I had a hunch I wasn’t supposed to ask. Everything to do with Reagan seemed a secret, and I was met with hostility when I asked more into it.
“I’m just saying that the MLE office isn’t the be-all-end-all when it comes to assessing magic and finding the people responsible.”
Reagan shifted and crossed her arms, exuding pent-up aggression. “Even so. We know for a fact the Guild is here. Among us. They’re sticking to the shadows and watching, for now. Reporting back. But that won’t last forever, especially if they see an easy grab. We need to get Penny trained up so she can protect herself, and the fastest way to do that is to enable her to think on her feet.”
“She can already protect herself,” Callie said, moving another batch of bacon to the plate. “No matter what the ladies of the Rum Social threw at her the other day, she handled it beautifully.” She cocked her head. “Except for those few times when she froze, but Penny worked it out eventually. Like she was born to magic.”
“She was born to magic.”
Callie huffed and batted her spatula at the air. “You know what I mean. Born to fighting. Born to this life. Just look at what happened in Seattle at the rail yard. She was a pro.”
“Except for that bit where I had to implode her spell before she killed everyone.”
“Well sure, except for that. But, as I said, we all make mistakes.”
Reagan was talking about the demon situation I’d helped her and Darius and the dual-mages with in Seattle, something I was forbidden to tell anyone about.
Reagan drummed her fingers against her arm. “But Darius seemed to think she was far more outstanding when fighting the Mages’ Guild than when fighting in the rail yard…”
“The rail yard wasn’t really a war zone,” I said, thinking back. I’d had plenty of backup and people to hold my hand. “Fighting the Mages’ Guild, on the other hand…”
“Fighting the Mages’ Guild was a clusterfuck, right?” Reagan asked.
I infused Emery’s last two spells with my own magic, feeling the same intense longing that I’d sensed in the first layer. Light and color exploded upward, sparkling and simmering through the air. The energy around me electrified and I closed my eyes with the feeling, my magical bubble stabilizing naturally for a moment. A soft feeling of joy drifted down with the filaments before the spell dissolved away.
“A little touchy-feely for my taste,” Reagan muttered, her hands out, feeling the dissipating spell.
“A punch in the mouth is a little touchy-feely for your taste,” Callie said, cracking an egg.
“She’s not wrong.” Reagan pursed her lips in agreement.
I pulled away the string and tore open the paper, finding a pink box underneath.
“Ew,” Reagan said. “Why not red? I’d much prefer a deep crimson.”
“Who is that package for, her or you?” Callie said, glancing back before cracking another egg.
“Just saying.” Reagan moved so she could watch me pull the top off the box. “Pink is highly overrated. As is yellow. I hate yellow. I don’t need a color telling me to be happy any more than I need one telling me to be soft.”
“You have problems,” Callie said.
“Again, not wrong.”
I peered in the box and my heart squished. A single power stone, about the size of my hand, lay on a bed of pastel tissue paper. Stripes of vibrant color sliced through its brown surface, turning an ordinary stone extraordinary. The stone couldn’t wait to get out of the box and be shown around its new home, very happy-go-lucky for a power stone.
“I know what would help with your wards,” Reagan said, sitting at the island in anticipation of Callie getting her plate ready. “A night sleeping at Darius’s French Quarter house. That would scare the bejeezus out of you. Oh!” she snapped. “And what about trips to the bad parts of town? You need to get more street-wise. Maybe it would also help if I exposed you to some serious spells to get the juices of creativity flowing. I have a couple books you’re probably nearly ready for.”
“She is not ready for those books, Reagan Somerset,” Callie said. “It hasn’t even been a year since she turned all those witches into zombies. Not that I’m blaming you, dear.” Callie gave me a grimace that was probably supposed to be a smile. Years of scowling had clearly frozen her face. “Any idiot that would make a potion without knowing what it does, while letting a complete novice with more power than sense lead, deserves what they get.”
“Wow. Don’t hold back for her sake,” Reagan said with a laugh.
“If you gave her that book, she’d end up accidentally killing someone,” Callie said, turning with a plate heaped with food. She set it in front of Reagan. “Honestly, she has come a long way, even in the last couple of weeks. Just you wait and see.”
“We need to fast-track her training. And if there is one thing I know all about, it’s fast-tracking training.” Reagan eyed me. “I hear she’s great at creating spells when she fears for her life. Let’s put that to the test.”
5
The next night, I stood trembling at one end of Reagan’s large warehouse. The warehouse, where she could practice her powers in peace, had been Darius’s idea of a present. My utility belt encircled my waist, filled with herbs and grasses and other elements I thought would be useful. My power stones were precisely positioned in various places around the floor, and would hopefully help me when things got dire.
So…in about five minutes.
Callie and Dizzy stood at the other end, each with an open satchel, wearing padded catcher’s vests and helmets. On their right side waited six of the mages from the party the other night, John being one of them. Currently he was leading the others in snickering at the Bankses’ choice of headgear.
They wou
ldn’t be snickering for long.
Reagan stood in the far corner draped in dark leather and shadow, her head slightly turned, studying me. I didn’t need to see her eyes to know the violence that lurked there. She was in battle mode.
Four vampires, one of whom seemed jittery compared to the rest, drifted out to line up on the other side of the room. All of them were completely nude, their clothes neatly folded and stacked on a chair.
“That new vampire is a true danger, Darius,” I heard Callie call out. “He’s blood-lusting—look at him. He won’t be able to come back from the brink.”
“I inherited him,” Darius said in a cool voice. “This is his trial. If he disappoints me, I will kill him.”
“Preferably before he kills Penny,” Dizzy said in a strained tone. That wasn’t usual for Dizzy—he was legitimately worried that the vampire could kill me before anyone could stop it.
As if I needed more anxiety to fuel my rising blood pressure.
“Would it be too dramatic if I said I hated my life?” I mumbled.
“Not at the moment, no,” Reagan said. She had vampire-like super hearing. “You’re surrounded by a bunch of annoying mages without a clue, a couple of annoyed vampires, and a newbie vampire on scene that is going to lose himself to bloodlust and try and drain you dry. I doubt your strange fascination with rocks will help, so I’ll have to step in to protect you. Everyone will see things they can’t, and then Darius will have to kill all of these powerful mages. Someone is terrible at planning.”
“That someone would be you,” Callie called out. “And for the record, this situation is taking the fun out of my being right.”
“That’s only fun for you, hon,” I barely heard Dizzy say.
“The child will be monitored,” Darius said in a voice that effectively ended the discussion.
“Am I the child?” I asked softly. I needed to know where I stood—not that it would help anything.
“No. I was speaking of the vampire,” Darius answered. “You are in no danger.”
Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the focus of a bunch of people who intended to do him harm.
Starting with Darius, the vampires shifted into their monster forms. Their skin color turned pasty or swampy, depending on age, and their bearing bent and bowed. Claws extended from their fingertips, black filled their eyes, and fangs filled their mouths. Dark, stringy hair took the place of cut and styled locks.
The mages shuffled closer together, even John. He might be powerful among mages, but against an elder vampire, he was child’s play. Even against a middle-tiered vampire like Marie, he would be hard-pressed to make it out alive.
And here I stood, a know-nothing mage with witch tendencies, standing on my own, facing off against two columns of power and a pair of dual-mages in sports gear. While being watched by an immensely powerful supernatural of unknown origins.
“It is definitely not too dramatic to mention that I hate my life.”
Without warning, the new vampire rushed forward.
“Oh crap.” I pulled down elements as spells ran through my head, confused and blurry. A spell sped toward me from the dual-mages, powerful but simple. I barely countered it before another came from the other side.
“Crap. Oh crap. Crap.” I blinked as the new vampire ran, his speed faster than thought. My thoughts, at least.
I barely got off my bug zapper spell—the first one I’d created on the fly—making him change course, before a spell came at me from the side, weak and reddish.
I ran forward so it wouldn’t hit me, not bothering to waste precious time countering it. Another spell zoomed toward me before ballooning. Hives or a rash or flaking skin or something. Callie had obviously done that one. She knew how I hated to itch. She was as blunt and direct in her magic as she was in everyday life.
Unfortunately, she was also powerful, and it took me a moment to tear down her spell. But I didn’t have a moment. The newbie was back, dashing in with his swampy green and black mouth spread open much larger than should’ve been natural, fangs glinting in the overhead light.
“Stop thinking, Penny,” Reagan yelled. “Stop flicking through your mental spell Rolodex and react.”
“Soon the spells will be second nature,” Callie said, palming her helmet out of her face. “Until then, she has to remember her teachings.”
They were telling me opposite things. What was I supposed to do?
The vampire jerked to a stop again, this time fifteen feet from me. His magic rolled over me, putrid and vile. Sharp, stinging, desperately hungry. Whatever was going on with him, he was losing the fight.
Sweat dripped into my eye. Callie’s spell brushed my arm. I jerked away as I unraveled it.
A swampy white monster sped toward me, movements so fast I could barely see it.
I screamed, because that was what one did in this situation, and feinted to the side as though we were playing capture the flag.
“You don’t need a Rolodex, Penny,” Reagan yelled. “Don’t listen to Callie.”
“Get it away!” I ran right, screeching when the monster easily turned and reached out for me. “No—”
His clawed hand grabbed my upper arm. He threw me aside as if I weighed nothing.
A spell zipped by, thankfully missing me. Another sailed overhead. These mages clearly needed more practice with moving targets.
I hit the ground and my head thunked against the hardwood floor. My limbs slapped the surface and I skidded to a stop.
“Survive!” Reagan shouted.
White flared around me, creating a wall that accepted two different spells intent on teaching me some sort of lesson. My survival magic enveloped the spells and spun, growing as I fed it energy.
“Don’t think, just do,” Reagan yelled. “React like you did in the Mages’ Guild. Create. Feel.”
I tried to send the spells back to the casters, but my survival magic sputtered out. From the mass of organized elements that unconsciously gathered when in a pressurized situation, I pulled ingredients for an attack spell. The weave twisted through my fingers before forming a shaky sort of goo that quickly dissolved into nothing.
“I can’t—” Tears of frustration blinded me. The monster I recognized as Marie rushed in then. I knew she’d try to scare a spell from me, but when her claws slashed across my arm, opening up four bloody gashes, another half-formed spell fizzled out.
My power stones pulsed around the room, offering aid, but I couldn’t draw on them. I couldn’t get my head above water.
6
Moist air slid against Emery’s skin as he stood behind a great boulder, feeling the sharp edges catch his badly worn clothes. The cold day bit deeply into his bones, sapping his energy as a chill shook his limbs. Dark clouds rolled overhead, the rain never far away in the Emerald Isle.
A human shape hugged the end of a rock wall some hundred yards away. A few more crouched ahead of him, hidden poorly within the crumbling ruins atop the green bluff overlooking the tumultuous ocean. Still more waited farther down the meadow, having ducked behind a different wall. His pursuers had plenty of choice in this part of the country, where low rock walls lined the countryside.
He turned and looked back the way he’d come.
A narrow road led down to this sorrowful strip of lonely land. A worn-in bicycle leaned on its kickstand, waiting for him.
He’d come to Ireland for the beauty. For the sweeping views and fields of green. For the pints, the laughter, and the merriment. He’d come to forget the grave he couldn’t bring himself to visit, and the woman he’d left behind.
Instead, he’d found himself wandering away from the tourists and the pubs to this bit of untamed land. The rain battered him and the chill soaked through him, but his thoughts weren’t dark. No, he found himself thinking of the jokes and laughter he’d shared with his brother before their lives had fallen apart. Penny’s warm embraces, and how she’d grabbed hold of his heart.
How it had felt when the two of them worked
together in her magic bubble.
All the while, he’d been followed by mages with seemingly one task—watch and report.
The spies were tenacious. The first time he’d noticed them, at a magical street fair in France, there’d only been two. He’d given them the slip easily.
They’d found him again at a bar in Brussels, and that time, it had been harder to get away without notice.
But here they were again. More this time. The Guild was getting serious. They’d make a move soon. He needed to get back to the Realm, where his magic was the strongest and there were better places to hide.
First, though…
He peered around the large boulder to the reason he’d stopped his bike.
Amidst a circle of smallish, plain gray stones throbbed a deep pulse of power. Raw and wild, the stone promised reserves of power for the weary magic user. It was exactly the kind of thing Penny would fawn over, with some sort of personality only she’d be able to read. It was like the others he’d gathered for her.
He clenched his jaw.
The problem was its proximity to the mages’ crumbling hideout. They’d clearly stationed themselves there in anticipation of his riding past on his bicycle. They’d probably had no idea he would stop near such a desolate, ravaged, old structure with no tourism merits.
Unless their previous directive of “watch and report” had changed to “take him down at all costs,” and this was a good location to wait until he was close before springing into action.
Though…given that he was close, and they hadn’t sprung…
No, they must’ve thought he would ride by. They probably had a car on the other side and intended to inconspicuously follow him. Like they had inconspicuously followed him all those other times, sticking out like sore thumbs.