Sorcerer's Creed Books 1-3

by N. P. Martin

  "To what end, though?" I asked. "It wasn't like he was going to die someday and you would assume his place, so why?"

  "I think I awakened something in him. A flicker of light perhaps. Something he wasn't expecting, but which he gave into anyway. I didn't care how he looked at me, as long as he kept feeding me power and knowledge, which was all that mattered to me."

  "I'll not even ask why. I know why. It's because once you start down that road, it's never enough."

  "Exactly."

  "So what changed? Why did you end up betraying Baal if he was so generous towards you?"

  "It wasn't just one thing necessarily." She stopped and then shook her head. "Well, actually it was just one thing. Mostly anyway. I'd had enough of killing, but also Baal..."

  "Baal what?" I asked, hoping she wasn't going to say what I thought she was going to say.

  "He raped me."

  Oh, Jesus. She did say it, and I wasn't sure how to respond, so I ended up saying nothing.

  "He had every right to, of course," she said. "He owned me after all. Normal rules didn't apply in that situation. But still, he had never touched me before, and then he just decides he wants me one day. So he took me, and I pretended to enjoy it."

  "I can't even imagine..." Actually, I could having seen Baal's true form, and I was sickened.

  "Best you don't," Margot said. "Anyway, that was it for me. No amount of power was worth having to endure that all the time. So in secret, I tried to work out ways to destroy Baal before he decided he wanted my flesh again. But I came up empty."

  "So you went into hiding instead."

  She nodded. "Yes. It was my only option."

  "How long have you been here?"

  "Ten years," she said.

  "Just you?"

  "Just me. Until you came along."

  I sat back and folded my arms as I let out a long breath. "Well, I'll tell you, I have no intentions of staying here for the next ten years."

  Margot looked at me with what seemed like a disappointment in her eyes. "Why not? You'd have everything you need here."

  It was a tempting offer to be sure, but my place wasn't in that magick bubble with her. My place was with Leona and Blaez and Ray and Sanaka and everyone else I knew on the outside. Besides, it wasn't my style to hide away from things. I'd tried that before, and it never solved anything. "Sorry, Margot," I said. "But we're going to have burst this magick bubble of yours at some point. Sooner rather than later. Which means we have to figure out how to put Baal down for good.

  Margot folded her arms in annoyance. "I just told you, it can't be done. You think I'd still be here if there were a way?"

  Yes, actually, but I never told her that. Margot was happy hiding from the world, Baal or no Baal. But I didn't care about that. She could hide if she wanted to, but only after she had done her part to help me.

  I got out of bed and started to pull my clothes on. "If there's one thing I've learned after being in some impossible situations over the years," I said. "It's that there is always a way. We just have to find it."

  16

  Under The Gun

  The sun was shining brightly inside Margot's magick bubble kingdom when I went outside and stood in the garden for a while soaking up the warm rays, frankly astounded that Margot was able to replicate the effects of a real sun. Not to mention create the oasis of beauty that surrounded me. It made me wonder how powerful she really was. Baal had obviously bestowed upon her a great deal of magick. But then she was the demon's favorite pet. Until she turned on him, that is.

  The witch's story was pretty tragic if you ask me. At one time she was just a normal girl trying to shake off the poverty and abuse that had been thrust upon her by being a number in the foster system. If she hadn't have met Derek the psychopath, Margot's life might have turned out to be very different. But then, as both she and I had pointed out, your plans don't matter when the universe always seemed to have other ideas about where you were going to end up. It was hard not to see the hand of fate in action when you looked back at your past circumstances.

  My own tragic past was a case in point. As awful as it was growing up under the despotic influence of my father and then losing my entire family to a demon, in a twisted sort of way, those things had to happen for me to get to where I was.

  Still, I shook my head at my attempts to philosophize things when there I was under the gun, having dragged Leona under with me as well.

  It was difficult not to think about Leona as I walked slowly through the garden, my hands plunged into the pockets of my trench coat. Whatever the circumstances of the night before, there was no denying that I had cheated on the woman I was supposed to love. For that, guilt was gnawing unremittingly at my insides, more so because I knew Leona's loyalty towards me was unwavering. There was no way she would have slept with anyone else as long as she was with me. She just wasn't the type.

  The question I ended up asking myself was, do I tell her or do I just pretend nothing happened and keep it as a dirty little secret? I knew if I told her she would walk. Leona wouldn't allow herself to react in any other way. She had too much pride.

  Just don't tell her, I thought to myself. Why wreck a good thing over one night of passion that I never intended to happen in the first place? And it wasn't like Margot gave me much choice, was it?

  No matter what way I thought about things, it did nothing to alleviate my heavy guilt. But guilt or not, I wasn't going to spend any more time dwelling on the matter. There were other much more pressing matters at hand that needed immediate attention.

  I turned and headed back to the cottage. Margot's barn owl was perched on the porch roof, and it screeched once at me as I neared the front door. I gave the bird the finger as I went through the door and the owl rolled its head as if to say, "I know you just didn't flip me off, motherfucker!"

  "Your barn owl familiar hates me," I said to Margot as I entered the cottage to find her at the kitchen table drinking tea. She was dressed all in black, looking much different to the flower girl in the white dress I first saw the day before. Now her hair was gelled back, and she wore dark eyeliner that made her look dangerous and undeniably sexy.

  Margot smiled as I sat down after pouring myself a coffee from the tin pot simmering on the stove. "Barney is just not used to company," she said. "He's also fiercely protective."

  "I guessed that when he pounced on me yesterday. Thanks for healing my ribs, by the way. I don't even remember you doing it."

  "You were too far away to notice."

  I shook my head at the sultry and mischievous look in her eyes. "About that."

  "Forget it, Creed. You don't have to say anything. I know. You love your girlfriend. You don't have to explain."

  A somewhat awkward silence fell as we exchanged looks for a moment.

  And this is why I don't sleep around, I thought to myself. The complications are not worth it.

  Margot snorted. "You make me laugh, Creed."

  I stared at her a moment, wondering what she was on about. Then I realized. "You just read my thoughts again, didn't you?"

  She held a hand up. "Sorry. It was just very loud."

  "I'll try to keep it down then."

  Her wide smile was warm and beatific. "I'm glad you turned up here, Creed," she said. "I haven't done much smiling for a while."

  "Don't thank me yet," I said. "My arrival may yet signal both our dooms."

  Margot's smile faded somewhat. "You really know how to kill the mood, don't you?"

  "Sorry. The part of me with a gun to my head refuses to sit around any longer."

  "And your girlfriend's head."

  I glanced at her, thinking she was being snide, but she wasn't. She was merely clarifying the situation, not that she needed to. I was well aware already. "Alright," I said, sitting straight in my chair and leaning on the table, so I was facing her. "You know Baal better than anyone. He must have a weakness somewhere. Something we can exploit that will help end him."

  A
sharp sort of laugh left her mouth. "I don't think you realize the kind of being Baal is. He is no ordinary demon. He's the spawn of primordial beings. A demon like Baal can't be destroyed."

  "Everything can be destroyed by something."

  She shook her head, adamant that she was right. "Believe me, Creed. I've thought of everything possible over the years. Spells, artifacts, pure magick. That stuff would hurt him, but it wouldn't kill him. You forget how intimately I know Baal. I've seen and felt what he's made off, and there is no killing him."

  I sighed and thought for a moment. "Alright, so we can't kill the bastard. What if we trap him instead?"

  Margot considered for a moment. "It's a possibility," she conceded eventually. "I've thought of it before, but it was never something I would try on my own."

  "But the two of us," I said, moving my finger between us. "You think we could pull it off together if we combined our powers?"

  Again she thought. "I don't know. Maybe."

  I nodded. "Let's assume it's a possibility, that there's at least a chance it would work. How would we do it?"

  "Assuming we could hold him long enough, we would have to banish him to another dimension. A dimension he could never escape from."

  "Exactly, and I think I might know one. It's called Dimension X and there's nothing in it but darkness. We would have to seal him in somehow, but I'm sure we can figure that out."

  Margot shook her head. "You forget one thing. Baal is immensely strong and powerful. Physically restraining him would be impossible. And even with magick, it would still be damn near impossible."

  Frowning, I said, "You say he's like the Hulk, physically speaking. But I fought him in the basement of my Sanctum. I got the better of him while he was in his true demon form."

  Margot smiled slightly at what she saw as my naivety. "If you got the better of him that's because he allowed you to. Did you think you could beat a demon like Baal in a fist fight?"

  Thinking back, I saw she was right. Baal had wanted me to be overcome by the black magick coursing through my system at the time. Driving him back the way I did only served to strengthen the dark magick that was in me. Baal obviously knew that. No doubt if I had gone and chopped the demon's head off with the Sword of Rishanti, I would have sealed my fate, and the black magick would have taken hold permanently. Then Baal probably would have grown a new fucking head or stuck the old one back on. With black magick fully rooted in me, Baal and I would have become brothers in evil. There was no telling what he would have had me do. Devious bastard. "I didn't think too much about it at the time," I told Margot. "I had other things on my mind."

  "Take it from someone who knows what Baal is capable off better than anyone." Her blackened eyes focused in on me. "This plan to somehow restrain and then banish him has a slim chance of working. At best."

  "I'll take slim. I work with those odds all the time. Slim I'm comfortable with."

  She couldn't help smiling. "You are not right in the head. Anyone ever tell you that?"

  I smiled back and then stood up. "I hear it all the time. So are we going to do this or what?"

  Margot stared up at me as if she was unsure, but I knew she had already made up her mind. "You're going to do it with or without me, aren't you?"

  "Yes."

  A sigh left her. Then she stood up. "Alright, Creed," she said. "I suppose I'm partly responsible for this situation you find yourself in, so I guess I have to help fix it."

  "Don't forget your own situation. Baal would get to you eventually, even without me. You know that full well. There's only so long you can hide out."

  It was the truth. Her face said so. "You better be as good as you think you are, Creed."

  I stared at her a moment, then smiled. "We'll soon see, won't we?"

  17

  Where The Owl Gets It

  "I'm going to miss this place," Margot said while she stood in the garden looking around at the Eden she had created as if it would all disintegrate as soon as she left the place. Which it would, eventually. Without her magick to sustain it, Eden would wither and die.

  "You can always start afresh somewhere else," I said, attuned to her pain, but also just wanting to leave the place. I could understand the overwhelming sense of security she felt within the walls of her kingdom. Who knows, given a bit more time, I may have come to feel the same way. But the fact was, there was business to be taken care off. I had to try and save Leona from Baal's inevitable wrath when he realized I was now disobeying his command and standing against him.

  And that's if he hadn't realized already. That was another reason I wanted out of the woods. I needed to call Leona to make sure she was alright.

  Margot nodded. "Maybe you're right. If I live long enough."

  "You will," I said, more confidently than I felt. The truth was, I wasn't sure if Margot and I could take Baal by ourselves. If I wanted to be smart about things, I would enlist the help of Ray and Sanaka, but I didn't want to drag those two into that mess if it meant putting their lives and souls at risk. It was my mess, and Margot's, and we had to clean it up. "Let's go."

  Margot raised both her arms then, turning her head slightly skyward as she began uttering words that I couldn't hear. Then she dropped both arms sharply, and the invisible dome over Eden became visible as arcs of light blue magickal energy crackled through it for a few seconds and then disappeared. "We can go now," Margot said. "The forcefield is down. It won't be long before Baal picks up on my presence again."

  For the first time, I saw fear in her eyes at the prospect of what we were about to do, and at the fact that she was now completely exposed after being under for so long. Stepping close to her, I placed my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Hey," I said. "I'm going to be with you on this, no matter what happens. You're not alone."

  She smiled and then nodded. "Why are you doing this, Creed? Why are you helping me?"

  It struck me as an odd question. "You know why. Leona's at risk. So am I now."

  Her gray eyes searched mine. "You never had any intention of bringing me to Baal, did you? Even before you knew who I was."

  She had me there, I supposed. "My instincts about you turned out to be right. I don't sacrifice innocent people to save my own skin."

  "But I'm not innocent. I've killed."

  "Maybe you'll pay for those deaths one day. You still have innocence in your soul, despite everything. You did the best you could. I get that."

  Margot's smile widened further as her eyes became wet and glassy. Then she cupped my face with both hands and kissed me on the lips with a passion that I didn't expect. Closing my eyes, I reveled in her soft touch, in her intoxicating scent, knowing it would be last time I ever did. When she stopped kissing me, she held onto my face. "Thank you," she whispered.

  I wasn't sure what for, so I just nodded. "We should go."

  Margot stood back as a steely resolve hardened her face.

  As plans went, ours was a fairly simple one. In my experience, when you're going up against the supernatural, its best to keep things simple. With demons and other powerful supernatural creatures, there were enough uncontrollable variables in play without adding a load more in the form of some complicated plan. The fewer variables you brought to the table, the less you had to contend with and the greater control you would have over the situation.

  So as far as going up against Baal was concerned, the plan was to get to the Sanctum in the city first, and then to find a spell that would send Baal to Dimension X, hopefully trapping him there forever. That was assuming Baal wasn't waiting for us outside the woods somewhere, or that he wouldn't sense the presence of Margot or me before we could get a chance to set things up.

  Before we left Eden, Margot cast a spell that would prevent Baal from sensing either of us. But she wasn't sure how much time the spell would give us. It could be several hours, or it could be several minutes. Such magick worked better when you stayed in one place, as Margot did for years. But when you start moving aro
und the place, the magick becomes less effective at concealing your presence. It was a chance we had to take, however, as was the whole damn plan. Everything we were doing amounted to a massive gamble, Leona's inadvertent involvement putting the sweats on me even more.

  When we moved out into the woods, we couldn't help becoming hyper-vigilant as if we expected Baal to appear in front of us at any moment. The woods were still warded, however, so there wasn't much chance of that happening. Regardless, we moved quietly, hardly talking as we made our way through the trees. Above us, Margot's familiar flew overhead, normal sized for the time being. It would fly on ahead for a bit and then circle back, presumably reporting to Margot that it had seen no threats as yet.

  After a while, I took out my phone and checked the signal, tutting when I got none, even though I knew I wouldn't get a reception until I had left the cover of the woods. It was still playing on my mind that Leona would have been trying to call me. Especially since I realized not long ago that two whole days had gone by while I was in Eden with Margot. My main worry now was that Baal had gotten pissed off at my prolonged absence and had taken his frustration out on Leona somehow.

  Please do not let that be the case, I thought. I didn't think I would have been able to live with myself after if Leona had come to harm, especially since it would have been my fault if she did.

  A loud screech sounded up ahead as the barn owl flew low towards Margot and landed on her extended forearm. I stopped and waited as Margot looked into the owl's eyes for a moment, and then sent it off again with some command I didn't quite hear. "What is it?" I asked.

  "There's someone up ahead," Margot said as she moved in behind one of the trees.

  I quickly moved in beside her. "Who?"

  "Not sure. It could just be one of the mountain dwellers. I'll know in a--"

  A hugely loud cracking sound rang out then, cutting Margot off, and I knew immediately it was a gunshot. Shotgun by the sounds of it, and from the look on Margot's face, I knew her owl familiar had been shot down. Margot squeezed her eyes shut for a second and banged the back of her head of the tree.