Sorcerer's Creed Books 1-3

by N. P. Martin

"Great. So that's where this Grayson motherfucker is getting all his power, is it?"

  "That's why I have to get the book before he does any more damage. Although in saying that..." I trailed off as I remembered something.

  "What?"

  "At some point today, Grayson will broadcast to the world again, and when he does..."

  "Well don't keep me in suspense, Creed. What's this crazy motherfucker going to do next?"

  "He's come up with a magick ritual that will give anyone who completes the ritual magickal powers, and he intends to make said ritual available to everyone."

  "Oh fuck." Forsyth went silent as he probably considered the implications of such a move.

  "My thoughts exactly."

  "Well, can't you stop this asshole? I have resources, whatever you need."

  I shook my head. "It's not that simple. Grayson is untouchable. He exists in his own dimension that only he controls access to. He also keeps the book in a separate dimension. Plus, the power he's gathered already, the knowledge he has...he's too formidable to take on."

  "So what the hell are you going to do?" Forsyth asked. "Just let him use the damn book to wreck everything?"

  "I have a plan." I didn't. Far from it. But I had to calm Forsyth down some way.

  "A plan? What plan? You said he was untouchable."

  “Let me worry about that,” I told him. "You focus on keeping your people in line."

  "In line? You cheeky bastard. My kind is being hunted by rednecks with bows and wooden-tipped arrows. Gangs of stake happy bastards are roaming the streets in search of vampires. In search of anything supernatural. And now you tell me that said bastards will soon have magickal powers to back up their genocidal crusade. Fuck you, Creed! My kind will tear those bastards apart if they don't cease."

  "Calm down, Forsyth. Just fucking lay low for a while, that's all I'm asking. I'll sort this mess out soon enough." I shook my head as I said the words, knowing full well I wasn't anywhere close to stopping Grayson. Certainly, there was no way to stop the next broadcast. In that respect, the world was fucked. Magick would tear it apart.

  "You'd better, Creed, or there's going to be all-out war before long. Vampires and the rest of the supernaturals will not hide for long. Sooner or later, they are going to fight back, and then the world will be painted red."

  "No pressure then."

  "No pressure."

  After I had hung up the phone, I sat for a few moments as I considered calling Leona to see how things were in Washington, but then I remembered that she had sent me a picture of her FBI badge like some sort of statement I didn't fully get, and I found myself pissed at her again, so I didn't bother calling. Besides, I had more pressing matters to deal with.

  Like updating Brentwood for one.

  22

  Regroup

  After I had told him about everything that happened in the Grayson Dimension, conveniently leaving out the part about me cozying me up to Jordan Grayson in her bed, Brentwood was left in a foul mood. It wasn't like he had been in a good mood in the first place mind (it wasn't like he was in a good mood ever, but no matter). The secret he had been trying to keep maintained for years had now been revealed to the world, and that was going to make Brentwood's job a lot harder if he had to deal with newly clued up Sleepwalkers on top of everything else. I had no doubt he was also taking shit from his superiors over the whole SciCane debacle. It was Brentwood's job, after all, to keep magickal sociopaths like Gordon Grayson contained, and if not contained, then dead. As with all these situations, someone had to be to blame. Heads would inevitably have to roll, and Brentwood's neck was on the chopping block at that moment, the guillotine poised to come down on him. Come to think of it, that's how I thought of the world as I knew it as well. Fucked.

  "Fuck, Creed," Brentwood barked as he paced around behind his head of tech, Bethany, who was sat in her usual chair within the Central Ops room. "This is a goddamn unmitigated disaster. Why the hell did I ever listen to you?"

  I shook my head twice. "Eh, excuse me? Everything I've done so far has been to your plan. It was your fucking idea to put me undercover in the first place. For all the good it turned out to be since fucking Grayson had me pegged from the get go." Now I was angry as well as I stood with my arms tensed by my side.

  Brentwood stared at me with bulging white eyes as if he was about to attack me. But then he sighed sharply and turned away for a moment while he seemed to gather himself. "You're right, Creed. I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do about all this."

  I must admit, it was disturbing to see Brentwood so unsure of himself. He had always been the most cocksure motherfucker I'd ever met (besides myself, of course), never wavering even for a second. But now he was wavering, something I would have taken pleasure in under different circumstances. But since things were so tense and dire, it didn't seem appropriate to be reveling in the man's zero hour. The world's zero hour. "Fuck it, forget it," I said. "Let's just figure out a way to stop Grayson and get the Dark Codex. That's all that matters."

  "Agreed," Brentwood said.

  "Speaking of messianic assholes," Bethany piped up from in front of her screen. "Here's everyone's favorite about to broadcast again."

  Brentwood and I turned our attention to the massive screen a few feet in front of us, to the huge figure of Gordon Grayson, standing on stage in the hall of his mansion, dressed as always in his pristine white robes, the purple magick practically fizzing off him. At the rate his magick was increasing, I wondered how long his physical body would be able to contain it before it just exploded with all that power inside. I had heard of cases before where adepts took on so much magick power that they ended up transforming into pure energy, their physical bodies completely obliterated. What happened to them after that was anyone's guess because they were usually never heard from again.

  Grayson's deep voice boomed out of the speakers around the screen as the broadcast started. "People of the world," he began, the hubris dripping off him turning my stomach. "The time has finally come for you to empower yourselves so you can claim back the freedom from tyranny and deception that is rightfully yours."

  Brentwood shook his head as he scowled at the screen. For some reason I expected him to say the words, "Hippy scum," but he didn't. Instead, he said to Bethany, "Are you sure there's no way to pull the plug on this asshole?"

  "I'm sure," Bethany replied. "Whatever magick the guy is using has the worlds comms locked up tighter than my Aunt May's pussy."

  An involuntary snort left my mouth. "Seriously?"

  Bethany shrugged. "She's seventy-eight and never married."

  I shook my head at her and looked back to the screen to hear Grayson talk. He was currently gabbling on in that self-righteous tone of his, talking about the new world order and what it would mean for everyone and blah blah. It was all just words. By that point, I was convinced Grayson didn't give a shit about anything that he was talking about. The man had his own agenda, and something told me it would reveal itself very soon, but not before he sent the world into a state of growing chaos. After another few minutes of pointless pontification, Grayson finally got to the point of the broadcast. "And now," he said. "It is time for you to embrace destiny and change your life forever. If you go now to the following website--" He gave the name of a site that was just an alphanumeric sequence. "--You will find there a complete set of instructions that will tell you how you can access magick. More power than you can dream of, in fact. What you do with this power is up to you, but it is my great hope that you use the power to change the world around you, and to change it for good rather than bad."

  "Bethany?" I said.

  "Already on it," Bethany said as she brought up the website Grayson was referring to.

  I looked over her shoulder at the computer screen in front of her to the lines of text on the otherwise blank screen. Each short paragraph was numbered sequentially one through six. It didn't take me long to read over the instructions. Grayson wasn't kidding when he said
he would make it easy for people to access magick. He had outlined a short ritual that consisted mostly of an incantation, and then a few simple hand movements.

  "That's it?" Bethany said. "But anyone could do that."

  "I think that's the point," Brentwood said, a note of defeat in his otherwise stoic voice.

  "Yeah," I said distractedly as I mulled over the instructions. They made no sense. They were meaningless, in fact. And then I realized that the instructions themselves didn't matter. When you did the ritual, you were not mysteriously tapping into some magickal force, you were actually tapping into Grayson's own magick, or whatever magick he was channeling. Going through the ritual was basically a way to give Grayson the thumbs up so he could fill you full of magickal power. "Jesus Christ..."

  "What?" Brentwood asked.

  I shook my head. "It's just the sheer scope of what Grayson is doing. Imbuing so many people with magick. Fulfilling all those inevitably millions of requests. Only..."

  "Only what?" Bethany asked with her full attention on me.

  "Only a god could wield such power," I finished.

  "Fuck," Brentwood said. "You're saying Grayson has the power of a god now?"

  I nodded. "That's what I'm saying, and I have a feeling he's only going to get more powerful."

  "Great," Brentwood said shaking his head. "Now we know exactly why the Dark Codex has been kept a secret for so long."

  "Why would anyone even create a book like that?" Bethany asked. "Who would even have the knowledge to do it?"

  It was a question I hadn't really considered, and at that point, I didn't care. "It doesn't matter who made it," I said. "All that matters is we get it out of Grayson's hands."

  "And then what?" Brentwood asked. "You said it yourself. Grayson has become a demigod. How are we supposed to stop someone like that?"

  "We don't," I replied, then paused as the thought came to me. "The Dark Codex does."

  Brentwood stared at me a moment as Bethany reduced the volume on Grayson's talking. It didn't matter what the mad man had to say anymore. All that mattered was what he had put into motion. "Are you saying we can use the book to stop Grayson?"

  I turned to look at Brentwood. "I'm saying it's likely the only play we'll have, assuming I can get the book in the first place."

  "Then what's to stop you making yourself into a god like Grayson?" Bethany asked.

  I thought she was joking, but she wasn't. "You'll just have to trust me on that one."

  Both Bethany and Brentwood looked like they didn't love with the idea of trusting such power in the hands of someone like me. But fuck them. They didn't have a choice.

  "Alright, Creed," Brentwood said. "I'm going to admit that I'm all out of options here, so what's your next move? Tell me you have a plan to stop this maniac."

  Everyone wants a plan, I thought. But you know what they say about plans, don't you? They never survive contact with the enemy. Not that I had much of a plan anyway. "There's someone I need to see," I said. "I'm hoping he can help us."

  "Who?" Brentwood asked.

  "The biggest pain in the ass I know, besides myself, of course. Tetsuo Sanaka."

  23

  City Gone Mad

  After leaving Division HQ on foot, I decided I should take the scenic route to Sanaka's Sanctum. For one thing, the damage was done as far as the broadcast was concerned. Grayson had fully enacted his plan, his public plan anyhow, so I didn't feel much of a sense of urgency to get to him. For another thing, I wanted to see for myself the effect his latest broadcast was going to have on the city. At first, as I walked through The Highlands in the dark of night, everything seemed normal. Things were quiet as they normally were at that time of night in that area of the city, especially with all the vampires now keeping a low profile. Then as I was walking past a small parking lot, I spotted a few expensive looking cars parked there with about half a dozen people standing around them. College kids it looked like, every one of them in the process of conjuring energy balls in their hands and throwing them across the parking lot like flaming baseballs where they either fizzled out in the air or landed on the ground in an explosion of sparks. The college kids roared with delight at this and high-fived each other. "This is fucking awesome!" one of them shouted. "I feel like the fucking Hulk!"

  And then it happened. Just a few seconds after the kid said it he suddenly transformed into a giant green-skinned man that must have stood at least twelve feet high. "Oh, Christ," I said as I watched the Hulk pick up one of the cars and fling it across the parking lot like it was nothing. The car exploded when it landed, and the other kids stepped back from the Hulk in fear and wonder. Then they all cheered, and the Hulk roared.

  I could hardly believe what I was seeing. There was never any doubt in my mind that Grayson's instructions would work, but knowing and seeing are two different things. It was inconceivable to me that a bunch of kids now possessed the magick power of a high-level sorcerer, and that they could seemingly do things without the need for spells or rituals. It seemed all they had to do was think about what they wanted and it would happen. This fact was demonstrated further when the rest of the college kids affected their own transformations. In the space of a minute, each of them had turned themselves into their favorite comic book character. I was now looking at the movie versions of Spiderman, Iron Man, Storm and two Wolverines, and none of them wasted any time in trying out their new powers. The two Wolverines proceeded to use their claws to tear up the remaining car, the sound of metal tearing metal screeching across the parking lot. Spiderman slung a web onto the nearest building and swung off into the night, while Storm, well, she caused a storm by inviting a small tornado into the parking lot that lifted up the remains of the car destroyed by the two Wolverines and flung it into the side of a nearby building. Iron Man was long gone, shooting off into the night sky like a ballistic missile.

  "This isn't good," I said as the newly transformed superheroes fled off into the night, no doubt to fuck up as much shit as they could. "Not good at all." If the kids in the parking lot were anything to go by, the world would soon be fucked. Grayson had effectively given people the means to bend reality into whatever shape they pleased just by thinking about. Knowing magick as well as I did, my mind boggled as to how exactly Grayson had achieved such a feat given that magick always came with rules and regulations. Thanks to the Dark Codex, Grayson had given people a way to bypass all of said rules so they could just get to the good stuff.

  Still in shock over what I just saw, I started walking again, and as I did a stretched limo pulled up alongside me. Who the fuck is this? I wondered. Some dick who'd done Grayson's ritual and who had decided to become Patrick Bateman?

  The passenger window of the limo buzzed down, and I saw it wasn't Patrick Bateman inside, but someone equally sociopathic. The Crimson Crow.

  "Creed," Angela Crow said, her pale face half in shadow inside the limo. The door opened. "Get in."

  I sighed but got inside the limo. As the limo began to drive off again, I turned to look at Angela Crow. "I just saw a bunch of college kids turn themselves in superheroes from the X-Men. We're all fucked."

  "No thanks to you," the vampire said. "I know you said you were going undercover, Creed, but I didn't think you'd get quite so involved."

  I shook my head. "Give me a break. I did my best in there. Besides, I'm not sure you realize how much power Grayson has at his fingertips."

  Her blue eyes seemed to light up for a second, and then become incensed by the idea of a power greater than her own. "So he really does have the book."

  "Yes," I said as I poured myself a whiskey from a crystal decanter. The other decanter was filled with blood. Of a fine vintage, no doubt. "I've seen it."

  Again, she was unable to keep the glow from her eyes. "What's it like?"

  "Beautiful. I literally couldn't take my eyes off it. Grayson had to break the spell it had over me."

  Angela Crow shook her head in what seemed like wonder. "Can you get it?" sh
e asked.

  I explained Grayson's security measures to her. "I have to find a way to get through them," I said. "Anyway, I was half hoping you had some useful information for me or didn't your bottomless resources turn anything up?"

  The vampire made a face, her eyes reddening slightly. "That's where you are wrong, Creed. I did turn something up."

  I froze with my glass half way to my mouth. "You did?"

  She nodded slowly. "There's a way to destroy the book."

  I registered surprise for the second time. "How?"

  Angela Crow smiled, and then licked her lips. "Please, Creed. You know I'm not just going to hand you that information. Not without something in return."

  I shook my head. "Surprise. What do you want?"

  "It may surprise you to learn, Creed, that I know my limits. I'm well aware that the Dark Codex is too much power for one person. Grayson is proof of that."

  "Agreed."

  "But I still want to see the book for myself," she said, a tinge of excitement in her voice. "I want one look at it before it is destroyed."

  I smiled as I shook my head. "Leave it to you, Angela. The world is hanging by a thread, and your kind is being hunted like animals, but you still have to conduct business."

  Her smile was almost playful. "If it weren't for business and general skullduggery, I would have died from boredom centuries ago."

  "You do remember that I hold the detonator to the bomb in your chest," I said. "I could force you to tell me what you know."

  The Crimson Crow snarled as she showed her fangs, and for a second I thought she was going to lunge at me, but she soon relaxed. Thankfully. "Let's stop playing games, Creed. We both know you've been bluffing all this time."

  "Are you willing to take that chance?"

  The tension in her face returned. "You need me, Creed. This city needs me. I'm the only one keeping order here. Not you and certainly not fucking Division. Me. Without me, this city would fall into chaos, and you know it."