The Judah Black Novels Box Set

by E. A. Copen

  The word obligated struck me. There was only one variety of creature I knew of that was required to make an offer three times before its actions were set in stone. And the giant’s talk of honor and slaying evil…This wasn’t a spirit. It was some kind of fae.

  I tried to stand but toppled back down when I put weight on my leg. Creven heaved my arm up over his shoulder with a grunt. That was the only way I was getting anywhere. Whatever it was, I couldn’t let it go around killing people, honor-bound or not. I had to stop it.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t,” I said.

  The giant turned his head aside. I swear, I heard his bones creak when he did. “You would lay your life down for this vampire?”

  “No,” I answered. “I hate vampires. But I hate murderers even more.”

  “Kiss my perfectly toned ass,” Kim said and pointed her revolver at the giant.

  The gun barked as she filed a single round and struck him square in the forehead. The giant’s body jerked back slightly and he roared, pulling the spiked club from the wall. He swung it once, striking the barrier. A giant crack appeared in it, spreading from the impact point all the way to the floor.

  “Time to go,” said the elf and lifted his staff to strike a plate in the wall.

  Part of the wall slid aside, and he rushed us through into a metallic hallway beyond. A single door waited at the end and he urged us toward it.

  “Where are we going? You know we can’t just leave that thing.” I huffed. “It’ll tear this whole place down!”

  “D’ya know how to kill it?” asked the elf.

  “Not offhand.”

  “We don’t have to kill it. We just have to escape.”

  We reached the door and he threw it open on a large living space with Persian carpets, crystal chandeliers and gold, silver, and other precious metals all around. There was also a squad of private security in there, each of them wearing the fleur-de-lis. They had on the equivalent of magickal riot gear, dressed head to toe in body armor warded to the teeth. The blue wards glowed and pulsed as they moved into position behind us, covering the door.

  We skidded across the carpets, headed for another door on the other side. I couldn’t help but pause in the doorway and turn around at the sound of the spiked club scraping down the hallway. When the giant came charging into the room, it did so through a hole blown in the wall with its hammer-like fist and swinging its massive club. Two of the security guards fell underfoot and got crushed like roaches, gut splatter going everywhere. The giant swung its fists and crushed another, grabbing up a third and ripping him brutally in half. The rest of the squad opened fire, but it was no use. The giant shrugged them off without them ever penetrating his skin.

  “Come on!” the elf said and grabbed me by the shirt, dragging me through the door.

  As we ran down yet another corridor, I shouted to Kim, “Your men are getting slaughtered. You should pull them back. Tell them to retreat!”

  “And let that thing catch up to us?” she answered with an indignant laugh. “I think not. They’re serving their purpose.”

  I looked at her, disgusted. “Those men had families, lives. You don’t feel an ounce of guilt over leaving them to die?”

  She tossed her hair aside and shrugged one shoulder. “If you feel so strongly about it, go back and call the retreat yourself.”

  We came to the end of the second hallway and spilled out into a garage full of cars. The elf darted for the closest car, a yellow Ferrari. Not one to linger in a situation out of her control, Kim slid into the driver’s seat, throwing open the passenger door for me. “Get in!”

  Creven helped me into the front seat and then spun around at the sound of a crash. If the sounds coming through the door were any judge, the giant was working its way toward us. The only thing standing between our escape and us getting crushed like Harry, Brutus, and the others was one little elf with a stick.

  “I’m not leaving him alone to face that thing,” I told Kim.

  She rolled her eyes. “What are you going to do? Investigate it to death? You don’t have the proper tools for dealing with it.”

  “And he does?”

  “Creven can handle himself,” she said.

  “Aye,” said Creven, drawing his staff across the floor of the garage in a circle. “That I can.” By the sound of his voice, the crazy bastard wasn’t even nervous. In fact, I half expected him to break out into laughter.

  “You’re no good to us dead,” Kim said. “Now close the damn door so we can go.”

  I took a deep breath. As much as I hated to admit it, they were right. Without preparation, I was a declawed kitten in a dog fight. But left to fight alone, Creven would get himself killed. I wasn’t going to run away from a fight, especially if lives were on the line. If we didn’t stop the giant here and now, it would go on a rampage after Kim. It wasn’t going to stop.

  I grunted as I pushed myself out of the car and stood, putting as much weight as I could on the uninjured leg. There was an old broom lying against a cement pole a few feet away. With a lot of effort, I managed to pull myself over to it, flip it upside down and use it as a sort of cane to go and stand beside Creven. He eyed me curiously. “You ready?” I asked him.

  “Aye. And you?”

  I tapped my broom against the cement and sent a pulse of magick into my injured leg, giving it the added strength I needed to stand. It wouldn’t last long and it would still hurt, but it would get me through the fight...I hoped.

  “Come on, punk,” I screamed. “Come get some!”

  Chapter Eleven

  The giant charged headfirst through the doorway, shoulders so wide the walls cracked. Before it was even fully in the parking garage, it brought down a hammer fist with a shout. I jumped to the right while Creven dove left. The arm came down between where we had been standing and sent a spray of broken concrete into the air.

  Creven hit the ground and rolled, coming up with his staff pointed at the giant’s extended appendage. A brilliant blue light shot out of the end of his staff and bored into the giant’s arm, swirling like a drill. The giant screeched, the arm jerking away wildly and toward me. I lifted the broom and slammed it to the floor with a loud grunt.

  My powers being what they are, what I did to the giant wasn’t nearly as impressive, but I was able to tap into my aura and send a concussive wave of kinetic energy down my arm, into the broomstick, and against the floor. The cement wrinkled in a narrow line as if it were dirt and a mole was burrowing beneath it. When the wave of power hit the giant’s extended arm, all I managed to do was push it back.

  Creven got off another shot, this time directed at the giant’s chest. The giant dodged, hopping aside and letting the blue magick bury itself in one of the thick support pillars of the underground garage. The pillar crumbled impressively, the ball of blue energy acting like a black hole, sucking in the matter. A section of the ceiling above tumbled down on top of the giant but it barely noticed, shaking the debris away with a slight jerk of its head.

  An idea occurred to me and I turned my broomstick toward another support pillar, slamming it to the ground with another concussive wave of magick behind it. The giant jerked sideways as if to dodge, but my shot was too far right to have hit it. Instead, the energy slammed into the support pillar, bringing down an even larger section of ceiling. The giant looked up just as a massive piece of cement six feet wide came down on top of it.

  “Booyah!” I exclaimed, pumping my fist. “Take that, ugly!”

  But the blast worked better than I’d hoped and the ceiling just kept coming down. A big piece fell right in front of me, forcing me to jump back. When I came down, it was on my injured leg. I’d pumped it full of strength earlier, not pain relief, and the sudden impact reminded me a giant had ahold of it earlier. The leg folded underneath me and I went down.

  Creven sprinted over and offered a hand.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t think anything’s broken.”

  The sound of cascadin
g rocks drew our attention back to the small cave-in I’d caused. The giant pushed off the slab of fallen concrete with a mighty heave of its shoulders. It stood on and shook the rubble off its shoulders as if it were a dog shaking water from its fur. A growl rumbled through the garage on a frequency low enough it made my teeth vibrate.

  Creven grabbed my arm and pulled me back a step. “I think you made it mad.”

  The giant swung his club wide with a frustrated roar. Creven and I ducked, but the club wasn’t aimed at us. Instead, the giant had targeted another set of support pillars behind us. Tires squealed as Kim hit the gas, moving the car out of the way of falling concrete and metal support fibers. I turned to try to get out of the way, but I already knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough, not with my leg the way it was.

  Thankfully, Creven knew, too. He threw his arms wide. A blue bubble extended out from his fingers, stretching to cover a narrow three by three area. The tumbling cement bounced off the surface of the barrier he threw up, cascading down the side and leaving little white ripples in its wake. The giant swung his club in a rage, tearing at floors, ceilings, and furniture, pulling all of it down on top of us. Every once in a while, he’d stop and pound directly on the barrier.

  Creven gave a grunt of effort and set another layer of protection on top of the barrier after just such an attack. Every time the giant struck it, huge cracks appeared and some debris from above got through. “I can’t hold it forever,” he said through gritted teeth.

  If it’s fae, I thought, iron will work. But where am I going to get enough of it to make a difference?

  “Whatever you think you’re going to do, you’d better bloody well do it!”

  I turned my attention back to the giant, watching as its club tore apart the mansion above us and mentally scrolling through my options. I had cement aplenty and there were some bits of steel falling from above, but none of them were pieces I could pick up and stab a giant with. No, I was going to need something special for this, but I didn’t have anything with me. I needed another option and fast.

  Okay, I thought, what else can I use? I glanced around and found myself wondering what Chanter would do in this situation. If anyone would know what to do, it would be him. He’d cut the giant down to size, stuff him into a box and throw the box in the ocean after setting it on fire, I mused. Well, I couldn’t set the box on fire and toss it into the ocean, but I could put the giant in a box of sorts with Creven’s help.

  “Creven, do you know what a Way is?”

  He hesitated and glanced down at me before giving a definitive nod of his head.

  “I need you to open one.”

  “You’re insane,” he answered. “Those things are even more dangerous than a marauding giant. I’m not going into one.”

  “It’s not for us.”

  The elf gave me a quizzical look and held it for a moment before his eyes gleamed with understanding. “I don’t know if that’ll hold him for long.”

  “But can you do it?” I shouted over the noise of hundreds of roof tiles coming down on top of the barrier. One made it halfway through before it stopped.

  “Aye, but the barrier’ll have to come down. We’ll get crushed in the process.”

  I readied my broomstick. “Do it.”

  “Count of three,” he shouted. “Ace, deuce…Three!”

  The barrier unfolded from the top down. Debris scattered on top of us. Broken roof tiles became missiles hurled with enough force to impale them into the cement. One grazed the inside of my arm as I turned and brought the broomstick down against the cement floor.

  The concussive wave hit the giant, and he slid back a few inches. For a moment, he hesitated, the massive club raised. His mouth spread into a Cheshire grin. “You’re strong, human. It will be a pity to extinguish such strength if you won’t fight me in earnest.”

  “Thanks,” I said, stepping forward and spinning the stick. “But no thanks.” I brought it down with a loud thwack! The extra energy I’d gathered by spinning the stick a few times lent itself to the spell. The concussive wave slammed into the giant and forced him back several feet. This time, though, instead of lifting the stick and ending the spell, I held it. The force stayed on the giant and he continued sliding back, albeit at a painfully slow pace.

  Creven extended his staff forward, and with a snarling grunt, he sent a wave of power rippling through the air.

  “Your magick cannot harm me, elf!” the giant screeched as Creven’s wave of energy passed right through him.

  “Doesn’t have to hurt you to work,” Creven said, his face betraying a bemused smirk.

  A large black circle appeared behind the giant in Looney Toons fashion. The giant did a Wile E. Coyote-style double-take and then let out an angry growl. He tried with all his might to move forward, shoulder muscles straining, but I pumped even more energy into the spell, forcing him back. The giant dug the spikes of his club into cement, and it peeled as he slid backward toward the opening. His limbs thrashed wildly, pulling at anything they could find, throwing everything at us. More broken debris fell from the ceiling above. I pushed everything I had into the spell.

  Inch by inch, foot by foot, at a painstakingly slow pace, the giant slid into the Way.

  “Now, Creven!” I shouted when the creature was inside of the entrance. Only the club remained outside now, and soon even it would be beyond the opening. “Close it!”

  The elf waved his staff. The giant let out a frustrated yell. My ears ached. The Way snapped shut with all the energy of a rubber band.

  “Th-th-that’s all, folks!” I shouted in excitement as soon as the Way was closed.

  Above, the house groaned. A wall toppled, triggering a cascade of falling items. A metal bar with a jagged edge slid down among bricks, drywall, and broken glass. I ducked but made the mistake of putting more weight on my injured leg, causing me to go down. Something thumped against my back but, otherwise, the only thing that hit me was a light spray of dust.

  Behind me, I heard the distinct sound of metal punching through meat. When I pushed off whatever had fallen on me and turned, I found Creven teetering on his feet. He was staring at the blood on his hands while a large hunk of the metal bar jutted up out of his stomach. His eyes went questioning to me but, when he opened his mouth, blood spurted out in a cough.

  Creven swayed and collapsed, letting the staff fall to one side.

  I reached him just in time to keep him from hitting the cement floor. Kim fought her way through some of the rubble to kneel beside us.

  “Blood,” she cursed as she reached out to touch his face.

  I pushed her hand away and felt for a pulse. “He’s alive,” I announced. “But he needs a hospital.” I reached for my phone to call a squad, only to remember it’d been broken in the scuffle upstairs.

  “No,” Kim growled, grabbing my hand. “No hospitals.” She hesitated, glancing down at him before adding, “Creven’s got a record.”

  I immediately wanted to ask what kind of record. If Creven was a convicted murderer, I was obligated to arrest him. But if his crime was petty, I could turn the other cheek. He had, after all, just saved my life. There wasn’t time. While I stood there trying to decide the right course of action, Creven was bleeding out. He’d stood beside me and fought a giant I could never have dealt with on my own. That would have to be enough for now.

  “Shit. Okay. Just…give me a minute.”

  “We don’t have a minute!” Kim panicked, grabbing for the steel sticking out of his gut. Blood spurted up out of Creven’s wound when she tried to dislodge it. Her body quivered, and she turned her head away.

  I jerked her hands away from him as soon as I realized the mistake had been made. She lifted her blood-covered hands and stared at them, wide-eyed, the way a hungry dog looks at a bone. A pale tongue ran over her trembling lips. I was out of time to decide.

  “Kim!” I shouted. “Creven is going to die!”

  The announcement shook her out of her hungry daze. She mad
e a choking sound and lowered her hands out of her vision. “You have to save him. Take that out of him! It’s iron!”

  “It’s the only thing slowing the bleeding,” I told her. “If we remove it, he dies.”

  “Leave it in, and you’ll poison him!”

  “I know someone who can help, but you’ve got to trust me. And I’ll need your phone.”

  “Tell me what you need me to do.” She pulled a white phone from her pocket and tossed it to me.

  I pocketed it and slid my arms under Creven, pulling him into the back seat of the Ferrari while Kim got back into the driver’s seat. “Take us to Paint Rock. Werewolf Way. There’s a little white prefab with green shutters and a bunch of broken-down cars out front. Go there.”

  Kim slammed her foot down on the accelerator. Tires squealed, and we jostled a bit in the back seat as she navigated the car through fallen concrete and broken furniture. The car hit a ramp and we flew out of the garage and onto the white sandstone path, narrowly avoiding hitting my Firebird on our way out of the gate.

  While she drove, I did my best to stop the bleeding by tearing clothes and packing fabric around the protruding bit of metal. There wasn’t much else I could do but try to control the bleeding.

  At one point, when things looked bleak for the elf, Kim glared into the mirror, bared her fangs and hissed at Creven, “Creven O’Caiside, by the blood, I forbid you to die.”

  “Aye,” whispered the elf, and it was all the response either of us ever got out of him.

  As soon as I could, I pulled out the blood-splattered and borrowed phone and punched in Sal’s number, praying he hadn’t turned his cell phone off for the ceremony yet. “Come on…Come on!” I mumbled in desperation as the tone rang on.

  On the fifth ring, Sal picked up. “What’s up?”

  “Sal, this is Judah. I need you right now.”

  “Well, that’s a little sudden.”

  “The thing from Aisling, I just had a close encounter. I’ve got an elf bleeding out in my lap, Sal. We’re on our way to Valentino’s. I need you prepped for us.”