by Charley Case
Mila felt a hand on her arm and looked down to see Victoria’s hard expression. “Let me up, the potion has done its work.”
Mila and Remmy stopped pulling her and helped the tall woman to her feet. She kicked off her remaining heel and held out a hand. “I need a weapon.”
“What do I fight with then?” Mila asked, a little surprised.
“You don’t. You need to make an exit for us. My powers are pretty much drained, but for some reason, I can feel them returning even though you’re standing right here. We should both be getting weaker by the second, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I may not have my powers, but I do have thousands of years’ worth of experience.”
Mila couldn’t argue with the logic and handed Gram to her. “Don’t lose that; it was a gift. Remmy, watch my back while I blow a hole in this place.”
“You got it, boss.” She had a wicked gleam in her eye that Mila hadn’t ever seen before in the goblin, and suspected that she was secretly enjoying all this.
They had pulled themselves down the aisle far enough that they were now in an alcove created by two machines that were twenty feet long and made of solid steel, giving them relative protection in the ten-foot-wide space. Technically someone could come over the top of one of the machines, but it was unlikely in the next few seconds.
All Mila had to do was blow a hole in the cinder block wall. She pulled out the Ivar aimed it at the wall and pulled the trigger a couple of times. The drain on her magic when using the weapon had gone down considerably since she had first fired it, but it was still a good chunk of power, and she needed to not let her power management leave her vulnerable.
The two bolts of raw magic slammed into the concrete blocks, each one exploding in showers of black and gold sparks, but leaving nothing more than two small chips for all the bluster.
“Oh, fuck,” Mila breathed, putting the pistol back in its holster and running up to the wall. She placed a hand on it and felt the infernal power radiating through it, bolstering its durability.
The spell felt very similar to what Carl had done to the walls of the bar in Elk River. The difference was that this spell was powered with infernal magic. A lot of infernal magic. Mila didn’t have enough power to cancel out what had been imbued in the wall. She needed a plan, and she needed it two minutes ago.
As she turned back to the fight, Mila saw that Jenny’s and Howard’s potions had finally kicked in and they were both back in fighting shape. The three G.A.E.L. team members were efficient and deadly using a combination of magic and tech, and hours of practice together had turned them into a well-oiled fighting machine. Where they let some through, Remmy would appear and dispatch the enemy with her two long daggers before vanishing again.
The real MVP was Victoria. She had waded into the enemies and now laid waste to them with graceful sword and foot movements. She would also occasionally use one of the enemies as a shield by throwing thralls into attackers, or hold them at arm’s length and let their comrades rip them to pieces while she took care of others at the end of Gram.
Despite Victoria’s claim that she didn’t have enough magic left to fight effectively with magic, Mila could see that she had empowered her muscles and reflexes, if just a bit. She would get out of the way of a set of talons just in time, then pick up a fully grown man turned thrall and throw him ten feet through the air to crash into more thralls.
She had cleared out a hole to fight in and took on attackers from all angles. That gave the G.A.E.L. team a little room to breathe, and they were slowly chipping away at the massive numbers, but Mila could see that the only reason they hadn’t been overrun was that they had funneled the enemy down so that their huge numbers didn’t mean a whole lot.
Watching Victoria fight gave Mila an idea. She searched quickly for a suitable tool for the job. At the base of the machine on her right was a five-gallon bucket with scraps of metal in it. A quick search and she found a foot-long section of steel tubing that would work.
She turned back to the wall and put her hand on it to feel how the reinforcement spell was woven into the structure. After a few seconds, she could begin to see the pattern in the wall. It was like a webbed lattice with the intersections of the lines of power acting as anchor points. If she took out an anchor point, then the power lines around it wouldn’t be stable enough and might disintegrate, but if she could cut off a whole section from the main lattice, then that whole section would go down.
The lattice was in a diamond shape, with each anchor being about a foot from the next. If she could destroy nine points, she could open up a pretty large hole for them to get through.
She didn’t have to overpower the whole system, she just had to overpower nine little points. That was completely doable.
She held the pipe in her fist so she could stab it at the wall, then channeled power into it. The end of the pipe gave off a shimmering golden light. With a little magic to enhance her strength, she found the first spot and stabbed the pipe into it. There was a flash of black and gold as the opposing magics fought one another, but her power far outstripped the single node. After a second’s resistance, the pipe rammed two inches into the concrete block.
A quick check told her that it had worked; the node was gone, and the lattice around it had faded as well.
“Only eight more to go,” she yelled as a battle cry, slamming the pipe into the next node.
She continued, using up her magic at a prodigious rate, but getting results. A quick glance over her shoulder and she could see that the team had cleared out the enemy between them and Victoria, letting her focus more on the fight in front of her while they supported her at range.
Mila could see the faint outline of large wings coming from Victoria’s back. They were barely visible and made completely of light, but Mila wondered why they showed at all. Shouldn’t she be conserving her power? Unless the wings were something else, like a reaction to circumstance, maybe? Mila shook her head. She didn’t have time for this.
She stabbed the next node, and it went out much easier than the first two. The fourth was even easier. It was still taking a considerable amount of power, but it did confirm that the entire structure was weakening with each node removed. She continued punching the pipe into the wall, and in a few seconds, she had the wall cleared of the reinforcement spell.
She took a step back, pulled out the Ivar, and aimed at the wall once again. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”
She pulled the trigger to send a single bolt at the wall. This time when it hit, there were no black sparks. Instead, the bolt exploded and sent chips of hot concrete flying, but more importantly, it left a hole a foot in diameter.
Mila grinned and blasted away at the wall. By the time she had a hole large enough to run thorough, she had a splitting headache and felt like she’d hit the bottom of the tank magically.
“Let’s go, people!” Mila sent a bolt from the Ivar into the horde, cutting down several of the enemies in one shot, but her vision started to blur as her head screamed in pain. She slipped the pistol back into its holster.
“Go! I’ll hold them off while you get out, then I’ll follow!” Victoria’s face and clothes didn’t seem nearly as bloody as Mila would have guessed, considering the piles of bodies around her.
Jenny grabbed her satchel and ran through the opening, rummaging in the bag as she went. Howard followed, sending one last bubble that morphed into a spinning blade that sliced a Rougarou in half at the waist.
Mila looked past Victoria and saw that Yaminah had climbed up onto a worktable and watched the retreat with a sour look on her face, but did nothing to stop them. Mila would have thought she would be throwing spells left and right, but it seemed like she had just given up. Carl and Remmy made it out, and it was just Mila and Victoria left.
“Come on, we’re clear, Victoria. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Veronica took a quick look back, then went back to fighting, timing her run with a lull in the fight.
The blood drained from Mila’s face when she saw a black void rip open in the main section of the factory behind Yaminah.
“We have to go now!” Mila shouted, waving for her sister to follow.
Mila decided she could take the pain if it meant not having to fight Azoth right now and pulled the Ivar back out.
She shot a bolt into the group right in front of Victoria to give her the opening she needed to disengage. The tall woman turned and sprinted towards Mila and the exit.
Two steps away from Mila, Victoria’s expression went from determined to panicked to pained as she doubled over and fell to the floor. Gram also skittered to a stop at Mila's feet.
Mila had no idea what had just happened, but when she looked past the charging thralls, she could see what had gone wrong.
Azoth had returned. Slung over his shoulder was an unconscious woman that Mila suspected was the Lone Valkyrie he had left to collect that morning. Victoria had been so weakened that when she appeared, it took the last of what Victoria had and put her down.
Mila didn’t have time to pull Victoria out before the thralls would be upon them, and if she stayed to fight, Azoth would join the battle and it would all be over.
It was an impossible situation, but if she had a choice, it was to fight. It was always to fight. Because if you didn’t fight, you couldn’t win.
Mila hooked her foot under Gram’s blade and kicked it up in front of her. With magically enhanced reflexes, she snatched it out of the air by the handle and dove into the oncoming thrall.
“Halt!”
Azoth’s shout shook the windows, and every one of his minions froze in their tracks. Even Yaminah stood stock still.
The sudden silence was disorienting, and Mila began to back away while Azoth tried to figure out what the hell was going on. He spotted her and pointed a stony hand, as the void in his hood seemed to darken with anger.
“You! You will halt!”
Mila gave him the finger.
She glanced down to see that Victoria was awake, but not able to do much more than groan in pain.
The odds were far too in Azoth’s favor right now. What Mila needed was a miracle.
Then, to Mila’s surprise, a miracle stepped out of the portal behind Azoth.
Missy, dressed in a super short pleated plaid miniskirt, thigh-high black combat boots, and a hooded back t-shirt, looked like she was ready to eat a frying pan and spit out nails. Her blue pigtails shook with rage, and she had a twisted snarl of anger on her face as she stared daggers at the back of Azoth’s hood.
Mila smiled. Now they might just have a chance.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mila opened her mouth to shout something at Azoth to let Missy know she had sisters in the fight with her, but Missy beat her to it.
“This is unacceptable, Azoth!” Missy shouted, her fists clenched. “You are exceeding the terms of our deal…” Her voice trailed off when she realized there was something more important happening.
Mila’s eyes widened in shock as she and Missy locked gazes. They just stared at one another while Mila’s mind ran at a thousand miles an hour.
Missy had made a deal with the Drude? They were on friendly enough terms that she felt comfortable using his portal, and shouting at him in his own lair? What the fuck was happening? How long had it been happening?
A million more questions flashed through her mind, but Mila knew she wasn’t going to get any answers right now. Nothing had changed. She still needed to get out and take Victoria with her more than ever now.
“Yaminah,” Azoth sneered in his creaking voice, “Missy. Bring me those two. I wish to feast.”
Mila realized it was much worse than just some deal when Missy physically tried to resist, and her chest flared with black infernal magic as she cried out before locking her jaw. She glared daggers at Mila.
“Why couldn’t you just do what you were told?” Missy coiled her legs and leaped from the ground onto a table, then sprinted towards Mila.
Mila grabbed the front of Victoria’s blouse and dragged her toward the opening behind her.
Fully enhanced with magic, Missy’s limbs glowed with golden light as she raced across another workbench then leaped over the tightly packed minions to land ten feet in front of Mila, already sprinting and cocking her fist back to deliver a magically enhanced punch.
There was a wet squishing noise and Missy slammed to a halt, her body doubling over and lifting into the air before falling back to her feet.
There was a rush of air as Remmy appeared, kneeling in front of Missy, the butt of a broken broom handle jammed into the floor and the broken end poking out of Missy’s back.
Yaminah landed behind Missy, her hands coming up to blast Mila, but her eyes widened and she hastily threw up a shield as firebolts and ice spikes shot past Mila, followed by rapid-fire silenced rifle rounds. They slammed into Yaminah’s shield and blew her off her feet.
Howard knelt beside Mila and scooped Victoria up in his arms. “Thought we should come see what was keeping you.”
Mila threw up a shield to block a set of the three diamond missiles from Yaminah. They ricocheted into the wall overhead to explode and send chips of concrete raining down.
Missy screamed in rage, the shock of being stabbed fading away. Quick as a cat, she backhanded Remmy in the chest, sending the small goblin flying into Mila, who dropped her shield and caught her.
Mila put her shield back up and quickly backed toward the hole.
“Do not let her escape!” Azoth roared.
The previously frozen minions sprang into action, sprinting past Yaminah to block her line of sight and ability to cast any more spells at Mila. Missy was busy pulling the makeshift spear from her abdomen, so Mila dropped her shield, turned, and ran out into the light of day.
It took her eyes a second to adjust, and she nearly tripped over an elongated black box that lay in front of the opening. As she scrambled over it, Mila wondered who would leave a box out in the open like that, until she saw Jenny’s maniacal smile as she pressed the button of a remote detonator.
The black box flipped open and shot hundreds of ball bearings out in rapid succession. The speed the projectiles flew from the box kept increasing until a continuous stream pelted the concrete bricks and zinged into the opening, eliciting screams and howls of pain.
The accumulated hits and the weakened state of the wall’s reinforcement spell finally hit the breaking point, and the wall collapsed to block the enemy.
There were still other ways they could get out of the building, so Mila and the rest of the team ran for all they were worth, ducked through the hole in the fence they had cut on the way in and piled into the van Nick had pulled to the curb once his and Tina’s part of the rescue was over.
Carl pulled the door closed. “We’re in. Let’s get out of here, Nick.”
“You got it.” Nick stepped on the gas and had them around the corner in a matter of seconds.
“Well, that was exciting!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Penny added her own infusion of magic to the glowing bubble that hovered six inches above the reclaimed wooden table. She glanced down at the sketch for reference, then mentally forged the part while Lance and Rebecca fed in extra power to keep the form solid.
Each of the twenty-odd parts took a lot of power to create since they were designed to hold more magical charge than was normally imbued into objects, and they needed to be made of sturdier stuff than anything that could be forged or machined.
The power flowing out of Penny was substantial enough that she needed to refuel after each part they created.
After putting the finishing touches on the oddly shaped part, Penny checked to be sure it was perfect. Not seeing any problems, she willed the object into existence and the bubble popped. The vaguely boat-shaped part dropped to the table with a solid sound thunk.
With a whoosh of exhaustion, Penny sat back on her haunches and picked up the heavy part to exam
ine it closely before she set it beside the row of parts they had created over the last few hours.
“Only a dozen more to go,” Lance said with a laugh. “Does anyone want a drink? I think I could use a drink.”
“That sounds wonderful, honey.” Rebecca stretched her arms above her head and sharply twisted her torso to pop all the vertebrae from her tail bone to her shoulder blades in one go.
“Oh, god. That felt great!” She rolled her head around her shoulders.
“Penny, you want anything? We have beer, wine, and a full bar. What sounds good?” Lance rolled open a garage door-style cabinet to reveal a fully stocked bar.
“Seriously,” Rebecca stage-whispered to Penny, “he’s an amazing mixologist. Don’t tell him I said so. He doesn’t need a bigger head than he already has.”
She winked at Lance, and he laughed.
“It’s a byproduct of my potion-mixing. Basically the same thing.” He shrugged shyly, embarrassed by the praise.
Rebecca laughed. “Yeah, because all potion makers want their concoctions not only to be effective but to taste good as well. That’s a normal thing. Oh wait, no, it’s not. You’re exceptional, babe. Just accept it.”
Lance pulled out a couple of bottles and filled a shaker with ice. “If you say so, babe. I like to think that I’m just doing it properly.”
“So, instead of thinking you’re an exceptional potion maker, you would rather think that all the other potion makers are just doing it wrong?”
The slack-jawed look of shocked realization on Lance’s face made Rebecca and Penny burst out laughing.
“That’s not what I meant,” he tried to argue, but he just ended up laughing along with them. “Okay, okay. Now that we all know I’m actually a low-key potion snob, what can I get you, Penny? Becca and I usually have a daiquiri on a warm afternoon like today, but I can make you anything you like.”
“Squee shi? Like a frozen daiquiri you get at a resort?” Penny tossed a few mixed nuts into her mouth.