The Blade Mage

by Phillip Drayer Duncan

  I charged the shielder, smacking him over the head with my staff while blocking a crowbar strike from one of the others. The third man rose to his feet with a tire iron, but before he could attempt to strike me, Stone bashed him between the eyes with the butt of his gun, dropping him back to the floor.

  The guy with the crowbar swung at me again. This time I blocked with my staff and raised my sword up to his neck.

  Stone stood over the other guy and bashed the butt of his gun into the man’s face while he was down. There was a wet smack as he broke the skin. The next strike sounded like he cracked bone. Then it was just sort of a sloppy plunging sounded as he continued pounding. Over and over. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

  I kept my focus on the guy I held at sword-point. “Unless you want him to do that to you, you’d better answer my questions.”

  “Yeah, sure,” the man said, his nervous eyes looking toward his friend. “But tell him to stop. He’s going to kill him.”

  “No shit,” Stone said, glancing up for a moment before he bashed the unconscious man’s face again. “Like he said, start talking or this will be you. I’ll kill every member of your shitty little magic club. You helped a witch kidnap a little girl. You’re all dead as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Is that true?” I asked, meeting the man’s gaze. “Did your gang help kidnap a child?”

  “I don’t know, man,” the guy said, trembling visibly. “I didn’t have anything to do with any of it. I just do what the boss tells me.”

  “Was the boss the guy I was talking to before?” I asked. “Out there in front of everyone?”

  “Yeah, man,” he said. “Your pal killed him.”

  “Tell me what I want to know and you might survive.” Of course I was bluffing. I had no intention of killing anyone I didn’t have to. I couldn’t say the same for Stone, though, and if these pricks had helped the witch, well, I didn’t feel particularly bad for them.

  The Marauder seemed to pick up on this and said, “Look, man, I don’t anything about a little girl… But… We had an arrangement with someone. Someone powerful. Maybe it was your witch. I don’t know.”

  “Bullshit,” Stone said, moving closer. He drew a long knife from his belt and raised it up toward the man’s eye. “You better start telling the Blade Mage something useful real fast or I’m going to take over this interrogation. You know who I am?”

  “Sh..Sh..Shain Stone.”

  “Goddamned right,” Stone said, pushing his knife closer. “You know my reputation, then.”

  The Marauder’s eyes widened and he said, “Look, you might try the Patterson family. That’s who the boss made the contact through. We’re just hired muscle. If there’s a witch involved, she’s tied to them, not us… Why else were the demons sent? They wanted to shut us up.”

  I glanced back at Stone and shrugged. “It’s a lead.”

  “Good enough for me,” Stone replied, then bashed his gun into the side of the man’s head. I had to admit, I kind of saw it coming. The man crumpled to the ground unconscious. Stone turned and glanced at me. “We’d better get out of here before the Cabal’s people show up.”

  I nodded. After all the gunshots and explosions, they were guaranteed to be en-route. There were only two things I was sure of…

  Parker Grimm was going to be pissed he didn’t take me in when he had the chance. If four bodies got his knickers twisted, I could only imagine what he’d think about this mess. And he’d given me the address.

  And…

  What was it the Archmage had told me about making sure I didn’t do anything that might make the local news? Sigh. It was the fucking airport all over again. Or the train. Or the town’s substation. And this time it wasn’t even my fault.

  Chapter 18

  I gave Stone directions to the motel and he agreed to meet us there. I had little doubt he’d show. That said, I wasn’t sure how I felt about seeing him. On one hand, he’d always been cool to me when I was a kid. He was roughly eight to ten years older than me, so when I was a teenager, I thought he was the shit. On the other hand, he’d throttled me and stuck a gun to my head. On top of that, he’d ripped through the Marauders like it was no big deal.

  “I’m sorry,” Faith said, jarring me from my thoughts. She wasn’t looking at me, but had her eyes on the road.

  “Uh, what?” I asked. My mind was going a million directions at once.

  “For getting caught,” she said, still not turning to look at me. “It was my own fault. When I heard the gun shots I got out to be sure. That’s when they snuck up on me. It was stupid but I was just so worried. About my sister. About you.”

  “Oh,” I said, incapable of thinking of anything intelligent to say. The idea that she might’ve been worried about me had never crossed my mind. After a few awkward seconds I forced a smile and said, “It’s okay. I get it. You just have to understand, when it comes to this… All of this stuff… It gets really dangerous really fast.”

  “What were they saying about demons?”

  I took a deep breath and thought about my answer before I spoke. “There were two creatures there, one of which I’d met before. I think they’re working for whoever is behind all of this.”

  “So, you think that Marauder was right? That they were there to shut them up?”

  “Seems likely,” I said, shrugging. “I have no idea. It’s possible they could be working for your witch. Stranger things have happened. My question is, why the hell would a witch have business dealings with a street gang? What would she want them for?”

  “That’s not typical witch behavior?” she asked, glancing over for the first time.

  I shrugged again. “I don’t know. Most of the ‘witches’ I know aren’t really like…you know, bad scary nasty witches like you described. Generally, when I think of witches, I think of the old crones I’ve met who live in the hills alone and try to avoid people as much as possible.”

  “Do you have a lot of experience with witches?”

  “Some. At least of the kind I mentioned. But what you described, no, very little. We don’t get a lot witches, dark wizards, or warlocks in the Cabal’s territory. At least not by the definitions I know. The labels get murky. People like to call themselves different things. So, if we’re referring to witches as specifically female dark mages with strange magics I don’t really understand, then no, I have very little experiences with them.”

  She nodded, seeming to mull over what I said.

  “So, who is Stone?” she asked, changing the subject. “I don’t think he liked me.”

  “I don’t think Stone likes anyone,” I said. I turned to stare at the side of her face, watching her expressions carefully. “He seems to think you’re somehow involved, or know more than what you’ve let on. If that’s true, this would be a good time to come clean.”

  She glanced over at me for only a moment, then put her eyes back on the road. “I’ve told you everything.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, still staring at her. “Because if I find our you’re lying to me, then I’m done. I won’t help you find your sister.”

  “I’m telling you the truth, Wyatt,” she said, flashing me a scowl. “I don’t know who that man is, or what he thinks he knows, but it’s not true.”

  I nodded and decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, at least for the moment. Stone was going to let me hear the voicemail anyway. Whatever it was that had him riled against her, I’d know soon enough.

  “Who is he?” she asked. “You seemed to know him fairly well.”

  “His name is Shain Stone,” I said, thinking about how to explain ‘who’ he was. “He used to work for my father.”

  “Is he another mage?” she asked.

  “No,” I said, chuckling. “No, he’s not a mage. He’s…something else.”

  “What does that mean?”

  I sighed. “Look, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but, since he almost killed you tonight I guess it’s only fair. I’d advise you not to mention it
to him, though.”

  “I don’t even want to talk to him,” she said. “He killed that man right in front of me. I still have his blood on my clothes.”

  “Yeah, that’s Stone,” I replied, shaking my head. “From what I know, before he joined the Cabal he was some kind of Special Forces guy. At least, that’s the prevailing theory. Some say he was an Army Ranger, others say he was a Navy Seal, and some folks think he was both. The only thing I know for sure is that before he joined the Cabal he had a family. A wife, two little girls, and a baby boy. They were all abducted by a dark sorcerer. Some say it was a powerful warlock, others say it was a mythical creature called a Revenant, which is basically like a super powered vampire wizard. There’re different rumors, and my guess is that only Stone knows the truth. At any rate, this sorcerer used Stone and his whole family in some dark ritual involving human sacrifice. He watched each of them die screaming in some horrid and gruesome fashion that’s probably worse than we can imagine.”

  “My God,” she said in a whisper. “That’s horrible.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said, taking a deep breath. “But something went wrong with the spell. Something happened. I don’t know what. In the end, Stone’s family died but he lived, and he was changed.”

  “I can only imagine.”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t mean just mentally. His body changed. He heals faster than a normal human being. I can’t say if it affected him more than that, but I do know that’s true. At any rate, that was his first experience with the supernatural. I don’t know the whole story, but basically he set out with a vengeance aimed at the entire supernatural world, thinking we were all like the monsters who’d murdered his family. If he couldn’t find the mage who’d killed his family, he’d settle for killing any supernatural being that might inflict that kind of suffering on anyone else. He hunted down vampires, were-creatures, and everything in between, killing any who dared harm innocents. He stirred up a whole shit storm and left a lot of bodies in his wake.”

  “I saw what he did to those guys back there.”

  “Yeah, most of the Cabal wanted him locked away in a cage or dead, but not my old man. My Dad showed him that we freaks were just like normal people, some good, some bad, most a bit of both. Stone already had a purpose, but my father helped him point it in the right direction. He guided him, taught him about our world, then provided him targets, and cut him loose. Most everyone in the Cabal is terrified of him. They think he’s a maniac. A rabid dog that should be put down.”

  “What do you think?” she asked, glancing over at me.

  “He’s dangerous,” I said, shrugging. “But he was fiercely loyal to my father. When he died, Stone came and found me and offered to protect me until the services were through. He was worried some of my father’s old enemies might make a move on me. I haven’t seen him since then, but that was the kind of man he was. I’ve never known him to harm anyone who’s innocent, but when it comes to bad guys he has no mercy.”

  “Do you trust him?”

  I thought about my answer, and finally just said, “I trust him more than I trust you, Faith. And more than anyone in the Cabal. Stone will see this through, and without ever having met your little sister, he’ll give his life to save her and he’ll kill those who took her. Right now, I don’t think I could ask for a better ally.”

  She nodded, but didn’t reply.

  ***

  We beat Stone to the motel and Faith headed straight for the shower. I gingerly sat down on the chair in the corner, my butt bone throbbing. My whole body felt like I’d been hit by a Mack truck. My tailbone, though, it felt like the truck had run over it, then put it in reverse to back over it, just so it could drive forward over it one more time.

  “Wyatt,” the Archmage’s voice said in my head.

  Damn.

  I was already regretting my next encounter with Parker, but it hadn’t occurred to me the Archmage would want to speak to me about the supernatural Royal Rumble personally. Maybe I could bluff him into thinking I didn’t know anything about it. Probably not a wise move, but maybe it would work.

  As if reading my mind, he said, “Parker Grimm already admitted he gave you the location of the warehouse, so choose your words wisely. And before you say something witty, consider just how displeased I might be.”

  “Uh, hello,” I replied, unsure what else to say. “Look, I’m sure you’re angry, but—”

  “Angry, Wyatt? You think I’m angry?” he asked. His voice was calm, but not nearly as friendly as before. “And why do you think I’m angry?”

  “Probably on account of the battle.”

  “The battle?” he repeated, laughing. “It was a blood bath. An all-out war zone in the middle of our territory. A battle, as you say, that caused so much noise people were calling it in for miles.”

  “Yeah, it got a bit loud,” I admitted.

  “And what was one of the four things?”

  “Don’t do anything that would make national news.”

  “Don’t do anything that would make local news, Wyatt. Local news.”

  “Will it make local news?” I asked.

  “No. We own the local news agencies, fortunately.”

  “Well, then I technically was in line with your instructions.”

  Silence.

  Oops. Damn.

  “Tell me what happened, Wyatt,” he said, his voice the calm before a storm.

  “I got a tip the Marauders could somehow be involved with Kyle’s murder. I went to visit to see what I could find out. When I got there, I heard the sounds of battle and despite my better judgment, I went inside. Now, listen, I know the Marauders you guys picked up may tell you a different story, but that’s the truth. I walked into the war zone. I didn’t orchestrate it.”

  “The Marauders didn’t tell us anything,” he said, and there was something about his tone that indicated I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say next. “They were all dead. No survivors. Every last one of them was ripped to shreds.”

  “Shit,” I said, sitting up in my seat. “The demons.”

  “You said that in the plural form. Was there more than one? More than just the Abasy?”

  “Yeah, there was another,” I said, pausing to figure out how to describe it. “She looked like a young woman, pretty even. But her skin was pale white, and she had a wicked long tongue, wings, fangs, and believe it or not…she split apart at the torso, and her upper half flew around the room killing people. I swear I’m not making that up.”

  “A manananggal,” he said, a hint of amazement in his voice. “We haven’t seen one of those in…not in my lifetime. Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure about what I described,” I said, shrugging even though he couldn’t see me. “It’s hard to miss-remember the torso bit.”

  “Certainly sounds like a manananggal,” he said.

  “What are they?” I asked. “Another type of demon?”

  “I believe our records classify them as vampires, actually. Most notable accounts are from Philippine lore. Nasty buggers.”

  “Well, vampires aren’t usually hard to kill.”

  “This isn’t your run of the mill vampire. Keep thinking of it as a demon. You’ll be closer to accurate.”

  “Great.”

  “This isn’t good,” he replied. “Two beings from completely different mythos, working together to kill a band of thugs.”

  “Yeah, they made quite the tag team,” I agreed. “And don’t forget the part where they both really want me dead as well.”

  “How did you make it out alive?” he asked. “As far as we can tell, there wasn’t a single survivor in the warehouse.”

  “I got lucky,” I replied. “The Abasy confronted me, but I think he’s scared of Drynwyn.”

  “As he should be.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m a bit scared of him too,” I admitted. “Anyway, we had a brief scuffle, then they both disappeared. I guess they came back after we left to mop up. I think the
y’re working for someone who wanted the Marauders to keep quiet.”

  “And who is ‘we’?” he asked.

  Oops again. Daaamn.

  I wasn’t ready to tell him about Faith yet, so I said, “I ran into Shain Stone at the warehouse. He was the one attacking the Marauders when I showed up. I figured you’d pieced that together based on the spent shell casings.”

  “I did,” he replied. “Just keeping you honest.”

  Whew. Damn. Close one.

  “So, you think the Marauders are somehow involved in Kyle Allen’s death?”

  “Not directly. But I think they were working with whoever is.”

  “I see. So, what have you learned?”

  “That there’s someone else I need to speak with.”

  “I see,” he said with a hint of good humor. “Playing it close to the chest, then. Do you not trust me, Wyatt Draven?”

  “I do,” I said, thinking my words over carefully. “It’s just that… This path I’ve found myself on is one I’m not sure you would approve of. Certainly, you’d want your own agents on the case, but if I’m to uncover the truth, I must trudge forward.”

  “I see.”

  “Besides,” I added quickly, “there’s something about all of this that doesn’t make sense to me. It’s much more complex than Axel simply killing Kyle. And if what I’ve learned so far is true, then Axel should’ve reported to someone. He didn’t, and that makes me leery of sharing details with anyone, even you.”

  “And have you found any concrete evidence that clears Axel?” he asked.

  “No,” I admitted.

  “So, things stand as we left them?”

  “I guess so.”

  “There’s something you should know, Wyatt, for what little difference it makes.”

  “Yeah?”

  “The last time we spoke, you asked why I wanted you involved in this,” he said, pausing. “The reason Parker Grimm gave you is valid enough, but there’s another reason as well. It was Axel’s last wish.”

  “What?”