by Petra Landon
“That chat we had about the Shifter mercenaries?” Raoul spoke into the phone. “I have them in my custody at the Lair. And I’m holding the man who hired them at the Registry. Make sure you bring men you trust with you, David. This one’s quite influential and I suspect has some of the local Registry in his pocket” he added a quiet warning.
“Yeah. Okay. See you in thirty” Raoul signed off.
He placed the cellphone back in his pocket unhurriedly before turning his attention to the Guardian who now had his eyes open. He contemplated Raoul with a trace of amusement on his face.
“I have thirty minutes to get the information I want from you” the Alpha remarked conversationally, his voice even as if the fury and bitterness in him before had never existed.
“You forget who I am, Shifter” the Guardian responded scornfully. “You’ll never be able to lay a finger on me. You just don’t have enough magic in you. As for David Hamilton – he doesn’t have the power to touch me and he’ll tell you that himself once he gets here.”
“We’ll see” the Alpha replied imperturbably as he watched the Guardian thoughtfully.
“O’Brien” he directed suddenly, without moving his gaze away from the Guardian. “Watch those three wizards by the table. If they make any attempt to leave the room, break some bones” he added casually.
“You can count on me, Alpha” O’Brien responded a little too enthusiastically.
The three wizards by the table muttered amongst themselves, moving instinctively to form a tight circle to face down O’Brien and the Shifter in lynx form.
“He’s bluffing” the Guardian laughed confidently. “He’s not Magick enough to touch me, so he threatens you three.”
“They know nothing, Alpha” he taunted Raoul. “Neither threats nor violence will get them to cough up information they don’t have.”
“I don’t intend to interrogate them, Guardian. It’s you who’s going to tell me what I want” Raoul responded imperturbably, striding towards the Guardian after a fleeting glance at the wolf. The wolf subsided to sit on his haunches as the Alpha came to a stop before the Guardian.
“In your arrogance, you forget something, Guardian. I have wizard ancestry from my mother and I do know a thing or two about your brand of powerful magic. If I were you, I’d not be so cocky that the magic you’ve cloaked yourself with will protect you. Do you know what springs to my mind when I see this kind of magic?” he inquired easily of the Guardian who watched the confident Shifter with sudden wariness in his eyes.
“The magic requires tremendous focus to maintain and drains a lot out of the wizard sustaining it.”
For a moment, the gold eyes flashed cold fury at the Guardian. Then the Alpha resumed his seemingly casual remarks, his emotions back under control again. “You’ve been draining your magic for a few minutes now. How long can you hold a protective shield, Guardian? Thirty minutes? I doubt it.”
A powerful leg swung out to sweep the Guardian’s feet away from under him in an abrupt move; all the more sudden since the Alpha did it mid-sentence. The Guardian lost his balance with a gasp to flail around wildly. Without missing a beat, Raoul used the flat of one large palm to slam him into the door behind with inhuman force. The Guardian hit the door with tremendous force, only to be expelled back with a thud. The Alpha clocked him a few more times, repeating the blows with a casual show of brute strength that put fear into the hearts of the watching wizards. It all happened so quickly that the spectators could do nothing but watch in mute shock as the Guardian bounced off the door repeatedly with brutal force.
Raoul had heard of magic shields – powerful stuff that very few wizards could attempt successfully. The magic was also similar, albeit on a much smaller scale, to what the witchling had used that night at the leech nest. Now that he’d had time to reflect on that night, he understood that. He could not hope to touch the Guardian without bringing down the shield which was held together and protected by the Guardian’s powerful magic. So, Raoul had come up with a plan to do just that. His goal was to throw off the wizard’s focus just enough to create some holes in the shield that he could then exploit. Once the shield was breached, Raoul was counting on the Guardian not having enough magic reserve left in him to build it up again. The magic shield protected the Guardian from any injury when he was slammed against the door. However, as Raoul had calculated, this very shield also caused the wizard to ricochet back off the door. As the Alpha had hoped, the abruptness, the relentlessness and the sheer force of the assault caused the Guardian’s control over his shield to slip. Eventually, after a few forceful bashes against it, the door shattered abruptly. Quick as a cat, the Alpha reached for the Guardian. As the Guardian, reeling from the sheer force and audacity of the Alpha’s assault, attempted to recover control of his thinning shield, the Alpha hefted him high over his head in a casual display of superhuman strength. The wizard hung suspended in air for a moment. Then the Alpha slung him at his three henchmen who were watching the manhandling in open-mouthed shock.
The henchmen scattered in haste as the Guardian sailed through the air to slam unerringly onto the table. The table caved under the sheer force with a loud groan and the Guardian fell through to the floor in a shower of splinters and wrenched wood. The three wizards fled away from the Guardian who curled into fetal position with his hand raised to protect his head in a gesture born of instinct. O’Brien cornered the fleeing wizards and the lynx hissed threateningly at them. Raoul sauntered unhurriedly towards the fallen Guardian, watching carefully for any signs of weakness in the magic shield that protected him. Most of the debris falling over him slid off the shield protecting the Guardian’s prone body but Raoul’s keen eyes noted a sliver of splinter that seemed to pierce through to prick the Guardian on his right shin. The Guardian winced from the pain and the Alpha raised his foot to stamp down on the splinter with brutal power. The sound of breaking bone filled the room a second before the Guardian shrieked with pain.
“Lost your focus, Spell Caster? I told you – one moment of distraction is all it takes” the Alpha remarked with an air of academic interest. “Feel like talking yet?” he inquired mildly as the Guardian writhed on the floor, moaning with pain.
The Guardian glared back in response, his eyes shooting darts of hate while he attempted to sit up to feel his broken shin.
“No?” queried the relentless voice. “Let’s try this again then.”
The Alpha reached for one of the chairs that had been flung aside as the Guardian’s men scurried to get out of the way of their air borne employer. He lifted it with ease over the Guardian’s prone body, his intent clear.
“I didn’t hurt the girl” the Guardian blurted out before the Alpha could hurl the chair on him. “I merely took some blood from her.”
“Blood!” Raoul checked himself to lower the chair. “You’re lying, Spell Caster. She barely had a pulse. This was no mere forceful blood donation. What did you do to her?”
“I took a lot of her blood” the Guardian gasped in pain. “There’s a box of vials in the other room – you can check for yourself if you want.”
The Alpha glanced at O’Brien, who moved towards the broken door to vanish into the next room. In the silence, the Guardian attempted to sit up with some difficulty.
“You broke my leg, you f--king animal” he spat out in pain and hostility.
“I’m capable of much more” the Alpha pointed out coldly, the loathing he felt for the Guardian back in his voice. “You remember that, Spell Caster.”
O’Brien returned with a medium-sized icebox that he opened to show his Alpha. Rows upon rows of vials full of blood packed in ice sat in the box.
“Any more vials in the room?” Raoul asked O’Brien.
“No, this was it.”
“Hold onto it. We’ll take this back to the Lair to destroy them.”
Raoul turned to the Guardian who panted with pain while he gently probed his broken leg to check for other injuries. There was certainly a lot of
blood in the icebox but not enough to put the witchling in the state that he’d seen her in, Raoul was sure. Something didn’t add up here!
“The mercenaries you hired were instructed to take blood samples off the wizards they mugged. What were you searching for?”
The Guardian remained silent.
“Spell Caster” Raoul called out softly. As the Guardian glanced up venomously, he leaned down casually to grasp the wizard by the collar of the shirt he wore.
“Pay attention or I’ll let the wolf loose on you before I break your other leg” he warned. “The wolf is a friend of the girl you injured, so believe me you don’t want to tangle with him.”
The wolf chose that moment to raise his hackles and growl low from his throat, his attitude one of menace.
The Guardian glared back at the Alpha viciously. His magic was too drained to attempt any powerful stuff.
“You’re making a huge mistake, Shifter. This is bigger than one Guardian.”
“I’ll take my chances” the Alpha countered imperturbably, using his grasp on the Guardian to lift him up closer to meet the implacable gold eyes.
“There’s someone we’re looking for – someone we believe is hiding out in this city as a low level wizard.”
“A female in her early twenties” the Alpha remarked. “I figured that out but why the blood?”
The Guardian glanced away at Raoul’s query, the better to hide the gleam of smug amusement in his eyes.
“The magic in her is different” he replied. “A sample of her blood will help us identify her by her magic.”
Raoul, who’d caught the Guardian’s subtle reaction, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the wizard who made sure to keep his gaze turned away from the perceptive gold eyes. The smug bastard was amused, was he! Raoul had a sneaking suspicion he knew why. How had he missed the small clues, he wondered? Sometimes it was the obvious – the thing that stared you in the face and nothing more complicated than that. Raoul didn’t believe the Guardian’s explanation for a second. There was no way to extrapolate the magic in a Chosen from his blood or to distinguish a Magick’s blood from that of the rest of the human population. That was the only reason the Chosen had managed to keep their existence a secret from the humans, even in a world of extraordinary technological advancements.
Raoul’s cell rang abruptly. He was out of time, he realized. David Hamilton had arrived with his trusted wizards to take custody of the Guardian. No matter - he had what he wanted from the wizard. The rest he’d take care of later, Raoul decided.
“David? Yeah. I’m sending one of my Shifters to escort you and your wizards in. Just give me a few minutes” the Alpha said into the phone.
“O’Brien” he glanced at the Shifter who stood watchfully over the Guardian’s men. “You know David Hamilton by sight, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I want him and his wizards escorted in here.”
“I’ll take care of it” the red-haired Shifter strode away after a last glance at the lynx who watched the three wizards, aggression oozing from every pore.
“You’ll regret this night’s work, Shifter” the Guardian warned stormily. “There are many more of us. You have no idea what you’ve messed with here. After tonight, you’ll be a marked man. You should have let this be.”
“Do your worst, Spell Caster” Raoul invited coldly. “I’ve survived worse from your kind and I’m still standing. It’s you who has made the mistake. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I made the decision a long time ago to live my life as a Shifter and walk away from my other heritage. You’ve managed to persuade me otherwise - I’m going to make an exception just for you. You tell your friends that Raoul Merceau is going to make all your lives a living hell from now on.”
The two men stared at each other for a long moment.
“It’s the ones like me you should fear, Guardian! The ones who hold nothing sacred and don’t give a rat’s ass for what anyone thinks” the Alpha warned grimly. The Guardian’s face blanched a little at the underlying seriousness he could sense in the Shifter’s words.
“I’m going to teach you to never again mess with me or mine, Spell Caster” the Alpha said softly with ominous intent.
Tasia awoke groggily to a dimly lit but vaguely familiar room. As she moved restlessly in the bed, the young woman by her bedside glanced up hopefully.
“You’re awake, Tasia” she cried out with joy. “How do you feel?”
Tasia gazed into Sara’s concerned eyes, her confusion and puzzlement obvious.
“Don’t feel good” she mumbled. “What happened to me?”
“You were kidnapped by wizards and held in the Registry” Sara said quietly. “Do you remember any of it, Tasia?”
“No” Tasia shook her head. She remembered going to the Registry to sort out the mess with her paperwork and activate her Mfector status.
“You’ll be fine, Tasia” Sara clasped her friend’s hand reassuringly. “You lost a lot of blood, that’s all. Doc’s put you on a drip.”
“Doc?”
“Yes. He says that you’ll be fine in a few days.”
“Few days” Tasia repeated slowly. Her head hurt and everything felt like a bad dream.
“Where am I – is this your apartment, Sara?”
“No” Sara replied gently. “You’re in your room at the Lair.”
“My room” she exclaimed in confusion. “I don’t have a room at the Lair anymore. I left.”
This part she could remember very vividly. A horrible scene in the smaller sound-proofed room with the Alpha had precipitated her decision to walk away from the Pack. She was staying with Caro until she could figure out her next move.
“The Alpha gave orders for you to have your old room back.”
“Alpha” she repeated faintly. “Must be a mistake! I walked away from the Pack.”
“No mistake, Tasia” Sara responded in a gentle voice. “The Pack brought you back safely from the Registry.”
Tasia shook her head as dizziness assailed her once more.
“No, that cannot be. The Alpha doesn’t consider me Pack anymore” she reiterated, her voice a bare whisper as she fell back into unconsciousness.
“Apparently, he does” Sara said under her breath as she watched her friend settle back into a deep sleep. There would be plenty of time to acquaint Tasia with what had gone down the night before. The Lair was abuzz with what had happened at the Registry. Sara had a better source than mere Pack gossip for Hawk had been present. She wondered in some amusement if Tasia would appreciate the wild rumors that abounded in the Pack.
The Shifters were mostly confused and puzzled by what had happened. There was approval for the Alpha’s handling of the issue but also consternation at his intent. The consensus, as far as Sara could tell, was that the Alpha was right to go after the Guardian and his friends – no one who violated Pack territory should be allowed to get away with a mere warning. The Alpha should have been satisfied with the humiliation he had already heaped upon the Guardian for unknowingly going after a member of the Pack, albeit a temporary one who’d been extended Pack protection. Yet the Pack could sense that he was not and that puzzled them. Rescuing Tasia from the Guardian’s clutches was something all Shifters agreed with. Pack was Pack and she should not be abandoned to her fate, wizard or not. The Alpha had been right about that. But going after the Guardian for targeting her was something the Shifters could not wrap their heads around. Not that anyone would dare hint any of this to the Alpha – every Shifter understood how bad an idea that was. Of course, there was another matter that united every Shifter in the Pack – eager anticipation for the brewing fight. They might not understand the Alpha’s motives for going after the Guardian so aggressively but they certainly looked forward to the event. It had been a while since they’d had a good scrap. The advent of the CoC had messed with this aspect of their lives - too much bureaucracy and emphasis on peace between the various factions of Chosen. They were Shifters, not diplomat
s! They deserved to do some down and dirty brawling very now and then.
“It’s time, child” the man’s voice was somber.
He glanced up into the wise eyes and his stomach dropped down like a stone. No, he screamed silently. Not yet! He’d not had enough time to prepare for this. Yet he stayed silent, aware that any protests would make this final parting that much more difficult for the man.
“I’ve taught you everything that I know. My work here is finished” the man said gently, the wise eyes letting him know that he had heard the silent screams.
“It’s not” he blurted out. “I’m not ready, Papa. Don’t leave me!”
The older eyes watching him saddened inexplicably. “This was determined a long time ago, child. Since before you were born. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m happy that I had these years with you. But now, my time has come.”
“No” the boy cried out. “Please, Papa. Don’t go yet. Not yet” he pleaded.
“I wish that things had been different, child. But they’re not. At least I have been able to teach you to protect yourself. Remember what I taught you and do not fear. I will always be with you in spirit.”
A stab of mingled grief, pain and hopelessness seared through him to leave him sobbing and railing against the unfairness of fate. Raoul gasped awake abruptly to stare blankly at the familiar walls of his bedroom as he attempted to come to terms with the searing emotions from his nightmare.
What the hell, he wondered in disbelief. He was no stranger to nightmares but the ones he usually experienced related to the darkest period of his life. This had nothing to do with his experiences. He’d never seen the man from the dream before. Yet it’d been so vivid and so heartfelt - he’d felt the searing effect of the emotions as he lived the experience.
