by B N Miles
His boots crunched over broken glass and wooden shards. Lights flickered again, blasting on and off, before going out for good, drenching the half-destroyed building in moonlight. The door of the office flew open and the old woman staggered out, her eyes wide with horror.
“Call 911,” Jared yelled to her. “And get away from the building.”
“What— what happened?” She gaped at the torn roof, the scattered drywall, the furniture splinters.
“Explosion,” Jared said. “Building might not be safe. Get away from here.”
“Where are you going?”
Jared ignored her, walking directly toward Taavi’s room. He could feel something, just a hint of something, but it was enough to be sure of what had just happened.
Magic crawled along his skin, a magical signature he recognized right away.
Jared stepped over a table that had blown through the door and kicked aside a pillow, the guts torn and scattered. Water dripped from the ceiling, marring the wreckage, making it soppy and impossible to navigate. He managed to kick down what was left of the door and stepped into the pulverized room.
It was hard to even recognize the place. There was a crater in the floor and everything around that crater was smashed to pieces. Jared saw that the concrete foundations of the building were buckled and smashed, and several pipes were broken, leaking water and whatever else down into the deep divot in the earth. Exposed electrical wires crackled and sparked, sending brief flashes of light into the air.
Down in the middle of the pit, Jared saw a figure.
At first, it didn’t move. It stood there, wreathed in darkness, rain dripping down through the hole in the roof. But as it turned its head upward, Jared felt his body go rigid, like a board was shoved down his back.
Rolf stared at him with a wicked smile.
“Hello, Nephew,” he said. “Nice of you to join me.”
“Where’s Taavi?” Jared asked.
“You mean this?” Rolf kicked something at his feet, and it took Jared a moment to realize that it was a mangled body. “He didn’t survive the initial impact, unfortunately.”
“You fucking bastard,” Jared said, his jaw tensed. “You didn’t have to kill him.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Rolf said. “He was talking to you, wasn’t he? Spilling some secrets to save his own skin?”
Jared stepped to the edge of the crater and ignored his uncle’s question. “Give me the battery,” Jared said.
Rolf laughed and cocked his head. “He sure talked a lot before he died, didn’t he?”
“Told me some interesting things,” Jared said. “Like how you’re a little puppy dog for the Medlar now. How does the leash feel, Rolf?”
He let out a low growl. “I’m nobody’s dog,” he said.
“Then explain to me why you’re working with the Medlar.”
“What the family does is none of your concern anymore,” he said. “We have our reasons.”
“Give me the sphere,” Jared said.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Rolf cocked his head. “These spheres are dangerous, you know. Especially in the wrong hands.”
Jared felt his uncle’s power flex as he held the sphere up into the air. The thing glowed a blue-white sparkle, the runes on its body flashing to life in a strange, undulating pattern. Rolf laughed, his eyes wide, his mouth wild as he subvocalized in some language Jared couldn’t understand.
Power flared as priori flowed from Rolf into the battery. Jared felt it flow like a river passing all around him. The battery sucked the priori from his uncle’s body, filling itself with power and intensity. The weight of it seemed to bend the room’s conditions, made gravity lighter, made the water flowing from a broken pipe bend upward, hang in the air, then drop down again.
Rolf gasped and stopped channeling. The sphere continued to glow its strange blue and white, and Rolf stared at it.
“My god,” he said. “Imagine, Jared. Imagine what our family could do with these things.”
“You need to give it to me, Rolf,” Jared said. “The Marshals are on their way. You murdered a man.”
Rolf laughed like he hadn’t heard a word Jared just said.
“Our whole family could survive,” he said. “We could avoid the worst of the madness. Can’t you see that? As much magic as we want, and none of the drawbacks. These batteries, they’re not just dead, inert storage units. They’re the future of the Bechtel family. With these, we’d be the most powerful Magi in the world, capable of things no other family could ever dream of.”
“Rolf,” Jared said. “Drop the sphere. Come out of the pit.”
Rolf tore his eyes from the glowing sphere and shook his head. “I don’t think so, Nephew,” he said, and power flared through his body.
He leapt up into the air. Jared sucked in a breath as the heavyset man flew upwards, out of the crater, landing on his toes at the far side. His scraggly beard seemed to flutter in an invisible wind, and his tattered shorts and torn sweatshirt reflected the light of the sphere as he gripped it tight.
“I can’t let you go,” Jared said through clenched teeth.
“I don’t think you have much choice.”
Jared opened himself to the priori, let it flood into his body. He snapped a memgram into place, exploding the ground beneath his feet as he shoved the air as hard as he could. The burst shot him skyward, launching him toward his uncle as he reached for a second memgram. He clenched his hands into fists, hanging in the air for just a moment beneath the shattered roof, rain pelting his head and shoulders.
Rolf looked up, his expression euphoric.
Jared dropped down and snapped lightning forward, pummeling his uncle as he fell. Rolf threw a shield up, deflected most of the energy, and danced back as Jared landed with a hard slam on the already teetering floor. He stepped back to regain his balance, but Rolf came at him hard, barreling his heavy body right into Jared’s chest.
He managed to bring his arms up just in time to deflect the blow with a well-placed shield. Rolf gasped in pain as his fist smashed the hardened air in front of Jared’s face, the force causing Jared to lose his balance and topple backwards. He grunted as he fell down into the crater, barely managing to cushion his fall. He grunted and dug his fingers into the dirt and muck.
Taavi lay dead a foot away from him, the man’s neck bent to the side.
“Fuck,” Jared said and climbed to his feet.
Rolf stood at the edge of the crater and laughed.
“Don’t come back up, Nephew,” he said. “Better you stay down there with the dead. Since you’re family, I’ll let you walk away from this, but don’t think I’ll always be so kind.”
Jared ran at the crater wall and hurtled himself upwards again, bursting the air beneath his feet. He hurtled himself up, snapping another memgram into place just as Rolf launched a ball of fire directly at his chest. The fire hit a shield and rolled off, and Jared kept flying, using another burst to change direction. He misjudged a little and landed sideways, smashing back against the far wall and breaking through it in a cloud of dust and plaster.
He groaned and pushed to his feet as Rolf advanced. More fire flew from his uncle’s fists, and Jared barely managed to bat them aside. He countered with lightning and forced his uncle to use his own shield. The two of them battered each other, fire against lightning, shield against shield, standing six feet away from each other.
Jared let out a growl and pushed harder, sweat rolling down his back, but Rolf only smiled. He didn’t seem to be straining at all. The sphere in his hand flared and more fire rushed from Rolf’s fingers, smashing Jared’s shield, forcing him to stumble.
“Give up,” Rolf said. “You can’t beat me, not when I have this. You can try as hard as you like, but sooner or later that magic will overwhelm you. But I don’t even feel it.”
He cackled and launched more fire. Jared backpedaled, slapped it away, breathing hard. Rolf was right, sooner or later he’d get tired, and Rolf would have
him. He wasn’t sure how he could get out of this one, not when Rolf had that sphere.
So he ran forward, two shields snapped in front of him. Rolf grunted in surprise and threw fire, but it only broke the front shield. Jared rammed into his uncle, smashed his body and shield against his uncle’s own shield, and the two of them tumbled back into the room just to the edge of the crater.
Jared felt Rolf’s shield snap just as Jared’s shield gave in. He slammed a first into his uncle’s face, making the big man grunt in surprise, and snapped another memgram into place. An ice sword grew in his hand, wicked and curved and diamond-hard. He slashed it forward, aiming for the hand that held the sphere.
But Rolf was just as quick. He snapped lighting at Jared’s arm, completely scorching his skin. Jared screamed in pain as his sword missed its target and cut Rolf’s shoulder instead. He pulled the weapon back and tried again, but this time Rolf reached back, grabbed a long, twisted spike of rebar from the floor, and tore it out with inhuman strength. Jared’s ice sword met the rebar, reinforced with Rolf’s magic, and sparks burst up between them.
“Give up,” Rolf said, grinning wildly as Jared struggled to push his uncle back toward the crater. “You can’t win this, Jared. You were never strong enough.”
“Maybe,” Jared said. “But you were always a self-centered asshole.”
Jared shoved, not hard enough to break Rolf’s defense, but hard enough to push the big man back toward the crater. He lost his footing, slipped, and tumbled backwards. Jared watched his uncle disappear over the lip. There was a crash and a shout of pain as the man hit the ground. Jared moved to the edge, breathing hard, his arm burned and smoking, pain wracking him.
Rolf struggled to his feet and looked up, madness in his eyes. He discarded the rebar and gripped the sphere like a bomb. Its glow wasn’t quite as strong, but the blue-white light still shone and the runes still seemed to twist and dance over its surface.
“You’re tired,” Rolf said, the smile coming back to his lips. “But I haven’t even begun to tap into my strength. How much longer can you last?”
“As long as I have to,” Jared said and threw lighting into the pit.
Rolf laughed and batted it away. He leapt into the air again and Jared tracked him, slicing lighting through the air and missing by inches. Rolf landed on the shattered roof, sending tiles skittering down through the dark.
Sirens began to wail nearby.
“Unfortunately for you, I still have a job to do,” Rolf said. “It’s been fun, Nephew. Next time we meet, don’t expect me to go easy on you.”
Jared growled, burst the air beneath his feet, and threw himself at Rolf. He careened wildly up toward the roof, but Rolf jumped away, landing on the ground behind the motel. Jared grabbed onto the roof and scrambled up, then watched as his uncle leapt up again, landed in a tree, leapt again, and disappeared from sight.
“Fuck,” Jared said and released his ice sword.
He sat on the roof for a long moment, looking off into the horizon where Rolf fled.
Rain trickled down his face, and his arm felt like it would melt off the bone.
His uncle was gone. Taavi was dead. And the sphere was stolen.
For a moment there, he thought he’d finally gotten a real lead and might have actually figured a way out of this mess.
But now it was ruined and broken.
He slipped down off the roof, landed with a hard thud on the concrete, and staggered a few steps. He sucked in a breath, stared at the woods, then turned and limped toward the sidewalk, cradling his burned arm against his chest.
26
Jared staggered back toward the parking lot as the sirens got louder. He saw them in the distance, red and blue lights flashing against the trees. He spotted Jessalene and Lumi next to the car, standing with two other people. His heart jumped into his throat when he realized it was Izzy and Wade.
Izzy had her hands on Lumi, her jaw clenched. Her palms glowed against Lumi’s chest. Wade stood nearby, his sweatshirt ripped along the side, his arms crossed over his chest. Izzy was drenched from the rain and there was a nasty cut along her cheek, the blood dripping down her neck and staining her white and blue top.
He slowed and stared at them, only realizing after a moment that they looked like they’d been in a fight.
“Jared.” Jessalene took a few steps toward him, her eyes wide. “Are you okay?”
“What happened?” he asked.
Jessalene ran toward him. Wade looked up at Jared, his eyes haunted and pained. He turned away again, crossing his arms over his skinny chest. Izzy didn’t move, just kept her hands against Lumi’s chest, the glow seeping into Lumi’s body.
“Lumi’s going to be okay,” Jessalene said. “Izzy said she thinks it’s minor internal damage. But she needs help.”
Jared stepped closer to Jessalene. “Where’s Cassie?” he asked.
She opened her mouth then closed it again. She spread her hands out, rain dripping from her long, dark hair.
“She’s gone, Jared,” she said.
Jared felt the words like hammers against his chest.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “Where the hell is Cassie?”
“Jared,” Jessalene said. “Just try and stay calm.”
“I need to know,” Jared said, feeling panic and rage and sorrow flow through him. “Did the Medlar take her?”
So much had gone wrong, so much had gotten fucked up. Lumi was hurt, Izzy seemed injured, Taavi was dead. And now Cassie was missing, and he didn’t think he could handle it.
“I don’t know,” Jessalene said. “They were out getting dinner, Wade said they were attacked, Izzy tried to defend them, but—”
“Wade,” Jared said, his eyes going wide. He moved past Jessalene and she grabbed at his injured arm, but he wrenched it away, pain flaring. “Wade!”
Wade stared at him and took a step back. Jared walked to the young man, cocked his left fist back, and smashed it into Wade’s face before he could try to defend himself. He cried out, blood spurting from his nose. He staggered back and tripped over a stray piece of debris. He landed in a puddle with a wet thud and stared up at Jared, the blood pooling from between his fingers.
“Where the fuck is she?” Jared said, looming over Wade. He felt the Need screaming in his head, pushing him to take the power, to use the power. He reached for the priori and felt it flare to life inside of him. “What the fuck did you do to her?”
“I didn’t— I didn’t do anything,” he said. “I swear I didn’t.”
Jared kicked him in the chest, slamming the heel of his boot down as hard as he could, knocking Wade flat onto the pavement. He gasped as the air was knocked from his lungs. Jared lifted his foot to stomp on his face.
But he felt something hard wrap around his arms. It tugged him back away from Wade. He began to struggle, fighting against whatever was restraining him.
“Let me go,” he said. “Let me fucking go. He did something to her, I know he did. Let me fucking go.”
He tore at the ropes around his arms, his chest, and it took him a few seconds to realize they were vines growing up from the cracks in the pavement.
“Stop Jared,” Jessalene said, standing near him. “You have to calm down. Wade didn’t do anything.”
Jared’s eyes went wild. Wade sat up and pushed himself away until he was pressed against the guard rail. He stayed there, breathing hard, hands on his chest. Jared fought against the vines and almost used his magic, but a voice held him back.
“Jared,” Lumi said. “If you use that priori, I’m going to step in.”
He let out a frustrated growl and turned his head. Lumi stood there, her eyes hard. Izzy stood next to her looking drenched and exhausted, but her face was determined.
“He didn’t do anything,” Izzy said. “He tried to help.”
Jared took deep breaths and let out an angry roar, unable to help himself. The priori he’d gathered fizzled out from his pores in heavy, thick waves, dissipating
into the air. The Need screamed at him and he felt helpless and shattered as the vines began to slide back away from his body.
He slumped forward, down onto one knee. Jessalene knelt next to him and pulled him against her.
“It’ll be okay,” she said. “It’ll be okay.”
“They took her,” he whispered. “I’m going to find them, Jessalene.” He pulled away and stared into her eyes. “I’m going to kill them all.”
She blinked, bit her lip, and nodded.
He stood a deep, shuddering breath, then picked himself up off the ground. He looked down at Wade.
“Get up,” he said. “And get in the car.”
Wade hesitated then climbed to his feet. Without a word, he staggered toward the car and got into the back seat.
Jared turned to Lumi and reached out a hand. She smiled a little and took it.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I think so,” she said. “I feel better, anyway.”
“No more modding your body on the fly, right?”
“Right.” She grinned and tilted her head. “For a while, at least.”
Jared looked at Izzy. The sirens were close, and the first of the fire engines was pulling into the parking lot.
“We should go,” he said. “But I need to hear what happened.”
Izzy nodded and seemed to relax a little. “We were attacked,” she said. “By this woman with dark hair and an aura almost as deep as Lumi’s. She didn’t smile, didn’t say anything, she just… came for Cassie. I tried to fight her off, and Wade helped too, but I couldn’t do anything. She was just… too strong.”
“I think you met my sister,” Jared said.
Izzy’s eyebrows shot up. “Your sister?”
“Yeah,” he said. “She’s a real treat. Now, come on. Everyone pile into the car. We have to get going.”
Cop cars began to pull into the parking lot. In a minute, they’d shut the whole thing down, and Jared didn’t want to get involved in anything official, not yet at least, not until they had a chance to figure out what their next move was.
“Your arm,” Izzy said.
