by B N Miles
The doors slammed again, snapping inward. Nikki and the Demon girl joined Jared and Lumi. Nikki’s face was dour.
“Bad news,” she said.
“What’s wrong?” Jared asked.
“Sunrise,” she said. “I’m out of this fight.”
“Shit,” Jared said. “Already?”
She spread her hands. “Sorry, darling. Did what I could.”
“It’s okay.” He stepped forward and kissed her cheek. “Go join the others. I love you, you know?”
“I know you do.” She smiled, a sad and lost smile, touched his face, and turned away. She jogged to catch up with Jessalene and the rest of them.
Jared turned to face the Demon. Her eyes were dead black and her face was drawn and tight. She was pretty, with an angular face and full lips, her dark skin glimmering in the light, her long dark hair billowing out behind her. The small nubby horns looked like they’d been sheared off and smoothed out at some point, probably as a form of torture, and anger rolled through him anew.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Allie,” she said, and her voice was surprisingly girlish.
“Can you still fight?”
She nodded. “So long as you can, Magi.”
“Good.”
The doors flexed and snapped open, slamming against the ground and bouncing along until they came to a grinding halt. Jared felt Lumi grab at her power, and he almost wanted to ask her to stop, but he needed her.
“We might be able to take these two,” Jared said. “But there are going to be others. We just need to buy them time.”
“Let’s buy it for them, then,” Allie said, her feet floating up off the ground, her face drawn into a mask of rage as she threw her hands wide.
The two Magi came through the door. The male looked pissed off, his eyes scanning the room until they stopped on Jared, Lumi, and Allie. The female Magi came in next, arms crossed over her chest, smiling like she was having a great time.
“There you are,” the man said. “You sneaky little rats.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Jared said. “You can let them go.”
The man snorted and gestured. Lightning arced at Jared, who barely had enough time to call on his own power. He deflected the attack down to the ground around him, stumbling back in the process.
“You think I’m about to let a bunch of warm research subjects leave here?” he asked. “You must be a moron.”
“Gods, I hate you people,” Lumi said, and Jared felt the world shake as she drew on her power. “All you Medlar fucks.”
“Funny you say that.” The girl walked toward Lumi, grinning hugely. “I know who you are. You’re the one that got away, right? You really pissed off the higher-ups.”
“Good,” Lumi said and slammed her hands together.
A wave of solid air burst out and smashed against the girl. She tried to deflect it and screamed as it threw he backwards, smashing her against the wall.
Allie attacked next, throwing her power at the male Magi, who managed to throw a shield around himself. Allie’s black bubbling magic tried to eat at the hardened air but only managed to send steam rising up around them.
Jared ducked and shoved his hand down into the floor. His fingers found something hard, ridged, and heavy as hell. He yanked and staggered back as the battery came free.
It was warm in his hands and he could feel the energy humming inside of it.
“Lumi,” Jared said, “get down.”
She looked back at him and her eyes went wide as he walked forward, battery clutched between his hands. He drew on the power inside and felt it burst through him like fire. He gasped, but it didn’t hurt, didn’t fill him with Need at all.
Instead, it felt like clay in his hands. He shaped it, forming multiple arcs of lightning, and lashed them out at the two Medlar Magi.
The girl screamed, trying to fight it back, but Jared smelled singed skin and hair. The man let out a rage-filled growl as he was forced back to the door. Allie doubled her attack with a scream and Lumi joined in, throwing her own fire at the male. His shield held longer than Jared expected, but soon he felt a crack form as he emptied the battery, sending heavy bolt after heavy bolt at the Magi.
He shouted as the shield shattered. He tried to rebuild it but failed as Jared’s lightning consumed him. He screamed in pain and the air filled with the smell of cooking meat as he fell back to the floor, convulsing like a dying fish, then went still.
The girl was on her knees, breathing hard, her head hanging forward as blood dripped from her lips.
Lumi walked to her, kicked the guy on her way, then stopped. She knelt down in front of the female Magi and looked into her face.
“I want you to know that you died for a family that never cared about you,” she said.
The girl looked up and tried to spit but only managed to dribble blood on herself.
Lumi stood, held out a hand, and blasted fire down on the girl. She fell back, screaming, and was consumed. When Lumi stopped, there was only ash and bone left.
“Come on,” Jared said. “We can help the others with this.” He held the battery up.
“How much is in it?” Lumi asked.
“I drained it,” Jared said. “But you can recharge it.”
He tossed her the battery and she caught it. “Why can’t you?”
“You’re stronger,” Jared said. “And with that, you won’t feel any Need.”
She nodded and held it between her hands.
“You two can keep talking, or we can get moving,” Allie said as she floated back down to the floor. She touched down gently and cocked her head at Jared.
“Come on,” he said, starting off toward the group.
Lumi came up next to him, concentrating on the battery. He could feel her tapping into the priori, could feel it slough off her like rain, dribbling into the orb. It glowed slightly, getting brighter with each bit of power she added. Allie walked behind them, seemingly untroubled and unhurried.
The group made it about halfway to the doors but then stopped. Beyond them, something moved, and Jared didn’t understand what he was seeing at first.
But then he realized they were cars, lined up in front of the doors. And behind those cars were guards, more guards than he’d seen so far, set up in firing positions behind cover.
“Shit,” Jared said, starting to run.
Lumi kept up as they reached the group. Jessalene was toward the front, staring down the guards.
“What’s going on?” Jared asked.
“They came in through there,” she said, gesturing at smaller, garage-sized doors on either side of the massive entrance. “Parked, pointed their guns, and just… stayed there.”
“Shit,” Jared said. “There are a lot.”
“And we’re out in the open,” Izzy said. “I can shield, but I’m not very good at it.”
“Lumi has a battery,” Jared said. “That should add a lot of power. Maybe if—”
But before he could finish his thought, he heard sounds from behind them. He looked over his shoulder and saw guards filling in the far end of the chamber. They were relatively far away, but they’d be able to join the fight in a moment.
More guards filtered in through the broken double doors, stepping over the bodies of the two Magi Jared and Lumi had just killed. They piled into the wide-open space, their boots making stomping and scuffing noises over the polished floor. Jared noticed that most seemed to step gingerly around the white lines, unwilling to step on them.
“Surrounded,” Allie said. “And your pet Vampire is useless now.”
Jared clenched his jaw. He saw Nikki standing with Cassie, her expression grim. She had an arm around Cassie, holding her close. Jared looked around, his mind working, trying to find some escape.
But they were surrounded. Guards in front of them, more guards coming in behind. He didn’t know how many, but there had to be at least fifty, maybe a hundred, he couldn’t count them all fast enough.
They had a battery, and that would allow for some serious magic. Izzy could still fight and Allie seemed eager to get back at it. But the rest of the Meta girls seemed too frightened to do much, and he knew that even with the battery and Lumi’s power, they wouldn’t be enough, not surrounded like this.
If he attacked one group, the other group would open fire. Sooner or later, they’d all be slaughtered.
“It can’t end like this,” Jared said through clenched teeth.
“There has to be some way out,” Jessalene said.
“Let me deal with them,” Lumi said, turning the battery around in her hands. “With this thing—”
“No,” Jared said. “We have to keep these girls safe. But I don’t know how we can do it surrounded like this.”
“Think faster, Magi,” Allie said. “Those guards don’t look happy. I think they know what we did to their friends.”
The guards formed a loose circle around their position, kneeling with their guns up. But they didn’t move to fire, and they stopped about thirty yards away.
“What are they waiting for?” Jared asked, his heart racing. He was already starting to calculate how big of a shield he’d need to keep them protected. Maybe if he could hold a shield on one side, Lumi and Allie could fight the other.
But his head spun and felt like mush as the Need continued to burrow deep into his skull.
“No matter what, we’re not giving Cassie back,” Lumi said. “We’ll go down here if we have to.’
Jared nodded and looked around at the girls, at their terrified faces, at their anger, their bruises, their filth. He despised the Medlar, hated the men that worked for them.
He’d die before he let them take away his girls again.
“No matter what,” Jared said, and began to draw on the priori, preparing to wring every ounce of power from his mortal body.
51
“Jared,” Jessalene said. “Look there.”
Jared turned and followed Jessalene’s gaze. He watched as a single figure stepped out from the line of cars ahead of them.
He was tall, dark haired, and had light olive skin and dark eyes. He wore a navy sweater, buttoned down the front with silver buttons, over a crisp white collared shirt tucked into dark denim jeans and cap-toed boots. He held up his hands with a smile on his face like nothing was wrong, like he meant no harm.
Except his Magi mark was a deep, burnished black in his chest. It rivaled Lumi’s own mark, almost as deep and almost as dark. It drew Jared’s eye, pulsing with its power, and he knew who this man had to be.
Lumi let out a little breath and took a step forward.
“Wieland,” she said, her voice a whisper. “What the hell is he doing here?”
“Who?” Jared asked.
“That’s my cousin,” she said. “Son of the Medlar head. Second in command. And a real fucking asshole.”
Wieland stopped about ten yards back and spread his hands out wide.
“Cousin,” he said. “Ladies. It’s so lovely to see you all. I’m sorry it’s under such circumstances.”
Lumi pushed past Jared and Jessalene, approaching her cousin. He smiled huge, practically beaming at her.
“What the hell are you doing, Wieland?” he asked. “What is all of this?”
“Lumi, I’m so happy you’re here,” he said. “I’ve been wondering where you got to.”
“You’re experimenting on people,” she said. “And this rune system. What the hell is all this for?”
Wieland waved her away, dismissing her. “You were always too sensitive, Lumi,” he said. “Even when you tried to pretend like you were just a good little killer for the family, we all remembered poor baby Lumi, crying at the dinner table because daddy didn’t give her enough attention.”
“This isn’t about me,” she said, and Jared could tell she was barely controlling her rage. “You’re torturing people. You kidnapped my girlfriend.”
“We’re doing what needs to be done,” Wieland said. “You never would’ve understood, Lumi. There was a reason my father decided to keep you in the dark.”
“Did my father know about this?” she asked. “Did my mother?”
“He knew,” Wieland said. “I’m not sure about your mother.”
Lumi took a step closer, shaking with anger. The guards behind Wieland Medlar raised their weapons, but he held up a hand.
“This is wrong,” she said. “All of this is wrong. As if our family doesn’t have enough already?”
“You have no clue what we’re doing here,” Wieland said. “You have absolutely no idea as to the scope of what we’re doing. If you knew, Lumi, I think you’d approve.”
“I’d never approve of something like this.”
Wieland’s eyes seemed to glitter with mischievous delight. “Do you want to know?” he asked. “I know, I know, it’s almost cliché for me to talk like this. We should just kill you all where you stand. But I always thought the family treated you too well, and I really want to see the look on your face when you realize what we’re so close to pulling off.”
“I don’t want to know,” Lumi said. “I just want you to let us go. You’re not a monster, Wieland. I remember when we were kids, you used to—”
“I don’t want to hear about when we were kids,” Wieland said, his calm façade cracking. “This is about so much more than our family now, Lumi. This is about the world, about the future of magic and Humanity. This is about the Accords.”
His words hung in the air. Jared stared at him, his mouth hanging open. Lumi didn’t move, her expression frozen in shock.
“That’s right,” Wieland said, speaking into the silence. “This is all about the Accords. Those gods damned Accords, the one thing that’s been holding us back for so long. Without them, we could spread the truth to all of Humanity. We could rise up and overthrow the Metas. Oh, hundreds of years ago, I don’t think Human kind would have stood a chance, but now with modern weaponry and technology, we can dominate this world, Lumi. Imagine, a world where we harness the power of Metas to make life better for all Humans.”
“That’s insane,” Lumi said, her voice cracking. “Metas… are people. What are you even talking about? Enslaving all Metas?”
“Enslaving, oh no, we wouldn’t enslave them,” Wieland said. “We’d take volunteers. Kill the rest.” He shrugged and waved a hand dismissively. “We haven’t worked out the details just yet. First the Accords, then the rest of the world.”
“You can’t break the Accords,” Lumi said. “They’re ancient magic. Strong magic. Even with a hundred batteries, you wouldn’t be able to do it.”
“You’re right,” Wieland said, nodding. “You’re so right. That’s why we don’t want to break them. No, we actually came up with a much more elegant solution.” His eyes moved across the group of Metas and rested on Cassie, who shrank back behind Nikki. Jared felt a spike of rage run through him.
“What does Cassie have to do with this?” he asked, stepping forward to stand at Lumi’s side.
Wieland looked at him as though he saw him for the first time. “Ah, the disgraced Bechtel,” he said. “As if being a Bechtel wasn’t bad enough.”
Jared ignored that barb. “You need Cassie for this plan. That’s why you kidnapped her. That’s why you brought her here. But why?”
“You’ve been such a pain in our ass, you know that?” Wieland asked. “Oh, helping with the Ferric issue, that was nice and everything. But putting her under Marshal protective custody, getting her a visa, protecting her, keeping her from us… that was very, very frustrating. We tried to do this the quiet way, tried to go through official channels, but eventually we knew we had to just pull the trigger, so to speak.”
“This is all connected,” Jared said. “The land, the batteries. All these runes, this facility. And Cassie’s at the center of it all.”
“That’s right,” Wieland said. “Because she’s not from here.”
Jared let that sink in. He looked back over the g
roup and found Cassie. She stared back at him, her face contorted with confusion and anger. He looked away, unable to face the pain in her eyes, and turned back to Wieland.
“I don’t care what you think you’re doing,” Jared said. “You can’t have her.”
“I’m not sure you’re in a position to negotiate,” Wieland said.
“You need her, don’t you?” Lumi asked. “You need her alive. But you can’t just start shooting indiscriminately. And we’re not going to make this easy on you.”
Wieland gestured again and shrugged. “That’s true. If I’m being honest with you, Cousin, we don’t exactly need her anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” Lumi asked.
Wieland looked over his shoulder. “Bring out the boy.”
“Shit,” Jared said, his voice a whisper. Two guards walked forward, dragging a body between them.
It was Wade, bound and gagged. Blood trickled down his forehead, his eye was bruised, his nose was crooked. It looked like he’d put up a fight.
“No,” Cassie said, stepping forward. “No, you bastards. No, you can’t have him.”
Nikki grabbed at Cassie, pulling her back.
Wieland held out a hand. The guards stopped and propped Wade up. His head lolled to the side but his eyes were open, sweat dripping down his forehead.
“Truth is, we can do this ritual with just the boy,” Wieland said. “But if we had him and Cassie, then it would work so, so much better. So I’ll say this one more time: give us the girl. And maybe I’ll release some of these poor, beat up Metas.”
His grin broadened as he looked at the Meta women. Jared flinched, looked over his shoulder, and he saw some of their faces. A few looked angry, defiant, but a few looked at Cassie like they’d be happy to throw her to the wolves, if only they’d get to escape.
“No,” Jared said, looking back. “You can’t have her. You can’t have any of them.”
“I don’t think you have a choice,” Wieland said, his voice sing-song. “What do you say, Cousin Lumi?”
“I say you can go fuck yourself.” She shook her head and gripped the battery. “I say I’m going to burn you all to ash.”
