by TR Cameron
She never saw the object that smashed into the back of her head. Her first warning was the impact, which blasted stars through her vision and sent her stumbling to the ground at the feet of the rifle-wielding men.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Idryll saw Ruby go down and instantly realized she had only one option to keep the riflemen from killing her partner. Clothes tore as her form changed, and where there had been a woman in a catsuit, a tiger now stood in her place, half again as large as anything seen on this planet, and deeply angry at the injury to one she called her own.
She leapt forward, slammed into the ones nearest her partner, and carried them to the ground. They faced too many enemies to be totally merciful, but she minimized the damage the best she could, stomping on their shoulder blades to break them and prevent the men from using their arms should they have thoughts of rejoining the battle.
Three had fallen, another three were near her, and four had advanced toward the stage. She felt the presence of magic and threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast of shadow. She was most vulnerable to that magic type in her present form, which wasn’t to say it rendered her powerless. Neither do I wish to be hit with it, however. She ran to intercept the men heading for the stage, but a sudden wash of fire interposed itself, and she skidded to a halt. Her head snapped around, and she spotted the magical attacker and charged, but the short figure called up a veil and slipped out of view.
Idryll slashed at the nearest man, knocking his legs out from underneath him and gashing his thigh. Blood spurted, and he hurriedly grabbed a medical pouch at his waist. She let him do it, not willing to kill unless she had to—or unless Ruby truly was hurt, in which case she would eliminate every enemy she saw, upright or not. A shimmer in the air revealed the magical again, a dwarf with black hair. He’d gotten an angle on Ruby, so Idryll did the only thing she could do and charged into the space between them.
Ruby had reached her feet, but her eyes were still trying to focus when the sizzling forks of lightning slammed into the tiger who had jumped in front of her. She felt drained, having expended more magic to keep the shields up than she could remember using, maybe ever. She was grateful for the foresight that caused her to use her mask rather than relying on her ability to maintain an illusion. However, the tiger writhing on the ground needed her help. Expending almost all of her remaining magic, she created a portal to Spirit and used a force blast to push Idryll through right before her power to keep it open was spent.
Even without her magic, Ruby was a formidable fighter. She drew her sword and jumped up to the stage, where the Atlanteans were shielding against the rifle fire from the remaining men on the ground. A trio of enemies had made it to the platform, and she charged them. Their reluctance to shoot when they didn’t have a clear angle that avoided the Atlanteans made her realize that even the men shooting below were misdirections. The goal wasn’t to kill the parents or the child, only to kidnap the boy. Damn it Ruby, get the gods-damned cotton out of your brain. They pulled batons, but there was no way they would be good enough to defeat her even three-to-one. She traded blows with the first, blocked a punch and a swipe of the baton, then smashed him in the face with her sword hilt.
He went down, and she took a thrust from the next one’s baton in the chest. The stun blast locked up her muscles for an instant, and he threw a punch at her that connected with her cheek and sent her stumbling. As soon as she was free from the baton, her anger overwhelmed any pain. She snatched a throwing knife and hurled it at him. The weapon buried itself in his thigh, causing him to scream and clutch his leg before he went down. The next one waved the baton threateningly but didn’t advance, waiting for her to make the first move.
She caught the oncoming attack out of the corner of her eye, hit the ground, and rolled under the stream of shadow bolts that sought her. She’d seen the dwarf and looked forward to paying him back for the magical sucker-punch he’d given her. Then the man on the stage pelted away, and the shadow attacks stopped. The rifle fire started up again, and the Atlanteans finally dove for cover, apparently their defenses also weakening under the barrage. She saw then that only two of them were still on the stage. Shit. They got the kid. That’s why the change in tactics.
Grentham ran ahead of the black-suited man who was dragging the Atlantean brat along beside him. He’d had to slap the boy once to make him quit struggling, but now he was mostly obeying. The dwarf had long ago gotten over the fact that he had to run to keep pace with a fast-walking human, but tonight it was particularly annoying. He’d expected resistance, but whoever the hell the weirdo in the red leather was, she and her tiger were way more trouble than anyone could have anticipated.
Still, I got the better of them both. He chuckled, accustomed to winning but still quite capable of enjoying it immensely when it happened. Once they were in the van, the man would drive and he’d watch over the kid, maybe slap him around a little more for fun. He’d lost track of how many of his men had gone down, but they all had instructions: if they couldn’t make it to the safe house, they should scatter after the operation and get in contact a week later for payment.
He hoped the family would pay up quickly so they could get this over with before the Feds got involved. Since they’d visibly used magic, the Paranormal Defense Agency would be on the case, and kidnappings sometimes fell to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, especially for high-profile abductions. We don’t need their attention. He got to the van and opened the back doors in time for the other man to throw the kid inside. He climbed up, grabbed the roll of duct tape, and quickly bound the boy’s hands and legs.
The doors closed with a clang, and moments later the van pulled out of the parking lot, headed for the safe house. Neither of the men could see the woman hanging on the back, who carefully avoided both the windows and the backup camera. If they’d been able to read her mind, they would have heard a repeated mantra: “This is so stupid. This is so stupid. This is so stupid.”
Ruby slipped off the back and scrambled to get underneath the vehicle when the van reached its destination. The surface below was gravel, and she’d seriously scratched her hands and the exposed parts of her face by the time she finished. She heard the men pull their captive out and watched their feet as they dragged him to a doorway in a metal-skinned building and took him through.
She paused, torn between staying in her current position and moving. A little of her magical energy had returned, enough to shield if she needed to, but she wasn’t willing to trust her life to a potentially short-term veil if she could help it. The fact that the dust in her nose threatened to make her sneeze was the deciding factor. She scrambled out on the far side of the vehicle, then stood and brushed herself off, getting more scratches for her trouble. She peered over the hood and saw a dilapidated warehouse, about two stories high, with small square windows in frames covering the second level. Many of them were broken, and she could picture kids using them for target practice.
There will be a ladder somewhere. That’s what I need. She ran for the nearest edge of the building, which happened to be on her left, and circled the structure until she found what she was looking for. It terminated ten feet off the ground, but she had enough juice to use a small force blast to send her up to it. She grabbed the bottom rung and hauled herself up, then climbed to the top. The roof was disgusting, covered with sticky tar and bird droppings and the remains of rodents. Still, it had what she hoped for, skylights at regular intervals.
Her brain pushed her to rush over and verify the captive was okay, but she forced herself to pause and breathe. She opened her senses as she had during her venamisha, searching for any signs of magic, fearful that the dwarf—who either had to be Grentham or the greatest coincidence ever—had prepared the hideout with the thought of intruders. She sensed nothing though, and crept carefully along, peering into each skylight before moving to the next. At the last, she saw the dwarf and the black-suited man standing outside a small building constructed within the wa
rehouse. She could hear them mocking the boy, who was presumably in the smaller structure. So, that’s good news since it means they’re probably not planning to move him again right away.
The bad news was the two lines of simple metal beds, which suggested more people would be there soon. Worse, maybe, was the stockpile of supplies in a corner that said they’d prepared to be there for a while. No time. If I call in the police, it’ll be a shootout. If I let it go, there’s no guarantee they won’t kill the kid after making the deal, especially since he’s seen them. She pulled the energy potion out of her pocket and drank it, then gasped with pleasure as magical power flowed into her. They were incredibly expensive, so they were always the last resort, but if she ever had a good reason to take one, this was it. She twisted and sent a bolt of force magic at the farthest skylight, shattering it, then jumped through the nearest one, a buffer of force magic leading the way.
Her distraction didn’t work as well as she’d hoped. The gunman looked elsewhere, but she hadn’t fooled the dwarf. He made a punching motion and a ball of force slammed into her shield, the impact powerful enough to send her flying. Ruby used her magic to cushion the fall, then rolled to her feet, ready to fight. Bullets cut through the air at her. She pictured a circular shield attached to her left arm, and one appeared in shimmering force. She positioned it to intercept the bullets, deflecting them rather than directly opposing them to minimize the defense’s magical cost. The other hand threw attacks, first lightning, then fire, then cold, all of which the dwarf intercepted with bursts of power.
Ruby growled inwardly at the stalemate, knowing that eventually the gunman would get lucky and she’d wind up losing. She expanded the force shield and made it opaque, then crouched behind it. She drew her last throwing knife and simultaneously dispelled the protection and hurled herself into the air with a force blast. Her arm whipped forward as she threw the blade at the man with the gun. It caught him right where the shoulder connected to the neck, where the armor didn’t protect, and sank deep into his flesh. The move cost her as the dwarf blasted her with lightning, tracking her twitching body as it fell to the floor.
Ruby gritted her teeth as he advanced, fearful he would try a more lethal distance attack but knowing in her gut he’d want to be close for the finishing blow. When he finally stood over her, he said something she couldn’t hear, some sort of insult no doubt, and gathered his power for a final blast. She smiled and whispered, “Kagji.” A shield of shadow formed around her, created by the amulet that Keshalla had given her during the venamisha, which she’d worn at all times since.
She planted her left foot and twisted her hips, kicking him in the hand with her heavy boot hard enough to break bones. Yeah, let’s see how your fancy gestures work now, asshole. She flipped up as he backpedaled and threw magic with his offhand, but her shield still felt strong. She drew her sword from over her shoulder, confident that if anyone she’d fought so far deserved to die, it was the dwarf. She saw first fear in his eyes, then quick calculation, and realized what he would do as he did it. Fire magic exploded in a semicircle around him, a wave of force and heat that hit her shield and did nothing, and that would probably have incinerated the hostage if she hadn’t reached out with her telekinesis and slammed the door of his shelter closed.
Screams came from inside the room, and she had to choose: check on the boy or follow the dwarf, who ran all-out toward the door. She chose the former and found him inside, singed but alive. Some of the fire magic had gotten in through the cracks and crevices in the less-well-built-than-she’d-thought holding pen. She calmed him, then stuck her head out the door to find only the fallen guard remained. He was panting, deeply in pain, and his pallor was worrisome. Ruby pulled out her burner phone and hit Demetrius’ number. “Send the cops to my location. Got it?”
“Got it. Cops on the way to your current position,” then rattled off coordinates like she’d know what the hell they meant. Goofball. She shook her head and turned back to the Atlantean.
“Police are coming. I’ll be nearby watching until they get here, in case more of these scumbags show up.” She grabbed the fallen man’s pistol, popped the magazine to check that it was loaded, slid it back into place, and gave the gun to the boy. “He comes toward you, shoot him.”
The one she’d been thinking of as a boy because of how the dwarf had referred to him was a notably handsome young man with his dark eyes and snaky dreadlocks. He nodded. “Will do. Thank you, uh, cat person.”
Ruby laughed and had to stop herself from losing it entirely. “Right. Be good.” She dashed for the door to the sound of distant sirens coming closer. Be good? Really? No wonder you’re not currently dating anyone with lines like that.
Chapter Thirty
It had taken almost a full day before Idryll was willing to talk to her again. Ruby wasn’t sure if it was because she was upset at Ruby’s lack of skill, or she was hurt and hiding it, or she was mad because Ruby had kicked her out of the fight, or all of the above. When the tiger-woman finally spoke, all she would say about the battle was, “We need to train together, to work as a team.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Ruby replied, and things had slowly warmed up from there. She’d visited with her family and her roommates and discussed the amazing events of the night before with each. Of course, Ruby had supposedly missed it all, having been asleep in her bed at the time. Her parents thought she’d been at the house above the surface. Her roommates thought she’d been below. Neat and tidy.
She patted Idryll on the leg as they shared a boulder in her Oriceran village. “Everything wrapped up perfectly well. Now I can get back to working on the important stuff, like getting a job. Hopefully, things will be calm from here on out.”
The tiger-woman snorted. She was clad in fur, having refused to wear other clothing on her home planet. Ruby had stuck with jeans and a t-shirt rather than dressing in her appropriate clothes. It was a day of much-needed rest, a pause to let the world settle in the proper direction again before she started setting up the stuff she’d need to start her business for real. Idryll said, “You really believe that, don’t you?”
Ruby straightened her spine from where she’d been leaning back and said, “No, not really. But I can hope, right?”
Idryll’s eyes flicked over her shoulder, and she turned to see Keshalla approaching. The tiger-woman asked, “What do you think, Lady Keshalla?”
Ruby frowned. Lady Keshalla? What’s up with that? Her teacher replied, “I believe that my student is leaving many questions unanswered in her supposed desire to get on with what she considers a normal life.”
Her frown turned into a scowl. “Hey, first, how about you don’t talk about me like I’m not here? Second, what questions do you mean?”
Idryll nodded, then replied as if she hadn’t spoken. “Normal. Yes, that explains much. She can never have such a thing.”
Keshalla said, “No, she can’t.”
Ruby growled, “Will one of you please explain? Like, now?”
The tiger-woman said, “Two issues are relevant. First, you are a special person, Ruby Achera. You were called to the venamisha. You are destined for far more than a ‘normal’ life. Many paths that you will travel have yet to reveal themselves.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, Obi-Wan. Whatever you say.”
Keshalla added, “The second issue is that you have not yet solved the mystery you set out to solve. You foiled the kidnapping, true, but have you identified everyone involved in the plot? More importantly, have you answered why they did it? Until you’ve resolved these, you cannot be truly finished.”
Ruby sighed. “Yeah. I get it. You know what this means, right? It’s going to be so much work. I need a new outfit, better gadgets, a place to operate from. People, don’t you understand that I’m naturally lazy?”
Her teacher laughed, as did her partner. Keshalla asked, “Do you feel you’ve achieved justice for those who were killed?”
Ruby sobered immediately. “No. No
, I haven’t.”
Idryll nodded. “We still have things to accomplish. We’ll do them together.”
“Are you saying I’m stuck with you?”
The tiger-woman grinned, showing off sharp fangs. “Indeed. No, you don’t have a choice in the matter. The venamisha chose for you.”
Ruby acknowledged the inevitable with a sigh. “All right. I give up. You two better have some good ideas about all this stuff though because I’m right out of them at the moment.”
Keshalla grinned. “Ah, minari. Your work has only begun. However, we will be with you every step of the way.”
Grentham had been yelling at him for almost a half-hour, and Jared had about reached the end of his tolerance for it. He knew his partner was volatile at the best of times and had guessed he would be offended when Jared didn’t participate in the kidnapping operation. Still, neither of those things was relevant because his boss wanted Aces Security to stay clean, so he would continue to avoid being linked to the crime spree in Magic City.
The dwarf, his voice hoarse, demanded, “Tell me that we won’t do anything on that short notice again. Commit to it. Have some backbone, man.”
