Werewolf Mage Box Set 1

by Harry Nix

  Alex had shown the card to Juno and Ruby, which set off a lot of swearing and stomping around the house by Juno. Ruby just looked at the card then back at Alex. “Hundred thousand… might take up the offer myself,” she'd said.

  “Everyone stay safe now,” Monroe said, taking that as his cue to leave.

  Ruby followed him out and they chatted for a few minutes while Alex sat on the sofa, working on unclenching his muscles. He really could do with sitting in Roma’s chair.

  Or relaxing by taking her to bed…

  “Dude,” Alex said aloud at himself and rubbed his eyes.

  Monroe left and Alex had completely forgotten how’d he left the house that morning until Ruby poked him with an electrified finger, a jolt going up one arm, across his shoulders and down his body to his feet. He jumped away from her at the sting of it.

  “Hey!” he protested.

  “That's what you get for throwing a sleep crystal at me,” she said. She didn't seem too distressed about it overall, so Alex merely rubbed his arm and let it go.

  A thought crossed his mind.

  “Hey, is Monroe on the list for the house wards? How did he find this place otherwise?”

  He swore he saw a guilty look cross Ruby’s face but it was gone so quick he couldn’t be sure.

  “Keep your mind on your own business, wolf.”

  The alcohol Alex had drunk had well and truly worn off now, but then Ruby made him coffee and topped it up with a whiskey that was strong enough to nearly blow the top of his head off. Alex sat sipping it as he recounted going to Roma’s and selling the rings, making more rings and selling them for five thousand and then going to the bar. He left out how he felt about Roma, the desire to grab her, to drag her into bed and made sure not to comment on her physical features.

  Not her deep black hair or red lips, or the fact that she was just wearing shorts and a T-shirt underneath a large leather apron.

  Alex nearly slapped himself as his mind went off-track once more.

  Juno didn't know Roma, but Ruby said she thought she might have heard of a supernatural who sold magical furniture.

  Talking about what happened at the bar set Juno off again. She poked Alex in the arm a few times, swearing to all the goddesses and also Joe Pesci that Alex wouldn’t be allowed to go anywhere on his own ever again if she had anything to do with it.

  Alex made placating noises and eventually pulled Juno into his lap when she started sipping his whiskey-dosed coffee and calming down. Ruby, who had only asked a few questions while Alex talked, eventually finished her coffee and set the cup down on the table.

  “I was going to suggest that we follow up on the address Stephen left, and if it's owned by Xavo and there are mages there, we go in to do something horrible and public to them. But now, with this bounty, I think we need to move up the timetable on the heist,” she said.

  “Can we wait until April and Nia are back?” Juno asked.

  “If they come back soon, sure, but otherwise we just need to go. Alex, you have enough shield rings for your pack now, which is good, but who cares? At a hundred large for your head and Ignis, Xavo, and Corvus after you, you need a chunk of money so you can defend yourself. You need to hire some mercenaries of your own,” Ruby said.

  “You want me to hire mercenaries? Do werewolves usually do that?” Alex asked.

  “Sometimes. They hire witches usually. It's not cheap,” Ruby said.

  “Who are you thinking?” Juno asked, finishing off the last of Alex's coffee.

  “The Black Wings,” Ruby said.

  “The Black Wings! Where do you think we're getting that kind of money?” Juno said.

  “Hence the reason for the heist and moving it up.”

  “Can someone tell me what this heist is, exactly?” Alex said.

  “Yes, grandmother, could you please tell Alex this absolutely ridiculous idea for a heist that you had,” Juno said, as sweet as sugar.

  Ruby ignored her sarcasm.

  “There’s a certain vampire I've become aware of, and I believe at his mansion he has managed to collect a fantastic amount of gold. There are likely gems and other expensive things there too, but additionally there will be guards, locks, safes and security systems. Fortunately, this vampire is somewhat of a social butterfly and in a few days will be having a ball. I have already been given an invitation and will be stretching my plus one to include a werewolf, and a witch who should know better than to make fun of her grandmother,” Ruby said.

  Juno gave a dismissive snort, hopped off Alex's lap and fell flat on her face, her shoelaces tied together.

  Alex couldn't help but laugh but then quickly stifled it when Juno rolled over and glared at him.

  “I swear I'm gonna find the worst old folk’s home in the whole country,” Juno said trying to get her shoelaces untied. Ruby continued to ignore her.

  “If your two mates get back in time then we can all go. We’ll take the sleep crystals, put them in strategic locations, attend the ball, and then during it we’ll rob him blind,” Ruby said

  Alex took a moment to digest just what she was saying.

  “Isn’t that dangerous doing this with so many people there? Wouldn’t it be better to go when there were fewer people and presumably fewer guards?”

  “I thought that at first, but the good thing about a ball and a lot of wandering guests with various supernatural powers is that the guards will be constantly distracted, especially with what I plan to do to them.”

  “I don’t know… I mean am I suddenly robbing people just for money? Why pick a vampire then? Why not become a full criminal and rob someone's house if I’m going to do that? Or a bank? The Great Barrier will just wipe all the security feeds, right?” Alex said.

  “If it helps you, please be assured that this vampire is just as bad as any other vampire. Vicious and cruel, his finger in all the pies, a hideous monster, a leech on this realm, amassing his ill-gotten fortune that we will relieve him of. Besides, this is my favor you promised me. I want it. I want you to help me rob him,” Ruby said.

  Alex felt a strange pressure in the air as she spoke. It almost felt like the Great Barrier, as though there was something waiting near him, ready to snap down on his body if he said no. Juno had finally got her shoelaces undone and stood up. Her face had gone serious as her grandmother had spoken.

  Alex sat back in his chair, realizing that it appeared he had no choice. Although he just managed to collect around four and a half thousand, it was becoming quickly obvious he’d need a lot more, especially if he wanted to stay alive.

  “I’ll do it. So, how much gold is there? How much of it do we get to keep, and what is this vampire's name?” Alex said.

  “I think it's well into the millions, you can have fifteen percent, and one of the names he uses is Prince,” Ruby said.

  “Fifteen percent! That's highway robbery” Juno exploded.

  Alex took himself to the kitchen and made himself another coffee as the two of them started arguing about the percentage that Alex and his pack would be able to keep, Juno waving her arms around and Ruby doing the same. He didn't top this coffee up with whiskey, but instead took it back to the lounge and sat down the sofa, putting his feet up. The chair wasn't quite as comfortable as the one at Roma’s but it was good enough. As Alex sipped his coffee, his mind strayed back to her. He saw the image of her walking ahead of him, following that cute little butt, swaying from side to side into the back room that was half woodshop and half apartment. He saw the bed with the silks draped from the ceiling. Alex blocked out the two witches arguing and sipped his coffee, letting his imagination run free.

  18

  Three days passed quickly, and Alex spent most of them down in the basement, enchanting rings. He fell into a pattern. Get up, eat breakfast, go to the basement, and enchant rings, until he exhausted his natural mana and the sex magic. Then he'd return upstairs, and once Juno got back from selling the rings, he’d drag her to the bedroom to recharge, rinse and repeat.
Juno’s silence spell was coming in handy although it would have been obvious to anyone what they were doing.

  In just three days they had close to thirty thousand. The rings, according to Juno, selling like hotcakes. Although Alex dreamed of suddenly becoming a multimillionaire, something that seemed that would solve a lot of problems all at once, by the third day sales were starting to slow as Juno exhausted all the places to sell them. There were only so many the market could take.

  She’d even visited Roma’s and came back to make some pointed comments about how pretty she was.

  Alex wisely kept his mouth shut.

  On the morning of the fourth day, Alex awoke alone in bed to the sound of excited talking in the lounge room. He quickly got dressed and rushed down there to find Nia and April had returned. They and Juno were talking a mile a minute. As soon as he saw them, they both jumped on Alex. If Ruby hadn't been in the kitchen cooking and Alex hadn't been so hungry, he would have just dragged them straight to the bedroom then and there.

  After getting reacquainted, they quickly went back to talking about the amount of money they'd made from enchanting and selling the rings. Although they were all excited about it, soon the conversation turned to the black liquid that had come out of Jasper.

  “Well, the bad news is, I couldn't discover how it works at all,” April said.

  “Why’s that?” Alex said.

  “It's otherworldly,” April said.

  “As in not from this planet?”

  “As in not from this realm. Not from this plane of existence. There was stuff in it that liquid that doesn't exist here at all. I couldn’t even identify what it was,” April said.

  “So, the conspiracy rumors about black liquid coming out of dead leaders, like maybe it’s being used to control them now has a new level? It’s more other realms stuff?” Juno said.

  April shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I'm damn good at what I do, and I analyzed it as much as I could in every single way and it's not from here. There’s a kind of signature on everything, and the signature on that stuff is totally different.”

  “Those other realms nutters are gonna go crazy if this gets out,” Juno said with a sigh.

  “Can someone catch me up please?” Alex said.

  “There are some scholars,” Nia began.

  “Crazy people,” Juno said.

  “Scholars, and possibly crazy people, who think there are other realms of existence. You know, parallel dimensions and all that. But it's always the same. Someone finds a rock or a gem or something they claim is from this mysterious other realm, except of course no one is allowed to study it or it vanishes or whatever. There are powerful magic users around and if there are other realms, they would have found their way to them by now,” Nia said.

  “So, that black liquid is proof in an ongoing magical argument?” Alex said.

  “Not really. Even the sample I had was degrading, and although there’s some back home in the village, I think it’s going to be useless before too long,” April said

  The three girls went back to talking about the money, especially what they could buy with it while Alex chewed over what April had told him. If the black liquid exerted some kind of control, that meant someone was influencing or controlling Jasper. That the liquid possibly came from some other realm of existence didn't really matter. After all, from what Alex had seen, werewolves had been screwed over the centuries, marginalized, and shoved off their land, and given a token seat at the table that ultimately meant nothing. What did it matter if there was some other force trying to screw them over? Just get in line, buddy.

  “Breakfast,” Ruby called from the kitchen. Breakfast today was a bacon and egg and mixed vegetable scramble. To Alex, it tasted a bit like a pizza as Ruby had added olives, chopped tomato, and even dropped in dollops of pizza sauce into it as it was cooking. It looked like a horrible, churned-up mess on the plate but tasted amazing.

  April repeated her findings to Ruby, but she didn't have anything new to add. Ruby had heard the rumors too.

  As they were finishing breakfast, Juno took a call, then grabbed Alex by the arm and dragged him downstairs, to where the house wards were, telling him that Jacob, Esme, Lydia, and Jeremiah were in town.

  “This is how you add someone to the wards so they can find the house,” Juno said. Beside the house ward batteries was blank wall. As Alex watched, Juno pressed a hand against it. He felt a minor ripple of magic in the air.

  “Please add Jacob and Esme,” Juno said. Then she removed her hand and told Alex to do the same. He pressed his hand against the wall, then to his surprise saw a spell screen open.

  “Please add Lydia and Jeremiah,” he said aloud as their names appeared on it, first in red and then they changed to green. Then he took his hand away and the spell screen disappeared.

  “And that's it,” Juno said.

  Alex thought back to when Nia had brought him to see Juno.

  “Did you have to add me to this that first time I came here?”

  She shook her head. “Some people have a type of open permission, so if they willingly bring someone here they’re included as well. Nia is on that list, so she brought you and it was all fine.”

  They went back upstairs, and it wasn't long before there was a rap on the door.

  “Nice place,” Jacob said as Alex let them in. The teenager immediately gravitated over to the pile of truly awful movies that Juno had collected. That'd also been part of the last three days, Juno forcing Alex to watch yet another in the horrifically bad Airbud series. Thankfully, Ruby had taken pity on him and served him coffees that were ninety-five percent whiskey.

  “Esme, Lydia, Jeremiah, welcome, come in,” Alex said.

  Jeremiah just nodded, while Esme and Lydia walked through the place like they owned it, going straight to the kitchen where they met Ruby. Within minutes they were suddenly getting along like a house on fire. Nia, Juno, and April soon joined them in the kitchen, leaving Alex, Jacob, and Jeremiah in the lounge room, listening to the noise.

  “While they're doing that, let’s get the hell out here,” Alex said. He braved the kitchen briefly to get a handful of cash and Boris’s keys, slipping in and out before anyone noticed what he was doing. Soon, he was driving away from the house with Jeremiah in the passenger seat and Jacob in the back.

  “Good trip?” Alex asked.

  “It was okay,” Jeremiah said. Alex hadn't had much to do with him, but already understood that Jeremiah barely spoke.

  “Jacob, any troubles along the way?” Alex said.

  “Just that bad smell as you get closer to the city,” Jacob said. He had the window open and although he was in human form, he was still sniffing at the air. Now they'd been back long enough, Alex had desensitized to it.

  Soon they were at the Grease Trap, Alex telling them to order whatever they wanted, and then buying half the menu himself. The food came quickly, and Jacob was like a kid in a candy store, eating a bit of everything, stuffing his mouth full of bacon followed by a pancake and gulping down juice and coffee. Jeremiah ate at a steady pace like an unrelenting machine, polishing off three plate plates of bacon and eggs with all the sides. Alex did much the same. Although he was focusing on his food he did notice there was a table of teenage girls nearby who were openly gawking at Jacob but, as usual, the young werewolf was completely oblivious.

  Eventually they finished, Jacob crudely letting out a loud burp, causing the girls to break out into laughter. It was the kind of noise designed to get him to look at them. Alex and Jeremiah shared a glance, and for the first time the big man broke a smile at the young werewolf's obliviousness.

  “So, what's been going on back home,” Alex finally asked.

  “Things are still running as they usually do,” Jeremiah said.

  Alex didn't want to start pumping Jacob for information, not in front of Jeremiah who, although he wasn't in charge of the pack in Alex's absence, was definitely one of the senior figures. Another idea came to him
, something his stepmother used to do and only admitted to him years later. Whenever she wanted to talk with him, she would take him for a drive.

  There was something about focusing on the road and what was around them that got teenagers talking. Alex figured it would work on Jeremiah so he paid the bill and they got back into Boris, heading off in a random direction.

  “No more signs of mages or anything like that?” Alex asked, once they were underway.

  “We’re patrolling the territory as best we can. There have been a few footprints of other werewolves, but no mages,” Jeremiah said, looking out the window.

  “I have a lot of shield rings now, and also fireball and healing rings, that you can all take back. Enough for every member of the pack and some spare, so the next time someone tries something they’re getting a big surprise.”

  “A fireball ring! Awesome!” Jacob said, bouncing around the back seat. Alex suddenly remembered the kid gulping down cups of coffee along with his meal. How many had he had exactly?

  “That's good,” Jeremiah said.

  “I have some more money too, so I think we can start up food shipments. I also have some plans to buy security cameras and set them up in the territory,” Alex said.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jeremiah frown.

  “Werewolves don't usually use security cameras,” Jeremiah finally said.

  “I get that it's defend the territory with the pack you have, but when people are walking out of the forest with guns, why shouldn't we use any technology we can? I mean, what's the difference between the shifter charm, the fireball ring, and a trail cam?” Alex said. For a moment he thought he might have pushed it too far, and that Jeremiah would shut down but then the big werewolf just sighed.