by R. D. Hunter
“My contract,” a smooth, feminine voice said from behind. I turned and found myself looking into the cool, deep eyes of Isabelle, the leader of the Gilded Moon Coven.
No one knew Isabelle’s last name. In fact, very little was known about her at all. She appeared to be a woman in her mid-thirties, but the rumor was that she was actually must older. She was tall, with straight, dark hair down to the middle of her back and a buxom figure that was enhanced by the low-cut dresses she always wore.
She came on the scene in Atlanta a little over a decade ago, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Gilded Moon due to her cunning and considerable magical talents. Seducing and sleeping with the former head of the coven didn’t hurt matters either, and her enemies and nay-sayers always had a bad habit of turning up dead, if they turned up at all. She was a ruthless and dangerous adversary, and now she was smirking at me like a cat who’d backed the mouse into a corner.
“Isabelle,” I said, nodding my head in a show of respect, “you need to get your people out of here. An attack is coming.”
“You mean from your friend, Darren Hawkins? Oh, I know all about that.” My open mouth must have been amusing, because she gave a little titter of a laugh before saying, “My Dear, this is my city. No act of considerable magic happens here without me knowing about it. Congratulations on your recent re-dedication, by the way. We’ll have to talk about the unexpected visitor who showed up at a later date. As you can see, I’m otherwise occupied at the moment.”
A man and woman, both gorgeous and wearing only a thin, leather loin cloth, came up to her on either side and began nuzzling into her neck. She laughed again and arched her back, obviously enjoying the attention.
“Relax, Ladies,” Isabelle said. “Everything is prepared. Even though you were not invited to this event, I am willing to extend to you the full measure of my hospitality this night. Grab a drink, a man, or a woman; hell, grab all three, and enjoy yourselves. You’re in for quite a show.”
“What now?” Lacey asked as we watched her stagger off to a mound of pillows with her two companions.
“We get as many people out as we can,” I said. “Try to limit the number of targets…”
The sound of an impact, heavy enough to cause bits of plaster and dried wood to fall from the ceiling. A second blow landed, this one heavier than the first, and landed like a crack of thunder. Hawkins had arrived.
“Everybody out!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “You have to get out of here now.”
No one moved. No one even acknowledged that I was speaking. The music had faded to nothing by this point, and the flashing strobes of light had settled into an intense glow. A tense hush had fallen over the crowd, as if they were waiting for an expected event or a guest of honor.
“Is this some kind of spell?” Lacey asked in confusion.
“Worse,” I said. “It’s confidence.”
Hawkins came in through the east wall. Not the door in the east wall, just the east wall. It blew inward in a shower of rubble that fell just short of the crowd. Now I understood while the festivities had been arranged in the center of the massive room. It meant that, whichever way Hawkins chose to enter, there was ample room between him and his first victims. Isabelle was clever.
The smoke cleared, reluctantly at first, then a great gust of wind pushed it to the side, and I was able to get my first good look at Hawkins. It was horrifying.
The crystals had continued to grow all over his body as his life energy fed and nourished them. Now, spiky protrusions could be seen all over his body, leaking blood onto the floor around his feet. One of his legs barely bent, causing him to limp forward like something out of an old horror-movie. His left eye was completely gone, a shard of garnet taking its place and trailing down one cheek. And as he smiled when he looked around, I could see that all his teeth were gone, having been replaced by jagged pieces of quartz that seemed to grow before my very eyes.
It was obvious that his body was running out of time. No human could function long under such torment. And, as I watched him scan the room, picking out those who would die first by his hand, it became equally obvious that he didn’t care.
“Why aren’t any of you running?” he called, his voice hoarse and full of gravel.
“Probably because we aren’t afraid of you,” one of the party goers spoke up. He was a young man in his twenties, shirtless and wearing a leather mask with a zipper for a mouth.
Hawkins fixed him with a glare from his one, good eye.
“Well, let’s see what we can do about that.”
He leaped forward, moving quicker than I’d have ever believed possible. He was obviously using the energy of the crystals to increase his physical prowess, which meant that, at the moment, he was probably the strongest man alive as well as the fastest. It was a damn dangerous combination.
But the spoken word is quicker, especially when it’s coming from a prepared mouth. In this case, that mouth belonged to Isabelle. As soon as Hawkins charged forward, his hands outstretched and going for the speaker’s throat, she yelled in a commanding voice,
“Encircle and entwine,
This enemy of mine.”
Instantly, the orbs of lights I’d taken just for a source of illumination, zipped forward and wrapped themselves around Hawkins like a cocoon, stopping him in his tracks and canceling his forward momentum. He bucked and raged, his knotted muscles bulging as he attempted to break free. But, no matter how much pressure he exuded, he could only ever move his arms a few inches to either side, before the spell snapped them back into place. He was trapped.
“You made a mistake in coming here,” Isabelle spoke up, separating herself from the crowd. She crossed her arms over her generous chest and glared at the monster who had dared to interrupt their festivities. “Why do you disturb the Coven of the Gilded Moon during their merrymaking, Creature?” It was a touch too dramatic for my tastes, but I guess she had to keep up appearances.
Hawkins face screwed up into a mask of absolute hatred.
“Because you bastards are the reason I don’t have anything,” he spat. “All my life, failure after failure, until I was convinced that I was cursed or that God hated me. Little did I know that there was a whole secret society out there, with magical powers, taking everything for themselves.”
“You’re mistaken.”
“AM I?”” he screamed, a vein in his cheek bulging before bursting bits of bloody crystal all over the ground. “All my life, there’s always been someone better than me, hogging all the glory. In school, there was always someone smarter. In the army, there was always someone faster or stronger. Even when I got out, I couldn’t get ahead without an advanced degree or millions of dollars already in my pocket. But, all around me, I saw people pass me by, living the dream. At first, I thought it was just Lady Luck spitting in my eye. But when I saw that bitch doing real magic in her own back yard, things started falling into place.”
Now it made sense. It was a classic case of not taking responsibility for an unfulfilled life. Back in ancient times, when something went wrong or calamity struck, they blamed the gods. Usually, they’d sacrifice a couple of bulls, maybe a virgin or two, and trust that things would improve.
A couple hundred years ago, if the crops failed or a woman miscarried, it was the fault of witches who were subsequently hanged or burned at the stake. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred these were just normal folks who had a mental illness or just preferred to keep to themselves.
It seemed as if history was repeating itself again.
“Now,” Hawkins went on, “it’s my time to shine. I’m going to make you feel every bit as helpless as I felt all these years. And when you die screaming, you’ll know that it was Darren Hawkins who sent your miserable souls to hell.”
The air around us suddenly grew heavy, as Hawkins began tapping into the energy stored in the crystals. They glowed with a sickly luminescence that was nauseating to look at; a far cry from the clean, vibrant power they usua
lly held. He used this energy to push against the light shield that encapsulated him, straining with the forces he didn’t understand, but were a part of him now.
At first, nothing happened. The binding spell just grew all the more brighter and began to hum. The crowd observed this with interest and humor, like watching a monkey play with a computer. It was funny to watch a base animal struggle with something it didn’t understand. At least, it was funny until the monkey hacked into your bank and transferred all your money to a secret account overseas.
My eyes fell on Isabelle. She wasn’t laughing. The monkey, it seemed, was close to guessing her password.
“Lace, we gotta start funneling these people towards the exit,” I whispered urgently.
“How? Yell ‘FIRE’ and hope they run for the door? I doubt that’ll happen.” I doubted it too, but I had to try something. My instincts were screaming that the restraining spell on Hawkins was nearing its breaking point.
Out of options, I pulled my sidearm and fired three shots into the air in rapid succession. The acoustics of the large room served to enhance the shots, causing all in attendance to flinch and look at me in alarm.
“Listen up!” I shouted in my most authoritative voice. “The Atlanta PD is on the way here with about a dozen patrol cars, all filled with highly motivated officers just looking to make a big bust. You’ve all got about sixty seconds before they arrive and put everyone here in handcuffs.” I looked pointedly at the crowd, many of whom were dressed in garb provocative enough to make a hooker blush, some wearing nothing at all, and a good many of them under the influence or carrying substances of varying illegal natures. “You wouldn’t want that, now would you?”
It was a good bluff, one of my best. Several alarmed looks passed among the party goers, until Hawkins’ coarse laugh filled the room, sending chills up my spine.
“I should have expected to find you here, Detective,” he said, fixing me with his one, good eye. “When my little friend failed to finish you off, I thought maybe I hadn’t summoned him right or you escaped by some fluke.” He gave a grim chuckle. “It never even occurred to me you were part of this magic shit. It figures, though.”
The ‘little friend’ he was referring to had to be the Smiling Man. I suppressed a shiver at the memory and took a step forward.
“You need help, Darren,” I said, trying to refer to him as a person. Maybe if I could establish some kind of rapport, he’d think twice about going postal on innocents. “Those crystals are eating you alive. You’re going to die unless you let me help you.” His face twisted up into a cruel smile at my words.
“Is that why you came here? To help me? I doubt it. You came here for revenge, because I gutted one of your precious witches in her own home, and then blew you and your partner to hell and back when you got too close.”
“That’s not true.”
“DON’T FUCKING LIE TO ME!” he screamed. “Look at everything you’ve been through to chase down her killer. Can you honestly tell me you’d have done the same for some random Joe out on the street? The only reason you’re standing here now, is because she was a member of your precious Fringe Society. Admit it.”
I paused. I didn’t want to, but part of me wondered if he had a point. I’d been involved in murder investigations in the past, but none of the victims had been Fringe. Had the fact that Nichole Barret was a witch caused me to put in more effort? To take more risks and do things that I wouldn’t have done had she been an ordinary citizen?
No. The answer came to me in a flash of insight. Words soon followed.
“I admit that Nichole Barret’s death cut me more deeply because she was a fellow witch,” I said, causing a triumphant smirk to appear on Hawkins’ deformed face. “But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I’m a cop and a witch, and my place is between the monsters and the people they would harm. Be they Fringe or Mundane, I have devoted my life to keeping the innocent from harm, or serving up justice when harm comes all the same.” I raised my power and forced it into my voice, causing it to fill the space between us with energy as I pointed a finger at my enemy. “You are a monster, Darren Hawkins. You came her tonight to inflict pain and death on these people, and I. WON’T. HAVE IT.”
Just then, the spell of binding lights holding Hawkins in place finally failed. The room was plunged into a void of thick darkness, and the screaming began. The Slaughter of Imbolc had begun.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Almost at once, a dozen spells calling for light filled the air. Nothing happened. Pitch black remained and I realized with a start that whatever energy Hawkins used to shut down the lights that held him prisoner, was also preventing any new light sources from taking shape. Another scream, higher than the others pierced the air somewhere to my left, ending with a wet gurgle and an abrupt snap. Hawkins had claimed his first victim.
“Lacey,” I said urgently, knowing her vampire eyes wouldn’t be impaired by the darkness.
“I got him. He’s on the move.”
“Go. Distract him. I’ll work on the getting the people out.” There was a rush of air as she moved into action, leaving me to complete my mission. First things first though.
I still couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, and I doubted if anyone else could either, which meant Hawkins could move and kill at his leisure. I had to level the playing field a bit.
I raised my power, focused a bit more into my eyes and chanted.
“Spirits of darkness,
Air and night
Grant me vision
Of blackest sight.”
My eyes itched furiously for half a second as the spell took hold, then the entire room came into sharp focus. For a moment, I wished that it hadn’t.
In the time it had taken me to cast one spell, three witches had met their end in an epically gory fashion. They’d been torn limb from limb, Hawkins having used the power of the crystals to augment his strength to something akin to a bulldozer. Fortunately, Lacey had his attention now, giving me time to do what I needed to do.
Somehow, she’d manifest two identical red daggers in each hand, using them to slice and stab at Hawkins so quick she was almost a blur. Each time he tried to grab or strike her, she darted around him with an ease that made it look like he was moving in slow motion. She couldn’t keep up this pace forever, though. I had to work fast.
I ran over to the nearest group of people, who were huddling together like a frightened group of rabbits, and began herding them towards the nearest exit. A few protested, not knowing who I was or where I was taking them. One even tried to blindly swing at me. A few harsh words and one well-placed knee to the groin got their attention and soon they were out the door.
I’d just finished getting the second batch of coven members out the side door, when there was the vicious sound of something hard striking something soft, a feminine grunt, then I saw Lacey flying through the air and coming to rest against one of the many concrete pillars that dotted the room. The left side of her face was swelling rapidly and a thick stream of blood flowed from a cut on her forehead. Fortunately, her eyes were still open and she looked around blearily.
Hawkins had cuts all over him, many bleeding openly onto the floor and one ear was missing, but he was still in the game. Even as I watched, pieces of crystalline lattice that protruded from his skin emitted a light glow and his torn flesh began repairing itself. Oh, crap.
Most of the party goers had found their way to safety, by this point. Only a few stragglers remained, but when Hawkins turned to fix me with a steely glare of pure fury, I knew I’d never get the chance to help them. That is, until Isabelle, leader of the Coven of the Gilded Moon, stepped between us, raising her own power to such heights that her hair literally stood up off her scalp. It was obvious the thick darkness didn’t impede her vision in the slightest, and she glanced back at me over her shoulder.
“Get them out,” she said, with an anger in her voice that matched anything Hawkins had. I nodded. She was buying me time
. I’d use it.
I began rounding up the leftover guests, roughly shoving and pulling them towards whichever exit was closest while Hawkins and Isabelle threw down. Hawkins was a powerhouse. There was no doubt about it. The charged crystals he’d fused with enabled him to hurl blasts of pure force, like that kind that had flattened me and Perkins back at his office. It also made him incredibly strong and resilient. There was rubble all over the floor from his entrance, and every so often he’d pick up a piece and hurl it like a missile at the woman who dared to stand in his way.
But he was a one-trick pony. While he had power in spades, he hadn’t had the years of study and practice that made a magic user truly formidable. Isabelle had. It was the only thing that gave her an edge.
Hawkins hurled a wave of scarlet energy at her, so massive it caused my ears to pop from the air it displaced, only for Isabelle to speak a command in some language I’ve never heard and have its reverse course right in front of her. It crashed into Hawkins’ right side, whipping him around and actually sending him to one knee. He growled like a feral beast, before getting back to his feet and resuming his attack.
I was stunned. The amount of power being thrown at Isabelle, not to mention the chunks of rock, had the kinetic equivalent of a speeding bus, but she was standing her ground and actually redirecting it to suit her purposes. It was damned impressive.
It went on this way for close to a minute. Hawkins would fling an attack at her, only to have to jump, duck or dodge as it came right back at him. Eventually, he roared so loud I thought I’d gone deaf and charged at his opponent, content to settle things the old-fashioned way and grind her into a thick paste. But Isabelle spun in place at the last second, dissolved into mist, and reappeared a moment later in the exact place Hawkins had started from. She was baiting him. It was only when she wobbled and almost collapsed to one knee that I realized how she’d held her own for so long.
Instead of blocking or absorbing Hawkins’ attacks, she’d actually been ripping little holes in space this entire time. It allowed the incoming energy or debris-missile, to pass through under its own power, and come out the other side on a collision course with Hawkins. It was clever, effective, and exceedingly draining on the magical resources. I doubted if I could have done it more than once or twice when I was rested and at full power. Isabelle had done it more than a dozen times, then teleported on top of it.
