The League of Skull & Bones

by MJ Fletcher

  “The Guilder?” Monk asked his eyes opening wider as he tried to get a better look at me.

  “Yes,” I said and stepped forward so that he could see me better .“I hope that isn’t a problem.”

  “Of course not, dear, some of my best customers are Guilders.” He laughed at the notion and grabbed the paper, pulling it closer to his face as he scanned the items one by one.

  “Have you sold any of those items recently?” Slade asked.

  “A few, yes.” Monk nodded as he kept reading.

  “To Merric Vale?” I asked assuming that he had been asked to purchase them for someone which was why he had the list in the first place.

  “As a matter of fact, yes, I sold him two just last week.”

  “Any idea what all of them together could be used to create?” Slade asked.

  Monk placed the paper down and pushed his glasses up onto his forehead once again. He scratched at his chin as he thought over the question. “Well, they are all high-end, but together they could have a few purposes. I would need more information to come up with a better idea.”

  I stepped forward and asked, “What if it was going to be used with a Timelock?”

  “A true Timelock?”

  “Yes,” Slade and I said in unison.

  “Well then.” Monk bent over and began rifling through items under the counter. He pulled out one book after another, slamming them onto the counter and rattling everything in the shop.

  “I take it you have something in mind?” Slade asked.

  “What?” Monk said as he moved up and down the length of the counter, searching for something.

  Slade turned to me and shook his head. We both figured it was better not to disturb him as he looked for whatever it was he was searching for.

  My stomach turned as the sensation I’d felt earlier returned stronger. I clenched my teeth and took a deep breath and pushed out with my senses, hunting down the source of the disturbance. The Diesel Factories was awash with power, so it made it difficult to track the source that was affecting me.

  “Everything alright?” Slade asked.

  We’d been partners long enough for him to know when I was up to something. I nodded and concentrated on my search. “Tracking something that’s all.”

  “Okay,” he said and his hand drifted to the Impossible Engineer tools that hung from his belt.

  “Found it,” Monk called out breaking my concentration.

  He was bent over an ancient leather bound tome with crinkled yellowing pages, his chubby finger sliding across the page as he read.

  “What?” Slade asked and we both moved next to the counter.

  “Those items can be used in a variety of devices, but when certain parts are used in conjunction what can be created becomes much narrower. But they all have one thing in common.” Monk spun the book around and pointed to the title atop the page, Impossible Engineer Devices Used In Conjunction With Artifacts.

  “Oh crap,” I said.

  Chapter 6

  “This can’t be good,” I said as we left Monk’s shop.

  “Agreed,” Slade said as we walked down the street.

  “What the hell are these people up to? First they get a Timelock, now they are trying to create something that deals with Artifacts. I’m not liking this at all.”

  We moved down the street side by side as we talked. I needed to find out who the hell was working in the background and coming after me. Merric had been cryptic as hell about helping me, but the information he’d given had opened up a whole new avenue for us to follow. It was one that made me nervous. It was bad enough that this freaking Artifact was killing me, now I had to worry about other people trying to do—what?

  “What do you want to do about it?” Slade asked.

  “I’m going to have to let DeAndre know what’s going on, but beyond that we need to find out who the hell is behind this.”

  We turned the corner and a wave of nausea overcame me. I’d forgotten about the power I had been feeling since we arrived. But here it was again, and now it was all around me. I stopped and bent over as I tried to overcome the nausea.

  “You okay?” Slade asked.

  “No, something is wrong,” I replied.

  “Are you Michael Slade?”

  A woman stood in front of us. She wore a red dress and her straight black hair fell to her shoulders. I knew immediately that she was the source of my sickness. My vision shifted and I could see the black energy floating off her as whatever device she was using continued to affect me.

  “Slade,” I said weakly as I pointed toward the woman.

  “Good,” she said and swung her hand out and connected with his jaw, rocking him backwards with the blow. Slade stumbled, and she came in with a short front kick to his stomach, pushing him back again.

  I tried to activate my powers, but whatever she was using rolled over me like tumultuous waves battering the shore. I needed to help Slade; I couldn’t let him fight alone. But my body wouldn’t react no matter how much I commanded it too.

  She continued her assault, hitting him with a flurry of blows. She was quick and had a dead-on aim, a deadly combination. Slade, however, wasn’t a pushover. He had fought in many of the same battles that had earned me my infamous reputation.

  He brought his thickly muscled arms up and blocked her last attack. Then he spread his legs, planting them firmly so that she could no longer drive him back, and he waited. When she slowed down and took a breath, letting up on her assault, he reacted.

  His hand swung out in an arc and slammed into her side with such force that it took her off her feet. Air exploded form her lungs and her eyes grew wide in shock from the immense power behind his blow.

  “You picked the wrong Engineer to mess with,” he said.

  When her feet touched the ground he pushed in, slamming his shoulder into her midsection and sending her sprawling across the street like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

  “Jess!” Slade glanced my way to check on me and I nodded, letting him know not to worry, I was fine.

  He walked toward the woman who was struggling to stand. “Who put you up to this, my father?” he shouted as he moved in on her.

  Slade and his father had a historic falling out during the war and it hadn’t improved since then. His dad still tried to exert influence over the Impossible Engineers from afar, yet Slade countered him at every corner.

  The woman winced as she smiled, and my senses screamed as I felt her activate her abilities. I opened my mouth, trying to scream to Slade that it wasn’t what he thought. But the device she was using had me in absolute turmoil.

  She slipped her hands into the folds of her dress and pain seared across my sight as she pulled out a Skeleton Key and energized it, shooting a bolt of energy at Slade.

  He rolled to the side, avoiding it at the last moment and came back up with his hands working as he formed a barrier out of Impossible Engineer energy. The woman kept up her attack, blasting his shield as quickly as he created it.

  The people on the street ran and screamed as the battle raged. I pushed myself forward, wanting to reach Slade and help him. Then I saw them, three other people coming in from behind him. And in the distance I saw someone else, a woman, her body outlined perfectly with her hand resting on her hip. Unlike everyone else, she wasn’t running. Instead, she stood by and watched the fight.

  “Slade, behind you!” The words tore from my mouth as I fought against whatever it was she was using against me.

  “Damn it.” Slade turned and moved a hand up, creating another set of shielding on the other side of him. But even he couldn’t withstand a sustained attack for too long. I needed to get to him and help him.

  I concentrated with all my will, calling out to the Artifact and begging it to help me break through this strange barrier. I heard something in the distance, a call of sorts, but it was so quiet I couldn’t make it out. I could swear someone called my name.

  One of the attackers coming from the o
ther side noticed me and peeled off from the pack. The other raised their Skeleton Keys, and I cursed myself for not being able to lift my hand in protection. After everything I’d been through, was this how I was going to die?

  The bolt of crimson energy tore from the Skeleton Key and raced toward my head. I pushed with all my will and felt the Artifact stir within me, but I knew it was too late.

  Someone hit me from the side, and I crashed out of the way of the energy bolt just in time. Dust and debris flew up around us, and we tumbled to a stop several feet away.

  I opened my eyes and looked up to see a man lying on top of me. Chestnut brown hair and sparkling brown eyes looked back at me. He was somehow still in perfect order with his blue tie dangling from his dress shirt and his suit barely ruffled, and looking as though he just walked away from a magazine cover shoot.

  “Are you well?” he asked the sound of a British accent tilting his speech.

  “Yes,” I pushed out, still feeling the effects of the device.

  “Good, I’ll be right back. I need to save your friend.” He hopped off me and started to race toward Slade, but gave a quick look back and shouted with a smile, “By the way I’m Ronan Sparrow.”

  Chapter 7

  Ronan moved as if he were a lion hunting a gazelle. I had to admire his finesse as he marched toward the group of three that were advancing toward Slade.

  He activated his Skeleton Key, though I couldn’t see from where, and his hands glowed like crimson stars in the sky. He went after the man who had broken off to attack me. The attacker’s Skeleton Key was still in his hand, but it didn’t matter. Ronan swayed away from every blast aimed at him, like a professional fighter avoiding contact. He moved in closer with each step and suddenly his hands shot out pummeling the man’s chest and stomach with such ferocity that he fell backward, his mouth hanging open in a scream that would never be heard.

  Ronan then moved toward the other two. They hesitated as he approached, and he made them pay. He ran forward and dove into the air, his hands coming down in a rain of crimson fury. He became a blur of motion as he assaulted them quickly and effortlessly.

  Slade took advantage of the moment and turned his attention back to our first attacker. He pushed his shield into the ground and attacked from behind it. The shield built itself out from the bottom up as gears grinded and dug into the ground. Slade pulled a handful of gear from his belt and his fingers worked at incredible speeds as green energy flowed around them. Suddenly small metal spiders crawled out of his hands and raced around the shield, jumping off and attacking the woman in the red dress. She blasted the first few into pieces, but he kept building them and sending them out. Soon she was overwhelmed, and the spiders swarmed over her dress and up onto her arms. She slapped at them and lost control of her Skeleton Key, dropping it, and I felt the energy around me suddenly begin to wane.

  My senses rushed back to normal with uncanny speed, and I wasted no time racing forward and activating the Artifact. My hands flared crimson and I dove the last few feet, flying forward and slamming my fist into her jaw and flipping her over.

  “You okay?” Slade asked as I stood up and kicked at the woman who lay unconscious beside me.

  “Fine. She was using something to screw with me.”

  I walked past Slade and watched as Ronan finished off the last attacker and dusted his hands together as if he had just finished up another day’s work. He walked toward us, his eyes on me the entire time.

  “Glad to see you’re feeling better,” he said.

  “I am thanks to you,” I said. “Who the hell are you exactly?”

  “Ronan Sparrow at your service.” He nodded his head in my direction, and I got the feeling this man was going to cause me all sorts of headaches. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that I kept imagining him on top of me again.

  “Jess Grimm and Michael Slade,” I said waving between us.

  Slade nodded toward Ronan and stepped back, kneeling beside the woman who had begun the attack. He moved her Skeleton Key away and began to search her for whatever she had been using on me.

  “Glad to help,” Ronan said as he came to stand beside me.

  “If you hadn’t happened along, I’m not sure we would have gotten out of this.”

  “I think that was the plan,” Ronan said.

  “Excuse me,” I said. The tone of his voice made me think that he knew more than he was saying.

  “I think there is more to this attack than you think, Jess.”

  “What do you know about it?” I asked my hands clenching reflexively.

  “More than I want to,” he admitted.

  “Tell me,” I insisted.

  “It’s not safe here. We need to get off the street.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You need to trust me,” Ronan said.

  Slade patted down the woman until he found something bulging in the folds of her dress and slipped his hand in, pulling out a small cylinder and flipped it over in his hands.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I think it’s whatever she was using against you. It’s Impossible Engineer for sure, not sure how it works though.” Slade examined the device, sliding his fingers over it deftly and checking it for maker markings or anything else that could help us.

  “Jess, we need to get off the street,” Ronan repeated. He seemed sincere and though he had saved me, I’d only just met him and wasn’t sure how far I could trust him, yet.

  “Tell me what you know,” I said as I glanced up and down the street. My eyes found the outline of the woman I had noticed earlier. She was staring in my direction and lifted something to her face, and then dropped it, letting it float to the ground. She lifted her hand and waved at me, and I felt her activate a Skeleton Key and open a portal. But there was something else, an undercurrent similar to the one the device had used against me. No, not similar, exactly the same.

  I spun back toward Slade, my arms reaching out for him, “Slade!”

  The power surged past me, and I heard the click as the device activated. A wave of heat and fury exploded in front of me, the world turning on its head as I was blown off my feet and flipped backwards, slamming into the pavement with a thud.

  I shook my head and felt my skin tingle as everything around me held a crimson tint, and I realized I was surrounded by the power of the Artifact. It had created a shield, protecting me from the full force of the blast. I struggled to stand and waved my hands around, trying to see through the smoke and debris. It had been a bomb and, whoever that woman was, she had activated it.

  Slade.

  He was holding it the last time I saw him. I ran forward nearly tripping over shrapnel as I stumbled through the haze.

  “Slade,” I called out.

  A groan escaped the fog and I followed it, pushing my way through until I was standing over a darkened shape lying before me. I knelt down and slipped my hand down and felt his arm.

  A moan of agony fell from his mouth as I helped him turn over. The skin along his left arm and side was charred and blackened and the hand that had held the device was a mess of blood and bone.

  I shook at the sight of him and pulled him up close to my chest, slipping my legs under his back to support him.

  “You’re going to be okay,” I whispered.

  “Liar,” he said.

  Chapter 8

  “No, you’re fine. A couple of Impossible Engineer contraptions are all you need and you’ll be fine.”

  “Jess,” Ronan said as he emerged from the smoke.

  His suit jacket was gone and his formerly perfect shirt and tie were shredded. Dozens of tiny cuts and slices bled across his torso as if someone had forced him to walk through a tornado of razors.

  “Get help now,” I cried out.

  “I already put in a call. They’re on the way.”

  The smoke receded and the scarred street came back into view. A black scorched mark fanned out in a circle around us, the w
oman in red lay a few feet away. Her red dress was now a different shade as a pool of blood encircled her. Chunks of the street had been torn up and pieces lay all around us.

  “Slade, you hold on. Help is coming.”

  “This hurts like hell,” he said his eyes closing.

  “I don’t care how much it hurts, you survive!” I shook him, forcing his eyes open once again.

  “Sorry, Jess.” His voice became slurred and his eyes lost focus.

  I gripped the sides of his head and his hair turned to dust and soot in my hands.

  “No, damn it. I was alone in the dark and they tried to kill me. You hear me? I was alone; you aren’t. I’m here with you and I am not letting you leave me.” My body shook and my stomach roiled as my emotions overtook me. I couldn’t let Slade go; I couldn’t lose another person.

  A whisper buzzed in my ear, but I ignored it, and the fear that ran through me changed suddenly. Without warning, the Artifact activated once again and crimson energy flowed from my body and settled over Slade.

  Slade sighed deeply and his eyes began to focus. He glanced my way and let out a long breath.

  “Jess, what you are doing?” he asked.

  “I have no idea,” I said, “but I think I’m helping you.”

  “The pain isn’t as bad,” he said.

  Two women ran from a side street toward us, carrying large cases and dropped to their knees when they reached us. They flipped open their cases filled with potions and tools of Fixers, doctors of the Old Kind.

  “We’ve got him now,” one said, and I moved back.

  They ignored the cocoon of crimson energy I had inadvertently placed around him. One began to apply a balm to his burned skin while the other took out a metal and leather glove and slipped it over what remained of Slade’s hand.

  “We’re going to put you to sleep and get you out of here,” the woman applying the balm said to Slade, and he nodded, then glanced my way.

  “Be careful, Jess,” he said as she pressed a needle into his arm, and his eyes closed.