John was fighting a silent battle within himself, it was written all over his face. I was impressed that he composed himself enough to avoid jumping to his feet again. He was gripping the arms of the wooden chair so tightly that I expected them to shatter into splinters at any moment. “We will see if my magic won’t be enough to kill it.”
I could tell he was feeling hurt that his gift might not be the best solution in this case. I doubted he had run into any situation that he couldn’t solve with magic before now. John was the strongest Gifted in several generations, and he had always been able to rely on that out in the field. To be up against something his magic couldn’t fix had to be gnawing at his insides.
I put my hand on his arm before speaking again. “John, we all know you are the most powerful Gifted here.” I spared a quick glance at Adam, and he gave me a little wink. “You need to be able to admit that hurling magic at this thing might not be the best idea. Stanley, while not as strong as you, was no slouch when it came to casting. If his magic could not even touch the creature, there is no reason to think that yours could.” I felt his arm tense under my hand. He looked down at the floor, but did not say a word.
I felt a rush of relief when Adam picked up the conversation for me. Pressing the point home was not something I had been looking forward to. John was more than my partner in the field, he was my lover, and hopefully the man with whom I would spend the rest of my life. The last thing I wanted to do was keep kicking him when he was down.
“Sarah, your idea is exactly what we needed,” Adam said. “It seems in this case, the Gifted may not be able to affect the Demon’s flames. I have been doing some research since receiving Jack’s report. I think I may have found the type of Demon we are dealing with. They are rare, so it makes sense we would not have been prepared to see one. If I am right, the Demon is called an Ifrit, a Demon of unquenchable flames. That would explain why Stanley’s gift could not hurt it, and how the fire leapt from him to Jack. The fire is a part of the Demon, not something that it is casting. I am sure Stanley had no idea. Using his gift in the way he did seemed like the right course of action. Sarah, I approve of your idea. Gather the Lycans you wish to take with you and head out immediately.”
John looked up and his gaze could have bore a hole into a lesser man. Adam weathered it without complaint. When I stood up, John stood up with me. He pulled me into a fierce embrace and whispered into my ear, “Be safe, my love.” He turned to walk out of the office with me, but Adam called for him to wait.
“Be safe.” Those were the words that I carried with me now as I ran faster. With every step, we grew closer to the inevitable confrontation with Ifrit. I was looking forward to making this Demon pay for what it had done. I howled again into the forest as we sprinted after our target. My pack howled behind me and pulled themselves closer to my flanks. I could hear the low growls coming from them as we ran. Apparently, I was not the only one that was ready to end this. We continued running into the night, chasing the scent of the Demon. Now we were starting to see the physical signs of the Ifrit’s passing. Small scorch marks tainted the pine needles we were running on and dotted the trees around us. It wouldn’t be long now. The chase was almost over.
We burst into a clearing that I hadn’t seen coming, and my claws dug into the soft earth, bringing me to a sliding halt. The Ifrit floated above the ground in the center of the clearing. The Ifrit’s human shell was completely covered in bright orange flames. The creature glared at us with pure hatred in its eyes but did not speak. Without any indication of what the Demon was planning, a large fireball exploded from its center. As one, we quickly dodged the fireball as the woods behind us exploded into bright orange light. The pack picked up on my thoughts as the battle rage consumed us. The Lycans moved quickly and surrounded the Demon, keeping it from exiting the clearing. I stayed directly in front of it trying to keep it focused on me. Rising to my full height, I screamed my loudest battle cry into the night. The light of the flames behind me flickered off of my black battle armor. I pulled Heartseeker from behind my back, spinning the giant sword once in a slow circle before moving it behind me for an overhead strike. I rushed toward the Demon, a growl escaping my lips, and just as I was about to strike, the Ifrit blinked out of existence.
Momentarily stunned, I searched the clearing for the Demon. I felt an unseen force pummel into me and was sent flying sideways twenty feet through the air. The smell of singed fur reached my nose as I crashed into a tree. Gathering my wits, I slowly rose to my feet and saw the Demon materialize before me. Rage built inside of me. Spinning Heartseeker around my body, I fixed the Demon with an icy stare.
Some of the Ifrit’s flames had missed my armor and singed my flesh. The skin was knitting back together, and my missing fur was already filling in. The slight bruising from being thrown into a tree was already gone. While I was down, the Demon hadn’t wasted any time. I could see three members of my pack had suffered the same kind of rough treatment that I had. All of them looked to be getting back up, so at least no one had died. Why did I think it would be so easy to kill the Ifrit? John’s crash-into-things-head-on spirit must have clouded my judgment for a moment.
The other two members of the pack tried to attack in tandem. I watched as the Ifrit blinked out of existence again; this time reappearing behind one of the attackers and throwing him forward into the other one. I felt a growl escape my throat as I charged forward, the rage consuming me. I wanted the Demon to mistake my sudden rush as the same battle lust I had fallen prey to on my first attack. This time, I leapt into the air, sword raised above my head just as before, but right before I would have swung to hit the Demon, I pulled my body into a spin. The sword moved down toward my side, and as it moved around me, I felt it plunge into the Ifrit. The same trick had not worked on me this time, and I hoped it now paid with its life. Some of the Demon’s blood must have landed on me. I could hear a sizzling on my chest. When I hit the ground, I rolled to slow my momentum. At the same time, I stripped off my chest armor and threw it away from me.
I turned and could see the Ifrit lying on the ground writhing around in pain. Super-heated plasma flowed from around the wound my sword had made in the Ifrit’s chest. It looked like lava spilling from a volcano. I watched as my sword melted and the lava pouring from the wound increased. As the last of the creature’s blood flowed out, it simply disappeared, leaving only the flames on the trees behind us and the ground scorched black where it had been.
As one, we howled into the night celebrating our kill. Now that the Demon was dead, I went to check on my armor. A hole had burned completely through it. I was lucky John had pushed so hard to have the magical armor made for me. This time, the armor had saved my life. The only bad thing about the night was the loss of my sword. I tied the burnt armor to the sword harness strapped to my back. The enchanters would want to see it. None of them would be happy that something could pierce their wards. I signaled to the pack, and they fell in behind me as we headed home.
2
Adam
I could see the rage simmering in John’s eyes. He wanted to be out there, and truly I could not blame him for that. His problem was letting things go; he still did not want Sarah going on missions without him even though she was a proven warrior. Tonight, I needed him for something else, something that would hopefully take the edge off for him.
Since I had called him back into my office, he had not stopped glaring at me, as if his look could wilt me. I sat on the senate in Rome; I knew a thing or two about posturing. “John, I know you want to be out there right now, but in this instance, we must leave the chore to our Lycan partners.”
John continued to stare through me, but that was nothing new. He was a man of passion, and as such, he was prone to falling victim to his emotions. What I needed to do was find the right way to redirect those emotions into something positive. I was pretty sure I had just the thing to do it.
Since his look and posture had not changed, I decided to dive right in an
d hope that explaining the situation would snap him out of his current mood. “John, I have something I need you to handle that is of vital importance to the Ascendancy.”
Before I could continue, he cut me off. “More important than Sarah? More important than our murdered friend?”
I couldn’t help myself when a sigh of impatience escaped my lips. Maybe tact was not what was needed. If he didn’t snap out of it quickly, I would have to remind him of why he worked for me. “I have been removed from my seat on the Council. They have sent someone here to oversee our operation and report back to them. They want to try and control everything that we are doing here. They are scared, John, scared of our alliance with the Lycans.”
I could see it in his face as realization set in. This would affect him more than most. “So what is going to happen now? What about what we have built here? We cannot go back to hunting the Lycans. Some of them are our family now.”
Good. Now I had his attention. “I am going to keep running things as I always have. It seems for the moment that our visitor is content to let that happen. He even professed his desire to aide us in our fight. I need you to watch this man, befriend him, and make sure that he remains with us.”
John did not look thrilled at what I had asked. “All right, Adam, whatever you need me to do.”
“John, you have to know at some point there is the very real possibility that the Council will send forces here to challenge us. My guess is that will not happen for some time, but when it does, we need to be ready. I still believe that our alliance with the Lycans is the only way to move forward. The Council still sees all Pretenders as a threat. If they come for us, and they will, I need you and Sarah to remain safe. I would ask that you flee instead of fight. Then you can rally the Gifted to our cause.”
The seriousness of the situation finally broke John’s rage at not being able to hunt the Ifrit with Sarah. “I understand, Adam. The Ascendancy is more important than any one man. I will do whatever needs to be done to protect her, even if that means leaving others to die.”
I gave him a few moments to collect his thoughts. I was asking a lot of him, probably more than I had any right to. John was a lot of things, but a coward was not one of them. It would pain him greatly to flee from a fight while people he cared about were still involved. I was happy that he realized that the Ascendancy needed him. That would be even truer if I was gone.
Before he had the chance to ask more questions, I wanted to tell him one more thing. “This new man Stillman seems to be a decent sort. I genuinely believe that he wants to help us. That being said, if you see anything that leads you to believe that he is betraying us, you have my permission to take swift and decisive action.”
“That is one thing that I will have no problem doing. I will not let this man put the Ascendancy or Sarah at risk. You can count on me to handle it if it comes to that. Is this why you kept me from going with Sarah, so we could talk about what may happen? So you could tell me that I might have the pleasure of killing the Council’s lapdog?”
I could tell John still did not fully grasp the importance of what I was asking him; he was too worried about Sarah. I would have to speak to him again when he was in a calmer state of mind. I leaned back in my chair and laced my fingers together over my stomach. “That is only part of the reason that I asked you to stay.”
“So what is the other reason?”
“I am going to send you out to take care of a problem, and I want you to take Stillman with you.”
“Are you pulling my leg right now? You want me to take an agent of the Council out into the field. To do what, babysit? This is what you thought was more important than Sarah?”
I slammed my hand down onto my desk; a small crack appeared as the sound of it roared through my office. It had the effect I wanted, and refocused John on me. “Of course I want Sarah to be safe. I also have other things that I need done, something that I am asking you to handle. I didn’t keep you here in San Francisco with me so you could do whatever you damn well please. There is more going on here than just one Demon, and it’s time for you to follow orders.”
I watched his jaw muscles tick as he composed himself. It took slightly longer than I would have liked, but he was under a great deal of stress at the moment. “John, we have a job to do, and I expect you to get it done. I need you to watch and observe this man tonight; I need you to make sure the future of the Ascendancy is safe. Can you do that?”
“I can do that, and next time, try not to take it out on the helpless desk.”
With one smartass remark, I knew John was back in the game. I called out to Henry, my assistant, to let our newest member inside. He walked in tall and lean as a willow, wearing an impeccable tweed suit. I motioned for him to take a seat. After unbuttoning his coat to reveal an exquisite vest and a gold pocket watch, he sat down. “John, this is Joshua Stillman. He will be joining us for the foreseeable future. I wanted to introduce the two of you, but more importantly, I have an assignment for you.”
I could tell Joshua was a little surprised to be going out in the field so soon, but I needed to know what I was going to get from the man. John still looked angry, but there wasn’t much besides Sarah’s safe return that would fix that. To my surprise, he rose from his seat and offered Stillman his hand. I watched them both sit back down, complete opposites. Stillman sat with his back straight and one leg crossed over the other. John was sitting on the edge of his chair, muscles coiled with tension. His face was full of burning intensity. His desire to protect Sarah from harm was still winning the battle of his emotions.
Once seated, both looking slightly uncomfortable, I started to fill them in on the task at hand. “We have received reports of a warlock operating out of a building on the south side of the city. Our agents have been able to pin down his location; the address will be in the file I give you. The reports coming out of that sector of the city have been interesting. While we are not one hundred percent sure of the level of his abilities, we do know that he is a low-level potion maker. Seven days of luck, love potions, weight loss, all for sale at a price. What his clients do not know is that each of these potions has been modified. Each potion has been altered at some point to reverse what it has done, good luck becomes bad, and love becomes dangerous obsession. You get the picture. Then the warlock extorts money from his clients to cure the worsening effects. Really, I would expect nothing more from one of them, but it needs to be addressed sooner than later.”
I passed each of them a small folder containing the details of the case. I watched both of them, making sure that I had not just lit the fuse to a powder keg by placing them together. Everything seemed like it would be okay. “John, this will be Joshua’s first mission with the Ascendancy. Try and make sure he gets back here in one piece. Also, please extend him every courtesy, as of now, he is a full member of our organization.”
John rose from his chair. “I’ll see what I can do, Adam.”
He motioned toward the door. Joshua gave me one last look before following John out. The questioning look in his eyes let me know he was wondering if I had just sent him off to die. While the thought had crossed my mind over the last few days, I eventually came to the conclusion that his death would cause more harm than good.
My assistant closed my office door after the two men had left. I had either just made a great tactical decision or a horrible one. Only time would tell me the answer. Tonight was full of tough choices. Letting Sarah assemble the pack and avenge our fallen brother was only one of them. Sending John into the field with an unknown commodity also had its risks. I wondered just how the two would work together. All I could do now was sit back and wait to see how the pieces I had set in motion played out. There were still plenty of other things I needed to get sorted out before the day was done. Dimitre was still out there. Not to mention a Demon Naga. We still had to handle the little business in the city, but finding these two was quickly shifting to my top priority.
3
John
Joshua and I walked out of Adam’s office and headed to where our car was waiting for us. The Ascendancy had recently purchased several automobiles. I still preferred to ride a horse or in the comfortable confines of carriage, but the world was changing faster than we expected, and now riding a horse made you stand out. There were rumors that cars were going to become even more affordable over the coming years; one nut even said they would build a bridge across the Golden Gate Strait.
Following Joshua to the waiting car gave me a moment to take in his appearance. He was not physically imposing, so I silently hoped his control of his gift was strong. Hopefully, it would not come to finding out that he lacked in both areas during a fight. Warlocks had a tendency to fight back when they were going to be killed. I needed to know this man could actually cover my back if things went south. The clothes he was wearing also left me questioning his ability to fight. The custom-tailored suit did not look like it left a lot of room for freedom of movement. I preferred to wear loose-fitting clothes that allowed me to move when necessary.
Pulling my coat closed helped to cut the chill coming in from the ocean. “If you want to change before we leave, I’d be happy to wait for you.”
Joshua peeked at me over the edge of his file folder. “I’m quite comfortable with what I have on, thank you.”
I shrugged and climbed into the back seat behind him. Our driver already had instructions on where to take us. The ride should be smooth and give me a chance to look over what Adam had given me. I thanked my lucky stars we were not heading out of the city, the roads were greatly deteriorated making for an uncomfortable ride in the best of circumstances.
Ascendancy Origins Trilogy Page 13
