The break in the action gave me a moment to look at Sarah. Her wounds were already healing; all the smaller cuts had already closed. I noticed one of the lacerations to her legs was still bleeding. I used my gift to cauterize it. Sarah let out a low growl at the pain. It was worth the momentary discomfort to seal the veins; now her body would finish the rest. She looked over at me, and I smiled, “Easy doggie.”
This time she laughed. It came out rough, almost like a chuffing noise. “Screw you.”
I gave her a wink. “I plan on taking you up on that later.”
More chuffing greeted me. Sarah rose to her full height, towering two feet above me and let out a thunderous howl. The windows behind us rattled in their frames. Her howl had been more than bluster. The three serpent women had used their time well and had started to merge into one. I watched in growing horror, knowing what was coming next.
A cloud of darkness covered them, and as the cloud expanded, the women slowly faded away. In their place rose the three-headed serpent. The body uncoiled, rising above like a cobra set to strike. The three heads loomed above us, fifteen feet from the earth and ready to strike out. Each of the heads moved in a rhythmic pattern, making it hard to focus on one before another was in your view. They had many years of practice working as one integrated killing machine, and now, we were in their sights.
I glanced at Sarah about to ask her how she wanted to attack. Then I watched in dismay as she sprinted toward the giant serpent in front of us. I followed after her, but I already knew that if anything happened, I was too late to stop it. I called on my gift to augment my speed hoping to catch her. It wasn’t enough. She leapt at the beast from a full ten feet away, aiming to bring her sword down in the middle of the serpent’s three heads. Sarah sent herself spinning in the air, and as the middle serpent’s head pulled back to dodge her sword, she loped off the head that came in to strike her from the right. I breathed a sigh of relief until the left head swooped in, closing its mouth around her waist.
I was still just out of reach as the middle head darted forward, landing a strike to Sarah’s unprotected leg. I finally reached the serpent and cut the left head from its body, sending Sarah crashing to the ground. Standing over Sarah’s still form, I made sure the serpent could no longer reach her. The demon serpent vanished in a blast of black smoke leaving one of the sisters sobbing on her knees. Two dead bodies lying next to her were already dissolving into black tar.
She cried out into the morning’s sun, “What have you done to us?”
The woman continued to cry as I circled around her. She didn’t even look up as I slammed my blade into her neck. Her head hit the ground and rolled over so her cold dead eyes were looking into mine. I stared back into the black abyss and watched as her head melted into the ground. The three bodies around us started to bubble and sink into the earth. They gave off a sweet smell tainted by sulfur. The inky black goo faded, leaving behind brown spots on the otherwise perfectly maintained lawn. I turned toward Sarah, the glow of victory filling my body with energy.
Something was wrong. Sarah was lying in the exact same spot, but had shifted back into her human form. I rushed to her side, and she didn’t move an inch. I touched her neck to check her pulse, relieved to find that she still had one. Her heart was beating fast, and I could feel a flutter in her chest. Her breath was coming out in sharp gasps, but she was still breathing.
One of the giant serpent’s fangs was embedded in her leg. I shoved it the rest of the way through, burning the wound closed with my gift. When the tooth hit the ground, it started to dissolve just like the rest of the three sisters had. Sealing the wound seemed to have done nothing to help her heal. I wondered just what kind of poison the Demon had injected her with.
I scooped Sarah into my arms and started running toward the car. Adam might be the only person in the world who could save her now. I needed to get her to him quickly, without causing any more damage. The car came into view, and I rushed toward it and put her in the back seat as gently as I could. I thought I had driven to the Mission fast, but I was about to cut that time in half on the way back. Police be damned. This was Sarah!
“Stay with me, my love. Stay with me just a little while longer,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
11
John
The trip back to our base was as fast as I could make it. Driving at breakneck speeds through the city’s morning traffic was not easy. The entire time, I just kept muttering, “Stay with me, stay with me, stay with me.” I hated to admit it, but I’d used my gift more than once as I drove, to avoid accidents. If I had to pay for that crime later, so be it. As long as Sarah lived, I would be happy to pay any price. Finally, the walls of the base came into view. The gate was already opening as I pulled the car into a sliding stop. Adam and Joshua rushed toward the car as I leapt out of the driver’s-side door. Joshua and I carried Sarah from the car to the healer’s building.
Adam followed closely behind us “What happened to her, John?”
We laid Sarah on the table in the center of the room. I turned toward Adam. “She was bitten by the giant serpent; one of its fangs went through her leg. Actually, it was stuck in her leg, and I pushed it out and burned the wound closed.”
Adam walked over to Sarah and began gently prodding the hole in her leg. “Something is wrong here. Whatever poison the Demon had, it is preventing her from healing. Do you still have the fang?”
It was hard to stay calm while answering his questions; I just needed her to be better. “No, I don’t have the goddamned fang. It fucking turned into black goo and sank into the earth.”
Adam continued to circle Sarah looking over her other wounds. “None of these are healing, either. I am going to have the physician come clean and stitch them closed. If she heals, the stiches will just be pushed out.” He gave me a sad look. “John, I’ll do what I can for her, but I’m just not sure if…”
I screamed at Adam, “What do you mean if! Don’t even tell me that you can’t save her. She has to live, Adam, she has to.”
He placed a fatherly hand on my shoulder. The pressure in his grip slowly brought me back into the moment. When he saw that I was back in control, he started to speak. “Go now, there is nothing that you can do for her here.” Without another word, he turned away from me and continued to examine Sarah. Every now and then, he would mumble something to himself. I just stood there, not knowing what to do next. Joshua took me by the arm and led me outside.
Once we were outside, and out of the earshot of Adam, he asked, “How long has it been since she was bitten?”
“No longer than thirty minutes.”
“Okay then, we have some time to work. I saw something like this once in England. The only thing that could cure him was a potion brewed by a warlock. But I’m not sure if her being a Lycan will change that.”
“So what happened to the man in England?”
“The Council refused to give him anything made by a warlock; he died less than twenty-four hours later.”
“Where the hell are we going to find someone who can make us a potion?”
He started dragging me to the gate, but I pulled away from him. “Damn it, Joshua, I can’t leave her now to go chasing after some fool’s errand.”
His face lit up, but just for a second. “I seem to remember paying a visit to just this kind of shop not too long ago.”
It finally dawned on me; I knew just where we were headed. The Prince and The Pauper. The warlock was dead, but maybe he had an apprentice, some kind of notes. He couldn’t be the only warlock in town; maybe we could find something in his shop that might point us toward another.
It wasn’t a plan, not really, but it would serve to get me away from here and keep me busy. I couldn’t just sit and watch her die. I had to be out there doing something, and Joshua had given me that chance. I pointed back toward my car; one of the men had already pulled it back around and filled it with petrol. We ran across the yard and jumped into the front seats. The
doors barely had time to close before I gassed it and flew out of the gate. I would find something to save her. I just had to.
The trip to Elijah’s shop wouldn’t take us too long. Luckily, the traffic on that side of town wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was down by the water. If we were lucky, maybe we could track down a spell book, or an address book. Anything at all that could lead us in the right direction. Warlocks tended to be notoriously great note keepers; he would have a list of merchants that he purchased ingredients from somewhere. It wasn’t easy to trade those kinds of goods with the Ascendancy policing the city. We had started to hear rumors of underground markets for such things, but nothing had been confirmed yet. Maybe when Sarah was back on her feet, we could make that our next priority.
Pulling to the side of the road, I put the car in park and we headed across the street toward The Prince and The Pauper. Surprisingly enough, the sign was still up and there were lights on inside of the shop. Normally, when we sent a team to finish cleaning a location, the evidence was either removed or the area was cordoned off until we could come back. With Sarah lying on her deathbed, there was no time to ponder why the shop was open. I picked up my pace, and by the time I reached the door, I was running. I flung the door open, with Joshua close on my heels.
The inside of the shop surprised me more than I thought it could; everything was back exactly as it had been before we visited the first time. Glass vials of all shapes, colors, and sizes lined the shelves. There was not even a hint that we had spilled blood on this very floor less than two days ago. I had killed the warlock that sold his defunct potions out of this shop. Or had I? This warlock was obviously working on a different level than we were used to. He was slyer than I had given him credit for.
There was a sense of déjà vu that made me look around the room again. It was still hard for me to believe that everything was back the way it was before our last visit. As I looked around the shop, it was evident that not only was the warlock back, but business appeared to be good. It would be easier to get him to talk than it would have been to search through all of his miscellaneous junk hoping to find an answer. A jingle sounded, drawing my eyes to the back of the room.
His back was to us as he pushed through the doorway of the back room. I had no doubt that this was the same man that I had killed. What could possibly be going on?
He had a tray in his arms, and before he turned to place it on the counter, he said, “I hope you have not been waiting too long. I was right in the middle of finishing up an order for a client when you came in.”
He turned and placed the tray on the counter in front of him and then looked up. His eyes briefly flared red, and I knew we had finally met the real Elijah Cane. He seemed to be deciding if he should run or try and attack us, eventually his expression settled into a sneer. Then just as quickly, his sneer was replaced by fear.
He started to mutter, “Please do not hurt me. Take whatever it is you want. Whatever you do, please do not break anything.”
I knew it was all an act. Was he trying to get our guards down so he could attack? Something wasn’t right about this newfound humility. How should we progress from here? We needed to be careful, but I didn’t have the time to play games.
I saw Joshua out of the corner of my eye reaching out to start breaking the glass vials lining the walls. I reached out and stopped his arm just before the first glass would have fallen to the ground. “As much as it pains me to say this, I need his help. I have the feeling that it will be easier to get if we don’t destroy his shop, again.”
Joshua gave me a questioning look. I knew that he was wondering why I would take this course of action, when we could question him and extract the answers we needed from him. My only care was for saving time. We needed the information now and did not have all day to spend cutting and pulling things off of this creature.
Elijah stopped muttering as he watched our faces. He knew just as well as I did that the cat was out of the bag now. He would be negotiating from a place of power, knowing that I needed his help.
As if on cue, his muttering stopped. “So now you come asking for favors? Why should I help you after what you did on your last visit to my shop? I lost a promising apprentice on your last trip here.”
Looking back at Joshua to make sure he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize my plan, I called on my gift, pulling the power into myself. The power pulsed in my veins, begging for the chance to be let out. Looking down at the smug little man in front of me, I watched as his expression changed back to one more to my liking, fear.
The rage was building inside of me, the fear of what would happen to Sarah mixed with the shame I felt for letting Edward escape. It must have twisted my face into a rictus of loathing. The warlock took a step back as I spoke. “I think you might have misunderstood when I said that I needed your help. That was just a more preferable method. I am sure you can still brew a fine potion with one arm, and no teeth.”
I held onto the power I had pulled into myself as a show of strength. It swirled inside of me, calling to be let out, asking me to use it against the warlock, to make sure he understood what it meant to be afraid. It called out to me again, showing me just how easy it would be to remove a limb, and what it could do to him during questioning. Magic wants to be used. It begs to be shaped to our desires, and right now, my desires were a little darker than they should be. I held the power for a moment more before letting it flow back out around me. I felt more confident now that my mind was once again my own.
Cane fell to his knees before me, holding his hands above his head. The display had clearly worked, maybe even better than intended. When he spoke, I could hear the edge of panic that crept into his voice. “That won’t be necessary. I can make you whatever you need, as long as you can meet my price.”
My first thought was to pull the power back into myself and give into its desire for me to use it. I wanted to hurt this little imp, to make him suffer for all the harm I knew that he had caused. I still needed him, but he didn’t have to know that. The power called to me, filling me with a sense of loathing. I knew I could make him talk, but was it worth the risk?
I raised the man from the floor back to his feet. “What do you mean your price? I think I have shown that I am more than capable of making you do what I need.”
The warlock had the gall to smile at me. “You misunderstand me. My magic requires something from you in order for me to create the perfect potion. The Demon inside of me tells me only what it requires to fulfill your desires. What are you prepared to sacrifice to obtain what you need?”
The first thought in my mind was “anything.” I would give anything to see Sarah whole again. But that was something that I could not do for this creature, even if it cost Sarah her life. I could not place myself in the control of the Demon for any reason. I felt my arm rise as if in a dream, my fist lashed out. Somehow, it came up short of crushing into the warlock’s nose. I looked back and Joshua had grabbed my arm. Our eyes met for just a second, and that was all I needed to compose myself.
I turned back to the little man and asked, “What is the price for what I require?”
Elijah reached out his palm facing upward, “Place your hand in mine.”
The thought of touching the creature sickened me, but there was nothing else I could do. Slowly, I reached out toward his hand. When I was close, he grabbed my hand in his. I felt a momentary blast of heat against my palm, and I quickly pulled it away from his fumbling grasp. The warlock nodded his head. I could tell by the way his lips were moving that some kind of internal dialog was taking place. I wondered if he was speaking with his Demon, his so-called benefactor. The heat I had felt in my hands must have told them exactly what I needed, what I had to have for Sarah. He looked up at me and his eyes flared red again, reminding me of what I was about to do—make a deal with the Demon.
The red light drained from his eyes and the warlock smiled at me. His teeth were longer and sharper than normal, reminding me yet again of t
he Demon he had bound inside of him. For someone of his power, it was probably more than one Demon.
Elijah spoke. “It seems you are in luck, Mr. Blackthorn. My benefactor has chosen to help you and named his price. As payment for my services, I need from you two things. The first is your word that you will let me live after I provide you with the potion.”
I was about to agree when I felt a small nudge in my back. Joshua looked at me, his eyes asking what I thought I was doing. This went against everything that we worked for, everything that I had stood for my entire life. I steeled myself for whatever was coming next, hoping that the price would not be too high. It had to be something I could accept and still live with myself. Could I live with myself if I let Sarah die?
Turning back toward the warlock, I felt a sense of calm wash over me. Whatever it was, it would be okay. I could spend a lifetime atoning for this choice. I only hoped that would be enough. “For heaven’s sake, spit out the rest of it before I grow old and die.”
It almost seemed as if he was taking delight in watching me suffer. I had a feeling that at least half of him was; the Demon inside him must have been rejoicing to see me brought so low. The outburst I had made surely had not helped my case, but the Demon had already named his price. Now I just had to wait for it.
The warlock’s grin seemed to grow wider, like something from a Lewis Carroll tale. The teeth he displayed in his Cheshire grin were starting to unnerve me. I knew that he, too, was delighting in this moment.
Ascendancy Origins Trilogy Page 21
