Open Fracture

by S A Magnusson

  Surprisingly, Barden decided to answer regardless. “I don’t know that I need to explain to you,” Barden started, glancing at Matt, “but for Dr. Stone, I will share with her the nature of my work. That kind of work generates certain dangers, and so yes, I do have a place I use in order to ensure my safety, along with the safety of my people.”

  Matt laughed, a bitter sound. “Your people? That safe room was for you. That wasn’t for any of your people.”

  “That one wasn’t, but do you believe it is the only one I have?”

  Matt fell silent, no longer pushing Barden, and I smiled a little to myself. He clearly thought he knew everything about Barden, but he also appeared to think Barden didn’t care about the people he employed, and that was as much a mistake as anything. If he paid attention, he would have known otherwise.

  We continued to drive, getting beyond the streetlights, I realized Barden didn’t have any headlights on. When I said something to him, he frowned. “Unfortunately, it is not exactly safe for us to be driving with lights, Dr. Stone.”

  “Most people would say it’s not safe to drive without lights on, Barden.”

  “Most people wouldn’t be able to do so, but I have ways where I don’t need the light.”

  “A spell?”

  Barden only shrugged. “There are different ways to accomplish this,” he said. “A spell would be but one.”

  Matt laughed from the backseat. “Don’t let him sound all mysterious.”

  “What are you doing? He’s trying to help you.”

  “Maybe, but I’m less concerned about that and more concerned about the way he’s been helping you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Look.”

  Matt handed me something, and I frowned as I took it. It was nothing more than a coin, but as I held onto it, everything around me became a lot lighter, almost as if we were in daylight.

  “There are different ways to accomplish what he’s doing, and while it may be a spell, there’s no point in being mysterious about it.”

  “I was not trying to be mysterious about it,” Barden said.

  Matt studied him. “You weren’t trying to be forthright, either. She’s in this, Barden. And if she is, it might as well be all the way.”

  “I get to decide what that means.”

  “Does she know that? I was under the impression Dr. Stone believed she was learning from you.”

  “She has been learning from my people.”

  “And yet, if she had, she would know more by now than what she does.”

  “Would the two of you stop?” I looked from one to the other, waiting for one of them to have some sense, but it didn’t seem that either would. They were acting strange, and while both might have believed they were doing so on my behalf, at this point, it was just getting ridiculous.

  Barden twisted in his seat, looking back at me. “I am sorry, Dr. Stone. You deserve better than that.”

  We drove a little while longer in silence, and I held onto the coin Matt had given me. I kept waiting for him to ask for it back, but when he didn’t, I decided I would keep it. There was nothing out the window I could easily make out, and I continue to stare, trying to figure out where we were, but failing. I didn’t recognize anything about this location, and while it might have been the same vampire estate I’d visited before, I had been somewhat distressed when we had traveled there the last time and had not paid enough attention to where I’d been taken. Maybe that was a mistake. When it came to understanding the magical world, and figuring out what my place within it might be, I realized I ought to pay better attention, if only because if I didn’t, others might take advantage of me.

  “How far do we have to go?” I asked Barden.

  “Not much farther.”

  I glanced back to Matt. “Do you know where we are?”

  “I suspect Barden has taken a roundabout way in order to make it difficult for me to keep track.”

  When I looked up at Barden, he only shrugged. “I do sit on the Council now, Dr. Stone.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “It means I need to be careful with whom and where I reveal the presence of other magical beings.”

  Matt laughed from the backseat. “Do you really think I wouldn’t be able to find it again if I wanted to?”

  “It’s possible you would,” Barden said, “but it’s just as likely you would not. This city can be difficult to navigate for those who are unfamiliar with it.”

  Matt laughed. “This city isn’t difficult to navigate. Minneapolis is nothing like Chicago or New York.”

  Barden glanced back. “Perhaps it is not, but Minneapolis is more magically endowed than either of those places, which makes traveling in the city different, and more difficult. If you aren’t aware of that, then maybe you aren’t nearly as attached to the magical world as you would have us believe.”

  He watched Matt for a moment, and I expected Matt to speak up and say something, but he didn’t. Eventually, Barden turned back around, looking toward the front of the car. We drove in silence for a little while longer. “Why?” I asked.

  “Why what?” Barden asked.

  “Why Minneapolis?” I had been to Chicago—Minneapolis wasn’t so far away that I couldn’t just drive it, though flying was certainly easier—and I had traveled to New York City when I was just out of high school, at a time when I had dreamed of leaving the state behind. Something had always dragged me back. For a long time, I had believed it a weakness of mine, and maybe that was all it was. Now that I understood I had a connection to magic, I wondered if that was part of the reason I had stayed. Maybe my connection to magic had kept me here, tying me to this place.

  “We’ve already talked about the ley lines.”

  “We have, but you also said there were other places that were powerful with ley lines. You mentioned New Orleans, but if Minneapolis is powerful because of them, why wouldn’t Chicago be—or for that matter, New York City?”

  God knew both places were near enough water. That alone should have given them a connection to magic, shouldn’t it? Unless the proximity to water wasn’t all there was when it came to magic. What did I know?

  “They have power, but it is not the same. It’s easy for many who are ignorant to believe that places like Chicago and New York City—or even London, when you go internationally—would be magically endowed, and there are plenty of powerful people who live in those locations. I would never claim otherwise, but most of the people who live in those places do so for a very specific reason.”

  “What reason is that?”

  “They do it because they hide.” He glanced back at Matt for a moment before turning his attention to the front once again. “Those places don’t have the same connection to the ley lines. Power flows through them, but the power of the world is not always explainable by what we can see. Most of the time, the power that exists within the world does so deep beneath the surface. There are places where it bubbles up, and given the power of the Mississippi River here, we are able to witness that power far more easily than we can in other places. If you travel to South America or Africa, there are equally powerful places there. It’s why anything along the river itself has characteristics that are different from what you will find in other places.”

  “So it’s not just the river?”

  “As I said, the river is a part of it, but it is not the only part. Which is why navigating through Minneapolis—and with various peoples of considerable magical power—is quite different to navigating through New York City or Chicago. The traffic might be terrible, but what I refer to when I talk about navigating is something else.”

  “You’ve made your point,” Matt said.

  “Have I? I’m certainly willing to keep expounding on it. Seeing as how you appear to be so incredibly magically gifted, questioning my role with Dr. Stone, I want to ensure she is getting all the help she deserves.”

  “That’s all I want, too,” Matt
said.

  “Would the two of you stop?”

  Barden glanced over at me and nodded. I understood why he would push Matt in such a way. He viewed himself as my protector, and in many regards, that was the role he needed to play. I understood less why Matt was behaving in such a way. He reminded me of boys in elementary school who didn’t know how to tell a girl they liked her, but I had never had any inclination from him that he was interested in me in such a way. If he was, he had a terrible way of showing it.

  As we wound through the streets of the city, we went from neighborhood to neighborhood, but all the time we traveled, we stayed off the busier streets, keeping to side streets. It was late enough that there wasn’t a lot of traffic, and I didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not. It was possible that having no traffic would put us in more danger, but at the same time, it was equally possible that traveling in this way was Barden’s way of protecting us.

  I got lost in the navigation of the city, in the ongoing twisting and turning, and when we turned onto a tree-lined street, the branches high overhead suggesting this was an older neighborhood, I sat upright. There was something about this place which struck me as familiar.

  “We’re getting close, aren’t we?”

  Barden nodded. “We are. Do you recognize it?”

  “No. Is this the Icahrn residence?”

  “It is not.”

  “Then where are you bringing me?”

  “To the Vangalor family residence.”

  Matt made a quiet sound, and I looked back to see his eyes narrow. What was it? “You have some experience with the Vangalor family?” I asked him.

  “No more than anyone else does,” he said.

  I watched him and waited for him to say something more, but he did not. Turning my attention back to the street in front of me, I didn’t recognize anything here, but it was simply a sense I had. Maybe it was nothing more than that the vampire homes all carried with them a similar appearance, or maybe there was something else to it. Either way, I felt almost as if I had been here, even though I knew I had not.

  Barden slowed the car.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “I think so. I mean, if all I need to do is get to Jean-Pierre, and—“

  Barden turned to me, resting his hand briefly on my arm. “I’m sorry, Dr. Stone. I wasn’t meaning you this time.”

  “You meant Matt?”

  “I need to know if he was ready.”

  “Why wouldn’t he be ready?”

  “There is someone who has been following us.”

  “For how long?”

  Barden shook his head. “Long enough.”

  I glanced to the back seat, looking to Matt for a moment. “Did you know this?”

  “I was aware we had a pursuer,” he said.

  “Is it your people?”

  “I’m unable to determine,” he said.

  “Why do I get the sense you are keeping something from me?”

  “I’m not keeping anything from you, Dr. Stone. I’m not able to determine whether there is anyone following us I can identify, without getting out of the vehicle. Considering how I have no interest in doing so without knowing more about what we might face, I can’t tell.”

  “Why are we stopped?”

  “I thought it was prudent to take a little bit more time,” Barden said. He looked out the window, and there was a sense of power that radiated from him. “I wanted to know whether there was anyone who might reveal themselves. It’s possible we are being trailed by nothing more than the vampires, but it’s possible this is something else.”

  “What sort of something else?”

  “His kind.”

  Barden suddenly slammed on the gas, and tires screeched as we streaked forward. Something slammed into the rear of the car, and I cried out, clasping my hands over my mouth to keep from shouting. Barden gripped the steering wheel with both hands, his knuckles white. Matt twisted in his seat, his arms spread out so they stretched across the entirety of the seat, and something within his hands glowed softly.

  When we were struck again, the rear of the car spun around. Barden frantically worked at the steering wheel, trying to jerk it back in the opposite direction, but we continued to spin. He shifted quickly into reverse, slamming on the gas, and then stepped on the brake, sending me flailing forward. I was thankful for my seatbelt, but worried it wouldn’t be enough protection.

  “Hang on, Dr. Stone,” Barden said.

  He jammed on the gas again, and as he did, the sense of a transport spell began to squeeze around me, pressing in all around us, to the point where I could barely breathe. It lasted for only a few heartbeats, barely long enough for me to know what was taking place, and when it was gone, I half expected us to have retreated back to the warehouse, but we appeared to be on the same street as we had been, nothing but the same trees towering over us. If anything, we were only a little farther along.

  “That’s as far as you brought us?” I said, my voice shrill and rising more loudly than I intended.

  Barden glanced over. “That’s as far as we needed to go.”

  Matt stayed frozen in place, his hands pressed out from either side of him, glowing softly. “How much longer will I need to hold this?” Matt asked, his voice far calmer than I felt.

  “Not much longer.”

  All of a sudden, Barden veered, and we swung wide, the back of the car spinning, before the tires managed to catch and we rocketed forward. As we did, I shifted my attention, looking toward the front of the car. The house loomed at the end of what appeared to be a driveway—or another street. I couldn’t tell. Something struck us from behind, and as it did, Barden slammed forward, his forehead striking the steering wheel. When he bounced back, his eyes were glazed, and a gash had opened up across his forehead. The car slowed down.

  “Dr. Stone? Jen!” Matt hollered from the back seat.

  I slid over the seat, stepping on the gas, grabbing the steering wheel. “I’m sorry, Barden.”

  He still hadn’t come fully back around. I expected with his mage healing that he would be able to restore himself fairly quickly, but I didn’t know how long it took. I hadn’t been around anyone with that ability enough to observe how rapidly they restored themselves. An injury like he had sustained might be enough that it would take him time.

  The house at the end of the street was near, but not near enough.

  Someone jumped in front of us. I couldn’t see anything about them. They were covered in darkness, as if shadows themselves coalesced around a figure, creating a pocket—a void—that turned my gaze away.

  “Don’t stop,” Matt said.

  I realized I had been slowing, my foot coming off the gas pedal, and I stomped on it, pushing it all the way to the floor. We surged forward, and as we did, we slammed into something—likely the figure I had barely seen—and I winced.

  Looking over my shoulder, I tried to see what I might have hit, when I heard Matt yelling at me.

  “What is it?”

  “House!”

  I jerked my head around, and it was just in time. The house seemed to suddenly be there, a massive Tudor-style house, long lines of ivy running along the face of it. The car careened forward, and as I stepped on the brake, I knew we wouldn’t stop in time.

  10

  Squeezing on the steering wheel, I tried to jerk us off to the side, not wanting to slam into the side of the house, but there didn’t seem to be any other possibility. Matt leaned forward and he had something in his hand, but I didn’t dare look over to see what it might be. All of a sudden, we slammed into something. The front of the car crumpled, and then it bounced back, almost as if reforming. I was thrown back in the seat, thankful I didn’t hit my head the same way as Barden, and I sat there for a moment before looking over at Matt.

  “What was that?”

  “Just something to slow—“

  The door opened, and an enormous man stood on the other side of it, watching us. Another appeared
on the other side of the car. If I weren’t so shaken up and afraid, I might have attempted to reach for magic, but as it was, I wasn’t sure I had the necessary peace of mind in order to do so.

  “Are they with you?” I asked.

  Matt shook his head. “They aren’t with the organization.”

  “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

  “Considering where Barden brought us?”

  I shrugged. Barden had brought us to safety—at least as much safety as we could find when going to vampires to escape. Neither of us could complain about it, either.

  “I suppose you want us to get out,” I said to the man standing there. He said nothing to me. “I’ll take that as a yes?”

  He waited, and I crawled out of the seat, watching to see what they might do to Barden, worried they might harm him, but I need not have been concerned. Barden took a deep breath, blinked, and sat up. The gash on his forehead had healed, leaving no sign of it remaining. “This is okay,” he said.

  “How is any of this okay?”

  “They won’t harm us.”

  “Are you so certain?”

  Barden flashed a wide smile. “Considering I sit on the Mage Council, I think they would be disinclined to do so.”

  I wished I knew a little bit more about what we might be getting into, but had to trust that Barden did. He had proven himself time and again as capable of ensuring we didn’t end up in any danger. I had to trust it would be the same now.

  As I stood on the outside of the car, I glanced back to the street. There was no sign of whomever or whatever had attacked us, so if they were still out there, we might be in danger. Looking over at Barden, seeing how casual he appeared, I suspected they weren’t there any more, but didn’t know for certain. We were, after all, within a place of the vampires.

  A door leading into the house opened, and a tall man with deep gray hair and a pale complexion emerged. Dressed in a gray suit, he looked as if he were on his way to work. He locked eyes with Barden for a moment, and then flicked his gaze over to me. “This is an unexpected surprise.”