A grin crossed my lips as my feet touched the track, sending me hurtling forward right as Captain Falcon screamed “Falcon Punch!”
A flaming orange and scarlet bird burst from my fist like a phoenix, impacting Madisyn’s taunting form and throwing her from the platform and into the track below.
The added momentum of my attack, combined with the speeding track below carried her off screen to her death moments before I careened off the edge to my own demise. I probably would have died too, but since we each only had one life, the moment her avatar exploded, the game ended.
“See, you don’t need to wave dash to win,” I said as the winner’s screen came up and Captain Falcon clad in his pink and white uniform gesticulated in front of us. “Even people who have mastered an ultimate technique like wave dashing can still get a Falcon Punch to the face.”
“Are you seriously taunting an eight-year-old?” Madisyn asked, glancing at me. Her knuckles had paled from the grip on her controller as she glared at me. “Because that’s not really cool.”
“Firstly, I wasn’t trying to taunt you, I was trying to lay some wisdom down on you. Secondly, I play XBOX. Taunting eight-year-olds is my pastime.” I pumped the controller a bit which was a little silly because she was eight, but I was excited. “Admit it. That was an awesome Falcon Punch.”
“No way!” she said as the character select screen popped back up.
“You’re just mad because I beat you, and I don’t even know how to wave dash,” I replied with a shrug as I switched my character from Captain Falcon to Link.
I was always a fan of Link, mostly because I’d loved Legend of Zelda, but to be honest, he was always a bit sucky at actually knocking an opponent off a platform. He was the sort of character that could easily damage another character, but had a problem sealing the deal, which was probably why Ganon kept getting ahold of Zelda and the triforce in all those games.
“Are you seriously going to use Link now?” Madisyn glared at me as the level select screen loaded. “Are you trying to be uncompetitive?” Her eyes narrowed. “Or are you just trying to let me win?”
“No, I like Link. You do know games are supposed to be fun, right? That’s why I play them,” I replied as the level select screen loaded. “When you play games too seriously, sometimes you get sucked in, then you play all night until your alarm goes off and you realize you haven’t slept and you have to be at work in twenty minutes… Not that I’d know…”
“You better not be letting me win,” Madisyn said, completely ignoring my point. Sigh. To be eight again. Things were so much simpler then. When I was eight I didn’t have to deal with the emotional unpacking of having my brother be a mass murderer who fancied himself a freedom fighter or liking a guy whose extended family wanted me dead just for breathing the same air as them.
“I’m not letting you win,” I said, glancing at her. This time instead of choosing at random, she selected the Final Destination. It was a floating purple platform in space, but unlike the last level, there was basically no interference from the level. “But I promise, I’ll beat you to a pulp. No holding back. Deal?”
“Games are about winning, and it’s no fun when people are letting you win,” she said as the level loaded. The moment I dropped from the platform she wave dashed at me. As it happened, I felt magic start to rise off of her, and the speed of her character increased exponentially. So, she was using her magic to help her beat me even though she could wave dash? Interesting.
“Does Gordon hold back when he plays you?” A smirk crossed my face as I called upon my own power to speed up my own avatar and negate the magic she was using to enhance her own character’s speed. As it happened, she glanced at me. “Because that won’t happen with me. If you want to play for real. Let’s play!”
“You’re using your magic,” she cried as I sidestepped her jump kick and used Link’s hook shot to grab her avatar. Only now, it didn’t feel like I was using a controller, instead, the game was bending to my will. “Gordon says we shouldn’t do that.”
“You said you didn’t want me to hold back. Do you want me to stop?” I asked as the metal hook shot out and slammed into her character’s chest.
“No!” she cried as my character jerked her avatar forward and tossed Falco to the ground. Another surge of power flared from her as Falco bounced, and I could tell she was trying to make her character even faster.
As Falco bounced at hypersonic speed, I spun Link, whipping outward with his sword and calling upon my own power to not only increase link’s speed, but to expand the area of attack for his spin attack.
Link’s sword hammered into Falco with enough force to knock him off the platform. As Madisyn started to leap back, I made Link pull a bomb from his pouch and jump into the breach after Falco.
We met mid-air, and I threw the bomb in her face as she tried to charge back to the platform. The resulting explosion blew her backward, and as she tried to recover, I initiated Link’s upward spin attack. The tip of my sword caught her as she came charging forward and flung her backward out of the reach of the platform as Link grabbed onto the edge for dear life.
More power exploded from her, and as it happened, the game glitched hard, allowing her to do another charge even though she shouldn’t have been able to do it.
A sheen of emerald energy wrapped around her avatar as she came barreling toward me like Superman. As it happened, I sucked in a deep breath, drawing in my own magic.
“No guts, no glory,” I whispered, releasing my power in an explosion of air as I made Link leap from the edge farther than was normally possible and attack once more. My sword passed through her as she air dodged, and as it happened, her eyes went wide. The power around her vanished as her character hung there for a split second before plummeting downward to his death while I threw my hook shot at the edge. It struck the platform, arresting my fall as Falco plunged past me.
As the winner’s screen came up, Madisyn looked at me in a way I didn’t quite understand. She was clearly bent about losing, but behind that I saw something like admiration, which was weird. She was eight, shouldn’t she be throwing her controller at me?
“Madisyn?” I asked, putting my controller down as she glared at me. “Is everything okay?”
“You’re really good,” she whispered, dropping her controller and balling her hands into fists. “Gordon doesn’t play like that with me.”
“Why not?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Have you asked him?”
“He says it wouldn’t be fair to me since I’m too young.” Madisyn sighed. “He always treats me like I’m a little kid. I’m not. I’m eight.”
“He just doesn’t want you to get hurt,” I said, defending my brother even though a lot of me still wanted to hate him. Only I couldn’t hate him because I knew, deep down, he thought he was right, and as much as I didn’t want to victim blame, a lot of werewolves were mass murderers too. They’d kill me, and Gordon, and even Madisyn like we weren’t even people.
“Then he should help me to get stronger. Not go easy on me so I win.” She smiled at me, then. “I like that you’re not treating me like a kid.”
“I know what it’s like when boys go easy on you.” I shrugged. It never failed when I started playing, guys would go easy on me thinking that’d endear them to me. Newsflash, it didn’t. “Wanna play a co-op game? I actually like those a lot.”
“Co-Op is what sissies and losers play,” she harrumphed, looking at me like I’d suggested she eat her kale.
“Well, we can play some Mario Kart if you like, but I’m a demon with the spikey shell.” I smirked because I always hated when someone used that particular item. The spikey shell homed in on the winning player and smashed into them, pretty much guaranteeing a loss. “If we use magic for that one, I can pretty much get it every time.”
“Yeah, pass,” she said, not meeting my eyes as she dropped her gaze to her hands in a way that made me think she might be worried about playing me now that she’d asked m
e to go all out. Part of me wanted to challenge her to a game and let her win, but that would undo everything we’d just built. No, it’d be better to go do something else and let her save face.
“Say, I’m kind of hungry,” I said, getting to my feet and offering her my hand. “How about we take a break and get a snack? What’s there to eat around here? Ice cream maybe?”
“Do you not want to play now because I won’t win?” she asked, not moving as she looked away from me.
“Um…” I said because I really had no way to respond to that. “Not really. I just like ice cream.” I patted my tummy. “It goes into a separate stomach, and I can’t even remember the last time I ate anything.”
“I think you’re lying,” she said looking me over. “But since it gets me ice cream, I’m going to just pretend you didn’t.” She leapt to her feet while I stared at her in disbelief. She was remarkably cognizant for an eight-year-old.
Still, I wasn’t sure how much time I really wanted to spend with her. Part of me was anxious to get back to Justin. I wasn’t quite sure where he was exactly, but I was willing to bet there was a hospital or its magical equivalent here. Surely, he’d be there…
“Are you spacing out?” Madisyn asked, looking up at me. She’d moved across the room and was by the door, arms crossed over her X-men T-shirt as she tried to shove her feet into a pair of red Chuck Taylors. Staring at them almost made me stumble. I’d had a pair of shoes just like that when I’d trained with Sheev. Fun fact, we’d normally worn all red to hide the blood.
“Uh, no, I was thinking about Justin,” I replied, somewhat embarrassed because I’d totally spaced out and I wasn’t about to admit her shoes had triggered my PTSD. Sigh. This was going to be a long day.
“Oh, Justin will be fine. My dad works at the hospital across town. That’s where they took him, and they had the third floor all prepped and waiting for him when you came. My dad is the best! He’ll fix your friend up super-fast,” she replied, beaming at me.
“I was not aware of that.” I sighed, trying to decide how I felt about them being ready for us. I mean, it made sense since Gordon had shown up here before us, but something about it rubbed me the wrong way. “So, are we getting food then?” My tummy rumbled in agreement, but I didn’t think she heard it because she was too busy fiddling with the locks on the door.
“Yeah, you can buy me ice cream,” she said, right before the door was kicked off its hinges, knocking her backward across the room. She struck the floor beside me as the door flew past me and crashed into the couch behind us.
“You!” the werewolf snarled, saliva dripping from its fangs as it ducked its head and stepped through the entrance. “We’ve been looking for you, Annie Vance.”
4
“Are you insane? She’s just a kid!” I cried, leaping to Madisyn’s side as the werewolf came closer, his claws clacking on the linoleum as he moved toward us. I could feel the heat coming off of him and that combined with that scents of wet dog and blood coming off of him made my stomach twist. The smell of blood clinging to him was way too strong for it to be good.
“She’s not a kid.” As he glanced from Madisyn’s downed body to me, the werewolf spat like he was explaining two plus two to a particularly dull child. “She’s not even a person. Just another piece of Animator trash.” His amber eyes bore into me as I glared up at him. “Like you.”
“I know you must be hurting because of what my brother did, but we’re people too,” I growled, jerking my lightsaber from my belt as I came to my feet.
Through the open doorway I could hear screams, but not just any screams. No, I’d heard these kinds of screams before in my deepest, darkest memories. I’d tried to push them down, but as those screams filled my ears, my childhood confrontations with the wolves came running back.
Just like those times, the werewolves were killing mages, and if they were here to get me, they were going to cause lots of collateral damage in the process. Part of me wanted to run away and save myself, but a lot more of me wanted to bulldoze over this jackass and take down his friends.
At that moment, I didn’t care if this was retribution for what Gordon had done. No. Justified or not, this guy had beaten up an eight-year-old girl. This was about teaching an individual werewolf a fucking lesson.
“What do you expect to do with that toy? Unless you have some silver, there’s no way you can stop me with that.” The werewolf dismissed my lightsaber with a snort as he took another step forward. He wasn’t within striking distance yet, but he would be in a moment.
“I dunno. Probably something cutting edge,” I said, flicking the switch on the weapon while calling upon my magic to turn any fictional object, no matter how silly, into its real life counterpart. The crimson blade sprang to life in a rush of power as I drew it up in front of myself and settled into a Kendo stance.
The werewolf’s eyes flicked from the blade in my hands to Madisyn’s prone body and back again. He didn’t seem scared, at least not of me. He should have been.
“If you put down your weapon and come peacefully. I won’t hurt you or the pup.” He nodded toward Madisyn. “Alabaster wants you and the Prince alive. I’m sure he’ll make an exception for the girl. He is a merciful king.”
“Wait, what?” I asked, shock making the lightsaber in my hand fizzle and die. Alabaster was the King of Air and Fire and the second most powerful werewolf in the world after Justin’s father. He was also supposed to be dead at the hands of Gordon’s ritual. So why was he alive?
As my concentration faltered and the energy blade of the lightsaber vanished, the werewolf lunged at me. The fucker was fast, and as I tried to recall my power and thumb on the saber, he crashed into me.
His weight threw me backward across the room, and I smashed into the far wall, knocking down a shelf and spilling knickknacks down on top of me.
“I can tell from the look on your face that you didn’t know Alabaster was still alive.” He snorted as he grabbed me by my hair and hoisted me to my feet. It hurt so bad, I actually thought I might die. “Surely Justin would have sensed him. I wonder why he didn’t say anything.”
“Alabaster can’t be alive. It’s simply not possible. I saw his daughter killed for the ritual,” I whispered through the pain in my scalp. It felt like he was tearing my hair out by the roots. “There’s no way he could have survived it.”
“Oh, there is,” he whispered, leaning in close enough for me to feel his warm, fetid breath on my face. “See, here’s the thing about his daughter, Loraline. She’s adopted.”
“You mean…”
“Yeah, The King of Air and Fire lives, and his thirst for vengeance will not be quenched until all of you are dead, and he won’t just stop at animators. No, because of what your kind has done, he’ll kill every last one of you mages.” A grin spread across his face when he saw I’d understood him. “But he has something special planned for you in particular, Annie.” The werewolf’s tongue darted out as he spoke, and he licked my cheek, leaving a slimy trail across my flesh.
“Ugh. What the fuck is wrong with you,” I cried as I tried to wrap my brain around what he’d said. If Alabaster was in power now…
My gut churned in horror for the split second I had before the wolf pulled me forward a couple inches.
“Oh, there’s a lot wrong with me now that my wife is dead,” he snarled right before he slammed my skull backward into the wall hard enough to punch a hole in the drywall.
My vision went blurry, and I slumped forward as he let go of my hair. I collapsed to the ground as the werewolf grabbed me by the collar of my sweatshirt and hauled me to my feet. “Don’t worry, Annie, I won’t kill you.” He glared at me. “That honor is reserved for the King of Air and Fire.”
“Funny,” I whispered, looking up at him and smiling as I went to the empty place inside me that let me kill without feeling. I flipped the switch inside myself, shutting off trivialities like the fact that this guy was here now because of what my brother had done. As
my emotions and doubts faded away, everything snapped into sharp focus. “Who is going to keep me from killing you?”
The tiny silver dagger slipped from beneath the cuff of my sweatshirt and into my hand as I drew it up in a wicked slash that split the front of the werewolf open from crotch to throat. A scream of pain ripped from his throat as his grip on me faltered.
I pulled myself free of his claws as he stumbled backward, boiling blood spurting from the wound as silver fire leapt from deep inside the slash, burning him alive from the inside. He collapsed to his knees, trying to tear away the molten flesh of his torso, but before he could, I stepped forward and slashed his throat. His cries turned to gurgles as I planted a boot on his muzzle and kicked as hard as I could. He toppled backward to the ground as the smell of burning flesh and hair filled my nose.
Behind his flopping, twitching body, I could see Madisyn standing there. She watched me with cold fascination as I wiped the silver blade off on my shorts and shoved it back up under the sweatshirt sleeve. It was never a good idea to let werewolves see Animators with silver since we could use it to kill them, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have some on me.
“You dropped this,” Madisyn said, offering me my lightsaber. Her voice held that same, cold, hard edge mine did. It meant she’d shut off her humanity too. Something about it should have probably bothered me, but since I’d flipped my switch, I just didn’t care. “Next time try not to turn it off until after the werewolf is dead.”
“Yeah,” I replied, taking the weapon from her. It was slick with sweat. “Stay close to me. I’m going out there, and I don’t want to leave you here.”
“Oh good,” she replied, moving past me to a toy chest next to the far wall. “I was worried you were going to tell me to wait here. I hate when grown-ups tell me that.”
I let out a slow breath because that had been my first inclination. I just didn’t want to return to find her dead. No. She’d be safer with me and I wasn’t worried about emotional trauma since she had an empty place. It meant she’d been trained by Sheev. Nothing I could do would be worse than what he’d have already done.
Prince of Blood and Thunder_An Urban Fantasy Novel Page 3
