by Steve McHugh
As before, the space ran the length of several shops, with a small amount of light peeking up through the cracks in the ceiling tiles. Even so, I activated my night vision, making the spider-like walk I needed to perform a little more bearable.
After a few meters I heard muffled crying from beneath me. I used a cushion of air to ensure I didn’t make any noise as I lay prone and slowly lifted one of the tiles an inch. The void was three feet to my left, with his back toward me. I could drop down and take him before he knew what hit him. But there were four people right below me who probably wouldn’t appreciate me falling on top of them.
I lowered the tile and released my magic, creeping slowly another few feet, going through the whole rigmarole of lifting a different tile, and finding myself directly above the void.
The cushion of air that was holding me above the ceiling vanished. I fell only a few inches but it was enough to dislodge the tiles, and I crashed through the ceiling, landing with a resounding, and unpleasant, thud on the hard floor.
The void kicked me in the side of the head, and I rolled with the blow, trying to put distance between us, but the scared, huddled people got in the way. The void took full advantage and kicked me in the ribs, before trying to stomp on my head. I grabbed his leg just above the ankle and dragged him to one side, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto several people sitting beside us.
My magic remained switched off, which meant he was still capable of using his powers and fighting. That wasn’t the best news I’d had. He shoved and flailed at the people, swearing at them as he got back to his feet, while I got back to mine. Once upright, he turned to face me and received a punch in the jaw that snapped his head aside with ferocity. He staggered back, but remained upright and put himself into a fighter’s stance.
I didn’t have time for a drawn-out fight, the griffin had probably already heard the commotion and would be on his way over to investigate, but from the look in the void’s eyes, he wasn’t going down easy.
He glanced to the side and I saw that when he’d fallen, his gun had come out of its holster. It was an identical piece to the Sig his friend carried, which he clearly recognized when he found me pointing it at him.
“Anyone who doesn’t want to see this, turn away,” I said.
“You’re not going to kill me, not here.”
I shot him in the shoulder, and he crashed back into a nearby display, bringing the glass cabinet and contents of jewels and watches down on top of his head, with more noise than I’d made when I’d come through the ceiling.
I walked over to the void and found that he was unconscious, but breathing. At least for the moment. Voids were basically humans who live twice as long. But despite the slightly longer lifespan, they could be hurt and killed as easily as any human. The fact that they’re so rare, and capable of so much power, just made them more annoying.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked the hostages. I counted twenty-seven, and none of them appeared to have life-threatening injuries, although some of them looked like they’d been given a bit of a kicking at some point.
A few people nodded.
One, an elderly lady whose husband looked like he’d been punched in the face, walked over to the void and kicked him, causing the void to cry out.
She took my hand in hers. “My husband needs medical attention,” she said.
“He’ll get it,” I explained.
She nodded thanks and then returned to her husband’s side, although from the smile on his face, I assumed he’d have been quite happy if she’d wanted to keep kicking their attacker.
“How many were there?” I asked no one in particular.
“Just him and another bloke,” another man said.
“Okay, well there’s a third, so everyone stay here. I don’t want to give him a chance to use you against me. You’ll be home soon.”
“Is he going to die?” a young woman asked, nodding at the void.
“If he sees a doctor soon, then no, probably not. If anyone wants to ensure he lives longer, put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. Personally, I’d let him bleed a little.”
The young woman nodded and I looked over at where the spare gun had landed to see it in the hands of a big bloke who had military-looking tattoos on his arms. “You know how to use that?” I asked.
“Ten years in the army, so, yes. You want some backup?”
“You don’t want to help out there, mate,” I said, handing him one of the magazines in my pocket. “Just keep these people safe. If the guy who is currently bleeding out makes a move, or if his friend turns up, take them down. Don’t hesitate. Because they won’t.”
He nodded once.
“I’ll be back soon,” I told everyone and strolled out of the shop, as the unmistakable battle cry of a griffin sounded out through West Quay.
The griffin was standing about fifty meters away from me, next to the kiosk he’d destroyed with his hissy fit in the shop earlier. He immediately saw the gun as I got closer, and his forehead wrinkled in what passed for humor in a griffin.
“Do you really think that thing is going to hurt me?”
I shrugged. “I’m almost certain you’re not bulletproof.”
He banged his fist against his armor-plated chest. “Never going to get through here.”
I ejected the magazine. Six bullets, and a full magazine in my pocket. I really shouldn’t have given most of the bullets to the soldier, but the griffin was right, the gun wasn’t going to get the job done. A kill shot would need to take his head or heart. And griffins were too fast and too dangerous for me to rely on bullets. Even so, it would be rude not to try. I fired five bullets in the griffin’s direction, scoring two direct hits to his breastplate, while he used his spear to deflect the other three.
The griffin launched himself up into the air and then immediately dove down toward me, his deadly spear at the ready.
Griffins can’t be hurt by magical attacks. It’s one of the main reasons they’re used as guards at Tartarus. If I wanted to even injure my attacker, I needed a bladed weapon, or an explosive device. Neither of which are exactly in abundance in British shopping centers. But that didn’t mean I was helpless.
I created a column of air that slammed up into the griffin, driving him back with a shriek of rage. The magic couldn’t hurt him, but it put him off balance for a moment until he threw a knife at me. I dodged aside, removing the column of air for an instant, giving him a chance to fly toward me once more. This time I stood my ground until the last moment, when I aimed the gun and fired the last bullet into the membrane of his wings.
The griffin dropped to the ground as blood poured from the injured wing. “You’re going to hurt for that,” he seethed.
I reloaded the gun. “Come show me how,” I taunted.
He darted forward, dodging or deflecting the four shots I fired in his direction. The loss of his wings did little to slow his speed. He jabbed up at my throat with his spear, which glistened in the sunlight coming in from the glass dome overhead. It appeared to be covered in something. I dodged the attack, and knocked him back with a blast of air.
I waited for the griffin’s next move, but all he did was smile again and look past me. I immediately risked a look, moving just in time to avoid the jet of flame from the hands of the elemental crawling on the ground toward us.
I fired twice at his head, stopping him and removing a sizeable portion of his skull. I spun back to the griffin, and used a blast of air to stagger him as he lunged forward with his spear. I barely managed to blast the spear tip aside, moving its trajectory from my heart to my shoulder.
The griffin pushed until the blade of the spear reappeared out my back, tearing muscle apart. He pushed down harder, forcing me to my knees, while blood poured freely down my chest and back. Only then did he tear the spear free, and I collapsed, the warm blood a stark contrast to the cold tiled floor.
“Why you? Why did you have to be the one to kill me?”
“I was g
iven the honor. And what an honor it is, to kill the famed Hellequin.”
Since the return of Hellequin, I’d expected people to come after me, to gain revenge, but the fact that a griffin wanted to kill me was a bit of a shock. I couldn’t think of a single thing I’d ever done to a griffin that would lead them to go to this much trouble to try and kill me. “You’re a disgrace to your people.”
Anger lit up in his eyes. “My people are nothing more than slaves to Hades and his allies. They know nothing of freedom and are not worth the blood that runs in their coddled veins.”
The griffin glared down at me. “Any last words?”
“Fuck you very much,” I said and shot him in the head.
The griffin managed to dodge in time to avoid a kill shot, but the bullet still smashed into its skull, just above its eye, before ricocheting off and hitting a nearby wall. I held the gun in the hand of my ruined arm—that one shot had been more than I’d hoped for—but the pain wracked my body, and there was no way I was going to get a second.
I used my good arm to pull myself to a sitting position as the griffin screamed in pain and anger, the blood pouring over its face pretty much blinding it in one eye. I forced myself to stand and picked up the gun, being careful to avoid the spear that the griffin was swinging around like mobster using a baseball bat. The second bullet took it in the throat, causing it to stagger back as the sound of shouting echoed around me.
The griffin crashed to its knees, its one good eye zeroed in on me with all the hatred it could muster. I remained upright as the armed police unit shouted orders and ran up. I’d dropped the gun by that point, and Mike came over and helped steady me.
“And you didn’t come in earlier because?” I asked.
“It was my decision,” Kelly explained, as she appeared beside Mike, her tone suggesting that she had made the right decision and wasn’t about to apologize for it. “I knew you’d be able to deal with them. And the hostages were the main concern.”
She showed zero concern for my current state of injury. I got the impression that so long as the hostages were alive, it didn’t really matter what happened to me. That knowledge, along with the considerable pain wracking my body, didn’t exactly elevate my mood.
“Yeah, that worked out well for everyone, didn’t it? You fucking idiot,” I said to her and then threw up blood all over the floor. I glanced down at the mess I’d made and turned to Mike. “Get me to an Avalon hospital. Now.”
CHAPTER 4
I don’t really remember too much about what happened after that. I had a vague recollection of me talking to a paramedic, or doctor, but it could have been a big, fluffy pink bunny for all I knew.
I opened my eyes and stared at a ceiling for a few moments before I realized I was on a bed. I glanced around as much as possible, a difficult feat when your body is telling you that sitting up is not in your immediate future. I was on a hospital bed. I appeared to have my own room, complete with small TV mounted on the wall, and an uncomfortable chair the color of puce, for visitors. The walls were green. I was pretty certain that detail didn’t matter in the long run, but for some reason I found myself staring at a spot of it that was a slightly different green from the rest.
“Feeling better?” someone asked as they walked through the door.
I was still a little groggy from whatever the hell had happened to me, so my response wasn’t up to its usual wit. “Eh?”
“Your monitor said you were no longer asleep, how are you feeling?” The woman who spoke wore a white lab coat over a navy blouse. Her dark hair was put back into a bun so tight you could probably lose a finger if you decided to touch it. She held a chart in her hands.
“Where am I?” I finally managed to ask.
“You’re in an Avalon hospital. You were admitted just over twenty-four hours ago.”
“What happened to me?” I glanced down at my arms and found that my glyphs were lit up, only faintly, but enough. I was using air magic, but certainly not consciously.
“Ah, yes, the magic. Unfortunately, we had to place runes in the room to force you to use your magic on a constant basis. Only a small measure, enough to ensure the venom inside your body doesn’t gain hold. Jorōgumo venom is incredibly potent stuff. The only way to ensure it doesn’t take hold is to—”
“Continuously use magic,” I finished for her. “Yeah, I know.” I’d been bitten by a jorōgumo several centuries earlier when I was in Japan. It was not a fun experience, and I’d almost died before realizing that the permanent use of my magic was the only thing that could save me.
“You’ve taken a large amount of the venom, I’m afraid, certainly enough to kill you.”
“The spear the griffin was using. It was covered in the stuff.”
The doctor nodded.
“You can remove the runes now; I’ll sort it out from here.”
“I’m afraid not. You’re going to stay here for the next five days and have a very small amount of magic in use the whole time. Any more than that and we risk bringing out your nightmare, but we have ways to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Magic is a living thing that yearns to be used; any sorcerer who used too much, too quickly, risked having their magic take control of them. The magic would tell the sorcerer that it would make them stronger, better, someone who would be feared and respected. Whatever worked for the sorcerer to give control over to the magic inside of them. At some point in time it had been called a nightmare and the name caught on. Although my own appeared to behave in ways I had never expected. Like giving my subconscious mind cups of tea. However strange that sounded, it was weirder to live through it.
“I’m not staying here for five days,” I said with all the categorical certainty of someone explaining that water was, in fact, wet. “Someone tried to kill me.”
The doctor shrugged. I imagined a lot of her patients were here because someone had tried to kill them, one more stubborn bastard wasn’t going to change her mind. “And then here is the safest place for you. We have LOA agents in the building. No one will hurt you while you’re here.”
“What is this air magic doing?” I asked. “I can’t feel anything different after using it.”
“Nothing,” the doctor explained. “The runes in the room just force the magic out of your body. It doesn’t actually do anything.”
“Do you know what happened to the hostages or the people I fought?”
“Ah yes, apparently the hostages were taken to the closest human hospital. They’re all doing well. And as for their assailants, I can’t say.”
“You mean, you don’t know, or you can’t tell me.”
“One of those,” she said with a slight smile.
“So, Doc, you got a name?”
“Heather.”
“Well, Heather, it’s nice to meet you. Can I get my phone and stuff back?”
“It’s in the drawer beside your bed. Although I advise against doing anything that will rile you up. You need rest and calm if this venom is to be treated in anything close to a successful manner.”
“And my shoulder?”
“Almost completely healed. It’s quite the marvel. The rest of your body healed very quickly. In fact if it weren’t for the venom coursing through your blood, I’d say you were the picture of health.”
“I ache like crazy, but I’m glad to amaze and astound.” I forced myself up to a sitting position and took a deep breath. “So, you’re not going to let me leave.”
“The aches are probably a mixture of the damage you sustained and the venom. It should hopefully pass. As for the possibility of allowing you to leave?” She raised an eyebrow in question. “No one is forcing you to stay here. This isn’t a prison. You’re here because if you weren’t you’d be dead. And you’re staying here because I don’t like it when patients I’ve spent time and effort keeping alive decide to go die on me due to their own stubbornness.”
I smiled. “Okay, Heather.”
The door opened and a short, bald m
an walked in. The white-haired goatee that he’d worn the last time I’d seen him had extended to an entire beard. He carried a plastic shopping bag in one hand. “Doctor, can I have a moment?” he asked.
“Of course, Doctor Grayson, but please don’t over excite him.”
“Yeah, Doc, please don’t over excite me,” I said.
Grayson smiled and Heather shook her head and left us alone.
“I haven’t seen you since you were in my medical care a few years ago,” Grayson said. “I heard about your injury and thought I’d pay you a visit.”
“Thanks, Doc.” I shook his hand, and he held onto it so he could test my pulse.
“Jorōgumo venom, eh?” he eventually said.
“Apparently so.”
“It’s deadly stuff. I hope you’re taking it seriously.”
“As seriously as the time I was bitten by one of the bastards a few centuries ago.”
“Good, I’d rather not have to perform your autopsy; I haven’t done one in the few years since joining Tommy’s organization.”
“I’ll try not to die on you, Doc.”
Grayson smiled. “Good, now for the bad news. I spoke to some friends of mine in Avalon about what happened. It appears the griffin has vanished along with the body of the elemental you killed.”
“The attackers were working with someone.”
“That’s my assessment too. Any idea who?”
I shook my head. “People have always wanted me dead, but those guys knew I’m Hellequin. Apparently it’s beginning to get around.”
“That’s a lot of trouble just to get you though, don’t you think?”
I nodded. “I thought that myself. Why take the hostages? Even if they wanted me dead, why open themselves to so much trouble. If they went with a long-range sniper rifle instead, I wouldn’t even know about it until it was too late.” My memories flicked back to a New York morning when I was looking down the barrel of my own sniper rifle, killing the evil piece of shit known as Mordred once and for all.
