Blood Moon (Wildcat Wizard Book 1)

by Al K. Line

  "Guess they're here then," I said to myself.

  "Should I shoot them now?" asked Vicky, somehow having crept up beside me and taken what I had to admit was a pretty good shooting position.

  "No. Save the bullets for when they're trying to rip out your throat."

  "Oh, okay," she said chirpily, even though there was a tremor beneath it.

  I gave her a curious look but she just said, "What?" and I honestly had no answer. Maybe she would make a good sidekick after all. She certainly wasn't afraid, or no more than anyone else.

  "If you survive this then you're hired," I said, maybe talking just to hear my own voice. Needing the comfort, and her smile, to bolster my confidence and stop me utterly freaking out with worry about George. Everything felt too surreal, like it couldn't be happening. Anything but this, anything but George. We'd been safe for so long, nestled away and trying to muddle through, make a go of it as best we could. She was everything to me and I refused to accept she could come to harm. A world without her would be too empty to bear.

  "Oh boy. Cool. So cool."

  I turned, unbelieving. She wasn't, was she? She was!

  "Vicky, please tell me you aren't doing your mom dance when we're about to fight vampires?"

  "You know you think it's sexy."

  Nathan gave me a puzzled look and spiraled a finger at his temple. I nodded in agreement. To my right, Brains studied Vicky like an interesting insect on a pin, then did something even stranger. He shuffled his shoulders and smiled. Then he moved closer, and with a nod to Vicky they did the terrible dance to the same silent beat, bumping hips.

  "What? I like to dance," said Brains.

  "You guys are nuts."

  I stepped forward and out of the corner of my eye noted they stopped dancing and spread out again. As I moved, so did the vampires, all of them closing on us. Soon we were twenty feet or so apart, the atmosphere so tense you could taste the adrenaline in the air. I held up a hand and as I continued forward everyone behind me stopped. On the vampires' side all but one halted.

  Forcing myself to walk, not run, to be calm not scream, I walked forward, my footsteps tapping on the ancient cobbles the only sound. The noise echoed off the buildings like the beating of a drum, signaling the end of my beautiful daughter's life and my grip on my waning sanity, until we were just a few feet apart. I was surprised Nathan had managed to stay out of it, but I guessed he wanted to see how they'd react and knew I was in no mood for his nonsense.

  "This is private property," I said, my voice strong, no hint of the terror I felt inside.

  "I know, and we apologize, but some things go beyond the usual rules. We are truly sorry."

  He sounded like he meant it, but that didn't excuse the intrusion. The rules were clear for those in our world. You did not trespass. It was a declaration of war. But then, so was eating someone else's child, so I was taken aback by the apology.

  "Do you have George, my daughter?"

  The man shook, his whole body vibrating in that strange way they had where you could no longer tell what they were. It was as if they flowed through time differently, which I believe was the actual case. He suddenly stopped, looking truly mournful. "We do, but she will come to no harm. We regret this, Arthur, truly, but it's the only way to bring back Father, and we have no choice."

  "There's always a choice. You've violated everything meant to be held dear by your kind. Your respect for others' privacy and the need for an invitation. The sanctity of home. You took my daughter and you expect mercy?"

  He shook his head. "No, I do not. But this is our night, the beginning of a new era. I am Fourth, and soon I shall be Second. All of us shall be Seconds and our true power will spread across the globe and—"

  I'd heard enough. I jabbed out fast with my wand, power surging through the wood with focused intent. The air alive with an angry, jagged sword of silver death that struck him in his chest and sent him flying across the courtyard into the arms of the others.

  Still on his feet, he pushed against those that held him and looked down at the scorched flesh and the tattered clothes. Already he was repairing himself, just enough to stop the worst of the injury, but I knew it would be some time before he was properly mended. He was a Fourth, after all.

  This would be easy. These guys weren't a match for me, for us. We'd be inside in less than a minute.

  I advanced and those behind joined me.

  We'd wipe the cobbles with them. Arm raised, magic radiating from my wand like a leaking tap, I readied to blast them to hell. Then I caught sight of the others with him, really looked at them.

  Seconds, Thirds, and Fourths. Just because he was the spokesman, didn't mean he was in charge. He was the sacrifice if things went wrong.

  It was gulp time. I did two.

  Stained Cobbles

  Never once in all the years I'd lived at the farm had blood been spilled on the cobbles. It was sacred. Mine, then mine and George's. Our sanctuary from this kind of horror.

  But this night, with so much at risk, I was ready to stain it red with every last ounce of vampire blood I could squeeze from their bodies.

  As the Fourth moved once more, he was stopped by the hand of another. An everyman, forgettable and plain. A Second. He didn't come forward, but he spoke.

  "We truly do wish you no harm. Or your daughter. Please, allow us to complete the ritual and we shall leave. She is in no danger."

  "So what's the plan? Sing some songs then release her?"

  "I wish that were the case, but no. We must take her blood, but she will not be killed, or turned."

  "They're lying, Arthur, we have to get the ashes now," said Nathan.

  I turned to him and said, "Shut up. You don't care about her, you just want Mikalus. You're as bad as them. Worse."

  "Please," shouted the Second, "we will be gone soon."

  If that was the truth then it meant they were ready to use George to finish their ritual. "No, I can't, won't, let that happen. She's my daughter, my blood. Understand?"

  "Yes," whispered the Second.

  I believed him, felt and saw the truth he spoke, used the power I had within to look, really look. I saw him, I saw them all. Their auras weren't evil, just different. Colors never normally seen, so at odds were they with regular human beings. A purple light surrounded them, clean and pure in its own way, but so opposite to the norm it told a story of power, yet not evil or malice. Just of something different. With values altered by stretches of time hard to imagine for one as young as myself. Maybe if I lived to be their age I'd understand, but right now I didn't care.

  "Last chance," I warned, part of me loath to kill, the other part, the part almost bubbling over, ready to go wild to get to George.

  "Sorry," he said, and held his arms out to the side.

  I turned to Vicky, Nathan, Brains, and the others and said, "We go to the door. If they stop us we kill them. Understand?" There were nods and the sounds of guns readied, and then we moved without another word.

  With thirty feet of rough cobble between us and the door we walked as one, and then where once the space was clear it was now filled with vampires.

  "They move really fast," said Vicky.

  "Just shoot them," I replied with a sigh.

  Wildcat magic, gunfire, shouts and screams filled the night, making a psychic stain on my home I could never scrub clean.

  Reluctant Death

  Encounters with vampires were usually brief, polite, and infrequent. Sure, there were issues. Fights, deaths, arguments, and certainly the Alliance had no love for them. But for all that, vampires were still of immense interest whether we liked to admit it or not. They were just so different, human yet not. They'd broken free of the constraints of the human body, had innate power, lived extended lives and could self-heal. The older they were, the better equipped they were to live through the ages and remain as they once were when human.

  They adjusted, moved with the times. Lost their accents eventually if they lived in our c
ountry for too long, picked up British mannerisms and etiquette, and assimilated. They hid in plain sight, but, inevitably, such a life came with problems. They didn't age, not the old ones, so could never truly integrate.

  But they had power, and they were mysterious, and we simply never knew the extent of their influence. We lived in our world, they in theirs.

  Now wizard and vampire collided in a way that left me in no doubt about their nature.

  They were strong as hell.

  Nathan's spooks opened fire with automatic weapons that raked across the drab suits of the drab men, riddling them with bullets. The younger vampires dropped but were soon back up, the elders shook it off like the bullets were harmless gnats. Flesh repaired in moments, their bodies withstood the incredible pressure of a bullet hitting home and they walked forward right into the path of the assault.

  As I tried to look everywhere at once, to keep track of them all, I knew it was useless and we were at a serious disadvantage. Even as I turned, I saw the first panic as a Fourth walked right up to him. The man froze for a moment then looked around wildly, but the vampire closed the remaining gap in less than a heartbeat and bit at his jugular. The vampire's cheeks bulged as the pressure exerted by the heart pumped out blood at an incredible rate, and then the vampire released its grip with a sick wet sound and the spook dropped, clutching feebly at his neck, pressure already easing as the last of his life force pumped erratically in a low arc, the first to stain the cobbles.

  More deaths followed, the spooks taken out first by the least powerful vampires, still more than a match for humans with no power apart from guns.

  Vicky fired off several rounds, hit a few vampires more by accident than skill, but soon realized it was fruitless and a waste of bullets she might need later. After that, she kept close and I focused on her and me.

  It wasn't enough, though. The vampires acted as a unit, a pack, and the first thing a pack does is trap its prey, circle around back and cut off its means of escape. An attack from the rear is always more effective than a full-frontal assault, and that's exactly what they did. I forged ahead, Vicky to my left, her keeping it together enough to know not to get on my wand side. I dealt with the first few we encountered with a simple blast of energy that drained me a little but didn't take too much. All it did was slow them down, destroy flesh that quickly recovered.

  I was holding back, not using enough to kill them outright as I didn't know what else I'd face. Once I'd drained myself utterly there would be no chance to regain my strength. It was the wrong move. My concern for George made me act out of character. From years of experience, I knew the best course of action in a fight was to go in hard, magic guns blazing, and wipe the floor with an opponent as fast and with as much deadly force as possible.

  Cursing my own foolhardy actions, I changed tack and let the magic that was as much a part of me as my beating heart consume me utterly. There was no point showing restraint in case I needed my strength later—if I didn't pull out all the stops now there would be no later. There would be only death. Maybe I'd get another life, maybe I wouldn't. But with my daughter's life in danger now wasn't the time to risk it.

  I surrendered to the power I'd spent a lifetime absorbing, that had permeated the very essence of my being. Nothing left in reserve, a total immersion in the abilities I'd mastered best I could. This level of violence was not something I needed to call on much. The work I did was dangerous, but there are always degrees of danger, and usually a quick blast with the wand did the trick.

  Not this time, not now. Not with so much to lose.

  It's Magic, Baby

  Regular sight was replaced with an awareness beyond explanation. If you've never experienced it then you cannot even imagine it. It's like having a multitude of eyes pointing in every direction, all feeding back information at incredible speed. Providing an image of everything around you. Every fine detail, every gesture, every anticipated movement, so detailed and rich, so beyond what we normally see, it's almost like the world becomes thought.

  What was Arthur expanded to become something else. Cognizance, with knowledge of actions yet performed, read through slight adjustments in body position, facial tics and a glance this way or that you don't even know you're doing.

  I could anticipate each and every movement of every character at play in this deadly drama and I used that knowledge to unleash dangerous forces in one plane of existence whilst being half in another. Time to go inside my own goddamn house.

  Magic comes in endless forms, shaped by your intent and your will, your skill and your personality. Often, I was a blast 'em type of guy. It's quick, effective, and freaks people out. But I knew spells, could conjure up a beastie if I felt the need, and could harness strange, unexplained forces that permeated the universe if I really focused and the juices were flowing.

  The juices were definitely flowing.

  With great focus and determination it's incredible what the human mind and spirit is capable of. Add to that one wildcat wizard with his entire being soaked in magic and laser-like intent and you get one helluva dangerous combination.

  My mind emptied of everything but my goal, to destroy those in my path. I called out to the air, the gaps between it, and as I focused the power inside through my body and directed it into base reality via the glowing wand, I willed those gaps to expand.

  With a wild roar, I pushed out as hard as I could at the space between me and the vampires spread out in a circle and prised apart the gaps. The air rippled, the light dancing widely, increasing patches of darkness expanding as where there was no matter there was no light, no gravity, nothing.

  No air, no sound, no anything.

  An emptiness that I forced my will into. A pocket of nothingness that was silent and still. I spun hard and fast, trailing my wand behind me, once, twice, three times. Pushing out from our small group at the vampires, the tiny pinpricks of nothingness, the base nature of everything, there before there was any form of matter, when there was no universe, no thought, no creation, expanded and chewed through their bodies.

  No, not chewing, merely replacing. Where once was a solid creature, there were now gaps. I shunted all I could out through the wand to push harder at the emptiness, and it grew, taking out more and more pieces of the vampires. At first it was little but black dots, hardly giving them pause. They closed in, wary now as the magic thrummed and the air crackled then fell silent, then tiny pops burst in the air from all directions, sound pockets exploding then eaten away like the light, like their bodies.

  "Get close to me," I shouted as the air screamed with the dangerous disruptions. Within our small circle it eddied and pulled at us, all of us touching now, only my arm extended out from the tight mass of flesh.

  The vampires shouted, then screamed, then tried to get to us, but I held my focus, kept on pushing, and the darkness, the void, expanded, splashes of emptiness dotting their bodies. Tiny gaps appeared in their flesh where you could see right through.

  The younger ones collapsed, trying to regenerate, repair what was missing, but as fast as they did so I let the non-matter chew away more of them until eventually it hit heart or brain and it was over.

  Only three remained and they were the most powerful. A Second and two Thirds—I knew this to be the case although I couldn't explain how. They retreated, my power weaker the further away they moved, and I took the opportunity to shuffle slowly to the front door. I reached out for the wards expecting them to be broken, only to find most still intact. But there were gaps in the protection, areas of carnage. Someone with real strength had pushed the wards aside enough to allow the vampires entry. My house was meant to be impenetrable.

  "Wait for my signal then get inside as fast as possible," I said through clenched teeth. Nathan nodded, Brains likewise, and Vicky replied, "Whenever you say."

  I readied to take down the wards but at that precise moment the three vampires attacked. I pushed out against them, gave everything to force apart the reality of this world and
destroy them, but the pockets of the void I created were smaller than before, my hold weakening, and they were so fast, connected to the vibrations I emitted, that they weaved between the gaps, impossibly fast, and were on us.

  Running on Empty

  "Wait," I shouted, but Vicky was closest to the door and must have thought I'd given a signal when I nodded. I hadn't, I'd just changed focus to negate the wards. In a panic of trying to stop the vampires sucking us dry. My magic faltering, and Vicky almost at the door, I pulled back the wards with steely focus, picturing the protection as floating, burnt umber sigils peeling away and gliding to hover over my head.

  But it was too late, and moments before they were completely removed she shoved at the door. It opened and she toppled inside, screaming and crying as she crashed down onto the old rug and banged her head hard, the thin material nowhere near enough of a cushion to stop her getting an almighty crack to the temple.

  Distracted, I felt the presence of a Second, breath on my neck, and jabbed an elbow into his kidney, buying myself a moment. Brains was still in human form, probably knowing his wild side couldn't deal with the magic chewing away at reality, and Nathan, well, he'd decided to use his cane. He cracked down hard on a Third's head then I saw it glow white-hot as magic spat out a spasm of intense heat that made the vampire's head burst into flames.

  As the others were distracted, I ushered Nathan and Brains through the door and I slammed down the wards while the vampires started to recover.

  Too late, they were inside with us, everyone falling over themselves as they shoved but nobody had room to move.

  The Third, scalp blasted, hair in patches but already regenerating, shoved Brains and he toppled forward, knocking against Nathan. They both stumbled, off-balance. I backed up, only to see the door closing.

  This was it, now or never. With what strength remained I muttered to myself, giving my aching limbs a good talking to, and raised my wand, readying all I had left, to kill those that would stop me getting George.