Black Dawn

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘You think they will?’

  ‘I’ve always been the optimist John,’ Amanda said. John and his teams had contacted a local coven sympathetic to Victoria and Liberties Children and asked if they would put the word out that the three remaining members of the Coven of Angels were staying with them. The house would then be closely monitored while the Coven itself had moved to a nearby safe house to keep them out of harm’s way.

  That had been several hours ago, so far, nothing.

  Suddenly several of the Liberties Children Black Ops Squad, including John, went quiet and seemed to internalise their thoughts.

  Amanda recognised it right away and did not need to look into the Magical Spectrum to recognise when someone started to speak telepathically.

  Without warning John and the others in telepathic contact winced and held their heads in pain for a brief moment before Amanda sensed the Magical link suddenly cut off.

  ‘Trouble? Amanda asked.

  ‘The Nomads, they’re at the safe house.’ He said, before raising his voice. ‘Gear up, now, we’re needed asap.’

  Everyone jumped into action and within seconds everyone stood together. As the most powerful Magus there, it fell to Amanda to Port everyone to the Safe House, which she could do in two quick effects enacted by two parts of her Multitasking mind simultaneously.

  They appeared outside the box like building in a run down and quiet part of town. They had erected several strong Aegises here and instructed the Coven members to create more once they were inside in an effort to keep the Nomads out should the worst happen.

  The worst had happened, and Amanda noted with more than a little worry that the Aegises were still up, protecting the building and yet according to the Mental Link John had received, the Nomads were already inside.

  ‘This is feckin’ banjaxed,’ Amanda spat as she quickly went to work on pulling down the Aegises around the building. They’d hoped they would keep the Nomads out, instead, they were protecting the Nomads that had somehow bypassed them and got inside. All the Magi present worked as quickly as they could to bring down the Magical shields around the building, and when a window on the second floor of the building blew out she knew they needed to get in there right now.

  Precious seconds passed as they worked, their Magic hammering against the remaining few Aegises until the final one fell. It felt like the air had been pulled taught, and then suddenly snapped back like a rubber band breaking in two.

  Amanda wasted no time and once more double Ported the group into the main open plan downstairs area of the building and appeared in what some might call hell.

  Just like in the Angel’s Coven house, debris had been scattered everywhere, as if the place had just been bombed. Piles of wood and fabric that had once been furniture lay in small piles while floorboards had been ripped up here and there and small fires burnt merrily away.

  In addition to the wood and plaster that littered the floor, dead bodies also lay all about them, broken and bloodied, they looked like they died in pain. Amanda heard a couple of people in the group react badly to the scene before them.

  Further into the room, three figures stood with their backs to Amanda and her friends. The figures stood in front of one of the Arcadians that had been hiding out here who looked up at them from where he knelt.

  ‘That’s enough,’ Amanda shouted at the trio, who were all turning round to look at the new arrivals anyway, having sensed their Magic.

  The two figures who flanked the man in the middle wore fairly similar shiny black latex clothing, mixed between skin-tight garments and long flowing coats or cloaks. They looked like brother and sister, maybe they were even twins as they appeared very similar with their long black hair and facial expressions that threatened violence. Stood between them, the third man looked very different. Whereas the two in black looked neat and clean and clearly cared about their appearance, this third man wore dirty rags, had dark unkempt hair and a full mess of a beard. He looked to be of Middle Eastern or Indian descent and as he turned to look at Amanda and her friends, he looked, to Amanda’s eyes, somewhat unhinged.

  ‘Let him go,’ Amanda called out to these three Nomads.

  The man in the middle laughed, ‘But of course,’ he said, as Magic flared and the body of the man they had been interrogating ripped apart into messy sludge.

  ‘Jaysus,’ Amanda cursed, and finished fuelling her Aegises with Essentia so she could use her Magic to counter their next effect, but the man in rags reacted quicker and worked a second effect simultaneously to the Body Rip he’d just performed.

  Amanda felt the Magic reach out and knew it to be Astral Magic. She could sense a power grow all about her and infuse the dead bodies of the Coven members at their feet. It all happened so quickly, and within a mere second, the very dead bodies, suddenly, were no longer dead, or maybe that was being generous because they didn’t look alive either, but they certainly moved.

  A blood-caked hand grabbed Amanda’s leg as the corpse of a woman who had lain dead at her feet only moments ago and who she’d seen alive and well only a few hours before, suddenly moved. Amanda recoiled from the zombie, backing off in an involuntary reaction to something that should not be. Gasps and screams and shouts of fear erupted all about her as this pile of bodies all started to move and attack. The Zombies clawed and bit at them as Amanda’s friends reacted in much the same way she did and recoiled in horror.

  Gathering her wits to her once more, she kicked the zombie woman, her superior strength breaking bones and sending the zombie sprawling back, giving Amanda precious moments, as even now the dead woman moved towards her once again.

  Magic surged ahead of her, and where there had been only one man in rags, now suddenly there were three, then four and five and more.

  Through her Magical sight, Amanda knew these weren’t illusions or holograms, the man had used his Magic to clone himself, and they all seemed to be as powerful as he was.

  ‘Feck me,’ she said, and felt very outclassed all of a sudden, but knew she needed to stop this. She had kept her eyes on the man she thought was the original rather than a clone, and called on her Magic, Porting from the mass of zombies to stand directly in front of the man in rags. She noted that the two Nomads that had been flanking him had moved, and she assumed they were attacking her friends behind her. Working her Multitasking mind, she created a second set of senses to keep an eye on her friends and saw her suspicions to be correct. The two Nomads were amidst the Liberties Children Magi and the girls from the Coven of Angels, with Magic flying everywhere, while Celest had been surrounded by the majority of the Zombies and having shifted into her half wolf, half human form, tore into them without mercy.

  ‘Aren’t we the bold one,’ the man said.

  Amanda just smiled, some of her other minds fuelled her defences while another gathered energy to her and conjured a powerful electrical bolt that she flung at the man in rags.

  The lightning played over the surface of the man’s Aegis but did little to hurt him, when suddenly something rushed passed her and raked at her with what she could only assume to be claws. It passed right through her Aegis, ignoring it completely and more followed. Insubstantial and basically invisible things flew about her attacking her and didn’t seem to care that she had any kind of shield up.

  ‘What the bleedin’ hell was that?’ she yelped.

  The man before her laughed, and gathered his Magic to him once more and blasted her with Essentia and attempted to rip her body apart.

  Amanda backed off a step and sank down to one knee as the man’s Magic hammered on her Aegis and looked down at the remains of her ripped t-shirt and jeans and the large gashes that had raked across her body, opening deep cuts on her torso and legs. The pain burned through her mind like fire as she forced herself to ignore it and think lest she die here.

  Her second set of senses took in the scene behind her, with Celest still fighting the Zombies, the two Nomads fighting the Magi with numerous Shades fighting alo
ngside them, and as she watched, one of the Nomad opened a Portal to the Abyss and brought through two huge humanoid beasts with deep maroon skin, horns and huge wings.

  ‘Demons?’ she said incredulously as the two things attacked the Magi and Celest.

  She looked again as the ethereal things flew at her and recognised the energy that they were made of, they were ghosts or Shades as the Magi usually referred to them. It had been years since she’d last encountered them during her training with Gentle Water in Ireland, and she thanked her good fortune that her Mentor had shown her these things.

  Realising what she was up against, she called on her Magic once more to create a barrier against Spirit energy, using her magic to call forth Ectoplasm from the realm of the dead, from Sheol to fuel that barrier.

  Suddenly the attacks from the Shades stopped hitting her. They continued to attack, but the raking claws glanced off her new shield harmlessly.

  ‘Gotcha,’ she said to herself. Feeling more than a little pleased with herself for figuring it out.

  Meanwhile, another effect from another couple of her minds rushed through her body and healed her wounds. As more Essentia attacks struck her defences, weakening them further from at least three of these clones, she gathered as much of her might and all of her multitasking minds and put all of her focus into a single effect.

  It took a second of thought to pull together as her focus turned inwards, leaving her defences to weaken and potentially fall while she summoned the power to try and turn the tide.

  That second passed, her Aegises held fast, just, and she released as powerful a wave of kinetic, Magical and Spiritual energy as she could. It blasted out of her as a rapidly expanding sphere and sent the Nomads and the Shades all about her flying backwards as it hit them like a battering ram.

  Weakened, her defences low, she turned inward and used all but one of her extra minds to refortify her Aegises. She stood up and looked over at the man in rags. He’d been thrown against the back wall, and his clones had suffered similar fates. But the original rose from the attack laughing like a mad man.

  ‘Give it up, this can’t last, you will be stopped eventually,’ Amanda said.

  She stood her ground, not wanting to rush in as she brought her defences back up to strength, and watched him. His laugh subsided, and suddenly she noticed his clones dissipate from view as he cancelled the Magic.

  ‘That may be true, but this is too much fun!’

  Quicker than she could react, the two other Magi were Ported in next to him and a powerful Aegis sprang up around them.

  ‘No,’ Amanda called as she stepped forward, and watched as they disappeared in a flare of Spirit Magic. She had just witnessed these Nomads complete the Magnus Transitus, and although it wasn’t much to look at, not much different to someone Porting away in fact, but the connotations of this could be huge.

  Suddenly an Aegis around a house was no longer enough because you could step out from the Abyss inside any Aegis that didn’t have a Spirit Magic element to it, which was most of them.

  A yelp and the sounds of fighting behind her brought Amanda’s attention back to the present and she spun around to see the death that the Nomads had brought to bear upon her friends.

  Celest, along with John and Tabitha fought against the two Abyssals, but that was all she could see still stood up. Amanda Ported instantly in behind the Demon that had been closest to John and Tabitha, thinking that of the three of her friends, Celest could handle herself the best, and grabbing the thing by the wing, flung him across the room and into the wall. Wasting no time, Amanda called on her Essentia and with a blast of energy stronger than any John or Tabitha could muster, destroyed the creatures already weakened Aegis before enacting the Body Rip effect and pulling it’s body apart.

  Beside her, Celest, free from having to defend against two of these things, took the Abyssal by the neck and slammed it into the floor punching it. Celest’s huge furry fist crushing the things skull. Amanda stood and looked over the scene before her, breathing hard to catch her breath after the fight. To her right, Celest shifted from her huge nine-foot tall battle form of half wolf and half human, shrinking back into her human form once more. She looked up at Amanda.

  ‘You good?’ Amanda asked.

  Celest nodded and gave her a thumbs up as she dropped into a sitting position, clearly drained from the fight.

  A little further away in front of Amanda, John stood looking over the bodies of his dead Coven mates. They’d been ripped apart. Nearby, Tabitha sank to a crouch next to Toni, who Amanda saw was also alive and was holding Melissa, who wasn’t.

  Amanda walked over to the girls, being careful to not step on the other bodies.

  Toni looked up at Amanda as she approached, ‘Can you do anything?’

  Amanda came up beside Melissa’s body and concentrated, looking for her life force, her Anima Mundi. If it still remained in her body, and it should do, then she could revive her. But there was no sign of it, she was empty. Looking closer she could see spiritual wounds, she could see where her Anima Mundi had been ripped from her body. No doubt the work of the Nomads.

  Amanda hung her head, ‘I’m sorry, she’s gone,’ she said and put her hand on Toni’s back. Tabitha pulled Toni in close and the pair hugged.

  Amanda stood up and left them to their grief and looked back at the other dead Arcadians. Using her Magical sight, she could see that the Nomads had done the same to these guys too. Their life force had been torn from their bodies and would doubtless be in Sheol by now.

  She looked up at the Coven leader, ‘I’m sorry John. They’re gone.’

  ‘I know, I could see the Magic they were using, there was no escaping that.’

  Amanda sighed and looked over the remains of the fight, the Demons had almost disintegrated now, and would be gone entirely in a few more seconds, but she wondered if there might be any other clues they could find.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ John asked, he looked a little shell-shocked.

  ‘Go back to the safe house, take them with you,’ she said, indicating the girls, ‘and wait for me. I’ll be there soon.’

  John walked over to the girls and within moments they had Ported out. Amanda looked back at Celest, she’d stood up and seemed to be concentrating on something.

  ‘What’s the craic?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘There’s something about this scent, the smell of these Nomads, I’m sure I recognise it, but I can’t put my finger on it.’

  ‘A clue?’

  ‘Maybe. If it’s from a location, then they have spent a long time there.’

  ‘Find it, I’ve had enough of these guys, this needs to end.’

  ‘I’ll be in touch,’ Celest said.

  Amanda saw the Essentia within Celest surge as she shifted forms and dropped into a large, powerful looking wolf. She barked once and moved from the building, sniffing at a couple of things as she went.

  Feeling the kindling of a little fire of hope deep inside, she looked about her once more before Porting back to the Safehouse to find John at work on something, she wasn’t sure what, and Toni and Tabitha stood next to a table with what she guessed was Melissa’s body on it, as it had been covered in a sheet.

  Amanda walked over to them, a look of empathy on her face.

  ‘Amanda, we want to have her buried in New York. We’ve had it with L.A, I want nothing more to do with it.’ Toni said with tears in her eyes. ‘There’s nothing but death here for me now.’

  ‘I’m sure that can be arranged, don’t worry. Try to get some rest, we’ll get you home.’

  ‘Amanda,’ called John.

  She left the girls and went to stand by John. He looked a little worse for wear but seemed determined to carry on. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘I’m going to bring all the bodies back here, then we can contact Victoria and get things arranged.’

  ‘Of course, I can help.’

  ‘Hey, where’s Celest?’

  ‘Following a lead.’


  ‘You think… you think you can find them?’

  ‘I’m gonna give it a damn good try, these bleedin’ ejits need teaching a lesson.’

  ‘Well, best of luck to you. Shall we?’

  It took them about an hour to bring back all the bodies, hunt through the building to make sure they had them all and bag them up. Most of it was done with a judicious use of Magic, no need to get your hands dirty.

  It was about an hour after that when Amanda felt the Mental Link she had with Celest flare up. She opened her mind and let Celest’s thoughts in.

  ‘Found them,’ messaged Celest.

  - The Antarctic

  Gil ran through the snow, and over the ice, as the winds blew around him, shouts sounded behind him followed by gunshots and screams.

  Might that be another of his Coven mates they had just killed? How had their little trek gone so wrong?

  They knew that something had been going on, but it had taken them some time to discover the location of… whatever it was these guys were doing out in the wastes of Antarctica. He still had no idea what they were doing, but they were being very secretive about it and it had turned out they were very protective of it too.

  They’d seen the Dig site when they’d first Ported in, located before some kind of temple or something carved into the rock, into the side of the mountain. They hadn’t been there more than a few moments before a whole team of guys dressed in military fatigues Ported in with a Magus and they started firing.

  So far, Gil’s attempts to Port out had been foiled, blocked by the Magus that had been with the men, but he tried it again now he was a good distance away. It worked, and he collapsed in exhaustion in front of their Antarctic base.

  Someone needed to know about this.

  Park Life

  Griffith Park, Los Angeles

  Nov 23rd

  Amanda’s magic followed the Mental Link back to Celest, and she appeared out of thin air right next to her.