Black Dawn

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘Do you know this man?’ she asked them both.

  ‘Nah,’ said Mercy.

  Denton crouched down, flicking his coat out the way as he went, and had a better look, ‘I don’t think so, should I?’

  ‘His name is Valerio Rossi,’ she said, looking to see if either of them knew the name. Mercy frowned, thinking, but Denton’s eyes went wide with recognition.

  ‘You mean…?’ Denton said.

  ‘Yes, you’ve just killed the Witch Finder General of the Inquisition,’ said Amanda.

  Mercy whistled, while Denton stood and put his hand on his forehead in shock.

  ‘Shit!’ Denton said. ‘I had no idea. He didn’t go down easy, took a bunch of us to do it and if there’d been any other Magi here and we hadn’t caught them by surprise, things might have gone a little differently.’

  ‘Was it just you three Covens?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘No, the Daughters of Shade were here too, but they left just before you got here,’ Mercy said.

  ‘What does this mean? Why did he come here and how come we all got the tip-off about him and you didn’t?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Amanda, ‘but I don’t like it one bit. You’ve been used somehow, manipulated into being here at just the right moment.’

  Movement out the corner of her eye drew her attention then and she looked up to see Liz haul a man off the floor by the scruff of his neck and slam him against the wall before punching him in the face. Once, twice, three times, and it didn’t look like she’d stop anytime soon, and others were looking at her.

  ‘At a guess, I’d say she doesn’t like Inquisitors,’ Denton said.

  ‘No shit,’ Mercy said.

  Amanda turned back to them, she’d deal with Liz in a moment. ‘Look, I don’t like this, you’ve been manipulated somehow, I don’t know how, but someone with a grudge or someone who wanted something needed this man dead, and they have it. Get out of here, take your dead and wounded with you and don’t look back. I’ll look into it and if I have cause for concern, I’ll be in touch. I suspect it’s a power play over in the Vatican, something internal, but I will need to check things out to be sure.’

  With that, she turned from the two Magi and walked over to Liz. Using her superior strength, Liz held this man up with her left hand while her right fist slowly turned his face into a red mess, one punch at a time. The Inquisitor appeared to be still alive, just.

  Amanda could see tears running down Liz’ cheeks and a look of hatred etched over her face.

  On reaching her apprentice, Amanda caught her wrist as she wound up for another punch

  ‘That’s enough,’ she said.

  Liz whipped her head around and looked at Amanda with fury.

  ‘No, it’s not, I’m gonna punch his bloody head off!’ she said and struggled to pull her arm free of Amanda’s grasp. ‘Let go.’

  ‘Liz, you’ve made your point, you’ve just about killed this guy.’

  ‘Good, that’s the least he deserves.’

  ‘Maybe, but you don’t want to be the one to make that choice.’

  ‘Bull, you’ve killed people, you look alright to me,’ Liz scowled.

  ‘Every day I wish I could have made a different choice, every day I wish I didn’t have to kill anybody,’ Amanda said.

  ‘I’m a Magus Amanda, I think it’s fairly inevitable that I will end up killing someone, some day.’

  ‘That’s probably true, but don’t do it like this. Do it in self-defense or in the defence of others, not out of revenge if you can help it. You might be fine, that’s true, but you have no way of knowing that.

  Liz stared at her weighing up the options, before standing up straight and dropping the Crusader to the floor. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, deflated.

  Amanda pulled her in for a hug. ‘It’s fine. Don’t worry, let’s get out of here,’ she said and Ported them both to the street outside close to her Fireblade.

  - Tonopah, Arizona

  Dust worked his Magic and the barbed wire fence just before him split apart, allowing him to walk through unobstructed. He walked over the road with no regard for the car that nearly hit him as he focused on his destination and walked into the scrub brushes that barely reached his waist.

  Up ahead, various buildings stood tall over the desert, spread out before him. Some were square and blocky, others were domed, and they throbbed with a power that he could see with his magical sight. He could see the intense radiation they contained and the electrical power they created in those buildings. But he didn’t care about that. All he cared about was the confluence of lay lines that crossed here, on the site of this Nuclear Power Plant, and the powerful pooling of Essentia he could see up ahead.

  This would be where he would make his ritual, this is where he would summon the Demon Horlack back from the Abyss.

  He could also sense the hundreds of lifeforms within the buildings up ahead, he smiled, they would make a suitable sacrifice to his Archon master.

  New Management

  Harlem, New York

  Nov 28th

  The Alleyway had seen all kinds of things over the years, from the gross to the ugly, and from the heart-warming to the wondrous. It’s location opposite the Pit Nightclub meant that the revellers would cross the street and use the space sometimes as a toilet, other times as a place to beat someone up out of sight of the road. There had even been a couple of deaths down here. Still, others used it as a place to get friendly with someone and either have a quick kiss and fumble, or other times for a full on sex session.

  But most of these were common occurrences and happened around the city every day outside most nightclubs. But the Pit could also boast to have once been the main hide out for a Coven of Magi known as The Harbingers of Darkness, led by a charismatic and dangerous man known only as Lucian. He’d ruled the city and its surrounding boroughs with an iron fist through his Jamaican Posse Gangs, and had become known as The King of New York.

  So the alleyway had seen its fair share of Magic and Magic users over the years as they passed through the area, visiting the club and Lucian.

  But for the past six months, no Magi had appeared in the alleyway and the Nightclub had been closed after the deaths of Lucian and his Coven. The club had been declared off limits and the Arcanum, under orders from the Magi Council, had tied the property up in various legal issues so that it might remain empty for a while.

  Other than the club, there was little down this side street of interest to most people, most of the shops were disused, the tenements down here were not what you might call desirable, and there were a few too many homeless people sleeping rough.

  When the night-time revellers had moved on elsewhere, the men and woman who lived on the streets moved in.

  Tonight, though, Magic flared in the alleyway once more and with a whip crack of displaced air, four people appeared in the alley out of thin air, along with a small cloud of sand that had travelled with them and fell to the floor as the Magical energy faded away.

  Two women and two men stood in the darkness and looked around them, weighing up the area they found themselves in.

  One of the women walked forward. She had long straight dyed green hair that had been pulled back from her face and fell down her back. She had a number of tattoos on her light coffee coloured skin, including a pair on the outside corners of each eye that looked like the flourishes on the Eye of Horus symbol, and two huge tattoos of stylised Tribal designs in the shape of snakes that ran from the backs of her hands, up her arms, down her back and the sides of her legs to her feet. She wore a denim mini skirt and a couple of layers of punk rock tops, the topmost one being a vest with a few holes in it. She also wore ripped fishnet tights and doc martin style boots that looked like they’d seen better days. She finished off her look with piercings on her bottom lip, eyebrow, a nose stud and several earrings.

  She paused at the end of the alleyway and looked over the road at the unlit Nightclub sign and the set of stairs that led to the
basement of the building above, where the first layer of the subterranean Nightclub began. Her Coven mates followed the green haired woman and stood behind her.

  ‘That’s it?’ said the other girl, stood to her right. This woman also had long straight hair, but hers was black in colour with a harsh fringe just above her eyes. She wore a clean and pressed business suit of a jacket and trousers over a white blouse which she finished off with a pair of stiletto heels. Her clothing mixed with her darker Middle Eastern skin couldn’t look much different to the first girl.

  ‘Yes Ninette, that’s the place,’ said the green haired girl.

  ‘Looks like a dive to me.’

  ‘Then you’d better get used to it because that’s going to be home for a while.’

  ‘I know, doesn’t mean I have to like it.’

  ‘Looks like a great fixer-upper to me,’ said one of the men, he had short cropped dark hair, chiselled features with a bit of fashionable stubble on his jaw. He wore simple practical clothing of jeans and tee-shirt with well-worn sneakers and now started to pull on a sweater to help against the chill night air. ‘What about you Elba? What do you think?’

  ‘I think if you girls are finished chatting and wasting time, we should get over there and check the place out,’ said Elba, a huge man with powerfully muscled arms and a barrel of a chest. He wore a hoody and tracksuit bottoms with trainers and frowned at the building opposite.

  ‘Agreed, let’s get in there,’ said the green haired girl.

  Moments later, they appeared inside, on the top level of the club, a short distance from the balcony that looked down through the various levels to the dancefloor a few floors below.

  Everything was dark in here, with no lights and no windows, but all the Magi in this group had Magically enhanced vision so they could see just fine. Around them, the place had clearly been visited by some of the local delinquents, as crude graffiti had been sprayed on the walls and the whole place had seen better days.

  The green haired girl started to walk towards the balcony, curious to look down into the rest of the club.

  ‘Careful Eudoxia,’ said the smaller man, we have no idea how safe that floor is.

  Eudoxia smiled from behind her green hair and continued on to the Balcony, ‘You worry too much Tobias, she said as she peered over the railing.

  Whoever had been in here had clearly had a great time throwing tables and chairs and other stuff over the edge to the dance floor below, judging by the shattered furniture down there.

  She turned back to Tobias, ‘get some power on and get some of these lights on, I’m going to check out the VIP area.’

  ‘I’ll go with you,’ said Ninette, and the two girls Ported further into the club.

  Eudoxia soon found the VIP area and within it, the hidden doorway that led down into the living quarters of Lucian and his Coven, which had been blocked up and sealed off in such a way as to be invisible to Mortal eyes, but not to Magical ones.

  ‘Well, the council didn’t want anyone coming down here by accident,’ Eudoxia said. Ninette stood a little way off eyeing up the main VIP area with a critical eye. Eudoxia smiled, she looked to be warming to the idea of owning a club. The VIP area could be Ninette’s domain, she’d love it, thought Eudoxia. ‘See anything you like?’ she asked.

  Ninette looked up, ‘There’s potential there, I could do something with this I think,’ she said.

  ‘Good, I’ll be back shortly, just got to check something out,’ she said and Ported away, one floor down and into the first level of Lucian's private quarters.

  She wandered the corridors and checked out the rooms on each floor before heading to the next one down. Having being sealed off, these levels had fared much better than the Club above, but the signs of the fight that had taken place here were still present, scattered through the rooms.

  She found blood stains and the remains of bodies, decomposing and creating a smell that made her feel like throwing up.

  She didn’t find anyone that she thought might be Lucian, but she’d have a better hunt later. For now, they needed to set about cleaning this place up. They had a lot to do.

  - Amarillo, Texas.

  ‘Hay, what ya’ll think to this Waylon?’ Reagan said, holding up a white mini dress in front of her body.

  ‘That’s great darlin’,’ he said from where he sat in the rocking chair wearing only his underpants and socks with his guitar in his lap.

  ‘You ain’t even looked you redneck!’ she said, a small amount of outrage in her voice.

  ‘Darlin’, when you as god damn gorgeous as you, I don’t need to look. You will be the best-looking girl at that there Ball tonight.’

  Reagan nodded, ‘Ya darn right.’ she said as she held a different dress up in front of herself and eyed it in the mirror.

  ‘You lookin’ forward to it then sugar?’

  ‘You bet ya ass I am. I wanna see this girl that’s come over here and taken over New York. Might give her a piece of my mind too.’

  ‘That’s my girl,’ Waylon said, ‘now get that sweet ass over here, will ya, let's have some fun.’

  Cold News

  Paris, France.

  Nov 29th

  Amanda opened the door and saw the familiar face of the current leader of the Legacy Coven, Royston Kendrick stood on her doorstep. Royston looked in his forties with a slight belly on him and not much hair on his head. He wore a long coat over his tan trousers and smiled warmly at Amanda.

  ‘Royston, it’s lovely to see you,’ she said and welcomed him with a hug.

  ‘And you Amanda, you look really well.’

  ‘Thank you, I’m grand, come in, come in. Let’s get you out of the cold hey?’

  Royston came in and removed his coat to reveal another of his Hawaiian shirts that he often wore as more casual clothing.

  ‘Another classic shirt I see?’ Amanda commented.

  ‘You like it?’

  Amanda eyed him with a slight grin, ‘Very dapper,’ she said and invited him into the living room. ‘What can I do for you?’ she asked. He’d contacted her via a Mental Link a short time ago asking to come and meet her today. He’d not sounded desperate, but it must clearly be something that was slightly time sensitive.

  ‘Are the others here?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah sure, you want me to get them?

  ‘If you wouldn’t mind,’ he said.

  It took a minute or so, but before long Amanda sat in the living room on the sofa with Maria, Liz, Gentle Water, Raven, Shaun and Vanessa, while Royston sat opposite them all in a chair.

  ‘Thanks for coming,’ Royston said, addressing the group. Something has come to our attention and we need for it to be checked out. We’re stretched a bit thin in Paris at the moment, so I thought I’d ask for you to take this on Amanda if that’s ok?’

  Amanda nodded where she sat next to Maria, holding her hand. ‘Sure, how can we help?’

  ‘We’ve had a report come in from one of our affiliated Covens that has a base in the Antarctic, they detected some strange activity near them so they started to monitor it and the other day they chose to finally check it out. They Ported in and saw a huge camp, a dig of some sort they think outside the front of some kind of temple or something built into the side of a mountain. They detected Magical workings all about the site and were about to look into it further when a team of men, including a Magus, appeared all around them and started to attack. Two of the Magi escaped and made their separate ways back to their base on their own having been forced apart by the attack. The other two that went have not been heard from again. We think they’re dead. Whatever it is they discovered out there, the team have Magical support and seem keen to protect it. We need to know what’s going on and why. So I’m passing this one on to you Amanda. You can deal with it however you like, but I need you to follow it up for me please.’

  ‘Of course, I’d be happy too.’

  ‘Today, if possible,’ Royston said.

  ‘Aaah, well, that might b
e an issue,’ Amanda said, suddenly not so sure.

  ‘I know you have your Ball tonight, is there anyone you can send?’

  ‘I’ll go,’ Gentle Water said.

  ‘Aah now, don’t be an ejit, you can’t miss the Ball,’ Amanda said.

  ‘I have been to plenty of Ball’s Amanda, you do not need me there. You will be fine without me.’

  ‘To be sure, that’s not the point, though, this is to celebrate the liberation of New York and you were a key part of that, I can’t send you away while we all have a drink and relax.’

  ‘You are not sending me away. I am choosing to do this for you.’

  ‘Are ye sure?’

  ‘Of course. Please, go enjoy yourself. I will be fine.’

  Amanda frowned, not feeling very happy about her Mentor not being at her celebration, but she also knew him well enough that when he made his mind it, it usually became very difficult to change it. It probably wasn’t worth arguing over it, and Gentle Water was just trying to help her and let her attend her own celebration. That said, she also wanted to make sure that this mission from the Legacy would be done properly and thoroughly, and there was no one better than Gentle Water for her to send who she trusted implicitly.

  ‘Okay then.’ She said and turned back to Royston, ‘There you are, Gentle Water will go.’ She said. She felt a little unhappy about this. Even though her mentor had said he didn’t mind, Amanda didn’t feel right letting Gentle Water head off on a mission while she went and enjoyed herself. But the choice was made and she didn’t want to be seen as being difficult.

  ‘Excellent. Thank you, Gentle Water. Let me send you the details of where you need to go,’ he said, and there was a brief flicker of Magic between them.

  ‘Thank you, Royston, it is a pleasure to serve. I will be back in touch the moment I have anything.’ Gentle Water said.