Motor City Mage

by Cindy Spencer Pape

  Des listened as Vin made the call from the vehicle, parked in an alley behind the safe house and cloaked with a spell.

  “I’ve got your problem mage,” he growled into the phone, his voice a dead match to Mandrake’s. “You can come pick him up at the house.”

  “And your traitor?” Brewer asked, loudly enough for Des to hear.

  “Dead.” Vin’s voice oozed satisfaction. “Meet me at the house in fifteen minutes if you want your man alive.”

  “Five,” Brewer barked. Des had thought he’d do that, try to move up the time to get the advantage. That’s why they already had everyone in place.

  “Fine.” Vin snapped his phone shut and grinned. “He bought it. Let’s get you ready to go.”

  They got out of the SUV, and once again, Des allowed himself to be tied up, this time with genuine knots. Ric or Wallis would be able to blink the bonds away when they were no longer needed. The bruising and blood on his face were an illusion, carefully crafted by his mother before they’d left the house. He had to admit, his mom did have a hell of a fine touch with an illusion spell. Seeing himself reflected in the window of the car, he almost felt the swollen eye and bloody lip.

  He held still until Vin was finished with hands, feet and even a gag, though that was looser than the others. Then Vin morphed into Malen’s demonic appearance, hoisted Des over his shoulder and blinked them out of the alley and into the living room of the abandoned house.

  A camping lamp sat on an overturned plastic milk crate and after setting Des down in a corner, Vin lit the lamp, tucking a high-powered flashlight into his belt. There was no point in wasting magic on simple things like lighting.

  Des knew Pete and his father waited on the stairway. Ric and Wallis lurked just around the corner into the next room watching the surveillance monitor. All four were well-armed and cloaked in spells. Even if Brewer was suspicious and didn’t come alone, they should have the advantage.

  While they waited, he called up the image of Lana’s face. She’d come to mean so much to him in such a short time. He wanted this whole mess over and done with now so they could get on with sorting out their future.

  “He’s coming up the walk,” Wallis called from the former dining room. He’d placed cameras on the outside of the house as well. “One man with him.”

  Great. Brewer wasn’t working alone. Des was disappointed, but not terribly surprised. He lay against the wall, trying to look semi-conscious as the door opened and two men stepped in, guns drawn. Brewer, a fit man of about forty-five with streaks of gray in his mud-brown hair, carried an old-fashioned revolver, while his accomplice held a silenced 9 mm.

  Nielsen. Des swore under his breath. He’d trusted the man who’d been his on-and-off-again partner. But it made sense. Craig Nielsen was Jim Brewer’s nephew-in-law.

  “Here’s your man,” Vin-Malen rumbled. “I hope you can make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

  “Oh?” Brewer lifted one eyebrow. “Seems to me the major leak was on your side. I’m going to have a lot of paperwork to deal with over why this bastard turns up dead. I want a bigger cut. Thirty percent.”

  Hooyah! We’ve got him.

  “Not going to happen, human.” Vin shook his head and picked at his talons. “In fact, I’m thinking I should lower your cut to ten. I’ve had to completely rebuild my wards and lost the morale of half my workforce over the trouble this bastard caused in my castle.”

  “You’ll give me thirty, or you’re done in Detroit,” Brewer said with ice dripping from every word. “Without me running interference with the human police, you wouldn’t have a single human dealer. You need the League far more than I need you. It just so happens I’ve gotten a copy of your formula. We don’t even need demons to make the drug anymore. Let’s make it forty, and I won’t shoot you.”

  “Thirty.” Vin sighed. “You’re a pain in the ass, Brewer.”

  “I knew you were a reasonable man.” Brewer nodded. “Nielsen, take care of the garbage, will you?”

  A bunch of things happened at once.

  “Now.” Even as Vin yelled for help, Nielsen brought up his gun and aimed it right between Des’s eyes.

  Not good. A vest wasn’t going to help him with a headshot.

  As the shot rang out, Vin dove between them, his own weapon out and firing at Nielsen. Brewer brought his weapon up, but a shot rang out from the stairs and the Wyndewin dropped. Nielsen got off one more shot, before he, too, fell.

  Vin collapsed onto Des.

  “Armor. Piercing. Rounds.” He managed to gasp out the words before he passed out in Des’s lap.

  A few seconds later, Wallis and Ric dashed into the room and Des’s bonds vanished. Ted and Pete thundered down the stairs. Des laid Vin out on the floor and stripped off his vest. He cast a light spell that made the room glow with illumination so he could see the wounds.

  It was bad. One bullet was definitely in the left side of his chest cavity. Since Vin’s heart still beat, it wasn’t lodged there, but had probably punctured the lung. The other was lower, and the blackness of the blood suggested the liver. Both shots might well be fatal in normal circumstances.

  “I can blink out the bullets,” Ric said, kneeling on the other side of the demon. “Each of us can do some healing. Hopefully together it will be enough.”

  “Ric, bullets. Dad, you and Pete work on the gut wound. Fast. Wallis, lend me some power.”

  Together the five of them worked feverishly to save the demon.

  In the end, it was close. Vin would live, but he was unconscious and likely to remain that way for a while. He’d lost a hell of a lot of blood and his heart had stopped twice, though both times they’d gotten it going again. There was no way he’d be teleporting anyone anywhere tonight.

  “We’ve got to get him to the house,” Wallis said. “And take down the surveillance equipment before we make an anonymous tip to the cops.”

  “And clean up his blood from in here, so they don’t do a DNA check,” Ric added.

  “We can do clean-up while you get the equipment.” Pete stood and offered a hand to Ted. “Des, you monitor the patient.”

  “Here.” Ric blinked in a space blanket. “Let’s get him on this so we can move him. I vote for taking him out to the truck first. You and I can do it.”

  Des nodded. He was a little weak from all the magic he’d used, but so was everyone else. Between them, he and the bard managed to carry Vin out to the SUV. It was going to be crowded with the Gravaki lying across the wide backseat, but they’d have to cope.

  Wallis and the two older Wyndewin weren’t far behind, carrying the most sensitive of the electronics. The things that weren’t critical were blinked, but elven teleportation didn’t work on high tech or living things. Basically, any components Wallis blinked, including the guns that had shot Brewer and Nielsen, would never work again. The recordings for the League that would prove Des’s innocence had to be carried back by hand.

  While they were en route to Aidan’s, Ric made a call to the others, letting them know they’d be delayed. Apparently there had been no activity at the mine entrance, so they agreed to wait for the raid. Then, disguising his voice, he called in an anonymous tip about a drug deal at a certain abandoned house. The police would find a small spill of the designer drug beside Brewer’s body.

  Once back at the house, Ted took their evidence and went off to report to the regents.

  Des and Wallis carried Vin up to a bed to be taken care of by Mairead and several other staff members. They laid the demon out on a plastic-covered bed and Vin’s eyes popped open. “Seal…gate.”

  “If we do that, you’ll be stuck here.” The plan had been hurriedly revised to simply ward and guard the subterranean portal.

  “Dead at the castle, anyway.” He spoke more clearly after Aidan’s housekeeper Bronwyn poured some healing energy into him. “Just blow it. I’ll do okay here for a while. Or Faerie.”

  Faerie was a good solution, Des thought. He nodded. “Okay. We�
�ll blow it. Thank you.” He clenched Vin’s hand before he left.

  As he walked down the hall, back to the car, he felt a whisper of a hand brush against his hip. “Hey, Uncle Des.” Instantly he felt better and knew Dina had restored some of the energy he’d lost in healing Vin.

  “Hey, kiddo.” He leaned down to kiss the silky hair on top of her head. “None of that now. You’re supposed to be in bed.”

  “I’m going. Go get Mommy and Daddy, okay? I don’t like it when they’re gone.”

  “I’ll bring them back. Promise.”

  He damned well would, too.

  * * *

  Lana waited as anxiously as the others while Toby Bootle picked the lock on the gate of the fence surrounding the small building that housed the entrance to the mine.

  Déjà vu all over again. This was the second time she’d be going down that god-awful elevator in wolf form. This time she planned to come back up, though.

  Elise and her mother had spelled the cars until even though she knew they were there, Lana could barely see them. There was also a haze over their troop of armed soldiers. No one would see them until they opened fire, which hopefully wouldn’t be until they were well below the ground.

  The third vehicle, with Des, his dad, Wallis and Ric showed up, and Lana gave a sigh of relief. She’d known he was okay, but now that she could see him, it was better.

  Toby got the gate open and they all moved in, closing it behind them. Ted and Julian waited just inside the gate to guard the rear flank, and also keep an eye on their wives in the waiting cars. One of Aidan’s groundskeepers was dispatched to take the wheel of the SUV after Lana and Elise had both refused.

  The plan was simple. Subdue any guards in the building. Based on what they could see through the windows, there were two. Then they’d get down the elevator as quickly as possible. Once at the bottom, the plan was to neutralize as many of Malen’s cohorts as possible and hopefully send the slaves through the portal in large enough number to assure they could get back to their home worlds. Then, once the slaves were safe, Malen and his henchmen would be tossed through the portal and the doorway closed. So what could go wrong?

  Only about a million different variables.

  Simple tear gas worked on the two Gravaki guarding the building. With their senses disoriented, they couldn’t teleport and could be rendered unconscious with nothing more than ether. Vin had provided enough useful information to make it a fair fight. The goal was to kill as few as possible, but Lana doubted it would go down that way. Once bullets started flying, the good guys would damn sure shoot back.

  The elevator had been designed for freight, so it only took two trips. Des, Greg, Aidan and most of the more experienced fighters went in the first carload, while Lana was assigned to the second. It was a relief to see the others in one piece, waiting for them at the bottom of the shaft.

  Lana and Des took the lead, since they’d been down here before. Through what felt like miles of tunnel, they only encountered one Gravaki guard. Greg and George took him to the ground and Aidan held the ether-soaked cloth over his face. One of the elves found a large wheeled hopper, and the guard was tossed in that, along with his counterparts from upstairs.

  At the final turn toward the area Malen had been using as his office, Lana stopped and sniffed. Based on the distant sounds, the opposite direction was clearly where the mining was going on—and the lab that turned the salt into drugs. The group split into the pre-arranged teams. The wolves would go after the mining crew, while the elves and humans took on the “offices” and secured the portal. Since the lab was in yet another section of the mine, with only two or three workers, according to Vin, that would come last.

  Lana’s eyes trailed after Des’s back before she turned and followed her cousin, who was letting his nose guide him along the passageway.

  Two teams of ten mine slaves, each working with two overseers. According to Vin, that was Malen’s standard procedure at any given time. There would also be another twenty slaves asleep in their rough quarters, with another two guards watching them. With luck, once freed, the slaves would be able to help their rescuers.

  On silent paws, the wolves padded down the hall, the ringing of picks on stone drawing ever closer. The mine was a square grid, with the central pillars the same size as the open spaces, so they were able to triangulate their destination with relative ease.

  Greg’s posture stiffened and he pointed with his nose, indicating the position of the enemy.

  Lana smelled it too. There.

  The other wolves nodded, closing in on the area and preparing to spring. There were six lupines in the team, Lana, Greg, George, Derek and Ben and Kurt, the brothers who managed the New Moon. Greg, Lana and Ben split off from the others, each trio intent on taking down one of the overseers. Greg’s group went down one more pillar, and when they were in position, Greg let out a small yip.

  All six wolves sprang at once and both overseers fell under the weight of three full-grown wolves each. Lana received one long claw rake across her shoulder, but before Ben could shift and use the ether he’d carried in a bag around his neck, one of the slaves turned and spiked the Gravaki through the throat with his pick. On the other side of the pillar, Kurt managed to drug the other one before any of the slaves could act.

  Greg shifted and looked at the assembled miners, a ragged mix of demon and human. “Are you with us?”

  All of them nodded.

  Greg fumbled through the Gravaki’s pockets for the keys to the miner’s shackles, the metal anklets that chained them all together. He handed it to a green Gravaki, who quickly unlocked himself and his fellows.

  Lana ducked behind a pillar, shifted into human form and back to wolf, healing her shoulder. In turns, a couple of the other wolves did the same.

  “Now, do you know where the other team of workers is?” Wherever they were, it was too far away for even a lupine to hear.

  The Gravaki nodded. “I can take you there.”

  “And the lab?” Greg stared down the other male, in a gesture of dominance that crossed all species.

  The Gravaki bowed his head maybe an inch, indicating that, at least for the moment, he’d follow the wolves’ lead. “It’s not far from there.” He grinned, showing his many pointy teeth. “It will burn nicely.”

  “Fine. The other team first and then the lab.” Greg pointed to the two guards, one dead, one unconscious. “Someone drag those two along after us, so we can clean up when we’re done.”

  One big demon, who looked like a moving boulder, grabbed one guard under each arm and grunted. Most of them kept their picks as they lined up to follow Greg and their leader.

  Greg shifted back to wolf form and they went.

  * * *

  Des took point on the way to Malen’s headquarters. They followed a side corridor that paralleled the main, well-trodden one, and periodically one or two of them ducked out and disabled a passing demon. They also picked up a few of the human dealers, who would be turned over to the city police when this was all over. The injuries among his team were minimal and easily healed by Elise, while the hopper of unconscious bodies began to fill up quickly.

  As they got closer to the central headquarters, the level of security tightened with more guards, as well as cameras and other high-tech devices. Ric and Wallis eliminated those by the simple expedient of blinking them back to Aidan’s house.

  Jase, the only human in their group with no magic, had military training, and with the bells removed from his dreadlocks, he moved like a shadow through the white-on-white tunnels. He proved to be accurate as hell with a weighted sap, returning more than one unconscious drug dealer and even a couple of sleeping demons to the cart.

  This is too easy. Des didn’t trust easy. Something was about to go wrong.

  They turned the last corner before reaching the central business area and all hell broke loose.

  Eight or more Gravaki opened up on them with automatic weapons. Wallis fell, and a couple other
s, Des couldn’t see who, though he did note it was his sister who pulled Wallis back under cover. Good. Des shot back with a bolt of disruptive energy while Aidan blinked away weapons and the others opened fire. The Gravaki, who now found themselves without guns, attacked with magic, and several of Aidan’s men fell under some kind of concussion wave. A couple closed in and started fighting hand-to-hand, and Des was just in time to bring up his gun and put a bullet in the one trying to rip out his throat.

  Then Gravaki reinforcements arrived, and things got really messy.

  Des knew they were going to lose. He was bleeding from one bullet graze and several claw wounds, and he was one of maybe four good guys still mostly functional. His vision had started to blur but he thought there were at least ten demons left. Fuck. He sent a pain spell at the one who seemed to be in charge, one of Malen’s lieutenants, and the demon doubled over, but didn’t fall.

  Until a wolf landed on his back and ripped out his throat.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two wolves and a couple green Gravakis slip past, into Malen’s inner sanctum. One of the wolves had Lana’s distinctive cinnamon coat.

  The remaining wolves attacked and the freed demons joined in the fray with picks. Soon enough all the Gravaki lay still. Des looked around and saw Aidan and Ric were wounded, but upright and helping Elise, who was untouched, heal their injured companions.

  Des took off running after Lana, Jase by his side. The other wolves ran ahead, beating them into Malen’s inner sanctum.

  He was just in time to see Lana, in tandem with Greg, launch herself at Malen. The two wolves felled the big Gravaki, but he was still fighting with claws and teeth. Three guards lay dead on the floor, and the freed demons—one of which looked a lot like Thing from the comics—came to their aid. The big one quite simply crushed Malen’s throat with a foot.

  Lana stepped off the demon and spat out blood.

  “I don’t suppose I blame you for killing them,” Des admitted to the freed slaves. “Now we need the workers from the lab.”

  Greg shifted, totally unconcerned about his nudity. “We already sent George and Kurt after them, with some of the demons. They should be here any minute.”