Rage

by Doug Burbey

  Kayter choked, that rifle had cost over twenty thousand. It had been enchanted with magically telescopic sights that could sight through stone, could not be used by anyone else outside his bloodline, self-cleaning and had included five hundred enchanted bullets that he claimed would go around corners, once locked on, and had a maximum distance of two miles. Dad had only used it twice but said both times took out an overlord demon from over a mile as they exited the gate.

  "I would hope not."

  Miriam smiled. "I charge what my goods are worth, believe it."

  Kayter nodded. She still had that rifle but she wasn't the shot her dad had been. Her skill set and her strengths lay in melee combat. Her genetics made her stronger and tougher than most humans, though pure demons from the higher rings could eat her alive.

  "I'll be back in two weeks." With that, she turned and walked out. She had places to be and needed to stop at the bank.

  Chapter 12 - Shane is an Ass

  The temptation to throw the book across the room made the migraine pounding in his skull worse. And he didn't know if giving in would help, with either the migraine or the frustration.

  "Where is Declan when I fucking need him?" Shane shoved his body up and stalked out of his study/ritual room.

  He stood at the window, looking at his non-existent view, a nondescript apartment in Arlington. The only things outside the window were other brownstone buildings with their windows staring blankly back at him. It didn't matter. He didn't see the buildings or the world around him for that matter. His mind was locked on the past when Declan Kenner had been his best friend.

  "Why the hell couldn't you embrace this new opportunity? We could have everything and you're too fucking hidebound to accept it."

  The throbbing at his temples, the book laying on the table laughing at him, and the need for blood all mixed together, pushing his limits.

  Center. You can't blow up another apartment.

  Shane inhaled deep and slow through his nose and held it until the pounding of the vessels threatened to break through his skull. Then he released it through his mouth, letting the pressure drop. He repeated this until the inhale and exhale mattered more than anything else. Only then did he open his eyes and look at the book.

  The portals are the answer. There has to be a way to create what I want. What I need.

  Declan popped back into his mind - the raw power, the test scores - everything he refused to use. He'd only accessed the barest of his abilities to keep the rage in check and then locked out everything else.

  Shane's glance went back to the book, looking for something he'd read, a word that maybe, that meant something else. Not power but maybe… potential?

  He started towards the book with a gleam in his eye when the alarm on his phone went off. Pulling it out he glanced at it and cussed.

  Changing his direction, he grabbed a light jacket and headed out the door instead, setting the wards with a flick of his finger against the door jamb. A tiny needle sat there, pulling out the drop of blood needed to be able to set the wards, something so automatic he didn't even think about it.

  He took the stairs two at a time. The elevator had never worked and he doubted it would be fixed before he had moved on from this plane.

  Why did I agree to this meeting? Oh yeah… stupid idiots that I can get to do stuff for me.

  They'd agreed to meet at a park a few miles from his house. He grabbed his bicycle leaning against the entrance to the apartment and gave a brief laugh at the drops of blood surrounding it.

  Don't fuck with stuff that isn't yours. You never know who has enchanted it.

  The amusement of some gangbanger growing back the skin on his hand kept him distracted during the ride to the park. A bike tended to be all but invisible. A helmet to keep the cops away, jeans and a t-shirt, and no one ever noticed him. It worked almost as well as an invisibility spell, not that he'd really got that working at all yet. The problem with invisibility is people ran into you because you subconsciously expected them to move to give you room to get by. It had proven very frustrating, not to mention that no matter whatever else it created, a weird distortion hovered where the spell existed.

  Shane left his bike at the handy bike rack and tested the protections but they were fine. He didn't need to re-power them, even if he almost glowed with power from the Demon and Fae blood. That would keep him for months if he used the blood wisely.

  And even with all that power, I still need these idiots. Were we that bad in basic? What I wouldn't give for Drill Instructor Strauss right now.

  He shook his head, trying to chase away memories of a different time, a different person. That person had small dreams, thought he could be happy. That person had been limited in what he could see. He wasn't that person anymore.

  Why can't I get the past off my mind today?

  Shane kept turning that question over and over in his mind as he headed into a forested area of the park. Magic might be commercially acceptable but people got uncomfortable if they found out you practiced. Magic was dark, bloody, and required a certain turn of mind to be good at it.

  And dammit, if Declan had gotten off his high horse he could have been here with me to create this new world.

  Again with the thoughts from the past! Why was he thinking so much about it? No matter how fast he shied from that thought though, he knew he'd have to explore this more fully later.

  And here I thought I'd already removed all those pesky emotions like guilt or morals.

  As he walked across the field a bright orange ball came tumbling towards him.

  "Hey, Mister. Can you kick it back to us?" a child yelled. He'd not spent enough time around kids to know the age and didn't care.

  "Sure." He gave it a kick back towards them, smiling as they grabbed it and went back to their game. He watched for a minute, their joy and unconcern radiating as parents watched them.

  Too bad they are all dead. They just don't know it yet. Stupid lemmings. You can't stop what is coming. All you can do is run but you don't have any place to run to. I will. No matter what.

  Shane shook his head, trying to shake the mood off. Turning, he moved with greater purpose towards the copse of trees, wanting to get the meeting over. The book called to him and something in the back of his mind kept pressuring him with pieces.

  He stopped at the edge of the clearing and seriously considered beating his head on the nearby tree.

  Why does everyone think because you use magic you have to look like a freaking reject from Lord of the Rings? Robes are stupid.

  In the clearing four young men, and it almost always seemed to be men, were dressed in robes having finished the 'ritual' circle to open a portal. While he didn't need a circle anymore, most of the young ones needed that pattern. They didn't understand how to channel their power or their blood without the physical representation.

  Fucking morons

  He stepped up the pace and got there before they could start casting.

  "So just a question. Are you trying to start the next invasion? Or do you have a reason to commit suicide? I mean, I can just kill you. It would probably be a lot less painful." He kept his voice dry and repressed his desire to just kill them and be done with it.

  One of them puffed up at him, crossing his arms over his chest. "What do you mean? We're doing it right. No demon would dare come over with all of us here."

  Shane backhanded him hard, in a smooth motion he didn't even think about. "Next idiotic comment?"

  The kid he'd backhanded, none of them even looked old enough to drink, looked up at him. Blood running from the nose he'd hopefully broken.

  "What was that for?" The voice sounded thick as he held his robe to his nose.

  "A… you're a moron. B… demons don't give a fuck about how many mages might be on the other side. C…"

  One of the other mages, a redhead this time.

  "Demons can't come in when we are here. We'd be able to control them and they'd do what we say." His tone and atti
tude were of overconfidence and belief in his immortality.

  Shane turned cold eyes on him. "Really? Should we test that?"

  A huge smirk as the child responded. "Of course. We'll open the portal now."

  For a minute, a full sixty seconds that ticked by in his brain, he considered letting them. Almost walked away and let them open the portal. The laughing child who had kicked the ball stopped him. The child might be walking dead but there was no reason to make him real dead any sooner.

  "Sure, tell you what. I'll stand over here and watch you control the demon. But you might want to set a size limit to your portal. Right now it's set to be unlimited."

  The three standing went pale and scrambled to set a size limit, while Shane stepped back and readied a few actions and wondered if any of the four would survive.

  Don't really care. Why did I need them again? Oh, frag… yeah. They have the contacts to the morons on the other side.

  "So, who's the primary contact?" He asked in a casual voice.

  "Me?" said one that was covered in the robes but the voice was higher, feminine. She wasn't part of the circle and if he had to judge by her body language she didn't care too much about what they were doing.

  A female? Interesting. The last female mage he'd worked with had been Janice. Wicked smart and vicious. This one might be worth keeping alive. Well, that and the fact she was the contact.

  "Go for it, let's see how your control goes." He stepped back, flicking a drop of his blood onto the runes, setting up his ability to instantly collapse the portal. But only when the point had been made. They were still making it too large.

  Did they forget it is in meters not feet? Damn, I should have brought my tasers. And my harvester. Might have been able to glut myself on demon blood.

  He heaved a sigh and braced himself. This would be a deadly lesson for three of them. The girl he needed alive for the contact.

  They began to chant, another stupid construct he didn't understand why they taught it, but whatever. Made it easier for him to interrupt them and the energy they were channeling. The girl heaved a sigh and dropped to sit against a tree. He felt her gaze turn to him for the first time and it locked there, but he couldn't focus on that right now.

  The portal opened and from the widening of their eyes, and paling of faces, he figured they really had thought it would be three feet across not three meters.

  Morons.

  He stood the picture of casual indifference but every muscle in his body tensed ready to go. If he didn't need their power, every demon would be dead, he had no love for them.

  A decent sized ring two moved through the portal, not so large it had to bend, but large enough it took up the entire portal. This demon didn't have a face exactly, or at least nothing that Shane could recognize facial expressions on. Humanoid with Freddy Kruger like claws, and tentacles that covered where a mouth probably existed.

  One of the idiots stepped forward, raising his hand in what Shane figured he thought was an imperious gesture. "Demon, we have summoned you here to do our bidding. We have a small task for you."

  What? What the hell did they think a demon was going to do for them? Why in the world are these idiots in possession of any amount of magical power?

  The demon pivoted and looked at the kid, its odd head tilting.

  "We must remind people that demons are still there. There is a small building outside these trees, go destroy it." The kid had deepened his voice in an attempt to sound older, more powerful. He sounded like he'd smoked too much weed.

  The demon stood there, and Shane readied himself. In a move so fast that Shane only saw it because he'd been looking, the demon slapped at the kid. Seven inch long claws sliced through his body like a hot knife through butter.

  The screams started even as the kid’s body still pumped blood on the ground. Shane saw another demon starting to come through the portal, crouching to get through.

  Yeah, I don't think so.

  He collapsed the portal with a pull of power, a severed demon arm dropped onto the ground as it closed, making a wet thwap that made him smile.

  The demon shifted its body at the thwap, then whipped around. Its eyes, what Shane assumed were eyes, were locked on him.

  Great, got one that can think. Just what I needed.

  Even to himself, his sarcasm burned. The female sat against the tree, not frozen but watching him, while the other two men had started waving their arms, and cast something at the demon, who only snapped out an arm towards the other side of its body. The claws on that side punctured straight through the idiot standing there like needles through paper.

  Okay, time to stop this before he really gets pissed. Though, mental note, never leave without my tasers again.

  Shane let loose the spell he had waiting. Demons were big and tough but they had the same weakness as mammals - their brains were in their head if they had a humanoid shape. Blunt force rarely worked because humans, without the aid of decent machines, couldn't match their strength. So you didn't use blunt force.

  The strike of lightning from his fingers impacted in the demon’s skull, exploding it with a satisfying sizzle, even as it drained Shane of almost every bit of energy he had. This was why mages didn't fight demons one on one. Sure, they could kill them, one of them. Then they were barely more than drained toddlers and from everything he'd seen, the loss of one demon didn't matter to the Horde.

  Staggering from the magical exertion he moved over to the demon, pulling the knife from his waist and stabbed it into the opening at the top of its body. It took almost more energy than what he had but he managed to get past the cauterized flesh to the blood still running through the body. He shoved his hand into the opening and pulled it back coated with blood. With a moan, he shoved it into his mouth and sucked the blood off his hand.

  The first drops hit his tongue like bitter ambrosia. Demon blood tasted awful, like a mix between castor oil and bitters. but the power flowed into his body like drugs through an IV. Shaking his head to chase away the last of the cobwebs, he turned while still dipping his hand in and out. He needed to be as powered up as he could get before the body needed to be destroyed. Leaving this body for certain alphabet agencies to find would be unwise.

  A whimpering caught his attention and he looked to see the girl staring at him face pale, eyes wide, and her throat swallowing convulsively as she stared at him.

  "It is you. I thought you'd never show up." Her voice had an odd tone. She glanced at the others and shrugged. "I told them I could have opened the portal but they said girls couldn't control portals. They weren't strong enough. Oh well." She stood and moved towards him. "They can't control demons. They should have known."

  "They should have. Drones will obey, the rest want us dead. Whoever is teaching this crap should either be shot or is a plant by the government to get most of you killed before you learn how to use this power."

  The girl had pale green eyes, light red hair, and she was so pale that her freckles stood out on her face. She didn't look scared or upset though and that made him really nervous. She should be freaking out.

  "Were you related to the other idiot with the red hair?"

  She nodded shakily. "My cousin. The demon cut him. I knew he was dead but I didn't know when."

  Is she in shock? What the hell does that mean? I don't care and don't have time to deal with this. But she's useful, which means I need her powered.

  "Come here." He reached out grabbed her and pulled her close to him. Still oddly passive she didn't even try to move or fight, just letting him manipulate her like a doll. Taking her hand, he shoved it into the opening. Wiggling the limp limb to make sure it got coated he pulled it out, nodding at the blood dripping from it.

  "Open your mouth." His voice held command, the sort of command you needed with a drone or dumb recruits.

  Same difference in all reality.

  Her face blank even as she never took her eyes off him, she dropped open her mouth and he wanted to roll his eyes,
instead, he shoved her hand into her mouth. The taste must have hit her first as she gagged and tried to pull her hand out but he held it there easily. He could see when the power hit her system and she started actively swallowing, color flooding her face.

  "More," he ordered as he pulled his hand away. She nodded and shoved her hand back into the demon coating it with blood before bringing it back to her mouth.

  Looking around even as he topped off, maybe this had been a ring three with as much power the blood had. Either way, he'd make sure power rolled off him before he walked away. The other kid, the one whose nose he broken had disappeared. The two dead ones lay there, more bodies for him to deal with, and a mage.

  Huh. Maybe I should keep her. I need someone to help and she is the demon contact. Thrall her?

  Shane wrinkled his nose. Thralling left a taint he didn't like, even with all he'd done. Killing seemed cleaner than that level of mental rape and rape had never been anything he condoned. Rape of any type.

  She's a follower, maybe she'll follow me. Worst case I kill her. Or maybe her brain snapped, just as possible.

  He pitched his voice low, not seductive but soothing, that of a teacher who knew everything.

  "Tell me everything. How did you get into this? How were you made the contact? And who set your goals?"

  Shane settled back to listen as, in between sucking blood off her hand, the girl talked.

  Chapter 13 – Spying on ICERs

  Kayter tucked her hair up under the wig and pulled on the garish shirt over her t-shirt. Between the off-color brown of the wig, the orange, yellow, and purple of the shirt, blue sweats, and glasses that distorted her eyes, she looked like a fashion reject. She'd popped in a contact to change both eyes to brown.

  She'd picked up his car outside where she assumed he lived and followed him to a local restaurant, Penn Alps. He'd gone in a minute before but she wanted to wait until he and whomever he met with were seated before she went in, so she stayed in the front area looking at the higher quality kitsch that had exploded all over the place.