Dark Warlock: Arcane Inc. Book 3

by Sean Stone

  “Uh… I forgot,” I admitted. In the heat of the moment I forget things. I’m not perfect.

  We cut down the next alleyway we saw. Ashley stumbled and fell face down onto the concrete sending Leah down too. The child screamed as she skidded across the floor. Only Ashley hadn’t stumbled I noticed, she’d been pulled down. A hand was protruding from the shadows. No. That wasn’t quite right. A hand was formed of shadows. I’d never seen the market’s security before, only heard stories, so I was quite shocked to see a figure rising up out of the floor. The shadow formed the shape of a tall person but none of the features. No eyes, no nose, no face whatsoever. More were rising up around us. Leah was crying uncontrollably. I opened my palm and dazzling white light filled the alleyway and eradicated the shadow men.

  “Give me my knife!” Ryan yelled. I turned and saw him at the entrance of the alley.

  “Make me,” I shouted back.

  A hideous grinding sound came out of the wall and I noticed that the bricks were starting to move. Once again human forms were being created, this time from the walls either side of us. This security system was good. I plucked Leah off the floor and threw her over my shoulder and ran. As I passed Ashley I hauled her off the floor by her arm and pulled her along too.

  “What happens if they catch us?” Ashley asked. We reached the end of the alley and I charged back into the crowd. The security guards seemed to be able to form from anything but if we were amongst people we’d be harder to get to.

  “No idea. Nothing nice I imagine.” Considering the sort of people the things were protecting I didn’t imagine a slap on the wrist and a fine would be the punishment. Something grabbed my ankle. I looked down and saw a concrete hand sticking out of the floor. The rest of the body was growing up out of the floor too. I blasted it with a ball of fire and ran the moment its fingers released me. If only I could fly. They surely couldn’t form out of the sky. Shoppers screamed as the stone men spawned out of the floor and walls and came after us. Looking around I could see at least ten and more were growing by the second.

  “Ashley, do you know the way back?” I asked. I passed the kid to her before she even answered.

  “I can find the way, yeah,” she replied.

  “Here.” I held the knife out to her.

  “What are you doing?” She took a step away.

  “I’m going to draw them off and give you time to get back with the spells but I can’t have stolen goods on me when they catch me.”

  “Eddie, I can’t—”

  “Ash, we don’t have time! Take the knife and go!” her argument died there. She took the knife and without another word ran into the crowd. I turned around in time to see Ryan’s petulant face.

  “There he is! There’s the thief!” Ryan yelled and pointed. The stone people came for me. I ran again. I weaved in and out of people. I went in a different direction to Ashley but still headed back to the portal. Although I was prepared to get caught I’d really rather escape. It was obvious that there was no chance of escape. There were so many stone figures coming out around me. It was then that I remembered the item in my pocket. Still running, I wrestled the pear from my pocket and started stuffing as much of it into my mouth as I could. It tasted foul. Nothing like a pear at all. A good enchanter can enchant food and retain the original flavour. The hag that made this was not good. Hopefully her enchantments were good. I could feel something going on inside me and didn’t feel great. It was like a big pot of goo was bubbling away inside me. I turned the corner and saw the portal ahead. The great stone archway with the circle in the ceiling. There was a slight green glow around it that was fading and I assumed that somebody had just used it. Ashley hopefully. I never made it to the portal. Two stone creatures shot out of the floor at a much faster speed than before. I turned around but four more were coming from behind. In a few seconds I’d be surrounded. I stood still and let it happen. I had no stolen goods on me. They had nothing on me. Seven of them surrounded me in the end and the one which was taller than the rest spoke through a crack which formed in its head. I supposed it was the closest thing to a mouth it could create.

  “You are accused of stealing. Submit to be searched.” Its voice was harsh and robotic.

  “I submit,” I said. Not a single one of them moved but I knew that were performing some sort of magical search on me. I didn’t like it. I felt like they were all looking at me naked.

  “You have no stolen items,” It said.

  “Nope. I’ll be on my way then,” I said and waited for them to move.

  “Negative. You will submit for interrogation.” I had miscalculated how the security around here worked. I thought that if there was no evidence they’d just let me go.

  “Oh, no, no, no. I don’t think so.” I had no intention of finding out what their style of interrogation was. I would advise that nobody ever allow themself to be interrogated by a man made literally of stone.

  “Interrogation is not optional.” It moved to grab me and I decided to test the pear out. I punched it straight in the face and its head exploded into pieces. I didn’t feel a thing, other than cocky pride. The remains of the stone man fell backwards like a log and were reabsorbed by the floor. The others came at me together. It took a little while but I managed to fight them all off. They had the numbers but their strength was no match for mine. The woman was wrong; I felt like I was as strong as the hulk. By the time I was finished more stone men were oozing out of the floor and I could once again see Ryan approaching. I ran for the portal. It wasn’t until I was back under the archway that I thought the portal might not work for me since I’d been identified as a suspect by the stone men. Luckily I was wrong and a flash of green light later I was safely out of the market place.

  As soon as the green cleared and I was back in the old cinema I could see Ashley holding Leah and cuddling her into her chest. “Eddie, you made it,” she said with relief. It looked like she wanted to hug me too but she restrained herself.

  “Yeah,” I said, still panting from the run. I walked over to her and she thrust the knife back into my hands.

  “I don’t want it,” she said looking at it accusingly. Some sorcerers despise warlocks. I guessed she was one of them. I was exempt from her judgement because I was different, as you know. There was a loud hum and a flash of green and I knew that Ryan had followed me back. I should have seen that coming. Before I could turn around a jet black cobweb-like thing snatched Leah out of Ashley’s arms and pinned her against the wall. It gripped her by the wrists, ankles, belly and throat. It was holding her so tightly that she could barely breath let alone cry but her eyes told me how much pain she was in and how much fear she felt. A mixture of pity and anger took hold of me. Ashley moved to go to Leah but Ryan stopped her. I turned slowly to face him.

  “If anybody moves the kid dies. Don’t try me on this. You know my sister,” he warned. I kept my back to him knowing that if I moved he would keep his word. “Now, Eddie, give me my knife and let’s part ways. I’ll even let you keep the spells you stole. Free of charge.”

  “Sounds like a good offer,” I said. “How do I know you won’t break your sister out of prison, though?”

  “You don’t. But if you don’t take my deal I kill ya kid,” he said.

  I laughed drily. “She’s not mine,” I said.

  “Eddie!” Ashley said in alarm.

  “Maybe not, but I think you’ve got feelings for the little lady here. The one with the fighting skills,” he said in a seedy little voice. The urge to kill him was so strong now that I didn’t even care what Ashley thought of it. “Maybe I’ll kill her too. Now give me my knife.”

  “You want it?” I asked quietly. “Have it.” I launched the knife at him as fast as I could. My aim is pretty shoddy most days and when I don’t even aim properly it’s even worse. Luckily I had magic to help guide the knife. The blade buried itself right in the centre of Ryan’s forehead. His head whipped back and for just a moment he stood perfectly still. His eyes were wide
, staring up in disbelief. His mouth hung open and a small pathetic little groan escaped. Blood poured down the centre of his face and dripped off his top lip. Then he fell backwards like a log and hit the floor with a thud. The knife melted over his face as his magic flew from it and into me. He didn’t have nearly as much as his sister had but it was still plenty. More than your average warlock for sure.

  I turned back to Ashley but she had her back to me and was tending to Leah who was crying uncontrollably. I told her not to bring the kid. I knew that killing Ryan would only reinforce her idea that I was too dangerous to be around. We left the cinema in silence. Even Leah wouldn’t talk to me.

  18

  By the time we were walking through the town centre the silence was killing me. That was probably a poor choice of words. The silence was annoying me. Better?

  “Do you wanna talk about it?” I asked tentatively.

  “Nope,” Ashley replied curtly. Yeah, she was pissed. “Do you think you should go back and clean up the…” She stopped herself before she got to the word body. “…Mess?”

  “I threw some purple fire on it before we left.” Purple fire leaves no evidence, except for a scorch mark. The silence came back after that.

  When we got back to her house she sent Leah upstairs and cast a soundproofing spell around the living room. Clearly we were about to have words.

  “Are you going to yell at me?” I asked nervously.

  “No. I don’t want her to hear us summoning an imp,” explained Ashley.

  “Oh, that makes sense. I thought you was going to tell me off over the darkness killing Ryan and all that,” I said. I made sure to remind her that the darkness was making me do the bad things and it was not of my own volition.

  She nodded sardonically. “The darkness. Sure.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know what it means,” she said. She pulled the spells out of her pocket and put them down on the coffee table before going over to the bookcase and starting to search through the many tomes.

  “I really don’t,” I replied, annoyed. I hate it when people say that. If I knew what they meant I wouldn’t have asked.

  “The darkness, Eddie? It’s always the darkness isn’t it? Every time you do something bad, ‘Oh, it was the darkness, not me!’” I didn’t much care for the weird impression she did of me. It was far to shrill.

  “Ashley, you know that Rachel cursed me. You heard her explain it,” I argued.

  “Yeah, she said it would get worse whilst she was near you. But she isn’t near you now is she, Eddie? She’s in a prison in Surrey now, so nowhere near you.” She was looking at me with such anger. Anyone would think I’d tried to kill her.

  “I don’t know how it works but since she came near me I haven’t been able to control the darkness like I could before,” I tried to explain. I knew it was hopeless, I didn’t even understand it so I couldn’t hope to explain it to somebody else.

  “Mum told me about curses like this.” She folded her arms and looked at me amusingly again.

  “Okay…” I really didn’t know where this was going. It seemed that Margie had said some things behind my back.

  “The darkness alone is an empty curse. It needs something to latch on to.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “You know what I’m saying. The darkness is making you kill people because you already want to kill them. It isn’t taking control you’re giving it control.”

  “Don’t talk shit!” I spat the words like they were poison. The lamp to my right exploded in a shower of glass.

  “That’s it, Eddie. Let the darkness out. It’s easier to just do what you want rather than trying to control it. It’s nice to have an excuse. Why don’t we all do it?” she waved her hand and a tea cup flew off the coffee table and smashed against the wall. “That does feel good. Maybe I should give into my primitive urges all the time and blame it on a curse!” she screamed.

  I saw red. “You stupid fucking bitch!” I snapped and flung my hand out at her in an attacking spell. The force of my attack forced her to double over as she was knocked back.

  “Bastard!” she screamed and attacked me back. My legs were taken from under me and I landed face first on the carpet. I returned the spell to her and brought her onto her arse. A wave of her hand and the coffee table flew up and smashed me over the top of the head. It took me a little longer to recover from that. My head was pounding. We both rose up at the same time and she came running at me. I assumed she wanted to use a more physical attack. I held my palm out and cast a magical barrier that held her in place. She was frozen mid-step, storming towards me, it was almost amusing.

  “Just admit that you like killing people. You were doing it long before Rachel came along. Remember Killian Myers? Rachel wasn’t there to make the curse control you then. You didn’t just kill him you pulverised his head!” she roared at me, still trying to fight her way to get at me.

  I laughed. “Killian? You want to know the truth about that? Your mum told me to kill him. But you’re right, I would have done it anyway. Not because I loved it and I didn’t love it, by the way. I didn’t do it out of some perverse pleasure I get from killing, I did it to protect you! That’s all I have ever done when it comes to you, Ashley! I don’t love killing. I love you.” My voice broke on those last three words and the fight left me. I let the barrier down and she resumed her charge.

  “Shut up!” she yelled and shoved me in the chest making me take a step back.

  “I killed him for you, Ash. That’s the truth,” I said quietly.

  “No it’s not!” she pushed me again.

  “I’m not going to fight you any more,” I said.

  “Yes you are!” she shoved me again. I shook my head.

  “If you need to get this off your chest then go ahead, but I’m not going to hurt you,” I said.

  “Fine,” she said through clenched teeth. She grabbed my head and shoved me up against the wall but rather than attacking me she forced her lips onto mine and kissed me.

  “What are you doing?” I said, pulling my head away as best I could.

  “Shut up and kiss me,” she said and then pressed her lips back on to mine. I was confused and… well more confused, but I didn’t need telling twice. I grabbed her face and returned the furious, passionate kisses. Within seconds we were tearing each others clothes off. I won’t go into too much detail because it’s not the classy thing to do, but let’s just say it was a bloody good thing she soundproofed the room.

  I lay naked on the floor watching Ashley gather her clothes up and pull them back on. Regardless of what happened from this moment I would always have the image of her naked body emblazoned on my retinas. It was perfection. Maybe that’s a biased viewpoint because of my feelings for her. She lifted her shirt and pulled it on but found that at least half the buttons were missing. She buttoned it as best she could and then looked down at me.

  “Come on,” she said and kicked my trousers at me.

  “Is that it then? Are we going back to fighting again now or…”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “What I said before…” She looked away and then began cleaning up to distract herself.

  “Did you mean it?” I stood and pulled my trousers on before retrieving my t-shirt.

  “I don’t know. I guess I must of done. Kind of.” She stopped faffing and faced me. Her face was filled with regret for the things she’d said. “Mum was certain that the darkness only brings out your worst nature, so there is some of that in you already.” She shrugged again and began chewing her bottom lip.

  I nodded. “I think you’re right. When people annoy me I do want to hurt them. The thing is I’ve been cursed for so long I don’t know what’s the darkness and what’s me. Rachel put this darkness in me thirteen years ago. I just never knew I was cursed until a few months ago. I just thought I had a sadistic streak. But I don’t love killing, Ash.”

  “I know. I’m sorry I said that I was ju
st angry and I lashed out at you,” she said. She went back to busying herself with the tidying up. We had made a quite a mess of the living room.

  “What were you angry about? Because I killed Ryan?”

  “No. No, I understand that. You had to kill him. There was no way not to. Unless you wanted him and Rachel after you. I was angry because I don’t want to stay away from you, Eddie, but whilst you’ve got this curse I have to because I can’t put the other people I care about at risk. And can I be honest about something?”

  “Of course.” I dreaded what she was going to say next.

  “You don’t seem to be trying very hard to help yourself.”

  “What?” I was amazed that she thought that. How she could know anything about it when she hadn’t seen me in months was a mystery. “I’ve been searching for a way to destroy this darkness for ages.”

  “What have you done?” she asked.

  “Well, I’ve looked through all my books. And all of Rachel’s. I’ve tried a few spells out. I brewed the strongest curse breaking potion I could and even that did nothing.” Begrudgingly, I kind of saw her point.

  “You’ve been working on that for months and that’s all you’ve done. You’ve had this Panomie case for what, a couple of weeks? And look at all you’ve done. You set a trap, went to the black market, we’re going to summon an imp. Look at the things you’ve done in the past. You solved the mystery of Mote Park, created invincibility. When you really try you can achieve so much. That is how I know you haven’t really be trying.” She wasn’t telling me off, she was just disappointed. That was worse. I stared at the floor in shame because everything she’d said was right.

  “I’m scared,” I confessed at last.

  “Of what?”

  “Like I said, this darkness has been in me for thirteen years. I don’t know what’s me and what’s it. I’m scared that if I destroy it then I’ll be just as bad and then I’ll have to accept that it is me and not the curse.”

  She took hold of my hands and gave them a little squeeze. “Eddie. That’s why you have to resist the darkness now. If you can say no to the urges whilst the darkness still exists then you’ll have no trouble doing it when it’s gone.”