Faerie Mage: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Vampire's Bane Book 1)

by Marian Maxwell

  What Mona saw was a scene from nightmares. Zyzz grabbed hold of one of the demons with two massive paws and ripped off one of its arms. He tossed the demon at the others with a snarl. Two of them dodged back while the other two jumped out the broken windows.

  “That’s right!” Mona shouted. “Don’t mess with us!” She grinned, went to pat Zyzz on the back and ended up slapping his ass instead. “Uh, good job,” she muttered awkwardly. Not that it mattered. Zyzz’s ears were in the attack position, nearly flat against his head. A low, constant growl pulled back his gums, revealing a set of long, sharp teeth. He probably hadn’t even heard Mona; the bloodlust that takes shifters when they fight was fully upon him.

  Zyzz charged forward with his arms wide like a wrestler. The demons squawked and tried to escape, but they were trapped at the end of the hallway. I don’t think the little claws at the ends of their wings can open doors.

  Zyzz swept them up in both of his tree trunk arms and smashed them against the far wall. The entire building shook from the impact. Bits of plaster fell from the ceiling.

  He better slow down, or the whole building is going to come down around us. The Academy was very old and very prestigious. It had been sturdily built—only about 2,000 years ago. The Masters kept it standing with their magic, but old was old. It was always going to be weak, particularly from the inside. Most of the defensive wards surrounding the Academy had been designed to stop external attacks. A shifter tearing apart a building from the inside? Not a contingency they had planned for.

  Mona wasn’t about to tell Zyzz to take it easy. The demons he was holding pinned against the wall reared forward and bit him at the same time. Their jaws were about half the size of Zyzz’s, but they were still formidable. Two pairs of fangs sunk through Zyzz’s thick hide and into his muscle. Zyzz roared in return, grabbed them and tried to throw them off, but they held on.

  Right. That’s my cue.

  Mona slipped her dagger into her belt, grabbed two fistfuls of Zyzz’s fur and began climbing. Ignoring the pain throbbing in her shoulder, she used Zyzz’s elbow to heft herself up to his shoulders. He was really, ridiculously big. My big, mean teddy bear. His fur was surprisingly smooth, like he used girly shampoo. It felt good on Mona’s skin. Perfect for cuddles.

  Mona bit her lip to suppress an onslaught of giggles: a sure sign that she was on her last legs. The longer this fight dragged on, the more likely she was to collapse and pass out on the floor.

  A cold gust of air sent a chill through her body. The sound of crunching glass, the flap of leathery wings came from behind. Dread filled Mona’s stomach. Those demons didn’t run away. They flanked us. What the hell? Demons weren’t supposed to be this smart.

  Still holding onto Zyzz’s shoulders, she turned around far enough to see the blasted demons squeeze through the windows and eye her with vicious intent. Their long, forked tongues flicked in her direction.

  Fuck it, she thought. It’s a surprise attack, or nothing. Zyzz was still occupied by the demons latched onto him. Mona knew that if she didn’t disable one of the bat-lions right away, they would both be dead meat.

  “Not today, blood suckers!” She planted both feet on Zyzz’s back and used him as a launch pad to leap into the air, flying straight at one of the demons.

  She screamed as loud as she could, a weak imitation of Zyzz’s earlier roar, and kneed the nearest demon in the chin. It rocked back, stumbling on its stubby legs. Mona crashed with it to the ripped carpet in a tangled pile.

  “I. Told. You. Not. To. Mess. With. Us,” Mona growled at the demon through clenched teeth, each word punctuated by a stab of her dagger.

  She got in the eight stabs, then the other demon smacked her with one of its wings. The strength of the blow knocked the air out of her lungs and sent her flying out one of the broken windows. She reached desperately for a handhold and sliced her arm on the shards of glass rimming the edge of the window frame.

  Not like this!

  Mona had been so close to a warm bubble bath.

  Laughing through a bloody mouth, she grabbed a jutting shard of glass with her bare hand and held tight. A gust of wind hit her from the side, trying to push Mona into the open air. Then would come the long fall, and thump against the pavement. No, thank you. Not today. Besides her lifelong mission for revenge, Zyzz was back inside the hall surrounded by demons. Mona couldn’t leave him alone. She knew deep down that she was responsible for the demon attack. She feared that, by activating the seed with her blood, she had accidentally launched a series of events that she was wholly unprepared to deal with. Case in point, hanging from a windowsill five stories in the air while her boyfri—my future boyfriend, she decided—fought for his life.

  That’s right. Me and Zyzz. It’s going to happen. But first I have to save his life.

  One step at a time. Mona reached up, grabbed a glass-free section of the windowsill with her other hand. It hurt like a sonuvabitch. But after so much pain inflicted by her sadistic mentor, it seemed dull in comparison. Broken glass cutting into her hand? Meh. Mona had suffered worse.

  She grunted, clenched her abs and started pulling her legs up to the windowsill. The muscles in her arms gave out, forcing her back to a dangling position. A furious screech rang through the hallway above, followed by violent thrashing.

  Come on, Mona. It’s a sit-up. You can do a sit-up, can’t you? She took a deep breath, gave a fighting shout and reached with her leg for the windowsill until she thought her groin was going to tear. It was enough; her heel hooked over the edge. Using her leg and arms, she pulled herself up, through the window, and back into the fray.

  Zyzz was hidden by a mess of wings and stubby legs. Two demons swarmed him, biting, clawing, smacking him with their powerful wings. Another twitched on the floor, the stump of its neck squirting blood like a fountain.

  Mona ripped a strip of cloth from her already-torn pant leg and used it to quickly bandage her left hand. The cloth immediately soaked in blood, but it was better than nothing. A quick glance around the hall confirmed she had lost her dagger. Only one option, then.

  Zyzz grabbed the demon perched on his back, threw it over his head and stomped on it until it stopped moving. Mona’s eyes went wide as she saw he was standing in a pool of blood. It was so deep that it was dripping out the window next to him. Most of it was from the demons, but not a small amount had come from Zyzz. He weeped blood from a dozen wounds, and his fur had turned a dark red.

  The last demon screeched and bit a hunk from Zyzz’s right arm. Zyzz swiped at it with a paw, strong enough to crack its skull, but far too slow. The demon nimbly ducked and bit him again. Zyzz roared, stumbled and fell against the solid wall at the back of the hallway. There was no time to waste. Mona ran toward the demon as fast as she could, counting on it being too focused on its cornered prey to notice her approaching from behind.

  Luck, finally, was on her side. She ran up to the demon, jumped and drop-kicked it in the back with both legs. The demon staggered away from Zyzz and turned to face her with a hiss.

  Mona had landed heavy on the floor and was having a hard time getting up. Her arms and legs weren’t following orders. She propped herself up on one arm—collapsed as it gave out from under her. She reached for her magic again, deep into the hardest part of her soul, and got nothing for her troubles. All she could do was watch as the demon leered over her. Its black magic scent burned her lungs and made her eyes tear up. As the demon came closer, the stench grew stronger, a wetness in the air. Mona started coughing onto the red carpet.

  She remembered that smell. Nine years ago, the night her family was murdered, that oily, brimstone stench had been all over the house. At the time, she had been clueless about its meaning.

  Mona rolled aside, barely avoiding the demon’s foot as it came crashing down. She turned onto her side and kicked the back of the demon’s stubby legs, sending it sprawling. A mad rage took hold of her. She crawled atop the demon and, before it could buck her off, shoved her arm into
its maw and down its throat. The demon gagged, unable to close its jaw.

  Just a bit more…

  With its winged arms supporting it against the floor, the demon pushed itself into a standing position. Mona gripped the fur on its chest, but it was with her bad hand, the one that had been cut up by the glass, and she couldn’t hold on for long. The demon shook her off, and when she hit the floor she knew that, this time, she wouldn’t be getting up.

  Her vision began to fade. A wave of exhaustion leached the last of her strength. She struggled against it, but her eyes could no longer stay open. The dead black of sleep came crashing down.

  8

  A wave of relief crossed Paulie’s face. He gently took Amber’s letter. Gulped down a lump in his throat and looked away to hide the wetness in his eyes. “Can you talk to her? Tell her…” He shook his head. “Never mind,” he sighed. He gave Suri a lopsided grin. The same one she’d seen since Paulie, Amber and her met at the Magic Academy. “Still a ways to go,” he said.

  Suri nodded. Heck, they could still hear the goblins smashing on the trapdoor.

  They walked for five minutes in silence. By then, Suri had recovered enough to stand on her own. She had her breath back, but her belly ached something fierce. She pulled up her shirt, saw a massive red bruise across her abs. The cut from the spike was still fresh. Bleeding all over her shirt.

  I’ll have to wash and bandage it as fast as possible. Dirty goblin.

  Paulie held his torch high, giving light to the backs of the people ahead. For the first time, Suri saw the lines of stress etched on Paulie’s face. Deep, black circles under his eyes. A red welt on the side of his neck, leading up to a patch of burnt hair. Dried blood covered the hand holding the torch. She noticed a bit of grey mixed in with his shaggy, brown hair. Had the grey always been there? It looked like Paulie had aged ten years since she last saw him. He had warm, brown eyes and a cleft chin like John Travolta’s. Suri used to tease him about it when they were kids.

  It was time she got some answers. She turned to Paulie. “What happened?”

  “It started yesterday,” he said. “Fae throwing rocks from the edge of the district. They broke a couple of windows, but nothing too bad. We got together and drove them off.”

  “Has that happened before?”

  “Not in a long time. Not since I moved here. In the ‘50s? Shit. Every weekend, by the way Sally tells it.” Sally was the oldest human in Lodum. Suri didn’t see her anywhere in the tunnel. “Then the magi council got involved,” Paulie continued. “They a big meeting with the Faerie king and fae nobles. Everyone dressed up in robes and whatnot. No one knows what they said, but the next day things started to change. The king arrested fae who tried to start trouble. Even executed one, after he murdered a human. Everything was good. Until now.”

  “Maybe something happened between the council and the king. That’s why he stopped protecting us.”

  Paulie shrugged. “Who knows. Fae are murderous fuckers. Their kind don’t know the meaning of peace.” There was darkness to Paulie’s words that gave Suri pause. A thought nagged at the back of her mind. A premonition. But she wasn’t a seer, and it passed. Back then, if she had known what was going to happen, she might have been able to do something. Talked to Paulie. Tried to make him see reason, before the unwavering hatred took hold. At the time, She was hurt. A little bit scared, and focused on making it out alive. Saving whoever she could along the way. She wasn’t thinking far enough ahead.

  They followed a bend in the tunnel. Shadows from the torchlight danced across the walls. “I found this a few months ago,” Paulie said, gesturing at the tunnel. “Left it alone at first, but my curiosity got the best of me. Good thing, too. I wouldn’t have known how deep it goes.”

  “You brought them here?”

  Paulie nodded. “When the fire broke out, I rounded up as many as I could. Hid them all beneath the shop. We were getting ready to go when you showed up.”

  “You risked your lives. You could have gone ahead.”

  “Not a chance,” said Paulie. “We’re saving everyone we can.”

  There was still the question of how the fire started. Suri was about to ask Paulie, but the tunnel started shaking. Bits of dirt fell from the ceiling, getting in Suri hair and the back of her shirt. “Run!” Paulie shouted.

  The trail of torches began bobbing. Moving wildly as all the humans took off down the tunnel. They could be trapped. If the fae knew the tunnel system, blocked the exits…Suri didn’t want to think about it.

  Suri spotted a white cloth on the ground. Bent as she ran past, hissed at the pain in her stomach, and scooped it up. It was Clarissa’s hat. She shoved it in her jacket pocket. Glanced behind her, saw a glow of light chasing from far back.

  Something was down there with them. The goblin leader? Possibly. But it took more than him to shake the tunnel.

  More dirt rained down on their heads. “Do you know where we’re going?” Suri asked Paulie, as they ran.

  “No.”

  Her heart sunk.

  “The tunnel leads to the catacombs. That’s all we know.”

  The blind following the blind…

  Suri bit her tongue. She didn’t have any better ideas. At the same time, she hated not being in the lead. Feeling in control. Back on the street, she had at least been able to move around freely. She had options. Not trapped like a rat underground. And they were going deeper. The tunnel had a downward slope.

  Her bad elbow rubbed against the dirt wall, flaring in pain and coming back wet with dirt. For all her hours at the gym, Suri was getting tired. She couldn’t keep going for much longer. It had been a full day of running and fighting. Unfortunately, she didn’t think that was going to end anytime soon.

  The ground changed. Boots slapped against stone. Not the cobbles like on the streets above, but big flagstones. Ancient rock, cut and laid thousands and thousands of years ago. It went on like this for a while. A flagstone here and there on the ground, but still mostly dirt. Over time there was less dirt and more stone. The same stone showed on the walls. First bits and pieces, half hidden by dirt. Then full stones. The beginning of a proper hallway. They had been running for thirty minutes by the time the ceiling, walls and floor were all stone. The tunnel branched off in three directions. Behind there was only the one way back. The sound of running feet now accompanied the shaking. The glowing light was out of sight, hidden by the twists and turns of the tunnel.

  “We should keep moving,” Suri said. With the stones, the tunnel had widened. Everyone was stopped and standing within sight of each other. Suri counted about 50 of them. 50 out of 2,000. She clenched her jaw, determined to keep her resolve. Showing fear would only spread it to the others.

  “No one’s gone this far before,” said Paulie.

  “So we choose a tunnel.” Martin, the guy who caught Suri, said hurriedly.

  Paulie shook his head. “No one knows where they lead. We need to find the one that goes up. Back to the surface.”

  “Are you crazy?” Someone screeched. “They’re right behind us! I’m leaving!” He set off for the right tunnel. A handful of people followed.

  Paulie ran a hand over his tired face. He didn’t know what to do. This was the end of the line. The point where his plan faltered. It was anyone’s guess which path was best.

  Suri summoned two globes of light. A simple spell, one of the first they teach you at the Academy. She sent them down the other two tunnels.

  Everyone watched the lights. One revealed a large chamber with a stone ceiling. It was so big they couldn’t see the top of it, or the walls. It looked like the inside of a church.

  The other light revealed a smaller room. It was hard to see, but it looked like there were shelves on both walls. The path through the room was narrow, like between bookshelves in a library.

  Neither light gave them anything to go by. They had more information, but not much.

  The tattoo behind Suri’s left ear tickled. “Where are you?”<
br />
  “Amber!” She couldn’t guide them through Faerie like she could in San Fran. For those spells to work you need to be on the same side. Amber had another thing going on though. A hidden talent rarely seen. She was a nerd. A mega nerd. Into Faerie history, all that stuff. Half the time her nose was buried in a dusty old tome.

  “Are you out??” She sounded frantic.

  “Listen to me. I need your help. We’re underground.”

  “We? Who’s we??”

  “Me and the others,” Suri said, quickly. “We’re in Lodum’s catacombs. You know them?” Everyone was watching her. Some of the people shifted their weight. Glanced uneasily after the group that had already gone ahead. They were dirty, exhausted. Scratched, burned and bruised. Scared, and desperate to continue their journey. Wherever it might lead, it was better than standing around and waiting to die. Every passing second they became more nervous. Ready to bolt off into the dark.

  “I’ve read about them,” Amber replied. “Wait. You’re in the catacombs?”

  “Yes. Three paths. One leads to a big room. Looks like a cathedral. The other to a smaller room with shelves, or something. The third path is all twisty, can’t see far. Need to know which way to go. Not much time, Ams.” The sound was getting closer. Suri thought she saw a pale glint of light coming from the dirt tunnel.

  Shit. She was wasting valuable time.

  “Uhh…Hold on.”

  “Fuck,” Suri muttered. They could distinctly hear the sound of many feet hitting the grey flagstones. It echoed to the group of humans back from the way they had come. Hard to tell how far away, but close. Loud, reverberating through the still air.

  They waited. One heartbeat. Two heartbeats.

  “Shelves, shelves,” Amber mused. “That’s gotta be where they keep dead bodies. Go that way.”