The Mage Tales, Books I-III

by Ilana Waters

  “So we have an accord,” Titus said. “We’ll store the bodies at your ‘facility,’ until this situation is under control. Joshua will be in charge of the deliveries.” Of course, my parents, George, and I had discussed these arrangements beforehand, but it was news to Ferox. And he seemed delighted.

  “Wonderful!” he said, turning to me, smiling widely again. “How good of your son, Titus, to provide such help. Perhaps we can even spend some time together while he’s there.”

  My eyes couldn’t help but bulge a little as I thought, Over my dead body!

  Or the fake ones we’ll be bringing down, George thought to me.

  “Unlikely, Callix,” Titus replied. “These won’t be pleasure trips; this is a business matter. Vampire business. We need to get this situation taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible.”

  “And in addition to Joshua, you get me as a bonus helper.” George offered a little wave.

  “Splendid,” said Ferox, never taking his eyes off me.

  “We told you George’s role would become apparent,” Titus said.

  “Of course,” said Ferox smoothly. “What a pity you and your wife won’t be joining them.” My mother let out a snort.

  “Abigail’s assistance in that particular way is out of the question,” Titus said. “As is mine. After all, you did try to kill me, Callix. At least you don’t seem to dislike Joshua quite so much. And George, well, you don’t even know him yet.”

  Ferox broke his gaze with me just long enough to give Titus a short nod. “It’s agreed, then.” He motioned to the other vampires, and they all started walking towards the door. Rattler walked backwards slowly, glowering at me. “I help you take care of this little problem,” Ferox continued, “and I trust you won’t meddle in my affairs in the future.”

  He means don’t prevent him from trying to take over the world, I thought to my parents and George.

  We all know what he means, Joshua, said Titus. “Very well,” he replied, sighing as if making a great sacrifice.

  “It was very good seeing you again, Joshua,” said Ferox. “I look forward to your visits.” There was no mention of the fact that George would also be there. Ferox’s eyes lingered over me for several long moments. At last, he turned and left, his children following him. The museum resumed its eerie stillness; the only sound we heard was the muffled footsteps of vampires as they made their way down the hall.

  “Well, look on the bright side,” George finally said. “At least they didn’t break anything.”

  Just then we heard a crash, and the chilling sound of vampire laughter.

  George winced. “Spoke too soon,” he said, as Titus shook his head and Abigail put her fingers to her temples. “Still, that could have been us.”

  “It could still be us,” I reminded him as we all quietly made our way back to the hotel.

  Chapter 17

  “God, these things are heavy!” I said, moving another human-shaped bag to the front of the pickup truck bed.

  “Good,” said George, handing me another. “They’re more like real bodies that way.”

  “I don’t want to know how you know that.” I took it from him and placed it next to the first one. I rubbed my aching arms; I was still a little tender from the distillery debacle, but otherwise mostly healed. Several days after our museum meeting with Ferox, George had procured the explosives and Titus the body bags, plus one actual body. Now it was up to me and George to prepare everything and transport the first round to Ferox’s lair tonight.

  We were readying the bags in an unused section of an underground garage only a few blocks from the Hassler. I was concerned George was enjoying the process a bit too much.

  “Aren’t they beautiful?” he’d sighed when he first showed the explosives to me.

  “Beautiful?”

  “They’re the best I’ve ever made. Not even the military has little pretties like these.” George had altered the explosives—both physically and magically—to better suit our purpose. Of course, they all just looked like a mess of plastic and wires to me. He stroked the tops lovingly, gazing on them like a fond father. “I hope you’ll take good care of my babies.”

  “Ah, sure, George,” I said. “As long as you realize they’re going to get completely decimated.”

  “Yes, of course. That’s what they’re for. Sleep well, my darlings!” He patted them one last time. Then he unzipped a body bag filled with what looked like an enormous sheet of cotton balls.

  “We’ll pad them with batting,” he explained, “the same way they do with quilts. It’ll make the bags seem softer, like human bodies. I’ve calculated how much C4 needs to go in each bag, along with the batting, to make the weight resemble that of a person and yet still be effective.”

  “Maybe we should make them different heights and weights,” I suggested. “You know, because certain people are taller, or have bigger builds . . .”

  “Joshua, you’re overthinking this.”

  “Sorry. I just don’t want us getting found out before we pull this off.” I rubbed my forehead. “If we pull this off.”

  “You seemed confident enough before, when you were explaining the plan to everyone.” He handed me a small roll of batting.

  “Yes, but as you said, that was before.” I copied George as he wrapped his own batting around the C4 in a different bag. “When it was all so, I don’t know . . . theoretical.”

  “It’s a good plan, Joshua.” George ripped some more batting off the larger roll. “You shouldn’t worry so much.”

  I smiled weakly. “You really don’t know what it is to be Jewish, do you?”

  I started the truck so we could listen to the radio while we worked. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to switch the old-fashioned settings off talk radio, and we kept getting news snippets instead of songs.

  “And now more about the leak regarding possible theft from several branches of the United States’ armed forces. Officials wouldn’t confirm if anything was stolen—” Eventually, I got it to play Italian opera, which was the best I could do.

  We continued preparing the bags for some time, and I wondered how our first “visit” to Ferox’s would go. We’d told Arthur about our meeting with him and the minions; naturally, he warned us to take all possible precautions when making our deliveries. My parents weren’t crazy about my going back underground either. There was still the chance that Ferox might take me or George hostage, kill us, or both.

  “If he tries,” Titus had said, “I’ll tell him—in no uncertain terms—that I’ll bring every one of my allies to Rome for the sole purpose of destroying him.”

  “You simply won’t mention that almost everyone in the supernatural world either hates or fears you,” I said.

  “In that case,” Titus replied, “let’s just hope the bluff holds.”

  “And if it doesn’t?” Abigail asked, wringing her hands.

  “Don’t worry, Mom,” I said as she pressed protective amulets into my open palms. “I’ll just drop off a few fake dead bodies on occasion and be back before you know it.”

  “I still don’t see why I can’t come with you,” she said.

  “Gail, we discussed this.” Titus closed his eyes. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “Too dangerous for me, but not for Joshua and George?”

  “Joshua will be fine,” Titus said. “George will be with him. After all, he’s a fire witch, and what do vampires fear more than fire?”

  “Sunlight, decapitation, massive blood loss—” I started before Titus silenced me with a look.

  Abigail folded her arms across her chest. “Are you saying I can’t protect my own son?”

  “I’m saying it’s not necessary,” Titus sighed.

  “I promise, Abigail,” George said, “I’ll guard him with my life.”

  “You better,” she said. “And take care of yourself, too.” She fished some protection stones out of a bag on her belt and gave them to him.

  “Calm yourself, my lady;
this plan is foolproof,” said George, placing the stones in his pocket. “I magicked the explosives so that there’s no way to defuse the bombs once they’re set to blow. But don’t worry—they should only blow apart Ferox’s lair and the ground above it. Since there’s nothing there but a field, no mortals will be harmed.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise, George?” I asked. “I mean, shouldn’t you leave a fail-safe in case we need to call this whole thing off?”

  “Do you truly want one when vampires are involved?” he asked. “They’ve killed innocents in the past and they’ll kill again, and that’s before they start on world domination. Then the killing will really kick into high gear. Are there any circumstances under which you’d change your mind and decide not to kill them?”

  I ran my fingers through my hair. “I suppose not,” I finally said.

  “That’s what I thought,” George replied. “Which is why there will be no way—mystical or mechanical—to undo this.” And so the plan that included preparing dozens of body bags of C4 continued.

  “You know who was asking after you?” George said as we finished fitting a tarp over the body bags. “Collee—”

  “You know, George,” I interrupted, walking around to the driver’s side. “I do hope your helping us hasn’t affected meeting those clients in Rome you mentioned.”

  “Oh, that?” He opened the passenger side door and got in. “Over and done, Josh old boy.”

  “And the deal went to your satisfaction?” I took the keys out of my pocket and put them in the ignition. Eventually, the old truck spurted to life.

  George shook his head. “I had to decline. Let’s just say the insurgency they had in mind was a little too insurgent.”

  “Ah, there it is.” I looked over my shoulder and slowly backed the truck up. “I knew you had the inkling of a conscience in there somewhere.”

  “Yes, and doesn’t my bottom line take a wallop for it,” he muttered.

  “You know, George,” I said, navigating my way through the labyrinthine garage, “you don’t have to do this. Help bring the bodies down, I mean. You’re putting your life at risk, and you’ve already done more than enough just providing the explosives.”

  “Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the supernatural community views Joshua Alderman as a pariah,” he said. “Some of us actually do care what happens to you.”

  “I know, George,” I said as we drove out of the garage and into the descending twilight. “Hopefully, whatever happens will go according to plan.”

  ***

  A short while later, George and I stood in front of several of Ferox’s vampires, next to the barn that held the secret entrance to his lair. Rattler, Sasha, and Stavros were among them, along with a few others I recognized from previous encounters. Unfortunately, familiarity did not engender congenial feelings on either side. In this case, as the saying goes, it definitely seemed to have bred contempt.

  “Who’s this with the adorable bow tie?” one vampire asked. I hadn’t seen him at the bar or the museum, so he must have been one of the few that stayed behind.

  “He’s Joshua’s little friend,” Rattler said. I could see dried bloodstains on his duster, and I don’t know which troubled me more: that it was evidence of murder or of his failing to wash it. “The one I told you about.”

  Another vampire—a female—giggled. I didn’t remember seeing her before at all; she must have been someone Ferox recently turned. I dearly hoped he wouldn’t have the chance to recruit many more into his bloodsucking army. “He looks like he should be sitting on a ventriloquist’s lap,” she said.

  “Yes, you look like you’d know a lot about sitting in various laps,” I said. Several of the other vampires made guttural noises, but the female just smiled and tilted her head at me in an inquisitive way, almost like a bird. She was no more than twenty-five mortal years, and wore a short, frilly dress under a studded leather jacket. With blonde hair in a pixie cut, her face seemed almost wholesome; a girl version of Peter Pan. But I knew what lay underneath that innocent facade.

  Sigh. Why can’t villains look like villains, instead of fooling us into thinking they are good?

  “So, you’re Titus Aurelius’s son?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I replied. “All the tenacity, none of the hypermasculinity. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

  “Insult Perdita again,” growled Rattler, stepping in front of me, “and watch what happens to any of your masculinity.” George quickly got between us, holding up a hand on either side.

  “Look, we all know why we’re here,” he said. “And the faster the job is through, the faster we can all go back to whatever we were doing.”

  In their case, killing, pillaging, plundering . . . I said to George.

  “So let’s stop this petty rubbish and get on with it, shall we?” He gave me a look, and after several seconds, Rattler finished scowling at me and took a step back.

  I couldn’t believe I had to work with this beast who tried to gas and kill me—along with my nearest and dearest. But if it was the only way to rid the earth of him, his brethren, and their evil sire, I didn’t have a choice.

  Off we marched past the trap door, making our way down the spiral staircase with some difficulty, as each of us had a “body” on our backs. I had the only real one after being on the losing end of drawing straws with George. I wrinkled my nose; the smell was less than desirable. But the body was fairly fresh, so the odor wasn’t as bad as it might have been. Rattler was leading the way. One by one we trod silently through the darkness, lit only by balls of light supplied by George and me.

  As before, it was noticeably colder down here than aboveground. However, it wouldn’t be an issue once we pressed on with carrying the bodies. The air was stale, but at least the debris my parents and I stumbled on before was mostly trod down. Doubtless this was the result of numerous vampires walking over it on their way in and out.

  “This’ll do,” said Rattler, throwing a bag off his shoulders to the side. We’d stopped at a crevice in the underground that was about five square feet. “You can stack the rest in here.”

  No good, George thought to me. We need to bury these much farther down. If we don’t, not only will they not kill the vampires, they will kill anything else within a ten-mile radius. George shook his head at Rattler.

  “Oh no, mate. That will never do,” he said. “This isn’t nearly all of them. There are a lot more dead people where these came from, and likely even more until we catch this bloke. Not enough room here by far. Are you sure there’s nowhere else we can go?”

  Rattler rolled his eyes. “This’ll do just fine.”

  George shook his head again, which was difficult to do with over one hundred pounds of C4 and batting on his back. “I’m telling you, they’ll never fit in this space by the time we’re through. Besides, you don’t want to live in close proximity to a bunch of decomposing corpses, do you? You’d smell them every time you went aboveground. And with your especially keen senses, I can’t imagine that would be pleasant.” The vampires all wrinkled their noses, including Rattler. He glanced around, running his tongue over his teeth.

  “Fine,” he said, picking up the body he’d just dropped. “I know another place. Follow me.” The others groaned. George and I gave each other a knowing glance.

  I don’t know what they’re complaining about, I thought to George as we trudged on. We’re the ones without as much supernatural strength. It takes so much magic to carry these things, we’re going to be wiped out by the end of the night.

  Think of it as a preventative way not to be wiped out entirely, George thought back.

  Are you sure burying them this far will kill the vampires when the time comes? I asked.

  Yes, he said firmly. The force of the blast will be enough to destroy them, but not enough to cause major damage to the land nearby. With artillery this heavy, placing it in an area so shallow could cause reverberations for miles. This way, the worst that can happen is land aro
und the explosion implodes into the hole it leaves.

  “All this because his sire,” Stavros jutted his chin at me as we walked, “doesn’t know what makes a good vampire after two thousand years.”

  Does anything really make a good vampire? I wondered.

  “I’m surprised he hasn’t made Joshua one of us already,” Sasha said. Like the others, she wasn’t so much as breaking a sweat as she carried her bag. I didn’t even hear any exertion in her voice.

  “Yeah, shouldn’t Daddy be welcoming you into the family right about now?” Perdita asked. She deftly swerved her body and bag away from a stalactite projecting down from the ceiling.

  “Well, he hasn’t tried to strangle me yet, which for him is about as welcoming as it gets,” I replied. My bag bumped hard into the stalactite Perdita managed to avoid, and I let out an oomph.

  “Too bad,” said Stavros. He followed close behind, easily whisking his own bag away from the protruding shaft of rock. “Think of how graceful you’d be,” he snickered.

  “Yeah, a real bloodsucking ballerina,” I said, trying hard to duck past several smaller stalactites. I wondered how George was faring behind me.

  “Deny it all you want,” said Rattler, holding onto a bag with one hand and adjusting his cap with the other. “You know you’d kill to be like us, to have our beauty, our powers.”

  I blew a puff of air out of my lips. “And become another ennui-addicted murderer? Oh, if only I could be like the cool kids.”

  “Less talk, more walk,” George called from behind. “Keep the line moving.” Rattler turned around long enough to narrow his eyes into slits at me, but did as George said.

  Nice work, I thought to him. Why don’t they seem to goad you nearly as much as they do me?

  That’s different, George thought back. I’m magic.

  Of course you are, I replied. Even using my own magic, I was already feeling the burn in my shoulders that would be soreness tomorrow.