“What was that?” The older Mage’s voice scathingly raised another octave. “Fireworks?”
Mina took advantage of the other Mage’s distraction and crept as close as she dared to Nicki. The illusion spell would hold if she didn’t make any quick movements. She exhaled into her hand and focused on creating another spell; energy coalesced making her hand tingle. She breathed words and felt the power grow like a rubber ball in her hand, round and smooth.
“Here, let me show you what I’ve been working on. This should corral those monsters.” The older Mage walked toward David.
“Hey.” Mina pitched her voice low enough for Nicki to hear. At the sound, her friend’s eyes widened in surprise as she swiveled her head toward her.
“What are you…?” Nicki tried to whisper, but it wasn’t low enough.
“Grace.” Carl’s voice alerted the older woman, who swung around with an oath. The illusion Mina cloaked herself in slid away like thick mud and pooled on the floor as she hurried over to get closer to Nicki.
She gave a five-fingered wave at the three Mages. Grace’s mouth opened, but no words came out as her cheeks quivered with rage.
Her fury tastes like cayenne pepper.
“You’re not very nice,” Mina told Grace and then looked at Nicki. “I think you need to find new friends.” She wasn’t kidding.
Behind the Mages, the Darks moved in. Four shapes attacked. Two of them struck the colorful Mage, thin spider-like arms slashing at him, while a thick figure barreled into Carl, breaking his draw on Nicki’s energy. Mina could feel it sever like a rubber band snapping, the backlash bringing Carl to his knees. Grace twisted, eyes growing wild as she spat out a spell and splayed her hand toward another Dark, a gray-skinned woman who flashed a smile—her mouth bursting with needle-sharp teeth. The Dark flipped to the side as the brunt of the spell hit and took a chunk out of a column, blackening the surface and pushing the gray-skinned Dark backward.
“You need to find your happy place,” Mina chided the older woman, who swung back and focused the next spell on her. “You’re too tense.”
With a snap of her hand, Mina threw the spell she’d held at Grace’s legs. The dull, black ball of power hit the Mage’s shins and burst open on impact. Thick opaque threads twined around the woman’s legs, breaking her concentration.
“A child’s spell!” Grace slapped at the sticky strands. The shocked reaction didn’t last long. “You’ll not do that again.”
Mina knew the spell she cast wouldn’t stop the Mage, but it would slow her down. Mina ripped at the conjured threads binding her friend. She wasn’t gentle, but got no complaints as Nicki wriggled in an effort to help. There was a low, vibrating growl as the gray-skinned Dark attacked Grace again.
The older Mage snarled out a throaty tangle of words that sounded old—Arabic or Germanic. The syllables and consonants were harsh, guttural like rocks falling from the woman’s lips. The words made the air grow dense.
Mina’s throat closed up, and she coughed. A destruction spell.
“You’ve got to eat the spell,” Mina gasped out to Grace, who paid no attention to her. “You’re going to kill innocent people. There are humans still hiding in this mall.” Her mind skittered away from the image of the prone, lifeless body she’d spotted earlier. She wasn’t going to think about that.
Nicki sucked in her breath. Freed from the binding spell, she lunged toward Grace, who grappled with the female Dark. Mina grabbed her friend and jerked her back.
“There’s no time.”
Pressure built, pushing on Mina’s ear drums. Nicki cringed, putting one hand to her head, and staggered slightly in reaction to the pain.
“There’s got be a counter-spell.” Her friend tried again to go back toward the still-fighting Darks and Mages. Grace wrestled with the Dark in the center of the melee, never breaking her chant. Her velour suit now blotched and stained with something wet—blood. A dying grandmother bent on taking out a city block.
“You told me so. We’ve got to stop it! We can’t let it…” Nicki’s words tumbled out in a rush, her voice high and panicked.
Mina didn’t answer as she threw her weight into moving her stubborn friend, shoving her toward the shadows she’d called to thicken.
“There isn’t one,” Mina gasped out as the last word left the Mage’s lips with an ear-splitting shriek. A final push, and she propelled Nicki through the shadows, the screams of the dying following them.
The person who was so certain about death and taxes should’ve added debt to the list. Xander flipped through the envelopes his assistant handed him. All were bills. Funny how his fall from Regional Mage status increased the amount he owed. The fines levied at his failure were staggering. Worse, he was now back at the law firm he started, not as owner, but as an associate working for his cousin. This situation certainly wouldn’t look impressive on his résumé.
“Brandon, send these to accounting. They’ll take care of them.” He tossed the offending correspondence to the moon-faced Mage, just out of college, who caught them easily with a nod. His assistant’s expression didn’t change, but a subtle narrowing of the other Mage’s eyes alerted him even as the distinctly cloying sweet scent of Chanel perfume confirmed who approached.
“Lane, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Xander swung around to greet the petite brunette with over-plucked eyebrows that gave her a perpetual surprised look. Her artificially tanned skin was leaving brown, tilting toward orange. The woman preferred the rapid treatment of a chemical spray to baking in the sun. Which was a pity, because she looked better with a natural color, not that he would tell her; she had a tendency to overreact to unwanted observations. She held a clipboard and pen. What project was she about today?
“Oh, relax,” she assured him as his gaze lingered too long on the clipboard. “I’m only making notes. I won’t be taking over your office.”
Of course she wouldn’t, he thought, but she could still annoy the hell out of him.
“It never crossed my mind.” He shifted just as Lane made a move to go past him into his office. It forced her to stop and look up into his eyes.
Two could play at this game.
Her brown eyes widened, and a flash of irritation flickered in their depths before she gave him a smile. “Oh, quit being difficult. I’m just having your office painted.”
“It doesn’t need painting.”
“Yes it does. That green is so dull. I was thinking a nice crisp orange.”
Orange?
He shook his head. “I have to write briefs all day.”
She tapped the clipboard against his chest. “Tomorrow is your mother’s garden party. You have to attend. The Chairman will be there. It will be a perfect time to paint.”
“That garden party?” Xander felt his lips curl up into a smile. Now that would be a dampener on his mother’s little soiree if he showed up, the shamed son. “No, I won’t,” he said. “I’ve been instructed otherwise, but I do know Aunt Celeste will be upset if you miss.” Lane made a face.
“Of course,” she said. “She wants me to meet another of her eligible bachelors.”
He pitied the fool who’d been snared. His aunt had been trying to get his cousin married for years. Lane liked her independence and was in no rush, while her mother was ready for grandchildren. Not a good combination.
Frank Sinatra’s smooth vocals interrupted with his rendition of “New York, New York.”
“Sorry, I have to take this,” she said as she fumbled for and pulled out a cell phone from her suit pocket. As she pushed the button to answer, she pointed the clipboard at Xander. “I’m still sending the painters.”
He watched his cousin walk back down the hall. Working for her in the company he started was a cruel twist of fate indeed. The Chairman knew what he was doing when he demoted him. Xander swore to himself it wouldn’t be for long. It was only a matter of time before he won his way back into position and power.
Xander slapped his newspaper against hi
s palm and turned toward Brandon. “Cancel the painters, will you?”
“Already did, sir.”
“I knew there was a reason I hired you.” Xander smiled.
The room tilted, and the air in Xander’s lungs squeezed out in a gasp as a roll of energy shook the building. The floor underneath him shifted. In an automatic response, he pulled up his personal protective wards. This required minimal focus and no incantation for the protective energy to form. The relief was immediate, and he sucked in much-needed oxygen. Brandon lay sprawled on the floor, his chair on top of him, as the office windows that lined the far wall bowed inward. Xander’s insides tugged like an invisible fist had clenched behind his navel and pulled backward, throwing him off balance as he fought to stay vertical. The energy sucked back out in a rush, like a wave surging back into the ocean, dashing him and everyone else left standing in the office forward onto the floor. His head struck the floor, and his ears rang. The windows shattered outward, and his ears popped.
In the awful silence that followed, nothing moved. Sound rushed into the vacuum. It filled the void with shrieks of the injured, beeping car alarms, and the call of sirens. A residue of magic that screamed Mage and Dark clung to every surface. It was as if a bomb of magical proportions detonated.
Xander struggled to his feet. Brushing off bits of glass from his linen suit, he made sure his assistant was breathing. He staggered to the bank of broken windows. All the windows in the downtown area were shattered. Bodies lay in the street. Some stirred; others were ominously still. Cars were scattered haphazardly on the road. In the distance toward the airport, near where the mall was located, a thick, oily plume of smoke drifted upward.
What the fuck just happened?
Chapter Two
NICKI YELPED AND SPAT out the viscous liquid into the paper towel she held. Mina grabbed her wine glass before Nicki dropped it.
“Oil.” She gagged as she rinsed her mouth out in the sink. They’d decided moving into her kitchen was the safest place to be after the first glass of wine had changed into strawberry JELL-O. The stain was going to take forever to get out of the couch. This was the third glass she’d attempted. The second had transformed into vinegar, and now this.
Tipping the wine glass to her nose, Mina sniffed.
“Olive oil. I saved the vinegar; we can make salad dressing.” Mina opened the cabinet that held all the empty plastic containers and picked one out to pour the oil in.
Nicki closed her eyes. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. Instead, she splashed water on her face. She was crazy. That was all there was to it. Ever since her Mage powers manifested, she’d felt like her life had careened out of control. Nothing worked right. Not even drinking wine. Nicki couldn’t stand the greasy texture in her mouth. She wanted to brush her teeth, but she was afraid she’d change the toothpaste. Her attempts to manipulate her magic resulted in transformations of substances at a cellular level. The more she tried to rein in her power, the less influence she appeared to have.
“All I want is some wine.”
“I know.” Mina’s voice was sympathetic. “But you’re upset. You need to wait a bit.”
She was right. Every single frustrating time Nicki became too emotional, this sort of thing happened. For a long time after her breakup with that low-life, Vic, she’d been banned from making coffee. No one wanted to drink motor oil.
“I need to get a grip on this.” Nicki flexed her hands. They were long, lean, capable hands. Hands that needed a manicure she couldn’t afford. Those hands lied. She wasn’t capable. “Laurie had Mikhail to train her. I don’t have anyone.”
It took a moment and the unnatural silence for her to realize what she’d said. Nicki looked up at the reproachful, dark eyes of Mina. The spiky, black hair made those eyes bigger. It was like looking into the eyes of Puss-n-Boots from Shrek.
“I’m sorry, Mina. I know you’ve tried, but look at me.” She pointed to herself. She knew her eyeliner was smudged, her silk top stained with dirt from the struggle they’d had at the mall. “I’m a mess. I can’t even hold up in a fight.” Her throat closed, cutting off her ability to speak for a moment as images flashed through her head—the purple velour suit, the sharp, quick movements of creatures attacking and the desperate cries…
Nicki put her hands over her ears.
“I keep hearing their voices in my head. The people from the mall…screaming…”
A feather-light touch brushed her hand, and Nicki opened her stinging eyes, blurring through the sheen of tears. She hadn’t even turned on the radio. She didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to hear the news, but the continual sound of sirens in the distance told her otherwise. If she wanted to be truthful to herself, she helped kill a lot of people today by being at the mall—and because she was a damn Mage.
A freaking useless one.
“Is it always going to be like this?” She didn’t recognize her whispered voice as she spoke.
“I can take some of that from you,” Mina said in a soft voice as she reached toward her, fingers picking at something just above Nicki’s shoulder.
“Oh, no.” Nicki jerked her head up, eyes wide as she realized Mina was going to eat her emotion, take it from her. It didn’t matter that the girl got some sort of weird sustenance from it; it grossed her out. “You don’t have to. Really.” She shifted away from Mina, who froze.
God, she’d done it again. Insulted her friend.
“Sorry.” Mina stepped back. “I forget sometimes that you haven’t grown up with Darks.”
“We could’ve stopped it.” The words fell out of Nicki’s mouth in a rush of self-recrimination.
Mina shook her head. It made the piercings on her eyebrow, nose, cheek, and lip glitter from the yellow light over the sink. “No, we couldn’t. That spell was ancient.” Mina ran her hand along the polished surface of the counter. She didn’t look at Nicki. “She shouldn’t have used it.”
“If I’d been able to use some spells, I could’ve at least prevented it from going as far as it did,” Nicki insisted. “You’ve even said yourself being able to change the chemical, even the DNA structure of things, was a rare and powerful gift for a Mage. So, why can’t I remember spells?” She reached for the wine bottle, but Mina was too quick. She grabbed it and put the cork back in.
“No sense wasting this wine.” Mina opened the refrigerator door and put the half-full bottle of Merlot inside, away from her. “Let’s wait until you’re more in control.”
“People are dead now because I couldn’t get my shit together and remember some stupid spells!” She wasn’t giving up. She had to do something. “All I could do was lie on the floor and pray I wasn’t next. Some great help I am.”
Mina leaned against the silver door of the refrigerator.
“I’ll go get my spell books.”
“You’ll what?” At first, Nicki didn’t catch the quiet words. She looked at the slender Darkling. “I thought that’s what you were doing—teaching me. I thought you didn’t need spell books.”
“I’ve been teaching you basic spells, for children.”
Apparently I can’t even do that.
“I think you need something more concrete. I’ve seen you study your chemistry books. This may be a better medium.” Mina pushed herself off the refrigerator. “These books, they’ll give more information. The words are a conduit; the wording, how they are placed, helps you focus and adds strength.”
Nicki rubbed her still-burning eyes and stared at Mina, partly at what she’d said, but also how she said it. She was used to the off-the-wall comments and statements from her friend, but sometimes the Darkling spoke as if she were centuries older. “If I can’t do children’s spells, what makes you think this will help?”
“I don’t know if it will.” Mina shrugged. “It’s better than doing nothing. If we can keep you from turning your wine into other substances, it would be a start.”
“Then maybe I could get a job.” Nicki sighed. “That’s what I nee
d now.”
And a life overhaul, but one thing at a time.
“It can help hide you so you can find a job.”
Sold.
“Then do it.” Nicki stood. “I’m almost out of money. No matter how bad it gets, I am not moving in with Rachel. I’d kill her.” Which was true. Rachel was an awesome friend, but the woman and her lists would make Nicki more crazed than Mina and her penchant for trying to eat her emotions. Laurie was out of the question. That strange-eyed guy of hers was hot, but he made her totally nervous.
Mina stretched in a feline gesture and walked toward the shadowed corner. “I’ll be right back. Don’t drink anything.”
The Darkling blended into the shadows and was gone.
Nicki walked to the refrigerator door and pulled out the wine Mina had placed there.
To hell with waiting.
Life’s greatest lessons never occur before, but after the fact. As Mina ran, breath hitching in her chest, muscles burning, she figured she was smack in the middle of one great learning curve, all because she promised to fetch her spell books.
Behind her, the scrape of something heavy against stone told her they were close. The light was dim in the lower halls. She had to come in a back way, through the shadows, because the wards had been changed. Really, she needed to come home more often. She was losing her touch. Since when did the lower cavern creatures have access to the upper caverns?
“Fresssh meattt,” a guttural voice hissed behind her. “You don’t have to runnn.”
Like that was a realistic option.
“Stupid rock worms.” Mina pushed herself to move faster as she trailed her hand on the rough stone wall looking for a crack or crevice.
There has to be one.
The things behind her were blind but had a highly developed sense of smell. They could pick up a drop of blood within a quarter-mile radius, so when she scraped her knuckles on the rocks as she’d tried to stealthily make her way toward the upper caverns, she’d fairly shouted her presence. Worms made great sentries for outside critters, but they totally sucked for the rest of the Darks. These creatures were always hungry, and it didn’t matter who got in their way. If she’d known her route would’ve forced her past their patrol, she’d have brought a steak or two from Nicki’s house. Food always distracted them. Instead, she was the focus.
Illumination Page 3
