by Rob Preece
Behind them, warder infantry moved in a gray wall.
This was going to be ugly. And Danielle knew it was her own fault.
Danielle looked around for something to use as a weapon and felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Stay down, honey.” Carl's voice sounded confident despite the limited damage his troops were having.
"This looks bad."
"It'll get better later."
"Will there be a zone left by later?"
Carl nodded seriously. “I hope so."
Danielle did too. The alternative was unthinkable. Unthinkable or not, though, she couldn't imagine anything the zone could do that would stop that incoming tide of equipment and soldiers.
The magics had cleared a kill zone of a few hundred feet inside the zone barriers, but the warders swept through it with minimal damage and plunged into the narrow alleys and ramshackle buildings of the zone.
That's when the miracle happened.
Trolls reared back and heaved brownies at the APCs, the small winged creatures flying so fast that the APC machine guns couldn't track on them. The brownies dropped grenades into open hatches, attached plastique explosives to closed hatches, and then flitted off.
Badly aimed automatic-fire shots from the warder infantry bounded off the trolls and only managed to take out the few warder officers who had survived the brownie attack and then opened their hatches to see what was going on.
The elves struck next.
Using elf camouflage, they had blended into the buildings and streets. With the APC crews distracted by the brownies, they now rose and planted explosives inside the APC track mechanisms.
One after another, the fearsome APCs ground to halts, their crews bailing to the relative safety of the line of foot soldiers behind them.
Mike's motorcycle-mounted vampire legion attack had to be one of the dumbest military plans since the charge of the light brigade. But when the already demoralized warder soldiers saw those vampires coming at them, their teeth bared and ready to suck blood, they broke.
A rush of werewolves turned the retreat into a rout. The invading warders streamed back across the borders, their helicopter gunships blasting any magical who tried to follow.
"Welcome back, Danielle,” Carl told her. “We missed you."
Danielle listened to her heart pound in the still darkness of the night. Making love with Carl only got better as they learned those secret spots that heighten pleasure and as they lost their inhibitions and experimented. During the few days since the warder attack had been beaten off, they'd tried to make up for the weeks of sexual tension that Danielle's now-shed prejudices had created. She'd abandoned her own room and moved into Carl's spacious suite in a recently opened hotel—his lab was still considered too dangerous to use.
She practically purred as she draped herself across his handsome body—and stopped abruptly. The pounding didn't come from her heart—or his. “I think we're about to have company,” she told Carl.
He grabbed for his pants while Danielle hunted for a weapon. She'd only come up with a broken off chair leg when their door burst open and a tactical team of warders poured in.
"Well look what we have here.” Joe Smealy, her ex-boss, ex-mentor, and now her enemy, strode into the supposedly secret room where she and Carl had gone after the zone-wide celebration of their victory over the warders.
"The zone is no threat to you,” she told Joe. “Why don't you just go back and let us live in peace."
He shook his head slowly. “You could have been one of the best, Danielle. But you threw it away for sex with an animal. Disgusting."
"We have ten thousand armed magics within a mile,” Danielle reminded him. “If you shoot, every one will be here."
"So if you'd just accompany me back to the chopper, we can dispense with killing all those animals. At least for now."
Beside her, Carl moved slightly. She clamped a hand on his wrist. If he transformed, the warders would shoot him down no matter what the danger to themselves.
"What happens if I come with you?"
Carl stiffened. “Danielle. No."
She ignored Carl's protest. “Are you prepared to offer a bargain?"
"Aren't you the noble one, Danielle? I guess that was always your weakness. But of course I will. If you come with us, we'll leave the zone alone. Hell, we'll bring it food and medical supplies."
For an instant, she'd forgotten that Joe was a practiced liar. He'd keep whatever bargain he made exactly as long as it was comfortable for him to do so.
"We've reproduced the magic virus,” Carl said. “If you don't head back, we'll release it."
The warder commandos looked to Joe for direction, obviously intimidated by Carl's threat.
Joe slowly shook his head. “I don't think you'd do it. Maybe if we tried to wipe out the entire zone. But you wouldn't risk it to protect one rogue warder. After all, if the virus does get out, we'll nuke you back to the Paleolithic."
She looked from the man she'd admired half her life to the man she'd never heard of a few months earlier—but now loved. Both were strong leaders. Both believed that they had right on their side. But Joe was tangled up in a world of lies. Hatred had turned him rotten from the inside. That same hatred had nearly destroyed her.
"Danielle. You're under arrest for violation of the inter-species breeding ordinance 100007 and for failure to obey a lawful termination order."
A part of her wanted to obey. She'd spent her life obeying, ever since she'd broken the rules, snuck out of school, and, to her teenaged mind, been responsible for getting her mother killed. The sudden psychological insight helped her resist any effort to peacefully surrender, but it didn't do anything to resolve the problem. “Stay here, Carl. I'll go along with them.” She dropped the makeshift club she'd found.
"The hell!"
If she got Carl killed, she would never forgive herself. She stood from the bed and walked toward Joe. “You mean what you said about helping the zone, right?"
"Oh yeah. Sure."
How could she have believed him for all those years? The lie was in his face for any idiot to see. She must have been blind.
One of the warders reached out to her, plastic cuffs in his hand. From his overly controlled movement, she could tell that he was already in full blur.
Well, two could play at that game.
She blurred, sliced a knife hand to the warder's groin, and held on as she spun around.
"Shoot them both down,” Joe ordered. He fired a blast in her direction.
She had anticipated his move, though. She swept the first warder's feet from under him and then rolled forward over him toward Joe. The burst of automatic fire went high, over her head.
Their bed transformed into an explosion of feathers, foam rubber, and metal springs as two more warders opened up at where Carl had been moments before. Except that Carl had disappeared.
Good. He was safe. For now.
"You two go after the wolf. Alex, stay here and help me take care of the female."
Danielle faced the two men who separated, circled around. “Don't make this hard on yourself,” Joe urged.
His voice sounded perfectly normal to her—which had to mean that he had blurred as well.
He was good. The other warder feinted, distracting her just enough to let Joe slice in a crescent kick followed by a punch to her midsection.
Danielle reeled away fighting for breath.
She gasped in a hint of oxygen and concentrated on staying alive.
The two men teamed perfectly, attacking together, protecting one another when Danielle tried to strike back. She landed a few blows but took much worse in return.
Then, she faced Joe alone. Carl, who had somehow lost the team assigned to follow him, faced her other opponent, his slow motions belying his calm competence.
"This won't turn out well for you, Goodman,” Joe snarled at her. “The impaired can't be trusted. Ever."
He might be right, but that didn't make th
e magical anything but human.
"Maybe your wife didn't leave you because she was magical,” Danielle suggested. “Maybe she was just looking for anyone who wasn't you."
Joe's eyes narrowed and he rushed her, his hands grasping like a crab's claws. He was out of control and vulnerable.
Danielle sidestepped and hammered in a series of punches but Joe spun around as if he didn't even feel them. His rage added to the blur's endorphin overload and made him all but oblivious to pain.
"You're going down,” he growled. “Now,"
Danielle nodded. “If you're good enough."
Joe rushed her again. This time, though, he stopped abruptly when he'd gotten inside her guard, sucked it up as she landed three hard punches, and then grappled.
He was strong.
He grasped her close, choking her against his body armor, which deadened the kicks and punches that that she continued to throw.
"Say goodbye, Danielle,” he urged.
Carl had incapacitated the other warder and circled around looking for an opening, but Joe backed into a corner and continued to squeeze out Danielle's life.
"If you let her go now, I'll let you walk out of here,” Carl promised. “If you hurt her, you're a dead man."
Joe just laughed.
Oxygen debt sent a wave of dizziness through Danielle and she shifted from blur mode to let herself survive a little longer.
She gave up striking at Joe's armored body, quickly saw that he had protected his face and eyes, and went to work on a finger.
Joe's gloved hands resisted her grasp. Only the smallest metallic click let her believe that she was having any effect at all. Either he was impossibly strong or—
"You think I'd come here without the best equipment?” Joe bragged. “You're finished, Danielle."
She sagged against him, letting him carry all of her weight, then kicked off against the wall.
Joe stumbled and loosened his grasp, although only for a fraction of a moment.
That moment was enough, though. She grabbed a breath and twisted, not trying to escape, but telling herself to be like water, letting Joe flow over her without getting a grasp, sweeping his feet from under him.
Joe couldn't completely counter her move, but she didn't catch him by surprise either. When he fell, he twisted so that his heavy armored body fell on her.
She felt her ribs giving way and then Joe's hands were back on her neck squeezing hard. The dull thud-thud-thud of her heart in her ears sounded like chopper blades.
She had almost lost consciousness when she felt the wolf's body slam into Joe knocking him away from her.
Her technique, stupid if she'd been alone, had given Carl the opportunity to get into the fight.
Joe rolled away, took one look at the enraged wolf, and blurred for the window.
Danielle rolled to her feet and followed, but too slowly. Before she could reach him, Joe broke through the window. Perfectly timed, a nylon ladder dropped from a chopper—it hadn't been Danielle's heart after all. Joe grasped the ladder
She watched as the helicopter zoomed away.
Carl, in human form again, joined her at the window.
"I have a feeling he'll be back."
She couldn't disagree. Watching Joe climb that weblike ladder reminded her of a spider.
The helicopter spun back around and raked the hotel with machine gun fire.
"Get down,” Carl commanded.
She started to obey, then stopped. Something was off.
Joe was shouting commands to the helicopter, ordering it back into the attack.
The black gunship ponderously turned, it's cannons pointing straight toward the window where Danielle stood waiting.
"Get down.” Carl was screaming but Danielle couldn't move. Not that it made any difference.
The chopper's turn seemed slow, but Joe was hanging at the end of a long rope. The leverage turned a gentle movement into the crack of a whip.
Joe used the mechanical strength of his gloves to hold on. But, as he reached for a new handhold, his grip slipped.
For the first time since she'd known him, Danielle saw panic flit across Joe's face. He grasped for the line with his free hand—too late.
The helicopter pilot picked that minute to adjust its sights. It was only a slight jerk, but it was too much for Joe.
He seemed to fall in slow motion, his eyes filled with an insane gleam. Then he accelerated and smashed into the ground a hundred feet below the gunship.
"Goodbye, Joe,” Danielle murmured.
"What happened?"
"When we were grappling, I felt something snap in his glove. I must have frozen one of the reinforced joints. When he relied on it, it wasn't there."
"You're quite a fighter,” Carl said.
Those weren't the most romantic words in the world, but Danielle felt lucky to be alive. “What happened to the other warders?"
"They ran into Mike and Snori. We'll let them go in the morning. With the message that another attempt like this is going to cause the second magical plague."
"In that case, maybe we should get back to bed."
Carl gestured at the bullet-infested remains of what had once been their love nest. “Here?"
"How about the floor. Except I get to be on top."
* * * *
For most of the zone, Joe Smealy's death was a cause for celebration. Danielle couldn't quite bring herself to join. He had been a liar, but she still believed he'd been doing what he thought was right.
"Gus and the guys are one thing, but we can't let just anybody in,” Carl explained, his voice almost artificially patient. “For one thing, they'd smuggle more warders in to sabotage us. And for another, we don't want to live with them any more than they want to live with us."
She and Carl faced off in the middle of Carl's compound, now converted into a makeshift headquarters. A sort of combination government office and military command center. Around them, Mike the Vampire, Snori, the dwarfs, and a cluster of elves tried to be inconspicuous.
Danielle didn't bother trying to sound patient. She knew she was right and wasn't going to back down. “You're thinking exactly the same way that the warders think. Letting fear control your actions."
"Fancy talk,” he growled. He stepped into her personal space trying to intimidate her with his size and maybe the sexual magnetism that had worked so well. But sex was sex and life was life. Carl was wrong and Danielle didn't plan on backing down no matter what he might say.
"Of all people, you should be able to understand this,” she said. “You were a normal until a few months ago. You've lived both worlds. You can see how the two need each other if we're going to break out of this downward spiral."
"We've been treated like dirt for years. We need time to create our own civilization. If the normals overrun us now, we'll just be forced into a new zone.” His hands twitched at his side as if he wanted to attack—or maybe to caress her. Danielle couldn't tell.
"Look at me,” he continued. “They had me convinced that the answer was a cure to the magic. To force the magical to give up their talents. I had to get away from them to see that magical talents are a gift, not a curse."
"You don't get it, do you? I thought you would be the first to want to open the door to the future rather than keep looking backward.” She spun on her heels and started away from him.
"Come on, Danielle,” he urged. “Let me show you what we're building here. Maybe once you have a chance to really feel the promise, you'll see that it's a magical thing. The normals wouldn't understand."
She spun around. “I am a normal, remember."
"You're not normal,” he told her. “You're as magical as any of us. Where else do you think your blur comes from? You're as much a victim of their lies as any of us. Because you are one of us, Danielle. Not one of them."
Danielle froze.
She'd wondered how Carl could reconcile his newfound magical chauvinism with the apparent feelings that they shared. She'd imag
ined, hoped, that this showed that Carl was more open and perceptive than he appeared.
Those hopes burned into ashes. Carl hadn't accepted her for who she was, he'd projected what he wanted into her. He'd decided that she was a magical because he needed her to be one.
Unfortunately for Carl, his theory was dead wrong. She wasn't magical. The blur wasn't a magical talent. It was the result of years of hard work with biofeedback and countless hours of training.
Unfortunately for Danielle, Carl's reaction meant that her hopes, her plans, and her dreams were impossible. She couldn't live her life with Carl, and she couldn't persuade anyone to create the powerful hybrid of magical and non-magical that every instinct told her was humanity's only way to move forward.
* * * *
Carl watched Danielle walk away, her hands clenched in fists that he knew could break concrete—could break his heart.
He wanted to call her back, to run after her, to do anything but let her leave. But what could he add to what he'd already told her?
"You blew that one, boss,” Mike the Vampire told him.
"Yeah?” Carl turned on his friend and jammed his hands into his pockets so he wouldn't do anything rash. “So what was I supposed to do? Sell out the entire zone just so I could get a little nookie?"
"Is that what Danielle is to you, boss? Nookie?"
Carl yanked his hands back out of his pocket and slammed a fist into the apartment's brick wall. Two bricks crumbled with a crunch that would have been satisfying if he hadn't felt something shatter in his hand as well.
"Damn it, Mike.” He manipulated his hand, trying to see if he could still make his fingers move. He could, but barely. “It doesn't matter what she means to me,” he continued. “I'm working for all of us."
Mike didn't look particularly grateful. “Like I said before, you blew it. The worst thing is, you're too stubborn to do anything about it."
The vampire didn't look as angry as Danielle had when she'd walked away, but he walked away too. Leaving Carl standing alone, his fist throbbing and the rest of him feeling like he'd been sucker-punched.
He considered smacking the wall again, but managed to restrain himself. He could work around one broken hand. Two would get in the way.
