by K. F. Breene
Jonas stalked toward the boarded front door, his feet crunching glass and debris into the hard pavement. The sounds echoed along the quiet street, pinging off the walls and disintegrating into the silence. I followed, knowing that with him around, the only people in their right mind who would pick a fight with us were his kind of people. I could handle magic workers; it was the gun carriers I was concerned about—my kind.
“You okay?” Tim asked, stepping beside me and rubbing my back to calm my nerves.
“No sweat. Kinda. So…why are we here, again? Territory breach?”
Jack and Ann split up, each walking in a diagonal line toward the opposite corners of the building.
“Stefan had reports of a breach, but we have two pack members missing. Last we know, they were in this part of town. We’re wondering if the two are related,” Tim informed me, his acute focus scanning the building in front of us.
A loud screech echoed down the street as Jonas ripped off the board across the front entryway. His arms and back bunched with thick, lethal muscle. The wood groaned as it bent, hanging on with steel claws. It was no match for Jonas’ strength, though. A moment later, the board flew to the side, jarring my teeth as it banged off the concrete and slid to a stop.
I took two loud breaths as silence once again descended on our surroundings. If anyone was around, we’d just made our presence known.
Jack disappeared beyond the corner of the building. A moment later, Ann did, too.
“Sasha—“ Jonas motioned me near. He stepped into the gaping black of the doorway.
“Oh man,” I whined, tiptoeing closer.
Tim stayed at my back, eyes scanning the street and then the darkened face of the building. Jonas spared him one irritated glance before honing in on me.
“I need you to sense for magic. Something doesn’t feel right, and it certainly doesn’t smell right. It’s too subtle for me to pick up, though.”
“Do I have to go inside?” I whispered. I rubbed my arms as the lifeless building pressed down around me. It felt hollowed, somehow. Gutted and left for dead.
Jonas stared at me for a long, stern-faced beat. “Yes.”
I pushed the air out of my lungs, a swear riding the wave. I could sprint into danger with a grin and a rape whistle, but this slow creeping into the unknown was not high on my list of loves.
Goosebumps spread across my arms as I crossed the threshold, a feeling of disquiet smearing over my skin like lotion. I barely heard Jonas’ voice speaking to Tim as the cold, dank air washed over me. “Your magic will throw things off, mongrel. Stay outside.”
Tim growled out some sort of threat, but I couldn’t focus on that now. Prickles dotted my exposed flesh, foul magic eating through my senses. Jonas had it right: something was definitely off.
I put out my hands in front of me like a blind person feeling their way in. The rush of power, slippery and hard to control, filled my body as I called the elements, combating the polluted power in the room with blissful joy. My foot went lopsided on a discarded board, popping it out from under my shoe, skittering across the floor in a dull collection of tinkles.
The shadows crouched in the corners of the enormous, empty space, watching me. Moonlight filtered in from jagged, broken windows along the outside of the structure, casting an unearthly glow. My breath rang through my ears, unnaturally loud, interrupting the stillness of a tomb.
This was a very bad idea. I could feel it. How did I land myself in this job, again?
Filling my lungs and then holding it, I inched closer to the back of the warehouse. Large beams crossed above me and touched down periodically, keeping the sagging ceiling in place far above my head. A ring of black along the side wall advertised an old firepit for someone down on their luck. I kept my eyes pointed down, wary of needles and other items lazily discarded after a night of partying.
As I got halfway through the open space, a vulgar feeling began to crawl up my skin like tiny insects. The sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh tickled my nose.
“I’ve never felt anything like this before,” I said quietly, passing my hands through the air. “Although, granted, I haven’t had a lot of experience.”
Shapes took form within the shadows toward the back wall the closer I got. On the right, near the corner of the building, lay a pile of grayish sticks, charred and blackened by fire. Scorched fabric was glued to the various elements of the pile.
Three more steps had me halting, sucking in a huge breath.
It was a body! They weren’t sticks, they were bones coated in masticated skin!
Did that moan come from me?
A face, twisted in an endless scream of agony, lay on the backside of his calves. One arm had been ripped out of the socket and lay flat under his back. One leg, cracked at the thigh, lay over the other. He was broken and twisted, as if he’d been made of matchsticks and sporadically snapped and tossed to the ground.
“No human could have done this,” I whispered. “His back was broken in half.”
“A bear could have,” Jonas’ voice echoed around the crouching walls.
“Not without opposable thumbs,” I retorted into the hush.
A few more steps and I could see another fire site, only this time, there was a large black pot overturned against the wall. A round camping stove, smudged with soot, half lay under it.
“This has got to be a few days old, at least…”
“You’re not here to investigate,” Jonas growled. “You’re here to feel for magic. We have an experienced clan that’ll go over this site and give us more conclusive findings.”
“Oh. Well, you could’ve made that more clear before I looked at the body.”
I let my magic drift, sensing for spells and pitfalls within the area. This was something I practiced every day per Toa’s instruction. A large part of my job was sensing other magic and possible dangers. I still had trouble doing this on the fly, but here, in the quiet settings, the building almost feeling as if it was holding its breath, I had nothing else to do but concentrate.
The black glow of my magic, hardly discernable in the gloom of the warehouse, drifted over the overturned pot. Like a match to kerosene, a circular fire lit up, climbing into the sky. Sparkles danced and played in a shimmering orange halo lazily drifting toward the right. Toward the body.
I could not help that squeak. Or holding my breath afterwards.
Still it drifted. Reaching for that death. What would it do when it got there?
I didn’t want to know!
A blast of rotten stench crawled up my nose, prompting a gag. That smell didn’t come from the body; it came from the disgusting magic corroding this area. Magic that was still active. Lingering, waiting. But for what? Whatever spells had been laid, they weren’t used to create rainbows. They were also extensive and intricate. Beyond my training.
“Not good magic over here…” I mumbled.
My magic spread like a fog over the body. For a second, nothing happened.
“Sasha?” Tim asked into the din.
“Don’t go in there, mong—”
Jonas’ voice cut off as my magic started to sizzle and pop. Like water splashing into hot grease.
“What’s it doing?” I asked Jonas with a quiver in my voice.
“This isn’t normal…” Jonas’ voice drifted away.
“Back out of there, Sasha,” Tim urged from the door.
Something tugged at my magical senses. It was like undertow, rolling and fierce, sucking. Consuming. As fast as magic surged into my body, elements desperate to get in, something in that area stole it again, using my draw to fuel itself.
“Crap,” I mumbled, scrabbling to pull my power back.
“What is it?” Jonas asked, stepping into the building, his tattoos lighting up like a Christmas tree. A great, gleaming sword swung into his hand, the blade glowing orange.
“Get out of here, Jonas! I need to tie off this weird spell. It’s sucking magic to it.”
Jonas took a ha
sty step back, his body once again receding out of the doorway. Tim backed out with him, but hesitantly.
I got to work, sweat beading my brow, fighting the draw both of that corner, and from the elements fighting to rush into my body.
“Nasty spell-working, this,” I said under my breath, sensing the elements within the casting. “They’re, like, reaching for me. Feeding off my magic. I’ve never dealt with a spell like this. I didn’t even know this was possible.”
“Dark magic,” Jonas whispered. “Hard to work. Harder to control. Someone has balls of steel.”
“Well, it’s not me,” I wheezed.
I snubbed out the elements that made up the spell, like soldering wires, closing the spell in a sort of circuit.
“I don’t think the wielder knew exactly what he was doing,” I murmured, analyzing the lacy structure of the orangey incantation. It hovered within a shaky line spilled on the cement floor. Spilled because it looked suspiciously like blood, sticky and slick, gleaming in the soft light from the window.
As I was about to turn away toward Jonas, wanting to talk about what I’d done, the lacy spell cleared away like mist. In its place grinned the head of a black monster, staring at me like a hungry lion would a fresh steak.
“You did not call me.” Sharp, ragged teeth filled a mouth too big for its face.
Terror jolted me back as a stringy leg stepped forward.
“Sasha?” Jonas’ voice held hard fibers of alarm as it echoed through the cavernous space.
The monster slapped into an invisible barrier. Orange sparks rained down on its head as a tall circle flared to life around it. It glanced up, and then around, noticing the hazy orange circle trapping it. And then its face straightened out, staring right at me out of black pits instead of eyes. In a raspy voice that shivered across my body, it said, “We can rule, you and I. Our power, combined, will be indestructible. Join me.”
“Oh lovely, one of you. Fantastic.”
I eyed its cage as it did, sensing the weakness of it. The shaky spell barely held together. Even as I stood there, the thing was starting to eat away at its cage.
Super.
Was this a terrible spell by design, or some sort of failed attempt?
“We gotta get out of here!” I roared at Jonas, backing away as quickly as possible. “This thing is way, way stronger than other Dulcha I’ve seen. It’s feeding off of the magic containing it, somehow. We need Toa for this one.”
Jonas flicked his gaze at Tim, whose eyes were directed in a flat stare, at the scary monster pacing within its sphere. “You wanna go check if the dead body is one of yours?”
Tim started forward immediately. When that thing’s hollow gaze locked on him, his step did not falter.
“Don’t touch the orange cylinder surrounding it,” I whisper-yelled as he passed.
“When he’s done, pull your magic out, but you’ll need to seal off the building,” Jonas instructed as I neared.
“Yes, Jonas, I know. I’m not an idiot.”
His face had turned to point down at me, the area around his eyes tight.
“This isn’t just a normal Dulcha, is it?” I asked in a tiny voice, following Jonas as he backed away from the opening. My eyes scanned the enormity of the building. I thought of the spells at my disposal—the ones I could do well. “I’m not really sure how to seal off something of this size. I mean, containment spell, obviously, but it seems to be eating away at the one locking it in right now. How did the wielder create that thing?”
“Old magic,” Jonas said in a low voice, stepping aside so a grim-faced Tim could exit the door and move past. “More power makes the process easier, but humans that don’t know how to work their magic can call them, too. It takes chants and sacrifices. Blood and death.”
His haunted eyes took me in. “I’m only orange. You are black. If that thing breaks free, my magic isn’t going to stop it. Which means you need to work this shit out. That thing cannot escape this building.”
I grimaced. True words.
“Don’t blow up the building, either,” he added. “It’ll laugh at the fire and keep on coming.”
I groaned. “That didn’t need to be said…”
We backed out to the center of the quiet street, the shape changers all waiting for us.
Tim’s gaze touched mine, tight and serious, before finding Jack. “It was Dom in there. He didn’t make it to his fox form. He was a fast and fearless fighter. No chains or manacles to secure him.”
“How did he get taken so easily? Do your people get manipulated like humans do?” I asked, because that would be a good explanation.
Tim shook his head solemnly.
“I found Phillip,” Ann said quietly. “Killed with a sword. Apparently he was just in the way.”
“The person that called this thing didn’t need two sacrifices—one was enough,” Jonas growled, gaze skewering the decrepit and hulking warehouse in front of us. “Seal this place off, Sasha.”
Him using my name straightened my back and sent tingles down my spine. His eyes, a dark shade of brown with specks of gold, were intense and serious, a spark of fear deep within their depths. That thing in the warehouse had shaken him. Shaken Jonas, the meanest, most fearsome badass in Stefan’s clan.
Not good.
Survival mode washed over me, that glimmer of fear peeking out of Jonas’ stare infusing my courage. I had to stop that thing from getting out. Only seriously bad news could scare Jonas, and only I had the ability to cut it off.
It was not shaping into a good day.
I opened up and let the elements rush in, filling me to capacity, then taking just a bit more. For me, unlike for others, magic shock was a very real issue every single time I used my magic. I couldn’t draw too heavily, or the dam would burst, the elements blasting into my body until my body became overloaded and shut down. So far, that shut down was just for a few hours, or even a day or so. I’d been lucky. Worst case, however, meant that the shutdown would be forever. I had to be careful.
I envisioned placing a huge blanket over that warehouse, draping it in suffocating power. No holes. The weave was water tight. I used mass quantities of earth for the lock, keeping that spell put.
I’d learned a thing or two from Toa. It had given me stress wrinkles, but I was getting somewhere.
As the billowing cloud of magic enveloped the building, I could feel my energy sucking out of my body. I had limitless magic, yes, but like running or lifting something heavy, it took energy. I did not have limitless energy. It was another way things could go wrong.
For all the things I had going for me in the magic world, I had just as many that would result in death if I wasn’t careful. I was forever walking on that razor’s edge.
I reached through my link with Stefan, tugging, needing his special power. The distance softened the connection, lessening his help, but he was with me immediately, balancing the flow. Distributing it.
He was also growing concerned. This was supposed to be a routine stop along his—our—territory. I shouldn’t need his help. That I did would alert him something was wrong.
Gaining a burst of energy, I sprinkled an invisibility charm that would have the eye glancing off of the building should someone wander by. I also tied off this spell, keeping the magic in place. I stepped back, panting with fatigue.
Jonas’ brow had furrowed. “You did more than just disguise it, right?”
I continued my eye-rolling marathon as Tim stalked up, having left with Ann around the building when I started my spell. “Obviously.”
“There’s nothing obvious when you do magic…”
“He was taken down cleanly,” Tim said, glancing around the area.
“What were they doing here?” Jonas asked suspiciously.
“We had notice of a wilder in this location. They came to check it out.”
Jonas and Tim stared at each other for a moment, before Jonas took one more glance at the building and headed back to the car. “C’mon, we
gotta let the Boss know.”
A thrill ran through my stomach at the mention of Stefan. As always, I couldn’t wait to get back to him. It was like an extended honeymoon period with him—part of me wanted to just hang out in the same room and stare at him while drool dribbled down my chin.
At the moment, however, unease ate away my longing to touch him. He knew something was wrong, and he wanted me away from whatever it was. Like any alpha male, he was protective and possessive to a fault, wanting to wrap me up in bubble wrap and stow me away from harm. Obviously that was as harebrained as it was impossible, but it didn’t prevent his agitation when he couldn’t protect me.
Scared Jonas on one hand, partially irrational clan leader struggling for control on the other. The day was not getting any better.
As I turned toward the car, Tim said, “We’ll hang on—I want to see to Phillip’s remains.”
Jonas nodded and motioned for me to hurry up and get in the car.
“Alright, this is your time to assert yourself,” Jonas coached as he started driving. “This is an important and valid discovery that you made.”
“We did it together—”
“You are the Black Mage, which means you technically led this expedition. You are in charge—”
“Which no one can tell since you constantly bully me.”
“—and you need to demonstrate that if the Boss has people around him. You need to start showing that you pull rank with everyone but the Boss. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“You need to act mature and professional. Can you do that?”
Not a chance. “Absolutely.”
We pulled up to the front of the mansion, only a faint glow seeping from the front windows. Jonas slammed the gear shift into park and opened the door. “Alright, let’s go.”
Ten minutes later, we arrived at the room my link told me Stefan occupied. Jonas stepped forward and pulled open the door. I got an impatient thumb jerk from him, telling me to enter. As I crossed the threshold; the world fell away. All I could focus on were those intelligent, dark eyes, looking at me out of that earth-shatteringly handsome face. My stomach exploded in butterflies as my chest tugged, wanting to close the distance and touch him. The emotion through the link held the same longing, the same single-minded focus as Stefan paid homage to me entering the room.
