Cursed: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Is this where you seriously suggest we go in through the sewer?” Jack asked, raising one dark eyebrow and giving me the impression the two of them had engaged in the particular conversation before. It made me wonder what they did when they weren’t in the bar, and as that thought crossed my mind, I realized I knew next to nothing about them. God, I was an idiot. Here I was about to break into a millionaire class gated community with a couple guys I’d met only a few hours ago.

  “Well, we can’t go over the walls.” Duane pointed to the razor wire lining the twenty-foot-tall cinderblock wall. “I don’t know if you can see it, but I can actually feel electricity running through that wire. I’m pretty sure it’s a Waldorf system which means if it gets disturbed by so much as a pigeon, not only does it send fifty thousand volts running through that razor wire, it also sounds an alarm. Underground is our best bet, places like these tend not to expect it.”

  “What if there’s a defense in the sewer?” I asked, trying to decide how I felt about Duane’s knowledge of alarm systems. Part of me was impressed, but most of me was worried. No one good knew that much about them.

  “Look, your only other option is to charge through that gate, but you see those steel cylinders in the ground on either side of the gate?” He gestured toward it, and I spied the six-inch-diameter cylinders just poking up from the cement. They were spaced about three inches apart the entire length of both gates.

  “Yeah?” I said as a bad feeling crept down my spine.

  “I’m guessing those will shoot up and provide some kind of barrier that will be very difficult to get through. You could likely punch through the gate, but not before they came up, spearing your car.” Duane rubbed his chin and his eyes twinkled mischievously. “No, we need to go underground, unless you both want to give me a few days to figure out a way inside.”

  “Well, we ain’t got time for that. Ricky’s no doubt on her way here right now. Hell, I’m sort of surprised she and her wolves aren’t already here,” I replied, wishing not for the first time, I hadn’t lost the Beretta. Not having the gun left me feeling naked and exposed. “But remind me later to have you help me rob a bank.”

  “Banks are small time,” Duane said, and a smile broke across his aged face. “I get into them all the time when I’m feeling lazy. Mostly, I break into big corporations and government agencies.” I’m not sure what kind of look I was giving him, but his eyes twinkled. “I’m the guy they pay to try to break into their facilities to test their security.” He shrugged as if to say, “Hey, it pays the bills.”

  “Why don’t I just walk up to the guards and lay my vampire whammy on them?” Jack asked, pushing past the two of us and sauntering toward the guard shack. “Even if it fails, which it won’t, it isn’t like I’ll show up on the cameras.”

  “Jack never wants to go in the sewers.” Duane let out a small huff of breath as he eyed me carefully as if expecting me to comment on the vampire’s antics.

  I was about to reply when the vampire sauntered over to the shack’s window and a portly man with dark eyes and a red and gray streaked Viking beard poked his head out. I couldn’t hear what was said, but as Jack made two fingers on his right hand walk across his left palm, a buzzing sound filled the air and the gate swung open. Jack gestured for us to come over, and as we caught up to him, the Viking gave us a glassy-eyed smile and waved us through.

  “Vampire trumps bank thief every time,” Jack said, smirking as Duane grumbled next to me. “Now we just need to find the house.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Duane replied, practically snarling as he walked through the gate. He made it about three steps inside the compound before a sound like busting glass filled my ears. Duane’s face twisted up in agony before he was thrown forcibly backward about twenty feet. He landed hard in a grove of azaleas and lay there dazed.

  “What the hell?” I mouthed as a high pitched ringing split the air like an air-raid siren and the gate started to close.

  “They’ve got some kind of barrier spell,” Jack cried out as symbols all along the ground lit up with that same sickly green light I remembered seeing from Vassago’s Cursed. Jack’s gaze swung from the still unmoving Duane to the glowing green fire and horror passed over his features. “Damn.”

  “What is it?” I asked, but before the words had even left my mouth, Jack had grabbed me by the collar of my trench coat.

  “We tripped a magical trap that won’t let me in. They must have known I’d come after Sera. Looks like you’ll have to do this on your own,” he said, taking a step forward and using all his vampire strength to fling me through the closing gate.

  My shoulder crashed into it with a bone cracking squeal that caused the metal to shudder, but my momentum kept me going anyway. I hurtled through the opening like a broken mannequin and crashed to the cement on the other side as the metal door slammed closed, leaving me alone on the other side.

  I tried to shake the cobwebs from my brain as I turned back toward the wrought-iron gate. I couldn’t see through it. The entire structure was alive with green flame hot enough to turn the asphalt beneath it to slag and burn all the plant life to ash. The siren was still going off, but it seemed a lot quieter inside the compound, and as I looked around, I realized there were hazy lines of energy drifting up from the pavement, reminding me of heat lines cast from the sun in the desert.

  “Did Jack seriously just throw me through a gate of burning hellfire and tell me to save Sera by myself?” I said to myself, and as the words left my mouth, an assertion of truth rippled across the back of my brain. Still, I got the impression Jack wouldn’t have thrown me through the gate if he didn’t think I could do this. He expected me to be able do this on my own. Was it because of my demonic arm? It had to be.

  Maybe the vampire knew something I didn’t, but every time I’d used my power thus far, it’d been reactionary. Maybe there was a way to make it more purposeful? It made sense after all. There ought to be a way for me to control it. At least, I really hoped there was.

  I shut my eyes, concentrating on the sensation I’d felt when I’d used my powers. Unlike before, I got the distinct impression of another person looking over my shoulder, waiting expectantly to see what I’d do.

  “Hello,” I said aloud even though I was wasting time and men armed with guns, swords, and gun-swords were no doubt running toward me.

  “Hello,” replied a feline voice old enough to make all of humanity feel young in comparison. “How are things?”

  “Been better,” I said, shaking my head as I turned away from the gate and tried to figure out where to go. Unsure, I picked a random direction and started walking, hoping that at the very least I wouldn’t be spotted by whoever had booby-trapped the entrance. It was probably a foolish hope, I’ll admit.

  “I’ll bet,” said the voice, and the sly smile in the words was obvious to me. “So, how can I help you puny mortal who is less than an amoeba’s toe slime?”

  Somehow the words made me grin because I got the distinct feeling she was messing with me, and as I had that thought, another struck me. The voice was most definitely female. My demon master was a female cat. I was so screwed.

  “I’d like to know where to go to save Sera,” I replied, wondering if there was a way for me to speak to her without talking aloud. I had the sneaking suspicion no one else could hear her ancient voice. Anyone looking at me would just think I was crazy, and being that we were likely to start talking about anything from demons to murder, I’d likely get reported to the nearest psychiatric ward ASAP. They probably wouldn’t look kindly on my explanation since telling them I was talking to the demon in my head was probably right there with using the “Devil made me do it” defense.

  “Interesting,” the cat mused, and I got the strange sensation of it peering very closely at me. “Most people in your situation would ask for gifts or their memories, or perhaps even who I was. Without any hesitation, you ask only for help to save a female you’ve only just met.” The image of a huge toothy gr
in filled my mind. “I knew I chose rightly.”

  Before I could respond, or even process her words, a house lit up in the distance as if overlaid with a scarlet lens. It was especially strange because I could suddenly see people within the house, along its walls and even down below. There was a ton of them, and even from here, I could tell some were a lot warmer than others. Werewolves. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did.

  “Go there and you will find your girl, hero,” the voice purred as it receded into the back of my mind.

  The scarlet overlay faded, and the scenery resolved to its normal serene colors. I stood there like a dumbass for a lot longer than I’d care to admit as the whump, whump of the siren faded to nothing. Behind me, the fire still raged, and while I was curious why no one had come to investigate it, I forced myself to focus. The overlay had showed me an army of cultists and who knows what else between me and Sera.

  Still, as I passed by the Ferrari parked outside a lofty mansion with that fake grass people used on baseball fields, a thought occurred to me. I might not have any weapons, unless you counted my demonic arm, but I had another way inside. It’d just be big and loud which I suspected was my style anyway. And besides, I always wanted to drive a Ferrari. I think. I couldn’t be too sure about that last bit, but either way, there was a canary yellow one right next to me just begging to be driven into a house full of cultists at top speed.

  Chapter 16

  Hot wiring a Ferrari was surprisingly easy, making me think I’d probably done it before. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that, but as I punched the car to the limit, and it roared in response, I decided to forgive myself for stealing it. As I careened down the street toward the mansion I’d seen outlined in scarlet by the cat demon in my head, I realized it was a little smaller than the rest, but what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in impenetrable walls. The damned thing even had a moat around it with a stainless steel drawbridge.

  It made me wonder who was in charge of their homeowners’ association because evidently when it came to drawbridges that wasn’t over the line. Then again, every house in here looked like a several million dollar custom job. Maybe when you had that kind of money, no one cared what you did to your own house? I somehow doubted it, but I was willing to bet this particular homeowners’ association had seen its fair share of bribes.

  I pushed the thought from my mind and gunned the engine one last time as I ripped up the street toward the drawbridge. As the front wheels left the pavement, I leapt from the Ferrari and landed in the moat with a splash. The icy water sucked all the heat from my body, reducing my frantic breaths to shuddering gasps. The car crashed into the mansion’s closed drawbridge with a thunderous crack, damned near tearing the metal door from its hinges as the Ferrari bent the steel structure inward like it was tinfoil.

  The smell of gasoline hit my nose, and I threw myself backward beneath the water, hoping the emergency flares I’d left lit in the backseat would do the trick. Admittedly, I felt a little bad for destroying such an expensive piece of Italian engineering, but hey, them’s the breaks.

  I’d managed to swim about five feet away before a shockwave sent me tumbling through the water, slamming my body along the cement bottom and shearing off skin from my face and hands. Breath burst from my lips in a stream of bubbles. My lungs threatened to burst as I struggled to get my legs underneath me and propel myself upward.

  Just as my vision was starting to go dim, my feet touched the stone bottom. I pushed off with everything I had, rocketing myself upward. Breaking the surface was like coming home, and I resolved never to go without air again. I sucked in another quick breath or ten while I took a moment to survey the surroundings from the water. The entire front of the drawbridge and gate had been blown apart. Blackened hunks of metal, stone, and burning debris were strewn across the road and once immaculate landscape.

  I pushed myself back down into the water, keeping my nose just above the surface as men swarmed the hole I’d made in the gate. Their flashlight beams cut through the darkness in wide, well-practiced sweeps. It was then that I realized the once well-lit compound was pitch black. Had the Ferrari’s explosion knocked out the power too? Well, that was certainly awesome. I was totally going to name my next whatever Enzo.

  Thankfully, even though the guards had their guns at the ready, they were way too confused by the explosion to pay much attention to me in the half a second it took me to cross the distance between me and the hole. It was a good thing too because while there was no way their Israeli Tavor assault rifles were legal for people to use here, I got the distinct impression these guys knew how to use them.

  Careful to keep myself in the shadows, I scrambled up onto the bank and grabbed the closest guard, wrapping one hand around his mouth while cinching off his air supply with the elbow of my other arm. He kicked, struggling to throw me off as I pulled him down into the water and dragged him backward. Flashlight beams immediately lanced through the space we’d occupied, but thankfully, we were already underwater.

  After what felt like forever, but wasn’t long at all, the guard locked in my grasp stopped struggling. I held him under as I pulled us backward several more yards before surfacing and releasing him. My hands did a quick search of his pockets, and I wound up coming away with his TAR-21, a Colt 45, and a Becker BK7 knife. Being unarmed wasn’t exactly fun anyway. Hopefully, the guns would still shoot after their dip in the water.

  A sly smile crossed my lips as I sighted my Tavor on the three guards clustered near the gate, no doubt trying to figure out what the hell happened because they stood back to back in a modified triangle, flashlights delving into the darkness all around them.

  I had half a second to wonder whether they’d already called for backup, but decided the Ferrari’s explosion had rendered that pointless. I pulled the Tavor’s trigger in quick bursts, amazed at how I managed to hit them with nearly every shot even though I couldn’t remember ever firing the Israeli assault rifle before.

  As the guards fell to the ground in a mass of twitching crumpling bodies, a stray thought made me wonder why killing them meant nothing to me. It was a little weird, right? I’d killed or intended to kill several people today and none of their deaths had bothered me. Was I the type of guy who did this sort of thing to the point where I’d already become desensitized to the violence of death?

  With that thought fresh in my mind, I pulled myself onto the bank and slipped inside, thankful for my cover of darkness even though I no longer saw any flashlights. Whether that was because there were no more guards or they’d just shut them off to avoid becoming targets, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I wasn’t waiting around to find out. Besides, for all I knew, they had night vision goggles. Hey, now there was an idea.

  As I sprinted toward the house, I reached out with my mind, feeling for the cat demon in my head. It perked up, and its amusement slid across my brain. Evidently, it liked what I’d done to the place.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” the cat demon purred before I got the distinct impression it was licking itself.

  “I’d love for you to turn on that night vision thing like you did before, but you know, for the next several minutes,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice as low as possible as I ducked beside a huge marble pillar and glanced around for guards.

  It was so dark I couldn’t see anyone at all. Oddly, I didn’t even hear the sound of sirens or alarms. I’d half-expected police to be on their way already, especially since the front gate had burst into green flame, but now that I thought about it, the Ferrari’s explosion hadn’t been that loud, and my gunfire had sounded strangely muffled. Was there something on the property keeping outsiders from seeing and hearing things here? It made sense I supposed. If this was the home to a death cult, they likely wouldn’t want people coming in here over a few screams. Maybe when we’d tripped the alarm at the gate, it had slammed down a magical cone of silence on the place too.

  “Done and done.” The scenery turned red, remind
ing me of that scene in predator after the alien had removed its mask. It was a lot better than pitch blackness, but not that much better. Off in the distance, I saw a gaggle of guards coming toward me in a quiet, careful formation.

  I glanced around, looking for a window, and finding one only a few feet away, put a couple rounds into it before leaping inside. I hit the ground, rolling over the broken glass as gunshots chewed up the spot I’d occupied only a moment before. My Tavor came up along with me and I fired, putting several rounds in the guard standing dumbfounded a few feet away.

  He flew backward, smacking into the wall with a wet thud before sliding down the wall, leaving a glistening trail of crimson in his wake. Shouts filled the air outside as I sprinted forward, pausing only to pick up the fallen soldier’s Tavor on my dash into the hallway. It was lined with doors, all shut. A bad feeling crept down my neck as I stared across the hundred-foot expanse. Bullets exploded behind me, ripping apart the frame and walls as I dropped to my belly. The stairs on the other side of the hallway seemed so far away, I wasn’t sure I could make it crawling like a snake before more guards found me. Still, I had to try. While I wasn’t positively certain Sera was down there, something in my gut told me she was.

  Before I could crawl even an inch forward, the door to my left exploded open. I threw myself sideways out of the way, firing both my guns. The one in my right hand went empty first and the left one soon followed. Not that it mattered much. The werewolf standing there wearing tattered Despicable Me pajama bottoms looked down at the bullet holes perforating his furry chest and abdomen and smiled, which was altogether crazy looking because he had the head of a wolf. I didn’t even know the damned things could smile.

  The next thing I knew, I was flying backward through the air. My back smashed into the drywall, cracking it. I tumbled to the ground in a rain of plaster, struggling for breath. I tried vainly to get to my feet, but all I managed to do was stumble sideways down the stairs. It was not my most graceful moment.