“He’s in Kentucky already, and going south fast on interstate seventy-five.”
Looked like the thing I was worried about was finally here, and I had no choice but to kill him. Execute him really. I’d tried to spare him when he’d turned cat burglar, threatened exposure, and ruined lives. I was conflicted about it to say the least. On the other hand, I could make a case that I would be protecting others by ending him. He was too stupid to follow the law not to risk exposure of our supernatural world, which meant I was protecting all supernatural beings by removing him from this life.
Was that all just sophistry to convince myself it was self-defense or rather, would be done in defense of others? Probably, but there was an element of truth to it as well. Mark was a fool, and a risk to all of us, including the humans he was so careless with. Mesmerizing humans was supposed to be the last option if all else failed, and not an excuse to be lazy.
Either way, it was my responsibility to take care of these things now. Chicago was mine to protect. Even worse, since I showed mercy earlier I’d have to make a statement with his death, or risk the vampires thinking I was weak. I hoped Tim kept doing well, that might make it worth it.
I frowned, I really didn’t want to be in charge, but unless someone offered to take over I was stuck with it now.
“Get to the coven house, and gather some witnesses for his execution please. I’ll be there in a half hour.”
Caroline put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it before she left. She knew I wasn’t all that thrilled with this.
I wrapped the power of air and fire around me, and ordered it to take me too him. He was hundreds of miles away, but it still took less than a minute for me to get there. Of course, he was driving around ninety miles an hour down the highway. When I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by air, flying above him down the freeway. I was also wrapped in invisibility, so the humans couldn’t see me.
Invisibility wasn’t the easiest thing, but I’d had a lot of practice over the last month doing it. It was just the best way to hide from the humans when I did crazy crap like this in the middle of the day before a ton of potential witnesses.
He was in my sphere of air now, so I reached down into his mind, and mesmerized him into taking the next exit off the road and parking. I could have grabbed him right out of the car, but that would have made a mess. Even if I’d managed to time it so only his car went off the road, it wasn’t a good idea to do it that way. If only because it was sloppy, and would leave unanswered questions behind.
Not that there still wouldn’t be questions, but the human authorities would find the abandoned car on the side of the road, and discover it was a stolen vehicle from Chicago. They’d eventually assume it was stolen and abandoned on the side of the road. An unsolved crime, but much less of a problem than a car accident where the driver just disappears.
Which of course meant Mark had not only ran from his sentence, he’d compounded that by breaking the rules again. Not only against stealing, but speeding twenty miles over the speed limit while driving a stolen car was idiotic as well. I suppose it was my fault for showing him mercy in the first place.
He pulled off the highway and into a gas station, and parked near the back away from most everything and everyone else. I verified there were no cameras nearby, and surrounded him in the power of air, and took him without warning. I imagine he was freaking out, not knowing why he was pulling over, or who was responsible.
I smiled grimly as he fell to the ground and started to throw up when we arrived at the coven house. It was petty, but a result of moving at twenty miles a second, without closing his eyes first. It was a disorientating way to travel, even for me. I was a little bit angry at him, but much angrier about what I was going to have to do.
I wrapped him tightly with my power so he couldn’t run, and waited for Caroline and the others present to get outside. I’d told her a half an hour, but it had only taken about fifteen minutes to go get him, and he was almost all the way down to Tennessee when I’d first gone after him.
I had to do it, and I had to make the vampires fear stepping out of line. Yet, there was no way I’d be able to torture him, or draw it out. I just didn’t have that in me. So I had to get a little creative to both show that I wasn’t weak, but in a way that I also would be able to live with what I was about to do. When they all got outside, I didn’t waste any time or drag it out.
“Mark, you were shown mercy, and have broken your parole, as well as your word. There will be no third chance.”
I wrapped a noose of air around his neck, and pulled it tight. Beheading someone is a bit gruesome, but it’s also a relatively painless death, which served both of my needs. It wasn’t quite enough to make an impression though. I also immolated his head as it fell toward the ground as a gratuitous show of power, and nothing but ashes touched the grass in the back yard, and then his body followed quickly in the same manner.
Not even a bone was left.
I knew it made sense, I knew it was necessary to prevent anarchy in the supernatural world, but I still felt sick at heart for having done it. Yet, I didn’t allow any of that to show on my face. I looked around at everyone, who were all frozen in place in fear, and I did it with a casual look on my face. As if I’d just taken a sip of my coffee rather than had taken a life.
It took a great amount of my mastery over fire magic not to look upset, or even throw up.
I couldn’t blame them for the fear, and it was part of the plan. It’s probably disturbing to see someone as powerful as a vampire die in a spectacular fashion with so little apparent effort. I hadn’t even needed to move a finger. I gave a polite nod to Caroline, and I let the power of air take me back to my office. I figured a picture was worth a thousand words, so there was no point in trying to make a speech, doing that might have even lessened the impact.
I didn’t just leave that fast so I could release the hold on my emotions, I was worried. I’d noticed something while retrieving Mark.
“Ria, are we surrounded?”
Aitheria asked, “Why do you ask?”
I should have known that was coming. She couldn’t really talk about it, if I didn’t already know.
“I felt them, when we moved south, a number of air elementals paced me from the front. Then another set paced me on the way back. So, are we surrounded, so I can’t run, or hide?”
Not that I had any plans to do so.
Aitheria sighed, “Yes, there are about thirty air elementals surrounding the area around Chicago, including above the lake, kind of like a sensor net to make sure you don’t disappear on them. They can’t watch from too far away, because I’d be able to block them.”
I frowned, “Why haven’t they attacked?”
Aitheria replied, “It’s complicated, and I can’t really explain. Except that they would be breaking our laws by attacking a mortal directly, which is why they’re keeping an eye on us until your mortal enemies arrive.”
Huh, that sounded like an explanation to me, which meant it was probably a lot more complicated than that in truth. It also didn’t make sense to me. If they can watch and pass on information to mortals, isn’t that interfering? I didn’t bother asking her, she wouldn’t tell me anymore than she already had. If it didn’t makes sense, all that meant was I was missing a critical piece of information.
Which was nothing new.
Aitheria asked in a concerned tone, “Are you alright?”
I grunted, “I’ll live. It was an ugly thing, but I’m a member of the supernatural government now. As long as I only do what I have to, and don’t start killing people to keep my power, I won’t worry too much. Still, it’s not a fun thing, but it’s not meant to be fun. I think I’d just bow out if anyone challenged me for it.”
Aitheria stood on my shoulder and caressed my neck, it was rather calming.
“Are you sure about that? What if they weren’t like you, and just wanted the power? What if they abused it? Would you let Caroline, Tara, and the
pack, live under that kind of threat?”
I frowned, I hadn’t considered that.
I complained, “Life was simpler last year.”
Aitheria giggled, a tinkling choral sound in my mind that lightened my heart.
“You make a good leader because you don’t really want it, or crave the power. Your heart is strong enough to withstand the cost.”
I was glad she thought so. I wasn’t so sure.
I decided to take a walk and left the building, it might help me think. A part of me knew Aitheria was right. People in charge of things had to make crappy calls sometimes. It was part of the job. It still didn’t make it easy though. Wishes wouldn’t change anything however, and it was my responsibility now. I walked a few blocks and circled around my office at random just going wherever my feet led me.
Eventually, I made it back into the office.
I’d just sat down when I felt Mike’s and Aiya’s spelled jewelry reach out to me in warning. The feeling might as well have been the sound of a starter pistol. I’d been given a month reprieve since my enemies had found me, and apparently my time was up.
Chapter 4
Wednesday, July 6th, 2016, 11:46 AM
Mike and Aiya had been working on a case in conjunction with the organized crime division. Several of their cases on missing teenage girls had led to the mob. I’d tried to stay away from them, but they were making that difficult. The girls weren’t kidnap victims exactly, more like runaways that were being taking advantage of.
It involved an illegal floating casino in a modified ferry sized ship, where other vices such as drugs and prostitution, under aged and otherwise, were made available to select clientele. Currently they were out on a police boat with a pair of detectives from organized crime, as well as a boarding team.
I’d known all that already, when I’d pointed them in the right direction a couple of days ago. I hadn’t been worried about them, according to my power they’d be fine. Except, all of the sudden they weren’t, fine that is. There was a supernatural somehow involved, and I only knew about it because of the spelled jewelry that Mike and Aiya wore. The information on it was completely blocked from my power.
Which meant, it was either a witch, or another sorcerer with more power than my own, which had somehow become involved. Which most likely made it a trap, and one that I had no idea what it was that I was walking into. That didn’t matter though, I certainly wasn’t going to run and hide with Mike and Aiya in danger.
I wrapped myself in power, and turned invisible before I let the power take me. I realized I couldn’t just appear on a boat with a gaggle of police on it, not without raising an eyebrow, or most likely a lot of eyebrows. It made things… complicated to say the least.
I popped out above lake Michigan just over a two seconds later, which put us out fairly far from shore. I was two hundred fifty feet up, which was on purpose, as it was the reach of my power. I frowned as I looked at what was happening below.
The relatively small police cutter was being tossed and battered by waves. Waves that were way too high for a day without a storm cloud in the sky, and the calm air that surrounded us. The source was supernatural, and obviously so because the waves were limited in scope and only effecting the police boat. I didn’t think whoever was responsible was worried about exposure, by the way the police held on to the rails for dear life, all the witnesses would be killed shortly anyway.
That meant I needed to both stop it, and clean up some memories up afterwards.
Close to the police boat was the casino boat, although there was no way to tell what it was from the outside. There were a number of people up on deck dressed up and drinking wine, as well as several young women in bathing suits catching a tan. Out on the side closest to where the police boat was, stood a man alone, a sorcerer of water. He glowed with power to my supernatural senses. The others on the boat seemed to be staying away from him, which was good or they’d have seen the water assault on the police boat as well.
I hadn’t met one before now. Just fire and Earth, and had only fought the former. I had no idea what a water sorcerer was capable of, yet I had the feeling if he wanted to, he could just pull the boat right down and sink it if he wanted to. Either he enjoyed playing with the people he killed, or they were simply the bait to get me to show up. Perhaps both?
It was probably sloppy thinking to assume that because he was my enemy, that he was also that ruthless and evil, but I couldn’t help but make that judgement. Either way, I needed to do something fast.
The sorcerer looked up, he must have sensed me. He smiled as if delighted, and I felt his power reach for me. His power ripped the water vapor out of the hot humid air, and it surrounded my shield and started to pull me down toward the water. I had no doubt he wanted to pull me under where his power reigned.
Two could play at that game.
I reached down and thickened the air around him, and tried to squeeze him, but he had his own shield. At the same time, I released the power of elemental fire, and flash boiled the water containing me. If he was stronger than me, it wasn’t by much and I stopped descending. He continued to surround me with water as I burned it off and tried to break his shield with air at the same time.
After a few moments of this, neither one of us made any progress, but then the waves stopped attacking the police boat as he put all his focus and power on me and his shields. I started to lose ground again, as the water appeared faster and seemed harder to boil, it was even putting more pressure on my shields.
This clearly wasn’t working in my favor, time to change the game.
I stopped trying to break his shield, and just built up the air magic all around him, making it thicker. I spared a thought for the police, and wiped the last ten minutes from their minds except for Aiya and Mike. They’d be fine now.
Then I called upon the air to move us both, four miles straight up. At first there was a struggle as his power continued to try to pull me down as mine tried to move me upward. However, he had none of his magic trying to keep himself in place, which was a rather large mistake. He shot up like a rocket, and I followed as soon as I was beyond the radius of his reach and the water magic dragging me down simply fell apart.
I smiled when I heard his startled scream…
He was far from helpless as we faced off over twenty thousand feet high in the sky. Yet, there was less water vapor up here than at the lower altitude, and there was also the not so small matter of him not being able to pull water magic directly from Lake Michigan anymore. He still had access to power, but it was much less. A lot like my air magic when standing on the ground and I could only pull from a half sphere. He could only pull through the water vapor in the air.
He was even denied the water in my body, since I was shielded, but I supposed he could pull from his own.
I pushed hard into his shield with air, and I also put some fire into it this time and tried to burn it away. He gave a good effort, but we were close to even down at the lake, now he just didn’t have a shot at all. Not without help, and if I had more enemies nearby they chose not to help him. His shield broke and I pulled information from his mind, and then took his life.
I couldn’t wield the element of water of course, but learning about what it could do seemed wise to me in case I had to face it again in the future. I also wanted to know what he knew. I was tired of being in the dark about everything.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know crap. All he knew was he’d been paid millions of dollars to capture me and hold me alive under the water until those that hired him came for me.
Capture, not kill.
To say I was confused by that fact was an understatement. I’d thought my enemies wanted me dead. Well, they did, or at least Michael the water sorcerer had thought so. They just wanted to do it themselves, but he didn’t know why, nor did he ask questions. Michael had been a mercenary of sorts, and water sorcerers didn’t make good rulers of cities, except maybe Venice. It took them too far from their conc
entrated element. He only took jobs where he could work on or in the water.
They could still access their element anywhere there was water vapor, which was everywhere. Just like I could access fire from anywhere there was heat. Obviously, they were much more powerful in the water, just as a fire sorcerer was more powerful in a fire, or by an active volcano for instance. The higher the heat the better.
They could also control water inside humans, and if stuck in a city, an area packed with humans would make them stronger. The only reason he couldn’t have just torn my body apart using the water in it was because of my shield.
Besides the obvious, control of water in all its forms, vapor, liquid, and ice. They were also good at persuasion, and could control the less passionate emotions where fire held no sway. I didn’t want to make all water sorcerers out to be bad, but that made them perfect con artists, since they could calm people’s fears, and bull crap their way into anywhere. Much like water could wear down stone, they were persistent, patient, and they usually found a way to get things done.
I suppose to give it a positive spin, they would also make excellent psychiatrists and councilors, if they would deign to help anyone. Politicians and lawyers too, anywhere that subtle influence would make a difference. They could defuse a riot, or even persuade humans not to notice they were there. Which is how and why he’d been ignored while on a mob casino boat, and everyone else had been blissfully unaware of his presence including the boat’s security.
Either way, Michael had been merely a hireling who knew nothing, not even the identity of my enemies. He’d been hired blind and paid anonymously. He hadn’t been all that powerful either, on par with me, and I’d only been doing this for a year. I felt no guilt at his end though, he planned to keep me prisoner and would have turned me over to my death, just for money.
Regardless, I needed to warn everyone that things have gotten started. I supposed I’d have to wait to tell Mike and Aiya, they were in the middle of a raid right now, but I was sure they had some clue already given what just happened to them. After all, I hadn’t taken their memories of what happened.
Sorcerer: Elemental: Power of Air (Book 5) Page 2
