‘Oi,’ Liz called, making the Nomad stop and look over at her. Jenna looked up also, an expression of desperation and hope spreading over her features.
‘Well hello there,’ said the Nomad in a leering tone in his voice that Liz didn’t really care for. ‘Come to join in the fun?’
‘Not really,’ Liz said, and with a quick flick of Essentia, sent a metal statue at the side of the room flying. It clipped the Nomads head with a satisfying thud, causing him to release Jenna and reach for his bleeding temple.
Jenna turned and clenched her fists. ‘You dirty fucker,’ she said and stomped on his foot with one of her stiletto heels. The Nomad howled doubled over with pain. Jenna grabbed his head and kneed him sharply in the face, making the man drop to his knees with a face covered in his own blood. Jenna quickly reached for the metal statue that Liz had thrown across the room and finished the man off with several blows to the head.
Liz didn’t hang around to see the result. Instead, she ran back to the other room to find Anna on her back on the floor with the Nomad girl on top of her. They both held onto the girl's knife with a death grip as the girl tried to force the blade down into Anna’s chest. Both hissed with the strain and effort, puffing and panting as they fought. Liz didn’t wait to be invited. She just ran in and delivered a kick to the Nomad’s head with as much force as she could muster. The girl was launched from the top of Anna and crunched into the far wall. Liz, like many Magi, had a much-enhanced body, making her stronger and faster than any human could ever be.
The Nomad dropped to the floor with a crunch as Anna, looked up at Liz in shock and gratitude.
The Nomad girl groaned.
Anna and Liz looked over at her. Liz took a step forward only for Anna to put her hand out as she got to her feet.
‘No, she’s mine,’ Anna said. Liz could see the Nomads Aegis was still in effect but waited to see how Anna would handle it.
A quick minor working of Magic flared around Anna’s hand, and Liz noticed a handgun appear in Anna's grip that had not been there before.
The gun positively glowed in Liz’s Magical sight as Anna walked over to the Nomad and levelled the pistol at the girl’s head and started firing. The first few bullets were stopped dead by the girl’s Aegis which obviously had a Force Shield element to it. But the Essentia fuelled bullets cracked open that Aegis within four shots. The fifth decorated the carpet with brains and bits of skull.
The gun was quiet, with only a small muffled thud reaching Liz’s ears. She doubted anyone else in this house would have heard it. It didn’t have a suppressor on it, though, which meant it was a Magical effect.
Anna sighed. ‘I’ve done that countless times now, and it never gets any easier,’ she said, half to herself.
‘Which is as it should be,’ Liz said.
‘Indeed. Come on, we have to find Callie, I don’t think that was the last of them,’ Anna said, and left the room. Liz followed and found Jenna outside in the hallway giving Anna a hug.
‘You okay?’ Anna said.
‘Yeah, thanks to Liz here,’ Jenna smiled.
‘I think we both owe Liz,’ Anna said. ‘Come on, I don’t think this is over yet.’ Anna walked up the hall with Jenna close behind her. Liz followed as they reached the stairs. There was movement up there, thuds and muffled voices. Anna walked up the first flight of stairs and rounded the corner; she stopped there though and waited for Jenna and Liz to catch up. Liz looked over their head to see a woman in black floaty clothing with equally dark hair and an alabaster face stood up there, two daggers at the ready, waiting for them.
Beyond her, a man in old looking clothing dragged a young girl, maybe about twenty years old, out of a side room by her hair. The man had close-cropped hair and rugged face. He frowned down at Liz and her friends.
‘Back already? Hmm, I underestimated you,’ he said.
Liz stepped forward, putting her hands on the shoulders of Jenna and Anna. ‘I’ll deal with the crow up there, you get Callie’ she said. Anna nodded at her and let her through.
Liz stalked up the stairs, keeping her eyes fixed on the girl in black. If she had to have guessed, it looked like this girl would be the better fighter, but she also guessed that the man would be the more skilled Magus, so it made sense for Anna, the strongest Magus in their little trio to take him on while she confronted the goth girl.
The girl backed off a touch as Liz reached the top of the stairs, but watched her movements carefully.
Liz shook her head slowly. ‘You give goth’s a bad name young lady,’ she said.
‘Like I give a shit what you think,’ the girl said.
‘Who are you?’ the man said from across the landing. ‘You’re not a member of this Coven.’
Liz didn’t take her eyes off the girl. ‘Nope, I’m not. And you can call me Liz. Who are you?’
‘None of your business,’ he said. ‘Patience, kill her will you, she’s pissing me off.’
‘With pleasure,’ Patience said and lunged forward. Liz blocked it, knocking the hand wide and forcing the girl to stagger backwards a step.
‘Go,’ said Liz, and felt rather than saw Anna run past her.
The girl lunged for her again, but this time Liz was better prepared and could already gauge the girl's skill with the blades. Liz dodged again but caught hold of the hand. With a twist she released the blade from Patience’s grip and spun, slashing at the girl. She was quick, though, and Liz’s blade only caught clothing. The girl's floaty tops made it tough to judge where her body was.
Patience didn’t let up though and rushed in again, swinging her blade back and forth. Liz dodged, knocking the knife away a few times with the one she had liberated from the girl’s grip. Liz stayed on the defensive, getting the feeling that this girl was not terribly patient, and did her best to goad her in, wanting her to overextend herself and open herself up to a return attack. It didn’t take long, and Liz made the most of it, catching her arm in a much better grip. Liz dropped into a crouch and forced the girl’s arm down over her knee. Her elbow bent backwards with a sickening crack as the girl screamed in pain. Her defences down, Liz backhanded the girl across the face smacking her head into a nearby door frame. She dropped to the floor, knocked out cold.
She’d let Anna deal with this one after this had come to a conclusion, she thought and turned to take in the situation.
Close by, but hanging back, Jenna threw as much Essentia as she could muster at the Nomad who was pretty much ignoring Jenna. Instead, he was throwing tables and chairs and chunks of the walls at Anna in a near constant bombardment that had Anna concentrating on just defending herself, pumping more and more Essentia in her shield to keep it from breaking.
Nearby, Liz noticed Anna’s gun on the floor. She’d probably tried to use it only for him to knock it from her grasp.
She picked it up, feeling the reassuring weight of it in her hand and took careful aim at the man who appeared to be oblivious to her at the moment.
Feeling sure of her targeting, she pulled the trigger over and over again, firing off shot after shot at the man. She’d aimed for his body, choosing to go for the biggest target and get more hits rather than go for his head and potentially miss more.
Barely a second after her first shot, the constant telekinetic attacks on Anna stopped as the man backed away, letting go of Callie as his Aegis flared and cracked.
With a last spark from the latest bullet, his Aegis disintegrated allowing the next shot to slam into his shoulder and the next one into his stomach. Liz stopped firing as he dropped to the floor holding his body and looking at his hands in disbelief.
Liz followed Anna and walked up closer to the Nomad who looked up at them both in horror.
‘How… how could you…’ he stammered.
Liz said nothing, and neither did Anna.
‘Tacita? Tacita, I… I don’t think…’
‘No, you don’t do you, Carson,’ said a female voice from a room just beyond this Carson.
Liz looked up to see a woman in there, watching. She had long blonde and brown dreadlocks that spilt over her Denim Jacket and black tank top. She also wore a faded denim mini-skirt over ripped fishnet tights and finished the look off with huge black goth boots with chrome buckles and a bunch of chrome and silver necklaces and bracelets.
Piercings glinted in her face as she spoke. ‘And that’s why you’re on your knees now,’ she finished, before a sudden flash of Essentia slammed into Carson, ripping huge lacerations all across his body, spurting blood everywhere. One of them slashed across his face revealing his skull and popping his eye out.
Liz backed off feeling sick as the man dropped to the floor.
Essentia flared in the far room once more as Tacita disappeared, Porting away leaving the house to fall silent.
Farewell
Liz stood in the kitchen of Anna’s Coven house. She’d helped heal the members of Anna’s Coven, tidy the place up and deal with the remains of the Nomads. After a brief hunt through the mind of Patience to find out a little more about this Nomad Coven and what had happened to Richard, Anna had wasted no time in putting a bullet through her head.
They quickly disposed of the bodies, able to use their Magic to leave no trace of them before they finished the clean-up of the house.
They had also retrieved the body of Richard which they planned to bury in the woods later. Such was the secretive life of the Magi.
In the end, only Richard had died, despite the best efforts of the Nomad Coven, but it was a loss that was hitting Jenna the hardest out of all of them. Liz didn’t want to stay too long, she did her bit to help out and clean up, but after that, she quietly mentioned to Anna that she had better be on her way.
Jenna had noticed her imminent departure and thanked her for everything with a hug, leaving Anna to walk her to the door.
‘Thanks again Liz, I’m not sure what we would have done without you,’ Anna said.
‘Don’t underestimate yourself. You could have come out on top of that.’
‘Maybe, whatever, it’s done with now, and I’m just glad that you were around to help.’
‘No thanks required really, anyone else would have done the same. You know how to reach me, let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you,’ Liz said.
‘I will. Have a safe trip home,’ Anna said and waved to Liz as she walked out of the driveway.
Despite the somewhat desperate situation, and the clear risk of death she had put herself in, helping that Coven and being there for them when they needed her was just what she needed. She’d come back to London to take a view on her life, to think through the recent events in New York with Amanda and her friends. She’d thought that seeing her old home and reliving some of those memories was what she needed, but in fact that had only served to bring her mood down, to depress her. That’s not to say her past wasn’t important, it is, and it informs her future and who she needs to be, but wallowing in it was not healthy. Her past was filled with tragedy and the deaths of those who had been closest to her, but she had come out the other side and found a new life with new friends who loved her just as much. She would never forget Francesca, her sister, and she would always have the happy memories of their life together as they grew up.
She also knew that if she could speak with Fran, she knew that Fran would not want her to grieve for the rest of her life. Fran would want her to take this new life, these new wondrous powers and to do some good with them and really live the life she did have to the fullest.
She didn’t regret coming back here either, because otherwise how would she have come to this conclusion? If she had stayed in New York, she might have figured things out she guessed, but she would not have been in the right place at the right time to help Anna and her Coven when they needed her.
Anna had done some digging during the clean up through the Dark Web, and it seemed that Carson was the leader of a Nomad Coven that had recently set up shop in London. From her research, she’d discerned that the Coven had been made up of Carson himself, the Goth girl Patience, the crazy Hale, the big guy that Liz had killed, Trent and Ivy, who had fought Anna downstairs. But there was no mention of Tacita in there. So whoever that was would remain a mystery for the time being.
Even with all the death and the fighting, she felt good about how things had played out. She’d done everything she could, and her training by Amanda, Xain and Orion had stood her in very good stead. She had held her own and provided some much needed back up when Anna and Jenna needed her most.
Finding herself on a quiet street, Liz opened up her Link with Gentle Water and sent a Pulse through to him.
‘Liz, how may I help you?’ Gentle Water said in his soft Asian accent.
‘If you have a moment, I could do with a pickup.’ She said.
‘One moment,’ he said and closed the link. With a whip crack and a flare of Essentia, Gentle Water had suddenly appeared before her.
‘Thanks. How’ve you been?’ Liz asked.
‘I am well, thank you,’ he said with a smile, ‘back to New York?’
‘Of course,’ she said.
Invisible magical energy flared again, and with another faint snap of rushing air, the two figures on the shadowy street disappeared without the fanfare of showy special effects. If you didn’t know better, it was as if they had never been there at all.
Author Note
I hope you enjoyed this short story from Liz’s perspective. I felt it was time to show something from her point of view, and that she should travel back to London to reconnect with her past after everything that had happened.
Naturally, that trip wasn’t going to run smoothly.
I could expend this narrative way beyond what’s in this short. So, I’ll see how this fits into the plan going forward.
I hope you liked it.
By Andrew Dobell
Book list
Wasteland Road Knights
Liberation
The New Prometheus - Cyberpunk
When Frankie’s brain is transplanted into a Cybernetic body after being shot, she must go on the run from the mega corporations who want her and her cyber-body’s designer dead.
The New Prometheus
The Prometheus Gambit
The Prometheus Trap
Prometheus Vengeance
The Magi Saga – Urban Fantasy
When Amanda discovers she’s a Magi after being attacked by a werewolf on the streets of NYC, she’s introduced to a magical society and drawn into a hidden war for the fate of mankind.
Epic Calling: The Magi Saga Book 1
Shadows of Darkness: The Magi Saga Book 2
Black Dawn: The Magi Saga Book 3
Infinities’ Edge: The Magi Saga Book 4
The Magi Saga Short Stories
Only available through my mailing list;
www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk
The Angel of Tarut: The Magi Saga Prologue
His Love: A Magi Saga Short Story
Casino Red: A Magi Saga Short Story
Anthologies I am part of:
The Expanding Universe 1 – Sci-Fi
For more of Andrews work, visit:
www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk
The New
Prometheus
Get all four Books NOW!
In a world ruled by faceless, uncaring mega corporations, Frankie, a young woman, becomes the victim of a lethal Jacker gang attack. Bleeding to death in the slums of Neo London, she is found by a genius cybernetic doctor on the run from a powerful Corporation. Seeing an opportunity to finish his latest cybernetic masterpiece, he transplants Frankie’s brain into a powerful prosthetic body.
Frankie has barely woken up before the Corporate forces attack and kidnap the doctor, forcing Frankie to go on the run in her new body. Pursued by Corporation Special Forces, cybernetic agents, and hulking mechs, Frankie has to choose what to do with her new body and its incredible abilities.
Frankie must overcome the shock of her
new body and survive ruthless attacks and figure out who to trust if she is to save the doctor's life and strike her first real blow against the tyrannical Corporations.
Praise for book 1 from Reviews
“Story is good and fast paced, main character is awesome.”
“Can't wait for next book to come out. I love the story and hope she kicks corporate butt.”
“This was good! Lots of action good story and quick pacing. Interesting characters, strong and vulnerable at the same time. I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the next instalment!”
Praise for book 2 from Reviews
“Didn't even have to read what the book was about, loved book 1and knew I had to have book 2. Couldn't put it down and the worst part is now waiting for book 3”
Praise for book 3 from Reviews
“Great follow up to the first two books in the series. Full of action. Waiting hopefully for the next book in this series. Loved all three so far.”
EPIC CALLING
The MAGI SAGA
When a Demon werewolf attacks you in a New York alleyway, and you fight back with magic you didn't know existed, it's fair to say life's going to change a bit!
Amanda-Jane Page is just a normal girl struggling to make a life on the streets of Manhattan when she discovers she has the potential to be a Magi, someone with the power to use magic and she’s drawn unwittingly into a hidden civil war.
Her mysterious link to an ancient Artifact discovered in the Egyptian Desert draws her into a race to control its power. Finding others like her, together they must stop the dangerous and powerful dark Magi, led from the shadows by the mysterious Witch Yasmin, in a race for control of the Artifact.
Uprising: The Magi Saga (Tales of the Magi Saga Book 1) Page 5
