Stolen Chaos: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Cardkeeper Chronicles Book 1)

by A. C. Nicholls

  He was right. Although the force of the shot seemed to have thrown me a few meters back toward the wall, I levitated off the ground. The light continued to shine a blinding red, and I could see it even through my jacket and jeans. With power like this, I might actually have been able to stop Victor the first time.

  “Shut it off now, Keira,” Link said from below.

  No chance. I needed to see how this thing worked. I wanted to know how much damage it could do. With the torturous pain still in my chest, I extended my arms and summoned more blasts, firing one after another into the far wall. Bricks burst and dust blew into a cloud, as a new hole appeared in their place.

  “Stop it!” Link shouted at me.

  Suddenly, I wanted to. I knew the explosive power of my new magic, even if the pain did increase more with each shot. I tried to switch it off, to stop shooting and to lower myself to the ground, but the light continued to grow. It was like a creature was eating me from the inside, gnawing at my organs and laughing in the face of my discomfort.

  “Focus!” Link yelled, running around in a panic.

  Again, I closed my eyes, wishing the pain away. I tried to remember how it felt when it had been in my shoulders, and held the thought there until the light began to fade. I felt myself gliding gently toward the ground as the burning sensation eased off, finally getting dimmer, dimmer, until…

  I hit the ground with a thud.

  Nothing remained but the ringing in my ears, and the wailing of police sirens in the distance. I had no doubt that they were coming to assess the damage in the wall – it couldn’t have been the quietest this neighborhood had ever been. From outside, it must have sounded like a bomb-testing site.

  My bones ached as I pushed myself up from the ground and dusted myself off. Link stood beside me, staring up at me with a look of wonder. “What?” I snapped.

  “Just…” He shook his head, licked his lips.

  “I know, right?” I looked at my hands. “It felt… great, but I wish you could know how much that hurt. I mean, I don’t want you to ever have to feel that. I just wish you knew.”

  “But the power, Keira.”

  “The power is nothing if I can only take so much of it.” I wondered how much of it I would have to use before Victor Kronin would submit. How much of that agony I would need to suffer before he finally abandoned his murderous ambitions.

  “Then what do you suggest?”

  “I don’t know. I really don’t.”

  Link came over, touched my boot as if testing a flaming stove burner, then stood on it while holding onto the leg of my pants for balance. “May I suggest that you take a new magicard? I’m sure Dalton wouldn’t take offense if you explained yourself.”

  I shook my head, deep in contemplation. “No other card would be strong enough.” It was true. Nothing would help me more than the Elders’ card, but if it caused too much grief to use it to its full potential, I would need extra help. I would need… “I have an idea.”

  Link looked up the height of my body. “What’s that?”

  “I’m going to call in a favor.”

  “From whom?”

  I stared at him, with eyes that said, ‘You know who.’

  “Oh, no.” He shook his head frantically. “Oh, no, no, no. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say. Listen to me – they will kill you. You understand me? They will tear you apart before you even get to the front door.”

  Although his case was strong, I didn’t have a whole lot of options left. Leaving Victor unopposed would result in global annihilation, and facing him alone was suicide. All I could do was ask for help from them, and pray to God that they wouldn’t kill me first.

  Chapter 25

  Link remained buried inside the deep pockets of my jacket, and it didn’t entirely surprise me. Even having taken his usual amount of cowardice into account, I thought he had every right to be afraid. I, too, was afraid, but unlike Link, I couldn’t stay away. I didn’t have that luxury.

  Night was setting in. The sun fell behind the horizon and left a tail of red in the cloudless sky. It would be dark soon. Which meant that I had to do this fast, get what I needed and then – somehow – find Victor Kronin.

  I swayed my arms as I walked, hoping it would disguise the trembling. I approached the front gates of the sewage plant, my nerves waging war with every step. The old feeling was there too, like I was being watched, stalked. Hunted, even. It was all I could do to keep my eyes wide-open, alert, as I pushed the button beside the gate.

  The speaker buzzed, like a vibration against metal, but no voice came from it. I opened my mouth to speak, not entirely sure what I would say, when the main door of the sewage plant flung open, smashing into the wall.

  “Jason,” I said in a wheeze, watching him storm toward me with a scowl. It dampened my spirits a little – I had expected him to be there in my hour of need, to stand beside me in what could be my final battle. To be my knight in shining fur. The look on his face, however, said ‘screw you’.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I–I need some help.”

  “Then you’re in the wrong place.”

  What the hell? I stared him down, thinking about the kiss. The man who had held me in his arms had vanished. The man who’d kissed me so electrically had become this stubborn, rude asshole. I understood why, and I didn’t want to get him into trouble, but this was bigger than him and me. For him, at least, it should have been about his brother’s death.

  “Let me speak to Lena.”

  His face creased up in confusion. “What?”

  “I need to talk to her. Let me through.”

  “You don’t understand, do you? You can’t be here.”

  “That’s my decision to–”

  My words lay suspended in mid-air as an enormous, beast-like dog dashed from inside the building. It crossed the graveled yard in seconds, hurling itself in our direction. It struck Jason with its huge claw, tossing him to one side like a rag doll as he hit the fence with a bone-crunching noise that sounded like eggs being thrown at a wall.

  I should have defended myself. Anyone else in my position would have used the Elders’ power to take a stand, but I needed to show something else; I had to be humble, despite the risk of making myself vulnerable.

  Still shaking, I raised my hands above my head in surrender.

  The beast – bigger than any werewolf I had ever seen, howled at me with a deep snarling sound. Drool flickered from its long incisors and I felt the hot stench of its breath against my cheeks.

  “I can stop Victor Kronin.” The words spewed out of me. I’d tried to spit them out in a frantic rush, before this creature mauled me. “But I need something from you.”

  The beast stopped, purring like a muscle car as it assessed me with those dark, monstrous eyes. It grunted, slammed its forepaw into the ground beneath it, scooping up a pile of gravel under its sharp claws. Slowly, it grew calmer, rotating the meat-and-muscle of its body to see Jason approaching us both. Then it turned back toward me, and began to shift into a human.

  It was a quick transformation – a matter of seconds – but it didn’t complete the process. By the end of it, I faced Lena, naked and caked in dirt, but with her claws still large and hairy at the ends of her human arms. If I didn’t know better, I would say she would come at me again in a heartbeat, only I wasn’t about to waste my power on her.

  “Speak,” Lena said, her eyes glowing ferociously.

  I took a breath, feeling my heart pound. “Victor attacked the Vault today, leaving nothing but destruction in his path. Because of that, I’ve been given new power – incredible power – but I still don’t feel like it will be enough. It could weaken him, but–”

  Lena growled as if ingesting me would ward off starvation. “You ask our help?”

  I hesitated, and then nodded.

  “Then ask it.”

  Jason crept closer, holding his shoulder as if he had suffered a terrible wound. There was no b
lood, but the attack he’d just taken must have hurt like hell. I stood waiting for him to join his leader, which made it all the more shocking when he stopped at my side, facing Lena and looking her dead in the eye.

  “You want Victor, you can still have him. That was my word and nothing has changed,” I told her. But she only half-listened – her eyes darting from me to Jason, from Jason to me, taking in the fact that he seemed willing to vouch for me. I must admit, even I was having a hard time accepting it. “Only I need help. If you could, I would like you to spare some of your wolves. I firmly believe that they can help aid my victory.”

  Lena grunted. “Why should I help a Cardkeeper?”

  “Because our own lives depend on it,” Jason intervened.

  I stood in shock, words hanging silently from my empty mouth.

  “Victor has the power to wipe us all out if we stand as individuals. Keira is true to her word,” he said, stepping closer toward his alpha. “If she says she can defeat Victor with our help, I’m inclined to believe her. And let’s face it; it takes a brave woman to look you in the eye and ask for your help, after everything that’s happened between our peoples.”

  Lena stared at me, sizing me up. Finally, her claws shrank down into human hands, and she folded them defensively across her bare chest. “If you’re so powerful, why do you need us?”

  “It’s too much,” I said, giving the short answer.

  “Too much is a good thing, dear.”

  “Not in this case, believe me.” I sighed audibly. “How about it?”

  All three of us stood in silence, birds flapping overhead as they headed to their nests. The sky darkened as I waited with bated breath for a reply. When it finally came, it wasn’t at all what I had hoped for.

  “We struck a deal,” Lena said. “We gave you the vampires’ location, and you were to bring us Victor Kronin. If you can’t stick to that, I have no reason to trust you.” She turned on her heel and walked back toward the main door of the sewage plant, snapping her fingers to summon Jason to her side.

  Jason looked at me with pleading, apologetic eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  I was, too. I’d never suspected that he would betray his brother by giving up on avenging his death. All I could do was nod, and watch him run back to his alpha. At least he had tried to defend me in the end. I appreciated that, and always would.

  The sky cracked in a sudden and unnatural thunder, lighting up the sky with a wave of bright purple. I spun around quickly to look back at Chicago. Where a plain, dark sky had been only moments ago, now there was a wide, fuchsia cloud. It swallowed up the tops of the penthouses, lurking over the city like it was ready to consume it. I squinted my eyes and looked harder, my heart hammering in my chest.

  Sears Tower.

  A thin bolt of electricity flashed from the roof of the building, shooting up toward the sky in a beam of light. Whatever Victor – that insane son of a bitch – was up to, I was certain he was doing it there, using Sears Tower as his pedestal on which to destroy those beneath him.

  I took the Elders’ card from my pocket and gripped it tight, raising it to my mouth to give it a soft kiss for luck. It wasn’t likely that I would survive the night, even if I did stop Victor. If it would take all my power to defeat him – even at my own sacrifice – I would have no choice but to use it.

  Taking in a deep breath, I shot a quick look back to the sewage plant, where Jason lingered, watching me. Shame riddled his expression, stained with sympathy and sadness. He’d really wanted to help. In spite of anything that had passed between us, I knew that he wanted to avenge his brother. Then, he turned in defeat, went inside and closed the door behind him.

  “Don’t worry.” Link climbed out from my pocket and scrambled up to my shoulder. “I may not be very useful, but you won’t be completely alone.”

  In spite of my raw fear, my heart could have melted right then. “You want to help?”

  Link shrugged. “Well, I mean… I’ll be right behind you.”

  I took him from my shoulder and held him close to my chest, hugging him carefully so as not to squash him. It was just us now; me and Link against Victor Kronin. All we had to do was head to the tower and make our stand… and pray that the demon had not yet been summoned.

  Chapter 26

  I got to the Loop a few minutes later, only to find the streets swarming with US Army, SWAT teams and the FBI. It was no wonder that they’d come to investigate the mayhem – it probably looked like a terrorist threat from afar. My only problem with their assistance was that they were blocking the road to Sears Tower.

  “We have to get through,” Link said from my shoulder. I almost told him to get the hell back into my pocket, but with the threatening fireworks in the sky, I didn’t imagine anyone would blink twice at a five-inch faery.

  “You think?”

  Civilians rampaged through the streets, running away from the tower in a mad, desperate scramble. It was like a bull run, the way people pushed each other aside to save their own skin. When people behaved like that, it tended to make me wonder why I bothered to protect them at all. Of course, it would always come back to one thing. It was my job.

  I ran toward a nearby Army truck parked in front of the tower. I searched for a way to push past them, when a uniformed soldier blocked me with an outstretched arm. “You need to get to safety, miss,” he yelled at me over the loud cracking of the sky. It came in short, sudden bursts. “It’s not safe here.”

  No shit.

  “I need to get into that building,” I told him as Link hid behind my neck. When I realized that my statement wouldn’t quite cut it, I added, “I work up there, and I left my son with a coworker. Please, I need to get to him.”

  Sympathy blazed in the solder’s eyes as the nearby spotlights brushed his face. It looked as though he was considering letting me through, or perhaps that was all in my head. “I’m sorry but I can’t allow that. We’re going to sweep the building as soon as we can. If we find your son, we’ll do all we can to bring him back down safely.”

  I didn’t have time for this. I simply turned and walked away, leaving the unhelpful soldier behind me. I ran to a nearby grocery store and stood in the closed doorway; the only place in sight where I could stand and think without getting trampled by the stampede of desperate mortals.

  “Hey, you know what to do, right?” Link said, crawling back over my shoulder.

  I thought that I did, but it didn’t mean I liked it. Deep down, I supposed I had been stalling, putting off having to face Victor. Above me, the sky darkened before a blinding ripple of light reached out across the city. “What is he doing up there?” I said, staring up at the sky.

  “Only one way to find out.”

  “But–”

  Link placed a tiny hand on each of my cheeks, and turned my face so I could look directly into his eyes. I saw the fear buried away in there, but he’d found a way to battle through it. That made one of us. “Listen to me,” he said, calm but firm. “I know you’re scared, but this is your job. If you don’t do it, nobody will. Now come on, let’s get up there and stop this flaky old sod.”

  I smiled, in spite of the circumstances. “Fine. You coming?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “No. Hold on tight, and keep your arms inside the ride at all times.”

  Unsure of how exactly this worked, I took a running-jump toward the building, summoning the power of the Elders as my feet left the ground. The light ripped through me like it had in the warehouse, burning every inch of my skin and bones. It worked, and I floated up toward the top of the tower at warp speed. Wind rushed against my face as the sky crashed and banged louder than before. The lights in the buildings seemed to flicker as I passed each floor, with Link clutching at my collar and holding on for dear life.

  Before I knew it I reached the top, releasing the power and landing safely on the roof. I scanned the area, assessing the danger, but all I saw was Victor Kronin standing in front of me. A large, purple ligh
t covered the ground, lighting up his feet like some sort of glyph. His eyes were closed and his arms were spread, as he chanted something that somehow sounded like both a whisper and an echo.

  “Victor!” I screamed at him. “You need to stop this!”

  From the glyph, a black hole opened up. The building shook beneath my feet as I watched something emerge through the portal. The horns came first, long and rounded. Next was the head, three or four times the size of a human’s, red-skinned and dark-eyed. The ground birthed the demon, piece by piece. It growled like Lena had, only deeper. Vicious. Deadly. I was no specialist on evil incarnate, but I could recognize a demon when I saw one.

  “Victor,” I repeated, desperately trying to break him out of his chant. I felt Link slide down my arm and run toward one of the pole-like structures. It wasn’t great for cover, but it was all that the roof had to offer. “This is your last chance.”

  My enemy turned on me then, the purple glow crawling upward from his feet until it reached his eyes. His lips stopped moving, and the demon sank back into the hole. Pinkish thunder continued to boom above our heads, more deafening with each second.

  “I’ve no time for you, child.”

  God, I hate being called a child. I’m fifty-eight years old, damnit!

  He wasn’t going to stop. My stomach sank down to my feet. It had all come down to this. Two enemies fighting on a roof, using all the magic at our disposal. Good versus evil. I reached into my soul, digging deep to find the power. My body lit up in a hot blast, and I aimed my hands at him. The smoke came in fast, thick bursts, finding their target in Victor Kronin.

  The first one bounced off his chest. The second nudged his shoulder. Useless. By the time I got in a third one, I could feel the Elders enter my mind. Something otherworldly stole over my brain – a headache. Like all headaches, it frustrated me, but it also gave me enough strength to fire a third bolt of red energy.

  That one hit Victor square in the jaw, knocking his face to one side. When he snapped his head back, he stomped toward me at a frightening speed.