Birthright - Book 2 of the Legacy Series (An Urban Fantasy Novel)

by Ryan Attard

  Tenzin let out a string of heartfelt laughter.

  “The hell you laughin’ at, Mr. Chink?” said Crowley. “You snap or something?”

  “No, no,” said Tenzin in between laughs. “It’s just, ever since Erik told me about you I’ve been very concerned about you. Now I understand you, Mr. Crowley, and that will be your downfall.”

  “My downfall? You’re being humped by my goblins and I’m losing?”

  “Yes,” replied Tenzin, serious again. “Like most men, you talk a lot. But you never pause to listen. I have listened. Here is what I discovered.”

  Light erupted from Tenzin like a flash bang grenade, and a small monkey made out of an ethereal, translucent material flipped twice in midair before spinning and diving right through Tenzin. A goblin tried to grab it, but his hand just passed through.

  The earth shook violently, and vines, each thicker than my entire body, emerged from all around us. Trees and vines grew from between the concrete of Carson Mansion, each wrapping around the weird towers. The ground beneath us leveled. A particularly vicious root smacked against the nue and whipped into me. I went airborne for a second before slamming against a tree stump. The vine wrapped around the nue. It tore the vine off, but others encased the monster, tightening around its neck and torso like a constrictor. The nue’s movements slowed down, and soon, sluggish became still. I found that I could move slightly again, with the poison-pumping claws now out of me. It was still painful, and I wasn’t in any shape to run or fight.

  Crowley seemed to be the only one to have it under control.

  “Hold him steady,” he roared at the goblins. They screamed, but held Tenzin fast.

  “I grew up in Vegas,” said Crowley as he grabbed a vine. “I know a bluff when I see one.”

  The raging foliage ceased growing, and Carson Mansion looked like something out of Jumanji. The vines began to recede and wither away as Crowley began focusing his magic, and soon the entire mass of vegetation disappeared.

  “It was no bluff, Mr. Crowley,” said Tenzin. “You may be able to make yourself invulnerable to magic, but the same cannot be said for your surroundings.”

  Crowley figured it out and let go of the vine as if it were plague-infested.

  Behind Tenzin, a flash of light became a bovine with a pair of horns. It snorted and charged, once again disappearing into the Asian man. Tenzin’s bones cracked and I saw his muscles bulging - no, growing. His body grew bigger and thicker, going from frail old man to Schwarzenegger.

  “Thank you for weakening the foundations for me,” said Tenzin with glee.

  Then, he did one of the most badass things I’d ever witnessed in my life.

  Completely ignoring the goblins latched onto him, the steroid-infused version of Tenzin stood, one leg at a time, muscles bulging and veins popping. He yelled and fell forward, slammed both fists, and the goblins attached to his arms, into the ground. A loud blast rang out like a hundred cannons going off at once, and I felt the vibrations punch into my gut like that feeling you get when a jet breaks the sound barrier.

  Then, there was silence.

  Exactly one second later Carson Mansion, as well as the surrounding buildings, came crashing down.

  36

  Now

  “You’re responsible for Carson Mansion falling down like a house of cards?”

  Amaymon’s feline eyes held mischief in them. “Man, I got new respect for you.”

  “I would be more concerned about Erik and his mentor being buried under a house,” said Sun Tzu.

  Amaymon made a mewing noise. “Who gives a damn about him? Look at him, ain’t nothin’ gonna break that ugly mug. I’m just glad that ugly piece of shit got down like the London Bridge in the good old days.”

  Sun Tzu and I glared at him, giving him the usual “what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-you-you-twisted-cat?” look. Amaymon shrugged and flicked his tail.

  “What? It was tacky.”

  “They rebuilt it,” I said. “Almost instantly. Now, it’s even tackier.”

  “Just goes to show,” replied the cat. “People are dumb asses.”

  Sun Tzu cleared his throat loudly. “May we get back to the subject at hand?” He looked at me directly. “How did you survive this particular ordeal?”

  ***

  Approximately 8 years ago

  I did not black out. I’d expected to black out when a house like a Disney castle fell down on me.

  No, I did not black out.

  I felt debris cover every inch of my body. Pain didn’t register in individual bits. It was more like a wave, as if a ton of bricks had been dropped on me.

  Well, a ton of bricks did just drop on me, so I suppose I know what I’m talking about. The dust settled quickly. I could move, slowly and painfully. But I could move.

  I guess I was lucky — that, and the healing magic. My clothes had some rips in them, and a boulder with a jagged edge had blood splattered all over it. My leg was trapped under rubble. I wedged Djinn between flesh and rock, and levered. My broken, swollen leg was already healing.

  Around me was a massacre of debris and colorful plaster. Crowley and his goblins were completely buried. The nue’s ugly face was beneath a plank. The monster was unconscious, but still breathing raggedly. Occasionally a finger on its hand, the only thing not buried from sight, would twitch. I could have killed it right then and there, but something, a benevolent voice in my head, told me to forget about it. Tenzin was rubbing off on me.

  I went to where I saw the Asian priest last and began hauling stones away. There was no way a person could have survived that, but Tenzin had a knack for surprises. The old man was resilient. He was alive, I knew it.

  He had to be.

  I found him inside the storehouse, or rather, where it once stood. He was lying face up with one hand across his chest and the other on his stomach. His eyes were closed, and there was no sign of breathing.

  “Tenzin.” I went to shake him awake. As soon as my hand reached him, his body enveloped in light, which dimmed just enough for me to make out a long serpentine shape.

  The snake had Tenzin wrapped inside it, like a cocoon. It reared up, exposing a long, thick neck, twice my height and as wide as my shoulders. It had a segmented underbelly with light emitting a slightly different hue than its incandescent scales. Its head was hooded, like a cobra’s, with Ba Gua elemental markings on each side — three horizontal lines, either long or divided, placed on top of each other like a box. It had of two of these symbols on each side, blazing gold, the same color as its eyes.

  The snake deva, which is what I assumed it was, opened its mouth, revealing a pair of very long fangs and a forked tongue. It brought its head, and those scary fangs, down. My instinct kicked in, and Djinn was already swiping at the snake’s throat. The blade passed through, although it did leave a thin blue line across the brilliant white scales. The serpent flicked its tongue over me once before rearing back. It wrapped around Tenzin, creating a spiral light show. And just like that, it disappeared.

  Tenzin opened his eyes and sat up.

  “Erik,” he said with a glint of happiness in his eyes. “I knew you would survive, my friend.”

  “I wasn’t so sure,” I replied as I helped him up. Tenzin looked fine. More than fine, he looked better than usual.

  “What was that thing?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid you will have to be more specific.”

  “Snake thing. That a deva, too?”

  “As a matter of fact, it is,” replied Tenzin. “It serves the purpose of healing and protection.”

  “How many of those things do you have?”

  “Oh, there are about twelve. But the word ‘deva’ means ‘representation’. Each of the devas is an aspect of Kami-sama, like an avatar, if you will.”

  “So, in essence, you got twelve mini-gods you can call up at any time?”

  “Broadly speaking, yes,” replied Tenzin. I made a mental note to never cross the man ever again.

  “Yo
u son of a bitch.” Crowley rose like a ghoul from the rubble. One of the swamp goblins threw away a boulder and helped another goblin limp forward.

  “You ruined my favorite suit,” continued Crowley as he held up a torn sleeve.

  “Mr. Crowley,” said Tenzin as he assumed a fighting stance. “You are just like a cockroach. It seems I would need something on a nuclear scale to get rid of you.” His aura flared into a supernova of painfully bright light, before transforming.

  Fire surrounded him, and a tiger’s roar echoed.

  The flames coalesced together, and a large tiger, the size of a young elephant, crouched in front of Tenzin like a wild cat protecting its cubs. Crowley’s eyes widened. The goblins bumped into each other in their panic. The tiger leapt over them and exploded into a wave of fire. Soon, the area they occupied was a blazing inferno. Fire rose like a tsunami, and the rock boiled. All the oxygen was sucked away from us. The heat scorched my skin. A pair of steady hands clenched my arm and pulled me away from the fire. Tenzin pushed me behind a corner, two blocks down. I snuck a peak. The entire Carson Mansion area was one giant bonfire.

  But not even a blazing inferno was enough to get rid of Crowley. He stood in the middle of the pyre with his arms outstretched and a malignant grin on his lips. His gloves shriveled up into ashen dust, but his creepy, gray-blue hands were intact. Next to him, the goblins screamed and ran as they were burned alive. Their rubbery hides seemed to melt, and once the flames died down, all that was left were two piles of cooked goo and a whole lot of stink. Then I smelled the third goblin, this one long dead under the rubble, as well. Worst of all, I heard the nue scream — the fires must have woken up the beast. It let out a sound that was a lot like sonar, if sonar had a roar mixed into it. The serpent tail reared up like a telescope and hissed at the empty air.

  “Kill them!” screamed Crowley. He pulled out the chunky revolver and shot two of the goblin corpses. The shriveled husks swirled with a dull burst of light and reared up, moving like broken marionettes.

  “Oh no,” whispered Tenzin. “The kamaitachi act like puppeteers controlling their host body until nothing is left.”

  The nue slammed its knuckles on the ground and prepared to charge at the source of our voices.

  “I know of a ritual to dissipate the kamaitachi,” said Tenzin. “But I cannot do it with that nue around.”

  “Can you do it with just Crowley around?” I asked.

  “Yes. He is too weak to cause me any trouble at this point,” replied Tenzin.

  I understood what he was trying to say. He relied on me to take down the nue, but he couldn’t ask me to do it. It just wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t mean anything.

  I squeezed Djinn’s handle. “I’ll do it.”

  Tenzin looked up.

  “I’ll distract the nue,” I repeated. Tenzin placed his hand on my forehead and muttered a few words of prayer in his native language.

  “For good luck,” he said.

  Everything, even a ten-foot tall gorilla monster coming at you at a hundred miles per hour, halts suddenly when something jumps in front of them. A streak of azure energy crashed against its forward arm. The nue tipped forward, crashing painfully on its elbows. A second streak shot forward, and I ran off after it, using the light as cover. Hyped up with adrenaline, I remembered a meme I once heard my sister say.

  “Monkey see, monkey do.” The nue raised its arm against the streak of energy. Djinn’s magic had absolutely no effect against the monster’s thick hide.

  But I had it right where I wanted it.

  “Cause monkey has low IQ.”

  Still blind from the second energy streak, the nue held its arm raised and its eyes closed - which meant it couldn’t see the awesome Jackie Chan stunt I pulled.

  Using the momentum of my run, I jumped and brought my knees to my chest. I twisted sideways, my feet at its face. With a yell, I snapped both my heels against its big, wet nose. It may have been impervious to energy waves – but nothing can walk away from a dropkick to the face.

  The nue’s head snapped backwards, and we both skidded on the hard ground. As soon as I got the feeling back in my legs, I got up. The nue, with its giant bulk, was having a tougher time. Only its tail sprung up, hissing violently.

  “Hey!” I yelled at it. The monkey reared its ugly head and shifted sideways, trying to get a stable footing. “You’re one ugly-ass monkey.”

  It roared back.

  “What?” I kept taunting the beast. “I thought you were a hunter. So, what’s up? You’re just gonna lie there like a little bitch?” I yelled.

  The nue got on all fours and reared up on its hind legs. Its shadow loomed over me, over the entire building block in fact. It was well over twenty feet in length, and its roar shattered glass.

  Oh. Shit. You’ve done it again, Erik. Pissed off the big bad monster just a little too much.

  And now it’s going to smash you to bits because you called it a little bitch. And a monkey with a low IQ in that annoying sing-songy voice.

  I spun on my heels and bolted — away from Crowley, away from Tenzin, and away from the possessed goblins. I didn’t have to check if the nue was still behind me. The earthshaking slam of its knuckles against asphalt was indication enough.

  37

  You never really know how fast you can run until you have a literal monster chasing after you.

  I knew I was fast: life in the forest does wonders for your stamina and muscle build-up. But I was still only human, strictly speaking. The human body isn’t designed for speed. We can’t even carry momentum that well.

  A four-legged gorilla the size of a bus is a different story altogether.

  I wove in and out of narrow corners, using my smaller frame to my advantage. The nue couldn’t stop and swerve that fast. It kept crashing against walls, sometimes with just enough force to leave cracks and dents.

  I skidded into an alleyway. My shoulder hit a dumpster. Pain flared, and I stumbled forward, trying not to stop. The nue wedged its head in the opening, but the dumpster smashed against its neck. The dumpster pushed against the wall and wedged firmly against the nue. The monster roared and raked with its arm, trying to grab onto something. I kept running, but I couldn’t help smiling at the stuck monster. As soon as I cleared the block, I heard the loud screaming of metal being torn and the clicks coming from the nue. It was dark by now and its eyes were not built for night vision, that much I knew. So, there was no way it could track me down. The sea breeze would obscure its sense of smell long enough to buy me a couple of minutes’ time.

  The nue reared and faced a wall. It swiped a claw at the concrete, digging its entire paw in, then heaved, launching itself upward along the building and swiping again. Its claws dug into the wall, eluding gravity. Another heave sent it flying onto the roof. It hung onto a pole stuck into the edge of the roof, clinging to it like King Kong at the Empire State Building. Again, it let out those strange clicks from its throat. The snake tail, its eyes reflecting with eyeshine, swiveled from side to side until it leveled its eyes on me.

  More clicks.

  That sound was familiar. It sounded like sonar, just like the sound dolphins make. My mind was taken back to the old pre-magic days when my sister would switch the channel from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers to the Discovery Channel. I remembered watching a documentary about how bats hunt even in complete darkness by sending out sound pulses. Dolphins did that, too.

  Echolocation – that’s what the Australian guy called it.

  I cursed my naiveté. The nue didn’t need light to see me, it could detect me by using sound. That snake could probably perceive body heat or taste air currents, or whatever. This truly was the perfect hunter, smart and well equipped.

  The nue’s beady eyes zeroed in on me, and it sprang into a four-legged sprint along the rooftops toward me. I ran as fast as I could, trying to avoid sneaking a peak at the monster on the rooftops charging after me. The alleyway gave way to a mostly empty parking lot. My legs c
arried me into the open area, and before I could turn sideways into another alleyway the nue soared over me and landed right in my way. It roared gently, as if to express satisfaction.

  Or smugness. I know I would feel smug if I had cornered my prey the way the nue did me.

  It shoved a sub-urban van out of the way as if it weighed as much as a toy version of itself. A show of force: I’m stronger than you, puny human. Don’t screw with me. That’s what it was saying.

  That’s what I would have said.

  But here’s one thing I had in my favor — surprise. No predator would expect his prey to bite back. They think themselves too powerful. So, instead of running in circles in a panic or staying put with my knees shaking, I pushed all of my magic into Djinn and slashed at the nue. Before my training with Tenzin, it would have taken me at least a full minute to charge up Djinn. Now, I could do it in less than three seconds. The streak of blue energy shot at the nue, catching it squarely in the face. The monster roared and violently shook its head.

  There wasn’t even a scratch.

  It charged at me, and I rolled out of the way at the last second. I had deft footwork and speed on my side. I tried shooting energy at it again, but even my most powerful strikes had no effect on it. That hide was too thick. The nue closed the distance between us. It was smart enough to try to box me in. I swerved sideways, hoping to catch its flank, when I felt a sharp pain in my left side. The snake tail had lodged its teeth right above my kidney. The momentum of my movement carried me, even as my body began slowing down. The snake’s fangs were torn off and venom stopped being injected into me. I reached behind, felt the edges of the fangs, and pulled them out.

  But that cost me.

  The gorilla swung its hand, catching my side. My right arm, ribs and hip-bone broke on impact, and I went flying to my left.

  Right into its other hand.

  It wrapped a thick finger like a vice around me and squeezed. More bones broke. I would have screamed, but I felt a cold, sharp pain in my chest as a rib punctured a lung.