Warlock Wanted: Arcane Inc. Book 2

by Sean Stone

  “Are… are you alright, mate?” one of the woman asked. Despite her kindness the chaviness of her voice irritated me. I was about to answer when she screamed and something smacked me in the side of the head and knocked me onto my knee.

  “You dumb fucking dick!” Cameron roared. His fist came down again but I got my arm up in time to block it. With my free hand I landed a punch in his balls and he doubled over making an oofing noise. I know, I have no honour. Honour has no place in a fist fight. Or any fight for that matter.

  He looked just as bad as I felt. His face had blood running all over it, his clothes were torn and ragged and there was a piece of metal sticking out of his leg which he seemed not to have noticed. Adrenaline I guess.

  I stood up but before I could do anything he ran at me. He grabbed me around the middle and slammed me into the building. When he let me go I crumpled onto the floor.

  “You couldn’t just learn your fucking place and do as you were told could you? You always have to ruin things.” I tried to get up but he kicked me back down.

  “Ruin things? You wanted me as a slave,” I mumbled through blood.

  “It wouldn’t have been that bad,” he snarled and kicked me again. “Think of all the magic we could’ve gathered. All the power. We could have ruled the fucking world with Rachel but you just had to go and kill her!”

  “She’s dead?” the words came out far too jubilantly and his anger increased tenfold. He pulled his fist back and released it at my head. It took both hands to catch it and stop it from connecting. I quickly moved my hand onto his wrist to stop him from pulling it back.

  “NO! NO!” he screamed as it dawned on him what I was about to do. I called to his magic. He struggled with more strength than he should have been able to considering what he’d just been through. It wasn’t enough. It never was. I sucked his power right out of him and left him with none. When I let his arm go he staggered back in horror. “You… you…”

  I climbed back to my feet. “You wanted me to just give up? Go with it? Follow orders like a good little boy?” I asked as I advanced. The darkness was slithering forwards again. I was getting used to it now. I didn’t fight it. I welcomed it. On this occasion we both wanted the same thing. Cameron dead.

  “It wouldn’t have been that bad. I did it and I was okay,” he said, continuing to back up. He knew he was fucked.

  “You’re half right. You did follow her orders like a loyal dog. But are you really okay?” I asked. “You don’t look so okay from where I’m standing.”

  “Eddie, please—” I swiped through the air with my arm and he flew backwards. His legs and arms flailed about as he came down towards the spiked metal fence. I stopped him. I held him with the spike millimetres from his heart. If I dropped him it would tear through his back and kill him.

  “Are you okay?” I asked again as I walked to his side. “You… You betrayed me. You pretended to be my friend. All to help her get me. Do you even comprehend what that did to me?”

  “Eddie, I…”

  “I was a fucking child!” I screamed.

  “So was I,” he said. Tears leaked from his eyes. He was just scared of dying. “How do you think I ended up with her, Eddie? She found me just like she found you and she wanted me.”

  “For what? What do you have that interested her?” I’d always assumed Rachel had some kind of emotional bond to Cameron but thinking about it now that seemed foolish. The only emotion Rachel knew was anger.

  “I can find things. I can track people even if they use concealing spells. How do you think we kept finding you?” he said. His voice was choppy and fearful. He could feel the spike digging into his back. “She took me when I was a kid. Years before we found you. When we did find you I was so happy. I finally had a friend. Someone to talk to.”

  “It was all fake.”

  “It wasn’t fake. You were the only friend I ever had.”

  “You betrayed me remember? Don’t lie about it being real,” I snapped.

  “I had to betray you. She gave me a choice. Betray you or…”

  “Or what?”

  “She didn’t kill my parents. I went with her when she asked. She promised to make me a great warlock. One of the greatest in the world. When she told me to betray you I said no. Because you were my friend. She said she’d take everything from me. She said I had to drop you. I had to kill your parents to convince you or she’d take all my magic and she’d kill my parents. I couldn’t let her kill my parents. I love them, Eddie, they’re my parents. I did what I had to do but I regret it. I’ve always regretted it. Please, Eddie, I’m sorry. I am. I wish I could fix things.”

  “I wish that too,” I said quietly.

  “Do you believe me? Please say you believe me, Eddie,” he pleaded, crying openly. I hate seeing people cry. It really pisses me off.

  “I believe you.” My words seemed to ease him a bit and I saw some of the tension leave him. “But Cameron, you killed my parents.” I let him go and watched the fence impale him. He cried hideously as the spike tore through his heart. I saw it burst out of his chest with a little fountain of blood. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. His head tipped back and he died. I felt nothing for him. Only hate.

  I didn’t bother trying to cover it up. It was too late for that now. It would just look like he landed that way after the car crash anyway. I looked around for witnesses and there were none. The women seemed to have made themselves scarce. Magic and murder often has that effect on the ordinary. Either they hang about and gawk or they scurry away and hide. If there were any witnesses hiding then nobody would believe them anyway. Who would believe that I telekinetically impaled a guy on a fence? I was already wanted for more murders than I could count. What would one more matter? The witnesses that Rachel had compelled to testify against me might not stand by their stories anymore but the string of bodies I’d left behind me this evening would give Richards enough evidence to charge me. I had to get out of town. But first I needed to find Rachel. I had to see her body. I needed to burn it. I wouldn’t put it past her to have found a way to bring herself back. I had to make sure there was nothing to come back to.

  I staggered back to the road. With Cameron’s power in me I had enough energy to start healing the remainder of my injuries. It would take a while but I got to work on them.

  The road was littered with crashed cars and wreckage. I’d caused a bit of a pile up. How many lives had I taken this time? I didn’t want to know. Was killing so many people worth it just to remove Rachel from the world? A hundred times yes. I pushed through the crowds that had gathered and made my way to Rachel’s car which was upside down and practically crushed. A massive pool of blood had spilled out. Rachel’s. I stooped over and peered inside. Rachel was not in there. I looked up and saw the trail of blood leading down the road. She was on the run. It was time to see how she liked being hunted.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Rachel had managed to get quite far in her state. I guessed that she’d healed herself as she was going because the blood came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road. I didn’t need a trail. Just up the road was the entrance to Mote Park. She was heading back to the retirement village to retrieve her things and another car. One that hadn’t been destroyed by a bus. I could have just let her go but she’d only come for me again. She’d never stop. And even if she did stop how could I forgive or forget everything she’d done? I promised Ashley I’d deal with Rachel and before I left Maidstone I meant to. I didn’t know where I was going to go. America maybe. I couldn’t stay in the UK, not with the long long warrant for my arrest.

  At the gates of the park I found two police officers. Both dead, I don’t know what Rachel had done but blood had dried in streams around every orifice I could see. I didn’t want to think about the ones I couldn’t see. Crusty blood around an arsehole is not a nice mental image.

  I could hear sirens again and knew the police were coming. Was Inspector Richards with t
hem? I thought so. I needed to deal with Rachel and disappear before he found me. I charged into the park and broke into a run for the village.

  “Eddie!” Rachel shouted as I crossed the bridge. I turned around and there she was standing by the little kiosk. She looked right as rain. Not a scrape on her.

  “Rachel,” I muttered as I approached. The darkness hadn’t fully left after Cameron and now I called on all its power. I wanted it. I needed it for Rachel. It wasn’t going anywhere until she was finished with.

  “That was a cute trick with the bus,” she said. “I should have anticipated your resourcefulness.”

  “I’ll put it on my CV,” I replied. I stopped on the bridge just a few feet away. It was like a standoff in an old western film.

  “Don’t bother. You won’t be needing a CV,” she said.

  “Oh, of course not, because I belong to you.”

  “No. You’ve proved you can’t be trusted. Like a dog who bites its owner I’ll have to put you down. I’ll go back and kill your friends too. Just because.” She pulled her athame out of her inside pocket. “Do you think I could take your ability with this?”

  “Unlikely,” I replied.

  “Only one way to find out.” She tucked it away again. The bridge I was standing on cracked loudly. I ran. I made it off just before the whole thing collapsed into the river. I didn’t wait for her next move. I let the darkness act through me. It and I were working in unison now. I moved without hesitation. I motioned at the broken bridge and several jagged wooden spears shot at Rachel. She raised her hand lazily and the spears all turned to dust and fell from the air.

  “Oh, Eddie, Eddie—” I waved the dust up into her face and whirled it around her in a miniature storm. She staggered about, waving her hands at the dust trying to get it out of her face. I ran at her whilst she was distracted. Moments before I reached her she eliminated the dust and thrust her hand out. Her magic hit me and kicked me into the kiosk wall. Rachel didn’t cease her attack. Smashed bottles lay discarded by the bins but not for long. With a flick of Rachel’s wrist the fragments shot up and needed their way into me. They tore through my clothes and buried themselves in my skin. I screamed and fell to my knees. I felt my blood leaking out. I used my own magic to force the glass out. I didn’t get the chance to return the attack. She had me in the grip of her magic. I’d lost. She forced me to remain on my knees., unable to stand. Unable to attack. I could move my arms but what would be the use in attacking? She’d block anything I did now.

  “How does it feel to be beaten by your own collection of magic?” she asked mockingly. I said nothing.“Indulge me, Eddie. Before I kill you. Why did you leave it in that unit? Why not just consume it yourself?” I ignored her still. “Tell me and I’ll spare your friends. I’ll spare Ashley. Sweet little Ashley. Ashley with the big tits. I can see why you like her. Keep your silence and I’ll kill them all.”

  “Power corrupts,” I mumbled. I glowered up at her. In the distance I could see people approaching. Lights in the darkness. The police? Probably. Rachel would kill them all. I didn’t care. That’s the thing about the darkness it stops me from caring about much. Amazingly threatening to kill Ashley did bother me, though. The threat spoke to me through the darkness.

  “So. Look at you. Literally filled with rage. You really want to hurt me.” She squatted before me and looked into my eyes with a goading expression. How I wanted to gouge those eyes out. How I wanted to make her eat them. Choke on them. “You think you can use that darkness against me. I created your darkness. I am its master as I am yours.” She reached out and ran her hand down my cheek. As she did I saw something that she could not possibly have noticed. If she had she would never have gotten so close.

  “Just kill me you miserable bitch,” I spat. I added the last word purely to annoy her. It worked.

  “I will. Slowly.” She pulled out her athame. She grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand up. “You know, I think it only right that you should help. You should be your own ending.” She wrapped my hand around the athame and placed hers over the top.

  “Rachel…” I said as I put my other hand on top of hers, holding it in place.

  “Eddie?” she said gently. Not a care in the world.

  “Your bracelet’s broken,” I told her. At first she was confused. Then she realised what I’d said. She wasn’t fast enough. I pulled her hand off of my own and then thrust her own athame into her thigh. I didn’t really aim, if I had then I would have gone for the stomach or something more vital. She tried to use her magic on me but my trick had worked. If you stab a warlock with their own athame it confuses their magic. You’ll have a few minutes before they can use it again. Unless you stab them in the heart. Then they die and the magic goes to you. If I could have got her heart I would have but like I said, I hurried.

  I grabbed hold of her wrists and pulled her magic from her, at the same time I pulled the magic from the athame too. Never in my life have I ever seen more fear in a person. She looked as if her worst nightmare had come to life and I suppose it probably had. She fought harder than any of my victims ever had but just like them she lost in the end. As her magic flowed from her to me every light and every window smashed around us. The power was so great that I was literally knocked on to my back when I took it. But the feeling of invincibility it gave me was undeniable. It was greater than the time I had actually been invincible. And it fed my darkness all it needed. I stood up slowly and locked eyes with my prey. She was sprawled on the floor about four five feet away.

  “I think you know what happens now,” I advanced slowly. I was going to take my time. I didn’t care about the cops who were heading this way. I’d kill them too if they tried to stop me. “I’m going to drag this out for as long as I can.”

  “Just get on with it,” she said sulkily. All fight gone. She was on her knees, holding her athame in her hands, looking at it sorrowfully. There was nothing in it anymore.

  “Putting on a brave face?”

  “No. I’m just ready. So kill me, or shall I do it myself?” she asked. She raised the athame and touched the blade to her throat. I licked my lips. I would love nothing more than to see her throat slit open. But not by her. She would not rob me of this. The smallest eye movement was all it took for me to call the athame to my own hand.

  “This power. I can see why you like it so much. I feel like I could do anything.” I closed the gap between us and took her by the hair. I pulled her head back and pressed the blade against her neck. I pushed hard enough to draw blood. I relished every moment. “Nothing will ever make up for what you’ve done to me, but I’m going to do my best.

  “That’s it, Eddie. Do it. Show me that you’ve got it in you.”

  “Eddie, stop!” I looked up and saw Inspector Richards advancing with his officers. There were at last twenty. They formed a circle around us, batons out and ready. Three of them had taser guns.

  “Eddie, do it now!” Rachel shouted.

  “You want me to do it?” I asked. Her eagerness to die was puzzling. Was it a ploy? It wouldn’t work. The darkness wanted death and the darkness would have its way. It wasn’t just the darkness. I wanted her death too. We were together on this as we had been with Cameron.

  “Eddie, if you do this your life is over. You’ll spend the rest of your days behind bars,” Richards said. I was already heading there if I let him take me so what was one more murder? “Go!” Richards yelled when it was apparent I was not going to do as he wanted. The first officer fired her taser gun. I waved my free hand and the entire thing flew off into the river. She screamed. I despatched of their other weapons in the same manner to much confusion and outcry.

  “What the fuck is going on?” one of them shouted.

  “Eddie?” Richards said. It was the first time he’d spoken without sounding so sure of himself. Magic was unsettling for the common man.

  “Do you want to die?” I asked Rachel slowly.

  She nodded. “Better dead
than being ordinary.” I laughed openly. Not because what she’d said was funny but because I had a far better plan than killing her. “What? What is funny?”

  I grabbed her wrist, the one with the broken bracelet and took hold of the bracelet. I pushed it against her skin and poured magic into it. The plastic melted and she grunted and screamed as it fused with her flesh. It became a part of her. The spell I put on it was stuck on her forever. “You cursed me all those years ago and now I’ve cursed you back. I’m not going to kill you, Rachel. I’ve reversed the spell on your bracelet. It no longer stops magic from leaving you, it stops it from entering. I’ve made it so that you will never be able to consume magic again. Not for as long as that is a part of you. And I’ve added a little extra spice to the curse. I’ve made it impossible for you to kill yourself. So there’ll be no suicide on the cards for you. And now I’m going to let you go. You can go and live a long ordinary dull grey life.” I let the athame drop to the floor and stepped away from her laughing. This was so much more satisfying; knowing that she was going to have to live the rest of her life in her worst nightmare and all because of me. The darkness backed off again now, it was satisfied. For the time being at least. But I knew it would be back.