by brett hicks
“I will have to call the Commissioner on this, but if you did spot humans being used by witches, then I have no doubts what his decision would be. We will need to police the entrance to such a dangerous place. Human terrorists with too much know-how in your world could utilize such a hidden place for any number of deadly projects as well.”
Seri nodded in agreement.
“Many will not be pleased with me for disclosing so much about the magical world to humans, but I am not of the mind to allow slavers and traffickers to roam freely. They are a danger and a menace to all decent citizens, human or otherwise.”
He nodded in agreement and he looked to me.
“Is your partner back yet Detective?”
My eyes widened at the question and I shook my head quickly.
“No sir, he left to run down some leads with morning and I have yet to hear from him.”
He grumbled something under his breath and I could catch the basic gist. Apparently, Reece was a bit of a loose cannon. He pointed his large hand towards Skylar.
“Take Officer Johnson as your partner for the day and sit on that entrance until I have S.W.A.T. and some more of your people in toe. Do not let anyone leave that pocket space. Be safe both of you and stay sharp!”
We nodded and gave him a sharp salute as he dismissed us to get to Time Square.
I turned and popped back in the door quickly.
“Sir, permission to have Officer Johnson switch to civvies for this assignment?”
He nodded and said, “Granted, now get out of here Detective.”
I nodded and I spun and headed towards the locker-room.
Skylar was happy that he could switch out of his blue uniform attire so that we did not stand out like a Latin football fan at a golf tournament. I should have been less thrilled about the prospects of raiding a vast magical market filled with the nastiness of all verities.
Skylar looked like he had just woken up and discovered that his father was, in fact, Santa in disguise. I vaguely heard the Inspector roaring orders to all our personnel as we took the elevator down.
“Sounds like dad’s crying havoc up there.”
Skylar murmured sarcastically and I snorted.
“Yeah, but I think this is the first time he is literally going to have dogs of war to unleash on the preps. Well, more like wolves and felines of many varieties.”
Skylar’s eyes danced in amusement at my sass and we made for our unmarked car, which had been hastily assigned to us on our exit.
Fourteen:
Time Central was bustling with activity. We were looking the part of a young couple wandering about the most infamous place in New York. Skylar did not try to grope me, which not only guaranteed that he would retain all his members but also made me less uncomfortable for the contact.
This is one of America’s most iconic locations. This nexus of traffic was a place where the western world seemed to converge. When one thinks of New York, often an image of Time Square pops into mind, with its mega screen ads and the multitude of news studios.
Yep, this was the place we were raiding! Even a blind journalist could find this story, they wouldn’t have to stumble far to uncover it! My boss had assured me that they had positive spins in the works for this raid; despite how potentially damning it could be for my kind.
Not for the first time, I wondered if I was doing the right thing. If I was being naïve to believe that I could work with the NYPD in the post-Dawning world. I was handing my boss a gun and leveling it at my own head, hoping he would not pull the trigger. It would be nice to think that I have judged right about Inspector Johnson, but only time would tell. Either we would have a nice victory lap in the PR parade tonight, or we would be at war.
“I don’t see anyone coming out of that statue. You do not suppose they are invisible, are they?”
Skylar asked as we turned and began to look as if we were wondering back in the other direction. We did not stray too far from the entrance.
“Nah, I would see them with my X-ray vision.”
I said it with a matter-of-fact tone and Skylar’s head whipped around as if I had just grown a serpentine head out of my neck. His eyes bulged in his head and his mouth was slack. It was all I could do to hold my straight-featured face in place now.
“You can do that too?!”
His tone carried a hint of wonder and I snorted and began to laugh in earnest. I smacked his chest playfully and rolled my eyes at him
“You dear sweet and naïve young friend, of course, I’m kidding. Only Superman has X-ray vision and he is from Krypton, not earth!”
I said this as if we were talking about a living sports star or some other actual celebrity. Hey, a comic nerd can hold out hope that just maybe there is a Superman, right?!
Skylar huffed and looked at me crossly.
“That was just plain rude! No one blasphemes about DC Comics!”
My laughter bubbled up again and I tipped my head back in my humor.
“God, you’re just too much fun for a male!”
His eyes narrowed to slits.
“You do realize that if men didn’t exist, then you wouldn’t have females to ogle either.”
I flashed him a bright smile and nudged him with my elbow.
“Well, you better get right on that buddy!”
His eyes expanded again and I laughed again. Skylar muttered a few choice obscenities about women being insane and I chose to pretend I didn’t hear his comment. If I had a brother, this was what it would have felt like. He was an easy friend and his warmth did not discomfort me like most men. He didn’t expect anything from me, most men see a hot chick and their minds go straight to sex.
“Back to the point, Seraphina told me that she was having one of her spies lock down the other exits. But, I believe that people do not leave during auction hours anyway. That is part of how they keep the auctions secretive. Seri said that she saw at least five humans on the auction block. She is confident that more will be close by in similar states of distress.”
Skylar looked grimmer now and he nodded.
“Yeah, the thought of slavery in this modern world really bothers me, Thea.”
I nodded my agreement and I tugged at his side to let him know I wanted to wander back in the other direction.
“How much longer until your dad gets here with the raiding party?”
Skylar muttered, “You make it sound like we’re off to raid a damn boss in some RPG dungeon!”
I snorted derisively at that comment and I smacked his chest again, this time a little harder and he flinched.
“Easy with that vamp strength woman!”
I narrowed my eyes at him mock-threateningly.
“Then answer my question dude.”
He did have the good sense to smile sheepishly at this admonishment.
“Probably five more minutes because he is likely trying to prepare for the Holocaust. We have never raided a pocket dimension before. God, that sounds cool just to say out loud, have I mentioned how much I love this job?”
I chuckled in amusement and popped his chest a third time and he looked at me crossly. Poor guy was going to hate to be before this was over!
“Just keep it in your pants until the action starts; maybe wait a few extra minutes after that so you don’t attract a horny succubus.”
“Note to self,” He muttered sarcastically next to me. I grinned up at him with the full force of my cheesy mood.
“You’ll live you, big baby.”
“Yeah, but will my masculinity survive the whole day with you?”
His tone was light and devoid of any heat. I rolled my eyes but I did manage to force my hand not to pop him in his now sore chest again. See, I could be merciful, sometimes—on a rare occasion.
“I’m not that bad.”
He pinched his fingers together.
“A little bit.”
“Whatever dude, let’s just keep our eyes open for any possible runners.”
He nodded
and we began to walk back towards the big bull statue casually. We didn’t have any more time to watch, because huge black S.W.A.T. vehicles pulled up and a mix of uniformed officers, detectives in Kevlar and supernaturals wearing NYPD vests spilled out.
Suddenly the massive traffic of Time Central came to a crashing halt and humans and inhumans stopped to rubberneck at the spectacle. We were soon surrounded by officers and Bix came striding up to a stop with a pair of Kevlar vests sporting ICD on the vest.
“The esteemed Inspector thought you two might want these.”
She handed them over and we dropped out facade of a couple out on a walk. A S.W.A.T. officer came over with a pair of assault rifles and distributed them to us and two extra clips of ammo.
Skylar looked like a kid on Christmas morning. He was ready to go on his first supernatural raid and I was going to have to do everything in my power to shield him from any magical attacks.
“Everyone pair up, one inhuman and one officer in pairs as we discussed. You will be sticking to your partners like glue people and you will be reliant on the magical shielding of these fine folks who have volunteered to act like your living shields. Please guard them against physical harm and trust them to guard you against spells. We go in and we shut down this human trafficking and all the illegal dark magic. We also have solid Intel that the person of interest in the recent inhuman murders might be here. Tread lightly and good hunting to you all!”
The Inspector could give a damn fine rousing speech on occasion. His idea to pair of the police and inhumans was a clever one. I suspected he and Bix must have devised this raiding strategy together. I would also be willing to bet my first two paychecks that he is going to try to recruit her to the NYPD.
“So, I guess that leaves you and me together again, huh?”
I smiled and nodded to Skylar.
“Just don’t get lost inside looking for the entrance to Hogwarts, Mr. Potter!”
He scoffed at me and rolled his eyes and spoke in a very serious tone.
“Platform four and three quarters is in London, duh! You’re such a noob sometimes, for a vamp.”
I chuckled at his boyishness and I began to steel myself for the fighting to come. I was going to be dealing with a huge pocket reality of witches and daemons. I had not fought a daemon before, so I was going to be largely relying on my brute force.
“Well, since it’s bring-a-nerd-to-work day, let’s get going Mr. Potter.”
Any retort Skylar had was lost as the rift opened and a dozen people came rushing out screaming in a mesh of gargled language dead to my ears. I heard Bix boom a warning tone and I knew these must have been daemons.
“Freeze, NYPD!”
Inspector Johnson thunders above them. Several spells shot of in dark shadowy bolts of magical force. One came rushing towards us and I stepped forward and thrust out my hands and let my magical mantle open around me like a huge pair of shadowy wings stretching out. My power washed through the streets and I was sure I felt a few hidden dead bodies around the area raise with my overt necromantic energies.
I clasped my hands together and I thrust out a massive black shield of darkness and death energy around us. It was like a large chilly blanket of comfort to me, likely just freezing to Skylar, but at least the power wrapping him up also deflected the death spell.
Besides us and behind us rifles and handguns opened up on the daemons. Bix rushed ahead and seemed to find perch between bullets and she lashed out at daemons with deft ease and confidence of many hundreds of years of life.
“Surrender!”
I could hear the Inspector booming loudly as if he was more foghorn than man. That seemed to be a trait you needed to have to be a cop, or at least it made life a hell of a lot easier. Sometimes the scary cop voice really did slow down and distract the perps, like the two daemons who stopped mid-cast to gawk at the source of the powerful human authority.
Bix and Vivian was a pair of seemingly synchronized dancers on the violent stage of the battle. Two more daemons rushed out of the portal and headed towards us and I dropped my rifle and summoned my glowing silver-blue katana. The sword had somehow become a part of my body last year. I wasn’t exactly clear on how that worked and I had not exactly wanted to ask anyone else. I am a necromancer so much of my species’ knowledge and traditions were lost to time and eradication.
The glowing energy of the sword seemed to leave streaks of energy in the air as it swept. I slashed out at daemons limbs and I disarmed a daemon’s sword hand before he could finish his strike. The other tried to rush Skylar, deeming him the easier prey, but his twin shots found their mark between the daemon’s eyes. I had told Skylar to aim between the eyes with most any inhuman or other supernatural. Nearly nothing gets up once you blow out their brains, no matter how tough they are.
Bix thundered in authority that was every bit as clear as anything the Inspector boomed.
“Come now, I am opening the rift wide for us and I will leave it open until we are done. Stay near your partners. There will be many, many more of these creatures inside and we will not have the advantage of numbers again.”
Fear and anticipation were palpable in the atmosphere around us. We were stepping into supernatural battle and everyone was amped up on adrenaline now.
I just hoped that everyone would make it through this fight intact.
Fifteen:
While I have seen a few pocket realities in Harlem, they were home to families and other such more domestic settings. Nothing prepared me for the stench of witch magic and the rotten egg smell of daemons fresh from Dis.
As the locals spotted us all coming through in numbers, some tried to flee and the others began to throw spells or whatever weaponry they had at us. I stood in front of Skylar and acted as a living shield as our unit advanced in a neat column of gunfire and some fairy magic and vampire telekinetic abilities.
The dark rangers were off in the shadows picking off dark magic casters in stealth. The occasional black arrow from an unseen bow told that they were covering us, even if they were ahead of the entire raiding unit.
The cobblestone road and the timeless buildings were familiar somehow, yet they were wholly different than any human construct I had ever seen. Magic and some residual semi-sentient awareness gnawed at my conscious mind.
Everything seemed to sing to me beneath the multitude of black magic taint layered overtop of the constructs. Dark objects flew towards us and I shot out a wave of pure power forcing back the advance.
Ravens seemed to gather up from the dirt and the shadows in every perceptible direction. My blade glowed brighter a light-green infused my magic and I blasted out and several of the bird constructions were dissolved into nothingness, shadows leaked back and dirt fell at my feet. I wasn’t even sure I knew what I had done or why it worked, but I kept my attention on the multitude of avian death raining down on us.
“Take cover!”
I yelled to Skylar and I felt him moving in my senses. I was connected to death, but I could also connect with life too, something I had learned over the past several months.
Vivian shot out of the pure-black and spun in a deadly accurate circuit of steel, then she was gone again. The other rangers seemed to pull the same stunts, picking off casters from the periphery of the battle, forcing their attention off the humans marching on them.
Several of the officers dropped from arrows around us and I swore and prayed that they would not be hexed. More arrows came raining down from the back lines of the resistance. Bix popped out of nowhere and severed a witch’s spine with her blade and shouted above the madhouse of the battle.
“Cover! Find shelter now!”
Another ESU officer fell taking a bolt to the chest. These were some of the best trained tactical units on the NYPD and trust me, their training was amazing! Even so, this was more like the Normandy Beach invasion than it was a raid on a drug kingpin’s warehouse or some such urban training scenario they might know.
I rushed on to the
first row of buildings and I zipped past the rapid fire of marksmen with longbows. I juked and weaved my way to the first building and I hit the ground just as space above where I had been exploded into a swirl of silvery light.
Crack, Crack, Crack!
Skylar was kneeling behind me steadily tapping the trigger of his rifle with accurate chest and headshots. The boy must have been a Navy Seal in a former life! I rose to my feet in time to slam right into a daemon trying to launch herself at me through the open door of the first shop.
My bright blade seared flesh and I ran her through without a second thought. Her body began to burn to ash around my sword as if it was unmaking her very essence. I could now that to my laundry-list of other questions better explored after the fighting was over.
Humans poured into the side of the building and I crashed through the door dragging the screaming woman with me. Several blades and projectiles found purchase into her flesh. She gurgled out her final death-rattles and I threw her forward into the tall multi-horned daemon man. He bared his thin pointed teeth at me and snarled like a wild creature.
My blade was sweeping and blocking daggers thrown towards Skylar and I ducked a massive two-handed ax that nearly cleaved through my upper torso. I rent my blade through an ankle and the man tumbled forward screaming in a high-pitched sound of utter agony.
Skylar and several mortals followed me in and I heard the loud cracks of their rifles behind me. I worked myself to a crouch and I pushed the pained man’s weight off my small body. I felt the searing agony of metal biting into my right shoulder.
I had to bite back my own scream and I dropped my sword fumbling for the molten agony in my shoulder. More gunfire erupted from behind me and I wrapped my left hand around the molten hot dagger and I ripped it free from my shoulder in one jerk.
Very little blood dribbled out of the wound, it had cauterized itself. I did not have time to sit down and I did not have time to pick up my sword as two more forms approached. I remembered my smith at my waist and I plucked the gun free from my right side concealed holster. I spun and I exhaled as I squeezed the trigger.
