Warlock For Hire: Arcane Inc. Book 1

by Sean Stone

  “Good thing I didn’t go home, eh?” she said snarkily, tossing the club aside. She extended her hand and I took it, letting her pull me to my feet.

  “I have no idea what’s going on,” I muttered. She pulled me away from the wreckage and looked me over for any serious injury.

  “You look okay. Anything need healing?” she asked.

  “Only my pride,” I replied. “You look almost like you care,” I said, as my pain faded and my old self started to return.

  “Don’t get the wrong idea. I just need you alive for now,” she said. “Now, let’s get the power out of him and go.” We turned back to where Shay was lying, but he was gone. We heard a door slam out the back and I knew that he’d scarpered. We wouldn’t be able to catch him now and he wouldn’t be foolish enough to risk getting caught again. To be honest, I didn’t want to go after him. Whatever was going on here was something I wanted no part of, but sadly I needed that magic.

  I explained everything to Ashley in the taxi on the way back to her place. I threw a bit of magic to muffle the driver’s ears — couldn’t have him repeating what he heard. She listened with disbelief as I told her what had happened. We’d erased any trace that we had ever been in the old sporting shop, then we’d left Craig’s remains behind. We couldn’t call the police because it would raise too many questions. Somebody else would find him eventually. And if they didn’t I didn’t really care. He shouldn’t have gotten involved with whoever she was.

  “Who would be doing this? And why do they want to teach you a lesson?” she asked. “What did you do to them?”

  “I haven’t done anything to anyone!” I protested, but I think we all know that isn’t true. It was just a case of figuring out who, what and when. But I didn’t have time for that. Nor did I have the inclination. “I don’t know who it is. It’s probably just someone who wanted the magic and now they’ve got it they’re trying to keep me from coming after them.” I didn’t believe that was true, though, as much as I wanted to.

  “And are we going to stop going after them?” she asked. Clearly she wanted to. Danger didn’t mix well with her it seemed. Even though she was handy with a golf club.

  “We can’t. We need that magic,” I said.

  “So how do we find Shay again?”

  “Never mind him. We’ll use a broader map and find the main bulk of power. Whoever’s running the show has the power. Shay’s just a middle man and a waste of our time,” I said. Eventually, I would have to go after Shay, if only to retrieve the magic he had. I couldn’t leave a person like him with fists full of magic. I had enough on my conscience.

  “Let me ask you something,” she said. “If we didn’t need this magic would you still go after the woman?” She looked at me quizzically, as if the question was some kind of test.

  “Hell no,” I replied, and it was the truth. I like a mystery, but whoever was behind this one was a raging psychopath and not the sort of person I wanted to get tangled up with. Not to mention the fact that she had a potion she could use to control people’s minds, and I hadn’t created an inoculant for that yet. I chose to leave that out when explaining things to Ashley. Best she didn’t know about our enemies potential for mind control.

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. I wondered if I’d passed her test. Probably not.

  The conversation died and we drove in silence.

  “Thanks for saving me by the way,” I said when I was tired of the silence. I don’t like to be left with my thoughts for too long. I have too many and they can be troubling.

  “No problem,” she said.

  “You’re warming to me aren’t you,” I joked, winking at her.

  “No. Definitely not. I still dislike you. But I need you,” she said primly.

  “Dislike? That’s a bit harsh, I’ve done nothing but help you,” I said.

  “You put my mum in danger by trying to go after Killian,” she said.

  “I was trying to help you.”

  “What good did it do?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

  “Just admit you don’t dislike me,” I said grumpily.

  “No way. You are the most irritating man I have ever met and if I could get away with it then I would have nothing to do with you,” she said, folding her arms across her chest stubbornly.

  “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much,” I said and smirked. She shot me a dirty look.

  The car slowed and then came to a stop in the middle of the road.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, looking up. The driver just turned to me with a bewildered expression on his face. He didn’t need to explain. The taxi was surrounded by black SUV’s, all with tinted windows. There was no way of moving and no doubt in my mind as to who was behind it. The taxi door was opened and me and Ashley were escorted out onto the road. We were shown into the SUV to our right and the door shut behind us before we were even properly seated. Jeffrey, Killian’s right-hand man turned from the front seat to address us. I was relieved that Killian was not here. I was still a bit embarrassed about our last encounter. And frightened. Mainly frightened, but let’s keep that between us.

  “Mister Myers is concerned you are not making sufficient progress,” Jeffrey said simply. The SUV started moving.

  “Where are we going?” Ashley asked, frightened. She was worried we were being taken to Killian. So was I.

  “I’ll ask the questions, Miss Sheridan,” Jeffrey said. “How is the spell progressing?”

  “It’s written,” I said. “We just need to get ready to cast it.”

  “Get ready?” It was obvious that Jeffrey didn’t know much about magic. Killian was likely the first supernatural being he’d met and seers don’t even really count. They’re just humans with fancy dreams really.

  “Where are you taking us?” Ashley asked again.

  “We just need to grow Ashley’s powers so she can perform the ritual. She isn’t strong enough yet.” I didn’t want to tell him that the power we needed had been stolen. Killian might not take the news so well, and people might turn up dead.

  “Where are you—”

  “I am taking you home, Miss Sheridan. Please calm down,” Jeffrey said, irritatedly.

  “Oh, okay,” she murmured. Relieved that we weren't going to see Killian.

  “How long will it take her to get stronger?” he asked. He spoke about her as though she wasn’t in the vehicle. She didn’t seem too bothered, though. She just gazed out the window, pretending not to hear us talking.

  “A week maybe more,” I said with a shrug.

  “No.”

  “I’m sorry?” he needed to elaborate on his response. No would not suffice.

  “Mister Myers has already seen when the ritual will take place. He will not be swayed.” The vehicle pulled up outside Ashley’s house and we were ushered out again. Jeffrey lowered his window and turned to me. “You have two days.”

  “That’s not possible,” I argued.

  He looked over at Ashley’s house and then back at me. He lifted his jacket exposing the gun that was holstered beneath. I got the message. “I think you’ll find it is,” he said. “Two days.” Then the SUV drove away again.

  I looked at Ashley expecting panic, but she seemed to be taking it rather well. She must be getting used to bad news, that or her reaction was merely delayed. “I guess you’d better come in. We’ve got quite a bit of work to do,” she said.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Luckily, Ashley’s mum wasn’t home. Out at work apparently. That was good because I really hate meeting parents. I feel like I have to be on my best behaviour, like an innocent little schoolboy. Plus they always want to ask questions about my life—what I do for a living. Even amongst supernatural families I have to be careful about telling the truth. My profession isn’t a very well respected one in the magical community. People think selling my services is unethical and immoral. And don’t get me started on trying to explain what a natural warlock is. Long story short, when I tell people what I am and what I do I
am not met with kind reactions.

  Ashley’s parents lived in the downstairs of the house which left the entire upstairs to Ashley. Like the house had been split in two. The only thing they shared was a kitchen because there wasn’t one upstairs. It was a nice arrangement and I was a bit jealous. If only I could convince Doris to do something similar with me. Ashley took me upstairs and into her living room. It wasn’t a small room and yet she’d still managed to clutter it up with stuff. Books mainly. Several shelves were filled with books, all around the room. There were so many that she’d even had to pile some around the room.

  “How do you find time to read so much?” I asked in wonder.

  “There’s always time for reading,” she replied. “And I haven’t read them all. Not yet. I buy loads of books every time I go to Waterstones. It’s an addiction really.”

  “Clearly,” I muttered. I picked up one of the many chocolate wrappers from the coffee table. “Sweet tooth?”

  “I need to snack on something when I’m reading,” she said innocently. How she maintained her figure and consumed so much chocolate was beyond me. Working in a cake shop probably wasn’t doing her any favours.

  I continued looking around the room. Taking everything in. I love exploring people’s homes; it’s where I learn the most about them. Observing someone’s natural habitat is fascinating. I make it sound like studying animals, but really that’s all we are. Sure, we’ve evolved over millions of years, and risen to the top of the animal kingdom, but we’re still animals and we can be studied in pretty much the same ways.

  My eyes fell on the radiator where two pairs of lacy knickers had been draped next to a bra. I could probably hide my head in her bra. Not that I had any intention of doing so. That would be inappropriate. I looked away before she caught me looking, but it was too late. She was looking at me questioningly, her hands on her hips.

  “Enjoying yourself?” she asked. There was a hint of a smile on her lips and I knew I wasn’t really in trouble. It was her fault for putting it there.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  She shook her head. “Come on, we should get on with it.”

  “Get on with what?” I said. There really was nothing left to do. “We can’t get the magic back in two days. Whoever has it will have hidden it properly now. Today they were toying with us. Leading us into a trap to send a message. To get the magic back would take a lot of time and planning. And we’re pretty much out of time.”

  “So what are you saying? We should give up?” she said hotly.

  “Of course not. Just find another way. We know that you can do it, Killian has already seen it. He’s seen it happening in two days time. We just need to figure out how I suppose,” I said, trying to think something up. She fell onto the sofa and I joined her. “I can give you the power I took from Craig and then we can see how much work we need to do,” I said. It was about time to get the magic out of me anyway. If I kept it inside me too long then I’d start liking it and then I’d never give it up.

  “Alright, let’s do it,” she said and held her hands out for the transfer. I passed the magic into her and then gave her a minute to let it settle.

  “Let’s test your strength.” I took her hands in mine again and concentrated on her power. She was stronger, it was easy to feel that. Her power had almost doubled now. But it was nowhere near enough. “You need more,” I said miserably.

  “How much more?” She still had a few shreds of optimism and I was about to shatter them.

  “Twenty times more at least,” I said. I leaned back, hands covering my eyes and sighed in despair.

  “Can we increase my power? Train it to grow? My mum and dad made me train every day when I was a teenager to increase my strength. They said a witch can never stop getting stronger as long as she trains regularly.”

  I smiled. She was cutely optimistic. She was right, she could train her power to grow, but not in two days. In two days she would achieve nothing. I was about to tell her that when somebody did it for me.

  “Don’t be silly, Ashley. You know it takes longer than that.” I looked over and saw a small woman in her fifties standing in the doorway. Ashley’s mum. I could see the resemblance in the face. She had the same jaw shape and eyes. Other than that they were completely different. Her mum had dark, almost black hair, and she was pretty dumpy.

  “Mum, I’ve told you hundreds of times not to just barge in here!” Ashley snapped.

  “I didn’t barge, the door was open. I don’t know what you’re worried about, you’re my daughter you have nothing I haven’t seen before.”

  “That’s not the point. It’s about respecting my privacy,” she said.

  “Why is it so messy in here?” she asked, ignoring Ashley’s moaning. “You can’t bring guests here when it’s such a mess,” she scolded.

  “Pff, don’t worry about him,” Ashley said, waving dismissively in my direction.

  “Rude,” I muttered under my breath. Nobody heard me.

  “What is that?” Ashley’s Mum said. She stepped across the room and moved the chair at Ashley’s desk to reveal a rug underneath. She lifted the rug off the floor and I saw what looked like chocolate stains all over it. At least I hoped it was chocolate. You really never know what fetishes a person might be in to. I’ve seen enough dodgy videos online to know better than to ask. “Ashley! This is your dad’s rug. You’ve ruined it!”

  “It’s just chocolate Mum. It’ll wash out,” Ashley said. She crossed the room and took the rug from her mum. “And Dad said I could have it.”

  “To decorate your room, not to spill chocolate on.”

  “Well, I didn’t do it deliberately. It’s not like I thought, oh I’ll just spill my chocolate here!”

  “You’ll have to explain it to him.” For the first time, her eyes actually fell on me and she gave me a quick once over. “Who is your friend?”

  “He’s no-one,” Ashley said. If she kept talking about me in that way I was going to get offended.

  “If he was no-one you wouldn’t have brought him home.”

  “I’m Eddie Lancaster, pleased to meet you,” I said, standing up and crossing the room to greet her properly.

  “Eddie Lancaster? The natural warlock?” she said.

  “You’ve heard of me?” I said, surprised. I hadn’t realised I had such a reputation.

  “Of course. You sell your services. Like a little magical prostitute,” she said not unkindly.

  “I’m not little. I’m average height,” I said. It was the only part I could argue with although I’d never been described in that way before.

  “I’m Margie, it’s nice to meet you too, Eddie. It’s about time she brought somebody back. We’ve been waiting for her to find a friend for a long time.” I didn’t like the special emphasis that Margie put on the word “friend”.

  “It’s not like that Mum. Eddie’s not a friend. He’s helping me with something,” Ashley said. Each time she spoke I got more offended.

  “Well, he’s not doing a very good job. Why don’t you two come downstairs for dinner and we can talk about your magic problem,” she said.

  “No, Mum. It’s too complicated. We can’t explain it to you,” Ashley said, waving her hand dismissively.

  “Explain what? That you’re helping make Killian Myers invincible?” We shared a look of shock. How could she know that? “Oh, children,” she said with a shake of her head. “You think two men can follow me everywhere and sit outside my house for two weeks and I won’t find out why? Now, come on. Dinner. We’ll talk about it downstairs.” Her tone left no room for negotiation and just like that we were on our way downstairs for dinner.

  Margie served dinner and we joined her at the table eager to learn how she discovered the truth about what was going. Once we were all tucking into a delicious chicken curry she finally decided to tell us, but not until after we explained everything that had happened to us. I wasn’t too keen on spilling all, but Ashley told me it was fine. Margie even made me talk
her through the ritual I had written. There is an old saying that a magician should never explain his tricks. For somebody like me, that rule is very hard to stick to. In case you hadn’t already noticed, I love to brag, and telling Margie all about my ritual gave me the perfect opportunity to show off just how fantastic a spell writer I really was. I was disappointed when all she said was “good”; as if I was a child who’d finger-painted some crap drawing in which the people were bigger than the house.

  “So go on, Mum. Tell us how you found out,” Ashley prompted.

  “I noticed that they’d been following me for a while so I asked them what they were up to,” she said as if it was nothing.

  “And they just told you?” I asked. Why had I had to go through so much trouble to learn the truth? Syringes full of sedative, sneaking around hotel rooms, live murders and agonising beatings. I should’ve just gone up to one of the henchmen and asked what was going on.

  “Of course not. I cast a spell that made them more willing to tell me,” she said with a sly grin.

  “What spell?” Ashley asked.

  “I made their faces come out with boils. From forehead to chin. Young men are so vain these days. They told me everything I wanted to know just as long as I reversed the spell.” I was guessing that Killian didn’t know about their indiscretion or else they probably wouldn’t still be around.

  “If you know that your life is in danger why have you stuck around?” I asked. Most people would’ve fled straight away.

  Margie smiled. “I know that my Ashley will figure it out. We raised her well. And now she has you helping her, Eddie.” I wish I shared the woman’s confidence. “I think I’ll be able to help you with your problem if you just give me time to think. I know the answer is rattling around up here somewhere, but I’m old now and it will take some time for it to come to me,” she said.

  “You really think you can figure this out?” Ashley asked, not convinced. Neither was I, but I was too polite to say it. You probably think it’s a bit out of character for me to be watching my manners. I wouldn’t usually. Under normal circumstances, I’d say whatever was on my mind without caring. But I told you before, parents have a bit of a funny effect on me. I have to be polite.