Wyatt had blinked in, grabbed a confused Lucy and blinked out. I had no idea where to, but I hoped Elyse was with him. I had used my beast form roar for crowd control a few times and it had sent the nearby blood-mages into spasms. The alien queen had staggered a little but was always in the fight. Now with Wyatt, Elyse, Maddie and the others running around inside the house I was worried I would knock them out at the wrong instant, so I kept my shrieking maw shut.
The Kellys were tearing around the room ripping apart anything that moved. They were like a shape-shifter tornado—it was impressive to witness. I watched as Mrs. Kelly freed Lucy’s little brother and laid him in a corner out of the way of the main path of destruction—once a mom, always a mom. The Society mages were spending a lot of time shielding themselves and, I was happy to see, they were also shielding my friends from the worst of the attacks. The problem was there were just so many damn attackers. And instead of dwindling, the bad guy ranks held steady, I assumed because Lucy’s overactive brain kept sending in reinforcements.
The alien queen and I circled each other. She was dripping acid everywhere from all the gashes I’d opened up on her, and I was limping from a particularly nasty bite to my leg—my knee was shredded meat being held together by one lone tendon.
The queen rushed me.
I ducked when I should have jumped.
Her tail caught me in the lower abdomen and this time she added a little twist and the thing lodged itself in my ribs. She jerked her tail up and I was lifted off the ground.
The pain was exquisite.
I started spitting up blood. I was pretty certain I’d lost a lung and maybe some other vital parts. My vision began to swim and the lights began to dim. It seemed highly likely that I would pass out at any moment.
I couldn’t believe this was happening, I was the damn Ollphiest. Nothing in the world could stand against me.
Nothing in the world . . .
The world.
I gave myself a mental face-palm.
I had to be the dumbest shape-shifting, super-bear ever.
I wasn’t in the world. I was in Lucy’s memory. The alien queen wasn’t real. The tail that I was impaled on was just a very precise (and painful) figment of Lucy’s imagination. I wasn’t fighting flesh and blood. I was fighting a magic construct.
And magic was my bitch.
I shifted into bear form and roared, my saliva spewing all over the face of the queen. Her tail dislodged from my mid-section and came whipping at my face. I pulled a Neo from the end of The Matrix. The world around me dissolved into rivers and streams and threads, not of computer code, but magical energy. With the ease of swatting a fly I batted the queen’s tail away then ripped it from her body. Her scream of pain only lasted until I shifted into beast form and shoved the tail down her throat and out the back of her bug-like skull. The acid blood splashing over me no longer burned, because it wasn’t real. As the magic that held the queen together dissolved, my aura absorbed it and the physical damage I had taken so far began to heal even faster than normal.
I roared again and ran teeth-first into an oncoming pack of gremlins. I snapped, they popped, and the magic crackled over my aura before it was absorbed.
In between destroying memory-monsters I was studying the magic holding the entire constructed world together. The latticework of energy looked as intricate as a snowflake under a microscope. The power needed to create something like this must be staggering and Lucy, while unconscious, had pulled it off.
Wow.
I wasn’t an expert, but I thought it was a good bet that if I could dismantle the web of magic energy fueling the memory, we might be able to pull Lucy out and get her back to the real world. It was worth a shot. After stomping on two imps who were trying to burn me with their eye beams, I started slicing at the threads of energy holding Lucy’s world together.
I was making good progress when I heard the screech of Elyse’s cat form. She was in pain, or danger, or both. I didn’t hesitate—the monsters conjured by Lucy’s memory could no longer hurt me, but they could hurt, even kill, my friends and that was not going to happen.
* * * *
When I rounded the corner to the main entry hall of the house I could smell burning fur. My worst fear was confirmed, Elyse was lying on her side, still in cat form, smoke swirling up from her burned body.
I shifted as I slid on my knees to her side.
“Elyse?” I was afraid to touch her. I didn’t want to cause her any extra pain.
She was breathing raggedly, but consistent. Then I watched in awe as the burns disappeared and new, fresh fur grew in their place. I swiveled around and saw Maddie standing on the upstairs landing, hands out, eyes focused on Elyse.
“Where did you people come from?” The voice dripped with condescension. “I thought I knew everyone in the Society, but you all are a most interesting mystery.”
I stood and turned to face a man of average height, but with above average looks. Seriously, why is it the baddest of the baddies always seem to look like they could model for Calvin Klein?
“Marcus, I presume,” I said.
Marcus clapped his hands together, “You know my name.” He sounded genuinely delighted. “You’ve heard of me, this is wonderful. I so hate it when I have to explain who I am. It takes so much time and then most people don’t believe me when I tell them I can destroy them with a snap of my fingers. It’s soooo exhausting.”
“Yep, I know who you are,” I said, stepping between him and my friends. “But I think you’re going to be disappointed with the whole snap your fingers destruction thing.”
The smile faded from Marcus’ face.
“Young man, maybe you missed the part where I set your cat friend on fire?”
“Oh no,” I said, my fists clenching. “I didn’t miss that, and you are going to suffer for the pain you inflicted.” I glanced over at Elyse. She was back on all fours, looking as good as new, a low growl emanating from her throat. “And besides, your magic seems, I don’t know, kind of . . . weak.”
A twitch started below Marcus’ left eye, he was pissed. “Yes,” he said, looking up at Maddie. “Your healer is talented. I can’t wait until I’ve carved her open to see how she’s put together. That is, after I take her power.”
Marcus cried out and fell to his knees. It took my brain a second to register that Wyatt had blinked behind Marcus, zapped him with his baton and blinked away. Man, that kid would give the Flash a run for his money.
I stepped forward. One hand morphed into a massive, deadly claw and clutched Marcus around his throat, my talons poking five tiny symmetrical holes in his neck. I lifted him off the ground. He started turning purple and his eyes began to bulge as he choked, but he was a seasoned blood-mage with mad skills. He didn’t need to speak to cast a spell. I felt the death magic wash over me and get absorbed.
I laughed.
I told him, “Why do you guys always reach for the death spell?” Marcus’ eyes got even wider and bulgier. “Why not some kind of kinetic fire spell that could, under normal circumstances, knock me back and cause me to drop you?” I was genuinely perplexed. “I mean, it’s always straight to the death magic. What if I had information you could interrogate me for? I’m clearly something you’ve never encountered, you are losing out on vital intel gathering.”
Elyse chuffed.
I turned to see Lucy standing at the bottom of the stairs with Wyatt. I looked at Wyatt and he shrugged.
Lucy said in a small voice, “That girl up there, she healed that cat-woman. Can she save my parents?”
Oh boy. Cat-woman, Wyatt would never let Elyse forget that one.
I felt Marcus sliding his hands toward the daggers that were sheathed on his belt. I gave him a violent shake and he stopped moving. I did register, however, that the daggers were Lucy’s—well, the ones she used in the real world. She had told me that she took them off a dead blood-mage. Did she really kill Horn when all of this originally went down? I hoped, when we were f
inally out of her brain and she was conscious, she’d be able to shed some light on what went down.
“Lucy, I’m sorry, but your parents . . . they died.” I didn’t know how to explain to this young, vulnerable version of Lucy that all of this had already happened.
“And my brother?” Lucy asked quietly.
I looked up at Wyatt. He blinked away and reappeared a few moments later.
“Your brother’s alive,” Wyatt told everyone. “He’s with the other people we came with.” He looked at me and added, “I couldn’t get close enough.”
“That’s okay,” I said.
Wyatt blinked back to stand next to Maddie.
Lucy nodded toward Marcus. “He says that I have an innate power. A magic power. In Vegas, I won money because of magic—and you were there, by the pool.” Lucy stared at me, her eyes begging for an explanation. She turned and pointed to Wyatt. “And I know him, but I don’t know him.” Lucy grabbed the sides of her head. “It feels like I’m losing my mind.”
“Lucy, trust me, you’re not losing your mind. You can do magic, really powerful magic.”
“You are a blood-mage,” Cynthia’s stern voice called out from behind me.
Damn it.
Keeping Marcus held aloft with just enough air that he wouldn’t black out, I turned to face Cynthia, the Kellys and the other mages. They all looked a little rough around the edges, but nobody was in danger of dropping dead. Mrs. Kelly had an arm around Lucy’s little brother.
“She’s not a blood-mage,” I told Cynthia.
“I don’t know who or what you are, but I know you can see the magic spectrum,” said Cynthia. “Her aura gives her away, she has used massive amounts of blood-magic, tell me I’m wrong.”
“Look, Cynthia, none of this matters now.”
“How is it you know my name and speak to me with such familiarity?” Cynthia snapped.
Great, she was about go all Paragon Society on me. I so didn’t need this right now.
“Jason?” Lucy stepped toward her brother.
Cynthia raised a hand with a fireball in it. “Not another step.”
“She’s his brother, she’s not going to hurt him,” Maddie shouted from the top of the stairs.
Cynthia dismissed the outburst with a snort of derision. “In my experience a blood-mage always destroys the ones they love. The power derived from the blood of a family member carries with it additional energy.”
“Cynthia,” I said with as much patience as I could muster. “None of this matters, because we’re in a construct. You sent me here to save her,” I said, pointing at Lucy.
“Save a blood-mage? You’re lying. I would never do such a thing.”
Elyse shifted back to human form and gestured to Mrs. Kelly. “Mom, Orson’s telling the truth. I know you can feel our connection. You have to tell them.”
“Mom?” Cynthia said, confused. “Katherine, is this one of your children?”
“I don’t know,” answered Mrs. Kelly. “I never met her before today, but she doesn’t lie she feels like my own.”
Tears streamed down Elyse’s face. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Mr. Kelly placed a protective arm around Mrs. Kelly’s shoulder. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Elyse was speaking as if her mom was dead. Which she was, in the real world—it was all getting very confusing.
“Well, you’re right in one respect. None of this matters right now,” said Cynthia, trying to reassert control. “This young lady is a blood-mage and we will need to take her with us.”
“I’m telling you that if you threaten her in any way, her mind will fight back.” I didn’t want to shout. Elyse, Lucy and Wyatt all agreed that when I shouted I got scary, and scary Orson made people twitchy. But I was through with this nonsense. “Did you miss the parade of ogres and movie monsters?”
“We took care of all the low creatures.”
“Low creatures? The alien queen is a low creature? How in the world were you ever put in charge of the Society Council?”
“What?” Cynthia asked.
“What?” One of the other mages perked up, finally finding his voice.
“Say that again,” Mr. Kelly chimed in.
Oops. I guess that hadn’t happened yet. What was I thinking? None of this had happened—well, except for the part where Lucy’s family was murdered by a coven of blood-mages. I wondered how she really managed to escape, if ultimately her magic had manifested and she had wiped everyone out? That seemed very extreme and needed power Lucy hadn’t learned to harness yet.
“Orson!” Wyatt shouted.
What happened next was a blur.
My back and forth snipping with Cynthia had taken the focus off Lucy, who slipped quickly within striking distance of Marcus. She reached out and pulled the two blades from Marcus’ waist and without hesitating, not even for a second, she thrust both blades through Marcus’ back—it was a total Lucy move.
“That’s for my parents, you pig,” Lucy rasped.
CHAPTER 21
The runes on the blades lit up and an eerie blue light spilled from the metal. It seeped out around the handles and onto Lucy’s hands.
“Blood-mage!” Cynthia screamed and let loose with a serious whammy, followed quickly by whammies from her Society compatriots.
The spells were a direct hit.
Lucy absorbed them all. Her eyes snapped open revealing solid, black orbs.
Oh crap.
Magic, as powerful as a tidal wave, surged out of Marcus’ body, down the blades and into Lucy. The force of the energy blew me sideways. I don’t know how Lucy was able to hold on or if she even had the choice to let go.
Elyse was engulfed by the wild magic energy and tossed through the air like a rag doll. Mrs. Kelly cried out and tore away from her husband’s grip to sprint to her daughter’s side.
Wyatt grabbed Maddie and blinked.
The next thing I knew Wyatt had an iron grip on my shoulder. “Hold on to your butts!” he shouted and then blinked again.
We appeared next to Elyse and Mrs. Kelly. “Grab them!” Wyatt shouted.
I snaked a hand around Mrs. Kelly’s waist and held on tight.
We almost made it.
In the fraction of a millisecond that Wyatt’s teleport ability takes to ignite—Lucy exploded.
It wasn’t the gory, slasher film kind of explosion. There wasn’t any blood. It was more of a white-hot-light-bomb kind of explosion.
And it was intense.
The magic was a deep, primal, beginning of the universe kind of magic. It was alive. It was similar to what I experienced the first time I shifted at the Kelly’s cabin. I could feel the magic prying into my brain, assessing my innermost being, the things that made me Orson Reid. It didn’t hurt exactly, but it was really unpleasant. I wasn’t sure what would happen if the magic found me lacking, but it probably wouldn’t be good. I pushed out my Ollphiest aura to the max, doing everything in my power to protect the people around me. I hoped it would be enough.
The light pressing against my eyelids winked out in an instant. The sudden darkness was unsettling. I could hear the breathing of the others and I tried to get a mental headcount, but I couldn’t separate out the different breathing rhythms. Well, we weren’t dead, so that was promising. I listened to my surroundings, expecting the sounds of the hospital wing at Society HQ. It was too quiet and a cool breeze was rustling my hair. My magic spidey-senses were still overloaded and not working properly, so I cracked open an eye. Nope, not the hospital wing.
I was staring up at a dense green canopy of trees.
A forest?
That didn’t seem right.
We had been in Los Angeles, and while there are forests of sorts in the LA basin, these trees were way too big to be a part of those areas.
“Dude, what the hell kind of Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, X Files crap was that?” Wyatt groaned.
I sat up and instantly regretted it, my head pounding. I looked around at t
he pile of bodies—huh, my brain must have still been in recovery mode, because I counted too many pairs of legs.
“Is everyone here? Is everyone okay?” I asked.
Lucy sat up, a wild look in her eyes.
“Hey,” I said gently. “Are you . . . you know . . . you?”
That’s when I noticed she was wearing a hospital gown. That could only mean that Lucy, the real life Lucy, had been zapped from her hospital room to our new and mysterious location.
“I was stuck in the past.” Lucy looked like she was going to spin out.
“It was a memory,” I said calmly. “You were in a coma and we had to come in to find you. It’s a long story. But I think we’re good, okay?”
Lucy settled down just a little, her eyes remaining hyper-alert. “Where are my clothes? And why are we outside?”
I felt a soothing energy flow through me. My head started to clear.
“Maddie, please tell me that’s you doing that?” I asked, hopefully.
“Yeah, it seemed appropriate,” Maddie answered. “Any idea where we are?”
Elyse emerged from among the pile of arms and legs, a frown of concern on her face. “Orson, we’re at the shifter compound. Up in the Sierras.”
“What?” I jumped to my feet. Maddie’s healing wave was working wonders. “That can’t be, are you sure?”
“Positive,” Elyse answered.
I pointed at Lucy. “What year is it?”
“Excuse me?” Lucy was trying to keep her hospital gown closed and trying to stand.
“The year, Lucy. What year do you think it is?”
“It’s 2018,” Lucy smirked and then her eyes went wide. “It is 2018, right?”
“Yes, so we’re not in your memory anymore, we’re in the real world. But why the shifter compound and how did we get here?”
“Um, guys,” Wyatt called out, his voice cracking the kid sounded spooked. “We have an . . . um, issue over here.”
We all turned to see what had Wyatt so freaked out.
Mrs. Kelly was crouched in a fight-or-flight stance.
“Holy shit,” was all I could come up with.
Lucy: A Paragon Society Novel (Book 3) Page 20
