Life is for the Living

by S. C. Stokes

  Bishop sighed audibly as she sank to the floor

  “Bakuhatsu Shiro!” bellowed the voice from hall.

  A hellish screeching emanated from the door as it twisted and warped.

  At the sound, Kasey shrank down behind her table.

  The morgue’s door buckled under the arcane onslaught and shattered inward, showering the morgue in steel and shrapnel.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The shower of steel turned the morgue into a killing field. Shrapnel ricocheted throughout the confined space. One large slab of steel slammed into the table Kasey was hiding behind.

  As the room went still, Bishop leaned around the end of the table and emptied her MP5 into the doorway.

  Kasey peeked over the table in time to see two black clad acolytes collapse. A third burst into the morgue, firing her weapon at Bishop.

  Bishop dropped behind the table as the storm of steel struck it.

  With Bishop under fire, Kasey drew a bead on the woman and fired three shots in quick succession.

  The first missed but the second and third found their mark. The woman dropped to the floor but continued firing haphazardly until her clip ran dry.

  Another form appeared in the doorway. Kasey recognized him from the second floor. The Shinigami wore his hair drawn back in a traditional top knot. His eyes were fixed on Kasey and the gun in her hand.

  Kasey turned her weapon on the Shinigami.

  “Mamore,” the Shinigami commanded.

  The language was unintelligible to Kasey, but she’d seen enough to know a world of hurt was coming her way.

  She pulled the trigger.

  There was a wet thud as the bullet stopped just shy of the Shinigami, hovering harmlessly in the air before him.

  Kasey squeezed the trigger again. The bullet came to a halt only an inch from the first. She continued firing, quickly unloading the weapon at the Shinigami in front of her. Soon a dozen rounds hovered before him.

  She pulled the trigger again. A metallic click echoed from the Glock.

  Empty.

  The corners of the Shinigami’s mouth edged upward into a smile as he raised his hand. “Ose!”

  The spell struck Kasey and the table she was hiding behind. The table screeched across the floor, while Kasey was thrown across the room. Bishop’s Glock flew out of her hand and skittered across the ground.

  Kasey groaned as she slammed into the morgue’s wall and fell to the floor.

  “What was that?” Bishop muttered, looking aghast.

  The blonde Shinigami appeared in the doorway.

  “Not so feisty now, are you?” The woman seethed as she bore down on Bishop. “You normals and your guns. You rely on such worthless tools to do your will. Now look at you. Your ignorance is almost amusing.”

  With her gun empty, Bishop hurled the weapon at the woman.

  The Shinigami ducked. The MP5 clattered along the floor.

  She swept both hands through the air and cried out, “Hinotama.”

  A wisp of fire materialized above her hand. The wisp flickered and grew into a sphere of flames broiling in the air before her. With a flick of her wrist, the woman hurled the fireball at Bishop.

  With a gasp, Bishop dove down behind the table as the flames washed over it.

  “What was it you did to Mina? Something about a barbecue. I assure you, you will share her fate.”

  Kasey struggled to breath. She’d been winded when she struck the wall. Fighting the burning sensation in her chest she scanned the room.

  A circle of fire erupted around Bishop, cutting her off from Kasey or Vida.

  The male Shinigami turned his attention to Bishop as well. “I imagine you are beginning to realize the price you will pay. Your life for Mina’s. Consider yourself fortunate. In times past, entire cities have burned for the transgression you committed today. Know that each of the officers who died here today, did so because of you. This is the price you pay for defying the Gods of Death.”

  Bishop’s face was white. Beads of sweat ran down her face. With each passing moment, the circle of flames constricted.

  “Look on the bright side,” the woman chided. “At least you won’t live to see your city burn.”

  “Focus, Eriko. This is not the time nor place to bandy about the master’s ministrations.”

  “What does it matter, Hideyo? It’s not like they will live to speak of it.”

  The flames grew higher. Bishop searched for an escape, but there was none.

  “What, no more witty retorts?” Eriko taunted. “I’ll settle for your last words.”

  Bishop ignored her. Instead focusing on the shifting flames licking closer and closer every second.

  Kasey locked eyes with Bishop, as the flames grew brighter she could wait no longer. Kasey ignored her exhaustion and rose to her feet.

  Eriko continued. “Oh, what’s wrong? Cat got your tongue? Funny how that always happens in the end. Courage always fades in the face of certain death.”

  A river of sweat ran down Bishop’s face as the flames licked at her trousers.

  “Goodbye, officer, you were fun while you lasted,” Eriko teased.

  There were some prices Kasey wasn’t willing to pay to protect her secret. Losing Bishop was one of them. Kasey cleared her mind except for a single thought. The murderous Eriko before her.

  “Trydanu!” Kasey’s bellow shook the morgue. She was on her feet now. Her right hand quivered as it formed a conduit for the arcane energy surging madly through her being.

  Both Shinigami turned. Hideyo’s face was impassive. Eriko, on the other hand, was caught flatfooted. It seemed they had supposed Kasey was down for the count. The shock of her reappearance was outshone by the incantation she had just uttered. A surge of power akin to a lightning bolt leapt from Kasey’s outstretched hand.

  Hideyo was fast.

  “Mamore,” he chanted, raising his protective barrier once more.

  Eriko was caught between her execution of Bishop and Kasey’s unexpected arcane assault.

  The bolt caught her in the chest and blasted her off her feet. She tumbled across the floor of the morgue before coming to a halt. Her body convulsed involuntarily as the energy raced to ground itself.

  “What a bitch,” Kasey exclaimed as she bore down on Hideyo. “Using magic to torment normals. It’s pathetic. To think you use your powers to beguile, confuse, and enslave those who don’t know any better. Let’s see how you fare against your own kind.”

  “Our kind?” Hideyo spat. “Don’t be deluded. Were you to live three lifetimes, you would still be a child to me. You know nothing of us. If you did, you wouldn’t have dared to defy us.”

  “Don’t I?” Kasey answered. “You use your magic to masquerade as gods while you sow death and discord among the ignorant. You made a big mistake coming here, Hideyo. New York will be the end of you.”

  “Child, please. I have been a Shinigami since before you were a glint in your father’s eye. You may have taken Eriko by surprise, but you won’t get lucky twice.”

  Kasey laughed. “I already have. First Mina, now Eriko.Do you still think it’s luck?” I have news for you, Hideyo, and it’s all bad. I’m prescient. Why do you think the master didn’t come himself? He’s already sent one assassin after me and failed. Now you idiots come bumbling into our station, without even knowing I’m here. It’s almost embarrassing.”

  “Lies,” Hideyo chafed.

  “Are they? Take your best shot and we’ll see. I’ve seen every way that this might play out, Hideyo,” Kasey bluffed, “and there isn’t one where you walk out that door alive.”

  Hideyo went quiet. His eyes were fixed on her, but his confidence seemed to be waning.

  Bishop seized the opportunity and dove for her pistol. She had a spare magazine in her hand.

  Hideyo’s eyes followed Bishop as she slid across the tiles

  “Shi-ne!” he shouted.

  Kasey recognized the incantation. It was the same words Mina had been chanting
when she had been struck by the taxi earlier.

  A bolt of green energy hurtled at Bishop.

  “Tarian,” Kasey chanted.

  A shimmering silver shield appeared, hovering over Bishop’s prostrate form. The green bolt glanced off the shield and struck the floor mere feet from where Bishop lay. Tiles shattered in a spray of ceramic shrapnel. A plume of green smoke rose from the scarred floor.

  The luminescent green smoke was only too familiar to Kasey.

  My vision. The attack on New York. That is the same smoke I saw. It is a magical attack. I knew it!

  Hideyo seized on Kasey’s distraction. “Ose!”

  Kasey’s heart raced. She dove to the side to avoid the blast, but the energy still clipped her shoulder and knocked her onto her back. Pain surged through her spine.

  Hideyo strode toward her.

  “Shi-ne!” he shouted, striding toward her.

  The luminescent blast split the air as it arced between them. This time, the emerald energy was a prolonged lance of power boring toward Kasey.

  “Tarian,” Kasey chanted feverishly, focusing on the space between her and the advancing Shinigami.

  Her shield materialized in the nick of time, absorbing the blast as it struck the protective barrier dead center. The force of the impact shook Kasey to her core. It required all her concentration to maintain the spell. Sweat ran down her brow as she struggled against Hideyo.

  When the barrage ended, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  Her shield dissipated, revealing Hideyo standing over her. In his hand, a knife gleamed brightly under the morgue’s ceiling lights. Clearly, he had tired of the duel.

  He stabbed the knife toward her. She tried to roll out of the way, but her muscles seized. She could not force herself to move.

  Suddenly, Hideyo’s smile twisted into a grimace. Then, he howled in agony as he turned, revealing a surgical scalpel buried in his back. Vida stood wincing as he backed away from the Shinigami.

  Hideyo turned his attention on Vida but came to a halt.

  Kasey had caught him by the ankle.

  With her mind racing, Kasey uttered the first incantation she could think of. “Berwi!”

  Boil. Kasey often used it to reheat her coffee. Hideyo was considerably larger than the average latte, but the incantation’s effect was immediate. His skin began to welter and pucker as his blood boiled within him. Hideyo’s flesh turned an angry red as Kasey’s spell cooked him from the inside out.

  He howled in pain as he lunged at Vida.

  A gunshot echoed through the morgue. Hideyo jerked as a bullet struck him in the back. Another gunshot followed. The Shinigami collapsed at Vida’s feet. Kasey turned to see Bishop lying on the floor, Glock raised, a faint wisp of smoke rising from its barrel.

  “Nice shot,” Kasey said as she laid her head back against the cool tiles.

  Bishop struggled to her feet. “W-what the hell was that, Kasey? Who are these people? And what was with the fire and the lightning?”

  There was no way out. Bishop had seen enough magic to last a lifetime. Wiping her memories simply wasn’t an option for Kasey; that level of magical manipulation lay far beyond her abilities. She might scramble Bishop’s mind by accident. It wasn’t worth the risk.

  Even if I could, would I want to?

  There was a loneliness to living with one foot in the World of Magic and one foot in the real world. Part of Kasey was relieved that Vida had discovered her secret. The other was terrified of what it meant, or what would happen if the ADI discovered her failure.

  I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

  “Kasey?” Bishop prodded.

  “Promise to hear me out, before you declare me insane?” Kasey asked.

  Bishop set down her pistol. “Only if you promise that it will be the truth. I’m tired of the lies.”

  Kasey considered Bishop’s words. “I can do that.”

  Bishop looked about the morgue. “Then, in light of what I’ve just seen, I’m willing to keep an open mind.”

  Kasey didn’t get up. She simply began her tale. “Bishop, there is more to the world than what you know. Hiding in plain sight is the greatest secret humanity has to offer. Magic. Wielded by those who can speak the ancient tongues, its secrets have been passed from generation to generation. In the dark ages we were almost purged from existence. Any of our people that survived withdrew from the public eye and safeguarded its existence.

  “We hid from the world and magic thrived. Now we share the world. We do so without the violence and persecution we once faced but only because of the secrets that we keep. I know that the discovery of our kind will bring back the destruction and death we have faced before.”

  Bishop shook her head. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, that I’m a witch—a real one—and you can’t tell another soul.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Bishop stared down at Kasey. With the Shinigami dead, the morgue was silent.

  Kasey’s explanation hung heavily in the air.

  “Bishop?” Kasey said, her lip quivered as she waited for a reply.

  Bishop paced back and forth, staring at the morgue’s floor.

  “Bishop, talk to me,” Kasey said.

  “Damn it, Kasey, give me a minute. For my entire life, I thought I knew the world and my place in it, and now these psychos appear wielding flames and lightning, and you tell me it’s magic. I saw it with my own eyes and yet… Kasey…this changes everything.”

  Kasey lifted herself off the ground. “You’re telling me. I live with this every day. For years, it was a burden, but now I’ve been using my gifts to save lives.”

  “Gifts?” Bishop asked. “There is more than one? More than the magic I just saw?”

  “Yes. It’s a little harder to believe. Even among my kind.”

  “What can be harder to believe than this?” Bishop asked pointing at the devastation the magic had caused in the morgue.

  “I see visions,” Kasey answered. “I have since I was a child.”

  “Visions. What kind of visions?” Bishop asked.

  “When I come in contact with people, there is a chance I’ll see a vision. Scenes from their future or their past. I cannot control when or where, but I see them nonetheless. I’ve been using them to help us solve cases and catch murderers. That is how I learned of Collin’s true identity. I saw a vision of him visiting Lincoln Strode before he died.”

  “You can see the future?” Bishop asked.

  “Don’t get your hopes up. I can’t control the visions.”

  “So, no chance of this week’s lotto numbers?” Bishop chuckled.

  “I’m afraid not. If I could do that, I wouldn’t be busting my ass as a Medical Examiner.”

  “I suppose not. Is that what you meant when you told them you had seen how today would end? Did you know this was coming? Did you know they would attack the station?”

  “No, Bishop, I only discovered Skyler’s true identity minutes before the attack. My mother warned me of the Shinigami and what they would do, if they tracked Skyler here. We tried to destroy the body, but we were too late. They were already on their way.”

  “Then your mention of a vision earlier when you threatened him?”

  “I was bluffing,” Kasey answered.

  Bishop shook her head. “One day, you are going to overplay your hand, Kasey.”

  Kasey smiled. “Not today, Bishop. Those demented lunatics got what was coming to them.”

  “What were they?” Bishop asked. “You called them Shinigami? What is a Shinigami?”

  "The Shinigami are a coven of Japanese witches and wizards. They are obsessed with death, and they use their powers against normal people. They kill people to learn about death and its effects on the human soul. They are murderers, every one of them.

  “If the stories are to be believed, their dark organization has been responsible for the death of countless people. Entire cities have been destroyed by them. The Japa
nese believe them to be emissaries or spirits sent by the God of Death, sent to draw mortals into his presence. We are fortunate that they had no idea Skyler was dead, otherwise they may have simply destroyed the station and everyone in it."

  "What are they doing here in New York?" Bishop asked.

  "I believe they are planning an attack on the city. I saw a vision of it as a child. The city devastated by magic. At first, I thought it was a nightmare, but I have seen it over and over since then. Now I am convinced it is a tragedy that still lies in the future. Danilo, the man we knew as agent Collins, was hired by the Shinigami to kill me. My vision of an attack was well known in the Academy. Stories of that attack must've reached the Shinigami and they sent Danilo to silence me. If the Shinigami are here, the attack must be drawing nearer."

  "Collins was a part of this too?"

  "Unfortunately. He was killing anyone in the city who matched my description. I changed my name when I fled the Academy, so they had no idea who I was. He was simply eliminating anyone who could be me.”

  “He was just guessing?” Bishop asked, her eyes wide.

  “I’m afraid so. The Shinigami are determined to carry out their attack. All of these events are connected—Danilo, the shooting at the Gala, Cyrus' assassination. All of them are linked. Cyrus was the head of law enforcement for the Arcane Council."

  Bishop and Vida exchanged glances.

  "The Arcane Council are the body that govern magic users," Kasey explained. "We can't just have witches and wizards running around unsupervised. Who knows what chaos would ensue. The Arcane Council regulate affairs here in the United States, and Cyrus was an important part of that council."

  Bishop nodded. "You think they killed him to pave way for the attack?"

  "I'm almost certain of it," Kasey replied. "They were willing to kill dozens of innocent people just to make Cyrus look like an accident. They don’t want people to know what they are up to as they plot their attack. It’s coming Bishop, I’ve seen it. We need to stop them before others get hurt.”

  " How many are there?" Bishop answered.

  "I'm not exactly sure," Kasey responded, biting on her lower lip.