Giving me no more time to watch the two magicals, two more were coming straight at me. While their eyes were as blank as glass beads, their crazed movements spelled bloodlust. I welcomed the first with a fist in the face, then spun around to avoid the second. Before I could strike, I saw Ana going down, jumped by a possessed woman who had flanked her while she had been busy with the other.
“Ana!” I shouted, receiving a deep scratch across my shoulder in return.
But Octavian was already on it and used his full body weight and speed to tackle the possessed away from her before anything happened. He tumbled over the possessed woman, then quickly broke her neck before she could get on top of him. But in that brief moment, two others threw themselves at him.
Their hands outstretched like claws and their mouths wide open, they jumped on Octavian, and pulled him to the ground.
I buried my dagger into my second attacker’s heart as he tried to slash at me again, then I took off. My heart refused to beat as I watched yet another possessed jump on Octavian. They were burying him alive.
I faintly heard Raina muttering something angrily, with haste and icy determination. Then she finally shouted the last word, foreign in a way that made a chill run down my spine.
A sudden movement gripped the three possessed on Octavian. They became even more erratic than before, their movements seemingly impossible for a human, bending and stretching in all directions. A moment later, I realized why.
They weren’t in control anymore. First, there was a single cracking sound, then another, and within a second, it turned into a short cacophony. Their arms and legs twisted and shattered, their heads jerked from side to side, their backs bent impossibly far. I sucked in a short breath as they started screaming, an agonized wail that suddenly stopped when their backs cracked and their bodies went limp.
As Octavian jumped back on his feet, he joined the rest of us in staring at Raina in shock. To my surprise, even Ana seemed unsettled, her eyes filled with fear, and maybe a dash of respect.
“You really are full of surprises. I’m glad to have you on my side,” Octavian panted before glancing back at the three corpses behind him. They reminded me of discarded pieces of paper, crumpled up and thrown away.
But the next wave of possessed was already here, leaving us no time to retake our positions. They seemed to hesitate for just a second before continuing their assault, though. Maybe they weren’t as brainless as I thought.
But then, there was a buzz that went through the building, and the lights switched on one by one. “Yesss!” I heard Aaron’s voice sound from the distance.
I frowned but didn’t have the time to think about it. The first possessed had already thrown themselves at me, and I realized my dagger was still in the other one’s chest.
The guy was wearing an apron, like a chef. He had a little more weight than the others, but when he swung a butcher’s knife at my head, I realized my mistake. Not a fat chef. A fat butcher. Big difference.
My thoughts went blank again, and my instinct took over. His blade swung at me as I tilted to the side, missing my head by an inch at most. I barely got back up as it came for another swing, this time to carve up my belly. With the butcher’s bloody apron in front of me, I felt like a pig about to be slaughtered.
But not if I had anything to say about it. I drew a handful of magic in, letting it out in an unfocused burst. It was just enough to make him stumble back. His blade missed my body by the width of a finger, leaving a scratch on my jacket.
I swiveled to the side, blasting another burst of magic at him, this time focused at his head. With an ugly cracking sound, it jerked back. His mouth fell open as he collapsed to the ground. I quickly grabbed his butcher’s knife, then threw it at a guy charging at Raina.
It buried itself in his temple, and the guy collapsed against the wall. Raina nodded at me briefly, her face still full of terror, but she held herself well. I dashed to pick up my dagger, then saw four more possessed coming right at us.
Shit.
Octavian dashed to my side, raising his fists like a boxer. I realized in surprise that he still didn’t have a proper weapon.
But before we could welcome the attackers, Aaron suddenly sailed through the air. The lights flickered all around us as lightning arced between his fists and the machinery beneath him. It was almost like the lightning carried him, letting him defy gravity. He landed only a couple steps behind the attackers, then pushed his hand forward.
The lightning arced from the machines through his hands and into the possessed. They crackled for just a moment, then the smell of burnt flesh drifted over us as the smoldering corpses collapsed.
“Yeah, baby!” Aaron shouted. “Shocked to see me, huh?!”
With an open mouth, the four of us watched as he pulled in more lightning from machines, generators, power sockets, and even lamps around him. Light bulbs and fluorescent lights burst as the lightning flowed into him, showering the scene in glass shards and sparks. Then he released another surge of lightning at the oncoming attackers. Frizzle filled the air for a moment while the scene was bathed in bright, flickering light. Their bodies jerked around for a moment, then they fell to the ground, too.
“Go, you two!” he shouted as he looked over at us. “We got this. You deal with the evil mastermind!”
I looked at Octavian, and he looked back at me. There was grim determination in his eyes, but a hint of worry in his frown.
He nodded, and I nodded back. Without a further comment, we started running toward the end of the hall, hoping we were not too late to catch them.
This had been nothing but the warm-up. The real fight started now.
21
A few stragglers tried jumping us, but they were quickly thrown back by Octavian’s punches and my magical blasts. Luckily, the possessed weren’t the smartest bunch.
When we reached the door on the other side of the hall, Octavian used his full momentum to crash through it, shoulder first. I rushed in behind him, then stopped abruptly. We were in what looked like a break room of sorts, small tables with chairs were lined up near the walls, two vending machines stood on one side, and remains of lunches were scattered throughout the room. Plastic bottles, soda cans, packaging of snacks, all discarded without care.
But more importantly, there were two hallways leading away from the room, one straight ahead and one to the left. Another two doors were on the right, and one in front of us, next to the hallway.
Octavian’s head swiveled around, going back and forth between our options. He took a step forward, then scoffed and turned to the left. A moment later, he stopped moving to tilt his head and listen intensely for a moment. He scowled, scoffed again, and turned back to me. “I can’t make out anything.”
“Let me try.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled, letting my conscious descend into my magic well. It took me a second, but then I was in, and the world flipped around me again. It was weird, I felt like I condensed my feeling of self, my consciousness, into a small dot, then jumped down into a small puddle of magic somewhere within me. And then suddenly, my consciousness came out on the other side and ballooned up, filling my whole body. Maybe this was what meditation felt like, I wondered—being one with yourself and the world or something.
But more importantly, I could send out feelers, sniff around and search for our evil perpetrator. Again, I sensed Octavian’s presence, weaker than the others since he wasn’t magical. Behind us, it felt like a thunderstorm was going on, which was pretty close to reality if Aaron was still using the factory’s power to scorch the possessed.
But in front of me, a dark cloud was drifting, spinning, darkening. Feelings flashing up in my brain. Darkness. Dread. And it was intensifying.
I opened my eyes, trying to maintain my weird new magical oneness. “Up ahead, let’s go.”
Octavian frowned at me, arms crossed, and eyes skeptical but curious. “What—"
“Not now,” I hissed and started running into the
hallway. I would have loved to be able to describe it, but I knew we had to be fast, had to stop him quickly. Whatever it was, I knew it was coming close to an end. I couldn’t feel the intent behind the spell, but it was certainly not good.
I kept running as doors passed by left and right, Octavian close behind me. Still a bit further. Then I reached the end of the hallway, where it made a sharp left turn. The magic was still further ahead.
I grunted and spun around and continued to the left. Just a couple of steps, then I reached another door. My skin started tickling, like the air was filled with static.
This must be it.
Like Octavian before, I stopped at the door, looking at him grimly. My heartbeat quickened as I realized we had reached our final challenge. The one big question mark. Most likely, we would either take down the bad guy, or the bad guy would take us down.
And if that happened, getting killed was probably the best that could happen. Whatever happened, I was not going to let myself get turned into another possessed or demon or something. “Nope, fuck that,” I muttered to myself as it took a deep breath.
“What?” Octavian whispered, confused.
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “This is it. Let’s kill that sick son of a bitch.”
“We need to take him alive, actually,” Octavian clenched his jaw. “Otherwise, I don’t think we can prove that it was him all along. We need him alive to restore peace.”
My mood darkened considerably, but I nodded. “Fine. But if it comes to it, I will kill him.”
Or her. When did we decide it was a him, anyway?
Octavian nodded just once, and I could see he didn’t like this any more than I did. But I guessed he was right. The vampires and Elders needed someone to blame, someone to bring to justice if they were to get over their feud with each other.
I took another deep breath, then kicked the door in. As we stormed into the room, I was hit by black magic like a hurricane. It was swirling all around us, though probably invisible to everyone else. I couldn’t directly see it, either, but I felt it, scratching over my skin, filling my lungs, choking the breath out of me.
In the middle of the dim room, standing in a candle-lit pentagram, was a figure. Covered with a black robe and a hood, chanting from a familiar book, there he was—a bad guy like straight from a movie.
Without thinking, I blasted a burst of magic at him. As I watched it shimmer, flying at the figure, I realized I had never really seen my magic until now.
It looked… light. I always imagined it an invisible just pure force. But here it was, flowing and faceted, playful and bright. Then it crashed against a magic wall of sorts and vanished like a cloud of dust.
Octavian charged, zipping toward the guy, but then he, too, was stopped by the magical wall. With a painful crack, he smashed against it, stumbled back, and landed on his ass. He grunted before graciously jumping to his feet again, and beginning to walk around the figure.
I could feel the spell was coming to an end, almost having reached its climax. I closed my eyes and focused on the wall that I could just barely feel. I sent another blast against it and watched as the wall dissolved my magic. It felt the wall was blocking anything harmful, any attacker or attacking spell.
Maybe if we could banish any dark thoughts for a few moments, we might pass through it. Or maybe Raina could cast a spell that seemed harmless and nice, but then turned him into a withered husk like the possessed before.
Or maybe, with enough force, I could just break through it. Because neither of the other options were currently on the table. I took a deep breath, pulling magic from all over my body into my hands. My hands started tingling from all the magic, spreading up my arms as I drew in more and more. But before I could unleash it, the spell suddenly… exploded. Like a wave, the magic crashed down, washing over us, rolling away into the distance. There was no blast, no visible effect. Octavian probably couldn’t even see it.
Whatever the figure had been casting, they were finished.
“What did you do?!” I shouted, releasing my magic as two blasts. The wall flared up as it caught them, but I could feel it strain. With enough force, I could break it, of that I was now sure.
The figure turned around, slowly. Then he took down his hood, and the candles around him flickered, and went out.
“Those humans never learn, do they?” He laughed dryly. “They keep insisting on building all-you-can-raise buffets for us necromancers.”
I stared at him, scanning him from head to toe. I wanted him to look evil, like a gruesome necromancer, as he called himself. But in reality, he looked… average. A bit taller than me, maybe 5’9”, and averagely built. Not really muscular, but not skinny, either. Scruffy, brown hair, a short, stubbly beard, and perfectly normal brown eyes made his face an average Joe I couldn’t have picked out in a crowd.
Octavian finished his circling and stepped back beside me. His frown was deep, but the anger in his eyes had been pushed away by confusion. “Buffet?” Then realization and fear spread on his face, his eyes widening. “Oh no, you didn’t!”
I looked between them, not seeing what they clearly did. Then it hit me. Raising dead. Buffet. “The graveyard,” I whispered. “Did you just raise the entire graveyard from the dead?”
“Well look at that, smarter than I thought.” He laughed again. Not an evil, malevolent laugh. The kind of laugh you could hear every day, in the subway, in a coffee shop. “All thanks to your book, sweetheart. My birthday is only next week, but I thank you for that early present anyway.” He grinned and bowed playfully.
Anger rushed through me, and I released it as another magic blast. This time, I could feel the barrier moaning and straining, cracks spreading through it.
The necromancer looked at me in surprise. “Oh my. She has a temper, that one. But now, if you’ll excuse me, I have places to be, and you’ve got a friend to save.”
He raised his hand, then gestured like he was swatting a fly away, and a door on our left swung open. My head jerked to the side at the sudden sound when it crashed against the wall. I hadn’t even seen it before. My attention fully on the necromancer.
My eyes widened as I saw Allard kneeling on the ground, his arms tied behind his back, his mouth gagged. Then the necromancer clicked his fingers. My eyes widened even more as fire burst to life all around Allard, and his expression turned to terror.
“Just one problem,” Octavian growled. “We can split up and get you both.”
In the next moment, he was rushing into the room, diving at Allard to get him out of the fire. But his graceful jump turned into a stumble as his arms went straight through the witch. Allard’s shape drifted away like a fading mirage, and a moment later, he was gone
“Or did I just separate the two of you with a basic illusion a little child could have done?” the necromancer mused while scratching his beard, then laughed. This time, it was malevolent—a classic bad-guy-thinks-he’s-ahead laugh.
I could see anger taking over on Octavian’s face as he turned around and lunged back. But just like before, he crashed into an invisible wall in the doorframe, stumbling back with a pained expression.
“I’m not an expert, vampire, but fire is one of the things that can kill your kind, right? The slowest, most painful death, watching helplessly as your body burns away, living through everything until eventually your heart turns to ash and you are released from your torment. Sounds kind of like a dick move, doesn’t it?” He tilted his head, then cackled .
My heart twisted in pain as I stared at Octavian. I could take down the wall. I was sure. If I channeled all my rage, I could break it. But then the necromancer would be gone.
I turned my head to stare at him, rage burning up in me like a wildfire. If I killed him, his spells might dissipate as well. But if they didn’t, I would not get to Octavian in time.
Dread spread down my spine as I realized the impossible decision I was forced to make.
22
I froze up, my mind in a knot
that made it impossible to think clearly. And while my brain was out of commission, my heart throbbed painfully, then took control.
With an angry shout, I spun around toward Octavian, sending blasts of magic against the wall while starting to run.
But I had barely taken two steps when I hit a wall myself. I stumbled back and intended to run around it. But my feet wouldn’t obey anymore. Panic shot through me as I lost control over my legs. This was a nightmare come true.
I wanted to draw in magic, at least send another blast against the wall that was holding Octavian, but I felt my whole body slowing down. I could barely focus enough to create a magic blast. Just a gentle breeze escaped me.
My eyes were locked with Octavian’s, and even from a distance, I could see the same terror in his that I felt in my own. We were trapped. Helpless.
“I like your spirit. You’re a fighter,” the necromancer mused. “I had to call in favors to get some useful minions, but you took out most of them.” He waggled his finger at me, tsk-ing. “That wasn’t nice. To make up for it, I think I’ll summon a greater demon from the book and put it in your body. With you at my command, I will bring the city to its knees!”
A chill ran down my spine as he laughed again. Other people controlling my life was my worst nightmare, and having a demon inside of me that literally controlled my body and my actions… that was worse than death. I tried to move, blast my way out with magic, but I felt like I was standing in honey. Every movement was a strain, and my mind felt tired and weak.
The necromancer pulled out a small idol from his pocket. It looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure where I had seen it before. He held it out before him, took the open book in the other hand, then started chanting. Black smoke started pouring out of the bone idol, drifting down around his hand.
A dozen steps in front of me, Octavian started running against the wall, crashing into it again and again. But I could feel it hold, impervious to his physical attacks.
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