Werewolf Mage

by Harry Nix

  “Okay, that's enough now,” Alex said and stood up, shifting as he did into his hybrid form. He was larger than both Juno and Nia put together, towering above them.

  “I understand you’re both upset. It was a stupid thing I did that won't happen again... but it did have an amazing result. So now you've chewed my ears off about it let's move on. Okay?” he said, a slight growl in his voice.

  Juno stomped a foot on the floor. “Alphas!”

  “Don’t you damn well growl at me!” Nia said but then sat down at the kitchen table with her arms cross.

  Alex thought that was about the best it would get right now, so to calm his mates down he made a pot of coffee and found a block of chocolate in the cupboard.

  Juno glared at him as when he pulled the chair out for her but then eventually sat down. Alex kept his mouth shut as he made the coffee and broke up the chocolate, serving it on a small plate.

  He felt like he was trying to lure wild animals into a trap. Juno and Nia obviously knew what he was doing, both of them giving him glares, but then eventually grudgingly took the chocolate and the coffee.

  Alex gave Juno a kiss and a squeeze from behind before going over the other side of the table and doing the same with Nia.

  That broke the tension, both of the girls giving him as gentle smile, although he could tell that some of the anger still wasn't far from the surface.

  Alex picked up the protection ring that had been sitting in the centre of the table and slipped it on. After his edit the ring now was charged with three hundred defenses against projectiles. Juno had even tested it out, telling Alex to put it on and then swinging the frying pan directly at his head.

  The ring had responded, saving him from what would have likely been a killing blow. That had been the first ten minutes of the interrogation/yelling that his mates had inflicted on him, both Juno and Nia hitting him with kitchen implements under the guise that they were testing the ring that he thought was so important to make. As a result, they’d lost two of their frying pans, a meat hammer and a couple of knives. The ring was now down to two hundred and forty charges and as Alex wore it was slowly drawing on his mana and recharging.

  “Well, I guess it wasn't a complete disaster then,” Juno said, taking another piece of chocolate. She reached out a hand for the ring. Alex slipped it off and gave it to her.

  “I think I can get a few thousand dollars for this you know,” Juno said.

  “And all you had to do was nearly kill yourself and us and drain three quarters of the house’s wards,” Nia said.

  “Which you, sir, are going to be responsible for refilling,” Juno said with a raised eyebrow.

  Alex knew when to take a deal when he saw it.

  “I agree completely. I will absolutely do that,” he said, the very essence of contrition.

  They sat there sipping their coffee and eating chocolate before Juno finally spoke up again. “You know although that almost did kill us, the fact that you can edit a spell on a ring and make it a hundred times more powerful is incredible. I've never seen that before. You could grab the power from the batteries to feed it, which I think means if you have enough batteries you could change the enchantments on rings, wands, whatever. This was a cheapass junk ring. But now... someone could shoot a machine gun at you and you’d be fine. I know a lot of mages would pay a lot of money for something like that.”

  “So enchanters don't change enchantments on rings?” Alex asked.

  “Nope. If they make a ring with two charges on it, it has two charges. I don't even know how you did it because I can't do it. I can't see the spell in its purest form and then Analyze that to get back to something you can edit. The best I've been able to achieve is working backwards to get something that kinda looks like that spell. Then I mess around with that until I get a close approximation. That's me, Chaos Witch, on a good day,” Juno said.

  “What she saying is she's kinda jealous,” Nia said with a smile.

  “I am not jealous! Besides I know way more spells than this mangy guy,” Juno said with a sniff.

  “Mangy? Alex are you going to let her get away with that?” Nia said.

  Just like that, Alex knew that things were going to be okay, despite how angry the two of them had been.

  “Mangy? Who are you calling mangy?”

  He and Nia dived for Juno, the little witch jumping up from the table and bolting out the kitchen with the two werewolves close behind.

  21

  Alex awoke standing under a tree in the middle of the night.

  “Dammit,” he swore, looking down. He was wearing only boxer shorts. His last memory was falling asleep in a heap with Juno and Nia. Now he was under a tree in a park somewhere.

  Alex looked around and then suddenly realized where he was.

  As a lifelong sleeptalker and sleepwalker Alex woken up in plenty of strange places before, but never this far from home. At worst, it had been in the backyard of the house had grown up in – which coincidentally was just across the road.

  He stepped closer to the tree, hiding himself in the darkness and looked at the house with its extravagant garden. Even in the dark it still showed the care that Jane had taken with it. She’d died almost seven years ago but the house still looked the same. White picket fence, front garden filled with hundreds of plants growing in a wild profusion.

  Alex was looking at the house wondering if it was a sign he’d ended up here when he heard the thud of distant paws coming towards him. Quickly shifting to his hybrid state, he moved behind the tree. With his enhanced hearing he knew it was a wolf or dog coming.

  It wasn't long before a wolf broke out of the tree line and Alex relaxed. It was Nia, her copper coat gleaming in the streetlamps that were dotted throughout the park. She was sniffing the ground, tracking him.

  Alex stepped out from behind the tree.

  “Nia, over here!”

  She ran over and shifted to her hybrid state.

  “What are you doing going running at night like this?” she asked, grabbing his hands.

  “Wasn't my idea. Last thing I knew I was going to sleep then I woke up here.”

  Nia ran a hand down his body and then gave him a hug before stepping back.

  “Sorry, I thought maybe going hybrid and a lot of sex would help but clearly it hasn't. We need to get the wolf out and running or this will happen again.”

  “That wasn't just sleepwalking?”

  She shook her head. “Werewolves don't like being cooped up. You stay too long in the one place, especially if you lock yourself away in a home, and eventually your wolf will decide to go for a run on its own. Do you remember anything?”

  “Nope, just that black again, like the first night which I still can’t remember.”

  They’d had a few conversations about it, and although Nia had assured him his memory would eventually return, so far it was still all black, apart from the tiny fragment of a dream where he had hunted a boar.

  “So shall we go back?” Nia said.

  Alex pointed at the old house. “That's where I grew up with Jane. Seems my wolf is sentimental.”

  “Cute place. Epic garden.”

  “Jane was obsessed with it. There were times I didn't like having dig holes or haul around bags of potting mix, but overall it wasn't too bad. There’s a massive grapevine in the backyard and every year it produces ridiculous amounts of fruit,” Alex said. They were silent for a moment before Nia touched on the arm.

  “Maybe your wolf had the right idea bringing you here. All those plants in your apartment that got blown up came from this garden. We could take some cuttings and leaves, grow them again,” she said.

  The pair of the melted back into the shadows as car drove down the street.

  “Those plants were the last thing I had left over from Jane. Kinda feels like stealing though” Alex said.

  Nia grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the house.

  “It's not stealing. It’s propagating. Spreading nature.”<
br />
  Alex quickly stopped resisting. After all, Nia, was right. Jane had loved succulents and for many of them you could grow a whole new plant from a single leaf or small cutting. After Jane died an old couple had bought the house and seemed thus far to have kept it perfect. But who knew what would happen once they passed on? Some developer might bulldoze the whole thing to rubble, garden included.

  They quickly made their way out of the park and across the road, Nia nimbly jumping the front fence. Alex was far more careful, remembering various disasters he’d had launching himself into the air. He chose to open the front gate instead.

  “One of each?” Nia asked.

  “How about I pick, you hold? There are way too many plants here to take one of each,” Alex said.

  They moved through the front garden, Alex twisting leaves off plants and handing them to Nia who stuffed them in her pockets.

  It wasn't long before Alex had grabbed all of the cuttings from the front yard that he wanted so they moved to the back yard. Alex stopped beside a jasmine vine and took in a deep breath, the scent of it transporting him to his childhood.

  Alex quickly moved through the back garden, taking some more cuttings and leaves and handing them to Nia before finally waving her to a back gate which was overhung with vines.

  “Check it out, secret door,” he whispered and reached for a concealed handle. Part of the fence swung open. They went through, emerging into a narrow corridor of grass that ran behind the houses.

  “Way back in the day before there was proper sewerage the horse and cart used to come down here to collect from everyone,” he said.

  “That is both historically fascinating and historically disgusting. Should we get home now?”

  She shifted into a wolf, the shifter charm taking her clothes and the plant cuttings with it. Alex felt the familiar tug, his blood and body wanting to follow her, so he relaxed and let it happen, shifting into a black wolf. The colors changed again, his vision sharpening once more. It almost seemed he could see slightly into the ultraviolet.

  He began padding down the alleyway with Nia beside him, enjoying the feel of the luxuriant grass beneath his paws. Despite the fact he was frustrated he’d been sleepwalking again and this time in a major way, ending up halfway across Baxter, it felt amazing to be outside. To be somewhere different than other than Juno's house and to be able to see trees and sky, even if it was the middle of the night.

  Alex started to run, Nia keeping pace. There was a joy in the movement of it, to run, to feel the wind in his fur. Although it was past midnight there were still people driving around and some out walking the streets. Alex felt like he was less than a shadow on the wind, slipping between pools of darkness.

  They were jogging down an alleyway through a business district, getting close to Juno’s when Alex saw a car slowly rolling down the street, half of a magical screen sticking up through the roof. There was clearly a mage inside. The screen was different to others he’d seen – it seemed to shimmer and move, as if rippling with heat.

  Alex moved into the darkness of the alleyway and shifted to his hybrid form, Nia doing the same.

  “There is a mage in that car casting a spell,” Alex whispered.

  “Looks like a mage with a lot of money – that car costs over a hundred thousand easily,” Nia said.

  “What mages have a lot of money?”

  “A lot of them actually. Some enclaves are poor because they don’t care, like Corvus, but when you have magic and the Great Barrier to hide your crimes, it’s easy to steal wealth.”

  Alex could only see the top half of the screen but it was clear the mage inside the car was casting the same spell over and over.

  “I’m going to follow them. See if I can get that spell,” Alex said. Nia didn't disagree, so he began moving in the shadows attempting to keep pace with the slowly rolling car.

  Each time the mage cast the spell, Alex tried to copy it. Unlike with Juno where quite often a lot of the spell came across in one hit, Alex could only grab one to two percent.

  The car turned a corner, Alex jogging across the road to keep up. The next street was well-lit with streetlamps up and down both sides, turning night into day and leaving nowhere for a werewolf to hide.

  “Damn, so much for following them,” Alex said to Nia. He’d just crossed fifty percent of the spell copied.

  Nia gave him a smile and then poked him in the stomach.

  “You really haven't remembered that you're a werewolf yet, have you? Like deep in your bones where it matters. Do you think a few lights can really stop us following that car? Why don’t you have a look around and see where else we could run?”

  Alex looked around but all he could see was that they were surrounded by buildings. Most the street were commercial shop fronts and small businesses.

  “Okay, I'll show you,” Nia said.

  She suddenly sprung up off the ground, flying into the air up two storys before launching off a window ledge and landing on top of the building, where it was dark.

  Alex looked up and then shook his head at himself. She was right. He was still behaving as though he was a human and not a werewolf who’d accidentally catapulted himself into the forest at high speed.

  Alex took careful aim and then leaped. Unlike Nia, he didn't need to launch off a window ledge on the way up.

  This time he hadn't screwed up the trajectory too badly. He did pass Nia on the way up, but then landed close behind, wincing a little at the thud his weight made on the roof.

  “Let's go Captain High Jump, “ Nia said. Alex moved across the rooftop, and then gathering himself, leaped across the gap between the two of the buildings, landing easily on the other side. It wasn't long before they'd caught up with the car, which was now slowed to a crawl.

  Alex copied each time the mage cast the spell. The percentage had just crossed ninety-five when the car suddenly accelerated away into the darkness.

  “Did you get it?” Nia asked.

  “I got ninety-five percent of it and I don't know what any of this means,” Alex said.

  The spell was about six pages of code and none of the looked familiar. He couldn't see a single line that shared anything with any spell he already knew or even anything he'd seen Juno cast.

  Remembering her warning not to cast incomplete spells, he closed the screen and they set off again for home.

  As they ran, Alex wondered what the hidden mage had been doing and what enclave he belonged to. Were they putting a curse on every business or casting a complicated analysis spell? Maybe it was protection?

  Soon they were back home, Nia emptying all of the plant cuttings out onto the kitchen bench. The two of them very quietly washed the dirt off their feet and then crept back into bed with Juno, who was sleeping soundly. As Alex relaxed with Nia on one side and Juno on the other he hoped that this time when he fell asleep he’d stay put.

  22

  Alex was reading emails when Juno got home. Howey was extremely pissed.

  Although Puzo had seemingly accepted Alex’s withdrawal from the game and his vague excuses, Howey wasn’t having any of it – a good forty percent of his emails were cursing.

  Alex couldn’t blame him – he hadn’t called or emailed his friend. Although the wards on the house were secure, Alex was hesitant to test them. As he’d done before, he closed Howey’s email and read another. Puzo had written back, telling him that he was fairly certain the circuit was some kind of GPS that must've have had a power source that had been lost. He included a photograph showing where Alex could solder to fix the circuit.

  Alex was pondering whether it was safe to retrieve the circuit from Puzo when Juno dropped a bundle of cash on the table and then a handful of rings.

  “Check it out – two thousand big ones, “ she said and pushed the money over to Alex.

  “That's single ring went for two thousand? Seriously?”

  “Nope. It went for three thousand smackaroos so I took a grand and bought these ten rings. We work o
ut how to increase the strength of them, from three to thirty, not three hundred, and then see how much we can get for them. We need the funds.”

  Alex picked up one of the rings and cast Analyze on it. It was a ring of minor healing, capable of closing small wounds, cuts and scrapes and similar injuries. Another ring made the wearer stronger for a short time. Another made the wearer a more beautiful and charismatic for five minutes. The remaining seven rings were all shield rings. Alex canceled away the Analyze spell and then turned to face Juno, clasping his hands around her waist and pulling her close.

  “How much do you think we can get if we multiply the power in these?”

  “They cost a thousand. I figure they retail eight to ten thousand all up, so maybe we get five to six? Use a thousand to buy more rings, keep the rest in profit. You can pay for your friends’ office and we can afford food so we don’t go broke feeding two hungry werewolves.”

  There was a chime as an email appeared on Alex’s laptop. It was another one from Officer Monroe, although the tone of it was different from previous ones, which was reaching out to find someone listed as missing.

  “Dude is pissed,” Juno commented, reading the email.

  In no uncertain terms it told Alex he needed to get in contact immediately or a warrant for his arrest would be issued.

  “You think I should go see this guy?” Alex asked.

  Juno shrugged and gave Alex a kiss before heading off to the kitchen. “Maybe. I mean he's a police officer so might have some clue as to who blew up the building. Could be something that he can't see because of the Great Barrier, but you'll see it immediately. Plus the mages would have to be hella crazy to attack a police station with you inside it.”

  Nia came into the lounge room where a pair of very short shorts and one of Alex's t-shirts that was far too big on her frame. She gave him a sleepy kiss before he pulled her into his lap.

  “So that police officer keeps emailing for me to get in contact and has now upped the threats to issuing a warrant for my arrest. We were thinking I should go see him, especially if there are any clues he has that are hidden by the Great Barrier,” Alex said.