Courts and Cabals 3

by G. S. D'Moore

  It felt and sounded like one of those gods punched the outer window of the gym; and he sounded pissed. Even from thirty feet away, it felt like I’d stuck my head inside the Liberty Bell. I wobbled, but that was better than most. Butters and Night went down, and didn’t get up again before the second, and third, punches landed.

  “What the fuck is going on?” fear flooded through me, and I almost let my Aesir flag fly.

  “RPG!” Lucia yelled as she emerged from the security room with all the cameras.

  “RPG?” I thought you only found them in a third-world warlord’s arsenals. “Am I seriously in the middle of Black Hawk Down right now?”

  I’d watched the movie in the dorms with Brad and Jerome, and the moral of the story was things never turned out well for the people getting shot with the RPGs. That trend continued when whatever ward they were targeting fucking exploded. Physically, the symbol just burned out, and the reinforced glass cracked, but the magical release of pressure had anyone with any magical talent on their ass. I didn’t black out, but I saw stars. As for the girls, I was pretty sure they were bleeding from the ears. I felt bad for them. They got the worst of both worlds.

  “And this shits about to get a whole lot worse,” I gulped as the twisting screech of metal being peeled apart quickly followed the magical backlash.

  “Get ready! Guns up! Right there!” Thomas pulled people off the ground and pushed them into a rough firing line behind some furniture he’d used to form some cover. I helped; literally kicking one guy in the ass to get him moving.

  Guns were pointed at everywhere but the breach point as the gym’s clients tried to screw their heads back on straight. It was a cardinal sin to point a weapon at anyone who you didn’t want to kill. I knew that now. By that logic, at least three elderly men wanted to shoot me in the dick. I let them off with a warning glare.

  “Ariana, can you . . .?” Thomas began.

  “I’ve got this,” a blur of blonde, and Ivanna was at the center of the line. Her hands touched shoulders and faces. Hands steadied and heart rates returned to normal as a result. I smelled cloves in the air as she worked her power. Like I was in the middle of a girl’s high school bathroom where they all thought they were rebels.

  I expected Ivanna to look like three-day-old roadkill, but she looked fine. Better than fine. She looked perfect. There wasn’t a trace of I-just-took-a-bullet-through-the-heart on her. If you asked me, that was fucking incredible. At the same time, I didn’t want to see what poor Mr. Mendez looked like.

  “Dupree,” Thomas’s voice pulled my eyes away from appraising his daughter. “I’ll hold the center here with Ivanna. I want the Ignis mage with me. The Tikals will hit us the hardest. Ariana will hold the left flank with the Terra mage, and you and the Caeli mage will hold the right. The goal is to funnel the enemy away from our weak clients toward our better armed people so we can tear them apart.”

  It took a moment to realize when he said “better armed”, he wasn’t talking about the people with assault rifles. He was talking about me. That made me smile. “All right then,” it was nice to be treated like a badass.

  I reached into the ball of white fire in my gut and started to work my glamour. It wasn’t anything special, just a spear that would allow me to make Tikal Shish Kabobs. I didn’t have much training, so I’d settle for sticking the pointy end in the bad guy.

  “Nice,” Night grinned as she followed me over to the right side of the room. “The Dark Lady was right about you.” I didn’t know what to say to that.

  The mage had a bit of a wild glint in her eye, but I still sensed fear. She might have seen some shit for a SoCal girl, but this was a whole different ballgame. She knew it, which was half the battle to keep her from pissing herself when the bullets started flying.

  “I’ll hit’em, and you slice’em and dice’em,” she suggested.

  It was as good as anything I’d come up with, so I nodded. I hoped everyone else had a plan, because the metal shutters had an expiration date, and it’s time was up.

  A chunk of the metal about the size of a door eroded and dissolved like it had suddenly aged a million years in a few seconds. The client militia was so stunned they didn’t even get their first rounds off until someone threw a black cylinder into the room.

  “Grenade!” Ariana screamed, before sound and light hit everyone like one of Floyd “Money” Mayweather’s TKOs.

  I grimaced, but the pain faded quickly. Once my vision returned, I saw two men rushing through the hole. Both had their weapons up and were pulling the triggers. They were overexcited, because the rounds went high, but they were walking them lower.

  “So much for this,” I groaned, as I chucked my spear at the duo.

  I’d probably set an MLB speed record with the throw, and that sucked ass for the cartel dudes. Even better for me, they’d come through one after the other, so it was a two for one special. I painted the metal behind them red with gore as the pointy end smashed through the first guy’s chest and threw him back into bag guy number two. It took him in the side. Non-fatal, but he wasn’t going to be pressing an attack any time soon. Neither were, because my spear imbedded itself into the metal shutter, and pinned the two unlucky assholes to the wall.

  The first guy dropped his weapon, while blood fountained out of his mouth, and the second guy screamed bloody murder. I’d been where he had. Being impaled fucking sucked. Thankfully, there was a pop, and his throat exploded. I looked over and saw the barrel of Ivanna’s suppressor smoking.

  She met my eyes and I couldn’t help but wink. She returned it in kind.

  Neither of us had the time to flirt, because as my glamour spear dissolved, and the first fatalities slumped to the floor, more grenades and people came rushing in to kill us. These grenades weren’t flash bangs. Two headed for Night and me, but the mage was all over it. A gust of wind blew out of nowhere and slapped the grenades back toward the opening. They went off, people screamed, and the collection of bodies by the entrance grew a little bit bigger.

  “Good, make them climb over their friends shredded corpses to get to us,” it was always good to put the enemy through a good mindfuck.

  However good things were going on our flank, it was not a one-sided fight. Ivanna shot two of the grenades out of the air in an example of marksmanship that should have her on a Wheaties box, but the center was the main focus of the Tikal goon’s attack. The line of civilians opened fire and gunned down the wannabe sicarios, but it was too late. The grenades landed short of their firing position, and they instinctually took cover, but not faster than exploding shrapnel.

  Now, our people were screaming. That was the signal, and a small Tikal army started to pour through the hole. They’d sacrificed a few poor bastards to get their foot in the door, but now it was lodged in that motherfucker. A lance of fire lashed out as Butters joined in. It was the same attack she’d used back at the motel, and it was just as effective. She carved through the first three goons like a lightsaber through a Thanksgiving turkey. They went down, in pieces, but the people behind them ducked and scrambled out of the way to the left and right. That was the funnel part of our plan. In my opinion, it worked too well. No less than half a dozen gunmen came charging around the gym equipment, and straight at Night and me.

  “Slice’em and dice’em,” I reminded her, and leapt forward to meet them.

  I nearly conjured a sword, but opted for a shield instead. I might be bulletproof, but Night sure as shit wasn’t. The glamour wasn’t anything fancy, just a square that shimmered slightly out of phase with the rest of reality; but when you hit with the force of a runaway semi, it was probably even deadlier than a sword.

  I don’t know what the first guy was all hopped up on, but it wasn’t brains. He came at me like I was a mundane human. I swept my shield into him, and that was all she wrote. I felt the dude’s bones shatter like glass. He went flying like the useless meat sack he now was, and landed in a heap of compound fractures and bad decisions on the imprompt
u barricade.

  To the other five goons’ credit, they didn’t blink. I got my shield out in front of me before they unloaded. The rounds pounded into my suddenly-much-to-thin glamour, and it felt like someone was playing the bongos with my brain. I ignored it and pushed forward against the tide of bullets, but it was an uphill battle. Thankfully, I wasn’t fighting it alone.

  There was a yelp, and the goon on the far left’s feet went out from under him. Bullets flew into the ceiling and drew a line of holes toward his buddies. They might be able to handle one of their own getting batted aside by some clearly-supernatural dude, but seeing bullets headed their way was too much. Their combined assault broke, and suddenly, I was among them.

  I didn’t think, I just killed. The Aesir in me howled with glee as I punched one dude in the chest. His heart practically exploded out his back. A side kick drove back a guy trying to level his weapon at me, and another bent some poor bastard’s leg ninety degrees in the wrong direction. I swiped with the shield again, and literally took a guy’s head off. If you think you needed a sharp edge to do the deed; you’d be wrong. Enough force will get damned near anything done.

  It was a whirlwind of Tikal goons going down, until the only one left was the one Night pulled off his feet. He was only still alive because she’d put him on his ass, but his time had run out. Still, he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. He leveled his gun at me and pulled the trigger. A millisecond before he hit that five-pounds-of-pressure mark a whip of air lashed out and grabbed the barrel of his rifle. He still got the shot off, and it blasted past my ear; skimming my lobe and adding to the mother of all migraines I was going to have when this was all over.

  I grimaced, and reached for him, but he danced back. He lined up a second shot, aimed straight at my forehead, but then he froze. His eyes bulged and he dropped his gun. His hands went to his throat in the universal I’m-choking expression.

  I looked over my shoulder and saw Night standing there with her hand outstretch, curled around the dude’s imaginary throat, in full-on, sex-kitten, Darth Vader mode. The Aesir inside me was contained, so I wasn’t sporting its telltale war boner. I’m not going to lie; seeing a hot girl save me from getting shot in the dome, while pulling a Star War’s move, was every guy’s wet dream. Most guys just preferred the gold bikini, but trust me, this was better.

  Even if I was picking up what she was putting down, I still saw the sweat on her forehead, and the way her hand trembled. Night wasn’t powerful enough to go full Vader. I didn’t want this douchebag’s death on her conscience, so I walked over and cleanly snapped his neck. Her whole body sagged in relief. Halting the flow of oxygen in a person’s body was one hell of a workout.

  “Marry me,” I mouthed to her, and she gave me a tired smile.

  It would have been the perfect end to the fight, but I’d never been that lucky.

  “Plug the hole!” Thomas yelled from where he fought in the center of our line.

  If not for the incubus, the gym’s clients would have been overrun. A few were already down, bleeding out from those grenades that got through. The rest were being swarmed by bigger men whose profession was violence. I didn’t know any of our people by name, but I saw them go down. One client shot a cartel goon in the gut, but the Tikals didn’t always hire morons. Some had body armor. The client didn’t stand up so well to the shotgun butt that slammed into his head, or the round that splattered his brain all over the rubber, anti-slip mat.

  Thomas was moving, he just didn’t get there fast enough. He grabbed the shotgun goon’s head and squeezed. The bastard’s eyes popped out and his brains shot out his nose while his skull crumpled like one of those cheap, European smart cars that got up close and personal with a Ford F-150. Thomas dropped him and was already moving on.

  The air was thick with gun smoke and blood. I watched Ariana flow through her bad guys similar to the way her father did. I don’t know where she got the knife, but she seemed overly fond of cutting important bits of the men invading her home. Skella was surprisingly helpful. The Terra mage made an upward motion with her arm, and the ground rolled out around her, shattering the floor, and knocking another half-dozen bad guys on their asses. That made their throats an easy target for the imp.

  For a few critical seconds, it looked like we were going to turn the tide, and then two women casually walked through the breach like they were the IRS and we owed back taxes. Well one walked. One slithered.

  I knew the one who walked; Claws, a.k.a. Isabella Fontaine. The werewolf had a big, methhead, shit-eating grin on her face. She headed straight for a spot near the center of our defensive line, directly between where Ariana and Thomas were dealing with the remaining gunmen. Exactly where we were weakest.

  The first one to die was Ms. Botox. The fifty-something who thought it was more important to wear jewels to the gym than actually work out. Although, I had to give her some respect. She went down like a champ. She pointed her rifle at the werewolf and did exactly what Thomas told her to do. She held down the trigger until it clicked empty. Even from fifteen feet away, she missed more than she hit. I don’t know if the incubus had some silverbane rounds stashed away somewhere, but he didn’t give any to her.

  From one step to the next, the werewolf’s hand transformed into a claw. It blurred, and Ms. Botox’s blood splashed across half the gym. Her head flopped back; three quarters decapitated. Her eyes were frozen wide in surprise, but she was dead before she hit the ground. There was nothing surprising about that.

  Then Ariana was on her. The imp hit the werewolf with murderous rage, and they blurred so fast I could hardly keep track. I saw the werewolf’s head snap back from a hit, but then Ariana was flying across the room. Skella yelped and barely got out of the way. Ariana clipped her side, and they both went down. So much for our left flank.

  There weren’t any more gunmen to take advantage of the opening as Fontaine started tearing into the clients, ignoring their guns, and pushing the bullets out of her flesh nearly as fast as they hit her. Thomas turned to face her, but I had other problems.

  The second woman slithered in behind Fontaine and took one look around before heading toward me. Her tongue flicked out to taste the air, and she smiled. It was creepy as fuck.

  “I really wish Thomas had finished what he was going to say about nagas,” I gulped as I faced off against the snake girl.

  Nagas were one of the supernatural races that got the ass end of the deal in just about every way possible. They were the result of some ancient deity’s bestiality fetish with an ancient reptile that preceded modern-day snakes. The first of their race was the Naga, capital N, who lived in India, and had a cult following bigger than Charles Manson’s; just with a million more casualties. People actually sacrificed themselves to the king of serpents on a daily basis. That was power.

  Descendants of big-daddy Naga were also known as naga, little N, and had tried their best to remain hidden even since the Revelation. Unlike succubae, shifter, and even Nosferatu; nagas didn’t have a humanish form. They couldn’t hide among the human population. They were all monster baby. Outside of India, they were hunted and killed by just about everyone; but, apparently the Tikals had taken some in.

  In my case, the one I was facing had the face of a woman, like the Sphinx, but if the rest of the ancient sculpture was cobra. “Wait, make that rattler,” I corrected, as I noticed the iconic appendage at the end of her twelve-foot body. It even started to rattle as she slithered over the gym equipment. I freely admit, I peed myself a little.

  Her scales were a reddish brown, and her eyes were yellow slits that had dialed in on me. Looking at a snake girl’s quasi-human face, complete with a pair of extended fangs that made a Bowie knife look tame, wasn’t the weirdest part of it all. The fact she had arms wasn’t even surprising. The weirdest part was she was wearing a halter top and skirt.

  She didn’t have tits because of the whole snake thing, but some of her scales looked a little thicker where breast might have b
een on a woman. So, I gave that one a pass. However, the skirt made no sense. Maybe one of those scales slid open and there was a little snake slit for snake boys to stick their snake dicks in. What did I know? All I could think about was the idea that getting killed by a snake girl with a teenybopper face would haunt me forever.

  That nearly happened. For something so big, she moved hellafast. She curled in on herself and lunged forward like . . . well, a snake. I dove away and barely missed getting punctured by those fangs. A drop of venom did drip on my leg as she flew past me, and I cussed up a storm. That shit hurt. Troll strength or not.

  I rolled and came back up with one hand projecting my glamour shield between me and the naga, and the other hand frantically swiping at the venom. That might have been what Thomas was trying to say. Don’t let them get their venom on you. It makes that shit from Alien look like iced tea.

  I was ready for the naga’s second attempt, but she had other ideas. My dive might have saved my ass, but it left Night vulnerable. She screamed, and I couldn’t blame her. Nagas strangled people, ate them whole, and then lounged around while their body’s natural acids decomposed their victims into sustenance. It was a shitty way to go.

  Snake girl curled again, but I hit her before she could strike. Like an idiot, I jumped on her back. She hissed, trying to reach around to bite my ass, or rip me off, but I’d landed perfectly in her blind spot. That didn’t stop her from trying to buck me off like this was the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo.