by M. D. Massey
He commands a star vampire—how very peculiar and unexpected.
Intrigued as I was by this development, I had no time to ponder the situation. Star vampires were ruthless and deadly predators from the Void, and any creature that could prey on other denizens of that dark place was a thing to be feared. I’d be unconscious in seconds and dead shortly thereafter if I didn’t deal with the danger at hand.
My shadow magic seeped between the star vampire’s limb and my skin, slowly but surely cutting off contact. Then I applied outward pressure, easing the creature’s grip while restoring the passage of blood and air that my fragile human body so desperately needed. Finally, I countered it tit-for-tat, shaping the shadow substance that protected me into long, thin spikes that punched through the tough, rubbery hide of the wizard’s pet. The monstrosity shrieked and released me immediately, but I was not yet done with my counterattack.
Two of my tentacles grabbed mailbox-sized rocks from the ground, swinging them like twin maces at the point where I thought the star vampire’s head and torso might be located. The creatures were more or less cephalopodic in shape, and thankfully I managed at least one direct hit before it retreated. Recovering quickly, I searched the area once more, as I suspected that the mage borrowed his powers of invisibility from his familiar.
“There you are,” I muttered as I spotted a vague, man-shaped outline standing next to the sphere that held Monty.
Triggering a spell by thought alone, I cast a battery of shadow spikes at the wizard. Proving to me once again that he was a formidable enemy, Griff cast a directional shield made from pure magical energy that shimmered a translucent gold in color. My shadow spikes penetrated the shield, but not completely, quivering in place like arrows in a mantlet.
The star vampire must have fled completely, because it was nowhere to be seen—or felt, for that matter. And while the half-fae wizard was strong, he obviously thought he was no match for me without the aid of his familiar. Immediately following my attack, the wizard’s shimmering and nearly invisible form began to retreat at speed through the trees and back toward the house.
Using my shadow tentacles to propel me across the ground, I ran in pursuit of the wizard. The last thing I desired was for him to return to his masters, letting them know that a shadow wizard was interfering with their operations. There simply were not that many shadow magic practitioners to be found, and I was the only one living in the Austin area. It would not require a towering intellect to figure out who might be working against them.
Meanwhile, Monty was screaming and babbling from inside the shadow sphere in which I had contained him. “Let me out! I swear, I won’t tell anyone that you caught me. Please, wizard, if I screw up again they’ll end me. I’ll tell you anything, just let me go.”
I ignored his pleas, instead focusing on catching up to Monty’s wizard counterpart, who was moving at surprising speed ahead of me. He might’ve been half fae, but it was doubtful that he had inherited the full genetic advantages of that species. Certainly no human could move as quickly as he was at the moment, darting to and fro between the trees with a speed close to that of a werewolf.
He’s using some sort of speed spell. Interesting.
I cast another volley of shadow spikes at him, hoping to wound him and slow his pace. But as we reached the outer edge of the yard surrounding their safe house, he had one last ploy in his bag of tricks. Grythelias ran not toward the door of the house but at the wall, reaching it just as I cast a single large spear of shadow that was meant to skewer him.
The shadow missile sped through the air toward the wizard’s back, just as he slammed his palm against the wall of the house. Instantly, a large section of siding lit up in intricate fae symbols. The runes and glyphs glowed and shimmered a brilliant golden color, temporarily blinding me as light and magic enveloped the wizard.
Instinctively, I shielded my eyes with my arm, sensitive as they were to such bright lights while I was using shadow magic. When I opened my eyes a split second later, the wizard was gone.
I decided to cut my losses and escape with my captive before the wizard returned with reinforcements. Cursing the fact that I had allowed Griff to escape, I quickly headed back to my car, tossing the still blathering vampire into the trunk and sealing it with a locking ward and a spell of silence.
Just as I was about to hop into the driver’s seat and speed off, it occurred to me that I would not have another chance to search this safe house. Fae and vampires both operated on policies of absolute secrecy and stealth, and they would certainly abandon this place after they realized it had been burned. More than likely they would trigger an immolation spell, razing the place to the ground and erasing all trace that either species had been here.
Their clean-up teams were trained to deploy quickly when called, in order to beat first responders to supernatural crime scenes. It was a toss-up as to whether it would be a vampire team or fae who showed up to do the job, and either would be a thorn in my side if they arrived before I was gone. If I wanted to search the premises for additional clues before I headed back to my tower, I’d need to do it immediately.
I sprinted back to the house just as quickly as my tentacles could carry me, searching the front entrance for traps in the magical spectrum as I approached. Of course, the wizard had left several traps for anyone foolish enough to trespass. His wards were cleverly crafted and layered in such a way that it would be impossible for me to defuse them before the cleanup team arrived.
However, I was not to be deterred. Most wizards had one thing in common: over time, their use of magic eventually made them lazy. This was especially a habit of human wizards, and I was willing to wager that Griff leaned more heavily toward the peculiarities of his human side. Jogging around the house, I scanned each window with my mage sight. In short order, I discovered a high, second-story window that lacked any magical protection at all.
Climbing the side of the house with my shadow tentacles, I broke the glass and slid through the opening into a small bathroom. Unfortunately, the space was barren of any sign of occupancy, save for a single toothbrush on the sink, still in the wrapper. I’d hoped I might find some of the wizard’s DNA here, but the room was almost clinically clean. A shame. If I were to acquire some of his DNA, I might be able to use it later in a location spell.
I moved through the house as quickly as I could, searching for clues and keeping a keen eye out for magical traps. I found none of the former and few of the latter on the second floor, so I gave up my search there and headed downstairs to see what I might find below. Like the upstairs rooms, the living area, bathroom, and kitchen had been kept clean, almost devoid of any evidence that anyone had been living here.
Despite the second story window oversight, I had to give the half-fae wizard credit. It was quite difficult to occupy a space for any period of time without leaving at least some sign of one’s passing. He was obviously a practiced professional, considering how careful he was at cleaning up after himself. The fact that he had taken such care was a clear indication that he had been doing clandestine work for the fae for quite some time.
Yet, in his haste to leave the premises, he had left at least one clue behind—a cheap, burner-style cell phone that sat on the kitchen counter. It would most certainly be warded against tampering, shorting itself out and deleting all data as soon as I turned it on or opened it. Just picking it up might cause it to short out, if the protections had been laid as carefully as I suspected.
That prevented me from simply tossing it in my pocket and leaving the area. For those reasons, I had no choice but to spend precious seconds defusing the wards on the phone. Thankfully, those protections were not nearly as carefully crafted as those on the entrance to the house. It was likely that Griff carried several of these phones with him, tossing them away on a daily basis and thereby prohibiting the need for more careful protective measures.
After I had removed all magical protections, I searched through the phone’s text message log
s. Based on what I found, Griff had been messaging back and forth with someone about accepting packages from vampires. I could only assume that these “packages” were something highly illicit and likely illegal, both under human law and the law of the local Fae Queen, Maeve.
Earlier, Monty had hinted that he had information regarding my childhood abduction. I began to wonder if he’d been telling the truth, and if the vampires and fae were somehow working together in abducting human children. I wouldn’t put it past either faction.
However, vampires and fae simply did not get along. If they were working together, and right under Maeve’s nose, it was definitely cause for concern. And if the Queen knew of their activities—no, it was too soon to jump to conclusions in that regard. I needed to get Monty back to my tower so I could get more answers from him. After that, I would speak with Maeve.
Before I’d finished scanning the phone’s contents, I sensed the use of fae magic near my general vicinity, in the direction of the rear of the house. A moment later, I felt another emanation of fae magic coming from the front.
Portal magic. So, Griff isn’t acting as a free agent. Interesting, indeed.
10
I slipped out much the same way I had entered the house, using my shadow tentacles to slide through the window while making as little noise as possible. Typically, fae cleanup teams consisted of a few assassins and perhaps an accompanying mage. Like all the fae, they were gifted with enhanced senses and physical capabilities that far surpassed those of the average human. The silence spell I cast on myself was only good for about a five-foot radius, so if I accidentally dislodged a sliver of glass, they’d most certainly hear it.
The high fae were genetically blessed with more than just supernatural good looks. They were unbelievably fast, and they possessed a preternatural grace and alacrity that would make an Olympic gymnast look like a clown practicing pratfalls. As far as their cleanup teams were concerned, the fae they chose were usually highly skilled in every manner of physical combat, having been trained from the time they were young to perform assassinations and clandestine missions. One did not want to be in their crosshairs—for any reason.
I could easily handle a single fae assassination team, and I had done so many times since my rebellion against my adoptive mother. However, Griff must’ve told the fae that he’d been fighting a shadow wizard, because it appeared they’d sent more than one team to this location. If they had also brought a wizard with them, it would make for a most untenable situation.
Rather than slipping out the window and down to the ground, I clung to the side of the house and silently skittered my way up to the roof. There I found a nice, shadowy depression where I laid down flat and covered myself in shadow, casting a simple cantrip to enhance my hearing. Then I waited and listened as the fae entered and cleared each room of the house.
“Any sign of the shadow changeling?” a female voice asked.
“No, mistress—no sign of him. We searched the entire house, including the attic and the crawlspace underneath. He must’ve fled just before we arrived.”
“Run a sweep of the surrounding woods, and check the road for vehicles,” the female said. “He lacks the ability to cast portals, so unless he’s working with a more powerful magic-user, he would have driven here. If he is still in the general vicinity, his automobile will be close by.”
“Consider it done, mistress,” the male voice said.
This was cause for concern. These fae assassination cleanup teams were incredibly efficient, and they had numbers on their side. It had taken them less than a minute to sweep the entire house, and I had no doubt it would take them only a few more minutes to find my vehicle in the course of running a search pattern around the safe house. And once they found my Jaguar, they would find Monty.
If that happened, they might free the vampire and abscond with him, in which case I could track him down and capture him again. However, it was more likely that they would torture him to find out what information he may have shared with me during the time we spent together. Once they determined that he had leaked little if any useful intelligence, they’d kill him and make it look like I did it.
I simply could not allow that to happen. I needed time to thoroughly interrogate the vampire courier and discover exactly what the connection was between the vampires and the fae. And the last thing I needed was to be hunted by both the fae and The Vampyri Council.
Time to go.
I waited for the fae assassins to spread out as they headed in various directions away from the house and into the surrounding forest. Then I used my shadow limbs to propel myself from the rooftop like a slingshot, landing silently in the uppermost limbs of a tall oak tree some fifty feet away. Once I was certain I hadn’t been heard, I leapt from tree to tree in likewise manner until I was roughly halfway to my vehicle. That’s when I noticed that one of the assassins below was heading directly for my Jaguar.
She was dressed as most of their assassins were, in tight yet supple leathers that had been enchanted to blend in with most surroundings. Her upper body was crisscrossed in straps that carried sheaths for multiple throwing knives and spikes, and long fighting knives hung from each hip. She held a crossbow in one hand, already cocked and nocked with a bolt that was most certainly dipped in poison. The assassin moved like a wraith, swiftly and silently searching the area for any sign of my passing in a back and forth sweeping pattern that would soon lead to my car.
At any moment, she would pick up the trail I had left when I returned from my car to search the safe house. I could certainly move stealthily with my shadow limbs, but when I was moving at speed as I had earlier, they disturbed any area they touched. Perhaps not enough to be perceived by human eyes, but a fae assassin would easily spot those subtle signs.
Moving with as much stealth as I could muster, I slipped from tree to tree, swinging forward until I was positioned on an overhanging tree limb just a few steps ahead of her. She was about to step into the opening beneath me when she paused, freezing like a scared deer as she strained her senses for any sign of impending danger. I held my breath and waited. Soon her moment of self-preserving prescience had passed, and she stepped directly beneath my perch.
With a thought, I dropped a long, thin length of compressed shadow, one shaped like a noose at the end. Slipping it directly over her head, I yanked on the magical length of cordage, pulling it tightly around her neck. Then, I used my shade’s strength to lift her off the ground and up into the leaves above the trail.
She kicked and struggled, clawed and fought, even managing to draw a knife in an attempt to cut the magical rope above her head. But her efforts were to no avail. My magic immediately repaired any damage she did to the rope, keeping her firmly entrapped in the snare I had set.
Moments later, her struggle ceased. I pulled her up, wrapping her in more ropes made of shadow so that her compatriots would not find her until long after I had gone. I took a few brief seconds to search her body for any information that might indicate who her masters may be. Like most professionals of her ilk, she carried nothing that would betray her mission or employers, not a single scrap of paper nor any electronic device.
But when I examined her kit, I revealed more than I could’ve ever gleaned from a stray note or cell phone. Pulling one of her crossbow bolts from the sheath at her hip, I held it up to my nose so I could get a good whiff of the dark, sticky substance that coated the tip. The scent was quite familiar, bringing back memories from a childhood I would as soon forget.
The poison had been harvested from vines that only grew in certain areas of Underhill, one of which being the swamp directly beneath the castle in which I had been raised. The vines were semi-sentient, and well-known for entangling and trapping any passing creatures that might travel too close to the plants. One such plant had latched itself around my ankle during one of my many illicit forays into the hellish landscape that surrounded Fuamnach’s fortress. If not for a momentary lapse of Peg Powler’s typically vicio
us attitude toward interlopers in her domain, my bones would still be rotting in the hag’s swamp.
The poison told me everything I needed to know about who these assassins were working for—Mother. Fuamnach always needed new subjects for her experiments, and corpses to replace losses in her undead armies. Of course she would be involved in any scheme involving the trafficking of humans into Underhill.
The discovery made me ever more eager to escape with Monty and return to my tower. Moving with as much haste as I could spare without revealing my presence, I slipped through the trees and back to my car. After making certain I hadn’t been spotted, I slid silently into the driver’s seat and sped off into the night.
Once back at home, I parked my car close to my tower, then I walked to the rear of the car and opened the trunk. The vampire was struggling against his shadow bonds, but when he saw me, he gave a defeated sigh and ceased his efforts. I hauled him out of the car and laid him on the ground, keeping him wrapped in a sheath of shadow to discourage him from attempting any escape.
“Taking me back to the lair I see,” the courier said in a resigned tone. “It’s just as well. Griff would’ve told the people he’s working with that you captured me. Chances are good they’d have done me in as soon as they figured out how much I’ve told you. The ironic thing is, I haven’t really told you much so far.”
“Oh, I predict you’ll tell me quite a bit over the course of the next few hours,” I replied.
Monty narrowed his eyes. “You know, the way you say that, it almost sounds like you’re about to torture me or something. Maybe I’m misreading the situation, but you’re kind of freaking me out.”
I crossed my arms and looked down my nose at the skinny stoner vampire. “I’m certainly looking forward to hearing what you have to say. However, torture shall be optional and entirely dependent upon your cooperation—or lack thereof.”
