Chapter 28
I met the man on the middle platform.
"How're you doing, Thunderer?"
He grinned and spread his hands. "Better than you, Dead Man." I didn't like the nickname. "What you've got here is a conundrum. Only it's not the conundrum you think."
"Leave them alone," I warned.
He chuckled and shook his head. "You see? That's what I'm talking about. You're missing the point entirely." The lightning animist cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone and yelled down to the silvans. "I'm not here for you," he said, all easygoing charm. "Whatever you two are into is your business. I only ask for the same courtesy. Cisco and I have our own dealings to attend to."
Ceela and Throok remained ready but didn't budge from the edge of the water. That was smart for a couple of kids. Simon turned to me and muttered under his breath. "Really, Cisco, is your life such a wreck that you're slumming with high schoolers now?"
"What are you doing here?" I asked with deadly focus.
The wizard let his smile drop. "I warned you not to intervene in political matters."
"I guess we forgot to shake on it."
"We still can." He extended his hand. A string of blue lightning arced between his thumb and index finger. "But I'm a squeezer."
I put my hand up to signal Ceela and Throok to stay away. Good job, Cisco. Like they were swarming in to defend me anyway. Whatever. It was better if they stayed out of this, tricksy silvans or not. None of us knew what Simon was capable of, but I could tell he was a pro. He already had tabs on me in Miami.
"How'd you find me?" I asked.
"I noticed that black hand in the Caymans. Any silvan with a pulse could've found you."
I turned to my friends downstairs. Well, acquaintances really. If they were the ones who'd sold me out, I might need to unfriend them on Facebook.
"Stay behind me," directed Throok, moving ahead of the satyr.
I took a step away from Simon. "You're not gonna fight me openly. Not with them here."
Simon grimaced and considered the otherwise empty stadium for a long moment. Then he turned to me with a devilish smirk. "They're not human, are they?"
Before I could answer, his hand came up and flashed white-hot blue. I slithered to the side in the shadow, but the javelin of lightning seared across my back anyway. I stumbled in pain, but I'd closed the distance between us.
I clocked Simon in the jaw, sending him stuttering. Frankly, I was surprised he was still on his feet. I followed with a blow to his stomach. He doubled over and I heaved him into the air, ready to suplex him against the metal railing.
Before I did, a world of pain surged through me. Simon's entire body coursed with electricity. It was all I could manage to break away from him.
"Fast," he said as we both rose to our feet. "But you can't outrun lightning."
"I don't want to hurt you," I said.
He scoffed.
I tried to come off less aggressively. "You're starting a war with the wrong person."
He raised his eyebrows expectantly. "You gonna lay off Commissioner Alvarez?"
"Not until he's disgraced and out of a job."
"Wrong answer," he said. He held his arms out and drew sparks of power from the open sky. Then he lashed out with both fists and a raw bolt of energy came at me.
In the full shadow of night, I usually felt pretty safe. This time the darkness could not cloak me. Simon's spellcraft created light. By its nature it dispelled my source of power, if only for fleeting moments. The bolt of magical lightning hit me like a bus square in the chest.
I tumbled down the concrete steps, bumping and rolling until the narrow platform at the bottom stopped my fall. Besides getting the Frankenstein treatment, I'd picked up a couple of knocks on the head. Just trying to focus made me dizzy.
I stood, drew my knife, and took a step up to him. I didn't even see the lightning that cracked into my hand. I slammed back to the floor again and lost my weapon somewhere.
Throok watched silently as I climbed to all fours.
"You know," said Simon, adjusting his cufflinks. "Everything I said about our organization was true. But still you chose to ignore the power of—what did you call me—'dime-a-dozen cartel muscle?' That really hurt."
As soon as the wizard took a single step down, I drew my shotty from the deep and let it bark. Simon jerked backward as a shower of red and blue sparks erupted from his gut. Birdshot flew everywhere, tearing holes in the wooden chairs around him.
"Whoa!" he said, his face brightening. "That was fast! What did I tell you?" He brushed the shirt between his open jacket but I hadn't even left a mark. The man had his defenses up. An invisible sheen of pure energy had deflected every single scattered projectile.
He turned to the silvans with amazement, eyes wide like he'd just seen an impressive touchdown throw. Then Simon smiled and focused on me. "My turn."
He threw another bolt at me. This time I met his open hand with mine, drawing power through the Norse tattoo on my palm, the Helm of Awe. Turquoise energy, this time my own, flared to life in a semi-sphere that I ducked behind. Simon's lightning crashed into my shield, and I bit down as my arm shuddered under the pressure.
This wasn't a simple projectile, like a bullet. But lightning was massless. My shield could counter the supernatural as well as the mundane as long as it was more energy than object. But physics and magic both required that energy be dispersed somewhere. The lightning flared away from me, jumping this way and that, but some of it made it through to my body.
Luckily, by this point, I was quite familiar with pain.
The wizard pulled back his magic and growled. "You're just a walking bag of tricks, aren't you?" He let out a furious scream that rose in pitch, and I saw it. The water leaned toward us like a glass tilted to the side. The air grew more crisp. He was drawing in more power, readying for a heavier blow. One that I might not be able to withstand.
I kicked my boots and rose. I only managed one step before I collapsed on the ground again. My body was still reeling. In shock. When the next bolt of lightning came, it was all I could do to get my shield up again.
This time the electricity came in a constant stream, thicker and more overpowering. I convulsed under the indirect power of the blast. Even with the shield, he was zapping me. My teeth scraped and my neck twisted to the point of breaking, but I knew, if I let down my guard, I would die.
Still blasting away, Simon forced himself closer, descending to my level. Each step nearer, the pressure on me intensified. My eyes turned to the silvans. Throok wore a grim mask, unhappy with what was happening but watching passively. Even with Ceela appealing to him from behind, he held her back, refusing to put her in danger.
And that's when I saw that he loved her.
Nothing, no matter how tragic or despicable, compares to losing a loved one. Fear pulls our heartstrings from all directions, forcing us to constantly compromise. Like Evan refusing to blame his wife. Like them keeping Fran from me. Safety is paramount, and the more people you let in, the more nerve-racking it can get.
After the horrors I'd caused my family, I wasn't sure I blamed the minotaur.
I winced as Simon stood over me, electricity flowing from his hand to mine. My body was numb, barely listening to my brain anymore, but somehow the signals got through. Simon's face twisted into an indignant snarl, and he reached down for me.
I uppercut my shadow fist into his chest.
The force propelled Simon away in a blinding flash. I had no idea what his defenses could do, but I was starting to get an idea. The enforcer shrugged off the attack like it was a playful shove. It displaced him, sure, but his electrical field had mitigated the shadow. And I'd put a lot into that punch.
I nearly passed out from the effort, again struggling to stand. My body didn't want to listen.
Simon carefully stepped down to me, his comb-over sticking up off his head in all directions. Noticeably absent was his smug smile.
I tried to push him off but lightning shocked me into submission. I drew away. He clamped his arms around my throat. Something scraped my neck and I fell on my back. Simon squeezed, spittle dripping from his lips in zeal.
His attack charged through me, sending my entire body into convulsions. I clenched my jaw and tried to push him off, but the onslaught was too much. I was amazed at Simon's command of the Intrinsics, the amount of raw power he was able to channel. It put anything I could manage to shame.
From the bloodlust apparent on his face, I knew the wizard wasn't gonna let up. Simon wasn't gonna just choke me, he was gonna electrocute me. I forced my muscles through the pain. I clawed for my knife but it was a step above us. Out of reach.
Then I felt something else. It wasn't pain—I had plenty of that to go around, believe me—but I sensed a different kind of spellcraft. Something I'd felt a long time ago. The lightning kept surging, but something else snaked through my neck and into my arteries. Whatever it was, I knew it was far more dangerous than the lightning.
I clawed weakly at Simon's face. All the hairs on my arm stood on end. I shook uncontrollably. I thought I had a lot of fight, but Simon was breaking something in me, something that made me who I was. Something I didn't want to lose. I thought my heart was about to stop. My arm dropped to the floor as the resistance left me completely. Simon smiled...
And promptly got kicked in the face.
Chapter 29
It was a blur. Simon flew off me. Something tall and large lumbered overhead. I reeled in the aftershock of pain. Clipped words were shouted, but I couldn't make them out. I gripped the floor to stop the world from spinning.
After what felt like agonizing minutes, the horizon steadied. My pupils cracked open and filled my irises, and I got my focus back, too.
Throok had engaged Simon. No longer wearing his glamour, the minotaur was all muscles, hooves, and fur, with menacing horns jutting from his head. Throok wielded his bent kukri.
Simon, despite being sucker punched, had managed to get enough of his defenses up to save his life. He was quick, too. Vital to a long life as an animist.
Throok was fresh, managing to keep the enforcer's spellcraft at bay with a series of quick strikes. It was a relentless assault. Each blow, however, was met with a crackle of light. And although Simon looked the worse for wear, I knew the minotaur would tire first.
Ceela watched nervously, no doubt told to stay put by her bodyguard.
I guess there's no rest for the wicked.
I dug for another of my custom shotgun shells, but my pouch was running low. Just two rounds left. Hey, you can't call me out on lack of preparation. Blame the spriggan army for my dearth of ammunition. I squeezed the final fire payload, snapped the sawed-off closed, and then palmed a handful of gray powder.
Between Throok's strikes and Simon's feints, it would've normally been a tough brawl to tag into, but I had the night on my side. I charged them and slid through the shadow, popping in right beside them. With a forceful exhale, the powder puffed into the air and clouded around Simon.
His electrical field crackled, hissing and spitting like water in hot oil. I couldn't tell if anything was getting through, but Simon must've been waiting to see my play. He lowered his head and lurched forward, suddenly becoming an unstoppable train of electricity.
I raised the shotgun but he barreled into me first. My weapon clattered to the cement. It spun on its side like a top, barrel and handle scraping toward the edge of the platform. It stopped with the trigger balanced precariously over the water. Another inch and it would've been swallowed by the sea.
"Take him from both sides!" shouted Throok, already clambering over the seats and getting the high ground on the mage.
I approached from an equal level, on the bottom, gathering shadow into my hand. Lightning magic might dissolve that darkness on contact, but if I struck when Simon was distracted, it might be able to get through. If not, I'd just need to hit him again and again until his defenses wore out or my arm fell off.
We started to converge on Simon, but Throok panicked when he saw the animist backing away. Simon had reversed the battlefield, retreating closer to Ceela.
The minotaur swung a wild overhand strike at him before I could engage. The enforcer lifted his hand and lightning cracked out, consuming Throok's kukri. He roared and dropped the hot weapon, favoring his hand. The minotaur was in trouble.
I rushed forward, but Simon was good. He anticipated our moves and knew who to strike first to stay alive. As I came at him with a magically empowered haymaker, the lightning wizard smiled and reached out for me.
He would've caught me, too, if Ceela hadn't weaseled into his head.
She chanted and waved her hand. Simon wobbled, almost as if his muscles forgot to stand up for a second. But he righted himself. He was dazed but fighting off the satyr's sleep spell.
Simon was too strong for such hexes. Most animists were. But he hadn't expected it, and it slowed him just enough to distract him.
My shadow fist slammed into his jaw in a gout of brilliant sparks. His defenses were active, but unfocused. The darkness seeped through and twisted his head to the side, slinging blood into the air. The wizard careened across the ground before landing unceremoniously in a heap at Ceela's feet.
"No!" cried the minotaur.
I couldn't believe my eyes, but the scrawny, balding Simon Feigelstock shrugged off my blow and whipped around Ceela. He wrapped his arms around her waist and stunned her with electricity.
The surprise wore off quickly. Ceela forced a skinny elbow into Simon's stomach, but electricity battered her arm away. It must've hurt, but the satyr kept at it. Her lower half transformed into strapping horse legs and she planted a hoof into his knee. The blow should've forced the mage into six to eight weeks of bed rest. Instead, Simon ignored her, palmed something in his hand, and held it against Ceela's neck.
Throok and I froze.
I couldn't see if the enforcer held a knife or not. Whatever it was, it was small. The threat was enough for Ceela, though. She'd completely stopped resisting.
After a tense breather, Simon relaxed enough to unclench one hand and use it to fix his collar. Then he leaned over and spit out a loose tooth. The enforcer's eyebrows were up again. He chuckled nervously and said, "Whoa, man. That was intense."
Throok and I exchanged a troubled glance. Simon was an odd duck, both quirky and deadly. That combination made for an unpredictable adversary. The last advantage he needed was a hostage.
"I will kill her," he said coolly to the other silvan. "This wasn't your fight, but it is now."
"Let her go," pleaded Throok. "We'll walk away if that's what you want."
Gee, thanks.
Simon shook his head. "Too late for that. You kids wanted a fight, go at it then."
We looked at each other, confused.
"Do I need to spell it out?" asked Simon. "You have a choice, minotaur. You can attack me and risk your pretty little darling here, or you can take down Cisco and earn my favor." He scraped his fist against Ceela's neck. "Guess which one I think you should choose."
Throok and I eyed each other again. I chuckled at the ridiculous offer. The minotaur leaned down in the row of seats. His kukri scraped against the concrete as he picked it up and faced me.
"You're kidding," I said. "Really?"
"I have no other option, wizard. If I had let him kill you then Ceela would be safe. I took a chance and failed." He walked along his row to the aisle and then came down to meet me.
"But we're not going to actually fight," I asserted. "That's ridiculous. We should work together to save her."
Simon let electricity arc threateningly between his fingers. "How long do you think she could take a surge of my power?"
I wasn't sure. Satyrs weren't weak, but they were certainly more brittle than minotaurs or zombie-skinned dead men. I couldn't consider the question any further because I had to turn my attention to the seven-foot-tall minotaur who stomped toward me with no intention of slowing down.
"Okay, what's the plan?" I whispered when he was near.
Throok swiped the kukri at my neck. I phased under his legs and materialized. He spun around and grunted. "I
hate
that trick."
He lashed at me again. This time I slid up to the third row, forcing him to vault a couple chairs. Before he knew it, I was at the bottom again, working my way closer to Simon.
"Oh, come on," complained the enforcer. "You've got to be kidding me. All brawn and no brains, aren't you?" He grumbled, upset at the stalemate.
The minotaur ripped a chair from the floor and threw it at me, attempting to anticipate where I would land, but I juked right and went left, leaving him two rows of chairs away once more. His chest heaved as his strikes wore him out, and still I got ever closer to Simon, pretending not to notice.
Only Simon's sour face brightened. "This is ridiculous. But I can see how much Little Miss Cloppity means to you, so I have a new plan." He reached into his pocket and threw a glass orb on the floor behind him. It shattered and an orange bubble grew in its place. "Rudi Alvarez is untouchable," he said. "I don't care what you discovered or what you have. If word gets out, if he takes a fall, then this arm candy gets the electric chair."
As he turned away, his eyes lingered on me. "And don't worry, Cisco. We won't forget about all this. I gotta hand it to you. You're stronger than even the Society thought."
I raised a tendril of shadow behind him. "Tell me something I don't know."
He exchanged a glance with Ceela, shrugged, and said, "There's a mermaid behind you." Then he jumped into the bubble.
I snatched the whip of shadow at him but his words slowed me. Two hands grabbed my ankles and yanked me off the concrete platform. I clawed at a pole, a vestige of an old railing no longer around. Sure enough, a mermaid pulled me to the water from behind. Her ruby tail splashed as she furiously tried to drag me under.
Gemma. A silvan. The Nether mark. That explained how Simon tracked me.
Gripping the edge of the platform, all I could do was watch helplessly as Simon's bubble closed around him and his hostage. The orange sphere blinked out by the time Throok swiped at him.
A shrill scream rang out as Gemma tugged harder. I lost my grip and my chin hit the floor, but I managed to hang on. Unfortunately, Throok was more concerned with Ceela's disappearance than my current predicament.
My boots kicked in the water now, trying to keep the mermaid off me. I knew that once I fell in, my shadow magic would be nullified. But here, on solid ground, I could still pull off a trick or two.
A new shadow tendril unfurled from the cement. My shadows don't have the finesse to hold objects nicely, but in this case, a simple nudge would do. The darkness propelled my dangling sawed-off shotgun over the edge of that platform. It fell through the air and I caught it just before it hit the water. Then I turned it over my back to my attacker.
Gemma released me as I pulled the trigger. A cone of fire blasted from the short barrel and washed over the mermaid as she dove underwater.
I dragged myself over the edge of the platform and stared into the water, past the boiling bubbles and the dying fire rippling on the current. A flash of movement disappeared into the depths. A single red scale floated to the surface.
Heavy hooves clomped toward me. I spun around to see the minotaur towering above, scowling and brandishing his kukri.