Necromancer's Control (Trix SinClara) (3 page)

“Mal
...” Ali began but I hushed her. I took more blood from the man’s wound. He was very still as I traced it. Perhaps he knew that it would be all too easy to tear out the artery with my fingers. I traced my fingers over Ali’s forehead in another glyph. Then I ran my own finger along the razor sharp blade and traced another over the top of the first. Blood of the protector over blood of the enemy. I sealed it by wetting a tiny amount of Ali’s blood from her temple and kissing her softly on the mouth. As far as the rest of the world was concerned we were family now. The glyph was the same one my mother had used on me when I was born. The same symbol that necromancers had been using for generations for their closest companions and family.

Ali smiled at me and pulled me into a hug. I wasn’t sure if she was thanking me or trying to keep me from hurting anyone else. If the latter
, then she wasn’t going to succeed. I felt the magic drain through her. The connection between us was new but it was bolstered by our friendship and the role Ali had taken in guiding me these past months. In her own way she protected me as much as I did her.

“Fredrick,
” I growled as Ali released me. She stiffened but took the wise option not to interfere. There was still much about my world and my power that she didn’t know. Things I wasn’t sure I was ready to share with her but at least she knew when to keep quiet and step back. “Come here,” I cooed at him. He looked at me with a mixture of shock and defiance. But I’d seen his face when I cut number one man. There was more than a trace of fear about him. With my power upon me I could see it weave its way through him.

I waited for several minutes for Fredrick to decide what to do then I raised my eyebrows at him. He sneered and took a step forwards, drawing a knife from behind his back. It was a long knife but still not anywhere near a sword. T
he metal flickered in my vision – hmm, spelled then. And probably worth a fortune but it didn’t resonate true with him. Not made for him then, but it wouldn’t make all that much difference.

I laughed. “You want to test yourself against me now?” I asked. My hands were still covered in blood which was slowly starting to crack and dry in the cold air. I’d taken my gloves off at some point and couldn’t remember where I
’d put them. Fredrick just growled at me and lunged, his knife held skilfully in his right hand.

I gave Ali a nudge and she moved out of the way of the fight. It wouldn’t do any good to give someone my protection only to have them stabbed moments later. Fredrick came up fast, all anger and rage and strength.
But not fast in the way that so many of the people that I’d trained with were. He telegraphed his movements too much and his stance was inherently unsteady. Besides that, even with his longer arms my blade gave me a longer reach.

Letting him slide past me I took my boot to the back of his leg. It was the wrong angle to knock his knee out but I caught the tendons and his knee bent further
, sending him even more off balance. Whirling around I shoved at him, putting my feet so that I was steady and ready to lash out if he showed himself to have more aptitude than he’d demonstrated so far.

Fredrick reached back and turned at the same time so that the knife came up towards my face. I blocked it with my own blade and took
a half step back. Light, quick and sudden. Nothing that would give away what I planned. With his arm still at an awkward angle from his previous move I let my blade slide along his to keep it controlled and pushed up with my left hand to lock his arm.

He turned fully then but I went with him holding the joint locked out. If he moved again I was going to break his wrist but he didn’t seem to realise that. Fredrick trie
d to kick back at me but missed, only catching the middle of my skirts between my legs. Long skirts are less than ideal fighting attire but I’d not dressed for battle. I’d make do. I’d trained in them before when I realised that I was unlikely to be attacked while wearing my martial arts gear.

I snapped Fredrick’s wri
st in one swift motion and he dropped the knife. He also managed to stand on the edge of my skirts so that I was limited in my own movement. Then he tried to turn and punch me with his other hand. I tugged at my skirts to unsettle him and sliced his arm as it came at me, narrowly missing my face. Then I kicked out again, catching him in his gut so hard he doubled over, and then took my knee to his nose. The resulting crunch satisfied me greatly and made me glad the skirt was black.

A kick to the side of the head knocked him all the way to the floor and allowed me to kneel down beside him. I smoothed my skirts as if I was about to kneel before someone important and picked up his knife.

It felt good in my hand. The magic wasn’t meant for me. It felt like the thing was spelled against vampyre. Not a cheap piece of work either. I tucked it away down my boot and drew my own blade. The only one I had that was spelled; the one that had been passed down so many generations that the grip was soft. I pressed it against his throat as he curled forwards. From this angle I’d get both carotids.

Pulling his neck to full extension I sliced the blade across. Enough to open up his wind pipe and nick the blood vessels. If he got to a hospital
soon he might be alright. If not, he’d drown in his own blood. I might have pitied him except for what he’d been going to do to Ali. I traced the coward’s glyph on his forehead with the bloodied blade; augmenting it since I’d beaten him in fair combat. Fair as far as the magic lore was concerned anyway. The cuts would scar permanently. Then I looked up.

There were only half the number of people in the square that had been there before I’d started on Fredrick. Apparently even hardened criminals had limits. If they
’d chickened out this quickly then they were weaker than I’d thought. Ali just smiled at me as I stood. When I looked around, Timothy and main man were gone. So much for my quick revenge.

“If Timothy and the other man that kidnapped us aren’t presented to me by the end o
f the week I will start hunting,” I declared. “Anyone who gives them shelter will be answering personally to me. Anyone attempting to harm what is mine again will face my anger.” My face was deadpan and with my power still coursing through me I knew I looked scary. Being practically covered in blood probably helped too. Cutting Fredrick’s throat had been messy.

Gesturing to Ali I turned and left. My sword was still bare in my right hand and the sacred knife in my left. Both would need
to be cleaned before I put them away again. We started walking towards home and didn’t stop. Not bothering to stick to the shadows either. We walked, covered in blood, straight through the main square of the back alleys before we got home. The fear as we passed was palpable and it took more than a few steps to calm my power back down again. We were home by the time my hair and eyes were back to normal.

It took two
days for Timothy and the leader of the kidnappers to be presented to us. They showed up one morning in the middle of the large square. The one we walked through nearly every day. It was a bit of an odd sight. Both of them were trussed up with rope and gagged. There was a message stapled to Timothy’s forehead that said if I needed anything else to contact them; they’d be happy to oblige. Being scary has it advantages sometimes.

Both were freezing. Neither was wearing a coat or hat and Timothy looked up at me with such hate that Ali gripped my hand to hold me back. But he was pretty much harmless tied up like that. I let my power come to the fore and touched his head. I examined his life force. Surprisingly
, it was hanging by a thread. It felt like he’d stretched himself so thin that he was about to snap. The effort he’d put into keeping Carlo alive all those years had taken its toll.

“You’ve not got much left
, my dear,” I told him. He just grunted at me as I bent down so that my face was level with his. “I should kill you for what you’ve done to me. For what you did to Ali. For what you did to my mother. But I keep my oaths. An oath not to harm you, although you never held up your end. I’m giving you the chance to leave but, in all honesty, my honour would not really be besmirched by hurting you. Not after everything you’ve done. So I suggest you get yourself out of my territory and never return. Or I’ll do worse than kill you. I’ll give you over to the Covenant with a great list of everything you’ve ever done to break their laws. Maybe they’d even let me watch.”

Ali didn’t flinch at my speech. Nor did she flinch whe
n I took my short sword from its scabbard on my back. I’d taken to wearing it openly now that everyone knew who I was. Overconfident maybe, but we were trying to present an image to the people around us. If I couldn’t protect my own people then my word was nothing.

“His fate is yours
,” I told Ali as I handed her my sword and gestured to the leader of the little gang that had kidnapped us. She smiled at me as she took the blade. Watching her handle it I realised that I’d
have
to take her to lessons. It wouldn’t do us much good if she didn’t know how to use my blades. But she handled it well for someone who’d never held a sword before. Perhaps she would finally consent to learn.

She took the blade in two hands and shoved
it through the chest of the main man. Timothy shuddered as he was splattered with blood but I was watching Ali. She smiled in a way that said she’d been waiting a long time to take revenge on someone and in that moment I swore to myself that nobody would ever be allowed to hurt her again. That she would never need to take revenge again. And I smiled with her.

Now all we needed to do was clear out the Lowers of everyone loyal to Timothy and make sure the rest of them were following the rules. It didn’t
seem like such an impossible feat anymore. And the Covenant wouldn’t have to worry about any trouble coming out of the back alleys. Not unless they decided to start interfering...