Dawn of Legacy, page 15
Kaycee and some others also monitored their growth and noted any irregularities in that. Beginning five years ago, the number of magic-inclined people in Cleveland had doubled.
And then it doubled again.
Not only that, those who were adequate practitioners had started to become adept, and the adept had started to become quite formidable. Nothing powerful enough to turn the tide, but they were now capable enough to be relied upon to supplement efforts, and no longer profiled as a soft target for almost any predator. As much as this was reason to celebrate, the fact that so many of these seemingly dormant powers began to emerge in much older wielders was not just historically rare, it had never been known to have happened before. I button mashed on the game, very aptly called The Land, skimmed the social-media boards inside the thing and thumbed over a couple of the files. Grove also upgraded the vehicle, downloaded logistics and schematics about everything from escape routes to rally points, and even showed me how to activate a program that would locate algorithm protected eight-digit grids, grids that had smaller weapon caches.
After that, we trained, ate, and went over everything we’d discussed earlier to fortify our mutual understanding, and stress-test some of our working theories. It felt good to be back at work, and while there were moments that I couldn’t help but feel a bit left out of this new growth, I had to admit the evolution was great and the way everyone was coming together filled me with a surprising degree of pride. I decided to end the half-day on a good note and go shower before taking a nap.
Good thing I did, because I was ripped out of a deep sleep by rancorous shouting from the other side of my apartment door. It was so boisterous I was hoping it was coming from anywhere other than the Full Circle Protection offices, but before I could recalibrate and crawl out of my repose, a peace shattering roar confirmed my worst fears, and I exploded out of my bed to not-so-gracefully land face-first on the hardwood floor, my feet failing me spectacularly.
Whatever wise-crack I was about to make died on my lips as a second, booming roar echoed a moment before I hit my door like a fucking battering ram, head down, ready to kill whatever had been dumb enough to step inside my house and try to bring danger to our doorstep.
CHAPTER 12
Growing Pains
The destroyed door did nothing to impress our newest visitors, though it did manage to startle the hell out of Kaycee, Johnny B., Nicholas (who almost fell out of his chair), and even Helena to a degree, though she’d the constitution to not jump.
Her bodyguard, or whomever the towering, muscled up piece of hunky-man-meat was, had respectably imposed himself between her and the two-hundred dollar expense I’d just racked up for myself because I couldn’t tell the difference between an other-worldly monster roar, and a digital tiger in our community-based video game, which was being shown off by its proud developer while everyone waited for me to wake up. I’d heard a third damning roar and knew emphatically that it was coming out of the pricy speakers and not the mouth of some horrendous beast or monster.
Half-crouched over, my shoulder hurting a whole hell of a lot as the adrenaline wore off, I awkwardly cleared my throat before daintily picking up a shard of wood and the busted doorknob. Nicholas looked horrified, Kaycee was entertained after a puff of air cleared the hair from her face and she got over the initial shock I’d given her, and Johnny B. gave a very girly half-yelp before collapsing into the side of Helena’s most distractingly attractive counterpart, Julian.
“This is Julian everyone,” Helena’s voice was soft but never timid, and even as she offered, without me yet inquiring, it was interesting how easily it carried all the way across the room. The introduction didn’t fill in any gaps but did ease some of the anxiety that comes from meeting new people, especially for us middle-of-the-road Millennials. Julian was a good sport about the suffocating side-embrace from Johnny B., even letting the musician walk exploring palms over his arm to pry himself off rather than just stand up straight. Judging from the reaction of our resident song-sorcerer, whatever lay beneath the sleeve was as impressive as what we could all currently see. “And Julian, this is Janzen Robinson.”
After dawdling in that dusky, door-shattered clearing for a bit, I just kind of listlessly tossed the doorknob over my shoulder before walking over to everyone. This was not quite the assembly I expected, though I had confidence that Grove would make an appearance before we sorted any of this out. Julian and I exchanged a handshake, and I’m bummed to report that despite the fact that he’s about a head taller than me, considerably more handsome, a few years younger, and a decorated member of some elite Iandor strike team; he’s also a better artificer than me. I carried a lot of enchanted gear from all over the spectrum, but this guy had very few obvious pieces; pieces for breaking bones or beating ass. Begrudgingly, I had to admit it was really sound work, like the kind of immaculate work you’d expect in anybody but this kind of guy. Seeing just how capable he actually was can inspire a deep, loathing hatred —most commonly referred to as jealousy.
Luckily, my ego’s ass had long since been kicked, so I took it in stride.
“What’s going on?” The open-endedness of the question was baiting by design, an attempt to interrupt the tension in the room. When my phone went off, the flinch of relief I saw wash over both Kaycee and Helena confirmed my suspicions—suspicions that something had been going wrong even before last night. For the last few months I’d been frozen out of the actual issues happening in my city and was instead fed strained small talk. I made a show out of taking the device out and silencing the ringer, calmly placing it face down and dropping my undivided, expectant attention back to them, and waited for a response.
“He wants to know what’s going on?” Grove shouted over my shoulder, slipping in from the Full Circle side entrance with Verrak in tow. Leave it to Grove to read the room simply by body language and understand enough about everyone in it to say exactly the right thing. Verrak paused at the door, exchanging a look with Kaycee before making her way over to my side of the office and then retreated to the furthest wall as if doing her best to stay on the periphery of the issue. It would be unfair to call Gale being there a surprise, given our relationship; our trials with the woman from the Abyss had unintentionally created an even stronger alliance than anything we had ever had in the past.
As Kaycee began, Nicholas swiveled completely away from the computer to join the discussion. Julian looked at me like a vague disinterested predator not quite ready for a meal. He had an air of competence with violence, similar to Grove, even if his was a lot more polished. Interestingly enough, Helena had taken to drifting around the room, taking a keen interest not in my workshop itself, but in my notes, concepts, and sketches.
“We’ve been having pretty regular attacks for just over two months now.”
That hit me hard. Even if there was some part of my mind that knew something was out of whack it was a shock to have it confirmed. I could tell that she was hesitant to tell me this, and that they were expecting a much more animated angry response from me. Sure, I could be salty as fuck, and livid with outrage, but right now wasn’t the time, because I was absolutely clear that we had once again slipped into the thick of a crisis, and that it had somehow managed to sneak all the way up on us.
“We all agreed.” Grove took some of my guard down by not only being in on the decision but damn sure sounding like one of the signing members of the committee. Given the depth of our knowledge of one another it was probably impossible for him to miss the fuck you stamped across my forehead but I stiff-upper lipped it for now and nodded, waiting for a little more detail. “You weren’t going to be able to help us out here, and we couldn’t help you with the problems you’d run into in prison, so it made sense not to tell you.”
His response caught me a little off guard and I was genuinely impressed. I pivoted my attention to Kaycee and saw that her eyes were wet from holding back tears; this decision had been hell on her, probably as hard as hearing about me under attack in the one place she couldn’t get to without making some kind of scene. Seeing people who loved you upset was rough; seeing them distraught with worry for me deflated a lot of the ire I’d found welling up. The explanation was like a bucket of cold water, and posturing aside, I grumphed my ornery ass over to my oldest friend and wrapped her in my arms.
“Water under the bridge.”
Checking the assembly of faces and giving my sister-mom the opportunity to gather herself, I saw a glint of approval from Johnny B. and Grove. Nicholas and I hadn’t yet forged any kind of bond, but I could tell this alleviated a lot of his worries. I imagine keeping me in the dark about this was the source of a lot of conversation and debate, knowing how most of us would feel about being left out of the loop on something like this. I knew the decision was the right one, and I appreciated the soundness of the reasoning and the courage it took to do it.
Meanwhile, Gale looked like she was miles away, Julian looked like he couldn’t care less, and Helena’s demeanor seemed clinical and pragmatic.
“Attacks have been going on for about nine weeks,” Grove added, as he picked up the thread again. I gave Kaycee’s hand a squeeze and dragged my pajama-covered self to the center of the room. At first the impulse to move to the center felt like it was a product of my attention-deficit stuff, but I also have to confess that there was still a part of me that wanted to be the focus of everything, but it was more than that. I needed to receive all the incoming information before developing a plan and executing our response. It was a physical metaphor: I was stepping into the middle of the problem, because I’d stopped running.
“And while we haven’t had any fatalities, there’ve been a couple of bad injuries, and we’ve been missing a pair of people for the last two nights. We have reports of things behaving differently. Everything from more aggressive to way outside historic behavior patterns.”
“The per capita number of people capable of using magic is far, far greater than at any time in the past or anywhere else in the world.” Helena added that tidbit with practiced ease, and even though I had just imparted forgiveness for the duplicity I could tell she saw a flash of irritation turn the corner of my mouth.
And I could swear my flash of annoyance amused her.
“She’s right,” Kaycee said, her internal strife put to bed. The powerhouse I knew and loved was moving purposefully into the discussion, “and I know Grove and you talked a little bit about it, but some of our students are getting better, faster and with more power than I would expect. Normally, that would be the point, but magic works a little differently than weight lifting for example. We usually have a pretty good idea of how much power you can throttle out from the beginning. From there we aim, shape and even enhance it but it’s all within a pretty expected range. But people are just becoming even stronger than I would expect them to. They seem to be….”
“Brimming with power?”
Almost everyone sat up or narrowed their gaze at my statement. The intent behind it was to focus their attention on what I’d just said, knowing that the word fit, even if nobody had thought to describe it that way. Verrak and I exchanged a look, and from that look I can tell that she’s going over everything that happened to us at Thomas’ house but hadn’t yet keyed in on the connection that allowed me to make such a leap.
“The Bru-maga,”
“The what?” Helena and Kaycee interrupted in tandem.
“An undead sorcerer.”
“A lich?” Kaycee asked.
“No, a vampire.”
“A vampire mag; a Bru-maga.”
“Janzen, that sounds like a mix of witch in Spanish and Latin.” Helena said evenly, and despite the feeling of condescension that comes with such an implied correction I could sense a touch of bemusement behind it. I mouth over the words, tasting them instead of saying them before turning to Verrak who scowled at the insult.
“I don’t know your word for them Helena, but it fits.” An unapologetic shrug was the best I got from the Stalker.
“It was a vampire, using a specific kind of life draining energy device.” Helena and Kaycee exchanged a worried look.
“Yes, there’s—wait, do you not know how many different types of vampires there are?” I asked. Helena suddenly looked a little puzzled, tossing a look over toward the half-elf before getting confirmation by way of a half-shrug, one not unlike Verrak’s.
“There’s the Dergund, and the Bri-”
“We usually use monsters and abominations, but since you all seem so keen on keeping mixed company we thought it best -”
“To shut the fuck up?” I fired that straight between the eyes, and when her enforcer bristled, I made sure he saw just how thoroughly unimpressed I was at his attempt to defend or explain. “Yeah, why don’t you return to your usual mode of behavior before your attempt to unfuck a situation goes any worse.”
For all my insult had cost him in face, both Helena and the warrior saw just how antagonistic that comment was to my people, and while their tribe might have been bigger, my gang was bloodied and ready to do it again if need be.
“I get it. Two types of vampires. One that gets warped because they use dark magic to steal life force, and one that becomes warped because they do it with fangs. Fangs are fighters and tougher, but the life-force ones are bigger power houses; there’s just fewer of them. According to Verrak, Bru-Maga -” I make sure to eyeball the prince-charming type as I drag the working name for the vampire across the conversation with the tact of an M-80, “- usually only have one apprentice at a time. One. This one not only had two, it had two more in the oven so to speak; we found the other two in hibernation mid-transformation. Let’s add that to the list of creatures crawling around Cleveland acting differently, along with the fact that more people are popping up with abilities here like never before.” This was stuff we’d gone over, and over again, and by re-hashing it aloud myself I could tell that everyone in the room at one point or another had been aware of this conglomeration of troubling facts and happenings without drawing one thru-line conclusion.
I moved to the sturdy hand-me-down desk from my mentor and banged on the left side panel to open a hidden compartment and fish out the thorn-branch-collar. It was an insidious piece of twisted deadwood; the thorns hooked maliciously and seemed to elongate, hungering for flesh and caustically reaching out for it. After rolling it over in my grip once more, I returned to the center of the room and managed to pull a good number of the onlookers in with me.
Knowing men are creatures of egos, and good soldiers were hard finds, I extended the collar-contraption to Julian for his examination and thoughts. He was probably an even more capable artificer than me, and Helena suppressed a covert approving smile at the gesture knowing it was not unlike offering a literal olive branch. “Look at the sigils and tell me what you see.”
I was a little thrown by the confusion it prompted, though after rolling it over in his fingers I could see flashes of recognition and even the beginnings of an actual understanding. Helena was also examining it, and she had a much better grasp as to what the device was doing than her protector/apprentice, but even she had a gap of understanding that she looked to me to fill.
“A few things: strength, spirit, and there’s a vampiric element to the magic—a draining effect. I think she was draining his life force, his very soul.” Incredulousness was wrought all over her, and with a searching look asked Kaycee and Gale if they had any opinion about it.
“That’s far too high level for even a capable Bru-maga,” the mother-hen said, tossing an applauding supportive glance at Verrak who actually bristle-beamed a little, which was adorable even if you knew she was actually an eight-foot man-eater. “Plus that kind of magic wouldn’t give anything. It’s more the kind of power that is driven by intent. The apprentices would have to not only offer their soul, they would have to really want to give it. Gale?”
“That’s how I understand it too.” The woman murmured, actually startling me when I realized the damnable bartender had somehow soundlessly ended up right beside me. There was a purr in the smirk she gave at seeing how I responded, but I swatted that down with a scowl, though secretly I was glad to see her more engaged.
“There’s a summoning...clause I would almost call it. I’ve seen it before.”
The foreboding quiet that often followed a moment like this was stretched out for effect, but when I lingered on finishing the sentiment it wasn’t for theatrics – it was to take the time necessary to quell the hurt of the memory while speaking so openly on it.
“It was the sigil that Jackie carved into Maria, on the sacrificial table.”
Everyone looked stupid with shock, the kind of quiet a pin-drop could crush, and the only thing more jarring than having to speak the realization out loud was the fact that not only did Gale already know that—she expected me to make the connection.
CHAPTER 13
Confessions
Wildly enough, out of all the questions I expected from that declaration, the first and loudest was the one I hadn’t entertained.
“You can read all that sigil-work?” Helene asked as she carefully plucked the thorny collar out of my grip and re-examined it. She was quick and clear-cut, and as if remembering her role as teacher, passed it to her apprentice after finishing her inspection.
“Yeah…I couldn’t duplicate it maybe, but I do understand the foundation of each of the sigils. The base is encircled with a summoning element, one used to break into or siphon from the In-Between. If I had to guess, she was using Thomas to super-charge herself and make more apprentices than her own energy would allow, even though Thomas wasn’t strong enough to battery-power such an undertaking; but he had changed.”
I kept my eyes on Helena, to see if she had any other questions about my ability. Truthfully, I was a little unsure if her own skepticism was a form of condescension or general surprise, but for now that wasn’t important.
