Crimes Against Magic (6 page)

The fear laden silence was only broken by the Alpha's roar. "Sorcerer!" 

He knocked Thomas into the fountain with a splash. His wolves advanced, spurred on by my killing of three of their pack. I spun and brought one of the whips around me, catching the closest wolf under the arm. The molten hot magic sliced through the fur, skin and muscle as if it weren't there. It left only the smell of burning flesh and the wolf's screams as the whip exited under the opposite arm pit, cleaving him in two. 

I darted aside and brought the second whip across, catching another wolf in the throat, detaching his head from his shoulders. 

The third wolf ignored his dead companions and charged at me, hoping to catch me off guard. I brought one whip up, catching the wolf under the jaw. The second whip hit him in the thighs. The wolf's leg and face were removed from the rest of the body and he fell to the ground, a gory mess. 

I walked toward the squirming wolf, changing one of the whips into a much shorter pole of volcanic heat. His throat full of blood, choking him, stopped any screams from reaching his lips. He looked up at me, and then closed his eyes. I punched the pole through his head, ending his torment.

The Alpha dove toward me, but I couldn't swing my arms around fast enough to catch him as he hit my ribs, knocking me off my feet.

I extinguished the fire magic before I hit the mud, blasting a jet of wind from my hands, which spun me in the air and back onto my feet. 

"Impressive," the Alpha said. He stepped over one of his dead pack, trying hard not to look down. "But magic won't save you from
me
."

 I pushed my hands forward. A jet of air slammed into the Alpha's legs, dragging them out from under him and planting him face-first on the dirt. He struggled back to his feet, but another gust of wind swirled around him, pushing down on his legs and forcing him to kneel before me. I increased the speed and ferocity of the wind as it slowly climbed up the Alpha's body. It wouldn’t have taken long before it would have been capable of ripping trees from the ground. The effect on the Alpha was no less impressive as the wind cut through his thick fur, slicing his skin. His cries of pain were lost to the roar of the wind.

The glyphs on my hands dulled as I moved them slightly, decreasing the power of the storm encircling the Alpha. I waited until the noise had died down. "Who betrayed this city?" I demanded. "I want his name."

"Go to Hell, sorcerer. You'll get nothing from me." Blood oozed from cuts on his face, one eye almost swollen shut. 

I nodded and started the storm again, this time increasing the intensity. The vortex spun faster and faster, ripping huge lumps of flesh from the werewolf's body. I allowed it to continue marginally longer than I had the first time then stopped it just as suddenly. 

"I don't know his name," the Alpha said breathlessly as the winds died down. "But he
will
kill you for this." The werewolf sprung up in a feeble attempt to surprise me. But he was too far away, and too weak, to make it effective.

I stepped back and coated one of his legs in a thick gale. "You're an idiot," I said with a sigh and increased the pressure until the bones in the Alpha's lower leg crushed like a walnut shell. 

He screamed with pain and rage, as he dropped back to the ground, managing to stay on his good knee. "I don't know his name," he repeated. "I swear."

"Why was he here?"

"He used the English to get inside the city. It was just meant to be a short stay, but the English were suspicious of him and refused to allow him to leave, so he arranged for the French to attack the city." The werewolf coughed, spitting blood onto the ground. "To kill all the English and leave no one alive."

"Why was his house left untouched?"

"He couldn't risk any of the French soldiers taking something important as a keepsake, so his house was to be left alone until we burnt the city to the ground. But when we got here, the French still had English prisoners, so we thought we'd have some fun first. By the time we'd finished, we decided to wait for the inevitable English response to what had happened. We assumed they would send more men for us to kill, to make a name for ourselves."

"You're not like any sort of Alpha I've ever encountered."

"The pack we're from is much larger than just the seven of us. I was the most senior member of this group. But I'm not the Alpha."

Thomas walked toward us, the retrieved Jian in hand. He positioned himself next to the werewolf and placed the edge of the blade against its throat. "Wait," I said. "I have one last question. Where's the girl?"

"If I answer, will you let me go?"

I shook my head. "You will die here, today. The only question is how. Thomas there is a good man. Your death will be quick and painless." The werewolf looked up at the rage-filled Englishman. I motioned for Thomas to walk off as I made my way to the crippled werewolf. "I am not a good man," I whispered into his ear when we were alone. "I will strip the flesh from your bones and scatter your ashes to the wind. I will ensure that for the next thousand years, the merest mention of what I did to you in this city will evoke fear into anyone foolish enough to think they can cross a sorcerer."

Droplets of blood falling from the werewolf onto the wet ground broke the silence. "South," he said eventually. "They went south. Her name is Ivy, that's what they called her. She's sixteen, olive skin, dark hair. And I have no idea what they want with her."

"Neck or heart," I said to Thomas as I walked past the wolf.

"One last thing," the wolf called out to me. 

Thomas placed the sword blade against the wolf's throat once more. I turned to see what he wanted. "These English weren't sent here by their king. Avalon sent them. Avalon sent humans to die for their sins." His deep laughter made me wish I'd had more time to question him. Thomas sliced the Jian through the werewolf's neck, soaking himself in the contents of the beast's jugular.

Thomas washed the sword in the fountain and dried it before passing it, re-sheathed, to me. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"We find those who kept the girl prisoner. And then we wipe them from the face of the Earth."

Chapter 6

London, England, Now

Long ago, Holly's building used to be a massive house, but it was divided into two, both owned by her father. He left the downstairs one unoccupied, allowing Holly to use it for storage of all of her accumulated junk, leaving her flat nice and tidy.

I threw my jacket and rucksack onto her sofa. The main room of her home consisted of an all in one kitchen and living room. It was spacious enough to accommodate two sofas, a pale wooden coffee table between them, and a large screen TV, along with a long dining table. Not once had I ever seen anyone sit at the almost gothic piece of furniture. The dark wood and curved ends were in stark contrast to Holly's personality. 

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Holly asked as she walked off to the kitchen.

"I don't know," I said. Holly returned and handed me a cold glass of juice before sitting on the sofa. "You okay?"

She touched the side of her face and winced. "It's sore, but I'll heal. You did a lot worse to Lee. You could have killed him." 

I raised an eyebrow at the tone of her voice. She sounded almost pleased about how much Lee had been hurt. 

At my reaction Holly immediately said, "I don't want him dead. Just... gone." She shook her head, a sad expression on her face. "Did I ever tell you why I hate him so much?"

"Not really, no."

Holly placed the can of coke she'd been drinking on a coaster next to her. "He enjoys hurting people. Did you know he gets involved in extra fights? Ones Dad knows nothing about. Lee seriously hurt a few people because he won't accept leaving your opponent standing as a win."

"That does make him nuts. But why do you hate him?"

"He used to be such a good kid," Holly spoke with genuine affection, which seemed to make her hatred for Lee all the more difficult for her. "When we were little, we used to play together. We were really close. Then, when Lee was nine, he got sick. Really, really sick. The doctors thought he was going to die." Holly paused for a moment, her eyes moist. "He got better, but something was wrong. He was different. Mean and nasty to people.

 "When I was fifteen and Lee was almost fourteen, I had a boyfriend. A nice guy by the name of John. He was a few years older than I was, and Mum and Dad didn't approve. They wanted me to end it, and I refused. John and I saw each other in secret for a few weeks.

"Somehow, Lee discovered what we were doing. He didn't like the idea of someone getting one over on any member of 'his family' so he went after John and beat the shit out of him with a metal bar. Utterly destroyed his face. When Dad found out he went mental on Lee, told him there was no need to have done that. Dad had to buy John off and make the police investigation go away. But after all of it, Lee just shrugged and said, ‘maybe I'd think twice about who I dated’."

"He did this because you refused to break up with John?"

Holly shook her head. "He did it because in his twisted head, we should have asked for his permission to start dating. Lee mentioned it several times as I was dating John. What Lee did was his way of showing me what happens when I don't follow
his
rules. That was the moment I knew my little brother was gone for good, replaced with the utter psychopath you know today."

"You're worried a little power will go to his head?"

Holly nodded. "I'm worried he'll start taking things into his own hands. And if he does that, a lot of people are going to get hurt."

"Do you think Lee will seek revenge for what I did?" I asked.

"Even if it means waiting for years, he'll want to. I'd watch your back. He won't forget what you did to him, and he'll take the humiliation of losing as a personal insult. But he won't tell anyone what happened. He wouldn't allow his pride to take that dent."

I sat in silence for a moment, mulling over what it would mean if Lee really did start to have more power within his family's business. And no matter what scenario I thought of, it never ended well for a lot of people, me included. 

I forced the negative thoughts away and suddenly remembered the money in my backpack. I took out five thousand pounds and placed it on the coffee table. "This is yours."

Holly's sour expression lightened as a smile forced its way through. "Thank you, this is my favourite part of the job. A bit of shopping should put my family out of mind for a while."

"You need to relax a bit more, Holly," I said with a smile.

She laughed and walked off down the only corridor in the flat toward her bedroom. I gave her a few minutes and finished my drink before following her. The bedroom door was open and Holly stood inside wearing just a black thong and bra. She unhooked her bra and allowed it to fall to the floor, exposing her large, firm breasts. She smiled seductively and climbed onto the queen-sized bed, lying back on the many pillows that were in front of the wooden headboard. "So, you fancy relaxing, Mr. Garrett?"

I removed my t-shirt and dropped it in the doorway, stepping into the bedroom with a smile on my face.

*****

It was a few hours later when Holly and I finally fell asleep, exhausted and satisfied. You could never describe Holly as tender in bed- she's wild and energetic. By the time I woke, the sun had signed off for the day. Holly slept as I moved off the bed, stirring slightly when I grabbed my clothes from the floor. She soon returned to a deep sleep as I slipped out of the room.

I got dressed in the lounge as quickly and quietly as possible, but bumped into the coffee table, knocking over an empty glass. Air shot from my hands, cushioning the fall before it hit the ground. As I retrieved it from the floor, the six dark marks on my bare torso came to life. Each one swirled slowly in place.

Three of the marks sat high on my chest in a straight line, with two on my stomach, just below my ribcage. The last one was in the middle of my sternum, and each mark was the size of my closed fist. They only flare to life when I've used magic, so Holly had never seen them. I'd never told her what I was, but six black, constantly changing marks on my chest may have given her a clue that all wasn't normal. So I made sure not to use my magic when I was around her.

The body art was another puzzle to whoever I used to be. I hadn’t mentioned them to Francis either, although I couldn't say why. Something told me it was information I needed to keep to myself. Besides, they didn't seem to have any adverse effects on me. 

I pulled on my t-shirt and went to open the door. As my hand touched the door handle, Holly asked, "So am I ever going to wake up and find you next to me?" 

I released my grip, made sure that the marks on my chest weren't visible through my t-shirt, and turned to face my good friend. "This isn't a conversation we should have when you're still naked," I said.

"You'll just have to keep your eyes off my tits for five minutes."

"You do realise I'm a man right? And that you have
nice
tits? Staring at nice tits is sort of a heterosexual male's hobby."

 Holly sighed, darted back off and returned a second later wearing a large Wile E. Coyote t-shirt. It was baggy and old, and stretched down to her thighs, but she still looked stunning. 

"Do you really want to talk about us?" I asked.

"I've never asked you for anything, other than that we have fun every now and again. When you're not around do you think I sit and pine for you? I live my life, and enjoy myself. I don't expect anything more from you. So, why do you feel the need to leave at the first opportunity?"

"It's easier," I said.

"Easier for whom? For me? Because as I've just said, I know full well what our relationship is. So it must be for you."

"I don't want what we have to become complicated. If I ever remember anything and it's bad, I don't want to take you down with me."