Anna's Hope Episode One (6 page)

Even though she could feel that, something
about this new magic was distracting Anna. It wasn't just her
allergies going nuts - it was ... it called to her.

“On your feet, girlie,” Meredith snapped
as she sent a warning shot at the door. As the magic dashed against
the wooden frame, blistering the drab grey paint, it lit up a
figure just beyond.

A tall, spindly man in a swathe of black
and blood-red velvet. Even without the fangs poking out of his thin
lips, he was clearly a vamp. Everything from his slicked back
grease-clogged hair, to the cape attached to his collar by a single
blood-drop ruby screamed vampire. That, or a cos-player desperately
trying to mimic a vampire. Because seriously, the costume was
overdone.

There weren't too many vamps in Vale. They
didn't like places with strong magic. Places with strong magic
tended to have too many wizards and witches sticking their noses
into affairs and trying to maintain order.

Your average vampire was at his or her
best when they were the only one in a town or city. Lonely, but
effective, they could prey on the unwanted and never missed,
dispatching a township's homeless one by one until they moved onto
another haunt.

Wizards and witches tended to hate
vampires - for very good reason. Not only did they hunt the
innocent, but they could bring undue attention to magic. All you
needed was a few dead bodies winding up in the river, bloodless and
with two telling bite marks in their necks, and the mundane media
would go nuts.

Though Marchtown did have the MEC and its
team of registered bounty hunters to keep law and order, it was
clearly fragmented enough to make this city homely for your average
vampire. Indeed, the very fact this guy was here, being so open
about his identity with his pointy fangs and slicked-back hair, was
all the evidence Anna needed that law enforcement in Marchtown
didn't work.

Not for the last time, she concluded crime
like this just couldn't happen in Vale. Marchtown needed its own
dedicated magical police force - not some disjointed bounty-hunting
system.

Anna
wandered along with her thoughts,
kind of forgetting about the fact a vampire was in the
doorway.

The slowly burning caller candle still
held a peculiar hold on her. In its presence, though her allergies
went wild, her mind felt foggy. It was as if she'd stumbled into a
cloud.

“Get up,” Meredith now roared as she sent
a fireball slamming towards the vampire.

The vampire, in true undead style, walked
right through it.

Though it could be perturbed by strong
displays of magic, it was pretty much only a handful of garlic and
a stake through the heart that could bring one down.

Even a stake through the heart was
unlikely to work these days; vampires had gone with the times
somewhere around the '70s and now all wore body armor under their
silky shirts. Inch-thick stab-proof Kevlar stood between their
mythical hearts and any pointy sticks. And as for garlic, if you
opened a window or sprayed a room with some refreshing spritzer,
you could ward off the smell.

“We need to hustle,” Meredith snapped, as
she threw another fireball at the vampire to slow it
down.

Anna
pushed herself up. It was one of the
hardest things she'd ever done, but she pushed past the candle,
breaking whatever hold it had on her.

As she did, though it sounded odd, it felt
as if something unwound from around her chest. As if some invisible
grip faltered, its ghostly fingers dropping from her body and
falling back into the shadows.

She shook her head, cleared her mind, and
rapidly realized how dangerous this was.

Holy crap,
there was a vampire in the
doorway.

Though the fear had never truly left her,
now it leapt back into her heart and shook it like an
earthquake.

The guy took a step into the room, a shadow
appearing from nowhere and dancing across his face, his eyes
drawing dramatically wide as it did.

Vampires were always over-the-top. Or at
least a certain breed were. Clearly one dynastical line had watched
too many ‘50s Hollywood horror movies, and now thought red velvet,
capes, and posing dramatically by open windows was how a true
vampire should behave.

Meredith breathed hard through her teeth,
the hiss echoing through the room.

Anna
didn’t need to see the tension
locking Meredith’s slender form in place to know how bad this
situation was.

Just before she could wonder whether it
could get worse, it did.

From behind, near the vicinity of the
window, there came a slow swoosh.

Anna
felt the dark magic before she turned
her head and saw yet another vampire appear.

Holy crap, this town was clearly infested.
While that was good for the local fabric boutique, it was hell for
everyone else.

Even in Vale, home of magical law
enforcement, the police would have been stretched thin with a
double vampire attack. Here, now, there was only Anna and
Meredith.

Or so they thought.

Before the vampires could circle them,
cackling in a deep commanding tone, like Shakespearean actors gone
bad, there was a skidding sound from the doorway.

She turned in time to see a bolt of some
description fly from a gun and slam into the closest vampire’s
chest. Though the bolt wasn’t strong enough to make it through the
Kevlar, once it struck, magic began to seep from it, blue-red lines
snaking from the point of impact like fracture lines through
glass.

The vampire looked down, then up, his eyes
drawing so wide it was like the rest of the skin on his face
disappeared.

Before the vampire from the window could
act, another bolt sliced through the air and slammed into its
chest. The same thing happened as bright, crackling magical lines
burst from the bolt and ate into the vampire’s clothes.

“Now,” a deep gravelly voice from the
doorway said, “I don’t have a bounty out on you boys. But that
don’t mean I won’t fire some more of these wooden bolts right
through your chest if you don’t politely leave.”

A man walked into view. First
his camel
colored massive boots struck the flickering light of the
candle, then one large arm, then the side of his face.

It was the guy from the bar. He really was
a bounty hunter, clearly.

He had sandy, shoulder-length hair tied
behind the base of his head with a strap of leather. A kinked smile
crumpled his clean-shaven chin, and two deep brown eyes narrowed in
concentration as he levelled his modified gun at the closest
vampire. “Do I need to repeat myself?”

Without so much as a curse or a fangy hiss,
the vampire whirled on the spot and turned into a bat. The guy
clearly had been watching too many movies. He might as well have
held the corners of his cape, covered his face, leaving only his
glare visible as he muttered a shuddering, ‘I’ll be back
mortal!’

The other vampire did the same, and the two
bats quickly made their exit via the open window.

The bounty hunter lowered his gun, tapping
a finger along the chamber as he leaned into the doorway. “So, you
still in the business, Merry?”

Meredith rolled her eyes, planting her
hands on her hips as she glared his way. “Yes, I am Scott. I go to
the same damn MEC meetings you do. Now what are you doing on my
case?”

“I’m not on your case. As usual, I’m after
something bigger.” He brought his gun up and used it to brush a
stray hair from his face.

Maybe Anna had been working with cops too
long, but her eyes bulged at the move. Seriously, the guy had just
used a modified magical gun to neaten his hair.

“Ha,” Meredith snorted, tipping her head
back as her soft curls played down her back and shoulders, “as
usual, you’re an ass.”

Scott chuckled, scratching at
his neck.
“An ass that just saved you and your friend.” He nodded at
Anna.

Wow, he’d noticed her. Well, fair enough,
she was standing a few meters from him, but men never noticed Anna,
especially when a woman like Meredith was around.

“We would have managed,” Meredith
snorted.

“Sure. After you’ve scarified your blood
and magic to become a vampire. But hey, don’t let me tell you how
to run your business.” Scott bowed.

“Alright, idiot, just get out of our way.
Actually,” Meredith stopped, “what is your target?”

Scott put a hand up to his lips. “Bounty
hunters don’t share. Plus, this one is way above your station. It’s
best for you to return home to your little bar and leave the work
up to the real hunters.”

“Good god you wizards are all such dicks.
Now get out of my way, Scott.” Meredith sauntered past him, her
hair swaying with every tick-tock of her hips.

Scott brought his hands back, gun still
held in one, and offered mock surrender. “This is me getting out of
your way, Merry. No, actually, this is me saving you. This,” he
stepped back and swept a hand at the door, “is me getting out of
your way. That being said, considering the particular clientele
back there, don’t you think a bounty hunter of your caliber is
better climbing out the window?”

“How about I jam one of these heels up
your ass?” Meredith offered.

“I think I’ll pass. God knows where your
heels have been.”

Anna
stood in the corner listening,
watching, and barely holding back her surprise.

These two were technically law-enforcement
officers. They had a duty to uphold the good, and, well, be decent.
If a police witch offered to stick her shoe anywhere other than on
the floor, she’d be fired.

Lord, Marchtown sure was a different
place.

“Come on, Anna, it’s time to leave this
joint. The company isn’t what I thought it was.” Meredith waved her
forward.

Anna
wanted to leave. Heck, she’d never
wanted to come. And yet, she couldn’t move.

She turned her head back to the candle. It
was dripping wax onto the dusty, scuffed floorboards, its flame
dancing slowly in the breeze filtering in from the window.

It was important. And dangerous. The magic
that magician had practiced could be used for god knows what, but
God knows it would be bad.

Despite her better judgment, she leaned
down and picked it up.

She braced herself before she did, shoring
up her stance to ensure any flare up of her allergies wouldn’t
knock her off her feet.

Scott stiffened, pulling away from leaning
nonchalantly on the doorframe to stand cautiously, staring her way.
“You want to be careful with that, Anna.”

Careful?

That was an understatement. With the amount
of dark potential wafting off this thing with every flicker of the
flame, she could fry her eyebrows. Oh, and likely kill herself.

She took a slow swallow and let her fingers
rest into the wax as she held it at arm’s length.

Meredith turned to watch her curiously.
Curiosity was far from Scott’s gaze – his eyes crumpled with
genuine alarm. “You should put that down.” He motioned slowly
towards the ground with an outstretched hand.

Anna
didn’t open her mouth to tell him she
knew what she was doing – she didn’t know what she was
doing.

She had no idea why she’d picked this thing
up and why she was now pushing her mind into the softly swaying
flame, trying to connect to the magic that sustained it.

She let her eyes half close.

There.

She could feel it again.

Just as a rash of nerves exploded over her
back, making her skin smart and prickle, she caught hold of the
magical link that fed the candle.

She jerked her eyes open. “He’s this way.”
She began to walk towards the wall.

“Ah, who’s that way?” Meredith asked.
“That’s a wall, sweetie.”

Anna
walked towards the wall, her gaze
fixated on a small, innocuous splash of white paint towards the
skirting board.

Scott fell into step behind her, but
Meredith remained by the doorway, staring on, a confused expression
crumpling her perfect brows. “Anna, hon, what are you
doing?”

“Jeez, for a bounty hunter, you sure know
nothing about magic. She’s sniffing out the magical connection,”
Scott explained.

“To what?”

“Not to what, to whom,” Scott
said.

Anna
, half of her own free will, and half
through compulsion, reached a hand out and pushed the flame against
the speck of white paint.

At first nothing happened. One second ticked
by, then another.

Just as she started to wonder what she was
doing, something happened.

The wall exploded in magical symbols. The
dirty, mildew covered drab wallpaper burst away in a hiss, as fiery
blue-white runes raced over the plaster.

Sparks crackled and spat from the symbols,
like hair thrown onto a fire.

Meredith gasped, taking an audible step back
on her sky-high heels.

Though Anna wanted to jerk away, she
couldn’t. Her hand kept pushing the candle against the wall, until
the flame disappeared from the wick, its magic vanishing into the
last of the runes with a long, drawn-out hiss.