Birthright - Book 2 of the Legacy Series (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (2 page)

But a Deadly Sin, are you kidding me? That was entire universes beyond me.

My curse renders me virtually immortal. Stab me, shoot me, maim me, I’ll walk it off. But that bitch, Lilith, had killed me. I mean, really
killed
me. No amount of healing or magic would have brought me back. Only an accident, a glitch in the universe, a freak phenomenon had brought me back. Sure, I got back feeling as if I had replaced the Energizer Bunny, but the fact remains, I
died
. And if I may be so immodest, I’m one tough mother to kill.

Then, Amaymon springs the zinger. “Guess what, everybody, the super-tough demon that sprouted a freakin’ Alpha upon her demise was only defeated because she lost her ability to keep herself together. Which means that, somewhere out there, six other apocalyptic-scale nasties are lurking about, and if they cooperated with whoever, or whatever, was pulling their strings, they would
not
lose themselves like Lust did. Oh, and they’d kill us. Like, a lot.”

Despite all that, the apprentice kept trudging about in her own way. I mean, talk about learning the hard way. She almost got her head separated from her shoulders merely a few hours ago and suddenly it’s my fault. Maybe my gut was right. Maybe I should quit teaching her.

I poured water over my face as if to cleanse the thought away. I couldn’t just leave her, not the way I had been left alone. No way in hell was I going to make her go through the same crap I had to go through as a kid. I needed to focus, to get my act together. Whether I liked it or not, I was involved in this. And once, a long time ago, a wise man told me that no matter how large a problem seems, it only takes the courage to make that first step to completely unravel it. That was what I needed. That one tiny, terrifying step.

First things first – I needed to get my resources in check. My sister was currently combing through her network of spooks and spies for anything related to the Seven Deadly Sins. Or anything that sounded like a conspiracy. She clued me in on any gathering of monsters, even if they just happened to be flocking together. Her team of scary mercenary wizard ninjas had been active for months, leaving behind them a trail of ash and bone. She had even made a move against human conspirators. My sister took paranoia to a whole new level. And that method was getting old.

I didn’t want to contact the angels myself. After punching Jehudial in the face, even though he totally deserved it and he totally let me do it, I was reluctant to call him. The archangel was probably busy holding together some corner of the universe or something. And it wasn’t as if we had parted on good terms. Excluding the punch, I may have told him to shove his war and his holiness up his armor crack. And twist a couple of times.

But that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t call on him if I needed his help. If there’s one thing I made sure was clear was that Earth is my turf. And no being, no matter how powerful, was simply going to waltz in and start giving out orders. So, I made a mental note — give my sister another couple of weeks. If she still had bubkis, I’d rope Amaymon into spilling out a summoning ritual or two.

Issue number two – I had to stop being a friend to Abi and start being a mentor. This wasn’t college. You fail a class in school, big whoop. Second chances aren’t that uncommon. Fail in my world, and the consequences were much more dire. All it took was a moment of distraction, be a little slower, a little weaker, a little out of synch, and heads would roll. Most likely yours. There are no second chances. There are no fair questions. Only pain and horror.

Although despite all that, we do occasionally smile and laugh at the fact that we took on entire ships of hellish denizens and lived to fight another day. Sometimes there are good days. But if Abi wanted to live to see them, my apprentice needed to stop being a liability. And it was up to me to make her an asset.

Final issue – me. I had a problem.

Amaymon said there’s nothing wrong with my magic, but I kept feeling off. For one thing, the boost I received after doing the whole resurrection thing seemed to have haywired my entire system. I was never subtle with my power to begin with, and lacked concentration to a major degree, but now I had trouble brewing up even the simplest of spells. When I did fire off a spell, you can forget about restraint. All I did today was blow up walls without meaning to. That’s why Abi managed to take the lead during the vampire assault. It wasn’t that she was faster or stronger. It was the fact that I was lamer. If Amaymon was right, and when it comes to magic he usually is, then this problem wasn’t supernatural at all. It was human. I, me, the Erik part, is the problem. Stress, tension, fear – whatever it was, it needed to go, and fast.

Because all signs read one message. The balance between good and evil, order and chaos in this universe, and possibly in all our neighboring planes of existence, rested on my shoulders. I was the only one who could save it. Apparently, some deity or universal force decided to make me the chosen one.

So I needed to be at the top of my game. I had friends and a family to defend - I had a universe to protect.

The universe is so screwed.

The phone’s ringing snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned off the water and waded out of the shower, trying to dry myself off and avoid tripping over the towel at the same time. I heard the phone go off again and something bumped against the door.

“Erik. Phone,” came Amaymon’s voice from behind to the door. “You might wanna get it since I have no thumbs and the lady of the house is currently blasting her ears with some of that horrible music that kids listen to these days.”

I cracked open the door and stuck my head out. “Yeah, I’ll get it. I’m expecting a call anyway.”

Amaymon turned his gaze upwards at me. “Then I shall carry on with my life of feline mellowness and staring into space.” I rolled my eyes and quickly put on some pants before exiting. “I’m sure Abi will appreciate your new look,” remarked the cat.

“This from the guy who openly licks himself,” I shot back. The phone went off again, sending another resonating burst of sound through my head.

“What?” I said into the receiver. I’m no good with phones.

“Bad timing, brother?” My sister’s voice had its usual edge of ice, as if to imply that she was doing me some sort of favor by addressing me directly.

“It’s never good timing, but then again, I’m sure you know what a crap fest my life has been the past few months.” I took a deep breath and sat myself down. The storm was still raging outside. “What’s up, Gil?”

“My patience is. I hope you have yielded some form of clue with regards to the Seven Deadly Sins.”

“I got squat. Your info led me to a vampire nest. New ones, too. All we found were scraps of cloth and a whole lot of blood. I mean, these guys didn’t even bother with coffins, thrones, or shrunken heads. I thought those were a staple in every nest.” I could sense my sister rolling her eyes.

“Stop joking, Erik, this is serious.” My sister sighed. “We struck some nests, too. And here’s the strange part – they were expecting you.”

I frowned. “Me? What am I, vampire boogeyman?”

“Apparently. You may not realize it, but your work has had a significant effect. The reason this city is flooded with monsters is because of you. They either want to challenge you or are attracted to your magic. Or, and this is a recent theory I have been developing, they may be here because this town has become a nexus of power.”

“English, please.” Two minutes on the phone with my sister and my head was ready to explode.

“Think about it. Why here, in good old La Fortunata? Because of you. You killed monsters and that rippled out through the entire dimension. Every time you kill a monster you leave a void, inviting other monsters to replace it. It hasn’t been a year since you destroyed Lilith. Think of all her power and of the huge void she left. More monsters are going to come, and it is only going to get worse.”

Oh, good. More monsters, more demons. More things trying to rip me to shreds. How nice of my sister to plan out the next decade of my life. Keep slaying monsters until I hit the mother lode and as my reward I will have to — wait for it — fight more fucking monsters.

At least that takes care of the clientele flow.

“It’s been your plan all along, hasn’t it?” I said. “Increase the imbalance of the city’s natural magic flow by slaying anything trying to step into Lilith’s place, and create enough turbulence to attract the biggest, baddest and craziest. You’ve turned the entire city into a nexus of chaos and rampant magic just so you can attract a Sin. I don’t know whether to be impressed or disgusted.”

“It’s the ultimate trap. We are warlocks after all,” replied my sister. Her voice had a hint of pride in it. I was about to retort with something offensive but managed to restrain myself. Only a few minutes ago I was contemplating going to the angels for help, but all the while my sister had pulled a Machiavelli on me and roped me into her big ‘Demonic Bell Jar’ plan. So, unless I could come up with something better, I had to roll with it.

But that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it. “Anything else you want, sis?” I asked, somewhat acidly.

“Yes,” crackled her voice. “One of the nests we hit tonight had a wall covered with photos from various crime scenes and a map of Eureka. They know where you live and, judging by the number of notes we found, they seem to have been studying your modus operandi.”

“Oh, great, a fan. Do they have anything concrete?” I asked, scanning the empty office and extending my magical powers.

I felt the crystals embedded in my office walls resonate with power, ready to push back any unwelcome invaders. At the same time, they allowed me to use my magic freely in my office, giving me complete home-field advantage.

“They have some obscure pictures of a guy in a long trench coat. In one of them, an outline of Abi can be seen. They know where you live. At least, your place is one of their guesses. We didn’t get them all, Erik. Two escaped and they may be heading toward you as we speak.”

“Where was the nest? Here in Eureka?” I asked.

“No. We found them on the border of Oregon. It’s quite a distance, but well-fed vampires could cross it in half a day.”

I pondered that. My magical defenses would keep out relatively weak monsters such as vampires, but it’s those weak creatures that are the most devious. My crystals won’t stop them if they decide to burst in with, say, an army tank. As for reinforcements, vampire nests tend to be like lion prides. They keep to their own hunting grounds and never venture too far. If these guys seriously decided to come after me they would have to do it without being detected by others of their kind, or any other monster lurking in my beloved hometown.

“I have already dispatched some patrols to the other locations marked. Some of them are household dwellings, and I do not want any more bloodshed tonight,” said my sister. “Do you want me to send a couple of guys to your house?”

I let out a bark of laughter. “Nah, I’m fine. Keep your guys. Never liked them anyway.”

“Will you be okay?” My sister sounded tired.

“Gil, you just told me that a couple of vampires are going to cross the border over here to Monsterville, on the off chance that they might find me and show me how tough they are. That’s about as intimidating as you telling me that a group of girl scouts are going to show up at my door and whack me in the face with a frying pan. I think I’ll manage. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“When was the last time you slept?” I asked. “You sound even more tired than I am.”

“I’m busy, Erik,” she snapped back icily.

“Well, take a damn break before
you
break. Make Mephisto do something for a change,” I retorted.

“I don’t trust him, Erik. Unlike you and your familiar, my relationship with mine is strictly formal. In that regard, you have been set up with the familiar easiest to live with.”

I observed as said familiar waded into the kitchen and hopped onto the top shelf. Moving behind a cereal box, he nudged it forward and sent it tumbling down, its contents spilling all over the kitchen floor. Nonchalantly, Amaymon descended and began consuming the spilled cereal.

“Yes,” I replied, my tone heavy with sarcasm and disgust. “Clearly I have the household friendly familiar. Goodnight, Gil. Get some sleep.” And I lowered the receiver back in its place.

I extended my hand and my short sword, Djinn, still sheathed and resting on the coffee table where I’d left it, levitated and moved gracefully toward my awaiting hand. With the same hand, I slightly flicked my fingers. The switch at the other end of the room clicked and the lights went out. I channeled magic into the crystals once more, engaging the supernatural security system. Each of the crystal glowed through the walls, flooding the room with dimmed white light. I caught Amaymon staring at me from the kitchen doorframe, the darkness causing a faint eye shine from his feline eyes.

“We’re sleeping with the heavy duty alarm on tonight. And clean up after yourself when you’re done,” I said, heading upstairs for some sleep.

Life as a wizard involves many dangers. You could be ambushed by some hungry monster attracted to your juicy aura. You could poke your nose too hard into their territory and find yourself at the mercy of a pack of werewolves. True story. And it is guaranteed that your fellow countrymen, for whom you worked so hard, will shun you, giving you looks reserved only for hobos and drunken uncles.

And you will never,
ever
, get one single miserable goodnight’s sleep.

At first, I thought it was the guy down the block. He’s always up before the roosters, either hammering at something, or welding something, or whatever. I don’t speak mechanic. Or hoarder, which is more likely his case. Whatever he was up to, it involved a lot of noise. So, I spun in my bed, cursing the man in question with maladies only found in the Dark Ages, and heard a crash of glass breaking. It wasn’t the distant sound of an accident, like the ones usually followed by a string of hilariously foul language. This was close by.