Birthright - Book 2 of the Legacy Series (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (34 page)

I don’t know how long it took me to go from our warehouse, cross the whole town, and end up back at the edge of Trinity Forest. I walked with purpose, like a man on a mission – I felt like the
Terminator
. I briefly recall the sun going down and then back up again. I just kept walking — no breaks, no stops. Just marched straight into Trinity Forest without so much as a pee break. I felt something, or someone, guiding me, giving me the strength and force of will to never stop. Maybe it was Tenzin. I like to think it was.

My power took effect, feeding off sheer anger and determination.
Don’t abuse it
, said the little voice of reason inside my head.

I told it to shut up.

I’ll worry about that later, after I had dealt with Crowley. Maybe it was his power that naturally warded him off against my senses, or maybe the little weasel was good at hiding, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. It was clear to me that he would run and hide, far beyond my reach — at least beyond the reach of my enhanced senses. There wasn’t much I could do without a proper tracking spell. Not that I could do one without it exploding or sending me into a coma. So instead of playing chicken, I went to someone I knew for sure would have Crowley’s phone number.

The forest felt like home, its energies giving me a sense of comfort and familiarity. This was my surrogate home – not my real one. My real home had been the mansion with Gil and a pre-murderous father. Then, my real home had been the pocket universe with Tenzin, or the rusty old warehouse. And it had all been taken away from me.

I felt the raw energy of the forest interact with my own. My body trailed darkness and shadows leaked from me. I felt the bond between man and nature strengthen, and I could sense everything that went on in that gigantic patch of land — how many campers were there, the couple of park rangers sitting in a lodge about two kilometers north, one of them smoking a cigarette, and the curious ant who bumped his antennae against my sneaker. And smack in the middle of the forest, I felt a large concentration of magic. A bizarre, kaleidoscope of agony, greed, lust and despair, all having been accumulated throughout centuries. It was the hub of the most horrific practice of magic I had ever felt. I lived in it for so long and never once noticed the tragedy that went on in there.

I had found the Ashendale mansion.

I could have just walked up and asked Gil to give me Crowley’s information. It would have been nice to see her again after all this time – the only family I had left in the world.

Now you can understand my heartbreak when I got within range of the mansion and felt that darkness: the same darkness I always felt when it was Dad who ran the show. I honestly thought Gil would purify this place, or change it, or even just burn it to the ground and start anew.

But she didn’t. All she did was take the throne. The darkness and horror emanating from the mansion was the same as always – which meant that the family business hadn’t changed. Gil had become a proper warlock. That meant she knew every dark little secret our family had in the closet – including Crowley.

I couldn’t just go up the front door and ask her to rat out a potential ally.
She changed Erik. Just like you did.

Whatever sadness, rage and heartbreak I felt served only to fuel my powers. I sank deeper into the void until I felt nothing at all. Tenzin’s death was on the forefront now. Gil, Mephisto, the mansion – they would all have to wait.

All that mattered now was killing Crowley.

The mansion was not exactly as I had left it. For one thing, the walls were back in place. For another, the whole damn thing looked like a fortress. And I don’t mean like Fort Knox: I am talking about a giant, twenty-foot wall erected around the mansion. A large, black gate with symbols etched all over it was on one side. Cameras studded the fortress wall, giving a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. A soldier wizard stood beneath each camera, effectively surrounding the mansion. They had visors on, obscuring their features, and were dressed in black overalls. They wore bulletproof vests with dark gray camouflage designs. Their pockets were, no doubt, full of materials for spells. I was more worried about the automatic rifles they slung around their shoulders. I let out a low breath. They couldn’t see or hear me. I was hidden in the shrubbery about a hundred meters from the house, and I saw everything clearly, despite the darkness of the night.

Not sure who the heck was in charge of security, but they took their job way too seriously. People here went from paranoid to zombie apocalypse. It would take an army to bring them down, or a small horde of demons. If I had been faced with this situation before meeting Tenzin, I would have backed away. But not today. I had fought off a phoenix and lost my magic, fought a baku and lost my sanity, a super warlock and lost my father, and a nue who just wanted to hunt me down, with the latter three just in the span of a few months.

So, a couple of jokers with machineguns weren’t exactly imposing. I faced nightmares that had killed me, and resurrected myself with powers beyond anything I had seen before. So, if I, the guy who’s supposed to be their boss in the first place, wanted to walk up to the front door, there was exactly nothing they could do about it.

However, that didn’t mean I was going to dive in headfirst. I had to play it smart.

My energy superheated Djinn until the blade was glowing. I placed it between dried twigs and leaves. They began smoking, and the faintest of embers appeared. A shadowy tendril caressed the ember, coercing it into a small flame. It ate more and more leaves. As the fire grew, I took off. The fire fed on matter and magic, growing more furious. The first soldier broke his pose and ran to check it out. From my hideout, I saw more and more soldiers scrambling toward the flames. I smiled. I was wrong to refer to them as soldiers — they were mercenaries, trained to deal with monsters and magic. Throw in a natural disaster like a forest fire and they scatter like ants. I mentally chided Gil. That’s what you get when you swap quality for quantity.

I watched the cameras shift to the fire and bolted from my hiding spot. A pincer attack — light a fire at one end of the enemy base and attack from the other. Once the forces are divided, the chance of victory increased. Tenzin taught me that. Something about a swordsman named Musashi and a book he wrote.

As I ran, I unleashed a streak of energy at the surprised guards. They dove for cover, and I followed up with another streak. Both attacks slammed into the concrete wall, leaving a deep groove. The guards opened fire and sprayed hot lead at me. Shadows converged around me, and I extended my left arm.

I remembered what Tenzin taught me, that I could affect the area my aura reached. My shadows were my aura, which meant I could use magic in those few centimeters around my body. So, I did.

The bullets embedded themselves in the shadows and stopped, having been stripped of all kinetic energy. They fell uselessly on the ground. I diverted all that power into my sword and stabbed forwards. A blast of air rippled toward the wall and blasted a giant, gaping hole in it.

“Level five threat,” spoke one of the soldiers into an earpiece. “Switching to suppressing fire.” I heard a loud whirring noise coming from the camera posts. A turret emerged from behind the cameras and pointed at me.

“Oh. Crap.”

Turrets went off, their barrels rotating faster than a chopper’s rotors. Large-caliber bullets shot toward me. I didn’t try to block those. Instead, I focused on my legs and ran. The turrets followed my path, shooting bullets a hair’s breadth away. Guards who weren’t fast enough got shredded. As I ran around the fortress wall at a higher speed, the turrets tore into each other as they kept on shooting.

“All units — ignore the forest fire. Converge all attention on target,” screamed the leader into his earpiece. “Target appears to be a boy in black.” I ran up to him as he aimed his weapon at me. I whipped Djinn across, cutting his gun and a part of his hand. Another slash opened a gash from hip to shoulder, across his chest. The bulletproof vest was less than useless.

“Crowley!” I screamed at the Mansion.

“Fire, fire!” screamed a soldier. A group of them put on some weird gauntlets and flipped a switch on each device. They held their palms toward me, and I heard a click. Fire spat from the gauntlets like miniature flamethrowers. Whips of magically enhanced flame shot at me, jerking from side to side. With my limited mobility, I had no choice but to take the hit. Luckily, I was still encased in shadows and only felt a fraction of the damage.

“My turn,” I snarled as I shot a streak of energy at them. The fire group went flying. Two new guards leapt in front of me. Their knuckledusters, one on each hand, were plated in platinum, contrasting with their dark uniforms. I lunged at one. He dodged, and the other punched my side. He might as well have hit me with a truck. Ribs and lungs were crushed, leaving me breathless while my healing repaired the damage. The second guy punched my chest, throwing me backward. Like ninjas, they flipped forwards. One of them punched me in the head as the other spun and kicked low. My legs flew out from under me, and I hit the ground hard. In sync, they moved in for the kill. They suddenly stopped, their bodies rigid. Spikes of shadowy material shot from my body and into theirs. That hadn’t been a conscious decision on my part. I guess my power had self-defense mechanisms in it. Oh well – they did try to kill me first.

A guard got in front of me and aimed two taser pistols. All I heard was a little pop. Four coils of electricity shot forwards, their barbs penetrating my skin. Volts of electricity went through me. The guard channeled his magic, and the coils glowed like a light bulb as the voltage increased. My body was paralyzed and my mind numb with pain.

“Pin it down.” Stakes of iron tore through my arms and legs like medieval torture devices. Each spike was attached to a thin silver chain – one to each a soldier. They poured their magic in, and I immediately felt the spell take effect. A poison spread through me, clouding my mind and paralyzing my body. I couldn’t move, much less fight. But this spell was for monsters. I was much, much more.

My power called upon the forest, and the forest responded. Now that my body was paralyzed, the forest became my limbs. From beneath us, roots, black as night and as wide as a man, burst out, hitting and strangling all of the guards. Roots dragged guards under to be crushed by the land. Others were raked into the raging forest fire to be roasted alive. Others were speared through, and others were strangled or pulled apart. As soon as I regained control over my body, I extracted the iron spikes.

I felt him rather than saw him — a gust of wind and a malicious thought. Djinn had elongated into a broadsword of azure light and I brought it down. Mephisto appeared, blocking my sword with the palms of his hands. His claws had shredded through the glove fabric and would have been raking across my throat if I hadn’t occupied his hands.

“Master Erik,” he said as we both strained and pushed against each other.

“Dog,” I replied. A final burst of energy and we both went flying away from each other.

“Erik!” Gil stood tall and proud in a tan suit with a white overcoat draped around her like a cape. The old-school Ashendales used to wear them symbolize their authority. Gil had the expression of someone who was in charge. So, I said nothing and held my blade at the ready.

“Protect the boss.” Soldiers, the few who were alive, surrounded her.

“Stand down,” she barked and they tensed at her side.

“What is the meaning of this, Erik?” she spat. “Why have you returned?”

“Crowley,” I snarled. “Where is he?”

“How the hell should I know? Last I heard he was chasing you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Screw you, Erik,” she screamed. “Why would you think I had any contact with that bastard?”

“Because you’re still alive!” My throat burned, but I kept screaming at my sister. “Because he told me that I had to run away to keep you from danger,” I said pointing at Mephisto. “But Crowley could have just come after you to lure me out. Which means someone lied to me.”

“Someone needed to step up to the position of Head of Household,” said Mephisto. “You were not going to do it, Erik, so a worthier substitute had to be found.”

My blood boiled as he said that. There it was, that feeling of being duped and played. This was why he wanted me away from Gil – to make her assume the mantle and influence her.

“Stand down, Erik,” said Gil before I could even take a single step.

“He’s a liar and a manipulator,” I replied.

“He is also the only one who was here to help me rebuild what you destroyed. He told me how you ran off, how you became a monster. He told me how much you hate our warlock heritage.” She paused. “As much as I hated our father, I am a warlock too. Do you hate me as well, Erik? Is that why you ran away? Do you hate who you are so much that you couldn’t bear it any longer?”

That hurt.

Mephisto was afraid I had become a monster and, to be honest, I don’t know what to believe anymore. I like to think Tenzin fostered the good in me, but all I did today was destroy and murder.

No, I
was
a good person. This is Mephisto we’re talking about. I had to question every single word he said.

“And now you show up again, destroying all of my hard work,” Gil continued. “Are you happy now? Do you want to kill me, too? Have you really become a monster?”

A cold sensation went over me. Gil, the one person whom I thought would always be my ally, had left me forever.

Now I knew. We were complete strangers to each other.

I would have loved to scream out how much I had suffered and lost, but at that moment, I was too numb to feel anything.

“Crowley,” I said. “I want him. Now.” I raised Djinn, ready to attack. “You can either give him to me, or I swear to God, I will tear this place apart until I find him.”

Mephisto chuckled and took a step forward. “Do you really think you can defeat me, Master Erik?” he said smugly.