Cursed: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 1) (19 page)

“Well, clearly I’m better than you,” I replied before sticking my tongue out at him in a massive show of maturity.

His lips turned into a snarl that should have rendered my insides into quivering jelly, but something about it seemed like an act. “So you do think you’re better than me!” He took a menacing step forward, blocking my view of John. He raised his hand and the flames in the sconces leapt from their holders, filling his open palm. The room darkened into a sea of black that left me unable to see beyond the flickering emerald fire shrouding his face.

“Uh, yeah. I thought that was obvious.” I raised my own hand and flicked it absently behind me in a show of casual arrogance while I inwardly pleaded with the cat demon in my brain to do something awesome. Our conversation went something like this.

“Please, please, please don’t let me look like a dumbass,” I begged furiously.

She stretched, yawning so her cat mouth revealed all its dagger-like teeth before settling an annoyed, sleepy gaze at me. “I was taking a nap.”

“I know, and I really hate to bother you since I really do appreciate a good nap, but if you could just help me out here, I’d really appreciate it.” Then I shot a pleading smile at her and started sniveling. In my mind. It was pathetic.

The cat watched me for a moment, her expression fading from annoyed to slightly less annoyed. “And what would you have me do, exactly?”

“Oh, I don’t know, blast this guy into twain?” I offered, but since she narrowed her cat eyes at me in an expression of hatred I couldn’t quite withstand without turning into a puddle of goo, I quickly added, “But if not, lighting all those torches with hellfire would be awesome too!”

“Very well,” she said, flicking her tail.

Molten lava leapt from my fingertips and splashed across the wall behind me. It snaked across the dark plaster like a living, breathing thing in a slowly spreading web that not only lit each and every sconce with scarlet flame, but illuminated the entire room so completely that scarcely a shadow was left in its wake.

Van’s eyes went wide with shock, and the cholera-green flames in his hand flickered. It was a good thing too because when I saw what looked like a billion rats glaring at me from the once dark recesses in the room, I very nearly lost it. I also realized one tiny problem. I was scared shitless of the creatures. I couldn’t tell you why or how, but the sudden sight of all those rodents turned my knees into jelly.

Worse yet, I finally saw Sera. She was bound to the far wall with heavy silver manacles emblazoned with symbols I didn’t understand. She’d been stripped down to her underwear, presumably for better access since tubes were taped to her wrists and thighs. The tubes trailed down beneath her into a large stone basin half-filled with viscous crimson fluid. Her head lay slumped against her chest so her hair fell around her in a tangled, frumpy mass, but I could tell she was still breathing. Barely.

“I’ll give you this one chance to back the fuck off,” I snapped, my voice a lot higher pitched than I wanted it to be as a million rat stares bored into me. “Or I’ll show you what I can really do.” I held my demonic hand out in front of me.

My words seemed to startle Van and something dark and reptilian flitted across his eyes. His face settled into a scowl as he stepped forward, his expensive leather shoes scratching against the stone floor.

“Pass,” he said before snapping his fingers. The rats surged toward me in one scratching, chittering mass. “I wasn’t quite sure why Vassago insisted I keep all the mice around, but now it’s all become crystal clear. Evidently, you’re scared of rodents. Who knew?”

The last thing I saw as the first of the creatures leapt at me was the glint of his teeth as he turned away from me. I flung a handful of hellfire at him, but rats leapt in front of him in a giant mass of flesh and fur. My blast burned the rodents to cinders along with a good helping of cobblestone, but did little to stop Van who brushed aside the remnants of my attack with ease. More rats swept over the corpses of their friends, and without thinking I turned and ran, sprinting across the huge room in a mad dash for safety that wasn’t immediately visible.

I spun on my heels, forcing myself to stop and face the onslaught of rodents. Laughter filled my ears as Van reared back like a Major League pitcher and flung his version of a flaming Randy Johnson fastball at my face. Luckily, the blast didn’t hit me in the face. Less luckily, it hit me in the chest as I tried to leap away from it.

White hot agony shot through my body as I tumbled head over heels across the broken cobblestones. I smacked into the wall with a thud that left stars shooting across my eyes. I struggled, trying to get back to my feet as Van’s hand began to glow with ominous emerald light. Fortunately, I didn’t have time to worry about it because the rats hit me in a ginormous wave of claws, teeth, and disgusting lizard-like tails.

Chapter 24

They say the world will end with a whimper rather than a bang. I’m not sure if that will be true or not. I know one thing though. My world was about to end in a cacophony of rat teeth and claws. Their tiny rodent jaws fought for purchase in my flesh as I rolled over the cobbles, crushing tiny bodies beneath me as I tried vainly to fling them away.

Adrenaline surged through my veins, blocking out the pain and fear as I climbed slowly to my knees, beating my fists at the rats clinging to my chest, but for every creature I dislodged, three more seemed to take its place. I slumped forward under their onslaught, falling forward onto my hands and losing much of the ground I’d fought so hard to gain.

My fingers gripped the cobbles as the creatures scrabbled onto my face and into my hair. One bit down on my earlobe and a scream tore from my lips. Another bit my tongue. My jaws closed reflexively and something crunched beneath my teeth. Warm blood filled my mouth, and my stomach roiled in sudden protest as I realized what I’d done. I’d pulled a goddamned Ozzy Osborne and bit the head off a rat.

I spit out the bleeding rat head. It was lost beneath the sea of squirming bodies swarming over me, and I’m not sure why, but as I watched the head disappear beneath the bodies of its brethren a sudden thought filled me. I wasn’t some normal fucking person. I was Mac Brennan, and I’d made a deal with the Devil. For magic.

As I reached down into that place inside me where I’d learned to grab hold of hellfire, smoke began to rise off my body. A door made of burnished silver with a ruby encrusted handle took shape in my mind. A calico cat with an orange patch over one eye was emblazoned upon its surface in startling relief. My mental hand extended, and as my fingers curled around the door’s handle, my physical hand dug into the cobbles beneath me. Flame spit from the cracks between the door and its frame as I jerked it open. In an instant, the blood in my veins turned to lava. Sweat poured from my skin and evaporated into steam just as quickly.

“Flame on!” I cried at the top of my lungs, and the whole goddamned room shook.

Scarlet fire exploded from my body, cooking the rodents clinging to me in a heartbeat. I stood in a cascade of falling ash as the smell of burned flesh and hair filled my nostrils. Bits and pieces of charred rat flitted through the air around me like burned paper. I waved my hand in front of me. The fire surrounding my body crashed across the stone floor as a wave of burning lava, driving the remaining rats before me in a flurry of rodent lamentation. Good, they could tell their brothers what they witnessed here.

Van slammed a goddamned sledgehammer into my ribs. I hadn’t seen him step out of the darkness, hadn’t even known he was next to me, but I sure felt the impact of his presence, let me tell you. I flew sideways and skidded across the stone floor, leaving a trail of superheated stone in my wake.

My vision went blurry around the edges as I tried to push myself back to my feet. Not that it mattered because Van caught me in the side of the head with his heel and drove me face first into the stone. He held me there like a goddamned croquet ball as he reared back with his blue-handled sledgehammer. As the flames around my body died away, I had the sudden realization that after everything, I was about to be brained by a bargain bin Home Depot hammer. That would not stand.

“Say goodbye, Johnny Storm. It’s been
fantastic
getting to know you!” Van cried, smiling at me like he was about to burst through the wall and shout, “Here’s, Johnny!”

“You know, I must have missed the issue where Doctor Doom wins,” I wheezed, trying my best to buy time as I reached into my pocket.

“There’s a first time for everything,” he replied, bringing the hammer down in an arc that would splatter my brains across the cobblestones.

I drove my darts into the side of his knee, and the man buckled like a cheap umbrella. The hammer slipped from his hands and shattered the stone next to my nose. Bits of rock cut into my face as I grabbed onto his belt with one hand and dragged myself up his body. My elbow lashed out along the way, smashing into his groin as I pulled myself to my feet by his belt.

His eyes went wide with pain, and a cry died in his throat as his mouth opened and closed several times. He probably would have kept on like that if I hadn’t decked him across the face with my demonic fist. His eyes went glassy as he fell backward in a boneless heap. I leapt on top of his chest, pinning his arms to the rock with my knees. Then I smashed my fists into his skull over and over again.

Everything around me burned bright red, blurring together as I continued to hit him. Screaming erupted from a few feet away, and it shook me from my fury. Barely. I looked up from Van’s unconscious, bloody form to see John standing only a few feet away. His eyes were filled with panic. How long had he watched me pummel an unconscious man? From the look of it, the whole time.

I slowly lowered my hands and sat there for a moment, trying to overcome the unending stream of rage coursing through me. I shut my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Then I did it again. Over and over until I felt I could control myself. I opened my eyes and got slowly to my feet. My knuckles were throbbing, raw, and bloody. Van was a mass of torn flesh and goo, but he was still breathing. I hadn’t killed him. That seemed important, although I was unsure why because it felt careless. I shouldn’t have stopped. I should have killed him. That was the smart play.

John stood a few feet away, and as I stood, he nodded to me. “You didn’t kill him.” His words were barely a whisper, but they seemed to reverberate within the space.

“Yeah.” I glanced down at Van and watched his chest rise and fall for a few breaths. I still had time to finish him. “It’s a mistake.”

“Yeah, it is, but even with everything the Joker has done, Batman has never killed him.” John quirked a smile at me before coming over to me and grabbing me by the hand. His fingers were strangely cool, and while I can’t say why I did it, I didn’t immediately shake him away. “And if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that you should always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “That’s an excellent point.”

“Now, let’s go get my mom.” Without another word, he began dragging me toward Sera. I let him although I should have stopped him, should have killed Van. It would probably be one of the worst decisions I’d ever wind up making, and not just because it meant I was going soft. No, it was because Van would eventually get up, would eventually recover, and a guy like that would want revenge. He was a bully, plain and simple, and bullies never really learned. They just waited in the shadows, plotting until they could rain down vengeance upon you. It’s why things always got worse before they got better.

Unfortunately, I had no way of explaining that to an eight year old, and even if I did, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do so. I could still do it anyway, but I
really
didn’t want to kill someone in front of him. There would be no coming back from that.

We’d made it halfway across the room when hideous guffaws filled the room to bursting. We whirled around in unison to see Van sitting up. How had he recovered so quickly? Then I saw it. His arm was glowing, spilling green fire down the length of him, filling in his wounds with emerald light. His demon was healing him.

Blood sprayed from his lips as he continued to laugh and shake his head. His tattoos flared so brightly I had to look away to keep from going blind. With one hand, I shoved John behind me and stepped forward, calling upon my own power.

It roiled up inside me as Van pulled my darts from his leg and smiled. His teeth were a bloody mass, but that was somehow less creepy than the green tendrils spreading out from his body like emerald vipers.

“You should have killed me,” he said, and the darts melted to slag in his grip, filling the air with the acrid smell of burning plastic. Van stood, green tentacles writhing around his body like he was some kind of radioactive octopus. “But you didn’t. It will be your last mistake.”

“You’ve not yet begun to see me make mistakes,” I yelled back as I attempted to put some distance between John and me. I wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but there was no way it could be good. The farther away the boy was when Van attacked, the better.

“Well, you better hurry then. You won’t have much longer.” Van’s tentacles lashed out in a crackling arc. Green sparks leapt across their surface as they smacked into the stone where I’d been standing, melting the cobbles into molten puddles.

Fortunately, I’d thrown myself out of the way. I hit the ground in a roll that made my shoulder scream in pain and came to my feet just in time for a tentacle to smack me across the stomach. Electricity exploded through my body like I’d been stabbed with a live wire. My muscles spasmed and my teeth snapped together as I was flung sideways across the room. I smashed into one of the huge, curtained windows with a bone-breaking crack, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still.

I found myself looking at John, urging him with my eyes to run, to free his mother. The boy was staring back at me, mouth agape. Something must have passed through our mental gaze because he nodded. As he turned toward Sera, the glass behind me shattered, and I fell backward, tearing the black curtain from its rod. The dark fabric wrapped around me like a funeral shroud filled with razor-sharp shards.