Page 54 of Magic of the Damned

The front door of the store blasted open, and strong magic flooded in with the group of seven people who entered with practiced efficiency and military precision. Magic reminiscent of when I was in the room with the Conventicle burst in. Powerful. Heavy. And undeniably hostile.

Friend or foe?

I could see the lack of recognition on Dominic’s face before the woman at the front of the group fired three gunshots at him. He darted to the left, barely missed being hit by bullets that blew the plaster from the wall. Dominic returned fire. A menacing red glow of magic pummeled into the woman’s chest. She crumpled to the ground. Dominic was moving faster than the other people could target him.

Rei realized too late that despite their attack on Dominic, this new group weren’t allies. She was ensorcelled in a bubble, blue and white intermingled, giving way to smokey black. Her oxygen was being choked off as the magic-wielding newcomer efficiently pulled it from her. Rei collapsed, her face distorted by her struggle. Her lips were losing their rosy color and her face blanched. Small lines formed across her eyes from broken capillaries. Dead.

The vampire was locked in a frozen state. I could only assume this was necromancer magic. Power over the dead. The vamp wore his helplessness with a tight-lipped scowl. I didn’t avert my eyes fast enough to miss his demise by beheading. This wasn’t an idealistic group of people like the Awakeners; they were trained assassins. Magically powerful and brutally efficient.

The assassins’ precision seemed to unleash something in Helena. The vampire body hadn’t become dust on the floor before Helena had its assailant’s head twisted at an odd angle that no one could survive. Anand was a whirlwind of movement, lithe and deadly. I still hadn’t been able to determine if he was immune to magic, or so swift that no one could use it against him.

I chanced a glance in Dominic’s direction. A thrown ball of magic breezed over my shoulder, barely missing me as I dove to the floor. My head hit a toppled bookcase. I was a little dazed, but I fared better than the wall with the hole punched through it. That could have been me.

Scrambling to my feet, I grabbed a piece of the metal wizard collector’s item and threw it at the magic wielder, hitting him in the head as he prepared for another strike against me. Shock and anger took over his face.

Running out of items heavy enough to be of use, I searched around while moving in a zigzag to prevent being in his line of sight. I whipped around at the sound of footsteps behind me. I threw a charred hardback, but the shifter dodged it. Her menacing approach was measured and taunting. I kept my eyes fixed on hers, looking for the spark that seemed to light their eyes before they changed. If the others were so efficient with their magic, would this shifter be just as skilled at changing without the identifying precursor?

Anand lunged at her, knocking her to the ground and holding her down in her partial shift to tiger.

I continued to ease back, taking myself out of the crossfire, hoping to melt into the background. My mind was rampant with thoughts. They’d killed the Awakeners. Were they there to also kill Anand, Dominic, and Helena?

Convinced they wanted to kill me, too, I scanned the room for an escape route. There was an emergency exit to the left of the store and another exit leading to the alleyway in the employee lounge. From my position, they were an equal distance apart, obstructed by toppled bookshelves, bodies, and debris. I chose the employee lounge.

Before I could run, I felt the intensity of eyes on me. Two pairs turned in my direction. Helena saw it a moment before I did. One of them, a man in his mid-fifties, moved toward me. The cold gleam in his eyes and the cruel curl of his lips belied his gentle, paternal appearance. How often was his lethality underestimated by his appearance? With a slight flick of the man’s hand, I slammed back into the wall. His magic held me firmly against it. I strained, trying to tear away. His hands were rigid in front of him.

Was Helena afraid to challenge him? Why was she just standing there doing nothing? Out of my periphery, I saw Dominic speeding toward the man, whose chest caved in from the impact of Dominic’s punch. Dominic was just a blur as he twisted, avoiding the knife hurled from the center of the room. Without losing his speed, he sent what looked like a fiery arrow in the attacker’s direction. Dominic was the embodiment of puissance and violence. It worked to my advantage at the moment, but I was witnessing his unrestrained power, what he could do. This was why the Conventicle feared and hated him.

The affable-looking man gurgled out a strangled gasp for breath that wouldn’t come. His struggle to hang on to life seemed to take too long, the shock of his demise slowly registering on his face. Helena taking a knife to his throat seemed like a mercy killing. She chose that over dealing with the man standing near her, who shot a sphere of magic straight at me. I dropped to the floor and flattened my body against it and watched as it hit the illuminated wall that surrounded me.

The shock of his failure registered briefly before Dominic was behind him. He wrenched the man’s head to the side, and the man dropped.

My breath came at short shallow clips. The violence was horrific. Dominic was violence. Period. A powerful reminder of my goal: do whatever was necessary to untangle myself from him and this world.

Dominic stepped forward, examining the cocoon of magic that surrounded me. He pressed his hand against it then quickly jerked away. Amber seized his eyes, and his face strained as he tried unsuccessfully to dismantle it. After several attempts he was joined by Helena, who circled it, examining it, and jerking back at the pain from touching it.

“This isn’t witch magic.”

Dominic grimaced. He was searching the destroyed room, moving quickly throughout the space, opening doors, moving anything large, when the cocoon of magic fell.

Left in the room was just Anand, who was on the phone, Helena, who stayed close to me, examining the space where I’d been enclosed in magic, and Dominic, who kept searching through the store for something or someone he hadn’t revealed.

I was preoccupied with picking up broken ceramic pieces. Engaging in the useless act of trying to clean up. I had to do something, no matter how futile.

“Your arrogance will be your failure,” Madeline said as she entered the room with several other people. Her gentle tone was diametrically opposed to the harshness of her scowl.

Startled by her presence, I was again unnerved by the ease in which they navigated the world undetected.

My eyes followed hers as she took in the state of the store: the bodies, the blood, the evidence of extreme violence. Then her eyes rested on the trash bag I was holding and the pieces of broken ceramic in my hands.

“Leave it. We will handle that,” she instructed me. She directed the rest to Dominic. “Zana will take care of the cameras,” Madeline told him, shooting me a harsh look before nodding to a woman with a purple pixie cut, shorts, an oversized shirt with strategically placed rips, and an ankle-length cardigan. A crescent moon and stars tattooed her neck, and the boredom with which she walked through the store was in stark contrast to Madeline’s intensity.

Moving her hand in rhythmic circular motions, Zana whispered an incantation as she moved through the space. The same iridescent glow flitted over the room where I knew there were cameras. She was precise and methodical. Techno-witch. Once she’d gone through the store, she went through the coffee shop and all the surrounding stores.

“Is she erasing them?” I asked Dominic.

“No, she’s changing what will be shown.”

“If Cameron already saw it, she’ll know it was changed.”

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