Page 3 of The Darkest Night

“Nah.” Mae removed Antonovich’s brain from the cranial vault and placed it on the examination table. “He was caught feeling me up on camera. He’ll lose his state license if he tries to come after me. And technically, my reaction was self-defense, not assault.”

Rose grinned. “You didn’t tell him you were a kickboxing black belt, huh?”

“He found that out the hard way.”

The bullet had crossed Antonovich’s left frontal lobe and carved a destructive path straight through his midbrain before lodging in his right cerebellum. Which meant the shot had originated from high up. Considering the preciseness of the entry wound, Mae was willing to bet a hundred dollars this was a contract killing involving a sniper.

She carefully extracted the slug with some forceps and held it up to the light. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the striations on the surface. They were etched into the metal, as if the round had been ejected under super-heated conditions through the rifling. Mae placed the bullet in a petri dish, wondering what kind of gun could have produced such a devastating effect.

That’s gonna be hard to match on the ballistics database.

An area in the midbrain caught her eye. She leaned in to take a closer look.

“Found something interesting?” Rose said.

“The pineal gland is enlarged.” Mae paused, puzzled. “It doesn’t look like a tumor though.” She gently lifted the left thalamus aside. “It’s almost as if—”

A beeping noise distracted her.

Rose reached for her messenger bag and took out her pager. Her face tightened when she read the message on the screen.

“Dammit. I gotta go. The guy I just operated on is hemorrhaging.” She jumped down from the table and headed briskly for the door. “Looks like we’re not gonna make that dinner date after all.”

“Catch you on the rooftop when you’re done?” Mae called out. “I’ll get some sandwiches from the deli across the road.”

Rose waved a hand on her way out of the room. “I want extra mustard on my pastrami!”

Mae smiled faintly as she listened to the door close.

However down she got about her life sometimes, Rose was always there to pick her up. They’d been best friends since their first day at college and roommates for most of their medical training. To Mae, Rose was the older sister she’d never had, even though their birthdays were barely a few months apart. Nothing would have made her happier than the two of them navigating their grueling surgical residencies together.

They’d even spoken of opening a clinic in Queens after they finished.

Alas, that dream had come to a crushing halt with the death of Mae’s father. Still, she hoped they would eventually accomplish it. It might take a few more years than they’d anticipated, but Mae knew Rose would wait for her.

That’s what best friends did.

Chapter 3

Magic pouredout of Nikolai Stanisic’s soul, raw and powerful. Moonlight bathed him in pale radiance as he clenched his jaw and directed it into the complex runes he’d drawn out on the roof of the skyscraper overlooking 42nd Avenue. The air trembled around his fingers, subtle waves of heat and power distorting the atmosphere. The lines and symbols linking the six concentric circles started to shimmer as the spell took hold.

The crow on his shoulder shifted, claws gripping his jacket firmly. Alastair’s wings trembled and his eyes glowed with an orange light as his own soul focused Nikolai’s magic.

Nikolai blinked sweat out of his eyes and looked around the empty rooftop. He would have but minutes before his location was uncovered once the spell came to life. As a fugitive on the run from the Dark Council in a city teeming with magic users, he doubted there would be many who could resist the million-dollar bounty on his head.

His limbs grew heavy as the runes sucked out the power buried deep inside his body. Nikolai felt his familiar sway and steadied the bird with a gentle hand.

“Hold on, Al. We’re almost there!”

The crow shook out his wings and rubbed his head gratefully against Nikolai’s palm. Relief shot through him when he felt the bird’s soul bind even more strongly with his own. They both needed to have their wits about them if this was to work.

A pillar of light some twenty feet tall flashed into existence around them seconds later, the ancient scripture making up its substance raising chills on Nikolai’s flesh as it imprinted onto his and Alastair’s bodies. Magic swamped the air. Nikolai gritted his teeth, the artifact he’d stolen from the Dark Council a cool presence against his chest.

It was the second time in as many days that he and Alastair were utilizing their powers at full strength. Still, compared to the spell they were about to unleash, the ritual they’d undergone the day before had been ten times worse.

Having succeeded in shielding his presence from the Dark Council sorcerers and witches his father and brother had sent after him as he raced across Europe, Nikolai had finally reached Paris at nightfall yesterday. He’d spent several hours searching for the closest compatible ley line upon which to carry out the dangerous rite he intended to perform, aware that time and his luck were running out. Just when he’d thought he wouldn’t find such a place, he’d stumbled upon a deserted clearing in a forest to the north of the city, where the full moon had shone the brightest.

The silence of the glade he and Alastair had uncovered had been so eerie, Nikolai had been half-convinced it was a trap laid by his brother. It had taken nearly twenty minutes for him and his familiar to probe the area and ascertain there were no enemies around. Still, the absence of even nocturnal animal sounds had made the place seem unnatural and rendered Alastair restless.

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