Page 72 of Blood Bearon
Why was it all megalomaniacs needed that? They loved an audience.
“How did you find us?” Khove called, stalling for time. The Traitor had caught them unawares, and he was unhappy with it. With another ten minutes of preparation, he could have laid his trap, brought the maniac down with enough radiation to stop one of the Faerie Queens herself.
Instead, not only was he weaponless, but Rachel was exposed, and in the direct line of fire. He needed to fix that as soon as possible, before things devolved into violence.
“I was waiting for you. Well, not you, but whoever that bitch sent after me. I’m hurt you were the best she could spare. I should have liked to give that upstart claiming my title a true test of my might.”
The warped and mangled bedframe that had been embedded into the wall creaked and started to come loose, rolling back into the center of the room. Khove was forced to step forward, and it came to settle between him and Rachel.
“Move that!” Korred shrieked. “Move it now. Where did she go!”
Blue light started to form in his palm, and Khove leapt to obey, knowing full well both of them were dead if the mage unleashed magic that powerful in a combined space like the hotel room. He grabbed the bedframe, planted one foot and with a mighty heave tossed the frame clear out the bedroom window. Right at Korred.
He didn’t wait to see what was happening, because Rachel hadn’t been idle. The second she’d been blocked from view, she’d gone under the bed, ripping open the green duffel bag. Now she tossed Khove a pistol.
Clearing the safety, he whipped it around just as Korred settled back into position after dodging the projectile.
“What the—” he started to scream, but the first bullet filled with uranium dust was already flying at him. A red oval shimmered into existence in the sky, shattering the bullet, but it didn’t matter.
The dust went right through the magic shield, collapsing the energy bonds even as it fell to earth. Khove smiled as his enemy shouted and dropped out of sight. The dust had gone right through the cloud of energy he was using to float.
He snatched up his ammo belt, tossing it over one shoulder. Into his back pocket went what appeared to be glow sticks. He stuffed a jade figurine and two large marbles into his front pockets and then took up his sword.
“Take that red grenade and throw it on the floor at the window!” he shouted to Rachel and dove out the opening, flipping midair as he reoriented to land in a crouch.
Glancing behind him, he grunted in satisfaction as a red field blocked out the room from his view as Rachel used the shield grenade just as he’d instructed. It wouldn’t hold up for long, but should last long enough to let her get out of the way.
Grabbing a small jade figurine from the handful of items he’d snatched up, Khove smashed it against his own chest. Green energy limed the edges of his skin as the personal shield cackled into existence, and not a moment too soon.
A red lightning bolt thundered out from his left and sent Khove tumbling away. He smashed through several tables before coming to a hard stop thanks to a low cinderblock retaining wall.
He was in the courtyard out back of the hotel. Two pincers of the building blocked the left and the right sides, as well as the rear where the room was that he and Rachel had entered. Tables were scattered around the center, while half a dozen trees ran up either side.
Khove scrambled behind one now, each surrounded by a three-foot-high cinderblock wall like the one he’d just slammed into. The interiors were filled with dirt and grass. They would stop any magic.
Crouching low, he pulled out the glowsticks, breaking them until he was forced to recoil in pain. One by one, he hurled them toward the open edge of the courtyard, forming a fourth wall as radiation spewed out from within, the lead shield now broken, no longer containing the particles.
Black marks and blisters dotted his palms, radiation burn from the sticks, thanks to his lack of gloves. Just one more thing he could thank Korred for.
“You can’t win!”
The taunt bounced off the walls of the courtyard, preventing him from figuring out where it was coming from. There were only so many hiding spots, however, and Khove wasn’t about to sit still and wait for the Traitor to show himself. It was time to hunt.
Gun in hand, he crept out from cover, scanning the upturned tables and shadows, looking for movement.
There!
Khove fired twice, and was rewarded with a shriek of pain as his enemy rolled back behind a table and then one of the cinderblock walls.
A standup fight with the mage was a quick ticket to death, which meant he would have to hunt him down and surprise him. The various weapons and trinkets he’d packed would help even the fight, but there was a reason Khove had hoped to sneak up on the Traitor instead of confronting him like this.
Moving quietly, he darted from one circular piece of cover to another, crouching low as a blue spike whipped at his head from an unexpected direction. Khove put his back to the cinderblock wall, looking up as the thick leafless tree absorbed the blast. The bark blackened and died as the magic robbed it of life, spreading up and down the trunk, eating it almost before it could fall.
Fall it did, however, crashing amidst the tables as the spell ran out of juice, leaving the upper two-thirds untouched. Khove shuddered as he imagined what one of those deadly bolts would do to him or Rachel. Even his shield might not be enough to shrug it aside.
Korred was playing for keeps.
A glance upward showed the red energy still blocking the hotel room, with no sign of Rachel. If she was smart, she would be long gone by now.
