Contractor (60 page)

And then she saw nothing.

****

They had no idea what was going on

inside that office. If Rothschild himself

hadn’t held her back, Eleanor would be in

there with Rachel. Rachel had boosted

herself away with a golem arm so suddenly

they hadn’t been able to stop her.

Rothschild was off to the side, now,

staring at the purple light along with

everyone else. That was the power the other

contractor had been reported using. The lord

had vanished just within the edge of the

gaping hole Daniel had made when he

crashed through. They could only wait.

The purple light stopped. Nothing

happened. Eleanor blinked. They stood there,

waiting for some change, something to react

to.

The lord stormed out into the square. He

was turned away from them, face fixed

skyward. The swords gathered around him.

A tiny sigil appeared in the ground at

Eleanor’s feet. A small tulip made of asphalt

grew out of the road.

She loved tulips. Only two people knew

that, and one of them was unconscious.

A spear of white light flashed from the

sky. It careened toward the lord. The swords

knitted together in a cage of black steel.

Daniel’s extended body pressed down

into that barricade. Power reverberated in

black and white shockwaves. The ground

shook. The windows rattled.

Eleanor darted over and ripped the

earpiece off Rothschild. "ALL UNITS

ATTACK! FIRE EVERYTHING! NOW!!"

She threw the radio to the ground and

crushed it under her foot. There’d be no

contradicting her order. "Call your dragons,

now!" Eleanor shouted back. "It’s all or

nothing!"

Rothschild looked like he wanted

nothing more than her head on a platter, but

he turned away and raised his hands. The

dragons swooped in. The helicopters buzzed

up from the opposite direction. Eleanor and

the rest of the front line brought up all the

magical shields they had available.

****

Daniel didn’t just fall. He ran toward

the ground, pumping his legs on platforms he

made behind himself, pushing himself faster

than gravity could pull him. The ground

rushed up to meet him.

The lord’s swords snapped together.

The blades knitted up, creating a black

capsule that encircled him.

Daniel pushed all his power into the tip

of his beat-up bat and swung.

Black energy radiated around him,

swallowing him up. The end of his bat was a

star of white fire that burned against it.

the lord said.

am stronger.>

"Fuck you!"

Daniel could feel his energy draining

away. He had to keep up so much pressure

that the lord couldn’t spare a blade to attack

him. He wouldn’t last long.

He wasn’t sure if the sound was so loud

that it had made him deaf, or if the world had

gone silent. He stared at the eyes of the lord

through the cage of swords. It stared back at

him.

They hung there, their power shifting,

wavering, two souls determined to erase the

other. Every second was a year.

warrior.>

Daniel didn’t have anything left for

words. He kept pushing. His arms were

about to collapse.

He saw something roll under the lord’s

feet.

It exploded.

****

Times Square transformed into a

cathedral of fire.

It was a volcanic explosion, captured,

twisted, and elongated into one long ear-

pounding earthquake. It kept on, and on,

endless. Every rocket and grenade the

helicopters had was emptied onto the two

combatants. The dragons blew flames at the

asphalt, and the wave of magic scoured the

square and erupted in a plume at the feet of

the lord.

When it stopped, Eleanor couldn’t hear

anything. Her ice wall was battered and

cracked. Clouds of black smoke obscured the

view. The concrete was glowing with heat.

Parts of it was melted sludge.

The smoke began to swirl.

It worked itself into a tornado of wind

and dust. She felt something awful,

something terrible, a hungry vortex eating

something else away. Steadily, it bent

inward, coalescing around a shadowy figure

and a green sigil.

The dust collapsed, and was gone.

Standing alone in the center of the

burning concrete was Daniel Fitzgerald. His

armored fist was dark with blood. White

energy cracked and hummed down his arm.

Below him was the ruined corpse of the lord.

Its head had been smashed into the pavement.

The rest of its body was burned to ash.

Daniel lowered his hand. A heartbeat

later, he was in front of them. Wind from the

speed of his movement ruffled Eleanor’s

clothes. Her eyes widened. "…how…?"

"Funny story," Daniel began in the same

sardonic tone he always used with her. "The

swords actually stopped the worst of it from

getting to me. At the same time, it trapped a

lot of the nastiness down there with Jimmy.

He started burning alive, which must not

have been pleasant, because he let his

swords drop, and then I bashed his head in

against the crossroads of the world." Daniel

nodded to himself. "Poetic justice. What

now, muffin top?"

"Where’s Rachel?"

He pointed to the skyscrapers. "Up top,

with a friend."

Rothschild slowly turned to Eleanor.

"6000 years we’ve stood together. Keep

your word."

"Relax, Charlemagne. I’ll go as

promised."

Rothschild gestured with a hand. Two

men from the order came forward with a pair

of stone bracers. They were ancient tools,

arm wraps that stopped a mage from touching

the source of magic.

Daniel looked at Eleanor questioningly.

She nodded to him. He stuck his hands out.

The bracers were snapped around his wrists.

Rothschild shook his head. "You truly

are naïve."

The hole in the sky closed. The lord’s

massive spell was finally unraveling. The

dome vanished. Suddenly, the world had

color again.

There was another earthquake. Steel

groaned. With time turned back on, half of

Manhattan was falling to pieces.

Eleanor raised her hands and made a

barrier above their heads. Mages all through

the ranks did the same. Cement and dust

rumbled against their shields, drowning out

every sound. Daniel pushed Eleanor down,

keeping her under him. Eleanor just focused

on keeping her shield from collapsing.

After what felt like a year, the rubble

settled. "Hope you guys have a hell of a

cleanup crew," Daniel said. He nudged

Eleanor with his elbow. "Get it? Because of

the demons?"

Eleanor sighed.

****

They bundled Daniel in the back of one

of the APCs. Eleanor positioned herself

opposite, legs neatly folded, hands in her

lap.

"Is Rachel alright?"

"She’s in critical condition," Eleanor

said.

"…damn." He sighed. "She gave me

some of her magic to heal herself. She was

like that before, though. Not as bad, but still.

Food and rest."

"I assume so."

"How about Henry?"

"The same," she said. "But their hearts are still beating."

As they drove out from the city, Daniel

filled Eleanor in on how he’d come to be a

contractor. She wasn’t exactly happy about

being left in the dark, but accepted most of it

stoically. Twenty minutes outside the city,

they pulled off a winding forest road and

onto a long gravel drive.

The truck stopped. Daniel hopped down

after her. The extra weight of the stone

bracers on his hands tipped him forward.

With his hands stuck out in front of him, he

almost lost his balance, but Eleanor moved

to steady him. He smiled gratefully.

They were in front of a massive

mansion. Extensive gardens extended out

around the house, complete with sculpted

shrubs and what looked like the entrance to a

hedge maze. Daniel whistled. "Where are

we, exactly?"

"My home," Eleanor said, "the

headquarters of the Ivory Dawn."

"Sweet digs. Thought I was going to

prison."

"You’ll be confined, obviously."

"Aww."

Everything inside the house adhered to

the gold-white colors of the Dawn. The

entrance was dominated by a grand marble

staircase covered in a plush yellow carpet.

Chandeliers hung at the intersection to every

hallway. He lost track of the turns.

Eventually, they reached the dusty corner of

a distant, unused wing.

He was shuttled into a room. It was not

the Azkaban he’d expected. The windows

were barred, but he had a bed, a couch, and

even his own bathroom. The stone bracers

stayed on his wrists, but it wasn’t like they

were handcuffs. It wasn’t much worse than

wearing a pair of tiny barbells.

"Daniel." Eleanor frowned at her shoes.

"Did you have a plan, when you put those

on?"

"A plan?"

"If you had anything in mind, I’d

appreciate it if you’d tell me."

"I’m not going to escape, if that’s what

you mean." Daniel sat on the bed and hefted

his wrists. "Houdini would have trouble with

these things."

"No, I trust you. You kept your word.

But you didn’t have any ideas when you let

us capture you? No backup?"

"…I figured that saving New York,

killing the lord, and turning myself in as

promised would be enough to get let off the

worst bits. Prove that I’m on your side, doing

this all for the right reasons." Daniel

stopped. He looked at her. "That should be

plenty, right?"

"You’ll have a guard posted outside

your door. Knock if you need anything, food,

water." She swept away.

"Eleanor."

"I’ll do everything I can." She shut the

door.

"Eleanor. Eleanor!" There was no

response. Daniel sat back down.

He leaned back on the bed, sighed, then

smiled. He was getting worried over nothing.

She probably just didn’t want any more

surprises. All he could do now was wait.

Chapter Thirteen

Hope

He had his own bathroom, which was

nice. They brought him books, which helped

fend off the doldrums, but there was only so

much text he could take in one sitting. He

spent most of the time pacing.

No Eleanor. No Rachel. No word from

them. His guards took his requests, but didn’t

answer any of his questions. What was taking

so long?

Eleanor must be fighting hard on his

behalf. Very hard. He didn’t have any

understanding of their politics, but he was

confident they’d see reason. They’d

acknowledge he was one of the good guys.

Henry would be on his side, if he woke up.

It was the evening of his third day in

confinement. The black bars on his window

cast long shadows across the room, over the

bed and up onto a small desk and chair near

the door. Daniel watched the bare trees sway

in the gardens, branches stripped of most

their leaves by the cold fall wind.

He wondered how the Vorid were

taking the death of one of their lords. Would

they just send something nastier next time?

Or had that been enough to put them off in

favor of greener pastures?

The door was knocked upon, then

opened. He bolted upright. Eleanor waltzed

inside. She was dressed in a snow white

dress with a gold sun worked on the front.

Her eyes were bloodshot and shadowed with

crow’s feet. Bits of blond hair stuck out from

her bun. She stopped in front of him.

"…Eleanor. What’s happening?"

"Rothschild was against me." She folded

her arms and looked out the window. "And

so were the witches. And the Wu. I thought

I’d have the Wu."

"The what?"

"After us, the Scandinavian witches and

the Chinese Wu are the two most powerful

magical conglomerates," Eleanor said. "They balked when I said you were under my

protection. I expected that. What I didn’t

expect was Matthew Aiken."

Daniel remembered him well from New

York, and from earlier, at Eleanor’s birthday

party. "What about him?"

"He’s threatened to use his influence and

withdraw from the Dawn entirely. The entire

southeast. His father sent word this morning.

He’d have them join the wizards. And all of

them wouldn’t just abandon us. They’d

regard us as enemies conspiring to global

rule. Father…he…"

"What are you saying?"

Her eyes shimmered. "I’m sorry, Daniel.

I’m risking an awful lot just by coming to

speak with you. They want to exile you."

Something cold slithered down the back

of Daniel’s neck. "To Hell."