Cracks in Reality (Seams in Reality Book 2) (14 page)

Andrew cocked his head. "Sorcerers don't have a lot of friends. Most normal people would try to destroy us if they knew about us. We have crazy, dangerous powers. History books are full of sorcerers being tortured to death. We have to take allies where we find them. While the BPI is a highly flawed organization, at least they usually let us go about our business in peace."

"As long as we follow their rules," Vivian said.

"Yes. Are you going to confess before this fight gets nasty?"

She gazed at him. "Not likely." She clenched her jaw.

A vision hammered him. Suddenly, his body was impaled on rusty spikes. Giant vultures with fangs were circling overhead, waiting for him to die. He was trapped in a dark place full of noxious fumes, and the walls were closing in.

Two months ago, the delusion would've terrified Andrew to the point of helplessness, but not anymore. Tonya's training had given him ironclad defenses. Internal armies of mathematics and reason rushed forward. The spell shattered, and he was back in the room with Vivian and Charley.

Vivian stepped back with wide eyes. She obviously hadn't expected to be ejected from his mind so easily. She looked at Charley, perhaps sensing an easier target.

Stay away from my girlfriend,
Andrew thought.

He launched an attack of his own. He dived into Vivian's mind, looking for a weakness, and he discovered one quickly. Her father had abandoned her as a child. Her mother had died of cancer a few years later. Vivian was afraid of loving relationships, so she had avoided them her entire life. She was riddled with survivor guilt and low self-esteem.

Andrew forced Vivian to recall the memory of her mother's death, and he joined Vivian in the delusion. He found himself in an illusory hospital room. A woman with deathly pale skin and sunken features was lying on the bed, unconscious. Wires ran between her body and a stack of medical monitors. Vivian stood at the foot of the bed, and she was just a teenager now. Drab, ill-fitting clothes made her look like she had dressed in the dark.

"No!" Vivian screamed. "Not this memory! I can't take it!"

She tried to run out of the room. Andrew tweaked the delusion to erase the door, trapping her inside four solid walls. She banged her fists against the wall where the door had been. Then she dropped to her knees and sobbed.

Charley appeared in the delusion. She looked around the hospital room and chewed her lip, but she kept quiet.

"What have you been up to?" Andrew said. "I want the truth."

The sick mother began to gasp for air. The stack of monitors beeped alarmingly.

"You win!" Vivian said. "Yes, I was experimenting with organic sorcery, but it was just harmless fun."

"Morris told us you turned a sprite into a pet dog," Andrew said.

"But then I destroyed it. Nobody got hurt."

He sensed irrational deception in her. "You're still lying."

"No! I'm being honest."

"Maybe we should talk to your friend instead."

"Friend?" Vivian said.

"We detected another sorcerer up here," Andrew said.

"Stay away from him!"

The woman on the bed stopped breathing. The medical monitors switched to a steady tone.

"Who is he?" Andrew said. "Tell me!"

Vivian screeched. She launched another psychic attack with all her remaining strength, and the hospital room wavered momentarily. He glimpsed a field full of rotting corpses. Worms and insects crawled over the bodies.

Andrew wasn't impressed.
What a bland image. It's barely scary.
He reasserted his control with the force of a sledgehammer, and everybody was suddenly back in the hospital room.

Vivian had taken damage in the skirmish. She was curled in a fetal position on the tile floor with her arms around her knees. Her head bobbed back and forth, and she was murmuring incoherently.

"Vivian?" Andrew said. "Talk to me."

She just stared ahead and drooled.

"I think you broke her," Charley said. "You were too rough."

He frowned. "I didn't mean to."

"You're stronger than you realize." She looked at the corpse on the bed. "This delusion is amazing. It feels so real, even I'm half-convinced. I expect Vivian found it devastating."

"She attacked me first," Andrew said.

"I'm not saying you did the wrong thing, but next time, you might want to take it down a notch. Let's get out of here. I hate this hospital room."

Andrew backed out of Vivian's mind and opened his real eyes. The blackened walls of the retirement home surrounded him again. He smelled bird poop.

Vivian was in the same fetal position in real life as in the delusion. Her wide open eyes stared ahead while her head rocked back and forth.

"I can't believe I did that," Andrew said. "I actually feel a little guilty."

"You should," Charley said. "That was harsh. What are we going to do with her?"

"Leave her for now. We have to deal with the other guy." He used his inner sight to scan the area and locate the second sorcerer. "Over there, about fifty yards away." He pointed through a doorway.

She looked in that direction. "He's far enough from the seam that he can't do much sorcery."

"But he might be armed with a gun," he said. "We should bring the BPI agents along just in case."

"I'll do it. You wait here."

"Why wait?"

"You need to guard the seam so the other sorcerer can't sneak back here and use it. The agents and I can deal with him away from the seam."

Andrew nodded. "OK, but move fast. We're supposed to stick together."

Charley blew him a kiss and ran off.

Chapter Six

Charley jogged through the blackened hallways of the condemned retirement home. Now that she was away from Andrew, she could allow her face to express her true feelings.

He had frightened her. Defeating a full sorcerer like Vivian had hardly been any challenge for him. He had simply crushed his enemy disdainfully. Under Tonya's tutelage, Andrew had grown from merely dangerous to devastating. Charley knew he loved her and would never hurt her intentionally, but accidents could happen in the heat of battle. She had to be careful around him, and sex was out of the question. He obviously didn't have total mastery of his own abilities.

She found the three BPI agents still waiting in the stairwell. They were crouched in defensive postures.

"What happened?" Dan said.

"Andrew took out Vivian," Charley said, "but there's one more. Come on. I'll lead you to him."

"You want us to fight a sorcerer?"

"He's not near a seam. He should be relatively helpless."

"But what if he goes back to the seam?" Runic said.

"Andrew will deal with him."

"By himself?"

Charley nodded. "Andrew whipped Vivian with no trouble at all. Her friend is even weaker. Come on."

She led the BPI agents towards the mysterious second sorcerer using his energy as a guide. The layout of the building was straightforward, but debris from the fire created blockages, forcing her to look for creative detours.

The quiet, empty spaces in the retirement home depressed Charley. She didn't believe in ghosts, but if they existed anywhere, it would be here. So many people had died horribly. She could imagine the screams of terror and pain ringing through the halls. The place needed to be torn down despite the presence of the seam.

Charley sensed the other sorcerer moving.

"Hold," she said. "Stop. He's coming towards us."

"OK," Tungsten said. "Get ready."

The three BPI agents went into rooms on either side of a hallway. They leaned out with their guns in hand, exposing as little as possible.

Charley followed their example. The wall probably wouldn't stop a bullet, but it was better than nothing. She also had her Kevlar vest. A sweaty palm made her grip on her gun slippery.

A man came around a corner and walked down the hallway towards her. He had wavy brown hair and a bushy mustache. His eyes were an unusual bright blue. Charley recognized his face from a sketch she had seen in Vivian's room. His white business suit was perfectly clean which struck her as very odd. Her own clothes were covered in dust and black soot from brushing against filthy walls.

"Stop," Charley said. "Who are you?"

The man stopped. "I'm Vivian's father, Mike." His voice was pleasantly smooth.

Charley didn't see any weapons on him. The seam was safely distant, and judging from his energy signature, he wasn't a great sorcerer anyway. His power sputtered unevenly like an apprentice. Even though she wasn't a war mage like Andrew, she guessed she could beat Mike in a fight. She relaxed a little.
This won't be so bad.

* * *

Andrew could tell Charley and Vivian's friend were close together. There was little danger of him circling back to the seam now. With Vivian out of commission and no other energy emissions in the area, Andrew could safely abandon his post and help his girlfriend.

He headed towards Charley using the most direct route available, but fire damage had turned the building into an obstacle course. In some places, the floor was simply gone. He rushed back and forth, searching for a way through.

* * *

The more Charley looked at Vivian's father, the more oddities she noticed. His skin was as smooth and flawless as plastic. His face was so handsome, it looked like it had come straight from a movie poster. Even though four guns were pointed at him, he didn't appear concerned at all. He just smiled with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

He can't be real,
Charley thought. She didn't understand how he could be an illusion though. Vivian's seam was too far away. To create such an illusion using cold sorcery would require skill far beyond even Tonya's capabilities.

"Vivian didn't mention her father was here," Charley said.

"It's a secret." Mike winked. "What happened to her?" He looked in Vivian's direction. "We lost our connection."

"Connection?"

"We have a special bond. She made me the man I am today. I love her dearly."

Understanding dawned on Charley, and she realized she was in terrible danger. She had completely misunderstood the situation.

"Kill it!" she yelled. "It's a homunculus!"

She opened fire on Mike, pulling the trigger as fast as she could. The three BPI agents also used their weapons, and the concussions knocked dust from the walls.

* * *

The sound of gunfire made Andrew raise his head in alarm. It was coming from Charley's direction. Several people were shooting rapidly, and they were obviously in big trouble.

"Charley!" Andrew yelled. "I'm coming!"

He sprinted forward, turned a corner, and almost ran into a pile of fallen debris. The mess was full of broken lumber and rusty nails. He started picking his way across.

* * *

Charley looked for any sign of injury on the homunculus, but its white suit didn't have a single mark. The bullets had passed straight through.

She wasn't too surprised. Vivian had created him by investing a sprite with all her memories and fantasies about her father. The sprite had soaked up everything she had given him along with a portion of her power. Mike was literally her dream dad. He would love her forever and never leave her because he was made for that purpose.

Homunculi were the riskiest kind of organic sorcery. They needed constant attention and frequent infusions of fresh energy. The sorcerer responsible had to keep the monster on a very tight leash, or it would quickly evolve into a banshee. It was the nature of sprites to eat until there was nothing left.

Unfortunately, Vivian was out of commission, and her pet was on its own. This situation was exactly why organic sorcery was a crime.

Mike looked down at his pristine chest. "That wasn't nice." The thing took a step forward.

Charley felt a chill as Mike started to drain her energy. It was hungry, and her juicy, young mind was a tasty treat.

"Run!" she yelled.

She turned and ran, but her legs didn't respond properly, and she stumbled to the floor. Dan, Tungsten, and Runic weren't faring much better. They shuffled along like they were half-asleep.

"Andrew!" Charley screamed. "Where are you?"

"I'm coming!" Andrew replied from a distance.

"It's a homunculus!"

"I can tell by the weird energy. Just hang on!"

She glanced over her shoulder, and the monster was right behind her. It glided across the floor easily. She couldn't escape it, so she had to fight it.

Charley sat up and faced her enemy. She clamped down on her emotions and tried to enter a meditative state. Her head felt like it was full of freezing fog as the homunculus continued to feed on her.

The special training Tonya had given Charley helped her remain perfectly calm. She went deeper into a trance and cleared her mind completely. She would give the homunculus no thoughts or memories to feed on.

The drain on her energy slowed to a merely uncomfortable trickle. She had bought herself a little time, but the hard part was next. She had to attack.

The monster was made of dreams which had no real substance. Destroying it was simply a matter of taking back what it had stolen.

"Why are you fighting me?" Mike said.

"I don't want to die," Charley whispered.

"But your mind will become part of me. You'll never get old or sick. You'll live forever in me."

"No, thank you. I prefer old-fashioned flesh and blood."

Its freaky blue eyes stared at her without comprehension.

Charley began her attack. She used her curiosity like a drill bit to pierce the creature's protective cloak of memories, but the task was very hard. She was still losing energy, strength, and her ability to focus. Blackness crept into her peripheral vision. She didn't know if she could win, but it would be close, and she wouldn't go down easily.

"Need a hand?" a woman said.

Charley turned and found Tonya by her side. Charley had never been happier to see her instructor. Tonya's blonde hair had smudges of ash. The wrinkles in her face outlined a determined expression. She was wearing a midnight blue shirt and black pants.