Dirty Magic (40 page)

Hearing Bane admit his motives out loud made me sick to my stomach. All of this—all the dead bodies, the violence, Danny’s coma—had been over a stupid dirt lot and personal vendetta.

My eyes zeroed in on the weapon in his hand. From a distance it appeared to be a typical semiautomatic. But closer, I realized it was a modified tranquilizer gun.

The next minute of my life passed in both fast-forward and slow motion at once.

Bane fell into a crouch. The gun swiveled toward Volos. A loud pop sounded. A red blur zoomed through the air. Volos jerked backward, his hand coming up to his throat. He slammed into the table, flipped backward over it, and landed with a loud crack that sounded suspiciously like skull against concrete.

I yelped and started forward, but from the corner of my eye I saw movement from Bane as he reached for a Mundane gun. Instinct drove me to tuck and roll. The gun barked. Searing pain in my right calf. My ribs slammed into the floor with blunt force. The momentum pushed me out of the line of fire and behind the overturned table.

Volos lay maybe eight feet away. His face was alarmingly pale and sweat plastered his shirt to his chest. His breaths came in shallow pants and the veins in his neck were pulsing rapidly.

I grabbed the salt flare from my ankle holster. Breathing heavily, I cursed myself for not bringing more Mundane firepower.

“Kate,” Volos rasped. I looked over in time to see a small pistol glide across the floor toward me. In a smooth movement, I grabbed it and swiveled upward to deliver two shots. Then I fell behind an overturned table. I quickly stashed the salt flare back in the ankle holster and checked the ammo in the pistol. Just a couple of bullets left. I sent one in Bane’s direction.

A satisfying yelp sounded from across the room. “Fucking bitch!”

Judging from the echoing sound of scrambling footsteps, he’d retreated back to the factory floor. Probably he’d want to find a nice hiding spot from which to watch the hunt once John turned.

Sucking down my fear, I surged up and ran full tilt toward the archway. My breath rasped in and out of my sandpaper lungs. My heart churned to keep the blood pumping through my taxed veins. With my back to the wall, I crouched down and went left—away from the large holes I’d seen earlier. I tried to get my adrenaline under control as I moved. Cool heads saved more lives than hot firearms.

There was no doubt in my mind that the tranq dart was filled with Gray Wolf. That meant I had only a few moments before Volos hulked out with a serious case of bloodlust.

From the corner of my ear, I heard a sound. Bane. Judging from the small whimper, I’d clipped him somewhere painful. But not painful enough. No amount of pain would be enough for that bastard now.

A wet noise, like gagging. “Kate,” John groaned thickly. “Run!”

Oh shit. Fear rippled across my skin.

Before I could react, though, Volos’s warning was followed by a low, guttural moan.

Lightning zinged through my limbs. My muscles yearned to run, but Bane still had a gun somewhere in the dark. The best I could do for the moment was take shelter behind a low, crumbling wall. Shit, Kate, think!

First things first—backup.

I pulled off the amulet and looked at the little bubble on the front. The iridescent, green liquid sparkled dully in the dark.

I hesitated. I’d gone without using magic for a decade, but now, because of my involvement in the MEA, I was knee-deep in it. What the hell had this case done to my convictions?

A growl echoed, closer now, making my spine crackle with fear. Volos wouldn’t stop until he consumed me, and even if I managed to escape him, Bane wanted my blood, too. I put a lot of faith in my wits and my gun, but I wasn’t a fucking idiot.

I cracked the vial and lifted it to my lips. All the while, I promised myself that if I survived that night, I’d go back to never touching the stuff again. The liquid tasted bitter on my tongue and the texture was effervescent like those rock candies kids loved. The amulet didn’t light up. No sirens sounded. No immediate sign at all that the bat signal even worked. Morales had said they were going to be on Bane’s tail that night. Obviously he’d given them the slip. Had they closed up for the night? Was anyone even monitoring the alert system? “Please work,” I whispered.

“Kate,” Bane taunted. The echoes made distances hard to determine, but I guessed he was probably about halfway through the room, hauled up behind the old crates. “Can’t you imagine the newspaper headline: ‘Cop Killed By Wizard Ex-Lover’? The reporters at the
Babylon Register
are going to cum all over themselves.” His giggle echoed through the space, making hairs stand on the back of my neck. “Better run before the potion does its work.”

He was referring to Volos, but the one I’d just ingested was working, too. Already the pain in my injured leg was less severe. My breathing calmed and I felt a kick of energy as the potion heightened my stamina.

Another bullet whizzed by. Too close. I scooted back along the wall to see if I could get a bead on Volos’s location. But where he’d been before, I saw nothing but tile floor and a pile of green sick.

I looked out across the factory floor and froze. A hulking shadow was moving away from me.

On one hand, I should have felt relieved that I was not his first target. On the other, I now had both a psychotic wizard and a werewolf between me and freedom.

My heart sprinted in my chest. Shit, shit, shit. I had to figure out how to get out of the place with the antipotion so I could save Danny.

Time to think. Obviously I had two choices. The first involved my waiting for the team to respond and hoping they arrived before Volos found me or I ran out of ammo.

Second option: I could try to lead Volos toward Bane and let the beast rid the Cauldron of a major criminal element.

Another option hit me like a bolt of lightning to the synapses.

I could finish the antipotion. Short of putting a bullet in John’s brain, finishing the cure was the only way to ensure we both made it out alive.

A feral roar came from within the labyrinth of garbage on the brew floor. I couldn’t pinpoint where he was exactly, but I had a bad feeling he knew exactly where I was. The blood trail from my calf wound alone would be like a beacon to his predatory instincts.

“It’s too bad it had to come to this, Katherine!” Bane yelled, his tone bordering on hysterical. Where the hell was he hiding that he felt confident enough to yell?

I rose into a crouch and started making my way toward the lab. If I could lock myself inside, maybe I could survive long enough to finish the antipotion. Or for backup to arrive.

A loud crash exploded from the darkness. I twisted around and fell on my ass with a gun pointed toward that direction. When no buck-toothed monsters emerged from the shadowed trash piles, I rose and ran toward the lab. My harsh breaths worked my ribs painfully and my heartbeat pounded in my head.

“Where are you going, Katherine?” Bane giggled nervously.

I was only half listening because I had bigger problems. If the terrifying noises behind me were anything to go by, my movements had earned me the attention of a very large, pissed off, and hungry Volos. Adrenaline and Mez’s speed potion made my movements fast but imprecise.

I slammed the large door and my fingers fumbled with the bolts. I’d finally slid one home when a very heavy body slammed against the panel. Claws scraped wood. Rage-filled howls promised pain. The next bolt closed more easily. For good measure, I took advantage of the added strength I’d gained from Mez’s potion and adrenaline to shove a large filing cabinet in place as well.

Satisfied I’d done all I could to barricade the door, I ran across the room to the furnace. Using my shirtsleeve, I flipped the latch to open it. Searing heat slammed into my skin. Squinting into the red-hot mouth, I tried to see if the green vitriol was ready. “Shit.” I couldn’t see anything.

Wasting precious seconds, I scrambled to find an insulated mitt among the shards of glass and overturned tables and stools. While I slid it on my left hand, the banging continued at the door. The snarls of an angry werewolf crept into my head and haunted the parts of my brain responsible for remaining calm. My boots slid on broken glass as I struggled back to the furnace.

Even with the mitt, the heat permeated the material and made my palm sweat. Or maybe that was nerves. Either way, carrying the vessel back to the counter was an uneasy feat.

The crack of splintering wood lit a new fire under my ass. I removed the vial of John’s test antipotion from my sleeve and set it in a bracket. The green vitriol had burned into a white ash, as I’d hoped. But the tricky part was still to come, and judging from the creaks and groans that door was giving I didn’t have near enough time.

I poured the ash into a mortar and gave it a very quick grind to ensure all the crystals had pulverized. Luckily, the chaos earlier hadn’t harmed any of the cabinets, so it only took a couple of seconds to find a brown bottle labeled
SULFUR
.

People always think sulfur smells like rotten eggs in any form, but that’s not true. Heated sulfur releases chemical compounds that stink like rotten eggs and gunpowder residue, but not the pure form. I didn’t have time to heat the sulfur correctly, so I poured it in the still-smoking pot I’d pulled from the furnace along with the calcined vitriol. The container wasn’t hot enough to melt the crystalline powder, so I’d need additional heat to activate the magic.

On top of the sulfur and ash mixture, I poured the rest of the prototype antipotion John had made. I caught my breath as they met and mixed in the pot. This was my best and only chance to save John and Danny.

Sweat beaded on my forehead and my hands were slippery as I lit a match from the book John had given me earlier. I touched the small flame to the concoction. It caught fire immediately. The melting sulfur turned from yellow to red, giving the mixture a bloody cast. The stink was noxious so I breathed through my mouth—panted, really.

A loud crack echoed through the room, reaching right into my gut and twisting. Time to make some magic happen.

Up until now, I’d been doing basic alchemical processes. But now, it was time to bring magic into the mix. By manipulating a substance’s energy, an Adept can take toxic materials and combine them in such a way that they may be ingested to create desired outcomes. If a Mundane mixed a paste of vitriol and sulfur and then tried to ingest it, he’d vomit profusely and probably die. But once magic was in the mix, the melding of compounds and intention morphed the ingredients into something …
other
.

I blocked out the angry pounding and scratching at the lab door and closed my eyes. My heart thumped in my ears and red veins glowed dully behind my lids. Starting at the top of my head, I scanned down my body, trying to relax each limb and part as I went. Another loud crash behind me. Trying to ignore the sounds, I willed my cells to vibrate at the proper frequency. This wasn’t just a matter of my thinking magical thoughts, I actually had to manifest the energy and infuse it into the ingredients.

Opening my eyes, I focused my energy at the flames licking the air above the elixir. At first, the fire was the typical red and orange. I raised my left hand above the mixture and focused every cell in my body on activating the antipotion. I’m not a praying woman, but I did a little of that, too. My hands shook and my stomach roiled as the energy flowed through me. It had been so long since I’d played with these energies that I had trouble regulating my body’s reaction.

The flames slowly turned blue. A split second later, the mixture swirled and morphed from grayish to brilliant green, indicating I’d transformed Volos’s failed sample into a viable antipotion. I let out a little whoop of victory. But the only way to ensure the elixir worked properly would be to apply it directly to a sample of Gray Wolf.

The werewolf outside decided he’d waited long enough.

The world exploded into a storm of wood shards, black fur, and the heat of angry animal. Volos’s once-familiar and handsome face was now the image of rage personified: snapping fangs, red-rimmed eyes that glowed with hunger.

“Fuck!” The panic switch flipped on and with it the instinct honed by training that turned that panic into fuel. While the beast stalked in and commenced with his intimidation display, I scrambled through drawers looking for a syringe. I didn’t exactly love the idea of having to get close enough to him to prick him with the needle. But judging from the way he was stalking me, I wouldn’t have much of a choice about getting close and personal.

Panicked, I grabbed a syringe, threw off the wrapper, and shoved the cap between my teeth. Then I jabbed the needle into the vial in a smooth motion. I’d just managed to pull back the stopper when the attack hit.

One second I was hunched over the vial, working feverishly. The next white-hot pain erupted in my shoulder. If I’d been wearing my leather jacket, the slice wouldn’t have caused much damage. But I’d shucked the coat earlier and was left clad in a thin T-shirt that shredded like paper under the sharp assault.

The hit knocked me to the side. I grasped the syringe in my left hand and curled it protectively against my chest as I fell. I didn’t stay down long because that was just begging for death. Shoving the cap back onto the needle, I dug in my feet and sprinted toward the door.

An offended roar told me Volos was done playing around.

Strong—so fucking strong. Even with Mez’s potion in my veins, it took every ounce of strength in my body to fight off the blows. I tried to grab the salt flare from my ankle, but his fist slammed into my face and I was suddenly too busy trying to stay conscious.

He grabbed me by my hair and threw me out of the room and into the larger brewing space. Judging from the intense pain of impact, my body slammed into a concrete pillar. If it hadn’t been for Mez’s potion, I probably would have died right then. I was either very lucky or extremely unlucky I did not die. But before I could decide which side of that question I fell on, the weight of the enraged werewolf slammed down on me again.