Jar of Souls (14 page)

“Normally that would be the case, but necessity often overrides procedure. I need you two out there now. Are you up for it?”

I gave Marcus a look. I was going to let him make the call. A huge smile was on his face, and for a second I had forgotten he had waited his whole life for an opportunity like this. It was hard to ignore his grin, so I unleashed one of my own. We both looked at Adam and chorused, “We’re ready.”

“Good, then here is your briefing: I have someone standing by to open a portal for you. They will open it every hour to check on your return. If you get into an emergency situation, call this number.” He handed me a separate piece of paper. “Now go get your gear and get out there.”

We barely made it to the hallway when Marcus hit me in the arm again. “Bro, this is it, man. We finally made it.”

“I went out yesterday and it didn’t exactly go well. Try and focus when we get out there.”

“It’s you and me, bro. No one will be able to touch us. We got this.”

“Meet you at the portal in five.”

“You know it!”

* * *

M
arcus met
me in the tunnel in just under five minutes. He carried a large katana across his back and had several pouches slung across his chest and attached to his belt. I felt better seeing him all decked out in his gear, because until he had arrived, I was feeling kind of silly wearing my own. I had my father’s swords crisscrossed on my back and his staff in my hands. I felt out of place going back into the real world dressed like something from a Tolkien series.

Adam assured me that the harness for the swords made their hilts invisible to anyone without magical abilities. And that the staff would appear as a walking stick. Still, I knew they were there, and I just wondered what someone would think if they saw me. Hopefully they would think I was another random cosplayer. Thank God for the rise of the nerds into the mainstream. That way a man and his swords never had to feel too awkward walking around in public. I felt a slight twist in my gut as I remembered heading to the Phoenix comic-con with Alby. Now we weren’t even friends and never would be since my new calling kept us separated.

One of Adam’s staff stepped forward. I was pretty sure her name was Sally. She opened the portal. “Remember, I’ll be opening this for you every hour on the hour for five minutes. If you run into an emergency or need assistance, use the number Adam gave you.”

I nodded to her before looking at Marcus. “You ready for this?”

“Born ready,” he said with a smirk before leaping through the portal.

I turned to follow him, and Sally grabbed my arm. “Be careful and remember we are dropping you about two miles away from your destination. You will have to make your way there unseen and on foot.”

I gave her a look to let her know I had read the paper Adam had given me, and I really didn’t need her instructions. Her gaze only hardened under my glare. I decided against pushing it further and gave her a curt nod and jumped through the portal to follow Marcus. As soon as my feet hit the ground, the portal winked closed behind us. We were now on our own for better or worse. This was our time to shine.

Marcus turned around, and his grin flashed in the night. “I say we go rooftop for this. Remember how I showed you to use your air magic to jump further and lighten yourself for the landing?”

“Oh, I remember.” Yep, I remembered that it hadn’t gone extremely well. Ok, that might be an understatement—it had gone terribly. When I hadn’t been overshooting my landing zones by a good fifteen feet, I had forgotten to lighten and nearly broke my legs. Marcus must have remembered the experience much more fondly than I did. Mostly because he kept laughing at the mouthful of sand I kept coming up with.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt like this was a terrible idea. We weren’t some ninja warriors, at least I wasn’t. Just what in the hell was he thinking? It was too late now. He had already tossed his grappling hook up to the roof and was climbing. The bastard had the gall to smile down at me from the wall.

“Don’t forget to lighten as you climb. It makes it much easier.” Then I watched as he cleared the remaining two stories in less than fifteen seconds.

I guess that meant it was my turn now; I grabbed the rope and started to climb. Taking Marcus’s words to heart, I called on my magic to lighten my weight. My next tug on the rope almost sent me hurtling back down to the ground as I moved up about ten feet and almost forgot to grab the rope again in my surprise. Apparently lightening the load didn’t reduce my strength any. I tried to pull more softly as I continued up the wall. Finally reaching the roof, I pulled harder on the rope again, landing on the rooftop with a dramatic flourish. I stopped the flow of magic. It already felt good to be regular-weighted me again.

Marcus finished pulling the rope up and storing it back into whatever pocket he had taken it from. It was time to move. We had to go about a mile and a half to get a good vantage point to look down from. There we could watch the building we had been sent to keep safe. It felt weird knowing that we had been dispatched to watch one of the Fallen’s nests, but stopping an all-out supernatural war was the top priority here. We had to know for sure if the Lycans were attacking or if it was something much, much worse.

The good news was it had stopped raining. The bad news was the rooftops were still slick with moisture. Seriously, I couldn’t do this on dry ground, let alone wet rooftops with forty feet between me and almost certain death. How in the hell had I let Marcus talk me into this? I looked up to tell him I was going to head down and I would meet him there on foot when I noticed he was already gone. I saw his large form glide into the air three rooftops away and come down soft as a feather. He turned and waved before continuing on.

Well, with no real choice left, I started to run toward the other rooftop, and when I reached the end, I leaped. Using the wind to push under myself and from behind, I cleared the twenty-foot gap with ease. I came down with a large crunch and only managed not to break anything by rolling when I landed. Right, needed to lighten on the way down next time. I got this. I checked to make sure that both my swords and my staff were ok, and then started sprinting toward the edge. This time I nailed it.

I wasn’t sure what was different about being out in the field to being in the training arena, but something just clicked. I could see why Marcus loved this now. It was like in
The Matrix
when he had to jump off the building to follow Morpheus. No one made their first jump, but I had made two, three, and four look pretty darn easy. I continued to follow Marcus until we reached our desired location. The nest was about three blocks away; the single-story building was easy to see from our vantage point.

Marcus set up a few steel rods around us. I watched as he placed them, not sure exactly what he was doing. In the center, he placed a taller one that reached nearly eight feet from the ground. I gave him a quizzical look.

“It’s easier to create a shroud around us than having us maintain one ourselves. This way our magic stays ready to call on at full force.”

It made a certain kind of sense. It was draining to keep a single spell going for hours on end, but if you cast a single spell, it could last for hours under the right circumstances. Maybe even longer depending on how much magic you poured into it. Marcus finished what he was doing, and I felt the tug as he called on his power. A pretty blue light moved between each of the steel stakes and then shot up the central pillar, creating a dome around us.

“Won’t people be able to see the blue light?” I hissed.

“Nope, it’s spelled for only us to see it. That way we don’t break the spell accidently.”

“Man, that’s a nice touch. When we get back, you are going to have to show me how you did it.”

“Trade secret.”

“Screw that. You’re going to show me.”

“Ok, I’ll show you, but you would be better off just bringing me to cast it.”

“Why?”

“Well, if it goes anything like the jumping, then you need a real magic-user around.”

“Fuck off.”

We both started to laugh, and then I stopped myself. Laughter would definitely give away our position.

Marcus continued to chuckle. “Don’t worry, it actually keeps the sound in as well. So you could scream at the top of your lungs and no one outside of this circle would hear it.”

“That is so awesome.”

“What can I say, it comes in handy.”

“I bet, like girls’ locker room handy.” I gave him a grin.

“More like hunting vampires handy. Getting in the girls’ locker room is much easier. Wait, have you not showered at the gym yet?”

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“Oh, trust me, bro, you would remember if you had.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I guess you will just have to wait and find out,” he said with a wink.

“Why do I get the feeling you are setting me up for an epic fail?”

He shrugged, giving me a mischievous grin before turning his head to watch the nest. I quickly followed his example and started watching the building below. A few people came and went over the next few hours, but nothing much happened. Marcus had lost interest in the building and was busy texting with one of his ladies-in-waiting. I kept my eyes peeled, but I hated to admit it, stakeouts had to be about the most boring thing on the planet.

Good news was we only had another sixteen hours to go. Marcus left to go and grab some food around two in the afternoon. When he came back, it was my turn to go. After eating, we both took turns watching and resting. It was long, boring work. We repeated the same pattern for dinner except for one difference—I came back bearing gifts.

“Dude, is that coffee?” Marcus asked.

“No, my friend, this is the elixir of life.”

“So, it’s really good coffee?”

“Indeed it is. Get some rest and I’ll have some coffee and take first watch. I got a steel mug, so you should be able to reheat it with a little magic.”

“Sounds good, bro.” Marcus wedged himself against the edge of the roof and fell asleep. I was a little envious of him just then. My sleep as of late had been sporadic, not to mention filled with nightmares. Also, I had never been able to just lie down and sleep on command. I wondered if it was a habit he picked up hunting with his father. Sometimes you probably just had to sleep whenever you could take it.

The clock continued to tick slowly. By three o’clock, I finally couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Marcus had been asleep most of the night, except for waking up to send a few quick texts out. I woke him up with a nudge, and after a few undistinguishable grunts, he finally opened his eyes. “My turn. Get me up in an hour.”

He yawned. “I guess it’s only fair.”

“Damn right,” I said, matching the yawn he just let out. I put my back to the edge of the rooftop and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

A
continuous scrapping
sound slowly brought me out of a deep sleep. That is, if you could call being propped up against the edge of a cold rooftop a comfortable enough place for a deep sleep. I started to move and felt a hand slide over my mouth. I looked around wildly at first before my eyes settled on Marcus huddled beside me. He put a finger to his lips and removed his hand. I mouthed “What the hell?” to him, and he pointed toward the rooftop in front of us.

Four massive Lycans stood in front of us. All four of them were standing on their hind legs and had massive swords strapped to their backs. They towered above us; the smallest had to be at least eight feet tall. Looking at Marcus, I pointed to my eyes and then back at the Lycans. I saw him do a double take as he noticed what I had picked up on right away. All four of them had creamy white eyes.

Casting a quick look over my shoulder to check the nest, I noted that everything down below looked fine. From the grouping of werewolves in front of us, that wouldn’t last for much longer. Looking to Marcus again, I mouthed, “I thought no one could hear us in here.”

He silently mimed back to me. “Better not take chances.”

If the Lycans decided to attack the nest, we would have to try and stop them. I was sure we could take on four of them, but that also meant there was a magic-user somewhere nearby, and if he was as strong as the one the inspector fought, then we might be hard-pressed to win. I had seen Marcus fight in the arena, so I knew when it came to magic he was no slouch. Our best bet would be for me to battle the Lycans and to have him focus solely on the magic-user. I was about to whisper my ideas to him when a robed figure appeared on top of the roof next to us.