Kill It With Magic: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 1) (2 page)

“Come out Lillim or I will light the building on fire and smoke you out like the treacherous rat you are.” I didn’t like the voice. It had a throatiness to it that made me feel weak, powerless, and small. I shook my head and gritted my teeth.

“If I poke my head up you’re going to start shooting again,” I yelled back, fighting to keep the hysteria out of my voice. I was about fifty percent successful.

“That is always possible. I’d rather talk. That is why I have come here. To talk.” The words were articulated slowly, like the speaker was used to dealing with people who weren’t the sharpest crayons in the box.

“You know, you could have just made an appointment.” They were shooting at me and I was making jokes? That probably wasn’t one of my best decisions.

“I wanted to make sure I had your full attention. Besides, I can tell from your wards that no outsider will be able to see or hear anything that happens within this area. It will always look peaceful and serene.” Was there a hint of satisfaction in his voice? He
was
right, after all. I had warded the place to make it appear normal to everyday people. No one would have heard the gunshots and called 911, that’s for sure. I shook my head and sighed. I was over being surprised by creatures with intentions that did not match their actions.

“I’m all yours.” I slowly raised my head above the desk. Behind me, I heard Georgie scurrying about in his cage. They couldn’t see it, but my right hand was on the trigger of the shotgun under my desk. Saying I was paranoid would be an understatement. I had guns hidden throughout my apartment, and as I’d said before, it wasn’t what you’d call large.

Five men stood just beyond my desk. Sunlight streamed in through the remnants of my broken door making them seem to glow, despite the natural gloom of my apartment. Four of the men were dressed in suits that cost more than all the money I’d ever seen combined. Seeing their weapons sent a tremor ricocheting up and down my spine. They had that big, ugly look of something that held a lot of firepower.

The fifth man stood in front with a briefcase in his hands. The cut of his suit was so fine that it made the others look like they shopped at thrift stores. Dark glasses hid his eyes, but I could make out a tattoo of a Chinese dragon coiling around his bald head. His skin was so dark that it had that bluish tint you find in really pure obsidian. He wasn’t quite as human as the rest of the goons. So how had he gotten inside? He would have to be really powerful to just walk into my apartment when my wards should have kept him outside. That was probably not good.

“I’ve heard you’re good at tracking down and killing mystical things,” the man with the briefcase said.

This was true. I was pretty good at dealing with supernatural baddies thanks to my crazy-ass mom. No one else would have taught me to swim by throwing me into a lake filled with sea monsters. I was four at the time, and our relationship has been pretty much downhill from there.

I glanced at the man once more and shuddered. This could get bad. If they started shooting, I didn’t really have anywhere to go. Plus, if they were serious about torching my apartment, I couldn’t exactly wait them out.

“I’ve heard that rumor before,” I said in my best tough-girl voice as I stood and smoothed my skirt. “I don’t find cats though. I’m allergic.”

“Fortunately, I have no need of a cat.” His smile showed a mouthful of teeth that looked more like they belonged to a shark than to a human. “What I need you to find is considerably bigger. I need you to track down a particular drake and destroy him. I’m sure you have heard of the great Trius. He has been here for quite some time.”

My eyebrows twitched. There were many different kinds of shape shifters. Most people thought of werewolves, or possibly even werebears. Most people didn’t think of drakes, creatures that had the ability to change into any shape they liked. As far as supernatural creatures went, few were as far up the food chain as drakes. This guy wanted me to go after Trius, so when he said drake, he wasn’t talking about a male duck. No… he was talking about the scaly, fire-breathing, treasure-hording kind, because Trius was a baby dragon.

“You want me to go after Trius? An ancient, immortal, and unstoppable dragon?” I said it slowly, enunciating each syllable.

“My younger brother is hardly a dragon. He is still a drake, still a baby. I’ve been told he has a certain affinity for your old master.” The man lowered his glasses, and I saw the slight twinkle of a glass eye. A series of thin, white scars that almost resembled claw marks radiated outward from the flesh around the eye. It made a stark contrast to his otherwise ebony skin. “And the immortal part… well, that is just a myth.” His lips curled into an almost sinister smile. “We can be killed. We just don’t want you to know it.”

I gulped, took a step backward, and bumped into my desk chair. It clattered to the ground, and the noise nearly made my heart jump out of my chest. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Then, in my best gumshoe voice, said, “My fee for something like this will be quite… substantial.” I paused, waving my hands for effect. “In the way that a planet is substantial.”

“With my help, there is no doubt in my mind that you could crush Trius beneath your heel. I would even let you keep his heart, and as we both know, a person who consumes a drake’s heart will gain immortality. Should you succeed, and I have no reason to doubt that Dirge Meilan reborn would succeed. I think that alone would be enough of a bonus.” His eyes glittered for a moment. “If that is not enough, I can always sweeten the pot.”

He kept talking, but I’d stopped listening. Of course, he had come here because of Dirge Meilan. In my last life, I had gone by the name of Dirge Meilan. Yeah, I’ve been reborn a few times, and so have most other people. Unfortunately for me though, Dirge only died three years ago, so most of the people who knew her were still around. The only thing more annoying than trying to explain how my age had been magically accelerated, was being compared to my former self. It was something I hated. It was the reason I’d run away from my home, and the reason I’d broken up with Joshua.

If this shark-toothed freak had come here expecting Dirge Meilan, there was no way in Hell I was going to help him. Call me petty. It would fit. I don’t really care.

“Get out!” My voice was hard and full of fury.

He stopped speaking mid-sentence and stared at me open-mouthed. Evidently he wasn’t used to being interrupted. Very slowly he regained his composure and settled his icy gaze upon me. Another chill went down my spine, and I tightened the grip on my shotgun.

“You Dioscuri get more arrogant by the day.” His words carried the edge of a raging inferno bubbling just beneath the surface. “Most people would be honored by the chance to help me take this realm back from Trius.”

Pause. Hold it right there. Obviously he knew who I was and knew I used to be part of the Dioscuri. That wasn’t exactly uncommon knowledge since the Dioscuri made it their mission to police all the supernatural creatures that caused problems in our world. They were the main reason that normal, everyday folks, hadn’t clued in to the supernatural community yet. So if supernatural hijinks were afoot, the Dioscuri would be the ones to step in and stop it. This was just the sort of thing I’d be trying to stop if I was still with them.

The worst wars in history were largely due to the power struggles of drakes. They were very territorial. So every once in a while a new drake comes to our world with the intent of destroying the current resident and taking over. That’s why Shark-tooth was here now. He wanted to take over for himself, and he wanted my help.

Why would he want my help? Well, aside from the fact that I shouldn’t be trusted with a tea cozy, let alone a plan to take over the world, I was basically a hired gun. The likelihood that I’d just join whoever offered me the biggest pot of gold would be demonstrably higher than someone who was all truth, justice, and the American way. Those weren’t exactly qualities I was known for.

“I’m not most people. I’m well aware of my mortality, and the idea of going after a drake weighs heavily against this ‘living’ I’ve become accustomed to.”

“You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition,” he muttered under his breath.

“Hello!” Mattoc’s voice boomed from the corner. The men turned toward him.

I squeezed the trigger on the shotgun as quickly as I could. While the drake dropped to the floor in time to avoid the gunfire, the five shotgun blasts tore into his men. Blood and gore painted my walls in effervescent sprays.

I grabbed my katana, Isis, from where it lay behind my desk and flung myself toward them. The leader was already running as I sliced my way through the wounded gunmen. I promised myself that they would be going to a better place because I knew it would make killing them slightly easier. Even still, nausea welled up inside me and tears gathered in the corners of my eyes.

Most people were reincarnated, so those that died usually came back again and again. That’s all life seemed like sometimes, an endless cycle of truth and karma. It didn’t make it any easier to kill them, though. I tried not to think about how the hired muscle might have an autistic son or an Alzheimer’s-stricken mother back home and instead tried to be thankful that they weren’t wearing full body armor.

Their blood was everywhere, sticky and wet. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down as it slowly turned into red steam. The metallic scent filled my lungs, and I coughed and fell to my knees as the steam drifted away. I watched, struggling to hold onto my lunch, as the bodies melted into nothingness. In a matter of seconds no sight or smell remained. They were nothing but a distant memory.

That’s the upside to killing people with a Dioscuri weapon, I suppose. There were never any bodies. They just broke up into harmless molecules and floated away. I guess they were designed that way to make killing easier. It is a lot easier to wade through a battle field, slaughtering hundreds of people, if there aren’t any bodies left afterward. The horrors of war are much easier to forget when there is no feast left for the crows.

My katana was glowing off-blue with several deep crimson ankhs etched down its length. Sparks of electricity seemed to dance along its surface. Without even thinking, I had charged it with energy. I stared at the weapon now that it was in my hand. Its hilt resembled a black serpent trying to swallow the sun. Its blade was so pure white that I almost had to shield my eyes. When it was sheathed it looked like anything else… but unleashed and charged up, well that was a different story. I had two of these weapons, a katana and a wakazashi. Of the two, Isis, my katana, was better suited for protection. Set, my wakazashi, was mostly all about destroying things. I didn’t take him out unless I really wanted to do some damage.

I shook my head and wiped the sweat from my face. I was going to have to track down that drake. Heart or no, blessing or no, if he was going after Trius that meant a battle was coming, and in this day and age there might not be much left afterward. Magic be damned, I didn’t even want to think about a drake trying to protect its turf with a whole mess of nuclear bombs.

Chapter 3

“I’m telling you, this is a bad idea,” Mattoc said. I don’t know how, but he had somehow changed into a white t-shirt and jeans. I wasn’t quite sure where his ghostly wardrobe came from. Then again, I was pretty sure he just looked like whatever image happened to pop into his mind. It made watching him look through clothing catalogues hilarious.

“And I’m telling you to shut up… again,” I replied.

“I’m not listening.” Was Mattoc sticking his tongue out at me? I decided not to investigate.

“Look, just because Warthor has sworn to protect Trius doesn’t mean you should go tell him that there’s another drake in town. On a scale from one to bad ideas, this is a terrible.”

Mattoc didn’t particularly like the idea of me tracking down my old master. The other Dioscuri called him The Invincible Joker, but to me he was just Warthor Ein, and I owed him my life. He was responsible for releasing millions of undead monsters into the world so I could be reborn.

On one hand, you had to respect him for daring to make demands of the gods. My old master had threatened to tear the doors off of Hell and pull me, along with every other creepy crawly, out of Hell, if they didn’t bring me back to life. On the other hand, you kind of wanted to kill him for actually doing it when they called his bluff.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to tell Warthor about the new drake. Things could go all sorts of sideways when he got involved in situations. Still, I wasn’t going to admit that to Mattoc.

My hands trembled as I grabbed the mirror off the wall and scooped up a bottle of vegetable oil. I spread the oil on the mirror and held it so it caught the light just right. I concentrated, allowing magical energy to build. Soon the mirror’s face was a swirling mass of cloudy reds and blues. I mumbled Joshua’s true name under my breath. Nothing happened. I said it once more, a little louder, letting more of my energy flow into the words. It sparked as my breath touched the mirror and… nothing.

I pressed my palms against the mirror’s surface. The shimmering glass was like thick jelly against my skin. For a second, I could almost feel Joshua’s presence. “Why is it so…” I mumbled, pushing deeper into the glass. I hated it. It was cold and slick, like massaging a wet frog.

“Are you really going to go through the looking glass? That didn’t turn out very well for Alice, you know,” Mattoc asked from behind me.

He was right. Traveling through the mirror toward Joshua would be a big mistake. Whatever was blocking me from communicating with Joshua would have to be strong to keep me from finding him. The likelihood that I’d wind up in a dungeon or stuck in a mountain was incredibly high. I pulled my hands from the mirror. They were colorless, as though my blood had fled from the flesh. I wiggled my fingers as the little needles that signaled returning circulation stabbed at them.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said with a sigh. Why was I even trying to find Joshua with a dragon, baby or not, on the loose? Sure, he’d sent me the swizzle and maybe, just maybe, he really was in trouble. I doubted it, though. Aside from the fact that he was half-demon, he was Joshua. Even among other demons he was feared.