Life in Shadows (6 page)

“I’m
not?”

“Not
right away, at least.”

“Oh
god!”

“Can
you get down?” she asked Onyx.

“I
think…yeah,” Onyx decided. In truth, she had her doubts about doing it safely,
but she didn’t have much choice. The gap in the floor separated her from the
central staircase. Grimacing at the pain all along her midsection, Onyx got to
her hands and knees to look for a good place to drop.

“Hang
over the side, I’ll help you down,” Molly offered. She stepped forward with her
arms out.

“That’s
no good. Just stay clear.” The pain across her ribs warned Onyx against
straining her core muscles any further than necessary. She knew her knee-high
Doc Marten boots weren’t built to absorb this sort of impact, either, but she
decided she’d have to suck it up. Onyx sat on the edge, feeling broken bits of
masonry and rebar scrape against her thighs before she pushed herself over.

Her
landing went about as well as she could expect. She knew how to take a fall,
but Onyx still felt a sharp jolt of pain in both ankles before she rolled into
the impact. The debris on the floor didn’t exactly give her a soft landing,
either.

“Shit,
are you okay?” Molly asked.

“Guess
I have to be.” Onyx picked herself up and tested her feet. Though they both
hurt like hell, the pain was bearable and she could stand. “Long as we don’t
have to run for the car, I think I’ll be good,” she said. As Molly helped her
up, Onyx came face to face with the very worried victim of a venomless
snakebite.

“You
gotta help me,” he pleaded.

Onyx
ignored him. Molly offered her arm, but Onyx shook her head. “Don’t want to
stretch anything right now.” Along the way to the stairs, Onyx noticed the
scaly passenger draped around Molly’s neck. “You brought Steve?” she asked,
gingerly heading down the first steps.

“He
wanted to come,” said Molly as if that explained everything.

“What,
did you go next door to ask?” She knew they should keep quiet, but it wasn’t as
if any remaining enemies didn’t know where they were. At this point, talking
felt more reassuring than silence. Molly seemed to feel the same way.

“No,
he got loose again. I found him outside our place when I got home from school.
I’ll take him back to Angelo’s apartment in the morning. Serves that jackass
right if he spends the night freaking out about it. He’s moving out at the end
of the month, anyway.”

“Poor
guy must be freezing.”

“He
was wrapped around my belly all night. Figured I could use the extra hug where
we were going. And the extra security.”

Onyx
winced as they hit the bottom step. “Supposed to get a security blanket, not a
security snake.”

“It
worked out, didn’t it?”

The
pair paused at the end of the stairs. Onyx saw and heard nothing as she looked
out through the front entrance. The gate lay open and the illusory crowd seemed
to have vanished, but otherwise they saw nothing different from when they’d
arrived. They shared a grim look, needing no further words to assess their
situation.

Onyx
still had her wand, along with two aching ankles and whatever happened to her
ribs. Molly had an empty pistol and a snake. They had no choice but to face
whatever awaited them head-on.

They
made it to the sidewalk before one more confrontation arose. Archimedes stepped
out from behind the closest SUV parked on the street, covered slightly by the
overhanging branches of a fir tree. Hypatia stepped out around the other side
of the SUV to block them from continuing on down the sidewalk. Both of them
held wands at the ready.

“Let’s
not drag this out or make it any worse for you than it has been,” said
Archimedes. “Hand over the book and walk away.”

“Tsk
tsk tsk,” Molly clicked out in quick, calm disapproval. “Not the kind of peace
Elizabeth wanted.”

“Elizabeth
wanted responsible stewardship over this city and the region, too,” said
Hypatia. “That’s not something that comes from letting amateurs run around
messing up the place.”

“Amateurs?
Oh for fuck’s sake,” grumbled Onyx. “You couldn’t hang onto your gargoyle for
ten minutes before doing something stupid with it. We’re not giving you
Elizabeth’s book.”

“You
can give it or we can take it,” said Archimedes. “That’s the only choice you
have here.”

“Tsk
tsk tsk,” repeated Molly, her attention focused on Archimedes.

Onyx
stared at him, too. An observer without such sharp eyes might not have noticed
the way his wand shook. “You seem nervous about this,” she observed. “Both of
you. Have you even done anything like this before?”

“No
concern of yours,” said Archimedes. “We’re under no obligation to explain
ourselves to a couple of random girls playing at being sorcerers.”

Onyx
heard Molly growl oddly. She knew enough to cover for it. “We’re witches, dumb
ass,” she said quickly. “We already went through your toy and your goon. Don’t
make us go through you, too.”

“Hypatia,”
said Archimedes, “have we given them enough of a chance?”

“I
suppose we have,” answered his companion.

“Tsk-tsk-tsk!”

The
bearded man’s brow furrowed in confusion, but he didn’t wonder what Molly was
chittering about for long. Grey, furry, angry shapes dropped down on him from
the trees. The pair of raccoons bit and clawed him viciously, sending him
stumbling around in a screaming panic. He dropped his wand as he tried to swat
them off.

“Fred!”
blurted out Hypatia. Molly didn’t hesitate. Her broken wand would no longer do
her any good. The brass knuckles she kept in her jacket, however, could still
do their job. Hypatia didn’t track the redhead quickly enough to dodge her
charge or her swing. With a single punch, Molly laid Hypatia out on the plot of
grass running along the sidewalk.

“Get
off! Get them off me!” yelled ‘Archimedes.’ He, too, laid in the grass and mud,
though he was far more animated about it than Hypatia.

“Sure.
One second,” said Onyx, who then promptly stomped on his wand. The move
aggravated the pain in her ankle, but it was worth it to hear and feel the wood
snap under her heel. “Hsst! Go away, guys!” she ordered. Though she didn’t have
Molly’s ability with animals, the pair of raccoons leapt off of their bloodied
victim and scampered off on their way. Onyx pointed her wand at the bloodied
man at her feet, waiting until he looked up at her.

The
quiet sound of a footstep off to her left preempted her from casting a new
spell. She hobbled back from Archimedes with her wand up at the ready to face
the newcomer. Saxon looked surprised at her reaction. “Good ears,” he conceded.

Onyx
glanced around at the path behind him. She thought she saw someone else further
away, sticking close to the shadows and trees rather than taking the sidewalk.
Whoever it was, they relied more on cover and technique than magic and didn’t
come out where she could see them. “So are you following these two?” she asked
Saxon as Molly stepped up beside her. “Or are you pushing them?”

Saxon
gave the pair a sad smile. “If you had taken up my invitation, I’d be here to
protect you. I’d be obligated, even. The Brotherhood looks after its own.”

“But
screws anybody else, right?” asked Molly.

“As
I said, we’re not here to regulate how Practitioners handle their own affairs.
Only how they relate within the Brotherhood, and our relations with a few
recognized circles.” He shrugged. “You don’t belong to any such circle.”

Saxon
brought his hands together at waist level in a casual stance. If he hid a wand
or some other implement, Onyx couldn’t see it, but she noticed the odd way he
folded his fingers.

“So
independents don’t count?” Onyx frowned.

“No.
No, I’m afraid two Practitioners don’t make up a circle according to
Brotherhood policy. We’re not under any obligation to aid or protect outsiders.
We are, however, obligated to offer at least some aid to our aspiring members.”
He nodded to the pair of sorcerers laid out behind Molly and Onyx.

“Then
pick them up off the ground and go,” said Molly.

“I’m
afraid my obligations go a little further than that.” His hands snapped up with
electricity arcing between his fingers, flashing bolts of lightning at the pair
in the blink of an eye. Onyx had her wand up in time to counter, drawing the
energy directly toward the ebony shaft. Saxon flashed her a grin. “Better than
I expected,” he conceded, though his ready stance hinted at more to come.

“Mista
Saxon, man,” called out a deep voice behind him. Saxon spun around quickly,
lightning still crackling between his hands. Two loud gunshots from only a few
yards away split the night air. The first caused Saxon to jerk back a step. The
second, accompanied by a flash of sparks from the gun’s barrel under a nearby
tree, put him on the ground.

Onyx
glanced at Saxon only once. The bloody mess of his torso assured her he
wouldn’t get up again. Somehow that scared Onyx more than anything else that
had happened. Despite the danger and violence she and Molly had already
suffered, despite the fact that Saxon had thrown a probably lethal spell at
them both only seconds ago, Saxon’s death raised the stakes beyond anything
Onyx had ever experienced. It was one thing to face mortal danger. Seeing
someone die was another entirely.

She
didn’t know how to process this. And she didn’t have time.

Hector
stepped out of the shadows with a smoking, sawed-off double-barrel shotgun in
his hands. Onyx realized he’d probably stood in the same spot where Saxon hid
when Hypatia and Archimedes first confronted them. She wondered if he, too, had
the same motives.

“What
the hell,” exclaimed Molly, “is it Jump Everyone from Behind Night?”

Hector
popped open his shotgun to reload it. “You can see why it’s a classic move.
Shit works.”

She
released a heavy breath. “Well, thanks for the assist.”

“Like
I said,” Hector began, opening up his weapon to reload it, “sometimes a spell
does the job, sometimes a gun does it better.” He held up a pair of shotgun
shells in his hand before putting them into the barrels. “One with rock salt to
take down defenses and wards. One with lead for the regular job. Too many
assholes learn magic and think they never need Kevlar again, y’know?”

“Why
did you follow us?” asked Onyx, trying to hold an even tone. She wanted to join
Molly in skipping straight to gratitude. After all they’d been through tonight,
she knew better.

“I
didn’t like the way this one looked at you two after the reading,” Hector
explained, gesturing to Saxon with his gun. “Saw him split off from his friend
after helpin’ those other two peacocks get their new toy moving. Figured I’d
see if he was up to something. Looks like he was.”

“You
saved our asses,” said Molly.

Hector
shook his head. “Don’ read too much into it. I like you two, sure. Thing is,
‘like’ don’t account for much in my book. This is self-interest.”

“Aw,
I dunno,” Molly ventured, cracking a grin. “Looks like maybe a little altruism
to me.”

“I’m
only
altruistic
when it don’t cost me nothin’,” explained Hector.
“Conversation an’ advice is free, right? So I’ll give you that much, no
problem, especially when you’re nice to me. Keeps things friendly. But Molly,
don’t ever expect anything more than that. Not from me, not from nobody, especially
in this life we all lead.”

Again,
he gestured to the dead man on the ground. “This asshole an’ his buddies think
they can push any Practitioner around if they ain’t part of a big enough club.
He’s even okay with jumpin’ other Practitioners comin’ straight out of a
neutral gathering, you know? That means eventually he’ll come lookin’ for me,
too. I helped you out, sure. Maybe you’d have come out on top on your own. I’m
glad it worked out for you, but I came out here to take care of a problem
before it took care of me.”

With
his weapon ready again, Hector steadily walked around the pair of witches. Onyx
kept her guard up, watching him carefully and ready to retaliate if he tried
anything. She wondered if he held the same suspicion of her, and couldn’t blame
him if he did. Regardless, Hector moved past them both to stand over Archimedes
as he tried to get Hypatia to her feet once more.

“The
question now is whether or not I’ve got two more problems to take care of
preemptively.”

Torn
up and frightened, Archimedes vigorously shook his head. “Y-you’ll get no
trouble from us. We’re done here. W-we’ll ju-just be on our way.”

“Unh…ow,”
Hypatia moaned as she stirred.

“Mr.
and Mrs. Arch?” called a voice from the condominium lot. The driver in his now
dust-covered black suit limped out into the open. “Is that you? I heard
shooting.”

Archimedes
winced. Hector grinned. “I’m guessin’ if your man there could’a done somethin’
for you, he’d have done it already, right?” Hector glanced over at the driver
only once to see him standing there indecisively now that he understood the
scene. Then he turned back to the matter at hand. “Cops gonna be here soon,”
said Hector. “Real soon.”