THE VROL TRILOGY (60 page)

The two finished for lunch, where they
met with Jennie who surprised and nearly shocked Bagatelle when she
showed up in her phase 2, or
battle
form
. He almost reached out to touch her face where
she had a bit of hair on her jawline but still retained her beauty.
She then gave her brother a demonstration of a phase 2-to-phase 1
transition, and he watched, amazed as her form gradually shifted
back to her normal appearance.

Liliana didn't join them - she was on a
field trip with her school classroom, so the adults ate quickly.
Jennie bid them goodbye and the two men returned to Draagh's hall
where he taught Bagatelle even more about the secrets of the
Universe, including information on his own species, the
Prīmulī
,
Max's Taxiarch biological father, the archangels and many
other details.

Towards the end of the day Bagatelle asked
Draagh if he could get right into his lycan training without
waiting for his rejuvenation. Draagh thought about it for a moment
and then agreed, deciding to send Luigi to where Alea used to work
before her banishment from the Rhönen Dominion.

They finished the day and cleaned up for
dinner, where they both dined with Jennie and Liliana and then
retired to their chambers rather early.

Bagatelle was almost ready to climb into bed
when he heard a light knock on his door. It amazed him that he was
able to smell that it was Liliana, who was with an animal of some
sort.

Opening the door, he saw his niece with an
impish smile on her face while holding an animal carrier in her
arms.

"Tio! I want to show you a skill! May I
please show you?"

He couldn't turn her down. She was just so
absolutely adorable that he couldn't say no, so he reluctantly
opened his door and gestured for her to enter, having an odd
feeling about what was to transpire.

"Ok T
í
o. This is what we do when we see
things that are bad."

Through the scent Bagatelle realized that
there was a cat in the box. He had never cared for cats, much like
most with the recessive lycan gene - but he was willing to humor
his niece. She gave him an innocent little smile and then opened
the caged door to the carrier.

A terrified black cat flew out of the box,
screaming and running on the walls, shredding the long, hanging
curtains in the process. Leaping across furniture in the room, it
attempted to hide under the bed, but Liliana jumped down and
crawled underneath, scaring the cat out of its hiding place.

Then, when the cat was exposed and in full
view, Liliana looked at the feline and pointed her hand without her
wand.

"
Electrincantatio
quassatio!"

The cat was jolted with an electrical charge,
causing it to fly across the room with its hair standing straight
up, and creating a light smell of burnt fur. Bagatelle jumped out
of the way, feeling a combination of mortification and amusement as
his niece chased the poor creature around his room, hammering it
with repeated cantuses.

Having seen enough, he opened the door and
let the animal race out into the corridor, where it quickly
disappeared. Liliana gave him a look of disappointment, but then
quickly changed her expression when he gave her an awkward
smile.

"Tio, do you like how I am learning?"

"Well," he answered, "your skills look really
great but… do you have to torture a poor cat?"

She had a thoughtful look for a moment,
then her eyes suddenly lit up as she said, "I understand,
T
í
o. From
now on I shall not practice on cats. I have grown beyond
that."

"Well that's good," he responded, glad that
she had shown at least a bit of remorse.

"Thank you T
í
o! You are so smart!"

Liliana ran up and gave her uncle a hug
around his waist, and then looked at him from the doorframe as she
prepared to go back to her room, giving him a loving smile.

"From now on I will practice on servants in
the great hall!"

She then raced off down the corridor before
he could even say a word.

My Lord. She truly is a handful.

Chapter
6 - Magic Man

In the dingy kitchen of a thoroughly trashed
nightclub, somewhere in the middle of Hollywood, California, in an
alternate, fractured timeline of the year 2819, Max Gunnarsson
stood dumbstruck as he looked at Adam, the self-proclaimed mage,
and studied him briefly. There was something wrong with the man -
Max could smell it all over the place.

"So, you're the mage here, huh?" asked Max,
as he walked over and brusquely took the wooden spoon out of Adam's
hand - a move that Adam appeared not to like. However, the man
quickly changed his expression to one of friendly intent.

While minor-mages had the same scent as
normals, and couldn't be detected via enhanced lycan senses, Max
was a real mage - not a minor one - and he could tell that Adam was
simply a normal.

"Yup - that's me! I perform duties for the
clan and they provide me with food and shelter. Speaking of food,
this stew smells wonderful. What do you call it?"

"It's a
guiso
, from my hometown. It's about as close as
I could get to my mother's recipe."

Adam walked around the kitchen, keeping a
relatively clear path between the two, and eyed Max up and
down.

"Jessica said you were a lycan. Hmmm, a bit
smaller than typical size - rather subdued, but you appear to have
about the same intellect as the rest of your kind."

Max got a bit miffed at the man's intended
insult regarding his intellect - he had multiple degrees and a PhD
- one needed a lot of intellect to accomplish that, but he let Adam
ramble on in his own self-serving manner.

"Anyway, Jessica said you wanted to speak
with me, as you are… lost? Is that correct? Because if you are lost
I could probably help you in finding your way home - for a fee, of
course."

Max figured that anything would cost teeth
where he was, but he wasn't about to give one thin peso, or tooth,
to that clown.

"So, you can help me find a way home -
without even knowing where I live?" Max asked, trying to act
according to the way that Adam viewed him.

"Of course, my friend! After all, I am the
only mage in these parts. Who else can help you? Now, why don't we
sample some of this delicious smelling stew, and then we can
discuss a very equitable payment plan. Oh, and just exactly how did
you get here? Did the demons bring you?"

Max didn't figure that Adam was very
intelligent, as one who was trying to find their way home wouldn't
stick around to fulfill any type of payment plan - he was being
scammed.

"Um, no - no demons. I woke up a short
distance from here, in the street. In fact, I hadn't ever seen a
demon before in my life. They don't exist where I'm from. But
anyway, that sounds like a really great deal - I appreciate it. Why
don't we go and eat with Dons and Jessica?"

"Oh yes," responded Adam, "that sounds
excellent."

The two walked out into the bar area with a
tray of stew-filled bowls, seeing Dons and Jessica over at a
dinette on the far side of the poorly-lit room. Adam was a bit
surprised to see nearly every person in the bar quickly make for
the door once Max was in view, but then gave it no further notice
as the two sat at the small table with the clan leader and his
assistant.

"Stew's ready. I added a couple of extra
ingredients I missed last night."

"Hey mate, I see you met Adam. Nice chap he
is," said Dons in between slurps of the delicious guiso.

"Oh yeah, we just met. Nice fellow. Says he's
going to help me find a way home, for a price, of course."

Jessica said nothing and merely sat there
enjoying what was to pass for her afternoon meal. Then Adam started
talking, causing Max to realize more and more that the man was
absolutely full of crap.

"Yes, so as I was saying to old Maxie-boy
here, I'll whip up an enchantment to send him to his place of
origin. As he was apparently not brought here by demons I should be
able to bypass their locks."

"Locks?" asked Max, "what kinds of locks are
you talking about?

"Oh yes - you see, the demons do something to
us when they drop us off for hunting pleasures. We're unable to
leave this zone. If we attempt to go off too far we start to feel
an incredible amount of pain. It's how they keep us corralled in as
prey."

Max thought that sounded like something the
Vrol would do - contain and feed, even though he was completely
unaware of how they behaved, or even what the strength level of a
flyer was. He also assumed that there was no sort of lock on his
person, as he had accidentally slipped to a post-apocalyptic
Hollywood through the errant use of his grandfather's staff.

"Oh, ok. Well, I appreciate all you can do
for me, Adam. Why don't we finish up, and then you can tell me the
specifics in the kitchen while I wash the dishes?"

Dons grinned at Max. He had just seen the
lycan power-punch one of the fiercest fighters in the region into
the next neighborhood, without even breaking a sweat, and wasn't so
sure he wanted to see him go so soon. Max gathered up everyone's
bowls and left for the kitchen, with Adam about to follow him, when
Dons stopped his clan mage.

"Oy mate, I'm not so sure we want him leaving
quite yet. He just took out Marko with a single punch. Could be the
prat's dead, or out of action for a few months, and this chap could
help us to get rid of more than a few enemies."

Adam gave Dons a surprised look and smiled
briefly as he had stared to formulate his own plan. He then nodded
his head and followed Max to the kitchen.

Adam entered the small kitchen to see Max
dutifully cleaning things up in a very normal fashion. Washing a
pot with hot water, which was a rarity in that world, Max basically
ignored the man when he entered. Adam then went and took a seat on
a countertop and cleared his throat, attempting to call Max's
attention over the noise he was making while scrubbing.

"Ahem… Max - Dons just informed me that you
took out Marko with a single punch. Is this true?"

"Yup, he was a dick," said Max, not adding
anything further to his response.

"Well, given that you were able to do
something so astounding, Dons feels it is in the best interest of
the clan that you stick around for… a while. However, as I am
probably the most intelligent person around these parts, and due to
the fact that I'm a genuine mage, I was thinking of something a bit
more… beneficial to the both of us."

"And what would that be?" asked Max, still
facing away from the man.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe we could
come to some sort of arrangement where you perform services for me,
and me alone. Then after a while I'll help you to get home."

"And what if Dons doesn't like that? What if
I walk out there right now and tell him what you are proposing to
me? How are you gonna stop me from doing that?"

Max turned around to get a bead on Adam's
expression, only to see the man pointing a wand at him in a
menacing fashion. His curiosity was satisfied; Adam had a
magic-enhanced object.

"Well then, my friend, I would have to compel
you to work with me. You see, I have these abilities, and no one
messes with me. Now, why don't we work together? Be a good puppy,
cooperate, and I won't have to hurt you, got it?"

Max wanted the fake mage to perform a simple
demonstration of magic in order to gauge Adam's skills while using
the small device. Each magic-enhanced object was unique in its own
right - some were immensely powerful, while others were relatively
weak in comparison. He wasn't about to take anything for granted in
this new, weird land.

"Ok, do me a favor. Show me what a great mage
you are. Why don't you stir the remaining stew with your great
powers?"

"Oh, I would never waste my skills on
something so small. It's beneath me as a mage.

"Well then, stop this…"

Max threw a wooden spoon across the room at
Adam's head, only to see the man physically swat it away with his
hand.

"You test me, Max, and that is not wise. If
you don't calm down and listen to me I may be forced to do
something quite rash, do you understand? I realize you are a simple
lycan, but… please."

Adam was obviously concerned - Max could
smell his fear and hear the man's increased heart rate. He could
practically taste Adam's sweat in the air.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. It's just
been really tough for me the past 24 hours, ya know? But please,
humor me. Show me something. I wanna see something magical. Do that
and I'll consider hooking up with you. What is it you really want
to do anyway?"

"Well, I was thinking we could go into
business together - you being the brawn, and me the brains, of
course. Dons wouldn't ever think of fighting someone like Marko on
his own, and his girls have healing and power amplification skills
so that makes him quite invincible - when he's with them. I figure
that together we can take him down tonight. Then the clan - and the
club will be mine… erm, ours."

"Wow, that sounds pretty cool. And if we do
this can we kick out that cat girl? Cassandra? I don't like cat
girls."

"Yes, whatever you like! Cassandra is out as
far as I'm concerned. But we'll need to allow nekos to come in for
the human men - we do extract royalties from them - a certain
percentage of their profits for services rendered."

Max got the answer to his question from
the night before - the nekos
were
hookers, and the thought made him cringe, but he wanted to
play a bit with Adam, now that he got him to drop his
guard.