Kill It With Magic: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 1) (17 page)

I mean all I had to do was track down the caster and stop him, then the magical space boulder would go away. Right? Normally in this situation, I would ask someone’s opinion, but as I trailed my mental finger down the list of possible helpers I found that they were all either captured or I was ignoring them.

I walked outside and it was then, and only then, that I realized there was no one to be found. Doors hung open on hastily abandoned homes, and I reasoned that many people had evacuated like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

My hedgehog squeaked so loud that I heard it outside. It was a sound I was altogether unused to hearing. I walked back inside and peered at it curiously. It was unconcerned with the meteor, which was odd. Normally animals are the first ones to get out of dodge when bad things happen. So why wasn’t my hedgehog the least bit worried? Then again he
was
a hedgehog. Georgie couldn’t exactly see the outside sky from inside its cage, and where was he going to try and go anyway?

“You know I hate coincidences right?” I told the hedgehog. I picked him up and stuffed him in my pocket. He promptly curled into a ball and fell asleep. I glanced back at the space rock and all the blood drained from my face. There was a second one… and a third. This particular spell didn’t involve just a single asteroid. It was about flinging several asteroids, one after another, at the surface of the planet.

Whatever was doing this was seriously pissed off and either powerful enough or stupid enough to think that a cataclysmic event would not affect it much. There were only a handful of things that strong, and they pretty much all had god in their names.

“Okay…” I said aloud, more to have something to say than anything else. It was like the dinosaurs all over again. And whoever had done that was doing a much more thorough job this time. I felt very small and placing my hands on the handle of the shotgun made me feel even smaller.

I was going to need something a lot more powerful to go after someone who could summon asteroids. I walked over to my desk, pushed it out of the way, and pulled up the floorboard beneath it. There, in a small crevice, was a thin black sword with crimson butterflies etched along its length. I pulled it out and stared at it. The butterflies pulsed with life, and I swear, seemed to flitter around the weapon when I wasn’t looking.

This weapon was known as Haijiku, and when it had last been used, it had been inhabited by a being known only as The Emissary of Tragedy. After I’d killed the owner, the spirit had fled, leaving nothing but an empty husk. If I was going to try wielding this blade, I’d need someone to find The Emissary and convince him to return; otherwise Haijiku would be nothing more than a really pretty sword.

Fortunately, while I wasn’t really able to commune with the forces of darkness, Mattoc could and well, let’s just say being his anchor had its perks. I shifted my weight and very slowly traced my left index finger along the skin above my left breast. This was the spot where Mattoc was metaphysically bound to me. There was a sizzling sound as a sigil of a coiling serpent began to glow brightly on my flesh. I staggered backward and fell to my knees. The light drained from the room, leaving me in pitch darkness. Power as old as a thousand suns washed over me, pulling me down into a time before all things, before order and structure, to a time when there was only chaos.

I stood in a very small boat with the eye of a gigantic snake staring lazily at me. It was so dark that it was like looking at a black hole up close. The force of its gaze threatened to suck me into that swirling, endless darkness. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. The serpent was three, four-hundred meters maybe? I wasn’t inclined to try and figure it out since the snake could be as big as it wanted to be.

“Yes?” Apep muttered in a bored sort of indifference that suggested it had much better things to do than convene with me. This may or may not have been true, but like it or not, the creature had inhabited Hisen Mattoc’s Dioscuri weapon. Since Mattoc was bound to me, the least it could do was help me. Right?

I started to speak but it cut me off, its serpentine tongue flicking out over fangs bigger than my body. “If you have come to inquire about the status of Shirajirashii you will have to direct yourself to Isis or Set. They are your spirits. I’m more along for the ride.”

“Nah,” I said. “I don’t have time to reforge Shirajirashii.” I showed him Haijiku, and the blade shimmered, little sparks of iridescent color leaping across its surface. “I’ve decided to wield Haijiku. I need you to contact The Emissary. I need him to bond with Haijiku once more.”

The creature nodded, its approving expression annoying me to an absurd degree though I wasn’t quite sure why. The tiny boat rocked as its body shook the water around me, almost making me lose my balance. My gut told me that I really did not want to fall into these waters. “Anything else the Great God of Darkness can do for you? Perhaps you need some dry cleaning picked up?”

I glared at him for a moment and sheathed Haijiku. “How can I find out who is capable of summoning an asteroid toward earth?”

The serpent scoffed and turned away. “Anyone could do that. A single asteroid is something even a human wizard could manage with little effort.”

“Well crap… I’m not talking about a single asteroid. Someone is trying to summon several asteroids.”

He swiveled his immense head to look at me for a long time. “No one on your tiny speck of a planet would cast such a spell.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am certain.” Apep turned its head to regard me and its tongue flicked out, so close that it nearly touched me. A tremor ran down my spine, and I barely resisted the urge to flee.

“But it could be done, couldn’t it? This is a tiny planet. How hard can it be to pepper it with asteroids?”

“Even I, the great darkness that swallows the sun, do not have the power to cast such a spell. I could not have done it even during the demon days in ancient Egypt. The power to cast such a spell would take eons to gather. Unless…” A shiver rippled down the length of its massive body.

Whoosh

A blow to my stomach caused the vision to shatter. I sank to my knees, too shocked to realize I couldn’t breathe. Logan stood over me, his fangs bared. “I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

Chapter 24

“Are you freaking serious?” I grumbled.

“Yes.” Logan pushed my pink lamp off the bookshelf, and it fell to the carpet.

Nice. The world was about to end, and Logan was trying to kill me. I got to my feet and darted past him in an effort to escape through my door, but before I made it out, the thick arm of Bob broadsided me. I fell backward on my butt as he stepped into the room. Bob waved his hand in an amiable greeting.

“Hello, Dioscuri. It’s been ages.”

“Bob, how’s the arm?” I slowly got to my feet. If they wanted me dead, it would be so.

“Glorious.” He smiled, revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth. Next to him Logan paced back and forth, agitated and concerned.

I threw my arm backward in a sweeping gesture. “How nice of you to visit my humble home.”

“Humble is a bit strong… perhaps filthy hovel would be more suitable a term,” Bob said, and his voice had an edge of ice to it. I glanced over my shoulder at Logan who was twirling the Demonslayer nervously through the air.

“It was a lot nicer before an
unnamed
vampire tried to burn it down.” I held my hands out apologetically. “Or if my wards actually succeeded in keeping unwanted visitors outside—”

“You are like a tiny dog. Always yapping, always barking.” Logan said, and I craned my head toward him.

“Look,” I said as calmly as I could, “I need to be doing important things.” I paused and pointed out the window. “In case you haven’t noticed, the sky is falling.”

Bob opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand to stop him. It worked, and for a moment, he just stared at me. “If you’re going to tell me how insignificant I am. Or how I ought to be glad a being as powerful as you has decided that blah, blah, blah, I swear to god…”

“You will what?” Bob raised an eyebrow. His dark eyes watched me, and it was almost as though a large shadow rose out of him, unfurled its leathery wings, and raged at me. My body quivered, and I bit my lip. I took a deep breath, and without breaking eye contact, pulled the shotgun free from its holster and unloaded it into him.

After the roar of the gun faded, there was no sound. Bob remained there, standing impassively. Some of the metal had bitten into his flesh, but most was lying at his feet. What had sunk into his skin was being pushed outward as the wounds healed. Granted I had known what to expect from him in the way of physical fortitude, but a blast like that should have done more damage. I knew this because I had done it only a few days before. So… that was a little weird.

“If you do something like that again, I will throw you from the top of Mount Olympus, and I will suck the marrow from your bones. I will place you in a hell of brambles and fire. When I am through even Warthor Ein will not be able to put you back together again.” He placed a single finger to my trembling lips, and a rush of heat hit my face. His lips crooked to the side, and despite the tremors sprinting down my spine, made me feel like one of those cheerleaders when the captain of the football team asked her out.

Really, you want to go out with me? Little old me? And I had to remind myself that I wasn’t that kind of girl… but right now, right now I really wanted to be. Georgie poked his head out of my pocket and puffed indignantly.

I glanced down at the hedgehog, and my mind cleared enough to shake off the feeling. “Yeah… that’s not happening,” I growled as I pulled Georgie from my pocket and put him back in his cage.

“Lillim,” Logan said from behind me. I shoved more shells into the shotgun and turned toward him.

“Logan,” I said sternly, pointing the gun at him. “You have one second to tell me what’s going on or these next two shots are going into your chest… wait a second. What happened to you?”

His body no longer had that weird decayed look. I took a step toward him, and the lights went out. A scream ripped through the darkness, and I fired the shotgun in its direction. Something hit me hard, and the gun was torn from my hand as I flew backward. My shoulder sparked in pain as I hit the floor. I scrambled across the floor, and something slammed into my stomach, pushing the air from my lungs. I collapsed in a heap.

A flash of light exploded from Melt, illuminating Bob. Blood ran down his face as he swung the massive blade. What scared me, however, was that the light went out so quickly. It was as though he had attacked into the darkness and the darkness had, quite simply, swallowed it.

I crawled under my desk and huddled there. Another bloodcurdling scream ripped through the darkness followed by a wet-sounding thump. As the scream faded I strained to hear something, anything but silence.

My hands trembled, and I clenched and unclenched them nervously. There was no sound besides my own desperate breathing. I clamped one of my hands over my mouth to stifle the noise.

I looked around but could see nothing from my vantage point until a single spark began to dance around on the end of a cigarette.

“Ahh, smoking is truly one of the most splendid vices, but isn’t that what a vice really is, a deplorable pleasure?” A strangely familiar, deep, throaty voice tore through the silence as the cigarette was flicked. It landed in the middle of the room, a spark in the darkness.

“Isn’t it odd how your kind classifies things? For instance, dark is seen as bad and corrupt, while white is seen as pure and safe. How very odd it is when you consider that darkness is the absence of all things while light is the whore of color. It’s as though the light could not be satisfied to contain just one color but felt an insatiable need to own them all. So is that how it is? The most pure is the most corrupt?”

The lights came on, and I gagged. The vampires were staked to the walls. Alive. They struggled against the thick spikes of wood that had been shoved through their feet, hands, and chests. Entrails and other thicker bits littered the floor around them.

Caleb stood looking at me with that same dopey grin he always used. His blond hair was splayed out at impossible angles that had to be cultivated with an enormous amount of product. A white lab coat covered in neon splotches shielded the rest of his body from view. I took a step back, and my breath caught in my throat.

“Caleb…” My voice came out in a whisper, more mouse than lion. I’m not sure what sort of response I expected, but Caleb just stood there, staring at me and grinning. Now, looking into his face, it hit me like a punch in the stomach. I shook my head, hoping that my face wasn’t as flushed as it felt, and took a step toward him, my left hand reaching toward his face. He smiled at me and winked in that carefree way that had made butterflies flutter in my stomach. I could almost feel the touch of his lips, the warmth of his breath. I shivered as the thought tightened things low in my body.

He smirked again, took a few steps back, and tapped a pack of cigarettes to his palm. He withdrew a solitary unfiltered cigarette with his teeth. He sucked on the end for a moment as if he was pondering some great spiritual truth, and then lit it with a snap of his fingers. After incessantly puffing until it was just a nub in his hand, he nonchalantly flicked it to the ground.

“Caleb doesn’t smoke,” I said the words before I realized they’d left my mouth. I took a quick step back, my breath caught in my throat. Something was very wrong with this picture.

He stepped to the side, smothering the cigarette with the heel of his boot, and bent to pick up the fallen Demonslayer. His eyes glowed with a cool sort of fire that hadn’t been there a second ago. Darkness coalesced around his features, wrapping around him like a cloak.

His face was very near Logan’s now, and with a queer little smile, he blew the smoke at the vampire. “So then, I suppose I should thank you for summoning me?” He paused thoughtfully and turned toward me.