Mage of Shadows (2 page)

Two-Bit had been about four feet from me when I reached out and pulled him towards me, so even at this point in my training I had advanced a few steps further from where I had begun as a young teenager. Now hopefully with a better understanding, that brings us back to the matter at hand.

My magical shove hadn't been as strong as I had expected it to be. Chalk it up to nerves, or misjudging how much my combatant weighed, but it didn't really matter. The surprise of adding another 'opponent' to contend with had done the rest. He had swiveled to look behind him instead of dealing with what had been the threat all along.

Me.

I loosed the lighter within my right palm to fall between my fingers, fiddling with it for a moment to gain the correct grip on it. Then with a practiced click, the lighter flared to life and I breathed in deep as I pictured the flame in my mind. Its reddish hue flickered within my central focus, as real there as it was in the outside world of its true existence. Two-Bit was beginning to stumble back around to face me once more, confused by what appeared to be a seemingly invisible ally assisting me.

The flame needed to grow, larger, stronger. To concentrate it required my attention, but I was well practiced with calling fire… of course, not in battle conditions. That was what this was for, to practice. Or so I told myself at the time.

The pinprick of light grew as I drew in oxygen, guided by the magical field I could control at will. Two-Bit stared in wonder for a moment, before wonder gave way and fury contorted his features. He roared at me, a response to an opponent he couldn't understand, and charged to cover the short distance between us.

My heart thudded, the mammalian instinct of fight or flight still deeply ingrained within my subconscious. The heightened awareness of battle flooded into my mind and body in those milliseconds and my ability to concentrate the flame instinctively increased with that awareness. The now baseball sized flame grew in response to the torrent of power I suddenly fed it, licking at my hand and superheating the lighter in my grasp.

I yelped in surprise and tossed the now monstrous flame away from me towards my assailant. It wasn't a ball of fire that had met Two-Bit's lumbering approach, but a wall of flame that overtook him in its hunger to exist, sending him tumbling to the ground in a thrashing mess of limbs. His roar of anger had turned to one of excruciating pain.

I watched him roll around, slamming heavy palms against his burning torso in an attempt to stifle the flames that were eating through his clothes, spreading with a manic hunger towards his flesh. I immediately went to help as much as I could. This time when I called upon my abilities, I used it to draw the flame away from the thug. The most troublesome thing was dealing with the fire's ability to spread in an instant, and it took too many long precious seconds to draw it all away completely with my limited skills. Fire was my best element, but it was heady to control even on the best of days in the best of circumstances.

Two-Bit's screams and thrashing never ceased the whole time, though he became deadly quiet just as I had pulled the last of the brutal flames from his torso. I sat there beside his ruined body, staring with muted horror at my handiwork.

The fire's progress had been slowed by my intervention, but he was still left with severe burns, his torso was mangled and charred where the wall of fire had hit first and hardest. The acrid smell of charred flesh made my stomach rebel uncontrollably and I had to take several huffing breaths to try and calm it, only somewhat successful in the endeavor.

If not for his short, rasping gasps for air, I would have thought him dead and myself a murderer. He may have cornered me here, but it was I who let him. I goaded him into this fight by entering his gang's territory under the guise of 'practice.'

With no small amount of revulsion and guilt, I put on my cotton gloves and padded the body down. I found a wallet in the back pocket, aged and tattered. I found twenty five dollars there, and ignored the credit cards. I then systematically began to search his unconscious pal One-Bit, who had lay forgotten in the corner against the wall I had telekinetically shoved him into. He had even less money on him, however. I pocketed the fifteen dollars with a scowl.

I could claim the need to practice but the fact was I nearly killed a man and only got forty dollars out of it.

Feeling sweaty despite the chilled September air, I flipped the hood off my head with a sigh. At least neither would be able to give a good description to whomever they took orders from. This was only my third time I had pulled something like this, but never had it gone so badly. It was probably because I had taken out the other guys who tried to attack me before they knew what hit them. This was the first time I had used elemental magic, rather than practiced simple force.

I hadn't expected the added complication to be so… deadly. I had to rethink my nightly ventures, killing someone definitely wasn't very high on my list of things I wanted to do while at away at college.

The sudden flash of light broke my dark thoughts. My head snapped to the mouth of the alley in panic. Ominous red and blue flashes greeted my vision, which had long since adjusted to the dark. My eyes stung, but I ignored that as sudden fear gripped my senses again. My heart began to quicken, the police had arrived. That was something I should have thought about with Two-Bit screaming when he was burned alive on the ground.

Stupid, stupid, stupid me. I think I deserved to be institutionalized back then.

My first instinct was to run as fast as I could past the cop car and hope for the best. However, the mouth of the alley was mostly blocked by the car and the two officers were already getting out from the front seats. A white flashlight shown into the alley and I quickly ducked into my hood and behind a lone rusted dumpster, heart beating like mad. I heard a murmured curse and footsteps creeping cautiously into the alley. They stopped not far from my position, illuminating the badly burned form of Two-Bit.

I peeked around the side of the dumpster to get a better look at the two, but only saw two roughly humanly proportioned shapes, shaded in the harsh brilliance of their two flashlights, currently focused on Two-Bit.

"Dios…" I heard the whispered prayer clearly, a woman's voice. The revelation did nothing to still my beating heart, "What the hell did this, Wilson?"

The taller figure, who I assumed was Wilson, responded with a shake of his head, "I have no idea… looks like someone went after this guy with a flamethrower."

Some hidden signal seemed to pass between the two of them, because they reached for their waists almost simultaneously and I heard the cock of two handguns. My heart began to beat even faster, if that were possible.

This was bad. This was really bad. It was one thing to go around beating on thugs; it's not like a crime boss would spread it around that a teenager took out two of his men. But cops had a system, they filed reports, and they noted things that didn't seem to match up. Worse, the government could be tipped off, and everyone heard the rumors online what happened to mages that the government caught wind of. Kidnapping, experimentation, death… I absolutely needed to find some way out of this.

Think, think… My mind twisted and ran in circles of panic, I was no better than a chicken with its head cut off.

You know how they say your mind sharpens under pressure? Sometimes that happens, other times it's a complete fail. I needed a plan, but all I could find was terror.

Wilson's flashlight began to sweep the alley, and I ducked my head back behind the dumpster.

The light stopped before it got to me, now shining on the rail-thin thug who I had affectionately named One-Bit. The illumination of the flashlight sparked a flash of insight in my thoughts and a rough plan began to form in my mind. With the possibility of escape came anticipation and excitement, I might have a real way out of this. I just needed to focus and will my magic to do the rest.

I held out both hands towards the skinny goon and concentrated, lifting them in the air and calling up the willpower to guide my magic. The body rose with my hands slowly and I felt the weight of it on my mind. It threatened to slip in my panic, but I held strong. This was far from the heaviest thing I had ever lifted. Concentrate…

"What in the hell…!" My peeking eyes saw Wilson raise his gun to track the floating body in front of him, mesmerized by the sight of it. With a quick begging prayer that he wouldn't fire at it, I hurled One-Bit's limp form with all my strength of will, and caused him to collide with the stunned cop which sent them both tumbling to the ground. His gun skittered away from him, thankfully unused. I had already almost killed one man tonight, another would have been even more weight on my already guilty conscience.

As soon as I had heard the gun clatter, I bolted from my hiding spot and ran past the downed cop. Then I moved behind the back of his female partner, my feet carrying towards the mouth of the alley which was still partially blocked by the cop car parked perpendicular to its entrance. I vaguely heard a sound of confusion behind me and felt the sudden light of the female officer's flashlight upon my retreating back.

"Freeze!"

I wasn't inclined to obey that order, especially as I had just overtaken the alley's entrance and flipped around the corner. Just as I turned it I heard a sharp crack follow behind me from within the alley. I nearly stumbled to the ground in surprise. Had she fired at me or was that a warning shot? Either way, she had just shot a gun in a civilian area! Just because it was Detroit didn't mean a person could just start shooting it up whenever they wanted, especially a cop.

Then again, in her mind I probably was a murder suspect who had just levitated and threw a body at her partner…

"Dammit!" I scrambled to my feet trying to keep low yet desperately move away from the crazy officer who had just fired her weapon at me.

I kept my ringing ears as open as possible while I ran away. I fairly flew down the boulevard along what I knew to be Rooter Street. I needed to lose the two cops and get back to my dorm. I glanced back just as the officers reached their squad car and could barely see them getting in amongst the flashing glare of their lights.

I wasn't too far from campus... I could definitely make it.

They could definitely see me; they probably had a description of a 5'10 male, thinly built and wearing long jeans and a black hoodie. I hope neither caught a glimpse of my face, pale, thin, angular. I had been wearing the hood in the alley, but that didn't cover everything.

The squeal of tires gave me notice of the impending chase. I had already formulated my next move, however. After only running full tilt for a minute and making a few twists and turns to try and lose the car behind me, I had reached the edges of campus.

I leapt over a low perimeter wall and cut across the shrubbery that ensconced the perimeter of the Pharmacy School and ran a line parallel to the large darkened building. I had hoped they didn't see me do it, but when I heard the slamming of car doors and shouted orders to freeze, I knew there was no such luck. They were following me onto the grounds where there was no road to continue driving on. In the distance I could hear the moan of more sirens, and came to the grim realization that they had called for backup. Hopefully I would be able to get away before any other cops caught up.

My heart hammered as I put pushed my body to the wall. I wasn't severely out of shape but I couldn't tell you the last time I had to run a mile… which was about the distance back to my dorm. The Pharm School was well off the main campus, so I had a good ways to go before I got to University Towers where I had lived. Already I was wheezing for breath and I wasn't even halfway there.

I really needed to hit the gym...

Even distracted by my whining body, I could tell they were gaining. Well, at least one of them was… I was pretty sure I only heard one set of heavy footsteps. Where was the-

The bushes beside me rattled ominously and I turned my head to stare in shock as the thinly muscled form of the female officer was suddenly atop of me, slamming me against the low set Plexiglas windows and concrete of the building. I let out a muffled groan and heard the safety of her gun flip once more. I didn't dare look up to meet the barrel's singular gaze.

"On your feet! You're under arrest!" Her voice was thick with tension, but I was pretty sure I heard fear too. I would probably be scared too if I was arresting someone who had torched one victim and threw a second around like a marionette just using his mind.

My smart mouth automatically retorted even with a gun in my face, "Under arrest huh?" I wheezed a shaky breath, "You and what army, lady? My mother hits harder than you!" I wondered how young I must have sounded to her, I had passed puberty, but my voice lacked the depth that came with a life that surpassed a couple decades.

"Get up!" It was another order but I could hear the surprise in her voice now. I wasn't her normal quarry. She might've even recognized that I was no more than a teenager, which would be bad for me.

Heavy padded footsteps against grass signaled the arrival of the other cop, Wilson. He raised his gun as well, and repeated his partner's demands.

Slowly, I acquiesced.

I pushed myself up from the grass, but I mentally prepared an assault that they couldn't see. Their guns pointed at me would make it dangerous, I couldn't defend myself and attack them at the same time so I had to do this right the first time. If they had been mages, they would have been able to sense me gathering power around them as our spheres would have been meshed very closely with them only five feet away.

As it was, they weren't mages, so they had no idea. It was one of the reasons that mages were so dangerous to Normals; they had no easy way to defend against a magical assault but to stop the mage before he finished unleashing his power. Even then, the Normal would have to be aware of how a mage operated to even be cognizant of the fact that they were always in danger from assault.

My knees trembled imperceptibly as I finished rising, head still down with my hands in the air in front of me, palms spread in what was meant to look like a pacifying gesture.