Magestorm: The Reckoning (2 page)

3

Dhane stepped out into the cool air and took a deep breath with his eyes closed.
 After holding it for several seconds he slowly exhaled as he opened his eyes.  Terrance stepped out and gave him a slap on the shoulder.

“What say we get you home before you cause any more trouble?”

The mage glanced over at the wide grin on the werewolf’s face, and he couldn’t help but laugh a little.
 It was completely unexpected to see him again, and he was amazed by the perfect timing.  Good thing they got past the little issue of Dhane putting a spell on him the first time they met.

“What brings you to these parts, Terrance?
 I thought you guys are supposed to stay away from us cursed magic folk.”

“I’ve actually got a couple of reasons.
 First, I have a box in the car of Lila’s possessions Tyler got from the hospital when he checked out.  I thought you or Samantha might want them.”

They
walked over to a used blue pickup truck and climbed inside.  Terrance handed over the box and started the truck.  Unable to open it and reopen the wounds he had been trying to block out, Dhane just stared at the box.

“Which way to your cabin?”
 Terrance tried to take his mind off things.

“North, I think.”

The werewolf
flashed a confused look before he threw the truck into drive and they started off.  Hopefully they weren’t driving off aimlessly.  Within a few minutes, Dhane realized where they were, and he pointed them down a couple of dirt roads to the secluded location of the cabins, well within the woods.

Samantha was peering out the window carefully when the two men got out of the truck.
 Living in constant fear had made her very cautions.  Quickly she recognized the men, however.  Bursting through the door, she was clearly furious about something.

“Dhane!
 Where the hell have you been?”

“I went for a walk.”

“All
damn day?  We wanted to search for you, but we didn’t even know which directly you went.  For all we knew you were lost in the woods, or worse.”

Dhane walked past her and into the cabin, carrying the box of Lila’s things, and not saying another word.
 The witch turned her glare to Terrance.

“Was he out with you this whole time?
 Is it too much to ask for a little common courtesy from you guys?”

“Sorry.
 I came across him at a diner, trying to figure out how to pay a check with no money.  I think it’s probably good that he ventured out, but his head still isn’t straight.  Keep an eye on him.”

“That’s precisely what I’m
trying
to do.”

She had lowered her tone, but the anger was still there.
 There was pain mixed in, probably of not knowing where Dhane had gone, or if he was in trouble.  Too much loss lately was weighing on the lot of them.

“Listen, I come with some unpleasant news.
 The vampires really are hunting for you, for all of us.  They have hunting parties everywhere, working a grid search, spiraling outwards.  You guys need to be careful, especially with Amber in your group.  Warn Cassandra.”

“Why don’t you come and tell Cassandra yourself?”

“I don’t dare stay long.
 Two of us here is too much werewolf blood in one place.  They’ll home in if I don’t get out of here.  All of us are staying clear of each other as much as possible.  I haven’t seen Xander or Tyler recently, but we’re staying in touch.”

Terrance looked around, peering into the darkness in the forest.
 The thought of a nervous werewolf made Samantha queasy.  Maybe it would be best for him to leave quickly, before they were in real trouble.

“I’ll
pass on the message right away.  How are the others?”

“Xander and Nicole are staying way
down south. Xander does have Tyler making occasional trips near Thauma, then leaving an obvious trail towards the east.  The hiding makes his skin crawl, though.  Really, it does for all of us.  We just have to keep focused right now.  It’s all about survival, and hopefully things turn around before long.”

“Thank you, Terrance,” Samantha hugged the werewolf and he gave a sad smile in return.
 “You really are a good friend to us.  I hope the day comes that we don’t have to hide from one another.”

“I only wish I could do more.
  Stay strong.”

He climbed back into his pickup truck, gave
one last wave, and pulled back down the road.  Once he was out of sight, Samantha looked into her cabin to check on Dhane.  Sitting quietly at the table, he was staring at a small box he had carried in.

Do I even want to know what’s in the box?

Deciding it was best not to ask, at least for now, she hurried up the path to the other cabin, eager to fill in Cassandra so they could decide if they needed to move or not.
 She was completely unaware of the three sets of hungry eyes watching her.

4

“We should take her, in the darkness,” the vampire in the dark red spandex shirt said as he nearly drooled on himself.  “She looks tasty.”

“No, she would cry out and lead the others to us before we could finish her.”

The vampire wearing a long leather trench coat picked at his teeth with a toothpick.
 He was the leader of this group of hunters due to his calm nature and evil, calculating mind.  The other two didn’t even question his orders.

“Instead we take the mage, all alone in his cabin.
 Then, we wait until she returns and ambush her.  Then we’ll deal with the others in that distant cabin.  Pick them off one by one; this will be easy as pie.”

“Heh heh, I like pie,” the tall lean vampire in jeans and no shirt chuckled.

They carefully snuck up to the cabin and peered in through the windows.
 The young man inside was still staring at a cardboard box, oblivious that he was even being watched.  Satisfied that they could take him, three on one, the shirtless vampire scratched on a window furthest away from the front door.  Dhane heard the noise and, predictably, went over to investigate.

The front door burst open and the other two vampire
s charged in.  The wizard was startled as he spun around.  With his eyes wide he looked over the intruders.  He knew there was no escape from this, and expected a crippling fear to rise within.  Instead, he became utterly calm, like some kind of spell, a meditation spell maybe, had come over him.  Of course, there was no such thing as a meditation spell, so he wasn’t sure what this was.

“Hello there, mage.
 We’ve been hunting everywhere for you.”

“And now you’ve found me, bloodsuckers.
 What are you going to do about it?”

The third vampire entered the room
, they began to spread out and circle around, trying to surround him.  He closed his eyes and began whispering something inaudible to the others.  A sudden bite on his shoulder made him wince, but it didn’t stop him from speaking.  The vampires were surprised at how little he was fighting back.

The vampire with the crimson shirt had begun
working to drain him, enjoying the sweet taste of blood, when suddenly it changed.  Before the other vampires knew what was going on, the vampire had let go, fallen to his knees, and was coughing the blood back up.  It was black and smelled horrible, and he realized he was going to die.

Dhane looked toward the other two, no expression on his face.
 They weren’t sure what to do, but the one in the trench nodded for the other vampire to attack.  With a quick rush, he thrust the mage against the wall, forearm on his throat.

“Think you’re clever?
 You won’t when I rip your tongue out.”

Even though the vampire
was trying to cut off his oxygen, Dhane’s lips began moving again.  The forearm dug in harder, but it didn’t matter.  When the vampire looked down, he realized his opponent’s hand had reached inside the vampire’s chest.  With horror in his eyes, he looked up at the wizard and released his hold slowly and carefully.

“If there is reincarnation,” Dhane whispered, “I hope you remember this lesson: never get too close to
the great wizard.”

A tug
of his arm as he spouted the undoing spell of merging, he pulled his hand from the vampire’s chest, clutching the heart.  The creature dropped to the ground, dead.  Now there was only one left.  Tossing the heart over his shoulder, Dhane stepped forward, towards the remaining supernatural creature, spouting a few more spell words as he did so.

The vampire stepped back, waiting for the words to do something horrible to him.  The mage finished speaking, his eyes cold as ice, and a grin crept across his face as he continued towards his foe.

“Next.”

Instead of
launching a desperate attack, the vampire ran from the cabin and into the woods, leaving Dhane alone in the cabin.  A quick check confirmed that the first vampire had died from the blood poisoning spell.  The room was safe for Samantha to return.  Now his focus returned to his remaining prey…

Tracking the creature was easy.
 The last spell he had spoken was the homing spell, which would lead Dhane right to him.  Running was pointless for the creature, as eventually daylight would come, and he would have to stop.  The mage didn’t have to stop, and wouldn’t stop, until the bastard was dead.

It took almost an hour to
reach him, but finally he did.  The idiot was hiding in a batch of poison ivy deep in the woods.  Using the merging spell, Dhane put the poison ivy literally into the creature’s skin.  It was tempting to leave him there, itching until he was insane and unable to break free of the leaves which were now imbedded in him.  But the vampire broke the vines and stood up.  The vines were hanging from it like some tree fairy or a comic book villain.  He ran from the approaching footsteps but didn’t get far.

This time, cries alone were enough to lead the mage to his would-be victim.
 At the edge of a cliff, clawing at his skin until it was bleeding, the creature begged for his life.  Dhane felt no sympathy.

“I’m only following orders.  Please let me go, I won’t tell them where you are.  You can trust me.  Elisabeth,
Charles, Sebastian, they are your enemies, not me.”

“You are a devil, like those you follow.
 Witches, werewolves, vampires, all working to take control of the world by any means possible.  Their time is coming, soon enough, and they’ll join you in hell.”

The vampire stumbled away
as the mage approached and lost his footing at the very edge.  He fell a couple hundred feet, screaming until he started bouncing against the cliff.  Finally he crashed through the trees.  A branch must’ve impaled him, because Dhane could sense his life had ended.

He sat on the edge for a while, listening
and thinking.  These vampires were dead, but surely they would be missed.  If the searches were being done systematically, as Terrance had said, then someone knew they were in this area and would undoubtedly come searching for them.  But perhaps there was a way to throw them off…

5

Samantha approached the cabin cautiously, surprised to see that the front door was wide open.  A glance inside revealed to her the carnage Dhane had left behind.  Two dead vampires, each was lying in a pool of his own blood.  Her heart raced as she carefully approached the door.  Her eyes darted all around the room for signs of danger, but the room was still.

“Dhane?” She called out
cautiously.

No answer.
 Instead of doing anything stupid like walking into an ambush, she turned and ran back toward the other cabin.  She reached the door, chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.  She beat on the door quickly, and glanced around behind her with wide eyes.  Then there was a scream in the distance and her heart dropped, her skin went cold, and she thought she might faint.

Was that another vampire?
 Was it Dhane?

The door opened and
Samantha pushed her way inside and slammed it shut.  Amber was startled at being knocked out of the way.  Her heart began to race and she had to calm herself.  It was close to full moon, so her ability to control her change was limited.  Claws formed briefly, but that was the extent of the flash of aggression.

“Samantha, what’s going on?”

Cassandra stepp
ed into the room from the shower, water still running inside.  Her hair was dry, so she hadn’t yet gotten in when she heard the ruckus at the door.

“
Vampires.  We’ve been found!”

“Oh God!
 Where’s Dhane?”

Samantha
stumbled backwards and nearly lost her footing, but Amber caught her and helped her sit on the bed.  It was difficult, but she managed to get her wits about her again and focus on telling Cassandra what was going on.

“I don’t know.
 There are two dead vampires in our cabin.  And... and I heard a scream from somewhere in the woods.  I just don’t know…”

“Jesus Christ, we have to go look for him.”

Amber was
back to her feet and naked in seconds, then transformed into a hairy beast of extreme power.  Out the door she stepped, sniffing at the air, and peering into the darkness for any signs of movement.  A rabbit was not far off to the right, and an owl swooped overhead.  The mage was not nearby, however.  Without waiting for the others, she vanished into the woods, hunting for signs of their friend.

Once she had dressed, Cassandra grabbed Samantha’s hand and they hurried out after the werewolf.
 It would be nearly impossible to find him out here at night, and they would be lost in no time.  To prevent that, she cast the homing spell on the cabin before continuing into the woods.

The two of them crept quietly through the woods, using the moonlight
to guide them and listening for any noises.  If was eerily quiet until a wolf’s howl replaced the silence. Samantha froze, her breath caught in her chest.

“Relax, Sam, I’m sure that was Amber.”

She nodded and let out the breath she had been holding.
 Cassandra was glad that worked, and just hoped she was right about that.  At least they could press on and hope Dhane was somewhere nearby.

Ahead the
y saw a wolf-like figure in the moonlight, standing at the edge of a cliff.  Cassandra knew instantly that it was her lover and marched ahead without fear.

“Any signs of him, Amber?”

“There’s something down there, at the bottom of this cliff.
 Something dead.  Dhane’s scent is here, but that doesn’t mean anything.  Stay here while I go check it out.”

They both nodded to the werewolf and sat down in the grass while Amber made her way around the cliff, finding ideal spots to climb down on.
 The witches waited nervously, expecting the worst.  Silent prayers went through both of their minds as they sat silently, waiting for Amber to return.  Of course, if the vampires, knew where they were, that also meant Elisabeth knew where they were, and it was probably about over for them anyway.  Surely reinforcements were on their way.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and finally, over two and a
half hours later, Amber returned.  Once she reached the waiting women, she changed back to human form and caught her breath as quickly as she could, the steep climb having been exhausting.

“It’s not him.
 It’s another vampire, dead.  Oh, and his fangs are missing.”

Amber
sat down between the two witches, and silence encased them once again.   Cassandra was stunned by Amber’s last statement.  Could Dhane really do something like that?  Samantha seemed to be in shock, afraid she had lost another friend in what had become a war which they were clearly losing.

As for Amber, there was only one thing going through her mind.
 Dhane was still alive, somewhere.  The question was, where?