The Wielder: Sworn Vengeance (The Wielder Series) (4 page)

I find us an extended stay hotel and I get us a couple of suites. I keep five thousand in cash under the spare wheel well just for times like this. I figure the phone is tapped and we need to lay low a few days just to ensure that we are presumed dead.  After that, I’d get in contact with the Protectorate and come in to a safe house somewhere.

This situation of course ma
kes Sheyliene very happy.  To her, my suite is the love nest, and she made sure everyone knows it. I didn’t have much say, then with her – who does? Pffif took much amusement at the whole situation, even asking me quietly at one point if I enjoyed being led around by my manhood.  If anyone but Pffif asked me that, I’d have to take offense – but I know he’s joking and just trying to get me to smile about it.

The news
on the TV is disturbing.  As best I can tell there was a terrorist attack in Christophe’s home town. Milan was a site for activity too, as was Frankfurt – a suicide bomber attacked the Holy Cross church, which I know to be a locus for the Order of Light.  It seems things are getting out of hand – rapidly.

I can’t help but believe that Maldgorath is firmly at the center of all this.  It’s just too
convenient. It is beyond just a feeling for me - I know it.

After two days of watching the world unravel on the news, I decide it’s time to head back home. Folks
are going to know I am alive anyway and there is stuff at home I want.  And I want to check on the “Hidden Eye” too.  It was really starting to take hold.

So, we pack up in the minivan and head back to New Orleans. But we don’t head straight for home.  I’m not that stupid.  Instead, I park us in a public lot about four blocks away. I instruct Shey and Pffif to
do recon first. 

T
hey take off and I’m left in the van with Arix, Sil and Hjuul in the far back. Vets is in the white, where she prefers to be for travel. Hjuul’s not big on conversation, but I’m still wishing he was up in front with me. Hag-Sil is being sulky, so she’s not talking.  And Arix can’t talk unless spoken to because of my compelling upon him.

I realize it’s time to let up on him.  He did do
quite well at the plant.  Maybe he’s trying.  But then, I remember how he so badly betrayed me.  I reach to my will and say “Arixtumin, you may speak freely now.  Thanks for  thinking clearly at the plant.”

Arix takes a deep breath.  “Thank you master, I exist only to serve you.”

That I know is bullshit. “Yea right Arix, all the same you did good.”

That gets a chuckle from my sorcerer, which is
unusual. He’s not the chuckling kind.

Shey and Pffif return and the
y say the coast is clear.  I fire up the minivan and away we go. I find the package with my new phone at the table by the elevator like Alistair promised. We make our way upstairs to the living quarters and I summon Vets back. “Ok everyone, pack your bags, we are going away for a while.”  Everyone understands and spreads out to pull their things together.

I collapse on the living area couch and consider our situation.  My contemplations are broken when I hear the elevator kick in and move downstairs.  Someone is coming.  I get up from the couch and reach into my bag from our outing and pull out my AA-1
2 assault shotgun.  I set it on my lap and make sure the magazine is full.

Then I yell out to my comrades. “Company incoming!”

I hear the elevator engage coming back upstairs and stand ready for a fight.  I hear it stop, the gate lift and then surprisingly the door bell rings.  Rather polite for a home invasion I think.

I nod to Arix to get the door.  He shrugs and walks to the door opening it without worry.  He’s probably warded to the gills.

At the door stands a slight girl, with bottle blonde hair and an overly happy smile. “Hello,” she says taking bead on me. “Lucrezia Calandriello would enjoy the pleasure of your presence this evening to discuss the recent events.  May I tell her you will come?”

I have yet to meet Lucrezia, but I know of her.  She is the head vampire for the Louisiana area. She oversees those vampires which hold to the accords with the
Protectorate.  It looks like I’ll get to meet her sooner than later.

“Thank you for such a kind invitation
,” I tell the girl. “Please let her know I will attend at some point this evening.”

She says her thank you’s and leaves. 

I look at Pffif and Shey.  “Coast is clear, eh?”

“The bloodsuckers be tricky
,” is Pffif’s response. “Sorry,” is Shey’s.

Hag-Sil steps up and with a sneer tells me there is no way I am going to a vampire’s nest alone. She stalks up and gently jabs a finger into my chest. “I am coming with you.  They won’t dare mess with you if I’m there.” She looks around the room. “Vampires. I can eat them right out of that dead flesh shell and they know it.”

Great, I have a date with a vampire and a succubus is going to be looking out for my well being.  Guess I should at least be happy someone is.

I pull the minivan into
the drive at Lucrezia’s huge mansion in the garden district. Silithes is with me along with Yayne, my holy sword.  I figure just in case things go bad, that sword will more than cancel out a vampire - or ten.

We are stopped at the door by the greeter, who says I must leave my weapon
behind.  I tell him to go pound sand.  That didn’t earn me a friend. But then a friend that looks at me as no more than a food source isn’t really a friend I care for.  He spouts some stuff about respect and honor and trust.

I just look at the undead bastard and tell him
, “She asked me to come.  I did.  You turned me away.  Thanks and you deal with it.”  Then I turn and head back to the minivan.  Hag-Sil is smiling, I think. I stride to the minivan.

“
Mr. MacInerny please wait, sir - please.” I stop and turn around.  Doorman vampire gives me a smile and holds up a finger as to say “one second, please” Then he ducks inside.  A few moments pass and he returns.

“Please enter and be welcome!” he sounds
off invitingly. I look to Hag-Sil, who scrunches her haggy-craggy face at me.  Okay I get, we are in – but hardly safe.

So we enter and are guided to a room with fine sliding wooden doors.  The doors are opened wide and there is Lucrezia in all her pale, beautiful glory. 

“It is well past time we met, Arthur MacInerny” Lucrezia purrs to me, gliding across the room to meet me. Hag-Sil interjects herself between us and stops Lucrezia in her tracks.

“No
huggy kissy, bitch,” proclaims Hag-Sil.  “Keep your distance”

Lucrezia stops and smiles, looking at Hag-Sil. “Arthur, you are a kinky boy to have your succubus take that form for your pleasure.”  Then she pauses and turns back to me.  “Oh, that’s right, your succubus is such a failure she’s never had you. I imagine that her appearance is just your punishment upon her fo
r being such a poor example of Cubati.”

Oh crap, she’s just basically called Sil out.  I brace myself for having to pull Sil back, but there’s no response.  Just Hag-Sil glaring at Lucrezia
through cataract eyes.  Lucrezia smiles at us both.  “Please sit Arthur,” she tells me, pointing to a chair in front of her desk.

A
reasonable request, so I do.  

I look across the desk at the vampire governor of our area.  She takes her seat and looks at me inquisitively.  “We are most surprised that you are alive after the explosion, not that we had advance knowledge of anything…”

That was good for a harrumph from Hag-Sil and a cock of my head toward Lucrezia.

“So,” she says in a upbeat voice, “given that he, who was bringer of the light in our last lost battle is now gone, we wish to check in with the new bringer of light on his point of view of the latest developments.”

I am confused
totally by that rambling statement, so rather than play some game like I know what’s going on, I just call it for what it is.

“What in the hell are you talking about
Lucrezia?”

“Oh my
,” she says, feigning compassion, “You are not aware of what has transpired.  Let me bring you up to speed. Grey Lightbringer is dead.  He released Ahtsag Znuul before his death who now walks amongst us unbound.  The media is focused on the wanton destruction in Libourne, when to us it is obvious the real target was Master Lightbringer’s Chateau nearby. The Paladin order had its headquarter suicide bombed in Frankfurt. I understand an attempt was made against the Sword himself as well in Milan.  That ended poorly they say. And oh yes, someone apparently attempted to take you out of the picture too.”

She steeples her fingers and casts a knowing look laced with a small smile at me. “I think that about covers events to date.”

Without even thinking about it, I mutter “wow.”  I feel Sil’s hand on my shoulder in an attempt to steady me.

  “So, Arthur
,” Lucrezia says. “It is said you can bring forth the light too and you did against Dire Lord Maldgorath.  Our contingent wishes to know where you stand on these matters.”

That totally takes me off guard.  I am
still stunned. Sil steps in during my silence. “You want Arthur to show you the light, now? Really?”

Lucrezia
, un-phased says, “A small showing would be helpful.”

I look across the desk at Lucrezia and know my poker face is going to be an issue.  So I tell mostly the truth. “I’ll be happy to show you, but I have two speeds
: ON and OFF.  Let me show you what I can.”  I hold up my hand, point it towards her and close my eyes.

She
jerks back and protests urgently.  “That is not necessary!”

I drop my hand.  An
d I look across the desk at her, “What else can you tell me Lucrezia?”

She tells me that she doesn’t think the Grace is behind it.   She tells me the vampire community is bristling with the death of
Grey Lightbringer and some are now questioning the accords.  She tells me that she, of course, is not willing to break the accords just because Grey is gone, but adds she does not have voice for the entire vampire community.

Then Sil
interjects in her croaking voice. “He may be gone, but Arthur still stands and can bring the light too.  And he has me, who can devour any of you. Just try me little phage.  I may only be a summonling, but I am a summonling of true Cubati. What good is your dead flesh when I devour the you from within that flesh?”

Lucrezia bow
s her head at that slightly and I can tell she wants to retort.  But she does not.

Instead she just sa
ys matter of factly - “Bitch”

That
had to make Hag-Sil smile, I can just tell, though I couldn’t see her as she is standing over my shoulder.

“Well Lucrezia,
I would say this has been a good meeting.  I learned much, and so have you – at least of my ignorance.  So, what now?”

Lucrezia smiles at me and says
, “Let’s just stay in touch then, don’t you think?”

After
agreeing to that - Sil and I make way our out of the house.

We get in the minivan and Hag-Sil turns to me. “You would have let that bitch kiss you
on the cheek and they have all sorts of crap in their saliva that would just fuck you up and make you gaga eyed and ready for the picking.”

“Well, thanks
for looking out for me Sil.”

That didn’t get a response, just her
haggy-ness looking sullen out the window away from me.   At least that’s easier than the constant “don’t you want me?” or “Take me now!” I usually have to deal with.

Or so I
think. 

The drive back is an exercise i
n tense, uncomfortable silence.

When we g
et back I try to thank Sil again for looking over me at Lucrezia’s house.  It wasn’t warmly received, but not all together rejected either.

I plop down on the sofa and figure that phone silence doesn’t matter anymore. Lucrezia is apparently very plugged into many different sources and I am sure that my survival is making headlines in her network.

I click on the new phone and wait a moment.  The phone beeps and I take a look – 2 text messages and 19 voice mails.  The texts are from Greg, the Sword of Balance.  The first one reads “CYA.”   The next one reads “DTA.”  Good to know that now.  Cover my ass and don’t trust anyone.  Nice.

Six of my voice mails are from Karen.  She sounds panicked.  She sounds confused. She sounds hurt.  I have two messages from
Christophe, one letting me know he and family are OK – the other asking if I am.

The others are from The
Protectorate and one from Chanika Jones wanting to know where the hell we are and why we are missing our shifts at the Hidden Eye.

Karen is my first call and priority.  Grey was like a father to her.  And best I can
tell Znuul was like a brother.  Her world just collapsed and she took time to check on me. 

She answers the call on
the third ring.  “Arthur, you’re alive?”

I bring her up to speed with events on my end and apologize for not having called sooner than I have.  Then I ask the important question, “Karen, how are you holding up?”

That gets a sigh and I think she is holding the phone away.  My guess - she is crying. Her voice returns “I am not doing well Arthur. Not well at all. My father is dead, Arthur.  My real father, not my biological one. There are rumors swirling that he had something to do with it.  That he planned for Grey’s death.”

By “he” I know she means
Ahtsag Znuul. “Have you heard from him” I ask. “Has he tried to make contact?”

“No” she says quietly. “He has hidden himself completely. I can’t reach him, scry him or sense him at all.  Why would he hide like that?” The phone goes away again and this time I distinctly hear her crying, sobbing.  I wait patiently for her to return. I know how loss feels.

I know how betrayal feels too.

She
returns and changes the subject deftly. I don’t blame her.  We talk briefly about Maldgorath’s appearance and possible involvement in these events.  She advises me to find a safe house.  I agree and promise to call Edgar Tinkerman, the head of the Techno-Mage Guild here in the USA.

Then I turn the conversation back, gently
, saying “Karen, we’re going to get to the bottom of this.  Just because Znuul is hiding doesn’t mean he’s guilty, we both know that.  But we also know…”

“Yes
,” she says. “We do know that. I just can’t imagine him harming father, much less having him killed. I may be too close to see Arthur.”

We part ways on the
phone; I make sure to tell her that she can call anytime and share anything.  I think she appreciated it.  I hope she calls.  What she’s going through should not be dealt with alone.

I return my other calls in workman like fashion and send Greg a return text “I LIVE
, AGAIN.”

I already gave the order to pack, so all that’s left is to pack me.  That and deal with an uncomfortable issue.

My soul stealing, pleasure wielding, mind controlling succubus – Silithes.  I haven’t been straight up with her. I was going to explain to Shey when I told her Sil was the reason that I couldn’t be her that it was for fear of myself. Fear of my former addictive nature. Fear of becoming the person I was before the power injected into me from my summonlings sobered me up.  I never had a chance and honestly I was kind of glad Shey flew of the handle. I don’t want to share all that.

I don’t like admitting my faults.  Not in the least.

Now here I am sitting on the sofa ready to take us to a safe house and the only reason that is, is because Vets and Sil saved our bacon at the plant.  And Sil saved my bacon again with the vampires, or at least saved me from being manipulated.

She’s gone hag-wild because she thinks I look at her as ugly on the inside. Which isn’t fa
ir. She just is who and what she is - an apex predator. I’m the one scared of the monsters so well locked away inside my head. I lean forward and rest my face in my hands.  Do I confess my shortcomings? Do I let it ride? Do I open myself up to her if I do tell her the reality of my fears?

I feel a wet nose on my arm and know immediately who it is – Hjuul. I raise my face up from my thoughts and smile at my hound, now in his smaller wolf form. He cocks his head at me and gives me a “
rrrr.”  Then he puts a paw on my knee.  Translation: “You Okay?” I wrap his big wolf-neck in a hug and give him a scratch under the jowls as I break the hug.

“You’re the best, my friend” I tell him. His tail is waggling enthusiastically.

“I’ve got to go do something I don’t want to buddy,” I tell him standing up. He sits and nods his head at me.  He has no idea of what I’m off to do, but that’s his way of showing support and trust unconditionally.

I love my hell-hound.  He loves me too.

I quietly walk down the hall to Sil’s door.  Before knocking, I set up my mental defenses bringing up a psychic wall that is fueled and reinforced by my will. Sil’s neuromancy is strong.  The last time I opened myself up to her unthinkingly, she literally had me in the palm of her hand in seconds.  Was it not for her relinquishing her control, I would have been her sex toy.  It happened just that fast and just as fast she let me go.  It was a big moment in our “relationship.”  For her it was confirmation that she was desirable; apparently a very big deal to her.  For me, it showed me that she was capable of being more than just a very effective predator.

I knock on the door and her raspy hag-voice tells me to enter.  She’s sitting on the sofa in
an unflattering grey sweat suit, sketching in one of her books.  I’ve never seen inside one of her books. She goes as far as to keep locks on them.  But I did see a sketch she did for Jerry and Marge of them and the babies.  It was amazing.  The succubus has some art skills.  To break the ice I ask her what she’s drawing.  She tells me it is none of my business and closes the book, setting it on the table.

“What?” she asks looking at me
with those cataract laced eyes and craggy face.

“Umm…  Would you come over here please?”

She stands and walks over to me, glaring through the cataracts.

I take a deep breath, check my mental defenses again and move forward to her wrapping her in a hug that is not returned. 
Then I spill it.

“Silithes, I have to come clean. I don’t think you’re terrible. I
worry I am. I’m afraid of what you have to offer, because I don’t want to become the person you never got to know - the person Maldgorath selected as his tool. I’m afraid of becoming an addict again.  I’m afraid of the ugliness in me, not you.”

I feel her soften in my hug and then she returns
the hug. She takes a deep breath and pulls me in closer.  I feel a rippling in my arms and her head moves from my chest to my shoulder as her spine straightens from the hunched over hag. I prepare my defenses for the kiss on the neck and what will follow.

But instead she steps away, revealing va-va-voom Sil again
in the drab grey sweat suit and looks me straight in the eyes.  “That couldn’t have been easy.  You are a prideful man.”  A small smile crosses her now beautiful features. “But if you want me to forgive you, you’ll have to give me a kiss.”

Crap sticks.

I take a deep breath and tell her “Okay.”

Sil has told me on many occasions that a succubus can tell a lot through a kiss. 
We had a pretty juicy one the time she pounced on me and she often reminds me of what she sensed through it. So, I clear my mind and then think of all things I can good of Sil. I think of her love for my son, his wife and their children. I think of her releasing me from her grasp, because she knew it wasn’t right.  I think of her saving us all by sweeping Vets and the bomb to wing away from the plant. I think of her looking over me with the vampires, despite being royally pissed at me. I distill these feelings into a very real appreciation for my Silithes.

I take my hand to her cheek and stroke it, then grasp her gently and kiss her cheek softly and with as much meaning as I can, thinking of the good things
in her.

“Oh, Arthur” was her breathless response as she collapsed
slowly back into me to with a hug, her head draped over my shoulder.  “Why would you do that to me?”

I brace myself for the onslaught of desire that is sure to come next.

But instead she releases the hug and takes a step back, her hands still on my sides and tears welling in her eyes. “That was a most perfect kiss Arthur,” she then takes a hand and wipes the tears from her eyes.  “That’s playing dirty, you know,” she says with a sly smile.

“I wasn’t playing
,” I tell her and it’s the truth.

“Walls up Arthur
,” she says, her code for my mental defenses, then falls into me for another hug.

I am prepared.  But there’s no sizzle, no crushing desire, none of it outside of the normal
almost imperceptible tingle that comes from any physical contact with her. She reaches up and plants a warm kiss on my cheek and steps back taking my hands from her waist into her own.

Her eyes meet mine and there’s none of the come hither or hunger that she’s so very good at throwing around. What I sense is appreciation.

“Arthur MacInerny, I am not going to slut this perfect moment up like I always do.  I refuse.”  She smiles and her grip on my hands gets a little tighter. “So,” she continues, “You need to go. I am going to change into clothes more befitting the seductive creature that I am.  If you don’t go, I will end up tarting this moment up and then it will be your fault.” She releases my hands and makes a gesture to shoo me away.

I
make my way towards the door when she stops me in my tracks with seven little words. “I think I love you too Arthur.” I turn around and she points to her cheek and throws me a wink, “Now shoo… go on, get out.”

I step out into the hall and wonder who’s really playing dirty here.  She’s either really stepped
up her game, or I just really stepped in it.