Wilder Mage (19 page)

“What the fuck was that?” he said.

She patted the necklace and smiled. “Recruitment, my Imperator. It is fixed magic, something I worked up a long time ago to find the adepts that are not bonded. It causes great agony to those not bonded to me. I find them easily because of it. Now, we can cruise the hospitals and log the ones who come in.”

His skin crawled at the nasty smile Tiarra wore. “What kind of range does it have?” he asked.

Macy looked ill, her face green.

“About a two mile radius. Since the
tener unus
remains hidden, I feel the need for, shall we say, a bit of comedy? Let’s go,” she said and brushed her hands together, as if she had labored mightily.

Chapter Fourteen

A
fter her initial panic and horror at discovering her boss was a wizard, Sable learned two vital things about herself. She cared enough for Justus to consider spending the rest of her life with him. On the heels of that shock, came the definition of true panic when Justus’s eyes lost all focus and he dropped without warning.

His hoarse screams still reverberated in her mind; the sound of the agony that gripped him and drove him to his knees had torn through her. She barely caught him before he pitched forward, cradling his head before it hit the hard cement floor. The words he mumbled,
Bert, find Bert,
frightened her nearly as much as his groans.

A teenaged kid was the one Justus wanted? Not an ambulance or the McIntyres? Who were these people, anyway?

Sable used Justus’s cell phone, called a sleepy Bert out of bed, and then raced up the steps to fumble at the cellar’s magic portal, the brass knob. The fixed magic reacted to her touch, and the wall at the top of the stairs melted to show the main floor of the shop. She wavered there, wondering if she could find the entrance key on the antique side of the portal if it closed again. In the end, she decided not to take the chance and turned to sit on the top step leading down to the cellar. Behind her, the entrance shimmered and became the apparently impenetrable wall again.

On the floor at the bottom of the cellar, Justus twitched and mumbled, as if he was still in pain or dreaming of the agony. Unintelligible words came with the moans, and Sable felt ill. What good was magic if there was nothing she could do to help? She hugged her knees to her chest and bowed her head to cover her eyes. But she couldn’t stop the sounds from reaching her ears.

The familiar creak of the shop door jerked her to her feet. Before she could activate the portal, the wall melted and a solemn-faced Bert stood with the room of the shop behind him. Without speaking, he tucked a necklace into his shirt and brushed past her to rush down the steps. Behind them, the wall re-formed.

Bert silently looked down at Justus’s crumpled body. “What happened?” he asked.

“He screamed and dropped, holding his head like he’d gotten shot.” She shivered with the memory. “He said to call you.”

Something in her voice made the boy turn to her for the first time. Incredibly, Bert grinned. “Hell of a revelation, wasn’t it?” he said.

Who was hissing? Or wait, that would be me
, she thought.

Bert’s grin only widened. He put his hands under the wizard’s shoulders and nodded to Sable to go to Justus’s legs. “Let’s get him onto the cot there while we get our meetin’ and greetin’ done.”

After struggling to pick up and situate the long limbs, Sable decided weight wasn’t the only determining factor in hefting a limp body. Grunting gave way to the distinct sound of a snicker from Bert.

“There,” Bert said after folding Justus’s hands over his chest. From the wizard’s slightly parted mouth came a soft exhale. Bert grinned briefly and wiggled his eyebrows at Sable. “Where’s a pillow when you need one? The nice and deep kind that smothers nicely.”

Sable shook her head, refusing to give into Bert’s apparent ability to find humor in any situation. “What do we do with him now? Did he have instructions? Are we supposed to leave him down here or take him to the hospital? Should we call the McIntyres or his mom?”

Bert was shaking his head at all her questions. “Yep, nope, and hell no. First off, he’ll be okay in a few days. He told me this might happen someday if the Imperium came a callin’ and they set off this device within a certain range. Justus told me it happened before when he was alone in an apartment in another city. It’s like a…bird whistle—no, a dog whistle. The sonic kind that humans can’t hear. A magical kind that causes pain in anyone who isn’t bonded to the Imperium.”

He nodded at Justus, who seemed to be in deep sleep now, a mercy. As Sable watched, Justus sighed and his breathing deepened and slowed. The familiar curl at the ends of his mouth was gone as he relaxed in slumber. Also absent were the hard planes of his face and what she knew now was his constant struggle to control the magic that fought to overwhelm an adept.

“He’s known all along what I am and he let me stay?” she said.

Bert flicked a glance at her, all the humor fading. He said nothing.

“And he knew the Imperium wasn’t far behind?” she continued. “Yet he didn’t kick me out. Why?”

“I don’t know,” he said plainly. Then Bert chuckled. “But after your uber oops when he kissed you, I think the crux was about to be reached.”

“Uber…what?”

Bert grinned wider. “When he kissed you?”

Her mind blanked for a moment. “He, um, told you?”

“Obviously, dudette. I am totally human, you know. Your magic sent up a signal, and the Imperium musta been on the stick because here they are. He said you gave away your location. That flare killed any warding he did to protect you.”

Stunned, all Sable could do was stare down at the quietly sleeping man. “I didn’t know,” she said softly.

“Must have been some kiss is all I can say.”

Embarrassment warred with her irritation. The latter won out. “All right, so,” Sable said. “What do we do now? Can we leave Romeo down here?” She ignored Bert’s guffaw. “Or take him to a hospital? What?”

Bert shook his head. “No hospitals or medical staff. Might as well bury him down here before we do that. The Imperium is after their ‘harvest’ of people with magical talent, and they’ll be watching the hospital. Nope, he’s got it covered. Got a hidey-hole all figured out. Upstairs, his apartment.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. Won’t people drop in on him, check his rooms?”

“He put a cover, a shielding over the place. All I have to do is touch this to his hand.” Bert pulled out the chain from around his neck. It had an elaborate silver filigree key at the end. “And press the whatis outside his apartment door, and the magic is released. It’s a failsafe. Something he dreamed up. But with you around, you can do the same thing. We don’t need him.”

At that moment, Justus mumbled, and their eyes jerked to the prone figure, his legs off the edge of the too short cot. The cellar wasn’t drafty, but it did harbor the musty, old scent of unused things left too long in attics and storage rooms, that of slowly disintegrating paper, dried leather, and wood with dry rot.

Bert’s mouth turned down unhappily. “He said this might happen,” he said softly.

“What about his mom. Should we call her?”

“No, definitely no. Letting her in on this has no place in this venue. Not my idea, sister, so don’t snarl. That’s what Justus said. Don’t tell his mom. I’m not sure if she even knows what he is. It is absolute prime that we don’t tell his mom or take him to a hospital. Better to leave him down here than let them catch him again.”

“Again. You mean the Imperium caught him once?”

“Yes. Or at least, I guess. I don’t know. He wouldn’t talk about it a lot, as if it was painful or something. I don’t know. All I know is, he said no doctors. He said it would take some time, but he would come out of it after a few days. Until then, it’s like being half-asleep, he said. Like going through some kind of a recovery.” Bert frowned, and then his face cleared. “Reboot, that’s what he said, like a computer. His mind needs to reboot. He can hear some; follow orders if we yell enough.

“Hey,” Bert hollered. “Justus, sit up for me. Come on, man, sit up. Here you go. Up now.”

And as she watched, her heart thumping, Justus’s eyes fluttered and he moved slightly, groaned, and then sat up. He swayed, and then his eyes closed and he leaned back against the wall behind the bench.

“See, you just gotta keep after him, yell into his ear until it gets past the spell that snookered him.”

The black chain with the muddy-colored stone had slipped from his shirt and lay on his chest. She reached out, took the pendant into her hand, and gasped. As soon as her fingers touched the warm stone, she felt the release of a thread of magic, and without knowing how, she knew she had vanished from the senses of the other mages. She finally understood how he had cloaked himself. “Fixed magic,” she muttered quietly. “They…I…can’t feel him while he wears this stone.”

Bert nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. Something his dad gave him a long time ago. It hides him, he said, from the Imperium. The other wizards.”

She fingered it for a moment and then sighed as she released it, wishing she had one like it. As it left her fingers, she felt a tendril of energy reach out and caress her palm. And with that, she knew the fixed magic was still protecting her from discovery, shielding her even now, when what she wanted most was to run like a scared rabbit.

“It won’t last for long, this warding stuff. I guess he has to renew it every now and then. He did that to some object at the McIntyres’ house, something in the garden, but he didn’t tell me what it was. It was to protect you from the hunters. He isn’t much for using his magic. Says it’s a corrupting influence, so he only used it in small ways to help you and keep you safe.”

“So, what’s the next step?” Sable asked.

On cue, Justus slowly drooped to one side and slithered down the wall. His head landed face-first into the mattress, but the rest of his limp body draped messily over the edge.

Bert laughed. “Okay, honey bun, let’s get you home.” He rolled Justus into a sitting position.

With Bert shouting at Justus and using more than a few curse words, they got Justus into a shambling forward motion. His head lolled and wobbled, but stayed attached to his neck. With hands locked around Justus’s waist and his heavy arm hanging limply over her shoulders, Sable helped Bert get the wizard up the stairs. More than once, she wondered if they would all tumble and land back down in the cellar.

“You gotta tap the brass thingy,” Bert said.

“I know,” she said.

The wall melted into the room of the shop. Bert jerked his head toward the office. He cajoled and commanded Justus across the floor, every word said in sotto.

“Okay, a little bit farther. Yeah, there we go, one foot, now the other foot…there you go, right. No, no, stand up,
stand up
. Damn it, you weigh a ton.”

She had never entered the plain door leading from the office to Justus’s rooms above the shop. When another flight of stairs greeted her, Sable groaned.

“Aw, come on. We can do it. Just takes a little fortitude,” Bert said. He poked Justus in his side. “Up! Wizard, up,” he shouted.

“Not a wizard,” Justus mumbled.

Sable nearly dropped her side of the load. For a moment, Justus’s eyes opened and he seemed to look around with some awareness. He narrowed his eyes at Sable before shaking his head, as if trying to clear it.

“We’re here?” Justus asked thickly.

“Yep, honey bunny,” Bert said. “Not far to go now.”

The three of them nearly toppled over together as they entered the apartment, slamming Bert into the doorframe. The teenager groaned, but managed to hold on to Justus as he righted himself.

“Okay, Sabe, let’s get him into his bed there, then he is all yours,” Bert said.

“What? What the hell does that mean? He was yours long before he was mine.”

“Strange way of putting that,” he said.

Sable sputtered as they half-walked, half-dragged Justus to a rumpled bed alongside the wall. “You know what I mean. I’ve only known you…him…for a couple of months, and there is nothing in my job description that covers hiding my boss from the boogeyman.”

“Yeah, well, you’re both wizards, so I guess that makes it your problem.”

“Not a wizard.”

Bert looked at her strangely. “He says that too.”

She glanced at him. “I mean, I’m not a full wizard.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told.”

Without fanfare, they dropped Justus onto the bed. Sable huffed a breath, then stood looking around.

His rooms were about a quarter the size of her apartment. A small bathroom with a shower and smelling of Ivory soap was at one end of the room. Along one wall, a half-sized refrigerator and single-bowl sink matched the spare décor of the room. A hot plate sat on the counter with a coffee maker and paper towels.

It was tidy, neat, as if the owner expected visitors.

“See,” mumbled a disembodied voice from the depths of the bed. “Told ya.”

She ignored Justus and turned to Bert. “How did you know, anyway? I mean, you don’t have the talent. So why did he tell you?”

“He didn’t really tell me. I kinda found out,” Bert said. “I was outside the shop. He was trying to move some shelves, and a jar fell over and busted. I heard him cuss, then pieces of the jar went flying back together, and the thing was sitting there, looking like it had never been broken.

“He looked up, saw me with my nose plastered against the glass, and he had the strangest look on his face, like he’d eaten a lemon or something, all scrunched-up-like.” He laughed. “From then on, I pestered him until he told me the whole story, about his magic stuff and life. And after a while, he even told me about the Imperium, your little exclusive club.”

“Amazing,” Sable said. She gestured to the bed. “Now, what do we do with him?”

“Be fine. Go home.” A hand rose from the bed, waved vaguely in their direction, and then disappeared again. A soft snore came from the bed.

Sable looked at Bert, who shrugged again.

“He’ll be okay,” Bert said. “That’s how he set it up, but before I forget.” He pulled the chain with the key over his head and handed it to her. “You’ll need this to get in and check on him sometimes. Touch this to the doorknob leading up the stairs from his office and no one will bother him. They’ll shy away and won’t know why.”