Black Magic (Black Records Book 1) Read online

  The trail of magic disappeared out the door, becoming more dispersed the closer it got to outside air currents, but it was thick enough for me to understand that the creature responsible for this had left the building only minutes before my arrival. With the amount of magic floating around in there, I could very well have walked right by the damn thing on the street below.

  I snapped off my mage sight and set to work immediately. I was willing to gamble on the creature not returning so soon after being here, but that didn’t mean I planned to hang around any longer than I had to. Starting at Xiang’s desk, I flipped through each of the books he’d been reading most recently. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the writing in the first book, and the second seemed to be about Ming Dynasty era hexes and curses. A third was filled with arcane runes that might as well have been Cantonese for how how non-existent my ability to translate them was.

  Most of the books in the area surrounding his desk looked like they hadn’t been disturbed in a while, so I went back to the room where Xiang had died. Stepping gingerly around his corpse, I scanned the spines of stacked books that looked to have been moved sometime during the last few days. From those I could read, I saw nothing that might be of use. I moved on to the desk jammed against the back wall. It was cluttered with boxes and scraps of paper, but there in the upper left corner, half covered by that day’s newspaper, was something that caught my eye.

  The title page identified it as a late sixteenth century translation of something called the Complet Compendium of Known Magickal Artifaktes. The thick tome was a veritable encyclopedia of charms, foci, weapons, and relics. Each page was densely packed with handwritten notes and surprisingly detailed sketches. It was as close as I would get to finding a Field Guide to Fuck-Off Powerful Magical Artifacts, and if there was to be any chance of me identifying the amulet at the center of this mess, this was probably going to be it.

  I stuffed the book into my backpack, swinging the bag over my shoulder as I turned back towards the door. I pivoted a millisecond too late to save myself from the flash of searing pain that streaked down my shoulder as some unseen blade tore through clothing and flesh.

  Crying out in pain, I stumbled forward and slammed into a pile of books that toppled to the floor beneath me. Rolling onto my back, I saw that what I’d guessed to be a steel blade was actually the single claw attached to the hulking beast standing over me. As much as my back stung from my wound, the timing of my backpack swing had saved me from what would most likely have a swift decapitation.

  The creature was like something out of a nightmare. Vaguely human in form, its rough gray hide was covered in a layer of fine light hairs. Inordinately large amber eyes glared at me from an elongated head, and its mouth was so oversized it might have been comical had it not been hanging open to show a row of teeth as sharp and flat as razor blades.

  What really worried me, and what I was pretty sure had cut a groove across my shoulder blade, was the two foot long knife-like appendage on the end of an arm that was at that very moment slashing down at me again.

  Exactly as I had in the alley with Felix, I reacted without thinking. I threw up a kinetic force barrier that deflected the creature’s powerful thrust off to one side. The sheer force of its attack pushed me back and away from the solid wall of energy I’d projected, knocking the side of my head into a shelf hard enough to make me lose vision in that eye for a few seconds. I licked my lip and tasted the iron tang of blood from where it had split open.

  I tried to blink life back into my eye while scrambling to mount a counter attack. Adrenaline coursed through me, and I sent power outwards, using it to latch onto the towering bookcase behind the creature. It took more effort than I’d anticipated to rip the shelves free from the wall, but I managed to pull them forward with enough force that they came crashing down on top of the beast. Without hesitation, the creature turned and sliced clean through the heavy wooden bookcase as it fell. Books flew everywhere, bouncing off my shield and littering the floor like a carpet of giant cardboard butterflies.

  When it turned back to me, head tilted to once side while it contemplated how best to pierce my magical shell, I knew I hadn’t even slowed the damn thing down.

  Aggressive magic wasn’t something I’d practiced beyond being able to defend myself against a rapist or mugger. This thing was considerably more dangerous than any slimeball I’d been worried about encountering in a dark alley at night, and I was pretty sure it was going to take more than a magical spark to its balls to get it to back off.

  The creature swayed a little, eying me with frightening intelligence. It seemed to have detected my force barrier, hanging back and searching for a weakness before attacking again. Every second I kept the energy shield up was another second my reserves drained from me, so I dropped the shield and lashed out immediately with a magnified version of the spark spell.

  An arc of energy jumped from my outstretched fingertips, sending what must have been a few thousand volts into the thing’s body. The creature howled. Its dark and raspy shriek was like nails on a chalkboard, and I was happy to see it at least recoiled from the attack even if it hadn’t been very seriously injured.

  The creature hunched in the corner, predatory eyes scanning the room for the best route of attack. It cocked its head sideways and homed in on Xiang’s body.

  I’d put my shield back up, compartmentalizing my thoughts so I could maintain it with minimal output. Even then, I couldn’t keep it up forever. I watched in horror as the creature took a loping step forward, stabbed Xiang’s limp corpse with its blade arm, then lifted the body over its head before hurling it at me.

  The weight of the body thrust me back again, but this time I was ready for it. Upon recasting my energy barrier, I’d modified it to echo and magnify any force applied to it. Xiang’s body bounced off the shield to fly across the room where it slammed into the top of a bookshelf. It hit hard enough to smash the wooden frame to pieces, sending books and splinters of wood everywhere. When the body landed on the ground, it was hardly recognizable as having belonged to a human. Armless and legless, it wasn’t much more than a bloody pulp of muscle and bone.

  At a different time, I might have wretched or thrown up, but I was too distracted by the creature to spare Xiang another thought. I had maybe five minutes worth of continuous spell casting energy left in me, and if I didn’t wear this thing down before that, there was no way I’d survive this fight.

  Something about the creature’s skin and large eyes gave me an idea.

  Acting on the hunch that it was a creature of darkness, I pumped luminosity into my shield. This action was rewarded with a glimpse of the creature recoiling and shielding its lidless eyes before I had to close my own eyes against the brilliance of my shield-light.

  I struggled to my feet and let the radiance build as high as I could manage, backing slowly and fumbling blindly for where I thought the exit was. Hand trailing along one wall of books, I shuffled backwards until I bumped into the doorframe.

  With a last deep breath to stabilize myself, I drew up as much energy as I dared. Once charged, I let loose a flash of mage fire that sprayed throughout the entire room. Mage fire is essentially magic napalm, and as I turned and fled, I heard the screams of the creature as it fought to escape the intense heat and light that now surrounded it. The dry old books had flared up in flames at the first touch of mage fire, and I felt searing heat on my back even as I ran down the stairs, hitting the door so hard I spilled out onto the street where I fell and tore a long strip out of my tights.

  I sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to see if anything made it out of the inferno alive, and I picked myself up and ran away from the burning shop as fast as my wobbling legs would carry me.

  Chapter Twelve

  I made it all of six blocks at a full sprint before nearly collapsing from exhaustion. Several frantic glances over my shoulder had convinced me the creature hadn’t followed, but I wanted to put as much distance as possible between m
e and the firestorm I’d left behind. There was no telling what that hellspawn was capable of surviving. For all I knew it was immune to fire. Although, I probably wouldn’t have made it to the bottom of the stairs had that been the case. I took heart from the fact that I was still alive, and that a quick scan of the street with mage sight hadn’t revealed any fae creatures stalking me.

  It was small consolation against the blinding pain shooting through my shoulder. A dull ache pulsed in the area around my right eye, but that was majorly overshadowed by the damage the beast had done to my back. Unlike the cauterized wounds I’d photographed, this was one bleeding considerably. My jacket and sweater billowed open, giving me a glimpse of torn flesh and blood when I cranked my neck over my shoulder to inspect it. I felt wetness on my lower back and ass, and when I reached back to check the area, my hand came away sticky with blood.

  From what I could piece together by probing the skin just around the wound, the slash began at the top of my shoulder, arched over my shoulder blade, and ended somewhere in the middle of my back. Panic-fueled shock was probably the only thing keeping me on my feet, and beneath the lancing pain of flesh and muscle rent wide was a sickening ache that threatened to drop me to my knees. There was no way I’d survive without a hospital or some kind of miraculous first aid. I’d have given every last thing I owned for a few minutes with a magical healer, but I didn’t know of any within an hour’s drive, and it wasn’t like I’d find one in the Yellow Pages.

  I thought about calling 911 for an ambulance, but the last thing I wanted to do was wind up in a public hospital. If that creature had survived, or if it hadn’t been operating alone, I couldn’t risk it tracking me to such a public location. There was no telling what kind of collateral damage there’d be if I was forced to fight the beast in a place with so many already sick and fragile people.

  There was no way of avoiding it. If I wanted to stay under the radar, I was going to have to risk on calling on one of my normal friends for help.

  I drifted to the grass of a nearby park, stumbling and collapsing into a pathetic heap. Fighting to maintain a fragile grasp on my rapidly fading consciousness, I took out my phone and dialed the first number that sprang to mind.

  “Yo,” said the voice on the other end of the line.

  “Chase, it’s Alex….”

  “Did you get a new phone? I didn’t recognize the number.”

  “That’s not important right now,” I snapped. “I’m in big fucking trouble, man. I need you to come get me right now. Can you do that? Tell me you can do that.”

  “Woah, what’s going on with you? Do you want me to call the police?”

  “No.” I grunted and screwed my eyes shut. My body spasmed and shook as a warning it was about to shut down. “Come get me right away. I’m at the corner of Keefer and Hawkes by the park.”

  “Okay, Alex. Whatever you say. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “If you’re not here in five, I may not be alive to tell you what a bad fucking friend you are. Please, Chase. Hurry.”

  The phone fell from my blood-slick finger. The grass was soft and inviting when I slumped sideways to lie down and rest for a minute. I couldn’t remember ever having felt so tired or weak before, and I tried zapping myself with a tiny spark. It was a trick I sometimes used to keep myself awake, but casting even such a small spell required a tremendous amount of focus and energy in my deteriorated state. Once cast, my eyes shot open and my shoulders arched backwards like I’d been hit with a shot of adrenaline. For a second I thought I’d be able to keep my wits about me, but the effect wore off as quickly as it had arrived. There was nothing more I could do to keep from letting my eyes fall shut as I slipped into unconsciousness.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Ow,” I grunted, pain blossoming in my cheek.

  My tongue was so thick in my mouth I could barely speak, and the left side of my face stung like someone had slapped it. I opened my eyes to see Chase kneeling beside me, hand raised to deliver another blow.

  He lowered his arm and flushed with embarrassment at my catching him about to smack me again.

  “What the fuck happened to you Alex? Are you sure you don’t want me to call an ambulance? Your back is really messed up.”

  “No ambulance.” I shook my head as emphatically as I could manage. “Help… home… you.”

  “I don’t know about this.” He glanced nervously up and down the street. “I’m afraid to move you.”

  I closed my eyes, balled my fists, and gathered as much strength as I could. Focusing my energy away from the pain and emptiness in my body, I latched onto a center of calm in my mind. Prying it open like a stubborn pistachio shell, I wedged myself inside of it, blocking out everything but the coldest and most rational parts of me.

  I opened my eyes again, glaring at Chase.

  “Get me into your car,” I ordered. “Take me to your house, bandage me up with whatever you can find, and then get me anything with sugar in it.”

  “Alex, you know I’m doing sugar-free Janu—”

  “Get me into the fucking car!”

  He recoiled so hard he almost fell back on his ass, but he collected himself quickly and jumped up to run to his car. He then opened a back door, ran back to me, and bent down to pick me up like a child. I had the ridiculous thought that Chase was stronger than his chubby body let on, then I winced and bit back rage when he slammed my ankle into the door in his effort to spin me around so he could slide me in feet first.

  “Shit, sorry,” he said.

  “It’s fine,” I muttered. “Get me safe, and we’ll call it even.”

  Deciding his original orientation had been best, Chase lowered me onto the upholstery, huffing and grunting as he worked to slide me across the seat. Once loaded, I lay on my stomach with one arm curled beneath me, the other dangling onto a floor mat littered with crumbled fast food drive-thru bags. It was uncomfortable as hell, but it was the only way I could keep my gaping back wound from rubbing against the seat.

  “Don’t forget my bag,” I mumbled into the seat cushion as Chase lifted my feet up out of the way so he could slam the door shut.

  Chase disappeared for a minute. He returned a few seconds later, yanked the driver’s side door open, tossed my bag on the seat beside him, and slid behind the wheel. The car roared to life, and we peeled away from the curb. I braced myself as best I could, but the sudden acceleration sent me sliding across the seats with a loud yelp of pain.

  “Shit, fuck, sorry!” he yelled back over his shoulder.

  “Drive normally. We can’t afford to have a cop pull us over, okay?”

  “Yeah yeah, I got it.”

  Aside from being someone I’d hoped I could count on, I’d called Chase because he lived nearby. We pulled up in front of his house before I had time to worry about what kind of damage the jerky car ride might do to me. Getting me out of the back seat and into his house was an adventure all on its own, but he eventually managed to carry me to his couch. Fighting off waves of dizziness and nausea, I watched him try to make sense of the assortment of first aid supplies he’d been able to scrounge from around the house.

  “You need to get my shirt off.” My thoughts were slow and fuzzy, and it was getting harder and harder for me to focus on anything for more than a second or two. “Then you need to clean the wound.”

  “Uh, okay?”

  Chase unbuttoned my jacket, peeling it back over my arms as gingerly he could manage. He then leaned close enough for me to smell his deodorant, and I heard him clear his throat as he took hold of the bottom of my sweater. Careful not to make eye contact with me, yet also trying desperately not to let his gaze dip below my neckline, he lifted the bulky sweater up over my head and helped me extract my arms from the sleeves.

  I sat there panting and trying to stay conscious. Black spots swam before my eyes, and my body couldn’t decide whether it wanted to sweat profusely or shake with uncontrollable chills. It took me longer than it should have to realize
the creature had sliced through the back strap of my bra. Slumped there as I was, my posture had caused the thing to slide forward over my shoulders and down my arms, leaving my breasts completely exposed.

  “Stop staring,” I mumbled, noticing his gaze had drifted significantly lower in the last few seconds.

  “Maybe you should lie down for this?”

  Gravity helped me sag sideways. I then rolled onto my stomach where I buried my face into the couch cushion.

  “Don’t let me pass out,” I said. “Need to stay awake.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

  The stench of alcohol sliced through my nostrils, a crisp warning that bad things were about to happen.

  The string of obscenities that followed was nothing I’d be proud to repeat. It wasn’t like I’d actually meant any of the things I’d said about Chase’s grandmother or the goats I’d accused her of fraternizing with. People say things they don’t mean when someone is cleaning a two foot long gash in their back with rubbing alcohol, and I had to assume Chase hadn’t taken any of it personally. Hell, I’d played Call of Duty online with him, and I was pretty sure I’d heard worse out of his mouth every time some kid landed a lucky cross map frag grenade.

  “I’m not sure how you didn’t pass out from that, but I did what I could,” said Chase when he’d finished applying the last strip of medical tape to the patchwork quilt of gauze and bandages now covering a third of my back.

  I didn’t tell him the only thing that had kept me from death was Viktor’s life charm. The once white bead was now black as soot. When I touched it ever so carefully to see if it still held any of its charge, the thing crumbled to ash and fell from the bracelet in a sprinkle of fine dust. A cold shiver ran down my spine at the thought of what might have happened had I not been wearing the charm, but that wasn’t worth dwelling on. I had bigger problems to deal with at the moment.