Modern Mage Chapter 23

Everyone in the Existence tensed as the doors flew from their hinges into the bar and all eyes were directed to the doorway. The silence that followed the crash of the doors was deafening, then a slow click, click, click was heard. It was the sound of a measured pace walking through the entryway into the bar itself. I’d like to tell you that the face of evil was as hideous as her soul was black but I’d be lying to you. As they say, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.

The woman that entered the building was tall, close to six feet and maybe taller. She had the athletic build of a runner or swimmer judging by the toned muscles in her legs and arms. Her short wavy hair, the color of dark chocolate hung wildly around her head ending just before he shoulders. Her features were a mask of serene beauty marred only by the deep red glow from her eyes. In those eyes you could see the depraved evil running through her mind. It sent a chill down the spines of all who looked into them.

Following her through the door were at least forty other vampires, her children and the beginning of and army. She strode up to where she stood even with Arthur’s table before looking up to the catwalks and meeting his eyes. “Arthur Masters, you and Andrew Graves must stay, but anyone else who values their life should leave now,” she stated calmly as though she was conversing and not threatening everyone in the building and the city.

Arthur was our current spokesman as it was his place, “Madam, you will want to leave here in peace. This place is my home and an Elysium, do not violate the laws of Elysium and we will not be forced to stop you.”

Her laugh was sharp and the contempt could have cut like glass, “None of you are a threat and even together you haven’t the power to slow let alone stop me. I will march through here and leave your corpses for all to find. My enemies will learn to fear me and give in before we fight with your deaths.”

As Arthur was speaking all of those here to fight moved into the Club area, scattering across the catwalks and floor area to get in position. In stood at the center of the dance floor with Sindee at my back in preparation to stop her from the casting I sensed in my vision. Tapping into the magick I created swords made of magick; unlike the original rote that was only Primal and Forces Magicks I added Entropy, Spirit and Correspondence magick to the spell. I shared the rote with Arthur alone as he agreed with me that the power should be forgotten at the end of the battle if we survived. We both cast a contingency spell on our memory to lock away the rote except in times where it may be the only solution. The reason for these actions was a precaution against our own corruption. The original rote allowed the Mage to inflict damage to any being, supernatural or mortal that would need to be healed at mortally slow or to expend vast amount s of power. While those would be effective against most enemies, Vampire and Mage alike, a Lich may have greater healing abilities from the combination or Mage and Vampire magic. I studied and reworked the rote into this new form incorporating the addition three areas of magick with the intent of not only harming the Lich, but to possibly allow me to sever the Lich’s twisted connection to its Avatar. This would either free or destroy the Avatar and either option was better than leaving it enslaved to such a twisted creature as a Lich. While the fact remained that if the rote were successful, the power to remove a Mage’s access to magick shouldn’t be in anyone’s hands.

Arthur met her bloody gaze and said, “You leave us no choice but to stop you here and now.”

Her response while simple caused all hell to break loose within the Existence, “So be it.” At those words the horde of vampires following her rushed past and into the club where our own forces awaited. The battle was on and I had nothing to do for the time being but fight.

The security staff opened fire on the attackers from the catwalks, taking the time to aim for the heads and hearts in order to make a kill shot more likely. The muzzle flashes from those weapons gave an eerie feel to the battle to go along with the silenced weapons and the screams and sounds of struggle. The initial fights ended quickly as our numbers were close to even with those arrayed against us; we had more powerful allies than the new vampires she had brought with her. While the initial fighting went in our favor it wasn’t without cost. Many of the security staff had been swarmed after they opened fire costing us five of them as well as two vampires that had stayed to aid us. There were many others wounded and healing quickly to take her on.

From behind her more vampires and other creatures appeared through the front doors. She spoke again, “They were just pawns, too weak to make much of a difference to my army. You have chosen to stand and defy me, for that you will all die.” She charged into the fight followed by to many soldiers for me to count in the moments before the fight began anew.

Arthur grabbed his sword and leapt from the catwalks into her path as Roarke did the same behind her. She produced a paired set of swords from the air. While they were summoned by magick they were steel as the ring for her swords meeting theirs rang throughout the room. That was the last sight I had of the three of them for some time as I engaged those attacking Sindee and I, however I could hear the ring of crossing steel while I fought.

A tall lean being charged at me, what he was I didn’t know; only that he was there to try and kill me. His fingers morphed into long sharp and jagged claws the he swung for my neck with his right hand when he got close enough. I slid back just out of his reach before I dropped into a sweep of his legs. He had moved before I was halfway through the spin causing me to miss completely. As I finished my turn I saw him dropping down towards me with both hands ready to drive the talons through my head and chest. I was trying to bring my swords around before he got there but knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough. At the last possible moment he was suddenly thrown back and down to the floor by some force I didn’t see. I turned my head to see Sindee with her left hand extended towards him and realized that she saved my life. I used the crouch I was in to make a small leap above my enemy, driving the two magick bladed through the creatures head and let the energy burn him to cinders and ash before removing them. I spun to see Sindee fighting someone wielding a knife. The person seemed to be mortal but that was through my awareness with no additional information from sensory magick as I was conserving my power for the Lich if it came to that. I turned to move and aid her when she stepped inside of her opponents reach and drove her knife up through his chin with the blade piercing the top of the skull. I moved rapidly, placing us back to back to allow us to defend the spot where the Lich’s spell was to be cast. I tapped into my magick and our connection as I felt her do the same. We used our combined magick and the bond we shared to bring our minds together. The result was that we moved and fought as though we were one being and not two, using the skills and knowledge the other had as if we had learned it. Sindee tapped into my knowledge of spells and casting as I pulled from her knowledge of anatomy and healing. Our combined combat training was invaluable because it opened more possibilities for each of us.

The sounds of battle around us suggested that the fighting was not going well for either side and I offered a prayer for my friends and allies as we continued the battle. As Sindee’s and my muscles began to tire I pulled on the magick to refresh our bodies and we continued the battle. At some point I heard the sound a metal shattering over the noise of conflict followed by a scream of rage and pain. I felt a pressure wave burst across the combatants as many were knocked off their feet. Sindee or I, and there was no way for us to tell as deeply linked as we were, cast a quick forces spell allowing us to absorb and convert the kinetic energy of the pressure into useable energy for our bodies. We both moved around to the enemies around us who were felled by the blast wave and delivered killing blows. It was at this point that I realized I was no longer wielding twin blades of magick as one of them was in Sindee’s hand; somehow we had managed to transfer the control of a rote she had no knowledge of to her hand along with the ability to wield it as a sword. At that moment I was able to spot Ynara across the room, she had been surrounded by several vampires and was barely holding them back. I prepared to move to her aid when a pure golden pillar of light surrounded her body; she lifted from the floor with her arms spread wide, hair floating like a burning aura around her and the glow spread out to encompass the enemies attacking her. One moment she was under siege by no less than a dozen vampires and the next a cloud of ash was floating to the ground.

Since vampires don’t usually turn to as when destroyed I had no idea what just happened to them and had more important things to worry about at the moment as I was caught in the left shoulder by four raking claws. With a pulse of magick I sealed the wound, not taking the time or energy needed to heal it completely and spun my weapon into a reversed grip, driving it back through my attackers chest before slicing downward splitting it from heart to groin spilling organs and blood to the ground. As I performed the downward stroke Sindee spun whipping her weapon through and severing the head from the rest of its body. The fight continued like this for what felt like forever as the bodies from both sides piled up. As fast as the bodies were compiled so was the list of injuries sustained as well. After finally getting a break in the fighting I was once again able to spot the others in the fight. Roarke was laying against the divider on the club side of the glass, blood staining the right side of his face and neck and his eyes were closed. Marcus was trying to heal those knocked out of the fight near him in the back of the room while Kyra was defending their position. Most of the security staff on the catwalks was either dead or at least out of the fight as there were no living enemies up there with them. Sam was a whirling dervish of fangs, claws and steel as she cut through those that attacked her. JD was out of the fight leaning against a wall near the corner, his head turned away so that I couldn’t see his face, but the white shirt he wore was now crimson with blood that I didn’t know if it was his or from those he killed. George was in the war form of the werewolves fighting with a rage that even frightened me as Talia lay at his feet, eyes closed and in human form. Jarvis was in the back corner near the sublevel access to his and Elayna’s residence standing between her injured form and any who tried to get near her. I spotted many of our allies bodies among those of our enemies including more than half of Donovan’s pack members that stayed and a few of Alexander’s warriors and children. A half dozen of the bodies belonged to members on Talia’s pack from my land and were scatter among the bodies that surrounded hers. Arthur was still fighting the Lich, he was covered in numerous scratches and cut from her swords. He was unable to seal them, let alone heal because he was wielding not only his sword but Roarke’s Primium weapon as well.

With a thought I passed all that to Sindee and rushed to aid Arthur against the Lich. As I approached I crafted a new spell on the fly and cast it out to the room at my enemies that lay injured and dying. I used Mind, Life and Prime in this casting and performed a spell that would haunt me for the rest of my life, but chose to do it and would do so again to save the lives of my friends and allies. I used mind to search out and identify those who were my enemy and would be susceptible to my magick, those unprotected and unable to counter it. I then used the power of life to latch onto the energy of their bodies drawing it in and used Prime to rip from them the Quintessence that bound all things to reality and was the power behind Magick.