Dead Warlock: Arcane Inc. Book 5 Read online

  I reached the door and entered the building unimpeded. Surprised would be an understatement. There was the grand total of two guards in the lobby and one receptionist. I approached the desk and smiled warmly at the lady sitting behind it.

  “Yes?” she asked, pretending she didn’t know who I was.

  “Eddie Lancaster to see Clara Winters,” I said smoothly. She didn’t even blink.

  “Do you have an appointment?” she said. She really was going to play dumb.

  “No, but I think she’ll see me.” I gave her a cheeky wink. She completely ignored it. I obviously didn’t have my granddad’s charm.

  “Well, I am afraid that Miss Winters is overseeing a hearing at the moment. If you take a seat I shall let her know you are here the moment she becomes available,” the receptionist said professionally. I was done with whatever game this was.

  “Nah, I’ll just pop in and see her,” I said.

  As usual, Gabe displayed tremendous initiative. The receptionist singled to the guards, but they were lying on the floor unconscious before they could take a step. Gabe was faster than even I’d realised. I also noticed that he hadn’t killed them. That was good. Clara was the only villain in this building. As Gabe strolled back to me I turned back to the now terrified receptionist.

  “In the usual room?” I pointed in the direction of the trial room I’d been in before. She nodded her trembling little head. “Gabe knocked her out by smashing her head into her desk. That was gonna hurt when she woke up.

  I marched down to the trial room before anyone could intercept me. I didn’t allow myself the time to get nervous. I knew that if I stopped to consider things I’d only increase my chances of turning back. That could not happen. I grabbed both doors and threw them open. Gabe shot in and dispatched of the bailiffs, eliciting several screams from the packed room. The top desk was lined with dynasts and the stands were ready to burst. It looked like parliament when the MPs have to discuss their own salaries. Standing room only. Every pair of eyes was on me. I noticed that Shirley was not up there. Shame. I liked her. She was about the only one I did like. Clara watched me silently. She knew that she had a big decision to make. I really hoped that Nick was right and she didn’t arrest me. There were enough sorcerers in this room to more than overpower me, especially since I had no real power and they were all full of working magic. I stopped in the centre of the room. Whoever was on trial hadn’t been brought out yet. Gabe stood by my side. The room was buzzing with whispers which stopped the moment Clara spoke.

  “Eddie, have you come back because you have seen reason?” Clara said. Her words stunned me to silence. The audacity of her. How could she sit there and still claim to be superior? I wasn’t silent for long. My answer was a long, loud laugh. I must have looked quite insane to everybody present, just standing in the centre of the room laughing like a hyena.

  “I have seen reason, Clara. Indeed I have,” I said. I could tell that she knew this was not going to go her way. “I’ve come to show you that I will not be bullied. I will not be caged like an animal. I will not be subdued. And from now on you cannot ever again consider me your ally.”

  I didn’t wait for her reply. Nick had warned me not to let her talk and I heeded his advice. I knelt down and planted my palm on the wooden floor.

  “What’s he doing?” I heard a man ask.

  I tapped into Nick’s power and as I felt the rush that I’d felt just a few hours ago I got to work. I didn’t let the magic flood me this time. I closed my mind and began the siphon. This time it worked. It was unusual to say the least. I had magic coming at me from different angles, filling me with radiant energy. It was like electricity passing through at a ridiculous speed. My whole body was shaking. Through my eye lids I could see lights flashing. I could hear the sorcerers shouting in agitation.

  “Eddie, no!” Clara screamed. “Dynasts, break the defence spell. Now!” I’d never heard Clara sound so panicked before. I relished in it.

  I felt them remove themselves from the spell one by one. Bit by but the power I was sucking ebbed away until there was nothing left to take. I stopped drawing from Nick and rose to me feet slowly. I could feel my own magic now, fully usable. I was no longer so indefensible. Though I was horribly outnumbered.

  “You have gone too far, Eddie,” Clara snapped. She leaped over her desk and almost flew down to the floor several feet below. She landed in a squat like Superman always did in the films when he came storming down to earth. I almost admired it. But I still hated her for what she’d done to me. “You shouldn’t have come back here because this is not a fight you can win,” she said threateningly as she rose to her full height.

  “Perhaps he can’t.” Nick’s voice sounded a moment before he appeared. He materialised in front of me providing the perfect shield. “But I think I am more than capable of taking you on.”

  For a second I thought Clara was going to run. Her face crinkled like a terrified child, but then she hardened. Her whole body straightened out and she seemed to grow an inch or two. “You should have stayed dead,” she said vehemently. Her hatred for Nick was on par with my own for Rachel.

  “So should you. Don’t worry though, love. This time you will.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The other six dynasts stood and walked down to stand behind Clara, no showy jumps for them. Nick waited gracefully while they did so. Those in the stands remained still. Looking up at them I could see how unsure they were. Several of them were looking about for some kind of guidance. Were they supposed to help or simply watch? I guessed there was no protocol for this situation. There probably would be after today.

  The only dynasts I recognised were Arthur Winters and Sam. The other four women were completely new to me. Every single dynast looked like they were shitting themselves. I probably would be too if I was standing on their side of the room. To be honest I wasn’t too confident in my security even on Nick’s side. There was only one of him and seven of them. Considerably more if the audience joined in.

  “Are you going to hide behind all these people, Clara?” Nick asked, spreading his arms wide to gesture the sorcerers around the room.

  “I’m not hiding behind anybody. We stand together. That’s what an alliance does,” she replied curtly. Arthur raised his chin proudly.

  “Do you think they’ll save you?” said Nick, amused. Clara tensed, ready to fight. I stepped forward but Nick raised a hand to stop me. “No, Eddie. I can handle this easily enough on my own.”

  I stopped moving. To be honest I didn’t want to fight all those sorcerers anyway. Nick would probably enjoy it more, so it was best to leave them all to him. Not to mention the fact that he couldn’t die, and I was rather precariously mortal.

  “Gabe, you should go,” I said. He looked at me as if I was an idiot.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “If you stay, I stay.”

  “If something happens to me then you need to survive to run things in Maidstone. You need to go home. I’m in no danger whilst Nick is around.” I was lying. I didn’t care about the line of succession for Maidstone. I’d grown fond of Gabe and I knew that I couldn’t guarantee his safety in the battle that was about to begin, and I couldn’t expect Nick to look after him and me. Gabe seemed to accept my reasoning however.

  “Call me as soon as your safe,” he said in a perfect dad voice. Nobody would have believed that I was the older of the two. I nodded and then he sped out of the room. Just Nick and me now.

  “Eddie, you’re on the wrong side of the room,” Arthur said, staring at me imploringly. I stared back hatefully, though my hate was not for him but for his daughter.

  “I’m on the side she put me on,” I spat, pointing angrily at Clara. Her eyes flicked to me for a moment and she sighed.

  “There isn’t time for your melodrama, Eddie. There are far more important matters to deal with,” she said scathingly.

  “Go deal with them then.” I sounded like a sulky teenager, but I didn’t care. I was
done with Clara Winters and her important matters.

  “Can we please get on with this?” Nick groaned. He suddenly exploded in a cloud of grey smoke that expanded across the whole room. I heard screams all about me and saw the sorcerers in the stands running about aimlessly. The smoke barrelled into the sorcerers sending them sprawling across the place. It forced its way down throats, choking many people. I heard doors crashing open, feet trampling about. Clara was shouting for order and calmness, but she went ignored. Flashes of light shot around as people launched spells at the smoke pointlessly. I ducked for cover, erecting a bubble shield around me before one of the hastily-launched spells hit me. The seven dynasts came into view. They were moving quickly protected by shields of their own. They positioned themselves in a circle around the place where Nick had been standing, where the main bulk of the smoke now was. Clara nodded and they all shot a thin string of light at the smoke. Each light string was a different colour creating a rainbow effect as they all joined in the middle. Different people have different coloured magic. There doesn’t seem to be any reasoning behind why a person’s magic is a certain colour. Mine’s green. Though some spells can come out in different colours. It’s all very random really.

  Out of the smoke came an angry cry as the rainbow of magic grew in size. The arms of smoke that had spread across the room shot back inwards and it quickly solidified back into Nick’s form. It was already too late for some. Many sorcerers were lying dead in the stands, the rest had managed to flee. I watched the last of them exit hastily.

  “That was impressive,” said Nick, looking around at the dynasts surrounding him.

  “We’ve been practicing ever since your appearance outside,” Sam said boastfully.

  “Well I hope you’ve got more tricks to delight me with because otherwise I’m going to leave this place very disappointed, and I can assure you that will not end well for you.”

  I almost laughed but managed not to. I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself. Like I said, I wanted no part in this fight. Not unless they managed to overpower Nick in which case I’d try and help. They were hardly likely to do that now that there were only seven of them. Then I remembered that they dynasts were all linked to their covens. They could access their power at any time like I could access Nicks. That meant that Nick wasn’t facing seven sorcerers, he was facing seven covens. My confidence in him dipped dramatically. I looked around at the nearest door in case I needed to make a hasty exit.

  The dynasts were well coordinated. At Clara’s signal they all launched their attacks in unison. They each sent several bright spikes of magic through the air at Nick. He raised his fist and they all froze mere inches from his person. “Not a great follow up to your last trick.” He spread out his fingers in one sharp motion. The spikes flew back, converging into a wall of power which collided with the dynasts and sent them flying through the air. They each crashed down to the wooden floor with horrible cracks and thuds. Clara alone managed to stay on her feet though she did slide backwards across the floor. She didn’t wait for the others to get back up, she thrust both her hands out and a blue streak of lightning bolted at Nick. He raised his hand lazily and a shimmering black bolt forked out to meet hers. Sparks flew off as the two spells met. The black bolt was slowly eating away at the blue one. There was no way Clara was going to win this. Suddenly five more bolts joined the fray. As they collided with Nick’s black one his bolt was eaten in seconds. The spells hit him and he cried out as he was sent smashing through the seating and up into the stands. I scuttled backwards well out of their eyelid lest they turn their ire on me.

  The dynasts rallied together to form a line and as one marched forwards after him. They halted in the middle of the room when they saw him climb back to his feet. “Not bad,” he said, brushing splinters of wood off him. “But you’re going to have to do a lot better. Now, why don’t I return the favour?”

  He spread his arms out violently and every single chair shattered into hundreds of splinters. Hundreds of thousands of tiny shards of wood rose up in the air and then Nick sent them charging at the dynasts like bullets. Fearing that he might have forgotten about me I threw up my shield again. The dynasts had the same idea. Within moments I could see nothing but swirling wood as it flew around trying to find its mark. I could hear cries, but I couldn’t tell if they were groans of pain or exertion. The attack went on for the longest time until finally the wood fell noisily to the ground. Six dynasts were still standing. A blotchy-skinned woman was lying on her side, her whole body penetrated by tiny shards of wood, a pool of blood spilling out from her corpse. Either shield had been weak, or she hadn’t got it up in time.

  Clara glared up at Nick as the others moved away from the blood and reorganised their line. “One nil to me, I believe,” Nick said with a wry smile. Then he vanished. When he reappeared, he was flying through the air from behind, his hands glowing with magic. The dynasts were prepared. They spun round and projected a barrier that he charged headfirst into. He bounced off and rather embarrassingly slid across the floor on his arse, he slammed into the wall that separated the main floor from the stands.

  “No!” I shouted as they prepared to attack him as one. If they hit him now whilst he was dazed they might actually beat him. I ran at them, preparing a spell. A bony woman turned and thrust a ball of pure magic my way. I got my shield up just in time and the ball fizzled into it, the force still knocked me off my feet and I landed painfully on my coccyx. Nick was suddenly behind her. Her body sort of jerked and then jellified before falling uselessly to the ground. Nick was staring at her corpse furiously, her spine gripped in his bloody hand.

  “Nobody touches my grandson,” he said in an angry whisper. His eyes reddened, and black tentacles spread out down his face, travelling down his neck to his body. I realised they were his veins glowing with black power. He issued a guttural growl as he spun round on the spot unleashing a flurry of spells. Sorcerers flew away from him as the spells hit. Some managed to block them but the forces of Nick’s fury still knocked them back. Even Clara was having trouble parrying him now. One of the dynasts I didn’t recognise got too close. Nick snatched her by the throat and the black-coloured magic snaked out of his skin and into hers. It forked up from her throat, covering her face. She moaned as her eyes filled with black and black sludge treacled out of her mouth. Nick dropped her lifeless body and moved on without hesitation. The dynasts didn’t have time to return fire, he threw spells out so fast. He was also moving around with such speed that a vampire would have trouble keeping up. I could tell that Nick’s goal was Clara. Every step he took was towards her, but she seemed to pick up on this and kept moving away. Every now and then she managed to throw out a spell, but she didn’t have time to focus her energy properly between avoiding Nick and blocking his attacks. If this was the best the AOC had to offer then they seriously needed to revisit the drawing board. One of Clara’s spells hit Nick’s shield and he jolted forwards. As he did so the Ambrotos Dagger slipped out from his belt and clattered to the floor. He seemed not to notice and carried on fighting. I stared on in disbelief. He’d dropped the one thing they could actually use against him and he hadn’t even noticed. Clara had though. She no longer sought to evade Nick. Now she ran straight at him. I knew what she was up to and ran after her. As she reached Nick she skidded to the floor and snatched up the Dagger as she passed. She moved like an acrobat. She spun around, rose back to her feet at the same time as Nick turned to face her. She didn’t hesitate. She plunged the Dagger straight into his heart. Every dynast stopped moving. I stopped just centimetres from Nick and Clara. I had no idea what would happen now, but I imagined I was going to wake up in a cell. Again. Unless I could get the Dagger out of his heart before it was too late.

  Then Nick laughed. Clara stared at him in horror as she realised she’d been played. “It’s a fake,” Nick revealed as the Dagger turned to dust. Nick’s hand shot up into Clara’s face and as she fell unconscious he caught her by the hair. The other d
ynasts dared not to move now that he held their leader in his hand.

  “Nick, please,” Arthur said, as if trying to reason with an old friend.

  “You fought fairly well. But if you wish to survive our next bout you’ll have to get better,” Nick said with a satanic grin. He reached out with his free hand and grabbed my shoulder.

  “No!” Arthur shouted, and he and the other dynasts surged forwards. But it was too late, we were already gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  As Nick released me I staggered and only just managed to keep my balance. I hadn’t been expecting to teleport so suddenly. We’d arrived on some sort of tiny island. There was a white stone villa surrounded by grass. We seemed to be atop a cliff and there was a long winding path that led downwards to the shore where there was a small unkempt dock. There was no boat there and I got the feeling that it wasn’t used very often. Why would it be when Nick could teleport?

  The silver-haired warlock who’d visited me in Maidstone not so long ago came out of the house with a comical look of surprise on her face. “You’ve got her,” she said, pointing at Clara.