Dead Warlock: Arcane Inc. Book 5 Read online

  “I’m not so sure who my people are, Gabe.”

  He came over and gripped both my shoulders firmly, looking right into my eyes. “We are your people. Me, Alison, Sharon, Marty, and Charlene. We are with you, Eddie. Clara declared war on us. You retaliated. She must have expected it, she wasn’t stupid.”

  “She begged me not to kill her.” The look on her face. The fear in her voice. It would stay with me forever.

  “And you didn’t. Nick did. Could you have stopped him?”

  “I…” I shook my head. Nick had moved too fast for me to have done anything. I didn’t even know he was going to stab her, I thought he’d accepted my decision. “No.”

  “Then you can’t burden yourself with this.” Gabe did something then that I was not expecting and had I been in my right frame of mind I would have stopped him, but I wasn’t, so I didn’t. He pulled me to him and wrapped me in a hug. I stood and felt him hug me and as his embrace eased some of my pain I lifted my arms and returned the gesture. I suppose this was the moment when he went from being my employee to being my friend.

  “I’ll get the move started,” he said as he broke the hug.

  I needed air. I left the house to go on a walk. Walking the streets at night always helped to clear my head. These were my streets, I thought to myself. That was the problem. Ever since becoming king of Maidstone I’d had nothing but trouble. Nothing but despair. If I hadn’t become king then Ashley would still be here. It was because of the AOC and the Syndicate fighting over my town that I’d had to step up in the first place. Gabe was right, the burden for everything was not mine to bear, it was theirs.

  Something hit me hard on the back of my head breaking my contemplation. I cried out in pain and tried to turn, but before I could I lost consciousness.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  I woke up on a bare concrete floor that was chilly against my skin. The back of my head was pounding where I’d been hit. I sent a little magic to the wound and eradicated the pain. With all of Clara’s magic it was a lot easier to heal a wound than ever before, especially since it wasn’t a magical wound. When I tried to get up I found that my wrists were manacled by a heavy chain. Iron. I could feel the metal trying to inhibit my magic, it was like a sheet was trying to smother me, but I was far too powerful for that now. I smirked to myself but left the chains on. Better to keep up the illusion for the time being. I moved into a sitting position and looked at my new surroundings.

  I was in a small room, roughly the size of the average working class living room. The walls were bare like the floor, not a decorative item in sight. The only item of furniture in the room was a single French Boudoir chair of purple velvet. It was strangely lavish considering the rest of the tatty room. Around the edge of the room stood ten men, all dressed in fancy suits, not a hair out of place. I could tell by the redness of some of their eyes that they were vampires. None of them were looking at me.

  “Aldric’s behind this, I take it?” I said, rising to my feet. None of them even glanced my way. “Ah, the old silent treatment.” I nodded. “I’ll just show myself out then.” I walked towards the door but before I’d even taken a step one of the vampires was blocking my way.

  “So, you can see me?” I said and turned away. I could easily fight off this bunch with all the power I had now, but it was Aldric who had me brought here so I needed to deal with him directly. If I left now then he’d keep coming for me. It was time to resolve things.

  The vampire stood aside as the door behind him opened and in strolled Aldric Ashworth. As always, he was wearing an elegant designer suit and his hair was perfectly combed and shiny with product. His thin lips twisted into a contemptuous smile. He walked over to the chair, his shoes clip-clopping on the floor. He looked right at me as he undid the buttons on his jacket and then sat down, crossing one leg over the other. He held out his hand and another vampire entered crying a small glass of clear liquid on a silver platter.

  “Really?” I said. I was exhausted already. “Even you aren’t this pretentious!”

  “Eddie,” he said. He lifted his drink and took a delicate sip.

  “What is that? Is that gin?” I sniggered.

  His eyebrows rose inquisitively. “Is something amusing you?”

  I shrugged. “It’s a bit of an old lady’s drink, don’t you think?” I said. Rachel used to refuse to drink gin, she said she was too young for it.

  Aldric returned the glass to the platter and shooed the server away. He went to stand against the wall with the others. “Eddie, you know why you are here.” I noticed that his shirt was splattered with blood. He’d been fighting. He reached into his jacket and produced the same stake I’d given the vampires who’d helped rescue me from Cedarstone. They’d messed up the assassination then. Maybe I shouldn’t have warned him.

  “This hurts,” he said emphatically, holding up the stake. The magic shone through the wood igniting his pale hand with a green glow.

  “Yes, they are designed to hurt. That’s the point.” He was not amused.

  “Ever the comedian,” he drawled. He shook his head at the stake. “I thought we were friends.”

  I snorted. “Look who’s the comedian now,” I said.

  “We had a good relationship, did we not? A mutual respect for one another. A respect which you have broken. I did nothing to deserve this betrayal.”

  “I know,” I confessed. “But I didn’t have a choice. The deal was made on my behalf what could I have done? I warned you what had happened and you survived because of my warning,” I explained. Surely, he could see that my hands were tied.

  “There were several other avenues you could have gone down. You could have provided them with a counterfeit stake.” He gestured with his hand extravagantly, waving the stake around.

  “They provided the stake,” I told him.

  “You could have killed them. Surely you owe me more loyalty than you owe them?” He was growing agitated now.

  “Why do I? They saved me from Clara’s prison. When have you done anything like that?”

  “I saved you from Sebastian.”

  “You saved me to save yourself. Don’t act like you did that out of some sort of benevolence towards me,” I snapped.

  “You impudent little twerp,” he spat, standing up. “Out of respect for you I allowed you to remain king of Maidstone. Because of the deal with Clara I made no machinations to expand my empire. But this,” he waved the stake at me again. “This changes everything. Not only I do have to punish you for your insolence, but I also have to send a message to those who would do me harm. Not only must I destroy this stake, but I must destroy you so that no more can ever be made. Did you seriously believe that you would get away with this act of treason? Did you truly believe that you, a half-wit warlock from a grubby town could ever hope to defeat me? No, you are nothing compared to us. We are the elite race and now is the time to prove that. With Clara’s death my deal with her has expired and my empire will stretch from corner to corner of this country. Such a shame that you will not be around to witness it. By extinguishing your worthless little life, I will be doing the world a service. Goodbye, Eddie Lancaster.” He nodded at some one behind me and I heard them walking my way.

  “Oh, enough,” I said, tiredly. “I knew if I let you talk it would be good and you didn’t disappoint. All that self-important twaddle. Seriously, you should listen to yourself from time to time.” I flung my arms apart, sending magic through the chains and snapping them. Aldric stared at the broken metal in shock. That look made playing along worth it. With a flourish of my hand the vampires around the room all fell down unconscious. The silver platter clattered to the floor, the sound reverberating off the walls. Gin drizzled across the concrete from the broken glass.

  “What the…” Aldric spluttered in disbelief.

  “Did you seriously think that I’d let all that magic die with Clara?” I asked him. “I am so sick of pompous arseholes like you pushing me around and telling me what to do. Telling me
what I am worth. I fucking made you!” I screamed, my voice bouncing off the walls. Aldric’s eyes shrunk as he realised that he was not going to come out of this situation on top. “I made you and you dare to look down your nose at me.” I laughed drily. “Oh, Aldric. I guess I need to send a message now. I will not be fucked with no matter how big an army you have.”

  “No, if you do anything to me then all the vampires in the Syndicate will come for you. You don’t have enough power for that.” He turned confidently and headed for the door. He’d only seen one of my new tricks. I teleported right in front of him. His eyes widened but before he could react I thrust my fist through his ribcage and gripped his heart. “Do you like my new tricks?” I asked him, after demonstrating two and three. He didn’t dare move whilst I was holding his heart. “If I pull this from your miserable body do you think you’ll die, or will you just grow a new one? Oh, the mysteries of a first in a subspecies, eh?”

  “You’ve grown a lust for blood, Eddie,” he said, grinning devilishly at me. The light caught off his red eyes making him look truly demonic were it not for the fear in them. “The loss of your lover has certainly changed you. Despite the un-ignorable fact that you have your hand around my heart, I have to confess that I like you this way.”

  “It’s too late for flattery. Don’t worry, though, I’m not an idiot,” I said as I started to work a spell into his heart. “I don’t want to fight all your followers, that would be inconvenient as I already have enough enemies, but I can hardly let you walk away after this. I told you to stay out of Maidstone.”

  “What… what are you… doing?” he asked weakly. His pale skin was starting to wither and grey and his hair was turning coarse as my spell pumped through him.

  “To keep your people in line I’m going to keep you alive as a hostage. If they come for me I’ll kill you,” I told him in my most casual voice.

  “You think… you can keep me… detained?” his voice was a thin rasp.

  “Yes, because I am drying out your veins. Stopping your heart from beating. You will remain in a desiccated state until I see fit to free you. If I ever do.” I enjoyed watching the recognition dawn on him. The small flicker of hopelessness only filled his gaze for a moment before his eyes glassed over and his hear beat no more. The others were already starting to wake. I withdrew my hand from his chest and grabbed hold of his shoulders before teleporting us both to Sittingbourne Road.

  Gabe took care of it from there. He sealed Aldric in a coffin and then cemented him beneath a local building site. Aldric Ashworth was now the foundations for Maidstone’s newest special needs school.

  My meeting with the master vampire had shown me that Nick was right. I was tired of being pushed around. It was time to put all the superior arseholes in their places. Starting with the Alliance of Covens. It was time to show everybody that they were not better than me and I could not and would not be bullied. I closed my eyes and teleported back to Nick’s island. When I appeared in front of him on the patio he looked up, eyebrows raised, barely surprised at all.

  “Well?” he asked quietly.

  “I’m with you,” I replied. He smiled.

  “Then let’s get to work.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  We didn’t actually get to work until the following morning. I was given a room for the night and in the morning I met Nick on the patio where he was eating a full English breakfast. I sat down at the square table and a plate of food appeared before me. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until the food was in front of me. I grabbed my cutlery and began tucking into a juicy looking sausage.

  “Good work with the vampires,” Nick said to me, a glimmer of pride in his eyes. “Aldric’s right hand man, Joshua has assumed control of the Syndicate. What is left of it. Several towns have claimed independence now that Aldric is no longer in charge.”

  “What about the AOC?” I asked, spraying egg over my plate. Nick pretended not to notice my lack of manners.

  “Clara’s body was sent back to Arthur Winters last night. Several more covens have since left the alliance. There are fewer than ten remaining, my sources tell me.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” I was itching to get on with things. I wanted the Alliance and the Syndicate gone so I could live without all the fighting constantly. Then I could concentrate on finding some ambrosia and stopping my impeding death. Not to mention resurrecting my dead girlfriend.

  Nick pushed his plate away and lifted his cup to his lips. He sipped his tea elegantly and swirled it around in his mouth before swallowing. “As you know, I had a working arrangement with Sebastian when he ruled the Syndicate. That came to an end when you engineered his death. You have my compliments on how you achieved that by the way,” he said, raising his cup to me.

  “Thanks,” I said with a quick nod.

  “I was trying to bring about a war between the sorcerers and the vampires. Then the vampires would pick off as much of the Alliance as possible making my job a lot easier. Of course, you scuppered the plan and managed to broker a peace. Nicely done.”

  “Thanks again,” I said, though this time his compliments were less sincere.

  “That was when I learned of your existence. When you got involved in my affairs. I looked into you and… you know the rest.

  “Now, thanks to your dealings with Aldric last night you’ve provided us with the perfect opportunity to resume starting a war between the vampires and the sorcerers.”

  “How?” I didn’t follow his thought pattern on this one.

  “Right now, both parties are gunning for you,” he said and then left it hanging.

  “Me? Surely Arthur is coming for you?”

  He shook his head. “No. After I heard that the Syndicate was after you I let the Alliance believe that you killed Clara.”

  “Why would you do that?” I demanded, slamming my cutlery down angrily. He was not at all phased by my outburst.

  “Because now you can set them against one another and prove to me that you are a worthy addition to my team. You see, I’m not just interested in your ability, Eddie. I want to see what you can achieve with your mind too. If you really are of my blood then you will be able to take care of this situation easily enough.”

  “Are you being serious?”

  He sipped his tea and then fixed me with a totally sincere look. “Deadly. Finish your breakfast and then get back to Maidstone. The faster you get them fighting, the faster we can end this war. Once the Alliance is distracted with the vampires they’ll be too preoccupied to give us their full attention. They won’t see our next move coming.”

  “What is out next move?” I said, but he was already standing up.

  “Just concentrate on your current move for now. Then we can do step two.” He wiped his mouth on a napkin, dropped it on the table and headed back into the villa. I pushed my breakfast away. My appetite had suddenly vanished. Finding out you’re enemy number one will do that to you.

  I returned to Maidstone seething. Nick was such a dick. One minute he’s telling me all about how we’re family and he wants me by his side and the next he’s telling me I need to prove myself to him. Cock. He should prove himself to me. I took a deep breath to try and calm myself. It didn’t work so I grabbed a nearby vase and launched it across the room. It hit the far wall and shattered into a million pieces. Well, maybe not a million but a few.

  Gabe appeared in the doorway looking wary. “Oh,” he said as he recognised me. “I didn’t know you were home. I thought you was with Nick,” he said. He looked over at the shattered vase and his brow wrinkled.

  “Sorry,” I said, unapologetically.

  “It’s fine. It was just a priceless antique.” He shrugged, trying to play it cool and failing so very badly. He walked rigidly over to the mess and began cleaning it up, looking put out all the while.

  “I said sorry,” I said sullenly. It’s not like he paid for it, he compelled someone to give it to him, which was basically stealing.

  “Mmm,” he
said. Well, it was more of a growl really. “What happened with Nick?” he asked, throwing the fragments into a nearby chair and turning away from them as if not looking at it would help him forget.

  “It’s kind of a long story.” I was saved from telling that story by my phone ringing. It was Richards. Great, another telling off. “Yep?” I said, raising it to my ear.

  “Eddie, there are witches, or wizards, whatever they are, running amok all over town looking for you.”

  “Ah.” Arthur was moving faster than I’d expected. He must’ve tried all the obvious places and come up short. I wondered how long it would take him to find this place. Not long.

  “They’re going to turn the town upside down until they find you. They think you killed Clara.” I said nothing and let the silence hang there. “Tell me you didn’t,” he said at last. He desperate for one last redeeming element.

  “I didn’t,” I said quietly. “Nick did. Listen, I need you to do me a favour.”

  “You’re seriously asking me for a favour?”

  “There’s going to be a fight in town one way or another. The best I can do is limit it to one area. Evacuate High Street and I’ll do everything I can to keep the carnage there.”

  “You’re seriously going to take on all these witches? There’s loads of them, Eddie.” He almost sounded concerned for me then.

  “Will you do it?” I asked. He didn’t need to know what I had planned. Nor did he want to.

  “Sure. But after this is over we need to have a serious talk about how things will be in town. Your way isn’t working,” he said.

  “Sure thing, mate,” I replied, knowing full well that conversation would never be happening. He wouldn’t be having it with me anyway. I hung up and returned my phone to my pocket.

  ‘What do you want me to do?” asked Gabe. Always ready for an assignment.

  “I want you to lie low with the others. Stay somewhere safe and out of sight. There’s nothing you can do right now and I don’t need protecting.”