Fang Shway in LA (15 page)

The image hung tantalizing close to Azif. He hurled several spells at it before he realized his mistake. By then, I was behind him when I heard him curse and then he spoke. “I underestimated you, show yourself and let’s finish this.”

I watched him scan the area and I knew it wouldn’t take him long to spot me or to sense my magic. Taking off my jacket, I filled it up with leaves and twigs. Then I whispered an incantation to imbue the jacket with energy, before I ran back in the direction I’d come.

“What are you waiting for wizard? Are you afraid of me?” From the sound of his voice he was moving toward the jacket. Then I saw a light flare up and then die.

“I’m finished playing games with you. Show yourself and I may let you live. You’re boring me.”

I stood and walked out to face Azif. He was standing about fifty yards from me. I could see the spear, it glowed a dark red. Great, he’s tapped into the spears powers. Thankfully, he never had the real spear. Still I’d infused it with some energy and it added to his dark magic. At least the spear matched his eyes, which burned a muted shade of red. He had gone mad and I shuddered to think what the real spear would have done.

“Lauren, I must thank you for the spear. Absorbing its power has energized me and soon I’ll seize yours.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You may believe you are the Ever Ready Bunny of wizards but, you are going to be going, going, gone. I’m going to dance on your grave to celebrate your passing.” I said with more bravado than I felt. He was right if he killed me, he would inherit my power, just as he assumed he had from the spears maker. That just wasn’t going to happen. It was time to shoot one across his bow. I lifted my arms and sent a blast of energy down my staff, directly at Azif.

He neatly batted my blast aside with a flick of his wrist and sent it hurling back at me.

Shit. I dove sideways and rolled. The intensity of the blast grew until it was almost double what I’d sent. Impressive. The fool had some legitimate power. Now for plan B, retreat and regroup. Scrambling backwards, so I could keep Azif insight, I tripped over a shrub and went down hard.

It knocked the wind out of me and I felt momentarily dazed. I looked up in time to see Azif conjuring a thick mist, releasing it in my direction. Mists are strictly forbidden by the World Council and for a good reason. They’re deadly. They can carry any manner of evil and there is no way to know what until they hit.

Jumping to my feet, I ran, getting caught in the mists would kill me, instantly and permanently. I could feel the dampness of the mist starting to overtake me. Its icy fingers licking at me and I felt disoriented. My mind screamed and I fell to my knees thinking that it would be so nice to sleep.

Then a blinding light caused me to wince and I closed my eyes to protect them from the brightness. What in the world? Heat, searing heat, forced me to get moving. I started crawling blindly away from the source of the heat. I moved as far from the heat as I could, before I dared risk a peek at the heat’s source.

Traygen, thank God. He recognized the immediate danger the mist posed for me and he dispersed the mist with a succession of fiery blasts. Who knew how handy a fire-breathing dragon could be. I stealthily scanned the area, looking for Azif.
He was nowhere to be seen, gone. The egotistical fool probably thought the Mists killed me. Either that or Traygen’s fiery breath drove him back, causing him to retreat. Seizing the opportunity, I sprinted back across the lawn toward the house. Where had Azif gone? Creeping up to the side of the house, I stopped and listened. Nothing. Sending out my feelers, I probed for his magic. I sensed his energy, but it was faint. It was an old scent, which wasn’t good. It meant he was no longer around and he’d grown powerful, very powerful.

Chapter 25

Damn it, I didn’t want to follow him inside. God alone knew where, or if he’d set up any traps. Like it or not there was only one-way to find out. I had to get inside and fast. Whatever he was doing, it couldn’t be good. Moving along the outside of the house, I inched forward freezing when I heard something.

Flattening myself against the house, I strained to hear. Someone or thing was moving in my direction. Frantically searching for cover, I spotted a medium sized maple. Not waiting for my rational mind to talk some sense into me, I ran toward the tree, jumped and gripped onto the lowest branch. I swung up into the tree. Yes, a perfect ten eat your heart out Nadia. Thankfully I didn’t hear any tell-tale cracks. However, my shoulder, that wasn’t fully recovered from the knife wound, wasn’t happy.

I held my breath, straining to see who was coming, a few seconds later one of Azif’s men inched around the corner of the house. He had his gun drawn, as he scanned the area. I thought for a minute he’d spotted me, but he moved further around the outside of the house. Lowering myself as quietly as I could, I started after the man. Then I heard a loud crack. Damn it, in my haste I’d stepped on a small branch.
Diving I pulled out my gun.
The man fired sending bullets thudding into the ground around me. Returning fire, I got to my feet and started to run. Then a movement behind the man drew my attention. It was Traygen.

He tackled the thug and sent him sprawling. I scrambled forward, knocking the gun out of the man’s reach. I kicked it away and leveled my gun at the man. Just as quickly, I lowered it. Traygen knocked the man senseless and was already dragging him under a hedge. Finished, he jogged over to me.

“Thanks, any idea where Azif went? I lost sight of him when you were dispersing the mist.”

“He took a few shots at me and ran into the house.”

“What about the rest of his men?”

“I believe they are either dead or subdued. How do you want to handle this?”

“I’ll have to go in…”

Traygen held up his hand. “No, we go in together or no one goes. You know it is the only way
since, you know he’ll have the place booby-trapped.”

We both knew he was right. I relented because I couldn’t stand it if anyone else got hurt. “Okay, let’s see where we can get in. I’m afraid all the obvious entrances will have traps in place.”

“I think you are correct, for the traditional ways, at any rate. What if we landed on the roof?” He asked.

“I don’t think so, he knows you fly. What if we drove in? I can start the car and tie the gas pedal down, plowing it into the side of the house. Then we’ll enter from the opposite side, which will temporarily give us the element of surprise.” I couldn’t wait to see the look on my insurance agent’s face when I call this one in.

“I like it, but let me send the car through, while you find a way in around back.”

“Right then, let’s get to it.” Traygen moved over to my car, sliding behind the wheel. I jogged around behind the house. I could see plenty of windows, but no doors. Inching closer to the side of the house, I tried one of the windows, finding it locked.

I stopped when I heard my car starting, the engine revved and just when I was reaching to try the second window, the house shook with a thunderous jolt. This window was also locked, but I didn’t wait. I broke the glass. Carefully reaching inside, unlocking the window, I pushed it open and was about to go through when Traygen jogged over to join me.

I finished shoving the window up and dove in rolling to a crouching position. Traygen entered right behind me and then I heard a low growl. Looking frantically around, I spotted the source.
Padding silently towards us was Cujo and his siblings. Fangs bared and saliva dripping from their mouths. They silently stalked us. I’m an animal lover. No really. I raised my staff and blasted them, “voltair.” I wondered for a minute if I hadn’t given it enough juice, but then they dropped. No damn it, not dead, stunned. Stepping cautiously over the sleeping dogs, we crept toward the entrance to the room. The cars horn continued to blare, strident, deafening and definitely annoying. The house was dark, I couldn’t sense Azif, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t lurking. Traygen motioned for me to follow, as he crept through the doorway, hugging tightly to the wall. He looked like he was headed toward the front stairs. I was ready to shoot the horn myself when it died. Or someone disabled it and I didn’t like that notion. The sound had been coming from our left. Traygen must have been thinking the same thing because he veered in that direction and into the room with the newly constructed entryway.

My poor car. The left front fender extended into the living room. There was plaster, brick and glass scattered everywhere. Then I heard the car door slam. We froze, waiting for any sound. I heard the sound of glass crunching and footsteps moving toward us. A scrapping sound sent us both scrambling for cover and not a moment too soon. A dust streaked head emerged near the car’s front fender. It peered around the room before withdrawing back the way it had come. Whew, that was close. I slowly breathed out. Traygen tiptoed towards me, whispered in my ear and I nodded my agreement. Then he crept toward the ruined car, sliding through the opening after the dust covered man.

Waiting in silence I sent my senses in search of Azif. I went slowly. I didn’t want to announce our presence and give him any more of an advantage than he already had. Nothing, where ever he’d gone he had his shields up to protect himself, giving me no idea where he was.
There was no way to tell. He might have put up a shield or entered a sheltered room. Before I could give it any more thought I heard someone wriggle back into the room, a thumb up, from the plastered covered figure, heralded Traygen’s safe return.

I had to smother a giggle. He looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. His hair, eyebrows and eyelashes were white. He moved up beside me, shaking his head and showering me in plaster dust. Satisfied he’d exacted his revenge, he moved toward the stairs.

Covering my mouth and nose, I settled in behind him, checking the hallway and adjoining rooms we found no one. Motioning up, he started to climb and I followed him. Then I felt Azif’s tentative probe. Slamming my senses shut, I froze and waited.

Realizing I wasn’t behind him, Traygen stopped and turned back toward me. Holding my breath, I waited, afraid to move or breathe. Azif wasn’t above us, he was somewhere below us. I thought I’d clamped my power down before he’d sensed it, but I couldn’t be sure. We waited in silence and then we heard something. Traygen nodded he’d heard it as well, motioning for me to follow him. He started slowly up the stairs and I followed closely behind. While we tried to put some distance between ourselves and whoever was below us. Reaching the top of the stairs, we fanned out on either side of the landing and waited to see who would come looking for us.

I was beginning to think the person went in another direction, when I heard noise on the steps. Yes, I definitely heard footsteps and I didn’t think it was Azif because I didn’t feel any energy. It had to be one of his goons. Right again, peering through the banister I could just make out the silhouette of a man.
He had his gun drawn, as he inched cautiously up the stairs, carefully scanning the area for any sign of us.

Traygen waited until the man reached the landing and started down the hall, stepping behind the man, he stuck his gun in the man’s ribs. He forced the man further down the hall.
Hitting the man once, he deftly caught the man before he hit the ground.

I went back toward Traygen, motioning it was time to go downstairs.
Moving toward the landing, we made our way silently back to the first floor. I didn’t feel Azif’s presence as strongly as I had before, definitely not a good sign. I just knew I wouldn’t like whatever he was up to. Searching each room on the first floor, we finally found what we were looking for. There were stairs heading down into what I assumed was a basement and I wasn’t eager to go down there. We’d make big targets creeping down the stairs. There was nowhere we could hide. I’d just about convinced myself to make the move, when Traygen held up his hand for me to wait. Disappearing into the other room, he came back a few minutes later carrying the unconscious body of the man from upstairs. Slowly, he opened the door and then he dropped the man down the stairs. As soon as the man’s body hit the stairs, a hail of bullets broke the silence.

Using the noise from the guns to probe the area, I realized the now dead man triggered a trap. There wasn’t anyone down there and I couldn’t hear anyone breathe. Nodding to Traygen, we inched toward the stairs; Traygen stepped in front of me moving down the stairs ahead of me. When we reached the bottom we stepped over the body and into the shadows.

It took my eyes a few minutes to adjust. We were standing in a large room filled with boxes and crates, but no Azif. Where had he gone? Unwilling to wait any longer, I had to risk probing for his energy. I sent out my senses, waiting, listening and it took me a while to find him. That’s odd. His energy was very faint and growing fainter by the moment, like he was moving away or something? Turning to Traygen I whispered, “Relax, he isn’t here, in fact he’s moving away from us. I don’t get it. The hail of bullets should have announced our arrival. Any ideas?”

Traygen walked around a little, sniffing the air.
He was searching for something. Suddenly, he froze, signaling me he asked, “Do you feel that?”

“Yes, it’s wind or air moving.”

“Right, if I had to guess I’d say a tunnel. Feel around and see if there’s a place where the air draught is strongest. It would explain why he hasn’t attacked us. He might not have heard the shots fired, especially if he is a ways down the tunnel.”

I started feeling around the wall, moving along it searching for an opening.

“Here, it is,” Traygen murmured. He brushed some dirt off a door or something in the floor.

“Be careful it could be a trap,” I said. “Let me check for energy.” I placed my hands on the door to feel for enchantments and didn’t find any.

Traygen slowly pulled up on the door, opening it carefully.
We could see a dimly lit corridor moving off to the left. There was a ladder going down to the floor below and Traygen started down it. I followed closely behind. The small area at the foot of the ladder was empty.

“Like it or not, we need to follow this tunnel,” I said. “I don’t feel Azif’s power in the immediate area.
However, he went this way. I can still feel his presence.”

“Okay, we need to stay close together. I’ll look for traps, and you search for Azif. Ready?”

I nodded my silent agreement, as we started cautiously down the tunnel. The air was hot and stuffy. I’m claustrophobic and my skin started to crawl. There wasn’t any light once we left the landing area at the foot of the stairs. I ignited my staff and it emitted a faint glow, enough for us to see where we were going. We hadn’t gone far when the ground began to slope downwards.

We continued on for another ten minutes, more or less, when I started to feel Azif’s power build. We were definitely getting closer and the air was becoming uncomfortably humid. Where the heck were we going and then it dawned on me? The ocean, he’s taking us to the ocean but, why was he headed for the ocean? There were easier ways to get out of town. I tapped Traygen’s shoulder, stopping he turned to face me and I said, “This is going to come out at the ocean or in an underwater cavern. We need to be ready. My guess is he’s going to try to harness the power of the ocean and that’s a lot of damned water.”

“What can we do to stop him? Do you have any ideas?”

I looked at him and shook my head. “Give me a minute, or two to think.” I knew what we needed to do.
It just wasn’t clear to me what the best way to approach it was. Then the seeds of an idea began to germinate.

“Traygen, I have an idea and I think it’s our only sane alternative. It will take both of us and some luck. Are you game?”

“You know I am, together we can do anything. What’s your plan?”

I thought for a minute before answering him. I couldn’t tell him everything, not yet. Instead, I decided to tell him almost everything. “Tatiana gave me a cuendillar and it will kill Azif if we pierce his heart with it. I’ll challenge him to a duel, his spear against my staff. You will need to get close enough to make sure that you don’t miss. You’ll only get one chance, because once he sees the cuendillar he’ll know what we are doing.”

“Are you sure he’ll accept your challenge to a duel?”

“I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but nearly. I’ll goad him into it. His ego won’t let him pass it up and besides we have a surprise or two for him.”