Mage of Shadows (3 page)

"I'm giving up, I swear." I lied, cautiously aware of their very dangerous weapons still pointed at my face.

If I could have just thrown up some shield, such as a barrier of earth or solidify the air... but it wasn't within the range of my abilities. Although I could manipulate fire well enough, the other elements completely eluded me.

"Head up!" The female demanded.

Neither of their weapons dropped, and I heard no hint of hesitation. My will wavered slightly, my magical control wobbling as a result.

My biggest problem was that I couldn't pull the power inside of me for easier manipulation. If I did that, they would be given quite the light show. I would begin glowing, something that was better known amongst my kind as the Magus Glow. As it was, I was doing this by holding magic just outside of myself. It just made it that much harder to do.

I gripped at the slippery magic again with my mind, refusing to let it go. How I wished at that moment for the fine control necessary to rip the guns from their hands, but most likely with their hands on the trigger, that would just cause a misfiring at best.

The male began to cautiously step towards me and I realized that I had no choice. Either I attack or they take me in. With everything I had done, if I didn't get away I was screwed. I only had one choice in my mind at that moment.

With a short grunt, I physically shoved my palms towards the officers. It would have looked quite silly pushing air… had the gesture not been accompanied by the raw magical force I had gathered in those long seconds. Held in existence in the physical world solely by my will, the invisible wall overtook the two officers with all the power of a speeding car. Albeit a small car, but it was enough two send them both flying into the thick shrubbery behind them.

Neither stirred… I mentally assured myself that they were only unconscious. I couldn't pull enough raw power in my sphere to kill anyone via pure force. They would wake soon enough with aches, but nothing serious.

Rodriguez's gun landed with a nearly unnoticeable thump in front of me, loosed from its unconscious owner.

I stared at it for a moment, but the wail of sirens in the distance reminded me that these were only the first of more officers that would be patrolling the area. Their squad car would draw attention to this place; I had no idea how much time I had to get away.

It was a split second decision, but I reached down and grabbed the handgun, cautiously uncocking it. I then stuffed it in the back of my jeans and covered it with my hoodie. My last crime of the night completed, I turned and ran into the darkness one more, hoping against all hope that I could just get back to my dorm and forget this ever happened.

The last quarter mile of my run was the worst. My lungs ached from overexposure to the chilled air, unused to such torment. My legs also protested the constant movement, and I promised myself again to stop being so lazy and actually go to the school fitness center, which I already paid for with alongside my tuition fees.

Atop of my other physical woes, my head was beginning to pound. While some it was no doubt due to the events of the night, it had to be magnified by consistent magical use. One could never be completely sure how well the body and mind would handle channeling magic while under duress, but it always felt worse when emotions were running high. The basic equation to remember was that with less experience and higher stress, the easier one would tire from using magic.

Hence the need for practice. The logic made so much sense in my head, but obviously after tonight I would have to rethink it. Stealing from thugs had also had quite the appeal at the time and I supposed I thought myself a modern Robin Hood… even though that comparison didn't really hold much weight when you considered I was stealing from thieves and keeping it for myself.

Still, humans always had the annoying tendency to justify their actions and convince themselves that what they were doing was the right thing. I was no different.

It was a relief when the tall rectangular form of University Towers came into sight, with the mishmash of lights still aglow in the building, despite the fact that it was well past midnight. No one could accuse college students of being early sleepers.

With the sight of my dorm looming so close, I got tunnel vision; it was all I could see. I didn't notice when I ran past the darkly clad figure several feet away from my right.

He didn't miss me however.

I felt him before I saw him. I could almost imagine the casual sweep of the arm that caused an equivalent force of realized telekinesis sent out to cut me off at the knees, tossing me from my feet and to the hard sidewalk.

I made an undignified noise and protected my face as best as I could with my flailing arms as I went down. Perhaps it was a good thing I was so out of shape, I had since slowed to a meandering jog and the impact with the sidewalk had been lessened. Still, it hurt my already tortured body to hit the ground like that.

More than pain, I felt fear again. I felt him now… the presence of another mage. A hostile mage.

He walked towards my downed body, as if casually taking a stroll. I struggled to my knees, turning my head to catch a look at him coming from behind me. I felt dizzily aware of my weaknesses as he neared, knowing that there was no way I could fight anyone who came at me now, probably even if they were a Normal.

Still, I forced myself to stand, stumbling away from him… and he was most certainly a male. In the dark I couldn't make out his features well but he was clad in dark clothing. Dark slacks, a dark thin jacket- maybe made of blue or black nylon, which appeared to cover a white button-up and black tie. His head was covered by a black cap, but I could make out the amused smirk on his face. It was a predator's smirk, and I was feeling very much like prey at the moment.

"Back… off." I managed to croak, still very tired from running.

It was a small relief when he stopped, not quite ten feet from me. I felt his gaze taking me in, filing away whatever notable features he saw. My hood was still up, which shadowed my features from him. If I hadn't been able see his face well, it stood that he couldn't see mine either. Still, those eyes made me nervous.

I took in what I could of him as well. A few tufts of blond-looking hair poked out from underneath his cap, and his skin tone suggested he was white rather than one of the minorities. Despite the jacket I could tell he was well built and taller than me, which suggested he was physically stronger than me as well. Physical and magical strength didn't coincide exactly but there was a link there. It especially held true when it came to stamina. Even if I was at full strength, I might've not been able to take on this guy.

"That was quite a sight to see, so late at night." He said cheerfully.

His playful voice wasn't as deep as I expected, considering he stood a good three inches taller than me. The hands that he had in his pockets traveled to either side of his waist. The innocuous sight made my heart pound. Unlike the officers I knew the threat that free hands could represent.

I moved my own hands in response, letting them hang in front of me. My tired legs tensed as well, prepared to fight or run. I would be damned if I let him take me down without putting up a struggle at all, weakened or not.

He didn't seem to like that at all. His smirk morphed into a frown and his hands twitched as if he wanted to make fists.

"You want to fight?" The soft voice had shifted as well, deeper and angrier now. "What makes you think that you could possibly take me, freshman? Put your hands down."

My fear was palpable and I saw his smile return as he felt my emotions cause the magical field around us to tremble in response.

"Oh yes, freshie." He laughed, "I know you're a newbie. Who else would be so stupid to go into Kraven's territory and pick a fight? Not even once, you've done this before. Did you really think no one would notice, idiot?"

I honestly hadn't, but I wasn't going to say it. I was still breathing heavy, still recovering… I needed a way out of this. This wasn't how I wanted to introduce myself to the magical society that existed at the university. I had thought there was one, but for them to have discovered me so quickly… I had assumed it would be the other way around. Overconfident fool that I was.

"Put your hands down." This mage, who was my senior, ordered me. "I'm not a User you should mess with."

I blinked under my hood at word User. That was a term that I hadn't heard before.

Still, I lowered my hands to my sides.

He took a step forward.

Without thinking, I drew the gun that had been stowed in the back of my waistband as smoothly as a novice possibly could.

The 'User' stopped walking forward. His hands rose in a defensive posture and I felt him gather the magic around him almost instinctively, but he didn't do anything with it, letting the power hang around him visibly in a cloud of glittering motes of light. The other mage did what I had been afraid to do with the cops, he drew the power into himself for easy manipulation.

In the light of his magic, I could see his features a bit better, but other than sky-blue eyes and sandy blond hair, I didn't see anything that identified him to me. I had no memory of ever meeting this student before. Then again, I had only been at the university for only three weeks.

After a moment of silence, the well-dressed mage gave a short laugh, "You have balls." He complimented me cheerfully, "But that's not enough, sorry."

One finger flicked on his right hand, a tether of glittering power flashed and pulled the still un-cocked weapon from my hand and towards my more experienced foe. He grabbed it from midair, flipping it around to point it between my eyes with a lot more skill than I held, whilst cocking the safety at the same time.

I stared down the barrel and gulped silently as I felt sweat drip down my back. My heart thudded dully and no new plan sprung to my mind on how I could get out of this very bad situation. I was done, this was it. If this mage, User, whatever… wanted me dead, I was dead.

A few more thudding beats later, I heard him laugh quietly again.

"Relax," My opponent said with a new smile, as he flipped the safety back on the gun and stowed it in his jacket. The mage pointed at the dorms.

"Go back to your apartment." He said with a too-cheerful smile, "I'm sure you have classes in the morning."

The words were hardly an order, but I felt my weary body respond almost immediately. I wanted more than anything to get back to safety. I backed away until I had almost twenty feet between us and then turned to start jogging with no small amount of pain towards UT's double doors and welcoming light.

His laughter followed me, mixed with the sirens of cop cars that sounded too close for comfort. His words were partly lost to the cold September wind, but I heard them as he called out to me one last time.

"Be more careful next time, Stratus! Not everyone is as nice as I am!"

Reggie went down last. Reggie always went down last. His last look to me was one of complete betrayal. It had been my fault that he died… my fault…

…Nat… I don't understand, why…

I shot up, awake and breathing harshly in the darkness of my room. Despite sweating profusely, I felt very cold.

Despite being driven to the point of complete exhaustion by the late night's events, I slept fitfully once I returned to my apartment and collapsed atop my mattress. I was never what one would call a deep sleeper, and my late night escapade plagued my already restless mind with new fears.

What little was left of the night had been plagued with a terrible mixture of new worries along with old terrors bleeding fresh into my mind, like scabs picked anew. I wondered if I would ever escape them completely. They felt like wounds that would never fully heal no matter what I did.

I could physically escape across the country or even across the globe, but I would never be able to outrun myself.

I guess that was part of being human. No matter what we do, we have to live with our choices and mistakes. Only death sets us free, and most fear that more than anything else. I can admit to having a healthy fear of that unknown abyss as well.

A tired glance at my digital clock told me it was ten minutes before my phone's alarm would start. Instead of waiting for it to begin, I pulled my covers off and rolled from my mattress onto the floor. I was too shaken to sleep now anyways.

That step accomplished despite my bone aching weariness, I made to stand. The wave of dizzying pain that accompanied the simple movement nearly sent me back to the floor. My head beat with a pounding nostalgia of days past, when I sated my teenage curiosity and desire to be 'one of the gang' by inhaling illegally acquired alcohol like it was a job. If there was one plus side to magical exhaustion in comparison to a hangover, my mouth didn't taste like a dry and smelly sock.

As I stumbled to hold myself against the nearest object of similar height- a small dresser/nightstand combo, I let out a horrible sounding retching cough. Maybe I had spoken too soon in terms of dry mouth; it had been a preferable alternative to this hell.

For a moment I feared I would literally cough up a lung, and I prayed my roommates wouldn't hear me. Raj could sleep through just about anything and had three alarms to rouse him, but David was nearly as restless as I was.

The coughing spell was thankfully short, if agonizing. I waited for several long moments but heard no approaching footsteps. Feeling as if I had gotten away with something, I slowly crept towards the spot I had dropped my phone the night before. I deactivated the alarm and flipped the nearby light switch rather than open my curtains and let the weak morning glow spill in from outside.

My room in the apartment was small, but I didn't share it with anyone. Raj and David had been rooming already for couple years and split the larger one. I was glad for that, I liked my privacy.

It was a fairly Spartan set up. I didn't come with much, and hadn't made a lot of impact on the room since I had gotten to the University of Detroit. Other than the mattress and several blankets, the dresser was the only other piece of furniture in the room. Various garments and books were scattered across the floor, the only bit of real personality in the room. Any person would take one look and conclude whoever lived here was messy, lazy, but appeared to be well read. It was a great disappointment that I couldn't carry my entire collection of books from home.