Van Bender and the Burning Emblems (The Van Bender Archives #1) (32 page)

I had to try.

Or did I? Should I trust Dad and do nothing? What had he said at the last? Save myself? I’d done that. I’d obeyed him.

What to do next?

Could I make the right decision? I’d made poor ones all night long, without my parents there to guide me. Could I change that, now?

I stood as if to give him the brink.

His emblem finished burning. The red fire changed into thin lines of white light that hummed deeply for a moment before fading.

“That’s right,” he said. “Hand it over.”

He stood a few feet away, his left arm extended so the two vials of brink dangled down. If I remembered right, he had three others hanging from his right arm, but that was down at his side, and I couldn’t see them, let alone grab them easily.

Well, one thing at a time.

I faced him, expecting the bomb to detonate any moment.

He was old. In his fifties. I could overpower him. I had to. So I wouldn’t lose my brink, I put it back in my pocket. It chinked against the metal cube.

He started to lower his arm and speak.

I dove forward, lashing out with my hands, reaching for the dangling vials of brink.

And missed.

My hand closed over nothing because he flinched away. My shoulder slammed into his chest. Momentum pushed us both toward the railing. He grunted as he struck it. Although the barrier spell he’d cast had faded, it still existed in the unseen world. So close to my ear, its humming filled my head. The air rushed out of Nick. I scraped my hands along the back of his arms, feeling for the vials.

As we bounced back from the railing, he pushed me away. I gripped the back of his arms and set my feet, pivoting so I spun and he stumbled toward the center of the tower. I loosened my grip, so he slid out and away. My hands ran along the back of his arm, past his elbows, down his forearms toward his wrists. Each string holding the vials of brink to his jacket gave to the pressure and snapped. Two on the left, and three on the right.

He fell backward against the wall, his eyes wide in terror. The vials clattered on the metal floor. Momentum threw me off balance. Unable to catch myself, I grunted as I hit the metal floor with a hollow bang, on top of one vial. Two more bounced and clattered near my feet. The other two vials had disappeared, maybe behind me.

“You idiot!” Nick said. He dove for the vials near my feet.

I kicked. The vials skittered across the metal platform, out under the railing, and into the darkness.

Nick landed on my ankles, his arms out-stretched, but didn’t stay there for even an instant. He dove toward my body, reaching behind me, his face desperate.

I rolled to my back, and promptly located the remaining two vials. They poked into my spine.

I cried out and fought to push Nick off. He rolled toward the center of the tower, and I rolled toward the railing. In an instant, I was off the vials and laying on my stomach and elbows. Nick knelt on all fours, gasping for breath.

The three vials sat between us. Two right next to each other, about two feet away from me. The third a foot past it, closer to Nick.

Our eyes met. In his, I saw anger and panic.

I hoped that in mine he saw one ticked-off teenage rock star.

We both dove. He reached with his arm for the single vial, and I threw my body at it.

I landed on his arm, just past the two vials. He shouted in pain, and struggled with his free hand to push me away. With my hand, I shoved the two vials toward the edge of the ledge. They clanked as they bounced and rolled away.

Out over the edge. Into the night.

Nick pushed me away. I spun to my knees then feet, turning to face him, and found him standing, already opening the vial he’d grabbed, breathing hard.

Ducking my shoulders low, I lunged at him, aiming for his belly and wrapping my arms around him. I pushed him back into the wall, and the air gushed from his body, again.

With my arms around him, I spun, pulling him away from the wall and throwing him along the balcony. He fell to his back on the metal floor with a clank and pitiful shout of pain.

As he slid to a halt on the rain-slick floor, he had the vial’s lid off, and poured brink into his hand. I dove, but as he lay there on his back he drew a spell with one hand—very fast, so that I couldn’t even see the blur of his hand—and flicked his other hand.

His lighter shot out of his coat sleeve, into his palm. It was just like in the movies, when someone has a gun or knife hidden up a sleeve, except for him it was his lighter. His hand closed around it. He flipped the lighter’s lid up. Flame spouted, igniting the tiny, intricate spell.

It was an arrow with a circle around it.

A force struck me like a punch to the chest, pushing me back and away, up against the wall. I grunted as the air rushed from my lungs. Nick drew another spell of circles and triangles, and lit it. I leaped aside. A stream of red light shot by me.

And I ran. On the rain-slick metal floor I slipped once as I bolted around the balcony, but caught myself and kept going until I reached the opposite side. My feet pounded loud and hollow on the metal until I stopped and looked back to see if he’d followed. He hadn’t.

Panting, I stood with my back to the railing, looking to both sides, wondering which direction he would come from. I wiped the rain from my face as I listened. Unless he crept, I would hear his feet on the metal.

“Now, you know you can’t escape,” he called. I couldn’t tell from which side. “You can’t beat me.”

He had a clear advantage with the brink. I couldn’t fight him on that level. But in a purely physical match, I could have taken him, easy. If only I could protect myself from the spells to neutralize his advantage, I could win. I needed something like the diffuser. Or the necklace Mom had given me earlier that night—the one with the pendant of a person standing inside the circle, arms outstretched. If only I knew the emblem that produced the same effect as that pendant or the diffuser.

“You might as well come back here,” Nick said. “I’ll take it easy on you.”

Maybe, I realized, the shape of the pendant was the emblem. Maybe that shape cast a protective spell.

Chapter 58: Round and round

I reckon the Tangle Rope is one of the best inventions ever. It ranks right up there with key chains.

-Nick Savage

In a moment, I had the red brink out and poured onto my hand.

A person standing inside a circle, arms stretched wide. Size didn’t matter. I only had to get the proportions right.

I looked from side to side in case Nick came around the balcony, but from his continued taunting I could tell he hadn’t moved in either direction. He thought I was helpless.

Imagining the shape, I drew it. The head, the body, legs, and arms—then the circle around it, so the figure stood on the bottom inner curve.

It looked right.

“Richie, don’t do anything foolish.”

“The only foolish thing I’ve ever done was trust you.”

I pulled out my lighter, and touched a flame where the head met the body—where the pendant had a diamond. The brink ignited. The fire spread across the emblem.

I braced for something. Preferably for an infusion of power, perhaps for some kind of misfire.

The entire emblem burned.

Nothing happened.

No flash of light, no indication the spell had worked. Just the smell of burnt cinnamon. Hissing and steam, where raindrops hit the fire for a few moments before it died.

What had I done wrong? The shape had to be an emblem. What had Mom said? If I kept it close to my heart, I would be fine.

Close to my heart.

I needed to attach the emblem to my chest and light it—like the third eye.

Rain had soaked my t-shirt, so it took a little work to take it off. I dropped it on the metal floor, and shivered as the rain pattered my torso. I had a short scar on my upper right arm, where I’d had a PICC line for the chemo. It always reminded me of everything I’d survived.

“This hurts right now,” the doctor had said as he’d inserted the needle into my vein. “In the end, you’ll be stronger. When you’re done with this, you’ll realize you had strength you’d thought was impossible.”

He’d been right.

I poured brink into my hand, paused to breathe deep. I pictured how to draw the emblem, including a line to my chest, and a spiral right over my heart.

“What’re you doing over there?” Nick said.

“Plotting your demise. Why hasn’t the bomb gone off? Seems like it should have by now.”

“Give it time, son.”

“I bet it failed. I bet someone stopped it.”

“I reckon that’s impossible.”

“And I reckon you’re a raving lunatic.”

I drew the emblem, then a line from it to my chest, where I made a little spiral right over my heart. I hoped I’d done it right, but didn’t take even an instant to think about it. I didn’t have time. Nick had already given me way too much. Soon he would come for me.

I touched the lighter flame to the emblem. The brink lit in bright red fire, racing to my chest. It felt warm, as opposed to the cold rain. When the entire shape burned, it transformed into red light. The emblem moved through the air, following the line to my chest. It flared against my skin, then turned dark. Maybe with a third eye I’d have been able to see it.

It hadn’t turned to ash, which meant it had worked.

Not hesitating, I dropped the lighter and brink into my pocket, and moved around the tower. I crept, keeping my feet quiet. A quarter of the way around, I stood with my back against the cold metal wall. Further on, I could see a few parts of an emblem hanging in the air, unlit. Nick had a spell ready, waiting for me. No matter. If I’d cast the spell right, I should be protected.

“You’re sure thinking hard!” Nick said. “Come back here. We can still be friends. I understand you’re deceived by everyone. But if you’re patient, you’ll see that I’m actually going to save the world from the biggest threat it’s ever seen.”

Not long before, I might have considered his plea. I might have believed that maybe everyone misunderstood him. But no longer. Not with my parents and Marti fifty feet from a nuke that should have exploded, already.

Maybe they’d neutralized it, somehow. Maybe they already had the emotion and had started looking for me.

“Richie, come and see the explosion. It’ll be glori—”

I screamed and bolted forward, my feet clanging on the metal floor. He came into view just as he lit a yellow emblem of circles and triangles that hung in the air in front of him, but from the look in his eyes, I saw that somehow he’d seen my protective spell, and knew that his spell would do no good against me. He must have had a third eye on him, somewhere.

He turned to run, even as his emblem ignited.

“You little cheater!”

His emblem culminated. A jet of red light shot out from it, right at my face. But it turned, curving downward into the protective emblem on my chest. I braced myself for something—anything, but nothing happened. I didn’t fall stiff. I didn’t collapse or anything. My momentum slammed me into the railing. The metal dug into my stomach. By the time I pushed myself away to pursue, he already led me by twenty feet.

And he ran fast. Faster than I would have thought an old rock star could go.

I pursued him around the tower. The pounding of our feet drowned out the driving of the rain. We passed my shirt. It rested where I’d thrown it, a sopping pile of orange.

“You might be protected from magic,” he said. “But not from Mr. Strangler.”

Ahead, around where his spell had struck me in the chest, he stopped and turned, grinning. He’d produced a rope of about three feet that pulsed bright blue. I’d never seen it before, but knew instantly what it was—the Tangle Rope. Marti had tried to get it earlier that night.

I skidded to a halt. Now I would probably find out why Marti had wanted the Tangle Rope so badly.

Nick smiled. “Richie, I’d like you to meet Mr. Strangler. Mr. Strangler, I’d like you to hog-tie Mr. Van Bender.”

He threw the rope down. It splashed in the film of water on the floor. Its bright light reflected in the sheen.

It slithered toward me like a snake. I turned to run. Now what?

“Who’s the cheater now?” I said.

The rope pursued me, nearly matching my pace. Nick’s footfalls and laughter told me he followed the rope—but I couldn’t see him. I looked forward again—just an instant too late to see my foot land on my shirt. I stumbled as the shirt slipped out from beneath my feet, but I managed to keep going. The rope gained a few feet on me. I ran on.

How would I win, now? I still had my brink and the lighter—useless without knowing a spell that would stop the Tangle Rope. If only I could zip out. That would be enough.

I continued to run, but nearly stopped as I remembered the metal cube in my pocket. Nick had told me how to use it. I’d seen him activate one back at Intersoc. Perhaps I could use it to my advantage.

Still running, I pulled the cube out, and threw it down in the ground ahead of me. It bounced once, twice, clanking before stopping behind the shimmering barrier spell Nick had cast, and where his stun spell had hit me. Ashes sat on the wet metal floor, like black snow.

I kept running. The Tangle Rope slithered after me. Nick’s crazy laughter pursued. Hopefully, he wouldn’t see the metal cube on the ground.

I unscrewed the vial of brink and dumped all of the red substance into my left hand—which I immediately closed. I tossed the vial out into the darkness as I came back to my shirt. I bent and slowed just a smidge, to pick up the sopping mop of cotton. As I straightened, I tucked it under my arm and reached into my pocket to withdraw my lighter again.

The Tangle Rope had gained on me. It was only ten feet back. So close, a snake would have struck and bit me.

Nick ran after me, laughing like a maniac.

I rounded the tower again, reaching the metal cube on the floor. Nick hadn’t picked it up. Elated, I dove to my knees and lifted my arm, so the shirt dropped to the balcony a few feet in front of the cube. I slid on the slick metal floor like I’d done at the concert, aiming so I passed just to the side of the metal square. As I did, I opened my palm and dragged it from behind me to ahead of me, pulling it in an arc over my head, so a long line of brink extended over the metal square. It was much like the action of smashing a guitar on stage.