Dangerous, Diabolical
10.3

My fingernails sharpened to claws, and I took a deep inhale. “My thoughts exactly.”

In unison, all the corpses frowned at my statement.

Keeping their attention I continued, “This summoning the dead to use as magic conduits thing you have going on, I want in.” I swept a vague hand at them all.

Their shoulders trembled as if laughing, but there was no sound to be heard. The corpse on the floor spoke first. “But of course,” it hissed, “this can’t be completed without you.” Her second hand jolted to lock my foot in place. The grip was fierce, leading my foot to become immovable. Without a second thought, I plunged my claws into her wrists, enclosing around the tendon, and pulling. It released like a snapped elastic band.

Her hands dropped away uselessly as I stepped out of reaching distance, only to be in time for a baseball bat to collide across my cheek. Unprepared, I could only thicken my skin as the whoosh caressed the hair follicles, but the scales weren’t formed enough to block the impact.

“Argh!” The thump threw me into a stagger, a white flash exploding from the side of my head. Blood flowed into my mouth, teeth crunching into my tongue. I let the scales ebb out under the rest of my skin, armouring the soft fleshy bag I was currently in. Trying to blink away the point of impact, it became apparent the black spots weren’t specs of dirt and the force had been more than enough to inflict actual damage.

Shaking my head to try and dislodge some of the damage, I tried to stall, “I take it we’re not going to have a heart-to-heart on the finer points of the necromantic arts then?”. A second bat swing to my face answered the question. This time it harmlessly snapped over the scaled collarbone.

I popped my cheek to tut, annoyed. The corpse didn’t seem upset by the development, instead, I could’ve sworn from its raised eyebrows and relaxing slouch, it was satisfied with something.

Just who was pulling its strings? Focussing my sight the tendrils of magic became clearer, but any answers I’d hoped to find were quickly lost amongst the eerie display. A soft sheen pulsed around the figures. As if in waves, the magic grew close, then retreated teasingly before reaching any of them. In a heartbeat, it would surge again gently teasing closer, lulling softly.

My nose was wrong. They hadn’t been human at all.

Like tar seeping into the water, black sludge coated the waves of magic flowing to them. Each body drew from the same source of magic. On the floor where the photo fell, their arms were linked over Joanne in front of the sea. Their magic flowed like the lull of water on the sand. Was it possible she shared their source of magic? Leo had been visiting the weaker in the community, none of them wore amulets.

Is that why he’d warded their house? I had scented both him and Grahame on the doorstep.

The body on the floor tried to grasp at me helplessly with bloody hands, prompting me to make a beeline for the front door. The guy with the bat didn’t follow. From the couch, the figure leapt up. Its front teeth elongated and nails half transformed into claws, it lunged with outstretched arms. Its fingertips grazed through the tendrils of my hair as I skirted the corner, leaving us both skidding into the hall.

The runner caught my foot sending me stumbling into the wall mirror, shards shattering into the carpet. Narrowly avoiding the same fate, my pursuer kept its footing, claws raking across my back and harmlessly encountering the scales there. My clothing wasn’t as lucky.

“Hey!” I complained about the damage. I’d just put this on!

It growled in response, lunging at me again. Offering a kick to the midsection, he was shunted backwards leaving me just enough time to clear the front door.

Catapulting out of the threshold I twisted, taking a deep inhale.

Time to see what mojo Leo had laid.

Channeling a fraction of the magic absorbed earlier I cast the most natural spell for me in the world. The air rushing from my lungs converged into pure heat, the burn caressing the oxygen to explode a powerful flame into life. Surging forward the tendrils lunged towards the stumbling figure.

And hit straight into an invisible solid wall.

The air burst into life with a shimmering shield. It glimmered around the building as my flames attacked. The figure inside slammed into the invisible wall. I smirked, as my feet landed securely on the ground.

The ground was scorched from the impact, but the house stood perfectly intact. From inside the other two corpses joined the impossible task of trying to escape the house, slamming uselessly against the wall. Small embers floated to the ground.

Leo had cast one hell of a shield. I whistled appreciatively trying to decipher the pattern of his magic. It seemed to channel from the ground itself, the tendrils growing and knotting into a steadfast barrier, completely invisible to the average eye. The source of magic seemed to be completely independent of anything to do with the Druid except for the hastily scribbled marks I’d seen.

The corpses inside gave one last angry hit to it, before dropping to the ground as if a puppeteer had cut their strings. All three of them now had satisfied grins etched onto their faces.

With a grimace I inspected my cheek for damage, feeling slick blood where the bat had split the skin. Ouch. That smarted. I couldn’t help but feel like they weren’t happy about injuring me, and this whole exchange had served some other purpose.

There wasn’t time to ponder it; like when I messed with the amulet, Leo must have noticed the spell triggering and he’d be on his way any moment now and I was meant to be in the very boring SPCC lodgings room, not triggering defensive spells. With one last puff of smoke, it was time to hastily escape to somewhere else.

Blue lights accompanied the screeching tones of the human vehicles as they chased toward the house. Queueing cars haphazardly tried to make way, but the roads were heavily packed, and horn beeps frantically added to the chaos.

The little machines were crammed full of human things, the owners themselves wide-eyed and watching each other out of the corner of their gazes. Strolling down the street, I earned more than a fair share of the worried looks.

The back of my jumper was shredded, blood dripped from my cheek and I’d gained a coating of ash. Snotty-nosed children stared, clutching toys, and I tried to rub away some of the liquid from my cheek.

My lips twisted into a smirk. Leofstan had left to find Grahame near the graveyard. I’d just triggered Leo’s spell so I’d bet on it that he’d be heading this way instead. If I cut around the back of the town, then through my place of work, it was the long way around, but I more than likely would miss the grumpy magician.

And I’d get to see all the zombies crawling out of their graves. Now that would be cool. Turning down the side street with a skip in my step I imagined setting fire to the new corpses digging their way out and letting them walk around in giant balls of burning flames. That would give the humans something to shriek about.

The closer I grew to the graveyard, the more the crush of traffic eased and it wasn’t long until I was the only soul to be on the streets. Around every corner, I braced for any signs of walking corpses and was left bitterly disappointed each time it was another empty road.

As I passed my place of work I grimaced at the sight of the boarded front window which had yet to be repaired. Lights flickered half-heartedly from inside and the usual trolley store looked as if Markus had barrelled through; dented and overturned a few of their wheels turned in the breeze.

Well, it wasn’t my shift to clear all that up. I kept walking towards the town’s graveyard, nestled on the corner of the old church. There was a newer crematorium on the other side of town, and as the preferred method for human disposal, the graveyard was relatively disused.

The newer headstones sat in rows, but as I ventured deeper in the epitaphs faded and the stones leant themselves to crooked angles, buried under the autumn leaves. Despite scanning over a good hundred patches of earth, there was no sign of any disturbed graves, and I was quickly daydreaming about going to find a snack. It hadn’t been worth the walk.

The smell of salty water drifted across the air, with a soft waft of minty gum, stopping me dead in front of the church doors. “Joanne?” I murmured into the crisp air, turning my head to look at the large wooden entry. Her scent suddenly drifted with the wind, as did the bitter bite of rot. What on earth was she doing here?

Taking a few steps back to survey the building, I noticed several of its stained windows were missing. I tasted the air, drawing it across my tongue. There was a mixed cacophony of dried blood that at a stretch, I may have likened to Grahame, but the fact he smelt so generic it wasn’t safe to assume. But if it was, does that mean Grahame was close?

Maybe they were where the bodies were at. I followed the only clear scent, Joannes. She had the undercurrent swimming pool chlorine under all the salt which was misplaced amongst the scents of fall, and it congregated on the brick step.

Stood in front of the large, pointed-tip doors, dwarfed in size. Large round metal handles adorned each, and I reached out to take one, my fingers hooking onto the thick heavy metal. With a deep breath, I pulled. The door remained steadfast. This time I put some muscle behind it, giving it a yank. It protested with an angry creak but otherwise remained immobile.

They could always be set on fire. Inhaling, I summoned magic into my lungs, ready to remove the wood. A pigeon launched from above, sending a tile sliding free. Sidestepping the shattered slate, a broken window came back into view. It looked about human-sized at a squeeze.

Backing up until there was enough clearance I practised a few lunges to loosen up the knees. Then I did just a few squats to make sure the muscles were ready. It had been a long time since I’d jumped this high.

“You got this!” I affirmed to myself, locking my gaze to the empty pane, pushing the strength of my other self into muscles, and tensing. With a sudden push the air whooshed, hair slamming like a helmet around my head as the earth was left behind. Leaves scattered, and for a moment I thought I’d misjudged the distance.

The frame rushed closer as gravity took hold, squeezing into a tight ball I angled through into the darkness. Expecting to land on the second floor I braced for impact. The church did not have a second floor. Dropping considerably lower than I expected the force shattered the floor tiles and sent a loud shuddering boom into the alcoves.

The next few seconds were spent frozen on the spot, listening for any signs of movement. Could vampires even enter churches? If Joanne were here, no doubt she would have begun talking already. If it were possible, my eyeballs were about to argue with my nose. Their scents were stronger in here.

Moonlight softly streamed into the darkness through any cracks it could find. Broken glass captured any spillage glinting like a carpet of stars.

Dust and cobwebs hung from the rafters and the Pews were in a state of disrepair. Near the back was an internal doorway, and as I tip-toed closer what I had thought to be an odd wallpaper patterning revealed itself to be old blood splatter. It had reached some good heights, I did have to give the killer kudos for the effort.

Seeing no other possible place they could be, I turned the knob. It caught as it hit the locked mechanism, barring entry. There was a distant whimper from the other side. Bingo!

I gave the handle another shake, of which the metal came off in my hands but failed to remove the lock. Teeth grit, pulling my other self into my muscles, I rammed.

The door buckled collapsing into shards and launching me straight into thin air. Shit! Stairs! I rolled down them head over foot, splatting at the bottom.

There were a few shrieks, and then a shaking voice.

“Celandine? Oh Neptune, is that you Celandine?”

The problematic girl was looking at me like an addict their object of infatuation, standing with her hands clasped on thick bars, face smudged with dirt and two tear trails cutting their way down her cheeks. Her hair stood on edge in mats and she squinted at the soft light I’d brought in through the break.

“Joanne!” I shrieked, praising my lucky stars. The relief that I could finally yell at her for trying to dodge a shift was like a weight lifted off my chest. She, however, burst into tears, reaching an arm out to me. Giving all my limbs an experimental wiggle, I jumped into my feet in a move that wasn’t quite bipedal-able and dusted down my clothes, ignoring her.

“What. The. Fuck.” A gruff voice from my left. Sure enough, there was my third favourite magical entity.

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