Wizard Unleashed Read online

  "Stop," he said, picking himself up from the floor. "Truce."

  "Do not move," I said, still lying on top of the rubble that was once his torture device. "You will release me from this prison or I will bring more."

  "I can help you," he said, nearly in a whisper. "You don't know the powers that control your life. But I can advise you."

  "Why would I listen? You lie at every turn. You despise me," I said.

  "A demon cannot break its oath. I will swear to tell you the truth about your adversaries," he said.

  "Swear to tell me the truth in all things and not to cause harm to me, my friends, family or property," I said.

  "For this you will not banish me?" he asked.

  "Swear to me."

  "I swear to you this," he said.

  "How do I get out of here," I asked.

  "Fulfill our agreement."

  "I swear not to banish you as long as you abide by our terms," I said. The pain in my head was so great, I had difficulty keeping my eyes open, but I knew I had to see this through.

  Gester smiled and slid across the floor as if pulled on a string.

  "Let me help with that," he said. Before I could object, he twisted my left arm and then my right around until they popped painfully back into place. "Can't be finishing an agreement without blood."

  He pulled a long-bladed knife from the folds of his clothing and drew it across the palm of his clawed hand. Inky blood dripped from it as he handed the knife to me.

  "Is this necessary?"

  "Between a demon and wizard, blood must be exchanged," he said.

  I followed suit and grasped his extended hand. A wind blew debris against my legs as energy passed between us.

  "How do I get out of here?" I asked.

  "There is nowhere to go, Slade," he said. "Kaelstan and your world share the same location. Something very powerful pulled us here, but you are what holds us."

  "How is that possible?"

  "I do not know, for I still occupy the basement of your home even as we speak. For the sake of expediency, I'll take a guess since that's the next request on your simpleton tongue. I'd say you've developed a powerful enemy. Someone or something that was capable and interested in sending the three of us to this little oasis."

  "Three?"

  "Don't be dense. Fannie, you and me."

  "How do I leave?"

  "Who was it that you felt when you lay on my bench? Was it that delicious little witch of yours? Or perhaps that pugnacious sister." When I didn't answer right away, he added. "The slutty troll?"

  "What of them?" I asked, not willing to trust him with the information.

  "Focus and draw yourself to her."

  "Won't you be trapped here?"

  "I'm touched. You do care," he said. "No. This little atrium was constructed for you and will cease to exist when you exit."

  "Felix!" Gabriella fell heavily onto me, burying her face into my neck.

  "Ooh," I groaned as she pulled me to her.

  "I thought I'd lost you," she said, her breath shuddering in her chest as she spoke.

  I turned into her and kissed her cheek. She smelled of sandalwood and a fresh shower. "You almost did."

  Gabriella pulled back. "What happened to you," she asked. "And where did this blood come from?" She traced a finger across my forehead.

  "Help me up," I said.

  "Your chest. Felix, what's going on?"

  I still held Gester's knife and set it on Gabriella's night stand.

  "What do you know about Kaelstan?"

  "You're hurt. This is a deep wound," she said. "I'm calling Willow and Mari."

  "We need to get to the house," I said, looking around for a shirt. "Have you seen my shirt?"

  "You were wearing it just a minute ago," she said.

  "Never mind," I said and stood unsteadily. "Grab my coat. Clarita and Maggie could be in danger."

  Gabriella stepped beneath my arm. The pain of the inflamed joint caused me to wince, but I wasn't about to stop moving.

  "You'll have to drive," I said as we made it to the Suburban which was covered by a fresh inch of snow. Intuitively, I knew we were in for another five inches as the front had fully moved over the top of Leotown. Gabriella helped me into the truck. I could hear her talking on her phone as she cleared snow from the vehicle.

  "Willow and Cy will meet us at the house," she said. "Where did you get those wounds, Felix. You were lying right beside me in bed, but I didn't see them until you woke up."

  "Gester," I said. "I was trapped in a dungeon with him and a succubus named Fannie."

  "How is that possible?" she asked as she ground the truck’s gears trying to get it into reverse.

  "I don't know," I said. "I had to make a deal with him so I could escape."

  "What kind of deal, Felix? Demons can't be trusted. Nothing they say can be trusted," she said. "Tell me exactly what you promised."

  "Nothing that big," I said. "In exchange for him not causing harm to my friends, family or property, I wouldn't banish him."

  "Ever?"

  "I suppose," I said.

  "If he escapes and murders half of Leotown, you can't banish him?"

  "Oh, geez," I said. "He put me on a rack. He was torturing me." I recalled the look of triumph on Gester's face as we shook hands. It was hard for me to admit to Gabriella that I'd been taken advantage of.

  "That's horrible. Those wounds are from him? What about the succubus?"

  I looked out the window at the falling snow. I was at a critical moment where I had to decide how honest I was going to be with Gabriella.

  "We had sex," I blurted out.

  "What?"

  "When I woke up in the dungeon, she was on top of me. She looked like you at first," I said. "I thought I was in the apartment and we were getting frisky."

  "She looked like me," Gabriella stated, not convinced.

  "I should have seen it; her hair was all black, no silver highlight," I said before taking a breath to continue. "Then she looked like Willow and finally Rose."

  "Rose? Amak's cousin?"

  "Yes," I said, still staring out the window, not wanting to look at Gabriella.

  "She's pretty," Gabriella said. "You had sex with a succubus named Fannie. How did you get out of that? I thought they killed their victims."

  "You stopped her somehow," I said. "I thought about you and it broke through her glamour."

  "That wasn't me, Felix." Gabriella rubbed my thigh without looking away from the icy road. "That was you. A succubus can only control someone who can't resist them. You resisted. I'm proud of you. So really? Rose is your go-to? I never would have picked her as competition."

  "How can you take this so lightly? I slept with a demon," I said.

  "Sex from a succubus is assault, Felix," she said. "You were raped by a demon and I'm not about to blame you."

  "But it was... "

  "Stop right there," Gabriella interrupted. "The demon's magic is to twist the beauty of a physical and spiritual union. Of course it felt good, but I'd appreciate not having to hear about it from you."

  "It was you, Gabriella. It was thinking about you that let me escape," I said. "Willow and Rose are amazing to look at and I know they're good people - well, person and troll - but you get my point. It was you who came to me when I was on Gester's rack. It's always been you." I allowed my voice to trail away as the adrenaline started to wear off.

  "Hang in there," Gabriella said. "We're almost home."

  The next thing I remembered was being helped from the truck by Cypress and Gabriella. My legs didn't want to work due to what I suspected was joint swelling. Every step and bump brought a fresh wave of pain.

  "On the table," Willow ordered.

  The kitchen was crowded with the Katty sisters and their daughters, as well as Clarita, Maggie, and Lace. Every conceivable surface in the kitchen was adorned with lit candles and the room filled with the scent of burning sage.

  Many hands helped me onto the tab
le as I struggled for consciousness.

  "He's septic," I heard Mari say. "The wounds must be cleaned."

  Turns out cleaning wounds is no fun for the receiver. At some point, I lost consciousness while strong, capable hands worked to express demon venom from my hand, chest and stomach.

  "There you are." Gabriella pushed hair from my eyes. I was lying on one of the couches in the family room at the back of the house. The morning light was just starting to show through the trees. From my vantage point I saw the bright blue sky that's common after a substantial snow.

  "Where is everyone?" I asked.

  "Breakfast at Chatty Katty's awaits no one."

  "Has anyone checked on Gester?" I asked.

  She shook her head and shuddered. "No."

  "I have to." I sat up. The pain was, if anything, worse than last night, although I didn't feel like I was about to pass out.

  "Drink this." Gabriella poured tea from a carafe. "It will reduce the swelling."

  I drank and set the cup on the coffee table next to Gabriella. Standing was easier than I'd expected.

  "I'm coming with you," she said.

  I nodded and walked gingerly to the basement door which had a magical lock on it that only Clarita or I could open with any predictability. Although Maggie had confessed she could turn into a mouse and get through small cracks in the foundation, effectively bypassing the lock. I moved the tumblers in a pattern I'd committed to memory, and swung open the door. As soon as I stepped onto the landing, wall sconces ignited and illuminated the stone passageway leading down.

  There was only one room in the basement, which I referred to as the lab. A pair of doors separated the lab from the vestibule at the bottom of the stairs. The lock, while more complex than the one upstairs, provided no real resistance.

  I crossed the lab to where a thick band of silver had been inlaid into the floor and etched with powerful spells. I pulled off the sheet I kept over the translucent barrier that trapped the demon.

  Gester sat cross-legged inside of the circle, considering Gabriella and me. He made a gesture that looked like he was rolling down the window of an old car. He wanted to talk and was requesting that I remove the spell I'd cast on the circle which eliminated sounds from transmitting in or out of the sphere.

  "Do you think that's safe?" Gabriella asked.

  "Probably not," I said as I dismantled the spell.

  "If it isn't the lovely Lady Valverde and Wizard Slade," Gester said, gesturing grandly. "Nice of you to visit this fine, snowy morning. How is it I might be of service?"

  "You made a pact not to harm me, but your venom nearly killed me. Why shouldn't I banish you right now?" I asked.

  "Prior bad acts were not stipulated," he said. "You should not banish me as you would be in material breach of a binding contract."

  "What is the key you were asking about?" I asked. "What does it do and why do you want it?"

  "A book on a stand," he replied.

  "The key is a book?"

  "No. There is nothing free in this world or my own," he replied. "You want information and I'm bored to death. You will place one of those ratty old books from your library onto a stand and open it for me so that I might entertain myself. You bring that witch child and I will train her to turn pages."

  "I have just the thing," I said.

  "Sphaera vocem, silentium." The opaque sphere surrounding the demon shimmered with golden flecks as the simple spell once again cut off sound between the demon and the outside world.

  "You can't be serious," Gabriella said. "That thing cannot be trusted."

  Follow me," I said. Together, the two of us walked up the long flight of stairs into the family room where I recovered a small book from a bucket where we kept Clarita's entertainment. "This should do it." I proudly held up a thin book with a cartoon bear on the front. The bear was resting his chin on a table, looking longingly at a piece of cake. The title was A Bear Ate My Cake. It was well beneath Clarita's reading level and I was sure she wouldn't miss it.

  "You wouldn't," Gabriella said.

  "Watch me."

  Chapter 5

  Fired

  The breeze was heavy with the smell of wet dog when we approached the front of the hospital. A scruffy man leaned against the building, as if standing in seven inches of snow was a perfectly rational thing to do. He gave us a once-over and must have decided we were of no threat because he pulled out an unfiltered cigarette, lit it, and looked away.

  "Did you see the two sitting in the pickup?" I asked once we were through the revolving door.

  Gabriella nodded. "Two rows over from where we parked."

  After checking in at the information desk, we learned that Joe was on the second floor, although I had to use compulsion to get the attendant to give us the room number. On the second floor, we passed two more lycan, a man and a woman pretending to sleep in lounge chairs. I could feel their attention as we turned down the hall that led to Joe's room.

  "I count five," I said. "His pack has grown."

  "And those are the ones we could see," Gabriella said.

  A uniformed officer sitting by Joe's door stood as we approached. "No visitors." He held up a hand.

  "I represent Mr. Lozano." Gabriella stepped forward confidently, her spiked heels striking the floor loudly as she walked. "I assume you're not intending to deny my client representation." She produced a business card from her purse and handed it to the flustered officer.

  "Of course not, Ms. Valverde," he replied. "But he has to stay out here." The officer pointed at me.

  "Is Mr. Lozano under arrest?" Gabriella asked.

  "He's being held for questioning," the officer said.

  She put her hand on the handle of the door. "Then you have no reason to prevent my colleague from entering."

  "I'm calling it in."

  "You do that," she said. "We'll be inside with my client, who's not under arrest." She stared him down and gestured for me to enter.

  "Shit Joe, put a shirt on. You're making us all look bad." Joe was still lying on the bed, but I couldn’t see a single wound on him. Struck by just how muscular he'd become, I felt more than a little jealous at his heavily muscled chest and narrow waist.

  "You're not welcome." At first I didn't recognize the mousy blonde who jumped up to position herself between Lozano and me.

  "Daphne?" It was the wrong thing to say to the wiry woman, who I just remembered didn't like the nickname I'd given her. She'd lost a substantial amount of what I recalled having been well-proportioned weight. Her body was now narrow and tightly packed. Her arm muscles were on display in a tight-fitting leather vest and, like Joe's, they were well-defined.

  "Respect," she growled and lunged with a speed I had difficulty tracking.

  "Hold," Joe said conversationally. She'd covered the few feet separating us in a blink of an eye and held her curled fingers poised to rake my face.

  "You going to let him do me like that?" Daphne asked. Her eyes did not rise above waist level as she turned deferentially to him.

  "The wizard and the witch are under my protection," Joe said. "And besides, most of the pack calls you Daphne."

  "Because of this ass-hat," she snarled. Apparently, protection didn't extend to verbal abuse since Joe simply smiled as if watching two of his children work something out.

  "Where were you last night?" I asked Daphne. "I think Alpha here could have used your help."

  "Don't get her started," Joe interrupted.

  "He was supposed to be up here doing pack business," she answered.

  It suddenly clicked. Her name was really Sue and she was a blonde waitress who got turned by the same werewolf that had bitten Joe.

  "I was up here on pack business," Joe snapped.

  "What happened, Joe?" I asked. "We found you on the floor of George Rosen's house."

  "You were there?"

  "We got there about the time you were thrown into the front door."

  "I don't remember that," he said.<
br />
  "What are you into here, Joe?" I asked. "Who killed Rosen?"

  "Rosen's dead?"

  "Broken like a rag-doll," I said. "You have anything to do with that?"

  "Rosen was a new client," Joe answered. "He was looking for protection."

  "A bit out of your territory, isn't it?"

  "He was working on a big deal, selling something important and he wanted extra protection," Joe said. "That's all I know."

  "And you didn't see anything?"

  "I smelled a kid. Couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen. She was in the house but I couldn't find her. Tricky little shit. Not sure how she hid from me. I couldn't hear or see her, but I smelled the tracks she left. I was on her trail when the wonder twins busted through the back of the house."

  "What happened to the girl?" Gabriella asked.

  "No idea. Dumb and Dumber weren't in the mood for talking and things got rough. I imagine that's about the time you showed up. The last thing I remember is having my ribs caved in after I got punted down the hallway. Pack must have felt me go down."

  "Damn right we did," Daphne growled. "You should have at least brought me along. We could have taken 'em."

  "Why'd you take a job in Leotown, Joe? I thought you wanted distance."

  "I'm looking to move back. I know I can't have Jen and Sienna back yet, but I'm in control now. We're claiming the territory north of the Platte River, including Leotown."

  "Are you planning to pan gold? This is the twenty-first century, Joe. Nobody stakes claims," I said.

  "Don't be naïve, Slade," he said. "There's already a pack here. They run out of Howling Hounds Coffee. Pack alpha works there. Nice guy, good coffee, but he's in over his head. A big pack down south is moving north. It's only a matter of time before they're in Leotown."

  "Did you talk to him?" I asked.

  "Not directly. I had coffee."

  "What does that mean?" Gabriella asked. "Did you actually talk to Mike?"

  "Is that his name?" Joe asked. "No. Just got coffee. He knows the drill. If he wanted to challenge, he would never have served the coffee."