Black Mage Hunter (The Rover 5)

Chapter Fourteen

Echo’s friend wasn’tas interested in helping us, as he’d implied. And by the wicked long knife clutched in the man’s hand as he answered his door to a bunch of people, he didn’t appreciate the opportunity ambush.

They whispered hurriedly in the doorway until Echo slammed his hand into the frame and the other men went silent. Finally, he opened the door wider and allowed us inside. The shields around his home were thick, like stepping through a curtain of molasses, but we all endured until he’d locked the door behind us.

“I didn’t barely escape with my life last time to be dragged back into your shit,” He grumbled at Echo, while limping toward a beat-up couch on the far side of the room. No doubt wanting some distance between all of us. I got that and tried to keep still as they argued.

“That’s just the fucking point, Ash, aren’t you tired of running away and hiding.”

Melinda made a small noise from the back of our group. She had to be thinking about how similar her situation was, but maybe hadn’t realized Esteban had been hunting his own kind for her same abilities when she disappeared.

I stared around the sparsely furnished apartment. A little kitchen, living room, a TV mounted to the wall, but otherwise this place looked like he’d moved in a week ago and hadn’t bothered unpacking yet. The man himself looked clean in blue jeans and a t-shirt, but his hair needed to be cut and his stubble had grown too long. All the signs of a man in hiding. I didn’t know if it scared me to have this chance or made me feel better. But it felt like we were on the right path. Even more so if it was the path Esteban had remained on for years. I just didn’t want to screw up this man’s life any more than it had already been.

I was about to dive into the argument and see if I could convince him to join us, but Melinda pushed around me to the front of our little milling group.

His eyes caught hers when she noticed her movement. “Don’t come any closer.” To his credit he didn’t raise the knife at her. And to Helix’s, he wasn’t launching himself in front of her. Maybe the man started to realize she needed to stand on her own two feet as we moved through this.

“I won’t hurt you. None of us are here to hurt you,” she told him. Her voice wavered and her hands shook as she took one more step forward. Get it girl.

“You might not be here to hurt me, but you’re sure as shit not here to help me either. Just get out and leave me in peace.”

She cleared her throat, no doubt to ensure he could hear her over the trembling. “What kind of smith do you use? Is it here in the house, or do you have to go elsewhere to access it?”

His eyes darted around, wild, like he might make a run for it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I wanted to nudge her forward, tell her to keep going, she’d already snagged him, she just needed to reel him in.

“Your friend told us you’re a metalsmith. A good one too.” She shoved her hands out into the low light of the room. “I am too. I’m not a mage, but I’m sure the craft we do is similar if you work magic into it. Ash, is that your name?”

The man still looked ready to flee, but between us standing in front of the door and Echo blocking his way he wasn’t going to make a clean exit.

“My smith is in the basement, but I don’t fire it up unless there’s an emergency, otherwise, it might draw too much attention.”

She nodded. “I get it. Mine was in the basement too. Magically protected of course.”

When she ventured another step in his direction, and he didn’t move into a defensive posture I made eye contact with Echo. Let Melinda handle this if she can connect to him. And I had little doubt she could.

I almost held my breath waiting for her to draw him out again. Finally, she spoke, but her tone had taken an edge I hadn’t heard since she first volunteered to help go after her brother. “I don’t know what you’ve been through. Knowing your abilities, I suppose I at least have an idea, because I’ve endured the same running, hiding, and fear that you did. We aren’t asking you to be the one to kill Esteban. All we are asking is for a chance to explain what we are planning, or thinking, and get your opinion. If you want to help after that, great, if not we won’t hurt you, and we won’t tell anyone where you are.”

His soft gray eyes darted between us. “But you’re fae.”

My turn to step up beside Melinda. “Not all of us are. It doesn’t matter because we are working together, as we should have been all along. None of us are strong enough to take on Esteban alone. A fact Fin and I learned multiple times. But together, I think we have a chance.”

He glowered at me. “A chance of dying a horrible and painful death together, you mean.”

I gave him one of my cocky smiles, the ones meant to reassure right before I pounced on a target. “You don’t know anything about me, but please, listen when I say, I have no intention of dying any time soon. I’ve been on the chopping block a little too much lately and I’ve had enough of it. Sit. Listen. And then if you want us to leave, we will.”

He turned and shoved the knife behind the couch, and then flopped onto, ass first, his leg immediately coming outward to rest on the small footstool in front. “Talk, so you can all go.”

Melinda glanced back at me, and I took that to mean she wanted me to take over.

I studied the man. He just looked tired as hell and wanted to be left alone to lick his wounds. Part of me sympathized with it because I felt the same way somewhere deep inside myself. It would be so easy to pick a safehouse and hide out for eternity, praying he never came after me. But I wasn’t willing to sacrifice The Chief on a chance at a life that might never exist.

“As Echo told you, we're planning to kill The Black Mage.”

His eyes narrowed like he didn’t believe me. “You’re planning to. Well, I’ve got news for you, sugar, you won’t succeed.”

The nickname made me grind my teeth together. “And I’ve got news for you, honey, you know nothing about us. We have a plan starting, but we need someone with your abilities to help us get there. We are going after him, either way, but with your help, I have a chance at saving someone I really care about. An old man he’s kidnapped to get to me.”

It was his turn to survey me now. “Why you, what’s he want with you?”

I smiled and flipped my hair. “You mean besides my amazing personality? He thinks we can be mates or something.”

He waved at the general area of my chest. “But you have a mate.”

“He’s lost his mind, and not in a Van Gogh sort of way, but in the Jack Torrance kind. He’s been after me since I was a child, I just didn’t realize it until a few months ago when I was hired to hunt him down.”

“Hunt him?”

“I’m a bounty hunter.” I dragged Hawk forward by the sleeve. “So is he. The man he’s taken is our boss and friend.”

I stopped talking then. Despite the fact I often run at the mouth, I did know the power of a strategic silence. We all stayed quiet while he looked us over, one by one.

“What makes you think you can beat him? What if I join you and get killed for my efforts?” He whispered, after a while.

I shrugged. “I won’t lie. It’s a possibility.” The sheet anguish on his face made me pull out the card I’d been holding back. “But I doubt it. You see, what I didn’t mention about his obsession with me is that I’m part fae, and part mage. I think my power, combined with everyone else's, is the key to bringing him down once and for all.”

He didn't bother trying to wipe the confusion from his face. “I don’t even know what that means, how can you be part fae, and part mage. Did the transfer of your power not complete?”

Fin jolted beside me, and I patted his forearm, still looking at Ash. “I never took anyone’s powers. Mine were given to me at birth. My father was a mage, and my mother was fae.”

And now he’d given me a look I’d seen several times since we started this little journey. “Impossible.”

It took almost nothing to summon both my fae and my mage powers together now. I wasn’t sure if it should worry me that I no longer seemed to need the anchor to get there. But, I also still wore the earrings Melinda had given me, so I figured I would chalk it up to that and try not to worry about it too much. I let the magic settle through the room, not doing anything but existing, and when he felt it, he gasped and huddled back into the couch. “What the hell are you?”

I let the power fade and smiled. “See, now you get it, Esteban has the same reaction to him, although he seems more the dissecting type than you do.”

Fin snatched my hand into his and squeezed tightly. I appreciated, despite him losing his shit at the thought of Esteban cutting me open, he hadn’t interrupted this little negotiation.

I stayed silent again, letting him filter, process, and make his choice. He seemed nice, and grumpy in the way I like my friends. I'd hate to have to kill him now that we’d basically shared our whole plan with him. I could practically feel Helix seething from the back of the room. That one was definitely not a sharer.

After what felt like an eternity of judgement, he said. “Fine. What do you want with me?”

First, I couldn’t jump up and down at our victory. I needed to play it cool now being the face of this for him. I helped myself to a seat beside his foot on the stool. When he didn’t move it off, I decided I liked him even more.

“A mage without magic is just a man,” I told him.

“Is this some kind of fucked up riddle I should know?”

I shook my head and faced him more fully. This close I could see his bloodshot eyes and the fine cars on his face I hadn’t noticed before. “No. What I’m saying is that if we take away Esteban’s power then we can just kill him like any other man. A knife, a gun, whatever it will take to do the job.”

“You want to use my abilities to take his power?”

I waved at the floor. “When I first met Esteban he’d had this sort of metal power trap ring thing built into his lair. But then later, he was able to come into our safehouse and take the powers of my two friends. I think he found a way to make it portable. Combine that with what Echo has told me about mages hiding in fear of him all over the world, and I think he’s found a way to take his power gathering show on the road. I want you to make something similar that we can use against him, before he can use his against us...well...more.”

He blinked. “That is the stupidest fucking plan I’ve ever heard.”

I scowled. Definitely losing brownie points by the second. “Okay, then, what plan will work?”

When he spoke, he talked over my shoulder to Melinda. “Doesn’t she know that those things require some kind of anchor base?” Now to me. “You can’t just throw magic at the wall and hope it does what you want. You have to be strong enough mentally to direct it, and physically, to hold it. Most people don’t have a lot of power so it doesn’t matter. People like you, and,” he nodded to Fin, “and him, have to be stronger to contain more.”

“So?”

“Even Esteban isn’t infinite. If he has a portable magic catching device then he himself would have to anchor it, already limiting what he can store in it, and in himself, to hold it. Understand?”

A new idea began to take hold in my head. I hopped off the stool. “We gotta go, you stay here and we’ll come back tomorrow. I need to make a phone call.”

I rushed out of the room, and surprisingly everyone followed, even Ash. It didn’t matter but I wanted to be away from his home before I made the call because we’d need his tools to complete our mission.

We filed into the car and headed toward the safehouse we’d been using. It might be a little squished with the extra person, but it didn’t matter. If I had my way this would all be over soon.

As Fin drove, I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and hit the button I’d dreaded pressing since he’d first called me. Then I hit the speaker button and waited for it to ring.

“Ah, Zoey, I’m so glad you called.” His voice cut through the line all smooth and oily. “Your Chief isn’t looking so good under my care. Perhaps you should retrieve him now and he can go home with your friends.

“Sure, I’ll come and get him, but not yet, and I won’t be meeting at your place. You’re going to meet me at a neutral location that I’ve chosen.”

He scoffed. “It’s almost as if you don’t trust me, Darling.”

I scowled at the phone, as did Fin. “Well, Darling, I don’t. Obviously. You have tried to kill me repeatedly.”

“I could say the same about you.”

“True, but I’m not the one whose killed people you love, tortured you, or basically stripped you of your dignity. I think you’ll be fine meeting me on neutral ground to pick up The Chief.”

He muttered to himself, and I couldn’t make out the noises. “Fine. Then we’ll do it your way. I won’t hesitate to kill him if you stand me up or try anything stupid.”

I hung up without saying anything else, his voice already too much after those few seconds. There was little doubt in my mind that shit would go sideways no matter how much we tried to plan this out.

An angry voice came from the back of the van. “Did you just fucking have The Black Mage on speed dial?”