Page 22 of Aleko
“Tell me again why I want a wizard around?”
Sebastian’s canines flashed long in his smile. “He remembers to get groceries.”
Alex shook his head and then gestured for them to follow him. They cut through the now gutted and smoking house, following the sounds of yelling and flames to the back garden where an infinity pool dangled over a cliffside. Sergio was carrying a flame thrower, his back against the railing that kept him from tumbling down the cliff into the ocean, and improbably, the pool was on fire.
Anuket was on the far side of the pool, still wearing the dead body, but was looking more and more like a body and less like it was inhabited. Red smoke oozed out of it, and one tendril ringed the translator, squeezing tightly like a snake and holding her off the ground.
The woman screeched out a command, but Alex couldn’t understand it any more than Sergio. Sergio responded with another gout of flame, and the smoke holding the translator yanked her into the air.
“Sergio! Give her the damn talisman!” The translator screamed it in English, but Sergio only pulled the trigger again.
“Bastian, put a fucking lid on Sergio,” ordered Alex. “You two back him up. I’m going after the girl.”
“Can you go under the flames?” asked Sebastian. As Alex stepped forward, he thought the brothers answered with affirmative noises.
He worked his way along the edge of the house, keeping to the greenery as long as he could. The last bit, where he had to go around the end of the pool, was the most exposed, and there was a chance that either Anuket or Sergio would notice him. But there was nowhere else to hide—he would just have to move quickly. He was most of the way out into the open when he heard the splash of the brothers entering the pool.
“Hey!” yelled Sebastian drawing everyone’s attention. Asusual, Sebastian had his back. “Give her the talisman.”
Alex leaped across a corner of the pool and landed as silently as possible. Neither Anuket nor Sergio seemed to have seen him. He drew his sword. The blade glinted in the firelight, and the translator looked in his direction. Her eyes went wide, and she looked scared. He wanted to grab her right then, but she was still out of reach. Alex took another step forward. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.
Episode 15
Anuket
Alex
“Go fuck yourself,” screamed Sergio, but he had the glassy-eyed look of someone who wasn’t under rational control. The girl gasped as the smoke tightened around her, and she squeaked out something in Latin—probably a translation of what was happening. In the pool, Alex saw the brothers streaking along the bottom.
“It’s mine,” said Sergio in Italian. “Mine.”
Alex took a few more steps, trying to pick his moment. If Luca was right and he could destroy the body, it would leave Anuket nowhere to go. He hoped.
More smoke poured out of the body, and the thing growled angrily. The smoke momentarily sucked back into the body, but Alex thought it was her strength of will holding it there. Alex understood her frustration. Magic didn’t function properly here. Magic that was carried within, like transformative powers and innate talent, was available for use. Anything else that required power to be drawn from other sources was difficult at best, frequently unpredictable, and often non-functional.
There was a pop from Sebastian’s gun, and Sergio spun, tagged in the shoulder. He dropped the flame thrower and clutched for something around his neck.
“This is mine!” Sergio screamed.
A column of smoke shot from the woman toward the talisman. Using her distraction, Alex dove forward and sliced his sword through the ribbon of smoke holding the translator. As he had hoped, the blade cut it, and the woman screamed, red light flaming from her mouth. This time Alex was ready and shoutedthe command word that triggered his shield spell. It was never entirely reliable, which was why he usually also wore Kevlar. Just because he could heal from bullet wounds didn’t mean they didn’t hurt like hell. Her magic bounced off his shield like a battering ram. He leaned into it, and the spell popped, but a split second after her magic retreated. He wasn’t sure the shield spell would work again.
Across the pool, Trevor leaped from the water, reaching for Sergio and the talisman. Trevor snatched the necklace and, as if in slow motion, Alex saw Sergio bring up his other hand with a gun, aiming at Trevor. But Colin burst from the water and shoved Sergio with a hard punch directly in the sternum. Sergio flew back, tumbling over the railing and over the cliff.
His girl was on the ground. Alex wasn’t sure if she was dead or unconscious, but he didn’t have time to check. The smoke poured out of the woman, and the body collapsed to the ground as it was abandoned. The red smoke swept across the space and began to envelop Trevor.
“Trevor,” yelled Alex. “Let it go!”
Colin grabbed Trevor, yanking him free of the smoke, and within moments, the red mist solidified into a woman. It was like watching a doll come together; the joints stayed outlined in red, and bright glowing lines crisscrossed her skin as she became more real-looking. The woman was petite and naked, curving and soft, with warm brown skin, black shoulder-length hair, and dark eyes above a sharp chin and full mouth. She had one hand clasped over a golden necklace. She stared at each of them, then pointed to the translator on the ground and said something in Latin. Alex stepped over the girl so that she was behind him and raised his sword.
The woman said the same thing again but with more force. Alex let his transformation begin. The most potent point for any shifter was not as a wolf or human but in the strange space inbetween. Most shifters couldn’t stay in that place for very long, but Alex had been pushing against the poisoned atmosphere of the Grecian coast for decades. He now had more control over his wolf than many shifters three times his age.
She spoke again, pointing emphatically at the girl on the ground.
“She wants the girl,” called Luca from someplace by the house.
Alex didn’t bother to turn to look at him. He knew damn well what Anuket wanted. He was facing an ancient Supernatural with powers he’d never seen before who might be able to break him in half, and all he could think was that there was not one damn chance in hell that he was letting the girl go.
The woman stamped her foot. A puff of red smoke billowed from beneath her heel, and cracks ran up her leg like lava under barely hardened rock. She pointed more emphatically at the girl and repeated her words.
