Justice Calling by Annie Bellet

Author:Annie Bellet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

We didn’t have to track Alek down. He was waiting for us outside the game shop when we arrived after a silent and tense car ride.

“We know who it is.”

“He has Ezee.”

“He has my brother.”

All three of us spoke on top of each other and Alek held up a hand.

“One at a time, and maybe not out here?” He looked at me and frowned. “I smell blood.”

“I’m fine,” I said. I pulled out my keys, bumping my bruised hip as I did so. Another painful reminder that I wasn’t fine. Nothing was. Again I felt irrational anger at Alek for coming into my world and wrecking everything. Two days ago everything had been normal. Now, my life was ruined. Again.

Inside the shop, Levi and I quickly explained what had happened at the school. I pushed the miniatures to the side and Levi laid out the map we’d found. Harper sat heavily in my chair behind the desk and booted up my computer.

“Think he actually works there? We can find out who he really is on the faculty page, I think,” she said. Her face was too calm, her eyes puffy but clear. She had the hollow look of someone who had suffered too much pain too quickly and burned down to an empty core of rage.

I knew that feeling. I knew that look. Intimately. I was halfway there myself. The other half? Sheer terror.

“I’m going upstairs to get a new shirt,” I said.

Alek followed me. I wasn’t really surprised.

“If we are going to talk,” I said, “Then you better do that silence ward thingy you did last night.” Fuck. Only last night I’d been bleeding in my bathtub. Two nights ago I’d been plotting how to sucker my players into their latest adventure and rolling up stats on a Liche Lord.

Silvery magic slipped over the walls of my bedroom. I pulled out a batman tee-shirt and pulled off the bloody hoodie and my torn up shirt. I kept my back to Alek and he waited until I was clothed again before speaking.

“This Bernie Barnes, he’s a sorcerer like you?” he asked.

So, he had figured out what I was. Guess that wasn’t really a surprise.

“No. He’s using rituals, which I guess makes him a warlock. The magic isn’t inside him, he’s stealing it. I think that’s what the ley line map and his notes are about.” I sat heavily on my bed and looked down at my hands. There was dried blood under my nails. Awesome. Tears threatened again. Twenty plus years without crying and now I was about to do it twice in a day. More awesome.

“Stealing power from shifters,” Alek prompted. “Like a sorcerer.”

“Stop saying that. You’re wrong. We can’t steal power, not like that.” I glared at him. “I have power because I was born with it. It’s like this well inside me. A witch or warlock or whatever you call a human magic user has only the ability to use power, not the actual power itself inside them.

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