The Blade Mage by Phillip Drayer Duncan

Author:Phillip Drayer Duncan [Duncan, Phillip Drayer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Happy Omega Publishing
Published: 2020-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

The next morning, I woke up to the motel phone ringing. It was Stone. He informed me that getting an audience with the Pattersons looked promising, but he needed another couple of hours. I hung up and went back to sleep.

It had been a rough night. My mind racing with unanswered questions and stress, I hadn’t dozed off until the wee hours of the morning. When I’d finally slept, my dreams were of Axel. More specifically, of his severed head, looking up at me and asking why I’d failed him. Over and over. Sometimes the abasy or the manananggal made an appearance. Sometimes a faceless little girl made an appearance. She was dead, and asking me why I didn’t save her.

I woke up for real around nine. I was sore, stiff, and my ass felt like someone had hit it with a sledge hammer. Faith, sleepy eyed and just waking up as well, came out of the bathroom, which was convenient because that was where I was headed. She stifled a giggle as I sauntered toward the bathroom like an old man.

“And you made it sound like the Blade Mage was supposed to be tough,” she said, giving me a sly grin.

“You done in the bathroom?” I asked. “I need a shower.”

“All yours,” she replied.

I growled a response and moved into the bathroom. A few minutes later I was sitting in the tub, letting the hot water pour over me from the shower head and wondering what diseases I might pick up from sitting in a cheap motel bathtub.

As the shower worked on my soreness, I thought about everything that had happened so far. Despite the static in Axel’s message, it certainly sounded like he was warning Stone not to trust Faith, but why? So far, she’d not given any indication she was on the wrong side of this. She’d had plenty of opportunities to stab me in the back, but she hadn’t. If she was up to something, what was her game?

Or had that part had something to do with Kyle? He’d said his name around that point too, but the static was such that I just couldn’t make it out.

Goddamnit, Axel. I’d bet money he’d just used magic before he placed the call, and that was what had jacked up his reception. It sounded like he’d left the message in a hurry. The asshole probably hadn’t even realized it wasn’t coming through clean.

And what about the demon and his vampire friend? Who the hell were they working for? I didn’t believe for a second they were actually working for Axel. That was just ridiculous. Whoever had sent them sure wanted me to believe it, though. Yet clearly it was someone who didn’t know him as well as I did. Even Parker had come around to thinking it was bullshit.

I sighed. So far, all I’d managed to find was another lead, and it was entirely possible the Pattersons might not know anything. Under duress, that Marauder may have just thrown a name out.

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