Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and Epic Fantasy Read online

  “Follow my lead, don’t look at it, and hopefully it will just consider us dociles.” Lourdie put a smile on her face and walked toward the woman holding an infant in a small seating vignette. The little nook was out of the way of foot traffic and appeared to be a convenient hiding place for netherwalkers.

  “And if it doesn’t?” Abbey asked quietly.

  “Then Marcus and the scrapers are going to have one hell of a mess to clean up.” Lourdie’s smiled widened as they neared their target. She bent forward and said cheerfully, “Hi, little man. What’s your name? Aw, he’s so cute.” She looked up at the mother and asked, “How old is he?”

  Lourdie gave Abbey’s wrist one more squeeze as her apprentice finally calmed her breathing and slowed her heart rate as they stepped into the shadowskins snare.

  Abbey put a matching warm smile on her face even though the scene obviously repulsed her.

  The mother shook her head a little, as if she had been daydreaming. “Oh, um,” she straightened up and blinked several times, “This is Sebashtian, he’s almost thirteen months. Can you say hi to the nice girls?” The mother cooed as her son quickly glanced at the girls then back at the wall behind his mother.

  The guardians suspected the infant’s mother was a neophyte that had lost the sight; a descendant’s ability to see abnormal shadows lingering where there shouldn't be any. The shadowskin was in its benign form clinging to the wall, feeding on any human that came near it, taking drops of life of its unsuspecting victims. The process was virtually painless to its prey, creating a euphoric feeling as the netherwalker became engorged on its unabated feast.

  Lourdie was the picture of calm while a volcano of anger erupted under the surface as she thought of the shadowskin sharing the droplets of life with its master Nevra-Hsi back in the netherworld. With her heightened hunter senses, she could feel tiny molecule sized droplets of energy, her life force, her essence, being pulled out of her body through her skin. Trying to slowly leach her dry, the shadowskin fed its master. The experience wasn’t painful, but it was repulsive and intolerably invasive.

  The master hunter came up with a simple but effective plan to get the neophytes away from the shadowskin. “Whoa...you made a big surprise in your diaper, didn’t you? Yes you did.” Lourdie cooed, scrunching up her nose.

  “Oh, time to go, little man. Bash, can you say bye-bye to the girls?” Sebashtian’s mother said getting up and gathering all their belongings.

  “I think the nearest restroom is that way,” Lourdie said giving the mother her best Girl Scout smile as they all walked away from the shadowskin and its feeding ground. The store’s closing jingle began to play as a third of the lights went out.

  “Bye, Sebashtian,” Abbey said as the little boy waved still watching the shadow looming on the wall like a dark cloud of smoke. She tilted her head, furrowed her brow, and lowered her voice. “Hmph. So if I hadn’t taken the gloaming bond, I would have ended up like her? Just an ordinary docile?”

  “Eventually yes,” Lourdie said simply. “Sometimes it’s quick, but sometimes it’s not.”

  “Wow. With what I know now, I couldn’t imagine living like that. Being totally oblivious food for these life suckers? There’s no way.” The young girl shook her head. “Do you think Sebashtian will answer the gloaming’s call and find us someday?” Abbey’s hushed voice was hopeful.

  “I hope so. Did you see him track that shadow up the wall? He’s meant to be a hunter.”

  “Best of luck, little dude. We’ll be waiting for you.” Abbey said sending her wish out into the universe.

  “Come on, let's find a quiet place to hang out while the store closes. That krim is not going to feed on anyone anymore, he’s toast!”

  “Yeah, that totally sucked being a human lunchable, even if it was for only, like, a minute. Let me take this one out. Can I? Can I?” Abbey pleaded.

  “You’ve got it, my bologna has a first name.” Lourdie laughed quietly, “Now move your Oscar!”

  Abbey followed Lourdie’s lead and quietly put her Bluetooth headset on. They moved slowly hoping not to trigger any motion sensors in the eerily quiet, expansive store.

  “This is Lourdes Reese, authorization code K-O-T-R-T court eleven,” she whispered from their hiding spot.

  “Line secure. What can the Bellows do for you, guardian Reese?” said the friendly female voice.

  “Requesting scrapers. I need access to security cameras and alarms at 1000 3rd Avenue, New York for single netherwalker banishment.”

  “Stand by.”

  Through the communication channel they could hear low murmurs and chairs shuffling around as dozens of fingers clicked away on multiple keyboards. She heard a beep then a new voice came on the line.

  “Lourdie, only you could find a netherwalker at Bloomingdale’s,” a male teenager chuckled.

  “Hey, Drew. How’s my favorite hacker?”

  “Just about to make your job a lot easier. Position?”

  “Third floor, near target.”

  “Disabling alarms. Creating loop in security footage....floor secure.” The guardians left their hiding spot. “I now have eyes on you. You are go for banishment. Give ‘em hell, Lourdie.”

  “Copy that. Thorne, you take point, this one’s yours,” Lourdie said as they readied their weapons. She exerted great effort to keep her poker face as she stifled a proud grin.

  The first thing Lourdie had taught Abbey was that a good hunter was always armed. ‘Think of your stun gun as an extension of your arm. Just as your relics are attuned to you alone, your weapons are only as good as their wielder. They are a part of you now.’

  “Thorne? As in Abigail Thorne?” Drew laughed.

  “The one and only,” Abbey whispered with a nervous, awkward giggle.

  “I should have known the hunter apprentice burning up her trials in record time could only be mentored by you, Reese,” Drew sighed. “Well, damn. This op is going to be over before I finish my Red Bull and Hot Pocket. Thorne, it’s a pleasure to meet you. And...” the hunters heard a few more taps of his keyboard, “You are go for banishment.”

  “Copy that. Thanks, Drew. Thorne out,” she said with a newfound confidence. Abbey walked with conviction to the wall where the shadowskin was still lingering. Under her intense stare, with weapon drawn, the shadow shivered like the rattle on a snake. It recognized her as a guardian, a hunter, and a threat. “Hey, life sucker!” she said, channeling her mentor. She shot at the translucent smoke with a pulse from her gun. She had to provoke it into taking a form she could stun and banish back to the nether realm. “Tell your boss this buffet is closed.” Abbey slowed her pace as she neared the insidious, ethereal form.

  The air around the shadowskin plummeted thirty degrees as the black cloud slowly took on its true corporeal form. The krimvigo looked vaguely similar to a gray wolf, a distorted version of an earthly wolf, however, and three times bigger. Netherwalkers were as comfortable on two legs as they were on all four, and just as deadly and quick. Its ebony skin looked like a black fire opal. The parts of its dark slick hairless body hit by light pulsed and vibrated with power. As Abbey approached, the creature dropped to the floor and its body became locked and rigid on all fours. The krimvigo dug its back claws into the carpet readying itself to pounce. Frosty breath came from its nose and mouth in quick nervous pants. Although the creature had no eyes it seemed to stare directly at the young hunter, looking deep into her soul. Abbey could see where the legends of werewolves had come from as the creature bared its five inch fangs. Drops of spittle desperately clung to its canines before freezing and falling to the ground. A few drops hit her pant leg and sizzled as the saliva ate away at the fabric. The young apprentice ignored this as she focused and trusted her instincts. The netherwalker let out a horrendous howl as Abbey quickly stunned it. Just as expeditiously as in her last trial, the trainee raised her relics to her lips and whispered a word to the cold metal rings. Instantly and violently, a sphere of translucent violet light was c
reated in her palms. She let the orb grow and envelope the krim. Abbey always reveled in the delvir’s smooth encapsulation. Wisps of lightning reached out from the orb as it imploded, taking the netherwalker back to its own realm. The residual smell always made her think of burnt popcorn.

  It was a bittersweet victory knowing that the shadowskin had to merely wait until the next full moon to come back through a fracture and find another feeding ground. At times like these, Lourdie wished there was a way to kill these leeches instead of merely sending them back to their own world. But that, too, had been lost with the Once and Future King. No mortal weapon was able to penetrate that slick light-absorbing skin. The stun weapons all hunters carried were strong enough to incapacitate a fifteen thousand pound elephant with one pulse of light, but barely kept netherwalkers stunned long enough for banishment. There was no telling how long this shadowskin had been hiding here absorbing the life from what could amount to hundreds of unsuspecting victims. She thought the creature would have put up a fight to protect its territory. “Drew, is the floor still secure?” Lourdie asked, puzzlement written all over her face as she scanned the area.

  “Affirmative. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that was way too easy.” Lourdie pushed clothes back from the wall and found a hidden door. “That shadowskin hasn’t moved since we first found him, like he’s a decoy, and that howl sounded like a warning call.” She tried the locked door, “Can you access this door?”

  “Stand by,” Drew said. Two seconds later the door clicked open.

  “I think we’ve found a nest,” Lourdie said looking directly at Abbey, measuring her apprentice's fear level.

  Abbey nodded back in full hunter mode and stance. The apprentice had no reservations and no apprehension, she was ready. She flashed Lourdie the collar of her Kevlar under-armor.

  “Good girl,” Lourdie beamed with pride.

  “From the building’s schematics it appears to be a thirty-five by forty foot room, two stories tall, with no other entry points. I have no eyes in there. Repeat, no eyes,” Drew said worriedly.

  Lourdie removed the support bar that held the hanging clothes so they could have unobstructed access to the small door. “Copy that. I’m on point. Thorne, you’ve got the door. We go in heavy. If we provoke them they won’t be able to revert back to their benign forms and slip away. We go on Thorne’s count.”

  “Good luck, guardians. Drew out.”

  Lourdie’s stun baton hummed to life. Its deep dark indigo light pulsated with anticipation.

  Crouching at the door, one hand on the knob, the other with weapon at the ready, Abbey counted back from three and pushed the door open.

  Lourdie charged in stabbing a krim in the chest with her baton as it reared up on its hind legs, making it over ten feet tall. She rushed it to the back wall with unbelievable strength.

  Abbey dove in, kicking the door shut behind her. Through the darkness she shot a pulse of light at the nearest krim while lying on her side as it barreled down on her. It collapsed on her legs seconds before its claws would have torn through her clothing. OMG, why do they keep landing on me? Abbey’s legs were going numb from the beast’s weight as she surveyed the room. She counted two more shadows as her hunter attuned eyes adjusted to the cold, dark room. As she grunted with the effort required to extricate herself from the stunned netherwalker, another dark form barreled into her. He seemed more interested in Lourdie. Allowing only a second to fear her legs wouldn’t work, the young apprentice unsteadily rolled onto her knees and aimed her weapon. She was able to incapacitate the krim before he reached his brothers who were locked in a fight with her mentor. Abbey had only seen glimpses of Lourdie’s true abilities before tonight. Her mentor danced effortlessly around the netherwalkers’ talons and skin-shredding claws, spinning and dodging each blow milliseconds before they made contact. They couldn’t touch her. They were all moving too fast for Abbey to get a clear shot.

  Lourdie was finally able to take out the netherwalkers in one beautiful fluid motion as Abbey got to her feet.

  The girls surveyed the room back to back. Five beasts lay in heaps around them. Each one possessed the strength of ten men, the speed of a bullet train, and was the size of a smart car. What lay on the floor for all intents and purposes were three wolves and two panthers, but these were no earthly beasts. Where krimvigos were humorously linked to werewolf myths and legends, the krimvigars, like in Abbey’s last trial, were linked to something entirely different because of their favored mental images they bestowed upon their prey. “Well, these life suckers won’t be glittering in the sun any time soon,” Lourdie snickered.

  “Silly vamps, glitter is for kids,” Abbey chuckled and quickly began the banishment process while her mentor remained on alert in case any of the netherwalkers woke up. About to raise her relics to her lips for another banishment, Abbey was shoved away from her mentor. The apprentice was confused, she hadn’t felt a drop in temperature and the two remaining krims were still lying on the floor. She turned just in time to see the lightning fade from Lourdie’s baton as the master hunter spun it in her hand, revealing its gun barrel, and shot a single pulse of indigo light straight up into the open ceiling of wires and duct work. A hovering netherwalker fell at her mentor’s feet right where Abbey herself had been standing seconds before. Abbey had never seen this type of netherwalker in trials or field training before, not many guardians had. It had the same slick skin as the others, but this one had eyes. Blood red eyes. Its three foot frame had something else the young apprentice had only read about. Wings. They mimicked leather and smoke as they rippled with power under Lourdie’s light. The beast had been able to revert partially back into its benign form before Lourdie stunned it, which was unusual. Once frightened or aggravated, krims couldn't transform into smoke and shadows again until they calmed down.

  “Hey, Drew, room secure. Three standard krimvigos, two krimvigars,” she paused to catch her breath. “And one krimdrogo,” Lourdie said in disbelief.

  “How is there a dragon here?” Abbey asked, banishing the last netherwalker.

  “Oh, Lourdie, please tell me you took its picture before banishment?” Drew pleaded.

  “Already uploaded it to you, Andrew,” Lourdie chuckled.

  “Shweet!”

  “So, does a krimdrogo’s presence mean we are dealing with a more powerful Nevra-Hsi?” Abbey asked trying to remember back to her netherwalker creatures class.

  “It means something unusual is going on. What, I’m not sure. Dragons are extremely rare. I’ve never seen one before. Marcus will want to hear about this, and he’s the best one to ask about them. He’s been studying dragons for about fifteen years now.” The guardians put the racks of clothing back in place. “Drew, we need an exit,” Lourdie said as Abbey gathered her shopping bags.

  “Our store is now closing. Please follow the flashing lights to the nearest exit and thank you for shopping at Bloomingdale’s.” Drew giggled as he turned on the escalators.

  “Show off,” Lourdie chuckled.

  Abbey knew her mentor well enough to know she was making light of the krimdrogo situation. To see a dragon in this day and age was virtually unheard of. Something big had to be going on.

  Drew’s golden glowing lights illuminating their path added a surreal element to the phrase that kept playing over and over in Abbey’s head. ‘Wolves, and vamps, and dragons. Oh my. Wolves, and vampires, and dragons! Oh my!

  Five

  Umbilical Severing

  The creature sat high upon his throne of bone and blood. Hardened marrow, millennia old, was still within the husks of his ancestors’ bones. Petrified arteries of blood wrapped brother to brother, knotted father to son. The creature rested his arm on his grandfather’s skull as tendrils of life essence floated towards him in the heavy, thick atmosphere. He slowly opened his ancient dry cracking mouth and devoured the droplets of human life, plucking them from the air like precious grapes. Human infant was the sweetest of morsel
s. He would reward his champion pet greatly upon its return. Krimvigos and krimvigars worthy of his affection cowered at his feet, while rabid howling others remained locked in their fire and ash cages. He screeched for their obedient silence.

  The Nevra-Hsi stretched out his long paper thin arm and petted each obedient cowering beast in turn with his sharp talons. The krims shivered under his narcotic caresses. They lay at the Hsi’s feet, clawing at his robes in ecstasy. Scraps of onyx fluidic armor tore away, exposing the dehydrated sloughing crust of the eternally dying creature. The beasts murmured and purred in contentment, the drug had assured their continued loyalty and bondage. Caged, unbroken beasts would have to wait. The Hsi needed more life essence, much more.

  Tethered to his soldiers on the earth plane, the Hsi stole a glimpse of their progress. He looked through his beast’s vision that had earlier given him the sweet child’s morsels and observed a hunter. No, two hunters. He commanded the krimvigo to sacrifice itself so his brothers would remain hidden. The beast had no choice but to comply or suffer its master’s wrath.

  The Nevra-Hsi stood and walked to the cavern’s precipice to await his beast’s return. Shielding his skin from the triple moons, he scoured the parched inhospitable landscape. His krimvigo streaked through the sky like a falling star, slowed by the multiple, gelatinous frozen atmospheres. Upon impact, the iridescent violet orb shattered into a ring of fire around his slave. Barreling through the wall of fire, the beast ran past erupting ice geysers and the millennia old dust storm, straight for its master. It was hungry for its treat.

  The Hsi suddenly and abruptly turned around and quirked his head. His precious krimdrogo was sharing a vision. The hunters had found his den of beauties despite his returning krimvigo’s sacrifice. The Hsi screamed as each netherwalker was banished and returned to the Netherworld. He sensed that the precious dragon was on the verge of a discovery but it was unwilling to share the knowledge. Dragons were not simple minded beasts like the rest of his krims. They willingly aligned themselves with the most powerful Hsi and could just as easily leave them. He would have to use a gentle hand if he wanted the dragon’s knowledge and continued allegiance.