Chapter 17 Sylas #4
“The information is solid. Locked in. No updates to convey. Clan Thalbraxus has established an ongoing and rapidly growing operation—kidnapping magic-wielders and harvesting them like magical livestock. They use that stolen power to temporarily charge their own blood, giving them a brutal edge in battles to dominate rival vampire clans, strike wolf packs, and unleash chaos across the supernatural world. They operate in secret, and most of their attacks have slipped under the radar of both the Unity Council and the Guardian Movement—thanks to cloaking spells cast by the very victims they’ve enslaved. ”
“And you said they’re using Inhibitor cuffs to contain the magic-wielders?”
“Yes. A former Guardian Movement security personnel member who’d been fired for mistreating a couple of beings in custody slated to be sentenced to The Void, had stolen a few dozen Inhibitor cuffs. The group of five leading this clan killed him right after so it wouldn’t trace back to them.”
He stepped up to me. “Outside of a being possessing Immortal blood, you are the only being, with your advanced necromantic abilities, who can breach Inhibitor cuffs.” He went on, “I can’t go in with an army.
Not without drawing attention, very likely of the Guardian Movement itself.
An act of vigilantism involving sixty vampires will lead to severe charges levied upon myself and those I’ve employed to assist with obtaining all of this intel. ”
“With me, you don’t need an army to see to this.”
“Precisely. You are able to incapacitate without significant bloodshed, liberate the hostages from the Inhibitor cuffs, and also apply a scent mask so involvement isn’t discovered when I send an anonymous tip to the Guardian Movement to arrest them all once you have them debilitated.”
“You’ll lead the hostages away to your checkpoint wherein several of your vampire contacts will perform Oblivisca on them, a minor memory wipe to remove my involvement?”
“As promised, yes. Although, it is highly doubtful they would turn in their savior. But I also agree that we cannot rely on that hope. I’ve provided a cover for you tonight, so if the Guardian Movement comes knocking purely because you’re somebody who’s become synonymous with significant acts of vigilantism, you will have an alibi. ”
“I’ll take care of the mind-wipes with the targets. I can do it in conjunction with the takedown.” I arched an eyebrow. “What’s my alibi?”
“One of your projects with Arcanum Order is to determine how to protect beings of this realm from the mind-violating magic of the Dark Fae Realm. In order to do that, you need to determine how to unravel the foundational aspect of those spells. You met with me tonight because I’ve obtained information from a defector inside their realm that can assist with that goal. ”
Of course he knew about Arcanum Order. The fact he even knew what we were researching—well, one of the many things that we were—didn’t surprise me either. He was most definitely a font of information. Likely, unmatched.
Perhaps except for this Remnant. But I had a strategy on how to deal with that ghost.
With a flick of his fingers, Charlie produced a scroll.
I snatched it out of the air as he levitated it toward me.
Sure enough, as I opened it, I saw a few key details that could assist with our Dark Fae magic research.
“Very impressive.”
He lifted a shoulder. “It’s what I do.”
It certainly was.
I shifted my weight and folded my arms across my chest. “These hostages… forty-six?”
“Correct. Not many magic-wielders can teleport that many people in one sweep. Another reason why I’ve come to you, specifically.”
Normally, I could absolutely pull that off.
But with this sickness, things didn’t always reflect what I was truly capable of—or had been capable of.
To do what was needed there and teleport that many supernatural beings to his checkpoint, I’d have to actually create a portal to accomplish it.
Especially if my magic glitched mid-cast—I could lose accuracy and they might end up somewhere entirely different, or there could be issues with them materializing on the other end at all.
But with a portal, once it was open, the gateway was set.
So long as I kept it open, they’d reach the destination I’d programmed into the portal at the moment of its creation—no matter what happened to me.
“All right. Let’s move out,” I told him.
“Do you need to take another look at the building plans, the locations of the hostages and the targets?”
“No. I’ve got it locked in.”
As I went to grab my coat, he grasped my shoulder. “No killing. A little spilling of blood is acceptable, but not actual death. The fallout will be far too severe.”
“While I understand what you—”
“We must be careful that we do not become those we fight, Sylas.”
Fuck. “Fine. No killing. They’ll survive to hurt another day.”
“So long as you take those magical snapshots of their activities when you first arrive, we’ll have the proof we need to end their reign of terror without the need to take things the fatal route. They will be dealt with by the Guardian Movement. Arrested, charged, imprisoned.”
Sure, we’d go with that sufficing as justice for what those motherfuckers had done.
It was the way it needed to be right now, unfortunately. As much as it filled me with utter distaste.
“You have my word.”
He smiled. “Then I am not worried.” He released me and straightened. “Be safe, my friend.”
“Always,” I returned with a wry grin.
I materialized just beyond the ward encompassing the private, cloaked countryside estate turned vampire fortress of depravity.
Even if I hadn’t already studied Charlie’s intel beforehand, it would have become apparent to me, because I felt it the moment I arrived—the place was hidden in a magical dead zone.
That was being reinforced by cloaking of the estate through the magic of the enslaved magic-wielders that Clan Thalbraxus had at its disposal.
No wonder neither the Guardian Movement nor the Unity Council had discovered it yet.
The estate was grand yet rotting—demented opulence.
And highly creepy.
That last part was really saying something from the Master of Death Magic. The things I’d seen… they would turn the stomach of most beings. They would fucking stay with them.
Fortunately, the heavy compartmentalization I employed ensured I remained unaffected by any of that.
And this mission tonight would be no exception.
The only thing I’d feel once it was done would be a deep sense of twisted satisfaction.
I stared at the estate, vines climbing its weathered stone walls, cracked towers barely holding themselves together.
Crooked iron gates hanging ajar. The foliage at the forefront was overgrown, but not in a liberating way, more like the vegetation was screaming to break free from such an unapologetically wicked place that had no respect for the sanctity of any life at all.
I swallowed down my disgust and any such other emotional reaction, which wouldn’t serve me well when embarking on a mission of this nature—especially when mistakes were not an option, as there was no fallback with me carrying this out alone.
And then I focused on the building, feeling my magic spark and warm me from within as I called on an ability that many didn’t know about when they thought of necromancers, yet one that I used a great deal with my vigilante work.
Soul Track.
It enabled me to trace active souls in real time.
I had to be within proximity to use it, but it could easily encompass an estate of this size—around 15,000 square feet. I also had the ability to zoom in on clusters of beings, but the more I did that with this many souls to track—sixty vampires and forty-six hostages—the more taxing it became.
I gritted my teeth at the fact that this was something I had to worry about now. That I had to be strategic with how I expended my power.
I focused, staring into the building as I drew on the tactical edge Soul Track afforded me.
Flickering outlines lit up through the structure.
Vampires at the entrance, more scattered along the main corridor and in rooms to either side. But most of them had gathered in the largest space, which I recognized from Charlie’s intel as the Banquet Hall.
A couple dozen magic-wielders were in there with them.
I pushed harder, filtering deeper into the structure, and found the rest of the hostages held captive in the dungeon below. A handful of vampires lingered near that area as well.
All right. Done. I’d gotten the lay of the land.
Now onto the evidence gathering aspect.
And then came the fun part. Punishment and violence. Justice.
Well, as close to it as we could get with current constraints.
There was comfort in the fact that the hostages would be free. Just… the trauma they’d have to carry… it didn’t sit well with me.
There was a cost to compartmentalizing at the level in which I did. And the closer I grew to Lazriel and even Velra of late, the more that was called into question. I’d always reveled in standing apart from everyone around me. But that was… shifting now.
I blinked, agitated that I’d gone down an emotional track again, when usually I could keep things completely locked down. Especially when I was on a vigilante mission.
I turned both my palms up, my magic sparking.
I uttered a low incantation and wove my hands, conjuring several glowing red spheres, no more than an inch in diameter each.
I kept going until I had fifty of them hovering around me.