Chapter 35
THIRTY-FIVE
JACK
Jack was so tired from the fight before, it took everything in him to again shoulder the power of magic as he focused past his roaring stomach. His eyes were still adjusting to the dark room when he once more called the green magic to his hands.
His brain immediately registered a handful of facts: He and Abigail were in a dark room, there was a large man looking down at them, and the man had one eye glowing a strange hue of orange.
“None of that.” The man held a pistol to Jack’s forehead. “Try one of your magic tricks, and I’ll paint the wall with what little brains you have, boy.”
The cold metal of the gun and the intensity in the man’s single, orange eye told Jack he wasn’t bluffing.
Jack’s mouth went dry as he thought about his options.
The man was large and quick, even with his perceived handicap of having one of his eyes covered by a black patch.
Jack couldn’t imagine his own odds were good.
“Please, sir.” Abigail shook her head and held up her hands. “Lieutenant Doyle Baker sent us here. He said we would be safe, that you would be able to help us.”
The man didn’t move his gun from Jack’s forehead. However, at the mention of Doyle Baker’s name, Jack felt the pressure of the cold steel barrel lessen.
“He said all of that, did he?” the man asked. He motioned to Jack’s hands with his chin. “Lights out, Sparky. I’m not going to lower my weapon, only to have you throw a blast of magic at me as soon as I do.”
Jack’s shoulders slumped as he allowed the magic inside to dissipate.
It was already fading, anyway. Whatever reserves he had had been tapped.
With the disappearance of the magic dancing over his hands came the loss of the illumination inside the room.
Once more, the interior of the house went dark.
Jack’s eyes were still adjusting as the man began to speak once again.
“Why would Baker send you here?” the man asked, now barely visible as Jack’s and Abigail’s eyes began to adjust. “Who are you?”
Abigail spoke first. “We’re on the run from the queen. The queen and her sister had captured us. We escaped, and now?—”
“You fools.” The man rushed to one of the front windows, barely moving aside the drape to look at what was outside. “No one ever escapes the queen.”
As if to punctuate his words, both windows burst inward under a shower of sharp glass shards. The orange-eyed man went down under the weight of a black-clad attacker. As the two wrestled on the ground, another assailant who had entered through the opposite window moved toward Jack and Abigail.
The man moved so fast, it was impossible for Jack to tell much more besides that it was a vampire soldier.
He descended upon Jack and Abigail so quickly, Jack hadn’t even had time to try to call on his magic for assistance.
In the blink of an eye, the vampire soldier slammed into Abigail, sending her flying across the room.
Abigail’s body struck the far wall with a sick thud.
She crumpled to the floor and didn’t move.
As fast as Jack could process the event, he was grabbed around his throat.
Panic immediately set in as the skin burned.
His lungs were working overtime to try to send oxygen to his brain, but the supply was quickly fading.
Jack was lifted into the air by the attacker in black. A pale face he didn’t recognize sneered at him. “You humans will bow under the power of The Legion, or die.”
Jack’s vision was beginning to blur as he fought against the steel-like grip of his attacker. His magical store had been tapped dry. Bright dots were exploding across the scene in front of him as he lost consciousness.