Magic's Mark

Chapter 5

"What's going on with me?" I felt as scared as my voice sounded.

Taylor grabbed my arm gently, "I promise I'll explain. But not here." He looked around the quiet street. "I've got the keys for The Royal Star. Let's go there. I can make you some breakfast in the kitchen," he offered.

I nodded dumbly and let him lead me down the street, in the direction of the dingy pub where Tanya and I guess now also Taylor worked.

Taylor pushed open the back door of the pub and led me straight into the kitchen. It was completely empty, which didn't surprise me given the god awful state of it and the early hour.

"Do you want something to eat?" Taylor poked his finger at a bag with a stale loaf of bread in it.

I was just about to reject his offer, when my stomach rumbled loudly. I couldn't even remember the last time that I had eaten.

"Sure," I agreed and heaved my body up onto one of the stainless steel counters.

 I leaned my head back and studied Taylor as he started to make us some sandwiches, clearly improvising as he went along.

I closed my eyes for a second, feeling so tired. I didn't know what had happened to the world but so far I had ruled out having my drink spiked, some kind of criminal encounter and a bizarre nightmare where I was hunted by a warlock. I opened my eyes and caught Taylor studying me, two paper plates in hand.

"Are you okay?" his eyes showed a softness which I hadn't seen before.

He handed me one of the plates and I poked at the white bread before biting into it. To be fair, he hadn't done such a bad job with the sandwich given the horrible state of the pub kitchen.

We stayed silent for a minute, letting the solitude of eating take over. After a few minutes Taylor sat down his plate and looked at me. I could sense that he had things to say and I think I was finally ready to listen.

"From what I can tell, you are a Vortex," he started. I stared back at him, there was that word again. Anyone who seemed to have some kind of other-worldly power had called me by that word.

"What does that mean?" I breathed, instantly afraid of hearing the answer.

"A Vortex is a human with no magical powers of their own, who for some reason change and become able to absorb the power of warlocks," when he had finished speaking, he shot me look clearly trying to gage my reaction.

"So you and that man from last night. You are both warlocks?"

"Yes, we are and we have many different powers. But that's not what's the most important thing. The most important thing right now is you. When was the first time you realised that you could pull power?"

"What do you mean pull power?" I asked. I heard the words echo in the kitchen.

"That night when we meet, didn't you feel it? I could feel how some of my energy was being pulled towards you. I have never felt anything like it before. I mean, I have read about Vortexes in books but no one I have ever known has actually met one."

I could see that he was excited, that it was something rare to him. But all I could feel was afraid, I didn't know what any of this meant. I couldn't deny that what he was saying was true. I had felt the pull of energy, more than once. I had seen the energy in that hotel lobby, it had flown towards me and I had absorbed it. I had used it when I escaped down into the underground station.

"So if I am a Vortex, some freak of nature... What do we do now? About that guy who was hunting me? About the hunting order?" I suddenly felt frozen again, I had almost managed to forget about the hunting order. I didn't even know what the word entailed and I was already seeing absurd scenes in my head of how hunters on horses chased me across a field.