Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 39

The doors behind me opened. I turned around, snapping to attention. The moment had come. Frank Currol and his herd of police bodyguards finally were about to leave the building. The assassin was nowhere close to us, but I reached out into the night air, my senses stretched and on high alert.

Not high enough. I saw the bodyguard closest to Frank Currol fall milliseconds before I heard it. The gun-shot echoed fully through the night, bouncing off the walls behind us.

All hell broke loose. Shouting and panicked movement jerked the night around me into action. Sometimes you don’t think. You move. I flung myself in front of the group of bodyguards surrounding the mayor. I pulled on my magic. Vibrant and alive, a protective wall of air shot to the sky – up and around all of them. My eyes scanned the opposite building for the sniper. Dammit, the whole area had been cleared and secured to the nines, and the vamp assassin was still somewhere outside, so who the hell was shooting?

Harsh barks of an imperative nature struck through the air. Feet moving with adrenaline-tinged staccato rhythm. Someone kept pushing me forward, closer to the car. The team of bodyguards had accepted my intervention without protest, their guns already out, while others were ushering the dumbfounded politician to the car. I moved with them synchronously.

Flanked by bodyguards, the mayor reached the car, a luxurious Mercedes Benz. I ended up squeezed between one bodyguard and the mayor himself. The confusion was absolute. No one knew what was going on, and I had no idea what happened to the bodyguard that was shot. They couldn’t have left him there, right?

The car set into motion, burning rubber. The team of bodyguards was already in contact with Brown and the other forces, their voices agitated and loud. I looked out of the window, scanning the outside. We passed empty streets, the buildings and pavements a blur in my vision.

We were not more than four blocks from the building, when Frank Currol’s alarmed voice broke through the tensioned silence.

“David, what are you doing?”

My eyes followed his and I found myself staring at the front seat. The chauffeur had turned around, a gun in his hand. Crap.

That place deep inside of me flared an angry red as my magic pulsated and grew. Air manifested and cleared in front of us in the same moment the chauffeur shot. That was when the car began accelerating and we were rocked to the side violently. My concentration wavered, and the walls of air dissolved for a moment. The chauffeur raised his gun again. One of the bodyguards slapped it out of the driver’s hand, before knocking him out cold with one punch. The car accelerated and jerked to the side. The unconscious chauffeur’s foot was still on the gas pedal. The vehicle was about to veer off the street! My mind was hit with a road-train of adrenaline, thoughts shattering into a stirred up hornet’s nest of confusion and blurry impressions.

I don’t think I had a choice about this. I don’t think it was a conscious decision. I simply did it. I used advanced magic.

I went back into that place again, deep down there where layer up on layer of power and magic nestled. I dug my hand into it and felt the power surge. The air came willingly and freely, powerful and beautiful. An outer shield of protection snapped up, walls of air enfolding the car in cushioning safety. My mind envisioned the knitted particles of air, stabilizing the car with the action, steering it back onto the road. Finally I let the car come to a standstill at the side of the road.

Short moments of silence passed, the air in the car heavy with equal parts of wonder and mistrust. No one questioned what I did. No one even seemed to look at me. I stifled the urge to scowl. To them I was part of the freak show. I was tolerated as long as I helped them.