Brothers Part I:Last Shadow to the Left

It was a night for surprises. More properly, it was a morning for surprises, since it was nearly four AM. The bus station was almost completely empty. That wasn't much of a surprise. A few people, rumpled and unwashed, slept in scattered groups of twos and threes among the benches. Also, not unexpected at that ungodly hour. Offhand, I couldn't tell if they were homeless, waiting out a layover, or something else entirely. If the rumors held even a grain of truth, they probably were to be filed under that nebulous "Something Else" category. Watch dogs or guardians of some sort unless I missed my guess. I refrained from using any of the means at my disposal to discover the truth. I'd run the very real and very dangerous risk of being discovered if I did. I'd say it was as good a place as any to have someone die in your arms, if I were prone to cynical observations of that sort. So yes, it was as good a place as any...You get the point.

The closer the hands of the clock came to four, that fateful witching hour, the more nervous I became. It wasn't the sweaty palmed nervousness of meeting a girlfriend's father for the first time. It was more of a bed wetting night terror thinly guised as nervousness. It was a dark and sickening feeling, knowing that something horrendous is about to take place. Doubly so, if you know there is nothing you can do about it.

Why wasn't Jake here? He should have arrived by now. I went to the other side of the terminal to sleazy something to eat from the vending machines. It only took three tries and a pair of swift kicks to gain custody of my snacks and soda. I really wanted a bee, but there was none to be had for ten miles in any direction. I gorged myself on plundered cupcakes with my back to a cinderblock wall. It was painted a pale sickly green. It was as god a way as any to wait, and my wait turned out to be a short one. Exactly at the stroke of four, I felt a gentle tapping on my shoulder and heard my name whispered in my ear. Startled, I whirled to face whomever had snuck up on me, but came face to face only with that nauseatingly green architecture.

"Ryan, over here." The voice said again, more distant this time, and coming from the direction I had originally been facing.

I turned more slowly this time, aiming to maintain at least a shred or two of my dignity. I was rewarded with a pockmarked and unshaven face inches from my own. The lips were twisted into a painful looking grimace that usually passed for his smile. My contact and one time brother, Jacob Anscomb, had appeared. I wondered idly what it would take to make that Halloween mask of a face vanish again.

"Jake!" I exclaimed, handing him a smile we both knew I didn't mean, "What took you so long? I was beginning to worry."

"I told you to meet me here at for. I can't help it that you got here early." He retorted.

"Well, we're both here now. What was so damned important that you had to drag me out to this god forsaken place to tell me?"

"Not tell you," He replied, grimacing ambiguously,"Give you."

He fumbled under his jacket and drew out a slim package bound in plain brown paper and twine.

"Here. Catch." He said, and threw it to me. "Courtesy of the Old Man."

"The Old Man?" I snorted."He's been missing for years now. So why now,after all this time, do you have some mysterious bequest from him?"

"Look," he said, clearly exasperated."It's something you need. Something the others were afraid for you to have. The stuff in that package used to belong to the Renegade. Soon, very soon, you're going to need it."

He left me then. I waited until he turned to exit the station before unceremoniously tearing the package open. It's contents included a slim leather bound journal. It's cover tooled in tantalizingly familiar designs. Also inside the package was a plain felt covered jewelry case. The kind that a pendant and chain might find a home in. After flipping through the puzzling foreign script and eye wrenching diagrams of the fournal, I opened the case. I wasn't mistaken. Within lay a pendant. A smooth black oval of obsidian that seemed to shimmer with a universe of stars, it was caged in an elaborate setting of gold wire and connected to about two feet o fgold chain, fat linked and glinting dully in the flickering fluorescent light. A power almost palpable lay coiled within it, beating a counterpoint to my now racing pulse.

As if on cue, I heard Jake curse, "Oh shit Ryan! What did you do?"

I forced myself to look away from the pendant and saw Jake near the exit, surrounded by the homeless people I noticed sleeping on the benches when I arrived. I counted ten of the bastards, some ranged before him while others turned their heads toward me. A sense of something Other swirled around them and clung like a heavy fog. On instinct, I switched my senses to that mystical sight where the Other holds sway. I immediately wished I hadn't. Gone was their human flesh, the illusion stripped away and replaced by their true forms. They were things reptilian, think scaled and black taloned. Their eyes burned with hate, hunger, and green witchfire. Not guardians after all, but demons. I recognized the species. One of the lesser ones, pack oriented, good for muscle work, but not a whole lot going for them upstairs. One on one, they'd be tricky, but not much more dangerous than your average Rottweiler. Not nearly as cute, either. Unfortunately, ten of them could make pretty quick work of both of us.

I saw silvery ripples of power envelop Jake as he made ready to defend himself. I would have done likewise, but my talents and training lie elsewhere. I couldn't let him have all the fun though, even if he was the Old Man's prize student. I slid journal and case both into the deep recesses of my coat's inner pocket, drawing the slim 9mm. automatic I always carry while I was at it. I doubted it would do anything other than piss them off, but a few hollowpoints in the chest might slow one down. I fired off a handful of rounds into the closest, two to the chest and one to the head, just as I'd been taught, willing them to hit as I did so. No one taught me that, I can manage a few things on my own. Whether it worked or not, I don't know, but the force of the impact sent it sprawling, the black ichor that passed for the thing's blood flying in a spray and talons carving furrows in the linoleum tiles as it tried to right itself.

Jake, for his part, was doing everything you'd expect from a centuries old archmage. Blasts of power seared into the demons. Things whizzed, thundered,flashed,and did other things beyond description. He'd taken two down and I emptied the automatic into the chest of another, playing for time. All the demons were now surrounding Jake, considering him to be the greater threat. He was, but don't rub it in, OK? From somewhere, he'd drawn or conjured a pair of blades, long and short, and was acquitting himself admirable, slashing and stabbing when they got too close, then unleashing pure hellfire when that drove them back. I took the break I was given and tried to ready a spell or two of my own. I never got very far in my training before the Old Man went AWOL, so I was pretty limited in what I could do.

From the deepest reserve I could find, I dredged up the power. It was nothing, my candle to Jake's bonfire. I considered my small repertoire of magical muscle carefully. I'd only get one shot. However, nothing I knew would take out even one of these scaled beasties in a single swipe. The only trick I knew that would hit a good number of them was...was....A stroke of mad brilliance, if I had some help. What the hell I thought. It beat doing nothing. I dusted off one of the tricks I knew as I drew it from the back corner of my mind. It was quite possibly the least battle oriented spell of all the ones I knew. Right behind it I prepared another, simpler spell.

I unleashed my first assault, targeting a group of four that were close enough to be caught up in the swirling net of emerald lightning that arced from my palm. The lightning hit them all, one at a time, arcing from one to the next, linking them. They stopped, suddenly confused to be sharing all of their senses with each other. They were pack creatures though. If they got used to it, they could be twice as dangerous. I didn't give them that time. My second spell was a simple affair. It shot like a neon arrow and hit the one closest to Jake. It did nothing more than light him up with a pale green glow, a glow that slowly spread to each of the others in the link.

"NOW!!" I cried, trusting Jake would understand what I'd done.

He didn't disappoint. A lance of molten moonlight bore through the demon I'd turned into an impromptu Christmas tree. The scaled monstrosity roared in pain for a second, then slumped to the ground, it's head a smoldering ruin. The other three in the link dropped twitching to the ground as well, the feedback from the blast pulping what passed for their brains as their packmate burned to death. I wanted to throw a silent cheer, but it was cut short when one of the remaining pair of demons plunged past it's still writhing brethren. Jake raised both blades to parry the onslaught, but he wasn't fast enough. The demon batted his weapons away. The blades clattering on the tile to either side of him, then buried it's claws in his midsection.The thing jerked free, a wet tearing noise accompanying the action. Jake screamed once, then dropped to the floor. That blast of his had probably taken more than he had to give and then he couldn't defend against their follow up. It didn't matter now though. They were still two against only me. Unarmed, defenseless me. I thought about giving up just then and letting it end quickly, but I won't go out that way. When I go, I'll be screaming and cursing all the way.

I saw the glint of Jake's dagger where it had fallen. It was a short dash and then I was armed again, albeit with less than a foot of steel in my hand. I'd no idea what sort of magic Jake might have imbued the thing with, so I was forced to use it the good old fashioned way. I ran to the farthest corner of the bus station that I could, overturning benches and tables as I went, hoping to slow them down and stay alive for a few minutes longer. I unleashed a few bolts of force as I was able, but mine couldn't hit much harder than a baseball bat. They bounded and dodged, none of my efforts slowing them in the slightest, and then the first was upon me. Claws lashed and teeth snapped and somehow through it all, I managed to come out with only a few scratches. I dropped my weight and pivoted, hurling that first one headlong into the ugly green walls. I rolled away as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. The one I'd thrown was already coming to its feet and I'd put myself right at the feet of his buddy. The demon let loose with a feral growl, saliva dripped from its muzzle. This was it.

You're not giving up that easily are you?

"wha.."

Shut up and listen. Here's what you do, just follow my lead....

I took the dagger's point across my palm, muttering words I didn't know just moments ago. The blood welled from the wound and the spell blossomed with it. The words kept pouring out of my mouth unbidden. The demon in front of me swayed, mesmerized by the words and the blood. It gently lowered it's head to my hand and lapped up a bit of the blood, a dog taking a treat from its master. To complete the pact, I daubed that red fluid of life on its face, between its eyes and on the sides of its muzzle. I scratched it behind what passed for an ear, a solid plate like you might find on a frog. Fido, as I now thought of him, made a rumbling purring noise.

"Good boy," I said, rising as I did.

I stood firm and looked Fido in the eyes. Abruptly, I pointed at his former packmate and gave my command.

"Sic'em!"

Fido was as good as my word. He dug his taloned feet into the tile for added traction then pounced the other. From my point of view, it looked like two kittens playing. I didn't waste time though, I rushed to where Jake lay bleeding. I hoped it wasn't as serious as I feared. It wasn't, it was worse. I took him in my arms, checking for a pulse. It was thready, but it was still there. His eyes opened.

"Are we still alive?", He asked.

"Yeah, I replied, but you're not going to be for long unless we can get the hell out of here."

He laughed, then abruptly stopped when the laughs turned into choking coughs. There was something dark on his mouth, he wiped it away so that I couldn't get a good look at it.

"Door." He said, barely able to form the words this time. "Last shadow on the left."

He pointed to the left hand side of the terminal, where a row of columns blocked my view. I took the hint, not quite knowing what he meant, but trusting he had more of a plan than I did. I willed strength into my limbs. I'd pay for it later, using my arts to fuel my failing body, but Jake was heavy and in no position to help himself. I proceeded to drag him to the corner he'd indicated, leaving a trail of smeared blood as wide as his body. Not a good sign. When I made it to the corner, his breathing was shallow and something bubbled every time he inhaled. I wondered if this was what the doctors call a "sucking chest wound."

He barely roused from his torpor this time. He'd lost a lot of blood.

"Door." He said again, weakly this time, gesturing into the shadows."Gate. Key."

This time he pointed to the obsidian pendant around my neck. When had that gotten there?

Don't worry kid, just get us out of here came that voice again.

The pendant pulsed once with black flame and the shadows deepened. Something flickered in the depths and a doorway carved out of darkness shimmered into being. Taking it for a sign or something, I moved to go. I shook Jake, but he didn't respond. I no longer heard even a breath or a heartbeat. My brother, centuries old and steeped in godlike power, was dead. I'd be damned if I left him for the demons, who were still duking it out at the other end of the terminal. I used the last of my purloined strength, shouldered the corpse of my eldest brother, and stepped through the shimmering doorway.

Things un imaginable flashed before my eyes. Cthonic nightmares come true writhed in the depths and I writhed along with them. I was a lizard, slithering my way across the desert for a few paces, then a transmission of waves bounced from one satellite to another. All the while, shadows danced in my vision. One translation to another to another. I don't know how many forms I took before the darkness dumped me carelessly into the sand.

Nausea flipped and flopped its way up my throat and then I found myself making impromptu Rorschach tests on the ground with the contents of my stomach. A butterfly, I think.

Gastro-psychoanalysis complete, I got to my feet, shaking the sand and scorpions out of my pants, wondering where I'd wound up with the body of my brother. A desert. This didn't look good. I turned around and saw a road, better, but not great. I rifled through Jakes pockets, but found nothing of real value other than a wad of loose bills. I pocketed them and headed for the road. Getting there took more energy that it should have. The price of using magic to fuel my flesh. I got to the road and saw a sign. It wasn't God or anyone sending a revelation. It was a sign, green painted metal on the side of the road.

It read: "Welcome to Las Vegas" Fucking Great.