Debts - 24. Chapter 24

- XXIV -

Desmond flicked his cigarette out of the window, sighed, and flashed his headlights a couple of times when he saw a familiar figure come out of the hospital’s main entrance. “I am not driving to the entrance,” he thought with dark satisfaction. “Just walk your blond ass over here...” He watched Salamander walk towards the car, and sighed again when he remembered his conversation with Gabriel twenty minutes or so ago.

“Rayhe,” Desmond was saying in what he thought sounded like a semi-patient voice. “Get your ass in the car!”

“Nope,” Gabriel said with mild content. “It sounds like a private party. I don’t want to ruin the magical moment.”

“Rayhe...” Even if there was some patience in Desmond’s voice before, there was none now.

“I am not going,” Gabriel said firmly. “Go ahead and enjoy your romantic evening in the Rock Garden under moonlight... Well,” he shrugged. “The moon is new, but it makes it even more romantic, doesn’t it? New moon, new beginning... Ow! That was uncalled for...”

“Rayhe, the handcuffs...?”

“Yeah?”

“Forget it!”

...He sighed yet again when the blond slid into the passenger’s seat and rolled down the window.

“How did it go?” Desmond asked unwillingly, but he was truly curious to find out if the plan worked.

The blond lit a cigarette.

“It looks good,” he said slowly, “But I guess we’ll find out tonight...”

“I see...” Desmond muttered and drove into the main road, finally leaving the parking lot of the hospital.

They hadn’t exchanged a single word until they got to the Rock Garden.

****

“We are here,” Desmond said after he parked in front of the Rock Garden.

It was indeed nothing but a bare field surrounded and filled with various rocks; there was not a single sign or post to indicate an entrance of a sort. Desmond turned off the car and looked at Julian.

“I am not your tour guide,” he nodded when the blond looked at him with some sort of expectation.

“Right,” Salamander sighed and got out of the car, making sure he had the black bag.

Desmond watched him walk away, and then he rolled his eyes and muttered:

“Are you kidding me...?”

He got out of the car and slammed the door with frustration. The blond stopped when he heard the sound and turned around, frowning slightly.

“In which universe would the center be that way?” Desmond asked with annoyance.

“That’s where the entrance is,” Julian said, clearly puzzled. “Those two rocks are the clear indication of that,” he gestured towards two boulders, and Desmond rolled his eyes again.

“No...” He suppressed a desire to say ‘you, dipshit.’ “The entrance is right here!” He pointed in front of him. “That’s why I parked here!”

“It doesn’t look like an entrance,” Julian said, and Desmond suppressed another very strong desire.

“Goddamn son of a...” he muttered under his breath. “Just follow me,” he said louder and walked forward without looking around to make sure the blond followed him; he knew he would. “You know,” he said a couple of minutes later when he was maneuvering through the rocks with envious ease. “For someone with your reputation, you are not very good with directions...”

“I have never been to this place before,” the blond answered mildly. “And you have to agree, those two rocks looked like an entrance.”

Well, yeah, Desmond had to agree with that. If you had never seen this place before, and especially if it was dark, those boulders definitely looked like an entrance. Therefore, he didn’t say anything and kept on walking.

“Huh,” he said fifteen or so minutes later. “I guess she beat us...”

They stopped next to a strangely-shaped rock, looking at the dancing flames of a single torch that was ripping the night apart. The flame immediately reminded Desmond of Blair. “I guess we are not doing another dinner any time soon,” he thought melancholically.

“Well, go,” he looked at the blond. “It’s your game.”

Salamander didn’t say anything to that; he slightly narrowed his eyes at the torch and slowly walked towards it. Desmond watched him approach the natural semi-circle of stones where a lonely human figure was waiting patiently. “That must be Magda,” Desmond thought. She said something he failed to hear, and the blond said something rather shortly. Then she laughed and said something else, and that was when Desmond’s inner alarms shrieked in full volume. He almost yelled something out to the blond, when all of a sudden, there was someone behind Julian, and after a few seconds, the blond was knocked out cold; at least, that’s what it seemed.

“Fucking hell...!” Desmond muttered, immediately recognizing the man who whacked Salamander on the back of the head with a wooden bat – it was one of the goons who tried to shove Raven into the van. Ben, Desmond remembered his name immediately. He quickly scanned the area, looking for the second guy, but it seemed, Ben was the only accomplice Magda bothered to bring with her tonight.

“Sure,” Desmond thought darkly, looking at the unmoving blond. “The Fire Guardian would have troubles taking you out, but a moron with a bat...? If this is not hilarious, then I don’t know what is...”

He thought for a minute. At first, he almost shrugged and left. Then he sighed and trotted to the left of the circle, making sure he stayed out of sight. Whatever powers these things granted, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted this Magda bitch to get them. If she gets them, they might end up with something quite nasty on their hands -- judging by what Desmond observed so far, Magda would be a hell of a problem. Even without any powers, she managed to make Salamander do her bidding even with all the precautions he took. That was impressive to say the least.

“Why couldn’t you channel this energy into something less ominous?” Desmond thought while getting somewhat closer to the circle. “Like knitting... Or gardening... Damn, with your dedication, you could’ve grown a hell of a lot of tomatoes...” Now he was close enough to hear what she was saying.

“Get out of the circle,” she commanded without even looking at Ben, who was still clutching onto the bat.

“I am not in the...” Ben started saying, but she interrupted him immediately.

“Get the hell away! You are in the vicinity!”

Ben sighed and obediently stepped away.

“Farther!” she demanded, and nodded when he walked even farther away. “That’s fine,” she said and turned around, carefully arranging three objects in a certain fashion.

Desmond grinned. The moron with the bat stood so close to him that he could smell him.

“Damn, Ben,” he thought. “Don’t believe in showering much, do you?”

“Psst...!” was all Ben heard behind his ear, and when he turned around, clearly dumbfounded, he just blinked when he recognized the very same asshole who ruined everything in that alley a couple of days ago. He opened his mouth, but before he was able to squeeze out a single sound, the said asshole placed both hands on either side of his head, his expression very serious, and for a second, Ben thought that the man was about to kiss him. Well, that was certainly not what Desmond intended to do. He moved his hands in a quick, precise motion, and when he heard a crackling sound, he immediately glanced at Magda. She seemed to be busy with the artifacts, and he nodded and very carefully laid the body on the ground.

He looked at the bat, shrugged, and picked it up. Then he looked at Magda again and cursed silently. She was standing still now, and she was chanting something softly. “Damn magic,” Desmond thought darkly when he saw all three artifacts sprout identical shimmering lines of light. All three lines shot towards each other and created a definite triangle; Magda stood in the perfect center of that triangle. Desmond had no idea what it meant, but he knew it was not good.

“Damn it all to hell!” he thought and moved towards her swiftly and silently.

She had no idea he was there because her eyes were closed. She realized that she wasn’t alone in the circle anymore when Desmond burst into the triangle, making the lines shimmer angrily. Her eyes flew open, and they were irate; it was obvious that she expected to see Ben, so when she saw Desmond, her expression became so dumbfounded that Desmond would’ve laughed under different circumstances. He had to give it to her (once again), she didn’t stop chanting; hell, she didn’t even stutter! She pushed him in the chest hard, her eyes two mad slits by now, and screamed what Desmond assumed was the last word of the spell.

“Exitus!”

Before she finished the word, however, Desmond landed a rather hard kick on her side, and she flew out of the triangle, desperately trying to keep herself from falling. Then he swung the bat (“Goddammit! Don’t tell me she succeeded...! That was a hell of a short spell!”) and brought it onto the dully-shinning mirror on his right. Mirror exploded into tiny shimmering shards, and then Desmond had no idea what in the bloody hell happened. Because the minute the mirror exploded, all three lines melted into one, and the last thing Desmond remembered was a hell of a blow on his chest. “Rayhe...” he thought, and then there was nothing.

****

Okay, Julian had been hit before (obviously) and harder than this; but, goddammit, this was downright humiliating! Seriously, a bat on the back of the head? He cursed and got up, slightly wincing from the headache – this sort of pain he did not enjoy; it was merely annoying.

“Exitus!” he heard loud scream, and this time, he cursed much louder and with more desperation. She succeeded? He ran towards the circle, but before he reached it, an explosion of white brilliancy brought him to a dead stop, making him shield his eyes – it was impossibly bright. Then the light was gone, and there was another scream. It was the same voice, but now it sounded terrified, desperate, and mad.

“Goddamn you! God-fucking-damn you!!”

Julian blinked, shedding the remnants of the flash out of them, and walked into the circle. What he saw made him stop again. Magda was kneeling next to one of the rocks behind the circle, and Specter was lying on the ground facedown, completely still. He was either dead or unconscious. Magda saw Julian, and her face twisted with helpless hatred. The blond had no idea where that little dagger came out when all of a sudden, she brought it down onto her palm, screaming something unintelligibly and repeating some words several times while laughing shrilly. The only words Julian could decipher were ‘Raven’ and ‘die.’

She threw the dagger aside and brought her bleeding hand palm up, staring at Salamander with blazing triumph.

“Warned you...” was all she said before Julian brought every single magic stream he could reach onto her.

She didn’t even scream; the brutality of the streams was too much. She simply jerked spasmodically, and then her body collapsed onto the ground, looking like a broken doll. Julian turned around and almost left when he paused, glanced at Specter, and kneeled down, pressing his fingertips into the man’s neck. He sighed when he felt pulse and pulled the unconscious assassin up.

“I don’t owe anything to anyone,” he muttered, walking away from the circle.

He made it to the car in half an hour or so; not because he got lost – he was just fine with directions – but because damn Specter was heavier than he looked. “Goddammit,” the blond gritted his teeth darkly. “How can you be so damn heavy when you look so skinny?”

Finally, he made it to the car, regretting the fact that he couldn’t make one of the streams carry the unconscious bastard for him, and dug in the said bastard’s pockets for the keys. He found them, unlocked the car, and shoved the man into the front seat, not even pretending to be careful. He slammed the door shut and went towards the driver’s door. A minute later, he was driving back into the city.