Rich Boy: Awakening - 21. Chapter 21

“Gotta go.” Dave murmured as he rushed out of the motor home with a green face and a hand cupped over his mouth. As soon as he was outside in the darkness, Worthington could hear him vomiting, but put it out of his mind. The stench in the motor home was bad, almost as bad as the buzzing of hundreds of flies. He could cast a spell to get rid of them, but what would be the use?

The woman in her sunflower dress would not care anymore if her remains were covered in flies or not. She and her family, all five of them, were long past caring. With a sigh he stepped out of the motor home, breathing in the fresh, crisp air and cleared the smell and sights out of his mind. Word had been that she’d left Phoenix last week, and from the rate of decay, and the mass of flies in there, it’d probably been the day she’d left that they’d gotten this far. Why had they pulled over here, on a dirt road well off the highway, he didn’t know, and wondered if he ever would.

“Sorry.” Dave murmured as he stood up.

“What were you doing out here?” Worthington asked him calmly. In the week since he and Jamie had given out the anklets, the gang had been spending several hours every night riding their patrol patterns. Worthington was exhausted from all the spell casting he’d been doing, relieving them every morning at school of exhaustion from lack of sleep, and rushing out to several false alarms, although none of them generated by his riders. It was Friday night, and Dave had not been on rotation.

“I always like coming out here for a ride.” Dave said with a sheepish grin that was barely visible in the darkness. It would be Saturday morning soon. “It’s only a half-hour from town, and further down this road is a nice little lake. Well, a pond really. It dries up by mid-summer, but it’s nice now, and it’s a really good spot to go and… um… relax.”

“Oh.” Worthington said and stifled a chuckle at the form of relaxation Dave enjoyed up there. It was a clear picture in the guy’s mind, and it seemed almost innocent in a way.

“I, um, I passed the motor home on the way up, but I guess I really didn’t notice my anklet go cold.” Dave shrugged. “When I was coming back down, though, I noticed it get cold real briefly, and it went back to normal as soon as I was passed the motor home, so I turned around again, and stopped. Then I got close to it, and it really went cold, so I hightailed it down the road in case it was saying the demon was there. Let me tell you, I was scared as shit there for a bit, but it didn’t grow cold again, and I knew you were coming. It was almost like I could tell you were getting closer every second.”

“You probably could.” Worthington said. “I was down near South Mountain when I felt the alarm from your anklet and hightailed it up here. It was weak, so I had Jamie stay down there.”

“Where’s Brandon?” Dave asked.

“Back at the intersection with the highway, in case I need backup.” Worthington said with a smile. The truth was, Brandon was back there because they were still linked, and while the distance made it a little more difficult to pull power, at this range Worthington could benefit from the power Brandon supplied without having to worry about protecting Brandon. In the last week, they had both learned a lot of lessons about how to increase his ability to pull power from Brandon. Those were good lessons to have learned, and they would keep learning them as time went by.

“The demon wasn’t really here, then, was he?” Dave asked. “I mean, those people have been dead for a while.”

“At least now we know the anklets will go off if you go near where a demon’s been, or at least where it’s spent a great deal of time.” Worthington said. “They spent at least a day eating those people, and their power.”

“They?” Dave asked with a shudder.

“At least two demons did that.” Worthington said. “The woman wasn’t particularly strong to begin with, and I doubt her children were much stronger, nor her husband.”

“Sorry I lost it there.” Dave said with a slight flush to his cheeks.

“I wanted to lose it myself.” Worthington shrugged off the apology. “It’s getting late. You should be heading home, especially if you’re patrolling tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, you’re right boss-o.” Dave nodded and headed towards his bike. He stopped after a few steps and turned around to look at the motor home. “What about them? I mean… do we call the cops? Do I have to tell the cops what I saw?”

“This is not a matter for the police, Dave.” Worthington said. “You’ve done all you are obligated to do, and some might say more than that. You didn’t have to stay so close to the motor home. You could have gone right home, or you could have just hightailed it on out of here and never looked back. There was no obligation to follow me into the motor home either.”

“I might be just a normal human, but someone’s got to watch you back.” Dave said with a hint of a smile ghosting on his face in the darkness. “It’s you who pay the bills, after all.”

“Get home you greedy mongrel.” Worthington laughed, and Dave also laughed, appearing to have shaken off the effects of seeing people torn apart. Then again, that could have been due to some of the spells set on the anklets, the spells they hadn’t quite told everyone the full truth about. As soon as Dave pulled away on his bike, Worthington went to stand by his and pulled his cell phone out of the riding jacket pocket. Like every night now he was dressed in his riding leathers, with a black t-shirt on underneath the jacket. The night air was still cooler, but he’d enjoyed being able to take his jacket off as soon as he’d gotten here and sensed there was no demon present.

“Well?” Jamie’s voice came over the phone after he speed dialed Jamie’s number.

“It was that woman in the sunflower dress, from the meeting.” Worthington said sourly into the phone. “It looks like the demon got her and her family as they were leaving town last week. It’s pure chance we found them even.”

“So no active trail to follow?” Jamie asked.

“No, but I’m going to see what I can learn magically.” Worthington said, and sighed as the phone beeped. Someone was calling in.

“Hold on, bro.” Worthington said when he saw who was calling. Madame Calhoun, unlike the fool Roger, would never call in a panic over some strange noises outside her house. “Madame Calhoun, I don’t know how you knew, but one of my guys just…”

“You better get here quick, boy.” Madame Calhoun’s voice cut him off. “I just felt it being summoned, which means it’s close by. I told you I was being followed.”

“I’ve got someone in your neighborhood…” Worthington let his own voice trail off as the new information flooded into his brain. This was a loud alarm, not like the muted whisper from Dave’s anklet. “Ma’am, I’ll be there as fast as I possible can. You get your wards up and pour all the power you can into them, you hear me?”

“Stop talking to me and get moving.” She said stridently and the call ended. While Worthington switched back to Jamie, he also began to struggle back into his jacket, juggling his phone as necessary.

“It’s Calhoun’s place.” Worthington said.

“I know, I’m at the house, still.” Jamie’s voice held a bit of panic in it. “Richie’s here, with Mom.”

“Have them follow you in a car.” Worthington said as he held the phone in the crook of his head while he zipped up his jacket. It almost fell, but he caught it and put it back to his ear as he started up his bike with one hand and his other elbow. The bike roared to life and he straddled it while finishing his phone call. “If you get there before me, stay back. Meet Barry, and make sure he’s safe. Follow me in when I get there. I’ll have Brandon with me.”

“Be safe.” Jamie said before hanging up the phone. Worthington growled as he fumbled his phone into a pocket before putting on his helmet and gloves. There had to be a better way to handle this phone. Maybe Brandon could find a wireless head set and have it built into a helmet for him? When he pulled out, he left a cloud of dust behind him on the dirt road, and soon passed Dave, who was only going sixty. Brandon was ready and waiting for him near where the road met the main road that would lead to the highway. His soul-bonded was standing there in his green and black leathers, barely more than a shadow against the landscape behind him, and had his helmet on. The green Ninja that was Brandon’s was parked off the road, in a safe place, and Worthington didn’t even come to a complete stop, just slowing down enough for Brandon to leap on the back of his bike and get situated, his helmeted head flush against Worthington’s back before he took off at high speed.

Merging on the highway required that he slow down to ninety miles per hour, but as soon as he was on the I-17, heading south, he was back up to speed. Before two miles had flashed by, he’d weaved around several cars and was now going faster than he had ever been before, shifting into the bike’s highest gear as he accelerated past one-forty. At this speed it was more about his mage gift protecting them than the riding skills he’d taken from that racer.

Steph had been a good motorcycle rider, but he would have died trying to imitate what Worthington was doing. He was fully extending his senses, using a combination of low and high magic to anticipate where cars were ahead of him through sensing their drivers. When he passed the Highway Patrol officer, his speedometer was maxing out at one-eighty. By the time he realized it was a cop, the officer was so far behind him that he couldn’t release a distracting spell.

It was fortunate that Calhoun lived on the west side of Phoenix, and that Worthington had been north of the city along the I-17. He could reach her faster this way than if he had been where Jamie was, at the house in Scottsdale, or if the woman had lived there. As he got into the city itself, he had to slow down, which gave the chasing police officer a chance to catch up, if only by a mile or two. The real damage came when the spotlight fell on him from a helicopter overhead.

We’re in for it now. Brandon said into his mind with a hint of laughter. They were both bent over the bike, minimizing their presence in the bike’s slipstream. Even at one-twenty, the wind was so fierce that lifting his arm would be near-suicide as he continued to weave around cars that were on the freeway. He cursed as his senses warned that up ahead there were a lot of cars stopped, cursing in their minds about the roadwork. For a moment the spotlight lost him as he weaved into the emergency lane, and then through a line of fifteen cars stuck in traffic before hitting the actual work zone. Twice he felt his arm brush against a mirror. The impacts would leave deep bruises from the pain they caused, even though they’d barely brushed him.

Brandon should be terrified, but his mind was just projecting a calm enjoyment of the situation. His faith and trust in Worthington was absolute, and somehow that was reassuring, even as his bike nearly wiped out because it ran from smooth paving onto paving that had recently been cut and re-graded. The situation was forcing him to slow more, now down to eighty and two gears lower before he reached smooth paving and relatively clear traffic. As soon as the traffic cleared, and before he accelerated, he decided it was time to take care of the helicopter. A brief look verified where it was, and he ran through his options quickly.

Maybe they’d think his bolt was a surface-to-air missile, or maybe Kendrick would have to find the officers and wipe their memories, but his quickest, best option was a bolt of power that hit the helicopter right below its engine. He’d made it weaker than it could have been, and the helicopter began to smoke, and as he accelerated, Brandon looked at it long enough to see it making a controlled landing in the lanes on the other side of the freeway divider. Ahead were more police lights from cars that the helicopter had been vectoring towards him, and he cursed at not having taken care of the helicopter earlier.

“Damn.” He whispered to himself, impressed at the way he wove through the barricade of stopped cars and police vehicles attempting to trap him. The spike of fear as he searched for a way through them had been intense, but they were through, and in two miles was the exit he had to take. Barry’s bracelet was still shrieking its alarm, so he’d stayed close to the scene, despite instructions otherwise, and Worthington took the right exit, slowing down to ninety in order to keep from losing control. His rear wheel did skid in the turn, but he and Brandon moved as one to get the bike back under control.

In these situations, so close together and linked tightly, it was like he and Brandon were almost one person. This was different than linking with Jamie though. When he and Jamie linked, they merged, blended into each other until they were one person. Their best qualities they shared, and their worst qualities became insignificant. Together, he and Jamie were better than they were apart. Brandon was not like that. When they were merged like this, he was Worthington, and Brandon was a shadow of himself, his individuality, his good and bad qualities mostly submerged under Worthington’s shadow. The only thing that really remained Brandon was Brandon’s utter faith and trust in Worthington.

“It’s that house right up there!” Barry said as they pulled up next to him on a residential street. The street looked like any normal neighborhood late at night. Cars parked, most houses had no lights on, and everything looked normal, except to his mage sight. At the end of the street there was a dull black shield stretching across the street, blocking two houses from sight. “I was just leaving for the night when I felt the anklet go cold, and turned around in time to see a green something running across the street to the house on the left.”

“You did well.” Worthington shouted back. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

“I will, but you needed to see what house it was.” Barry responded. “The thing didn’t even look in my direction, and just after it left, everything rippled and I could no longer see it.”

“Fuck.” Worthington whispered to himself. The mage summoning the demon could not cast an illusion after the demon was already summoned, nor could he cast the shield he saw. At first he thought the shield was the demon’s doing, but now, now he suspected there were two mages. What was going on was easy to see. The shield surrounded two houses near the end of the street. One house held the demon summoner, and the other, the mage. The house on the left was Calhoun’s. More than likely the summoner had used the occupants of the house they were in to cast the summons.

This was a conundrum he hadn’t expected. He’d expected one summoner, and one or two demons at the most. In that situation all he had to do was engage the demon, overcome it with his full power, and then he could take out the summoner while the mage was still stunned from the backlash of the demon’s death.

Now though, he had to do a couple of things. First, he had to break through the shield, which could take time because it was far from being a weak shield. Then he had to take out at least the second mage, the one casting the illusion of normalcy, and the shield. Well, the mage would be stunned for a moment by Worthington breaking through his shield, but he’d be prepared for that while Worthington hammered at the shield with power.

If the demon was already inside Calhoun’s house, and feeding off of her, then he could take out the second mage before going after the demon. She might lose an arm, a leg, or just a foot, but she’d still be alive and have most of her power intact. The demon was probably planning to spend all night consuming her. Not even Worthington killing the second mage would distract it from its feeding. Only a direct attack on it would distract it at that point. If he went in there before it had broken down her wards, the demon would turn and attack him right away as an easier target, and a more powerful one as well. Then he’d have to fight a demon and a mage at the same time, and he held no illusion of winning that fight.

Jamie was almost here. It’d be another few minutes, but the cops chasing him had closed off several roads, and Jamie appeared to be having a difficult time. Their mental contact was brief, fleeting, but Jamie seemed to want him to wait until Jamie showed up, even if it cost Calhoun a limb and power. That was certainly the right thing to do, even by Light standards.

“Good luck, boss.” Barry said with a nod as he closed his visor and took off.

Worthington sighed, and turned his bike further down the road, back the way he’d come. He should wait for Jamie, or one of the blasted light mages to show up, but he couldn’t waste time while Calhoun was in danger. He’d made the Bargain with her, to protect all mages of the Valley of the Sun as if they were his own people. It had been ancient language, with the implication that they were his vassals, and he wondered why they had chosen that particular language. It didn’t commit them to obey him, except in matters directly relating to danger from demons or their summoners, but it bound him to them as if they were his sworn vassals, bound him to protect them as he would Brandon, or Jamie.

“Here we go.” Brandon’s voice echoed his own thoughts as he turned back to point the bike in the direction of Calhoun’s house, and the shield. The mage not doing the summoning had to feel the power he summoned, and focused on the front of his bike. Even to normal mundane sight, the front of his bike would now be glowing with dark red light. His anger colored it that way, and he let it stay as he formed it around the bike’s front, and shaped it to end just above the windshield. Then he was leaning all the way forward on the bike, with Brandon tight against his back and he was accelerating.

Through first, and then second gear he shifted, followed by third and one final twist of his wrist, opening the throttle up all the way before they hit the shield. His power on the bike was like a battering ram, and even though it had a lot less mass than a car, his bike was moving at over one hundred miles per hour when it hit the shield. The combination was too much for the shield, and they punched through it with massive force, shredding the shield where they hit, but sending the bike into a fishtail that he could not recover.

As the bike went down, he and Brandon threw themselves from it, and both tightened their limbs so their feet and arms were ramrod straight, and loosened their muscles. This was a moment where he was glad he insisted on always wearing leathers and helmets when he road. When he came to a stop, his face shield was cracked, and his head rang like a bell. His entire body was bruised, and tomorrow he would have a very difficult time moving, but he had no broken limbs, his head was whole, and he was on his feet with Brandon not more than five feet from him. A slice of power cut the chinstrap and he tore his helmet off as he got his bearings.

“Shit!” A voice called out and he looked across the street from Calhoun’s to see a strange mage gaping at him while holding his own head. That was all the identification he needed as he sent a bolt of pure power sizzling at the man. He was a lean man, with an athletic build and an athlete’s grace as he dodged the bolt by rolling to the ground and away towards Worthington’s left. The next bolt hit the grass beside him even as the first demolished the front of the house. Knowing the man was dodging bolts, Worthington lessoned their power even as he sensed Brandon noticing the demon had just broken down the front of Calhoun’s home.

The demon was standing there, in the doorway, a mass of green skin this time, which meant a different race than the one that had been summoned at that party. Worthington was fortunate that the demon appeared undecided on the best course of action for it. Here it was, just having broken through the barriers on its next meal’s house, a witch of not inconsiderable power, but now out in the street were two more mages, one of whom was glowing like the sun with power.

Worthington stopped casting bolts as he realized he wasn’t likely to hit the man, who kept dodging. The one bolt that almost hit the dark-skinned mage had grazed a shield that glowed green for a moment. It was time to switch tactics before that demon made up its mind on what it wanted for dinner. A vise of power surrounded the strange mage, who had started to gather his energy for counter-attack. The vise shrieked with a fury as the mage strengthened his own shield. He was strong, far stronger than Worthington had expected, and he drew even deeper on the power Brandon was feeding him. If this kept up, Brandon would soon have to start pulling power from life around them. Already Worthington was beginning to also draw on the well of power that came from the spells set into members of their motorcycle gang. That power was limited though, because the spells used would not allow him to drain enough power to kill the person, or really harm them.

The mage broke the vise of power, although he was breathing heavy and couldn’t dodge the power bolt that Worthington sent against him. His shield flared, and he fell against the wall of the house behind him with a thump. A thrill of victory filled Worthington and he prepared his killing bolt, not wanting to risk the mage surviving. Fortunately Brandon had not taken his eyes off the demon, because that was the moment the demon decided it wanted Worthington more than Calhoun, and took off at a run towards the pair of mages.

Worthington had time to whirl and cast the killing bolt at the demon, but a demon is not the same as a mage, and the green-skinned beast shrugged off the bolt, although the force of it sent it to its knees for a moment. Before Worthington could follow up with another blast, summoning all the energy he could handle from Brandon, and all the power he could pull from his gang, a bolt of burning power hit his shield from the other side, and he realized the mage was going from defense to attack. This was exactly why he should have waited, he knew as he was forced to divert power from his attack back to his shield.

The sound of a bike roaring at high speed was what saved him, and the mage paused his attack to look down the road at the sound. The demon was back on its feet, and Worthington diverted power from his shield back to attack, and sent a bolt of pure frosty power at the creature. Demons loved fire, but hated the cold, and Worthington made good use of that. When his spell hit it, the demon howled in pain, and fell to the ground, it’s heels making cracks in the concrete sidewalk as it beat them in its pain. Power flared in the night, a power almost as strong as Worthington’s as Jamie lifted his left arm from steering his own bike, and began to hammer more blows of power at the mage, who was now shooting his own bolts back at Jamie while trying to dodge. When Jamie’s bike screamed past them, and started to slow down, Worthington noticed that Carl was on the back of Jamie’s bike, and apparently screaming his head off in fear under the helmet he wore.

Worthington was smiling now as he turned back to the demon. More bolts of frost hit the demon, and now it was no longer even a fair fight as Madam Calhoun joined the battle from the shattered doorway of her home. Bolts of pure Light sprang from her hands, striking the demon as it struggled back to this feet, only to be knocked forward, and then backwards while bolts from Worthington hit it in the opposite direction of Calhoun’s bolts.

Jamie had parked his bike, and was now ripping off his helmet as he threw more bolts of power at the mage who was now totally on the defensive. Carl got off the bike, and all but attached himself to Jamie’s back, leaving his helmet on and trying not to be noticed. When Jamie managed to get a stun bolt past the mage’s shield, the man collapsed and Jamie turned to join the fight against the demon, which had managed one weak blast of power at Madam Calhoun. Her shields had held, and although her bolts were no longer nearly as strong as they had been, she was still throwing them.

Before Jamie could join the fight against the demon, though, another roar filled the night and another green-skinned demon leaped from the shattered house that the first mage had come from. Jamie did the right thing, and started blasting the new demon, but it was ready for him, countering his blast of power with one of its own. The two bolts connected, and detonated with a concussive force that was deafening, and threw all of them to the ground. When Worthington got up, the demons were gone, as were the mages. Jamie and Worthington rushed into the damaged house, and barely reacted at the sight of the murdered family, or the two circles of power used to summon the demons. Instead they extended their senses, searching for traces of the Power that would have let their enemies escape.

“You feel it?” Jamie asked and Worthington nodded. It was possible for them to link, but they both needed to be able to act independently of each other, and that meant sticking with the links they already had to the two Channels. Worthington was really surprised to see Carl there. Jamie must have stopped at the trailer park and grabbed him. Who knows what he’d told the boy’s parents, or if he’d told them anything. Jamie had been less than forthcoming about what he’d done in the process of converting Carl out of bound servitude to their Uncle. Carl wasn’t soul-bound to Jamie the way Brandon was to Worthington, but their relationship now seemed to be very close.

It was also completely non-sexual.

“A portal, but it’s fading fast.” Worthington agreed with Jamie’s assessment, and they rushed into the dining room, which had been cleared of all furniture. There the flooring had been ripped away, revealing the dirt beneath the house. Already the portal was mostly gone, leaving only the faintest of tingling in the blood-soaked ground. The body of a child lay nearby, obviously having been sacrificed hours before to provide the necessary price for the dark-based spell. A portal took a life to create, and could only be used a handful of times before it faded. This one had probably been created sometime earlier in the night, and as soon as it was used it began to fade. Or maybe the last person through had scrambled it.

They could be anywhere by now, well, anywhere within a two-thousand mile radius at least.

“Did you get anything?” Jamie asked Worthington, who had gone so far as to stick his gloved hands into the blood-soaked earth and cast a tracing spell. It faded away though, without giving him any more than a sense of direction.

“They went South, but that’s it.” Worthington told him with disgust. A wave of fury tore through him, and he clenched his fists, pounding them into the dirt.

“We better go and make sure Mrs. Calhoun is okay.” Jamie said softly, putting a sympathetic hand on the back of Worthington’s shoulder.

“Let’s go.” Worthington growled, and then winced as he tried to get out of the hole in the floor of the house. He had to get Jamie’s help to do it. His body was already starting to stiffen, and he winced again as he looked at the mess that was his riding leathers. Both arms were nearly worn through, and he could see raw skin on his left leg where the leather had been worn away. The skin was rippled with road rash, and he was certain it would be very painful before too long. In fact, he could feel the pain starting now.

“Here.” Jamie said softly, casting a weak healing spell that at least blocked the pain and soothed his sore muscles. It left Jamie gasping though. Leaning on each other for support, because now that the fight was past, they both realized how much sheer power they had been expending, and how drained they were now feeling, they managed to exit the house and found themselves in the middle of chaos, or near-chaos.

The docile, empty streets were no longer docile, or empty. There were crowds of people who had boiled out of their houses, and were now lining the streets, trying to see what was going on. A string of police cars blocked them though, and a group of officers were keeping them back. Fire trucks could be seen approaching in the distance, and Worthington felt his gut knot in panic until he saw the familiar figure of Detective Kendrick standing amidst a group of uniformed officers near Stacy’s Prius. Richie was leaning over Brandon, obviously doing some healing.

“Oh shit.” Jamie murmured as several of the officers with Kendrick noticed them.

“How long were we in there?” Worthington asked, wondering how much time they’d spent in the house. It had seemed like just a minute or two, but neither of them had noticed this happening outside.

“I don’t know, but they’re not drawing their guns.” Jamie said and helped Worthington limp forward a few more steps. Kendrick was heading over to them with a determined stride.

“You sure know how to put on a show, Sinclair.” Kendrick said in a low voice as soon as she reached them. “Are you two okay?”

“We’ll live.” Jamie assured her, although Worthington had to lean on him more and more with each passing moment. He just wanted to sit down, and with a grunt, he did that, right there on the sidewalk in front of the half-destroyed house.

“Richie!” Kendrick called, and Jamie’s brother was rushing over to them after finishing with Brandon.

“Hell, Worthington, what did you do?” Richie murmured as he started to exert his healing power. It felt like a warm bath, washing away the aches.

“He lit up the sky so fucking bright half of Phoenix is calling 911.” Kendrick murmured softly. “This is going to be one hell of a mess to clean up. I’ve already spelled the key officers here. They believe you and Jamie to be government agents, from Homeland Security. That fucking stunt with the police chopper is going to be causing problems though. I think I can make them believe it was a god-damn malfunction, but I’ll be damned if I know how I’m going to do that yet. What made you shoot the thing down?”

“They were distracting me.” Worthington said with a gasp as Richie began to work on his leg. It must have been really bad.

“Fuck.” Kendrick muttered again. “At least the APB on your damn bike is cancelled now. At first they thought you were in two places, but I guess the other one was Jamie?”

“Yeah.” Jamie laughed. “Serves us right for having nearly matching outfits and matching bikes. I had to use some serious magic before I even got here.”

“Leave the boy alone, girl.” Madame Calhoun’s voice was firm as she approached them with a look of respect on her face. “Boy, I’ve seen some pretty good magic in my day, but most mages go all their life without seeing a tenth of the power you were throwing around tonight. You’re going to have one hell of a headache in the morning. You too, Jamie. You weren’t tossing around much less than Worthington did. Both of you have my thanks, too. You got here just in time, and that trick you used to punch through the shield, that was impressive as well.”

“Thanks, but it sure as hell did a number on the bike and us.” Worthington said. He could see the bike from here, and it was a total loss. The front end, including the front tire, was completely flattened, like it had been dropped from a thousand feet in the air. It was hard to remember exactly what happened, but he was pretty sure what it felt like to go from a hundred miles an hour to a dead stop in an instant. It was a wonder they were even alive, much less had no broken bones.

“Brandon’s wrist is broken.” Richie murmured. “I stabilized it for now, but he’s going to need to see one of the doctors for a full healing. Carl’s alright. What the hell were you doing bringing that kid here?”

“He’s a Channel, and I needed his strength.” Jamie said with a shrug. “Be glad I did or we might not be sitting here talking about it now.”

“The story is he was staying with me if anyone asks.” Madam Calhoun said quietly.

“I’ve stated that you were hunting a terrorist cell that was preparing bombs.” Kendrick added after a moment of pause. “It’ll help explain the lights that lit up half the night sky, and the damage to the houses. What the hell did you hit this house with?”

“A mage bolt.” Worthington said.

“I don’t think I could summon one that strong using all my power at once.” Kendrick muttered.

“You couldn’t.” Madam Calhoun snorted. “Boy, I don’t quite understand this Channel thing, but it’s obvious whatever it is works. That demon was flat outclassed by you alone. Tell me if I’m wrong, but green-skinned are some of the most powerful demons, right?”

“Clan Oska demons.” Worthington muttered as Richie finished and he realized he felt better, although he was seriously weak and did not feel like standing. “The only demons stronger, or more intelligent than them are Demon Lords, and there’s only a handful of those. Oska demons were the heavyweights in the Demon Wars. Only the strongest Adepts stood a chance against them, and there were two here tonight.”

“The ones who summoned them…” Kendrick said with a worried frown.

“They killed a mage family about a week ago.” Worthington said with a shake of his head. “The woman with the sun-flower dress at the meeting. One of my men found her motor home, and her family was all inside, dead. The demons had more than enough time to take all their power, but the impression I got was that they weren’t all that strong. There’s no way the mages got enough power from them to summon Oska demons.”

“Eight families left town in the last week.” Madam Calhoun said in a serious tone, and there was a frown on her face. “We’ve heard from one of them, but that’s it. I just assumed the others got where they were going safely.”

“This weekend we’ll start our search for them.” Worthington said, already planning a search grid out in his head for the gang. By the time this was all done, they’d really have earned their money.

“The officers picked up one of your guys leaving the area.” Kendrick said with a frown.

“Can you…” Worthington started to say but she shook her head.

“Don’t worry about him.” She said. “He’s being brought here, and I’ll adjust the officers memories to reflect that he identified himself as Homeland Security.”

“We just better hope the real Homeland Security doesn’t get asked.” Worthington said grimly.

“I’ll head that off before the night is done.” Kendrick chuckled. “The police chief himself is on the way. A few moments with him will fix things, but he’ll want to talk to you two directly. Just tell him as little as possible, and tell him that he can take full credit for everything as long as he keeps the DHS involvement a secret. That’ll keep him happy, although the problem is going to be that he’s going to want to consult on this with you in the future, and if he figures out you’re sixteen, well, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Worthington assured her, although at the moment he wasn’t sure exactly how. All he knew was that he’d taken some great risks tonight, but he’d made it through alive. Calhoun was alive, he’d kept the Bargain he’d made with these damn Light mages, and he’d learned a few lessons.

Like don’t ram a mage shield with your motorcycle at a hundred miles per hour.