Black Dawn Read online

  Amanda could see that the Black haired girl who stood next to the old man had Essentia coursing through her, she looked ready for action at any moment, and when Magic suddenly flared from Dust, the Magus next to Horlack as he tried to Port away, the girl’s Magic washed over him and disintegrated Dust’s spell before it could do anything.

  Horlack looked down at the man next to him, clearly sensing his attempt at Magic and escape.

  ‘What are you doing weakling, Horlack said, and with his massive left hand, shoved Dust forward towards the old man.

  Dust shouted in protest, but Horlack had been too quick and too strong, and suddenly all hell broke loose as the men with guns opened fire while powerful Magic shot out from the woman in black leather and the Indian man. Angel, however, just watched. In fact, Amanda noticed the Magical signature that surrounded her seemed much weaker than when she had attacked her on the train. What was she up to?

  Horlack leapt away, bounding over the side of the platform and disappearing from view as Dust died quickly and painfully under the onslaught of Magic and gunfire.

  ‘I’m going after Horlack, don’t let them cause any more trouble and if you can get the scroll, go for it, but don’t get yourself killed,’ Maya said, as she sped off, running down the catwalk towards where Horlack had disappeared.

  Amanda looked back to the scene below and watched as the old man walked up to the body of the now dead Magus and bent to pick something up. It looked like a rolled up piece of paper, but it throbbed with Magical power that Amanda could feel from here.

  That must be the Lazarus Scroll. Amanda rose from her crouched position, looking right and knew what she would do. She ran silently along the catwalk to her right and then jumped left into mid-air, further and higher than any normal human could ever do. She used one foot to bound from a pipe to the top of a huge tank, and then leapt into the air and dropped down to land towards the edge of the platform, behind the group with the old man, but not in front of the door they had entered through.

  She landed in a crouch with a loud echoing bang, denting the metal beneath her feet and came to a standing position, looking up at the faces of the group before her who looked at her in surprise.

  Maya ran round more machinery and suddenly found herself stood before Horlack who skidded to a stop and looked down at Maya, his huge dark eyes wide in surprise.

  Horlack’s transformation into a Scion had permanently changed his body into a huge beast. Easily over twelve foot tall, covered in patchy black hair with massive talons on his hands and at the end of his dog-shaped legs.

  His head, although huge in its own right, looked tiny on his massive shoulders, and didn’t look remotely human anymore. His wide mouth had two long upward pointing tusks, his nose was a flat bat like thing, and his ears were huge like a bat’s as well. The horrific look was finished off by a long cancerous looking horn coming from his forehead that ended in a wicked point.

  ‘Maya!’ he boomed, ‘what a pleasure. Is your mother here?’

  ‘Horlack,’ Maya said, ignoring the question. ‘You’re back.’

  The thing stood tall before her, ‘was there any doubt I would return?’

  ‘I thought maybe your encounter in New York…’

  ‘Never. I was merely thrown into the Abyss. Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,’ he boomed, his voice loud and powerful.

  ‘Indeed.’

  He lowered himself down, bringing his face closer to her level, ‘but now that I’m back, and a little more like my old self, maybe you would consider…’

  ‘This again?’

  ‘It’s always been you, Maya, you know that,’ he said, his voice suddenly softer and filled with emotion.

  Maya placed her hands on her hips, looking up at the monster before her. ‘A lot would need to change before I could ever consider you as anything other than a savage killer. Your vendetta against Amanda, for instance, would need to end.’

  Horlack’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Maya, ‘I’m listening.’

  Half a second after turning their heads in surprise at the sound of Amanda’s landing, the men all came to their senses and span round fully to point their guns at her to the mechanical sound of weapons being cocked.

  Simultaneously, the woman in leather stepped forward in front of the old man, pulling on the local Essentia as she took a few steps forward, ready to attack. Amanda drew her own Essentia to her and pushed all the defensive strength in her Aegis to her front, ready to deflect those bullets and the woman’s Magic. Her split multitasking mind raced, getting ready for the fight that was about to erupt.

  ‘Wait,’ called the old man from behind the Magi woman, his hand pulling on her sleeve as he stepped forward. The old man’s gaze locked onto Amanda, his eyes wide, his mouth open, and a look of utter incredulity on his face.

  ‘Sir?’ the woman asked.

  ‘Stand down,’ he said, as he stepped forward, ‘continue with the plan. Echo, you wait there,’ he said, speaking to the woman and pointing to a spot behind him. Echo stayed put, but everyone else started to leave, including Angel who shot her a knowing look as she walked out.

  The old man looked back at Amanda and paused for a moment.

  ‘Give me the Scroll,’ Amanda said, not quite sure what was going on or what else she could say, and feeling a bit weirded out by this old man.

  ‘My god, you look just like her, it’s uncanny,’ he said, his voice now soft and full of wonder. ‘I mean, I always thought, I always kind of knew, but, it’s you isn’t it?’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Amanda answered, feeling very confused. He spoke like he knew her, but she felt sure she had never met him before or knew who he was.

  ‘You’re what? Twenty years old now? Yes, that’s fits. What’s your name child?’

  ‘I’m not sure that’s any of your business, I have no idea who you are or what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Of course you don’t. Did you know your mother?’

  ‘What the hell?’ Amanda said, surprised and shocked by the strangeness and rudeness of his question. Who the hell was this guy and why was he asking these questions. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘If I’m right, I’m your father,’ he said with wonder in his eyes as he looked at her in fascination.

  The world around her nearly fell away as she took in those words. Everything else seemed a secondary concern as she tried to process what he had just said. ‘My arse ye are,’ she said in an almost automatic response, denying his accusation.

  ‘You look just like your mother, the resemblance is uncanny. Your hair, your eyes, your nose, even your Irish accent’s similar. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were her.’

  ‘I can assure you I’m not,’ she said, ‘I think I’d remember you.’

  ‘But of course, and that was twenty years ago. Shortly before I’m guessing you were born. It all fits.’

  Was he telling the truth? Did this man know her mother and could he really be her father? Amanda got a distinct feeling that this man spoke the truth, or at least believed that he did. ‘You… you’re saying you knew my mother?’

  ‘And you don’t?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m an Orphan,’ she said. It almost felt like her heart had stopped. She felt short of breath and suddenly had a desperate need to know more, to know who she was and who her parents were.

  The man seemed to consider that for a moment, looking slightly surprised and then accepting of it. ‘I suppose that make sense,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Amanda, Amanda-Jane. Who… who was she, what was her name?’ she asked, suddenly desperate for answers.

  ‘Mr Black!’ shouted a voice from the nearby doorway onto the platform. Amanda looked around, following the gaze of the old man to the mercenary who had shouted for him. ‘Everything’s in place, we’re ready,’ the man barked.

  ‘Times up Amanda, let’s do this again sometime,’ Mr Black said, his voice all business now as Echo’s Magic whipped about them and Ported them
away before Amanda could bring herself to react.

  ‘W… wait,’ she said. The brief revelations from the old man, Mr Black, had disarmed her completely, giving her no chance to counter Echo’s Magic and stop them from Porting away.

  Amanda stood on the platform amongst bodies and spilt blood, feeling like she had been given half an answer and then had been left hanging, wanting more but not being able to get the answers she suddenly and desperately wanted.

  He’d said he was her father. He looked in his eighties or nineties, so he must have been in his sixties when he had gotten her mother pregnant, which seemed a little old. Who was this man, and what kind of name was Mr Black anyway? This all felt so strange, and yet, something about him, the way he spoke and the little details he knew about her age, could it be, could he be her father?

  Suddenly a claxon sounded with an ear-splitting siren that made her clamp her hands to her ears, dropping to one knee as she did so. She swore and used her Magic to take the edge off the noise as she looked about her. The siren had snapped her out of her reverie and she knew she needed to find Maya.

  PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

  The voice boomed over the speakers installed in the containment building, making Amanda frown, what had Mr Black’s men done? She used her Magical sight and quickly picked out the sudden and fast build-up of heat in the core. She got a strong sinking feeling in her gut and knew she needed to get out of here, and if she could stop whatever was happening to cause the alert. Amanda knew nothing of Nuclear power, she had no idea how Reactor cores worked and what she would need to do should something go wrong. The best thing would be for her to get out of the building with Maya as fast as she could.

  ‘MAYA!’ she shouted, but heard nothing back, so she concentrated and sent a Link request to her telepathically. It was quickly accepted.

  ‘I’m here, I’m fine. I’m coming to you,’ Amanda heard in her head. She felt a rush of relief that Maya seemed to be okay and that Horlack had not hurt her, when suddenly a flare of Magic behind her caught her attention and she whipped around to see a man in a strange dark outfit that looked like a mix of Japanese Ninja and American Special Forces but without the weapons. He also wore a mask that left only his eyes visible.

  ‘What now?’ Amanda said as she eyed the man she’d turned towards to get a better view of. She recognised the Spiritual aspect of the Magic he used and felt fairly sure he’d just crossed from the Abyss into the Material world.

  Up until this month, she, like everyone else in the Magi community, believed that crossing into the Abyss had been impossible for millennia, and now she’d met a total of four people in one month who could do it, including apparently, this mysterious man. It didn’t look like Shaitan. Could it be one of his apprentices again?

  The man dropped into a fighting stance, causing Amanda to automatically clench her fists and draw Essentia into her, when a powerful Magical blast of kinetic energy rushed out of him and sent her flying backwards into a large metal pipe, causing it to dent from the impact. Fairly unhurt, Amanda braced herself against the pipe and leapt forward as steam blasted from the ruptured pipe behind her.

  In mid-air, she used her Multitasking to throw Lightning blast after fireball after kinetic punch at her opponent, as he did his best to bolster his Aegis and defend against her powerful Magic.

  She landed in front of him, rolled and in a blur had risen to her feet and closed the gap between them, attacking with a kick that whipped his head sideways and hit his Aegis like a Magical hammer blow.

  She followed it with a punch, which he blocked, but still her attack threw more Essentia against his Aegis, weakening it further while her extra minds did the same with Magical blasts.

  As they traded punches and kicks, Amanda couldn’t help but notice the series of small explosions and bangs occurring around the room and the steam bursting from the pipes.

  Amanda couldn’t help but think this might be some kind of Meltdown happening. If only she knew more about how power plants like this worked and if only she didn’t have to fight this stranger.

  ‘Do we have to do this,’ she shouted as she ducked his next strike and blocked his kick before delivering another of hers to his sternum. ‘We have to get out of here and stop the meltdown.’

  As she watched, the man got his balance once more and merely frowned before rushing her once more and continuing his attack.

  ‘God damn it, listen to me,’ she shouted, be he ignored her and kept up the assault. Suddenly she saw Maya rushing up behind him, unnoticed for the moment, so she pressed the attack, keeping his attention on her while she gathered her Magic.

  Maya held her hands out wide, her fingers splayed with her keen looking talons extended from her fingers. She leapt in and landed behind him, slashing across his back making him arch his body in pain. Amanda blasted him with a powerful kinetic and Essentia filled Magical blast that hammered him to the floor, dropping his Aegis and knocking him out in one fell swoop.

  Around her now the whole place seemed to be descending into chaos as steam blasted from pipes, klaxons sounded and fires flared into life amidst the loud and ominous sounding noises that echoed from within the machinery around her.

  ‘We’re leaving,’ Amanda said and gathered her Magic, Porting herself, Maya and her mysterious attacker outside the domed containment building.

  Maya looked over at Amanda, ‘You have to stop the meltdown,’ she said.

  ‘To be sure, happy to, but, how do I do that?’ she answered.

  ‘It’s overheating, it needs to be cooled down,’ Maya said.

  Amanda looked back at the building a few hundred feet away, and could see the heat building inside, so she concentrated, pulled on the Essentia around her, and focused her power on the building and on lowering the temperature inside it.

  It didn’t take her long, but the concentration required felt intense. Minutes later she slowly eased off her Magic as she felt the reactor stop trying to heat up anymore and its own natural cooling processes took over.

  Happy that the immediate danger had been averted, she stumbled back and dropped to the floor, sitting next to the unconscious body of her attacker, close to where Maya crouched down, looking at the clothing of the man.

  ‘Jaysis that was intense,’ she gasped. She looked at Maya in the darkness of the desert night, Maya seemed a little confused by the man before them. ‘Any ideas?’ Amanda said.

  ‘Nothing I’d bet my estate on. Well done, by the way, that was impressive.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Amanda blushed. ‘We could do with getting an Arcanum clean up team out, there’s way too much evidence of something Magical here.’

  ‘We can do that at your house. Are we taking tall dark and unconscious here?’

  ‘Sure sure, let’s find out who yeh man is. What do you say there, shall we go?’

  ‘Go for it,’ Maya said.

  Amanda looked Maya in the eyes then, ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  ‘That’s ok, happy to jump in and help,’ Maya replied.

  Maya probably thought she was only talking about the fight, but Amanda actually meant it about way more than that. If Maya hadn’t chosen to take her, she might have never met Mr Black and realised that she might actually find out who her parents were.

  She realised she actually quite liked Maya, she got on really well and easily with her and they seemed to just slot together as if they’d known each other for years.

  Amanda smiled and pulled on the threads of Essentia again, and the inward rush of air to where they used to be kicked up the dusty sands and dirt of the desert in a small cloud.

  - Nowhere

  Alicia fell to the floor of her room, blood leaking from uncountable cuts all over her naked body. Pain filled her mind, but she felt at peace, for she knew she deserved it. Above her, Nate, Yasmin’s apprentice, spat at her as he zipped up his trousers. He stood there topless, his entire well-muscled body covered in blasphemous tattoos depicting the Gods, Prophets and S
aints of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and more being raped and tortured by demons.

  Earlier today she had spoken out of turn, asking something of her Mistress without having been given permission to speak first. She’d known it was wrong, but she sometimes forgot herself, reverting to her old and incorrect ways of speaking. She knew she would be punished. Sometimes Yasmin did it, sometimes Nate, sometimes Kez or someone else.

  She’d improved, though, and the punishments were less frequent now, making Yasmin happier.

  Later on, with her injuries nearly healed, Yasmin came to visit, and hugged her close, kissing her and whispering words of love into her ears.

  Home again

  Greenwich Village, New York

  Dec 1st

  In the basement of her house, Amanda stood next to a long table with the mysterious attacker laid out on it, unconscious, to Amanda’s left Maya leant on the edge of the table and looked down at the man.

  ‘Sorry you didn’t get your Scroll,’ Amanda said.

  ‘It’s not a problem, there will be other times, other opportunities. Just be glad we got out of there with our lives,’ Maya said, without looking up. ‘Anyway, it should be me apologising to you for dragging you out there and nearly getting you killed.’

  ‘Heh,’ Amanda said. ‘It’s no bother, nothing like a bit of a clatter from time to time to get the blood pumping,’ she replied, using the Irish slang for a fight. She looked down at the man on the table and took a breath. ‘Look, I just need a moment, I’ll be back soon,’ she said and left Maya in the garage just as Shaun stepped out of his office and looked over at the body.

  ‘What’s that doing in here?’ he asked.

  ‘Maya will fill you in, and don’t forget to inform the Arcanum,’ she said as she ascended the stairs and left the room.

  Without really thinking about where she was heading, she walked through the house, heading up through the levels and eventually stepped out onto the roof of the building.

  Whenever she needed time to think or just to get away, she usually came out here, and as the morning sun started to peek above the horizon, splashing an orange glow over the glass of the buildings before her, she sat on the edge of the roof and let the wind catch her hair, enjoying the feel of the cool winters air.