The ride back to Willem’s manor was made in humble silence, at least by the two agents held against their will in the back seat. Up front, his subordinates bickered and took cheap shots on each other’s less than perfect qualities. ‘Petra’, the sprite, was apparently an energy-sucking leech who Willem will have no use for in due time. ‘Charlotte’, the Nephilim, was an outdated model whose flesh was only good for the blood it could spill at the former’s feet one day. It was hard to tell where their rivalry was rooted but the only way it could be any worse was if they were actual siblings.

       Cut and bleeding, Nadine was forced to her knees alongside Tim on very spot of the lawn their rooms had overlooked. Maria stood next to Willem and both grinned maliciously down at them in the same degree. He nodded to his subordinates who left his side and disappeared into the house. Moments later the first garage door opened and she left in the high-end ride he afforded her. Tim took the opportunity to draw a second and third pistol hidden at his back and ankle. He shook his head and couldn’t help but laugh a bit, “This can’t get any better.” The pistol’s laser sight remained completely still on Willem’s forehead, “Cuff this monster.”

       Nadine’s heart pounded in her chest. Something deep inside her recoiled as pieces of a puzzle were being pulled together but she couldn’t see the image yet. Willem calmly put his hands behind his back and accepted the restraints unequivocally. Things were going perfectly despite the odds against them but still he grinned. She could almost read the future in the hateful slant of his mouth. “Tim, I’m going to use the phone in the house to call in a report and get this place quarantined.”

       “Sounds good to me.” Nadine disappeared through the front door. There was a long pause before Tim decided to pass the time with some rhetoric, “I’ve been at the company for long enough to hear about pretty much every kind of freak you can think of. But I’ve never seen them this nervous….And I’ve got to admit, personally – not impressed.”

       “I bet if you pulled that trigger a couple of times you would be.” Tim lifted his gun the moment he noticed a faint light shining in the recesses beyond his pupils. “Magusite bullets are fine and all when you’re dealing with the children of magic….”

       “Is that why you sent the others away?”

       “You’re smarter than you look, I’ll give you that,” Willem replied. The pistol became too heavy too fast for a good shot. The bullet fired into the ground at Willem’s feet as he advanced. He batted aside the pathetic swing Tim made to save himself, revealing the broken handcuffs dangling from his wrist. Willem’s power washed over him not like the black logic of the mage, but the infallible might of something greater. “And besides, Maria just can’t stand the sight of blood.” Casually, calmly, he reached into the inconspicuous sleeve Tim kept yet another knife hidden inside his jacket and drew it. With a lazy, amateur grip, Willem slid the blade into through Tim’s sternum as though it were butter.

       Nadine wasn’t surprised to find the line in Willem’s home was dead. She had just hung up the phone when she heard the shot. She prayed that Tim was just showing off or threatening Willem and that most of all they were okay. Not like this, she thought as she kicked through the front door, not with so much left unsaid. Willem, free from his restraints stood over Tim as he choked on his final breaths. Nadine drew her gun and fired three shots faster than she ever had at the range. The wounds ran up starting from his right thigh, the heart and left shoulder. Spots of blood marked the entries but they were small, as though he’d healed before his shirt was ruined any further.

       “Ah, the sweet kiss of the Magusite bullet,” He grinned, “It’s been too long.”

       “Willem, you’ve left me no choice.” She began her recitation once she had re-established aim. His eyes narrowed and filled with contempt, “You are under arrest for the practice of forbidden arts. You are to calm your mind and submit, less risk the use of lethal force.”

       “I’ve heard that one enough times that I think I could recite it!” He exclaimed. Her hands grew numb, the gun heavy, “You’ll understand if I don’t call my lawyer.”

       A wave of nausea and weakness came over Nadine and she was forced to watch her aim fall away from her mark. Her arm had gone completely limp, subdued by a crippling numbness which spread through her body. The siphoned energy prevented her from pulling the trigger one last time before her other arm went dead. He stalked towards her as she fell to her knees and in turn her side. She felt him take her by the ankle and drag her to where Tim’s shallow gasps would emphasize the horror of this surreal moment.

       While nothing changed of his demeanor, Willem seemed to be in his element kneeling over her partner’s dying shudders. He ran his finger across Tim’s forehead tracing an X and an I on either side of the center line. Nadine watched the markings begin to glow from her pathetic perspective. It was a pale violet light, soothing yet unreal, beyond magic, beyond reality itself. Had she any control over her body, she would have warily backed away, but for the time being, she would only bear witness. Tim went into violent convulsions as the brilliance converging between the marks intensified. His hand, held firm over the mark, prompted the most unnatural of transfers. The light went dead once he felt Tim had enough, leaving Nadine in the darkness of contrast while her eyes readjusted.

       “Willem, what are you doing?” Her voice was flat, bereft of the panic and fear that would have made her words far from coherent. She noticed then that Tim wasn’t moving anymore, “You… killed him….”

       “That I did.” The space over Willem’s head became a swirling blur which made Nadine break out in the cold sweat reserved for the most intense nightmares. That same light seemed to burn through the tainted reality, taking shape, filling in an invisible cast to reveal what had been there all along. The meter wide halo was far from angelic despite what it was. It was jagged like frayed wire on the inside and out, glowing with the light of his eyes, swiveling on a flawed axis.

       None of this made sense – this wasn’t even magic! The wound in Tim’s chest closed before her eyes, and the massive trauma healed at a slower pace. But even after all that, her partner was still dead. Willem held his hand over the faded wound and snapped his fingers. Tim was throttled by the unseen force which jolted him from the inside. A long pause. Once more Willem snapped his fingers and this time it took. After a long coughing fit, Tim resorted to a faint yet steady breath.

       He stepped over her unconscious partner and made his way to where she was still pinned by his will. “What… are you?” She cried weakly.

       “Exactly what I’ve always been,” He replied, kneeling down over her, “Neither man nor mage. The only difference is now you get to see it.” Her entire body was seized by the deepest pain not of the flesh but of the spirit; heartbreak, failure, anguish, grief, all these were the byproduct of his contempt. Such contempt!

       “What did you do?” Tim scrambled to his feet and scanned the compound, awed by something she could not see. The gates thrashed suddenly against their chains, “Is this magic? Why do I have magic?” His cool demeanor was irreparably fractured and he began to panic. “What did you do to me!?” He screamed, bursting the windows in Willem’s car and punching dents in its sides with an unseen force.

       “You’ve been elevated,” He replied with a casual shrug, “Think hard on all you’ve said and done, without the taint of that cheap, logical rhetoric.”

       “I can feel it.” Tim looked down at his white-knuckled fists hatefully, “You’re in my head, no my soul….” He seethed through clenched teeth, “And it’s amazing!”

       “And now for you,” He knelt down and held her chin in his hand, forcing her to face him. With each word, the dim light which appeared in the depths of his eyes grew brighter until her mind itself felt as if it would burst, “We’re going to look back on this soon and laugh, like old times.” She could feel him chipping away at the outer edges of her free will, convincing her subtly to give in to what so many already had.

       The choice was simple and while she fought herself to maintain sentience, she was released, freed from his grasp as all the attention shifted on her went somewhere else. She scrambled to her feet and put some distance between them before she looked to the sky. There was a man there, locked in place several meters above the ground. Uniformly cut blond hair and eyes glared down at Willem with utter disdain. While his clothing was semi-formal, his grey duster was strangely tattered along the hind edge, very much like a weathered flag would be. He looked to be in his early twenties, yet he wore the discipline of an experienced veteran.

       “The master of bad timing,” He tried to remain composed, but the excitement and irritation sent shudders through his body, “Can’t you see I’m busy??”

       “There’s easier ways to pick up girls, Tarrant,” The mage held no fear for him; they knew each other well enough to produce a lot of mutual contempt.

       “Never had a problem in that department,” Willem sneered,

       “I’ve been sent to tell you that what you’re trying to do with her isn’t going to work.” Just as he spoke the doors to the manor burst open to let Willem’s entourage join the scene. The mage had an ample response on hand and let the small sphere etched in runic light drop at their feet. The girls were locked in place, forced to watch it all unfold from a snail’s pace.

       “Time Bombs….” Willem spat, “Hey.” He looked to Tim in his peripheral vision, “Feel like cutting loose? Seeing what you can really do?” He pointed to the mage up high, “Bring him to me.” Willem and Tim smirked in chilling unison, “Dead or alive – obviously it doesn’t matter.”

       Tim flexed his fingers and watched the magic stir over his palm, crackling, popping. “Hunt,” He said, “When you see what this feels like, you won’t ever want to go back.” Like a proud parent and a horrified victim, Willem and Nadine looked on as the magic gathered at Tim’s feet. His awful laughter swelled until the moment he shot into the sky, his feet blazing like the morning sun. The stranger easily evaded the airborne charge yet made no mistake to dismiss the novice so quickly.

       As the pair tangled in the air, Willem took his place over her just as she dropped to her knees. She could only watch her fate be sealed in one form or another by someone who had changed as much as he stayed the same. Those violet eyes shone as he took her by the chin again to hold her to his gaze. Nadine could feel it; her inhibitions softening while her convictions hardened, tempered with his ideal in mind. She fought him in there, pulling at the reigns being fastened to her spirit, until what felt like an eternity of labor later, the connection was severed.

       Willem staggered back with his palm to his forehead. Charlotte and Petra, who were over the effects of the Time Bomb were quick to prop him up. His nose bled profusely, worse than any of the gunshots fed to his abdomen and while the girls were unsettled, he could only laugh softly as he collected his senses. The pair scowled at Nadine but there was more there – astonishment? Fear maybe? Whatever it was they shook it off once he steadied himself. “Amazing,” He said, “It seems we’ve both gotten stronger since those days.”

       At his whim the girls advanced on her. With the strength to do so again, Nadine raised her gun but it was Petra who dealt with the firearm herself with a simple wave of the hand. Piece by piece the pistol fell apart along with any hopes of getting out of this mind, body and soul in tact. From out of nowhere, or rather from up high, Tim landed hard on the Nephilim a smoking, charred wreck. Peels of lightning wracked at the sprite with enough intensity to stun the creature. Willem turned, sneering towards the sky with enough malice in his eyes that the dusk was set ablaze with an entirely new hue.

       Nadine turned herself to see the mage there, one hand extended to her while the other was motioning for her silence. She was reluctant to take the offer, but knew the mage was the lesser of evils. The moment she grasped his wrist was the moment Willem whipped about to sap their will with his light.  Immediately, she was pulled into the sky and reinforced her grip with her free hand.

       The escape paused as the mage looked down on the estate balefully. Below, Willem could barely be seen looking back with the same amount of disdain until a massive shockwave burst out from his location. From so high up they could see just how far the outburst reached, leaning trees away from him in all directions. Those closest to Willem were torn out by the root and flung to the outer reaches.

       “Who are you?” She gasped,

       “Not at liberty to say,” The stranger replied, nearing the lowest clouds. His was the face of hardened discipline, one programmed from the first day he could learn. She was astonished that someone so young could be so focused, “Just be thankful I was sent to save you from the unchained madness of a corrupted God.”

       The high altitude winds were cold and fierce and she had to shout over them, “A God?”

       “That’s what I said,” the mage replied, holding his palm towards a strange cloud formation that seemed to gather over them, “There will be plenty of time to elaborate later.” A clap of thunder preceded the surge of energy pulsing from the edges of the artificial cloud towards the centre, producing a peel of lightning which struck him in that open palm. Nadine’s body stiffened involuntarily as the circuit was completed and after that, it all went black.

Continue to Chapter 5