The Merging Read online

  “Whoa,” said Chuck, who had apparently leaned over to take a look also. “He’s pretty hot.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. Look at those abs.”

  I furrowed my brow at him for a moment, but then shrugged at the realization that if the mage standing by Fido had been a chick, I’d be giving her a double-take, too.

  At least now I knew who was putting the heads back on these ubernaturals.

  “Fair enough,” I said finally, “but we still gotta kill him.”

  He sighed. “Shame.”

  “While I thank you heartily for the commentary on my abs,” the mage called out, “and while I do agree with your assessment, I wonder if I might have the pleasure of knowing whom I’m going to be killing?”

  I looked at the others and shrugged before stepping out into the open.

  “The name’s Ian Dex,” I said, holding up my PPD badge. “And you are?”

  “You may call me Reese, Mr. Dex,” he replied with a genuine smile. “I have to say that your little team has given my… possessions a bit of trouble tonight. I understand your position, of course, but I’m afraid that I’ll need to remove you and your fellow officers from the equation now.”

  “Is that so?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

  “Oh, let’s not kid ourselves, Mr. Dex. You’re clearly no match for me. Yes, you’ll likely cause me some mild discomfort, but your genetic splicing is nothing compared to mine.”

  “You won’t just be facing me, Reese,” I noted. “And what’s that about my genetic splicing, again?”

  “I was including your friends in my assessment, Mr. Dex.” Portman woke up and shook his head, growling at the same time. Reese glanced over at him. “And your werebear also, of course.”

  I looked at the mage for a few moments, weighing the situation. He did seem rather confident for a man who was wholly outnumbered. This gave me pause. Was his confidence warranted? He had somehow created these ubernaturals, so clearly he was quite capable with magic. On top of that, they were amalgamations concocted with demons.

  My blood froze.

  Was that why the demon who had been merged with the fae was pissed off at me? Did my genetic makeup somehow include demons?

  “A question before we destroy you?” I said to Reese.

  “By all means,” he said cordially, “ask away.”

  “The fae that we destroyed at the Wynn seemed pretty irritated at me because I’m an amalgamite. It didn’t really have time to provide details what the deal was, though. Any idea?”

  “Demons don’t like things they can’t inhabit,” Reese explained. “They find locked souls to be an affront to the natural order of things.”

  That was a relief. “So you’re saying that I can’t be possessed?”

  “Is that a problem?” he answered my question with one of his own.

  “Quite the contrary,” I replied. “Frankly, up until today, I thought all that possession crap was bullshit.”

  “I assure you it’s not,” Reese said with a knowing grin.

  I nodded at Fido. “Clearly.”

  “Right.” He looked at his watch. “Did you have anything else you wanted to discuss? I do have a schedule to keep.”

  “Oh, sorry, I was just…” I stopped and frowned at him. “You sure are a confident son of a bitch, aren’t you?”

  “Supremely,” he said as his hands began to radiate blue energy.

  “Not again,” I cried while diving away from the window.

  Chapter 20

  My dive didn’t do much, except that it may have sufficed in helping me to share the energy that burst from Reese’s fingers. Meaning that everyone got hit.

  The mages were able to handle it better than the rest of us and they fought back instantly.

  Within seconds, the entire place was rocking from energy blasts, fireballs, ice fragments, and things I’d never seen before.

  Fido had jumped out and started attacking to support his master.

  Mind-over-pain allowed me to empty a magazine through his head, dropping him on the lap of one very angry Felicia. She exhausted her bullets in what remained of the beast’s brain, reloaded, and did it again. When she went for yet another mag, Chuck grabbed her arm and pointed at the room where Reese was laughing his ass off.

  “I haven’t had this much fun in years,” the mad mage yelled while Jasmine and Rachel grunted and groaned.

  It was clear they were no match for this guy, and they were already low on power as it was.

  Portman was back up, but on fragile footing. He looked even more useless than I felt right now. But to his credit, he roared and dived in anyway.

  I nodded at Felicia and Chuck, pointing at our guns and the window.

  None of us were thrilled with the prospect of putting ourselves in line with the mass of magical syrup that was blistering the area, so we crawled along until we found an open spot to fire through.

  As one, we stood and unleashed a torrent of breakers at Reese.

  It was pointless.

  His laughter intensified as he somehow managed to keep it all under control.

  Portman was stuck in suspended animation, up on his hind legs with a frustrated scowl apparent on his face. Our bullets were impacting some kind of shield and dropping to the floor like they were nothing.

  It was clear that Reese was just toying with my mages. He lowered one hand and fished around in a lunch pail that one of the staff must have brought to work. He pulled out a banana and grimaced at it, throwing it to the side. Next was a tuna fish sandwich, which also seemed to be uninteresting to the bastard. Finally, his eyes lit up and he pulled out a pudding cup. A stream of vile energy poured from his free hand during the entirety of his food scavenging.

  To solidify his assholishness, he shouted something that doubled his shield so he could dig into his pudding unabated.

  “What a douche,” I yelled while climbing through the broken window.

  Obviously my bullets weren’t going to get through that shield, but maybe I could. I’d considered using one of my special powers at this point, but my hope was it wouldn’t be necessary. I hadn’t used one in years, and even back then it was for training purposes only.

  I spotted a moment of uncertainty on his face as I dived at the shield.

  He threw the pudding cup in my face an instant before I slammed into him. We hit the ground and I started raining down blows as fast as I could. This gave my team the ability to get in and help me. Portman was also freed from his binds and he was taking a few measured swipes at Reese as well.

  The impish mage didn’t fight back, though. He took each punch with only a hint of annoyance as his eyes grew brighter and brighter. He’d obviously cast some type of personal protection spell because it felt like I was punching granite.

  On a whim, I whipped out my gun and pressed it against his head, pulling the trigger multiple times.

  The breakers were just absorbed and disappeared.

  “Move,” yelled Rachel, throwing me off and firing spell after spell at the supermodel of a mage.

  Jasmine was next to her, sending a stream of energy into Rachel to help keep her powered. Again, though, they were both tiring pretty quickly.

  Reese, on the other hand, looked fine.

  I’d considered offering Rachel and Jasmine some of that pudding, wondering if that may have helped Reese to maintain his power. Then I realized that was a silly thought.

  I looked up and noticed there were a few apparitions floating near the back of the room. I could barely see them, but they were there. They were hazy, shimmering in and out of view. What I could make out was the flow of power they were feeding directly into Reese.

  “There,” I said, grabbing Rachel by the shoulder and pointing.

  She tore her glare off Reese and looked up.

  “Shit,” was all she said as a sound in the room began growing and growing.

  It was that tornado type of whooshing that often preceded a massive magica
l event. Reese’s hands were doing rapid crisscross movements.

  “What the hell is he doing?” I yelled, looking back at Rachel while simultaneously jumping at the mage in the hopes that I could stop his hands from continuing.

  He was too strong for that.

  “It’s a…” was all she got out before I saw a massive white flash.

  Chapter 21

  My back smacked the ceiling as the entire room was blown to bits.

  I landed with a thud and the world pulsed and jiggled. It was all I could do to keep from passing out.

  The feeling reminded me of the time we’d chased down a vampire who was ex-military. Special Forces. We’d had him cornered when he launched a shock grenade into the room. My head rang for days and the disorientation of the concussion lasted weeks.

  But there was no time for pain right now. My team was in the shit and I needed to act.

  So I did the only thing I could think to do at the time: I stood up and fell over.

  My timing was decent, at least, because Reese had thrown a fireball that sailed right past where I would have been had I managed to stay upright.

  “I have to hand it to you, Mr. Dex,” Reese said as that damn tornado sound began to drone again, “you got much closer to me than I’d anticipated.”

  While I could understand him, his voice sounded like it was under the influence of a major reverb chamber.

  “Glad to have made it interesting for you,” I replied, trying to get to my feet.

  I did a little better this time, but my balance was so far off that I began running sideways until I crashed into the ground near the door to the room.

  Reese unleashed a hearty laugh at this.

  “It’s truly a shame that I have to kill you all so quickly,” he announced. “This has been such fun. Alas, I do have other engagements to attend to.”

  His eyes were pure white, emanating a glow so strong it looked like a flashlight.

  That couldn’t possibly be a good thing.

  “Get out,” I yelled at my crew, who were all suffering the same level of disorientation that I was.

  As one, we ran, fell, crawled, and did everything we could to get out of that room.

  Reese’s laughter grew louder along with the throbbing bounce of magical energy that filled the area.

  We had only seconds to get the hell out of there— and not just the room, either. We needed to get out of the building, if not the city!

  It looked like we were done for when Warren stepped up, lifted his wand and chanted, firing a bolt of something at the mage who was intent on doing us in.

  It struck Reese in the chest and radiated out to whatever the things were that powered him. The whooshing sound dropped to half and Reese’s laughter cut off.

  “Do it again,” I said, but Warren had already fallen to the floor. Wizards aren’t exactly what you’d call “robust.”

  He’d done well, though. He’d covered Fido in black goop and somehow managed to buy us some time to hopefully get the hell out of the building.

  The problem was that we were all still more than wobbly, and now we had to carry an unconscious wizard.

  I grabbed his arm and started pulling him behind me. Felicia grabbed his other arm, which helped to balance us both out until Portman came along. The werebear was clearly gaining his full faculties already since he merely picked up Warren and ran.

  The damn tornado was building and building.

  I got to the stairs and directed the others to get out. Whether we bickered or not, they were my crew and their safety was paramount.

  Griff was at the top of the stairs waving everyone to hurry up.

  Portman roared, taking the stairs in such a way to show he’d fully gathered himself.

  “Take,” he commanded in a growling voice while handing Warren over.

  Griff dragged the scraggly wizard out as Portman padded back down, grabbing up Rachel and Jasmine in his massive arms. He got them out and returned for Felicia and Chuck, who were already near the top of the landing. The werebear dragged them out the rest of the way with a roar.

  I grunted with each step as I raced to the last step.

  Portman opened the door and reached out for me just as the universe exploded.

  Chapter 22

  I awoke to find I was lying in a white room. There were sounds all around me, but I must have been on some type of medication because everything was fuzzy.

  “He’s awake, Doctor,” said a nice voice that belonged to the cute face of a nurse hovering over me.

  The doctor was cuter still. She was the kind you didn’t mind giving you an annual physical. I could have gone for a swim in those blue eyes. At least until they flashed slightly, signaling that I was under the care of a mage.

  Not that it was necessarily a bad thing for a doctor to be a mage. It’s just that I had a reputation in the supernatural community, and I’d been with more than a few doctors, and this one was starting to look familiar.

  “Can you hear me, Mr. Dex?” she said.

  I went to reply but the dryness in my throat gave way to a cough instead.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” said the doctor, grabbing a cup with a straw. I took a few sips. “You had quite a lot of damage, but you seem to be healing fine.”

  “Yeah, I tend to do that,” I croaked out. “My team?”

  “They’ll all recover,” she said, much to my relief.

  “Anything serious?”

  “The werebear took the most damage,” she replied, making it obvious that the nurse was in-the-know about the supernatural community. “His flesh was pretty charred and there are multiple contusions on his face and upper body.”

  “He saved my crew,” I whispered. “Make sure you take good care of him, Doc.”

  “We always do, Mr. Dex.” She flicked at one of the tubes that I assumed was going into my body. “We got word from the Directors that you’re all to be fast-tracked. While you heal rather quickly on your own, the rest of your squad is somewhat slower.”

  “And?”

  “And that means that there is a contingent of healers and wizards going from room to room, getting everyone back in tiptop shape.” She gave me another sip of water. “You’ll be last on their rounds, but you should all be out of here within a couple of hours.”

  “Good.”

  “Until then,” she commanded, “you need to sleep.”

  “I can manage that.”

  “And at some point,” she added, leaning in so her face was close to mine, “we’ll have to get back together again for another game of doctor-patient.”

  I gulped.

  Chapter 23

  Two hours later everyone was standing outside of the hospital, looking like nothing had happened to any of us.

  I’d honestly not felt this good in years, which made me wonder if getting blown up had been such a bad thing, after all.

  “Thanks for getting my team out of that building, Portman,” I said to the werebear, who was back to looking like his human self. “Really appreciate it.”

  “You did the same for my crew.”

  “Your people got out okay, then?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “Most had taken the emergency tunnel as soon as Reese arrived to resuscitate his beasties. The ones caught in the attack got out because of your wizard.”

  Another checkmark in the “win” column for Warren.

  I looked at Portman sideways. “Why do you have an escape tunnel in a morgue?”

  “Because things like this used to happen in the old days.”

  “They did?”

  Warren stepped up. “Yes, they did.”

  “Ah, Warren.” I slapped him on the back, thinking that I would put that planning meeting I’d intended to have with him on hold. “Seems the team owes you our thanks. If you hadn’t cast whatever it was you did, we’d not be having this conversation.”

  “Just doing my job, Chief,” he said, looking uncomfortable with the attention.

  “Well,
thanks.” I quickly changed the subject back to something that wouldn’t fluster him. “So you said that this used to happen in the past. What exactly are you talking about?”

  He began rubbing his hands together anxiously as he looked around at all of us.

  “It’s called ‘The Merging,’” he began. “Usually, it’s done by a warlock or a witch, but there aren’t many of those around these days. Sometimes, though, a mage goes dark and starts using the practice.”

  “Reese,” I stated.

  “Right.”

  “So what does he actually do?” Rachel asked.

  “It’s the demons,” Warren answered. “He summons them for use as batteries, basically.”

  “We saw that,” I noted.

  “Yes, but he also merges them with others, typically those who don’t see it coming. It’s a form of possession.”

  I rubbed my chin at this. “That would explain why a little old lady from the finance department would turn into a massive fae.”

  “Right,” Warren said with a nod. “Technically, she was nothing but a vehicle for the demon that possessed her.”

  “That’s no fun.” I felt terrible about the fact that we’d essentially turned that poor woman’s head into pulp.

  “It also means that there are bound to be more of them on the loose,” Jasmine put in.

  That got my attention. We were all back in working order, and I assumed that the folks the Directors had sent along recharged my mages, but I wasn’t exactly in favor of another battle just now. And to think that not 24 hours ago I was complaining about being bored.

  “Lydia,” I called back to base through the connector, “have there been any new reports of—”

  “You’re okay, baby?” she interrupted in a desperate voice that nearly masked her digitalness.

  “Good as new,” I replied.

  “Thank goodness,” came her relieved reply. “I was so worried about you.”

  “Unbelievable,” said Rachel while rolling her eyes, and then called out, “We’re okay too, Lydia.”