INTERLUDE
"You sure this is the right guy?" He said. He wore a blue shirt. His nose was bent, from having been broken multiple times. A scar ran down his face from the corner of one eye, down across his nose and along the left side of his upper lip, curling it into a permanent sneer.
"According to Ted's pet demon, yeah." The Sneering Man's partner said. He was large; he lifted weights for several hours each day, and was one of the more masochistic of their group. He had been a boxer in his school days, then branched out into street fighting before he discovered he had another talent--he could use magic. He had cauliflower ears and his own nose had also been broken multiple times.
The Sneering Man looked at Cauliflower Ears and rolled his eyes. "I don't trust that fucking demon."
"Good. You shouldn't," the voice came from behind them, and both warlocks stiffened at the coarse sound of its voice. "Demons are not trustworthy. I can smell the magic on him. He is in that apartment. With a witch." A large, clawed hand pierced the space between the two men. Its skin was blue, its claws sharp, black and gleaming. "You two kill the witch, and bring him to the hotel." The arm the deadly hand was attached to was as large around as a young tree trunk.
"Okay, but what if--" the Sneering Man broke off as the demon in the back seat growled low in its throat. The Sneering Man looked in the rearview mirror. While Cauliflower Ears was a large man, the demon in the back seat was immense. Its glowing violet eyes glared out at the Sneering Man with a look of savage contempt. It was unhappy having to interact with underlings of any kind, human, demon, or otherwise.
"No what if. No maybes. He is exactly where I scried him to be. You two go up to that apartment, kill the witch, bring us the potential. Or you will be visiting me in my rooms at the hotel." A flash of sharp, jagged yellow teeth filled the mirror, and the demon was gone as abruptly as he had appeared.
The two warlocks looked at each other, the stench of fear palpable between them.
END INTERLUDE
CHAPTER 3
The morning passed slowly. I felt like I was working at a snail's pace. I couldn't stop thinking about Aria, and what she was doing. My thoughts alternated between worrying about some witch knocking down my door and blasting me with her wand and fantasizing about what I was going to do with Aria later tonight.
I got dressed after Aria left. I was virtual, yes, and could do most of my work completely naked if I wanted to, but I found that getting dressed as if I were going into the office helped get me into the right mindset for work, so I put on a button-up shirt and slacks.
I was just sitting down for lunch when someone knocked on the door. I looked down at the sandwich I had made and sighed, then got up and moved to the door. I looked out the peephole and saw Cally standing outside, her arms crossed over her chest. I looked her up and down for a moment. She didn't
look
like she had any weapons. She was wearing a sports bra and tights, her well-toned abs exposed.
"You going to let me in or just stare at me through the peephole like a creeper?" She said loudly.
I frowned and opened the door. "It wasn't locked. You're welcome to come right in whenever. Want a sandwich? I could whip it up real quick for you."
She narrowed her eyes at me.
I shrugged, rolled my eyes, and walked back to the table. "Come on in," I said over my shoulder. I sat and started to eat my sandwich.
"What did you do to Aria last night?" She stood over me, trying to loom, her blue eyes flashing angrily. She moved in close to me, trying to be uncomfortably close. I could smell a sweet, flowery scent, being so close to her. It smelled really good.
I finished chewing my bite, swallowed, and shrugged. "Not much. We talked about my situation, made out for a while, she fell asleep, and I slept on the couch."
"You made out with her? That's it?"
"Well, not exactly...we didn't have sex, if that's what you're worried about."
"You--what...you..." her hands clenched into fists, and I raised my eyebrows at her.
"You going to tell me that if I hurt her, you're going to kill me in some horrible, immensely painful way?"
"I was getting there! She shouldn't be getting involved with you." She crossed her arms over her chest again, and glared down her nose at me.
"Because I'm a guy or because I can use magic?"
"Take your pick."
"You know, I thought we were friendly. You kept inviting me over...what is it that bothers you about me?"
"Everything!" She slammed her hands on the table and glared at me, her lips pulled down into an angry pout. It gave me a good view of her cleavage, but I kept my eyes on her face. "You don't understand what the Merlin is and what it means if you join the coven!"
I spoke calmly, trying to stay rational in the face of her anger. "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what any of that is. I haven't had any schooling in the world of magic, or Merlins, or witches, or whatever else is in your world. But that's not because I haven't wanted to know. It's out of plain ignorance. I didn't know this world existed. It sounds like, if I can do magic, I should try to become the Merlin. Being a warlock sounds shitty, and I don't want it. Since I'm a boy, and I can do magic, that means my choices are exactly two: become the Merlin, and stay as close to who I am as I can, or become a warlock, and go against everything I believe in. I do know that if I'm not this Merlin...what? Archetype? Is that the right word? I know that if I'm not that, you and your coven will kill me. As of right now, I'm not corrupted. I'm still me."
"Right now. You've only done, what, two spells? What about when you've done fifty? A hundred? How do you know you won't corrupt slowly? Where do you draw the line?"
"Tell you what. You see me being corrupted, you have my permission to kill the hell out of me. I don't want to be corrupted by anything. I'd rather die than go full super-villain."
"Warlock," she corrected.
"Same thing, from what you guys have said." I leaning forward and looked directly into her eyes. "I'm not interested in hurting anyone. Hell, I didn't know magic was a really real thing until fucking
yesterday
. I mean, yeah, there's crazy shit in the world like Castaway City and all that craziness that happened in Paris last year. I know crazy shit happens in the world, but that's all--mostly, as far as I know--science gone mad. Magic...that is a whole different level. I'm still processing that. Between that and Aria, I'm still..."
"Still what?" She glowered at me, her anger ready to explode.
I sat back in my chair, giving a helpless shrug. "Trying to figure it out. I haven't gotten very far, considering I've spent most of my morning focused on working." I took another bite of my sandwich. She might be ready to take my head off, but I was really hungry. Of course, being the object of her anger, the sandwich had lost some of its deliciousness.
I locked eyes with her. "What
do
you know about the Merlin? What do you know about Warlocks? I mean, do they start out good and slowly become corrupted based on how much magic they use? Or is it a choice? Is there, like, white magic and black magic? Are certain spells fine to use, but others will bring me to the Dark Side, like in Star Wars? Is it based on the intention
behind
the spells? I mean, how the shit is this supposed to work?"
She stared at me for several long moments. I let the silence drag out. I was asking honestly. I wanted to know more about what the Merlin was supposed to be. I needed to, if I was going to
be
one.
She looked away at last, looking off into the living room. From where we were positioned, she could see my wall of bookshelves, filled with comic books and graphic novels.
"Jesus, you
are
a fucking nerd," she muttered. She turned back to me and shook her head. "I don't know much. We don't talk about Merlins and warlocks very much in the coven. A few of us have had some run-ins with them, but I haven't dealt with them personally. I know Lucy, our Priestess, has had to deal with them before. I think...I think I remember someone saying that there was supposed to be one true Merlin every hundred years."
"But you--or, Aria--told me that there hasn't been a Merlin in three hundred," I pointed out.
She shrugged. "After Roanoke..."
"Aria said that men who could do magic were killed pretty much immediately. Was that just in your coven, though? I assume there are other covens. Or did every coven adopt the same 'kill first, questions later' policy?"
"Pretty much, yeah. No one wanted what happened at Roanoke to happen again."
"I get that," I nodded. "So if any of the other witches find out that I exist and can do magic--"
She leveled her gaze at me. "They're probably going to come hunting you. Unless Aria and I can convince them that you're different."
"And they'll likely be coming in wands blazing, I'm assuming." She nodded. I thought about this for a moment. "Okay, so we need to figure out how to keep me, me. I'm not planning on going over to the Dark Side. Warlocks sound like bullies, and I hate bullies. Do you know how to do that?"
She shook her head and shrugged. "I would assume that's what Aria is researching right now.
"Hmmm." I took another bite of my sandwich, mulling the information over. I swallowed, and said, "Are there any books we--or you, if it's too dangerous for me--can read to find out more?"
Another shrug.
"Is there anyone we can talk to who won't
Avada Kedavra
me?" A thought occurred to me. "Harry Potter spells
are
bullshit, right?"
"Yes, thank the goddess." She rolled her eyes at the question. "If they weren't, any idiot with a crappy wand and a red robe would be zapping people left and right."
"Okay, good, I don't want to accidentally curse someone. Though I could definitely find a couple of uses for
Slugulus Eructo
. But
is
there someone we can talk to about this? Who won't just kill me on sight?"
Cally stared at me for another long moment. "Maybe. But how do I know this isn't just a trick?"
I rolled my eyes, took the last bite of my lunch and looked over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. "Have I done anything to make you think that I'm going insane and ready to start killing everyone around me? Have I done anything to make you think I
want
to do something like that?"
"No, you haven't," she admitted reluctantly. "It's entirely possible that you are being genuine, and you
don't
want to go warlock. I just don't know if I can take the chance."
"What about Aria?"
"She's a sweetheart. And she gets wrapped up in her emotions. Say you were going bad? She would find all the evidence to prove you were still good. Until it was too late, and you kill us all."
I started to say something, but Cally held up a hand and stopped me.
"But," she said before I could speak, "for all that, she
