All in a Day's Work, Page 3

It’d been a while since I’d been in a cornfield, but before I opened my eyes, I knew I was in one. There was a gentle wind that drifted through the stalks of corn, making a soft rustling noise. The smell was so unlike the pollution I usually found in the city, and I inhaled deeply to take some of the fresh air in.

  The air was clean, with the scent of the dirt below my feet predominant. It reminded me of years gone by, and how different the world once was. Being able to remember there were days when things were simpler made me long for them just a little.

  I’d seen enough of the future to know the days ahead were the exact opposite of simple, so I opened my eyes to take in our new location. The rustling I’d heard was caused by corn barely to my shin. As early in the year as it was, the corn wasn’t anywhere near ready to harvest.

  It made sense, but I’d expected to have to fight my way through the rows of corn to get a good look at our surroundings. As it was, we might as well have landed in the middle of the town. I couldn’t see it from where we were, but I could see houses behind the rows of baby corn.

  “I suppose time of year makes a little difference when it comes to the usefulness of the corn,” Nate said from my left.

  “Just a bit,” Rick voiced from the other side.

  I could feel guys around me on every side other than directly in front of me. I sensed someone was going to move to block out my view, and I put my hand out to stop them.

  “This isn’t the right place.” I closed my eyes and reached out a little with the senses I’d forgotten I had until recently.

  I’d watched the final battle many times and even if we’d landed exactly where Vinnie had indicated we should, I knew we weren’t in the right city. There were a lot of small indicators, but the main one for me was that the air wasn’t right. It was too clean.

  “You do enjoy taking the fun out of everything.” Eva huffed a little and appeared in front of me.

  I didn’t hear her move, so she was lucky I didn’t lash out at her. When I was in a heightened state senses-wise, it was a good idea not to make sudden movements. Kyle had learned that the hard way one day as he met the pointy end of one of my knives because he’d sneaked up on me. I thought everyone had learned from his mistake, but Eva was someone who needed reminding.

  “I want to get to the battlefield so I can get home to watch my children grow. Last I checked, that was the objective and I know Malphas isn’t here. I have a feeling I’m not going to like what I do find here.”

  My hands had drifted to my hips as I stared the Fate down. Even remembering her, and all the escapades we’d partaken in together, she grated on my nerves. I found myself surprised we’d ever really been friends.

  I had a feeling she’d put a spell on me to get me to be friends with her. There was no way I’d willingly enjoy hanging out with her.

  “You know, sometimes those thoughts of yours hurt. I’m out here trying to make sure you don’t do anything stupid, and all you can think about is how you’ve perceived me over the past few months.”

  I glared at the blonde and forced my frustrations with her down. We both knew what my real issue with her was, and until it was resolved, she was going to stay on the top of my list of annoying people in my life.

  “Whatever. Liam, are there actually warlocks around or did they sense our arrival and retreat? Just because Malphas isn’t here, doesn’t mean we can let them do what they want in town.”

  I could feel a slight pulse of electricity coming from the north of us, but it was so weak it felt like nothing more than a tickle. With all of my abilities online, I’d expanded my repertoire a little. I wasn’t to Liam’s or Rick’s levels when it came to picking up energy sources or uniques, though, and since I knew we had people in the area, I wasn’t sure who the tickle was coming from.

  “They’re still here, but I don’t think the reports we were getting equal the handful I feel. You mentioned we weren’t in the right place. Does that mean we need to teleport again to find the mass of them?” Liam’s deep voice was confused, which didn’t surprise me.

  Everyone had assumed we were going right to at least the opening number for our epic battle, but what we’d found wasn’t even an appetizer. A handful of warlocks were nothing for the dozens of people who’d made the trip. Mak could wave his hand at the problem and we would’ve been on our way back home.

  There was an irritating factor to what I predicted had happened in the town. I didn’t doubt the reports about it being overrun with warlocks were at one time correct. I knew I’d be able to tell if my prediction was indeed correct soon enough, so I pushed Eva to the side and started walking towards the street.

  It was a few hundred yards in front of us, and my mission would’ve been quicker if I’d taken a diagonal route, but I didn’t want to stomp on the corn growing under my feet. It was bad enough I was sure some of the more heavy-footed among the group had done damage by just landing.

  I assumed the growing corn was important to the farmer who owned the land, and I didn’t want us messing with someone’s livelihood. Chances were there were young mouths that needed fed involved, and I was all about making sure kids were taken care of.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Nate asked as he hurried to keep up with the quick pace I’d set.

  “I would think that’s rather obvious. There’s warlocks around here, so I’m going to go kill them.”

  I didn’t think there was a need to explain that, especially since I wasn’t blocking that from him. He knew everything I did, and delaying my actions was a little silly on his part. The longer we stood in the middle of nowhere dressed in all black, the more explaining we’d need to do. It wasn’t everyday a large group of ninjas showed up at your doorstep.

  “Don’t you think we should discuss numbers and come up with a plan of action?”

  I didn’t pause to contemplate my response. The more time we wasted, the longer it was going to take to figure out Malphas’ location.

  “No. I think an example needs to be made.”

  “What’s she talking about?” Jimmy asked from a ways back in the group.

  The group was moving with me, but even if they weren’t, every person there would’ve been able to hear our conversation. It was a curse only having friends with extraordinary hearing. Keeping secrets was next to impossible if the other party couldn’t communicate telepathically.

  “Joseph, when was the last time someone reported in?” Nate asked in return.

  I was sure Jimmy thought we’d started talking about something else instead of answering his question. Nate was keeping on task, though, and Jimmy would know soon enough what I was getting at.

  “I get reports on the hour, but those on the ground here knew we were going to be moving soon, so it’s been about an hour and a half. I told them we’d need radio silence once we got here so we could make plans.”

  Most people in the group wouldn’t have thought anything about that, but there were a few who should’ve known something was up the moment we landed, my brother being one of them.

  “Now, Rick, since you’re so good at picking up uniques, would you tell the group how many you feel in town? I know there’s enough of us here that your number could be skewed, but you should be able to give a rough estimate.”

  I didn’t need him to tell me our people weren’t in the town. I could feel it myself.

  “There aren’t any other uniques around.”

  There were a few shocked noises, and a very loud expletive from Joseph. The situation we’d expected had gone south before we’d arrived, probably not long after the last call between Joseph and his lead person on the ground. There was a part of me that wasn’t even sure the people calling in for check in were who they claimed to be.

  “It hasn’t been long enough that they could’ve killed them,” Ben said, more than likely remembering what had happened up in Alaska.

  “Correct, and since we can’t feel them, that means they took them somewhere. Finding them is our number one prio
rity, and in order to do that, we have to go find the warlocks left behind to deliver the message.”

  I still hadn’t slowed, and if anything I sped up. I hadn’t heard official numbers, but Joseph’s deployed teams usually were twenty person teams. The number of warlocks needed to subdue that many uniques, at least ones trained by me, were close to four times that number, and they would’ve had to have been stronger than most of the warlocks we’d met up with.

  I was having problems thinking of a single warlock who would’ve given any of the troops trouble. We’d learned all their tricks.

  “What message, and how sure are you that they’re actually gone. Maybe the warlocks are just masking them. We’ve run into that before.”

  It was Brad asking the questions, which was a little unusual for him. When I said something, he didn’t have any issues believing what I said.

  I’d made it to the street and looked both ways down the two-lane highway. I knew we weren’t in the town proper, where some kind of festival was supposed to be happening, but things were quieter than I expected. There were no cars to be seen in either direction.

  “It’s hard to explain how I know things, Brad. When we landed I immediately felt like things were off, and it didn’t get better as I took everything in. Something bad happened here and the only reason anyone would still be around when they knew we were coming is if they have something to say.”

  I tilted my head to the side, taking things in again. I could’ve saved my energy by staying where I was, as I felt the tickles getting stronger, but I wasn’t waiting for the soulless monsters to come find me. I was tired of waiting.

  My steps became even more determined as I turned to the right and marched my way towards whatever was coming at us. I saw both berserkers move in my peripheral vision to try to get in front of me.

  “I will skin both of you if you get in my way. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m in a really bad mood right now and it’s probably best if you let me take that out on the warlocks.”

  “You might want to tone down your aggression a little,” Kyle suggested. “Most of the guys here find that kind of thing to be a turn on.”

  “Has anyone ever told you what a moron you are? We can discuss it later, but for now, just stay out of my way. You all know I appreciate the backup, but there can’t be more than five warlocks. Last I checked, there was little they can do to hurt me, so stay out of the way.”

  Neither brother fell back, but they didn’t block my view either. It’d been a few days since I’d spent time in the gym, and I assumed they thought I lost something while I was focusing on growing my children. It had been weird for me not to workout, because I didn’t remember the last time I’d gone a day without at least smacking a punching bag around.

  “Does motherhood always make you this moody, or is it the specific set of circumstances this time?” Liam asked.

  “Always,” Nate and Rick replied in unison.

  I threw mildly heated fireballs at their feet for their annoying response. I didn’t think I was being moody. I was pissed off, and I didn’t think anyone had a reason to question why that was.

  They’d decided I was their leader, and part of that job meant it was up to me to keep everyone safe. It was a job I took seriously, and I was missing close to two dozen people.

  “If I remember right, Nate is the one who usually gets moody when I’m pregnant. He doesn’t like that I get to feel our kids inside me and he doesn’t.”

  “That’s only partially true,” Nate said, trying to defend himself. “Before we were able to change forms, phoenixes laid their eggs like normal birds, so both parents had responsibilities to keep their children warm. Nowadays, it falls solely on the female of the species, and I want to do my part.”

  “As someone who’s in charge of creating babies, I have to say you’re the only male alive who wants responsibility when it comes to incubation. In at least a third of the couples I grace with a child, the man runs for the hills once he finds out he’s created a life. I’m pretty good at predicting the runners, but every once in a while I get a surprise.”

  I was sure someone would remind Eva that there was no way the third she was talking about were uniques. We were dedicated to our offspring like no other beings, even if we lived forever, legacy was important. I thought about saying as much, but the group of men and women I’d been looking for came into view.

  “We can circle back to the topic if anyone has something else they feel needs said, but until we get this conversation over, I’d like to refocus on the fact that the five people walking towards us are going to be dead within in an hour.”

  An hour was being extremely generous. Killing a few of them before we even started talking was a strong possibility. I decided I should probably wait to see who was going to be the most talkative before wiping people out.

  I heard the grumblings from behind me. We hadn’t killed anyone purposefully since we’d banded together, so I understood the general confusion about my words. They’d know soon enough why I’d made my decision, and I didn’t doubt they’d back me up. I just hoped they realized I wouldn’t let anyone else take away my targets.