Neko-laus 3: A tale of two kings

Chapter Fourteen

Chips of Evil

We were all going to die in a matter of moments but the pride that filled my heart was something I couldn’t extinguish.  He was breaking the Elder Witch’s binding on his own.  My “wife” was that strong.

“NICKY!”  Grim shouted as he jumped forward.  Physically Mags still couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag.  Grim sat on his chest then wrestled his arms back then pinned them to the floor by the wrists.  “I don’t know what the hell he’s doing but I know it ain’t good.”

“Get off me.”  Mags shimmied on the floor.

“Get a hold of yourself, Mags.  Grim get off him.”

“Do something Nicky.”

I did something all right.  I shoved Grim hard knocking him off Mags but then took his place straddling my maniac of a lover.  Grim still had a hold of Mags’s wrists so I placed one hand on the spot over the flaming skull tattoo then leaned forward and cupped the side of his face.  That touch brought his attention back to me and when I had that I fired up the tattoo.  I could feel the steady draw of magical energy he was pulling falter, it slowed but it didn’t stop.  I could see faint lines of power glyphs begin to illuminate under his skin. 

“No...no, Mags.”  I muttered through gritted teeth.  Just trying to block his power draw wasn’t enough, so I would have to a diversion.

“Grim if you want to save any part of the clubhouse you better pull it off the grid like now.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You know that little parlor trick that you liked so much when I would short out safes and security systems well I’m going to be doing the same thing only ramped up king tiger style.”

“For real?”

“Really real.  Keep this place  live.  I’ve got to have someplace to send it.”

“And if you don’t?”

“I don’t want to find out.”

There was a crackle of the emergency system kicking in as Grim activated the key on his forearm.  That gave Mags enough time to get one arm free.  I wrenched a handful of power fromthe center of his tattoo and that was enough to get his attention.  Those sky blue eyes turned my way but he wasn’t seeing me.  I don’t know how else to say it.  He was unfocused  almost as if he were in a Fade but the power gearing in him was anything abut a detached soul.  Snapping my fingers right over his nose made him blink and I felt a slight lurch.

“Hard Blackout all buildings except G quarters.  Repeat Hard Blackout.  All personnel head to their assigned shelters until further notice.”  I heard Grim in the background and could hear the remnants the Empire in his tone.

My chest burst into searing flame.  I didn’t have time to wait for confirmation from Grim.

“Fire in the hole!”

Closing my eyes seemed to center my focus, moving past my panic that my lover was going to go supernova and kill everyone I ever knew, or that he was going to pull some sort of stunt so just he bore the brunt of this power flare.  It was strong.  It was pure.  It was unadulterated in any way.  That was my man.  My King Tiger.  It was no wonder that the Empire snatched him up at five years old.  This source was part of him.  As vital to him as the blood running through his veins.  It was always there but he could pull it, pool it, make into the worst type of devastation that his master wished.

He could burn me out without meaning to... but doing nothing was not an option.  I needed physical contact.

“Sit him up!”

Grim used to be a Handler.  I couldn’t spare him any more of my attention that a mere glance as Mags pressed up against me.  I had to move to my knees to get our tattoos parallel then I plastered myself from hip to chest, one hand moving around his neck to anchor him to me and the other I centered on his spine directly across from our markings. 

I knew it was going to hurt but not this fucking much.  My legs were the conduit.  I leeched the gathering power out of Mags trying to keep it to a smooth and steady stream sending it out to the floor where it seeped down into the electrical wiring.  The longer I could keep from overloading the circuits and burning them out, the better chance I had of not Fading or dying.

I was surrounded by light.  The red of the Empire was intermingled with a beautiful peacock green.  That green was Mag’s natural talent.  The purple taint he had turned my blue was changing as that crimson tide rose higher then fell back.  Grim was in the background but he was so far away.  I could feel the pulse of his life under my hand as my fingers grazed his neck.  I could hear sweet distant voices in that power line again.  I shook my head or I thought I shook my head not wanting to be distracted.  I wasn’t losing him.  Not after all this...

I pulled stronger on the red mist that tainted everything.  Unlike the power draining away now, this red stuff was tacky.  It clung to Mag’s natural talent like a burr.  It didn’t want to come free.  I reached out and caught it up with my hands or hands of light reached into that morass that was the King Tiger.  That red was anchored down.  It was rooted to this magical plane.  But it felt...wrong.  Foreign.  Was this one of those power glyphs that burned under Mags skin?  This wasn’t even his power.  Fingers turned to daggers and I slashed at it cutting it free.

Someone screamed.

As soon as it was free, it turned to a red mist that was swallowed by swirls of peacock blue fog.  There...there on the fingers of light was a red stone chip.  Smaller than a pebble but it pulsed with itself own...it burrowed into my hand of light.  Fire, molten fire mixed with frozen fire as it tried to find a purchase in my hand. 

A voice that sounded like it was forcing its way through the static of a radio station filled my head.  Power.  Unmitigated power.  Answerable to no one.  Just allow us merge with you and all that power would be yours. 

No.  Never. I don’t want you.  You can’t have me and I won’t let you have him any more.

King Tiger is ours.  We feed from him.  He destroys worlds.

Not anymore.

He is ours.

He doesn’t belong to you.

He is ours.

He’s mine.

King Tiger has been ours since the age of seven.

Not anymore.

I was more than a simple Empire Latent.  Why was I doing this half assed?  The red parasitic stone was trying to blend in with my natural power and I could feel it winning. 

Shaking my hand didn’t dislodge it

“Come to me.”  I whispered out loud.

“Nicky?  What are you doing?  Arthur screamed...”

“There’s going to be more...don’t let go Grim.  It ain’t going to be pretty.”  I plunged down into world that seemed to be reserved for those called Latents.  The power I had been draining was Mags.  The more I took the stronger those red things got.  The mist that trademarked them was now a heavy fog that was more red than purple.  I drew on that.  It was sticky and thick refusing to flow.  It reminded me of that frozen treat Wendy had given me called a shake.  It was served with a straw but I didn’t know why because no amount of sucking could get it moving up that narrow tube.  Once it had warmed up a little...

It had tasted Mags.  It had tasted me.  If I could flood Mags and then flush him just as quickly that could give me enough time...

Music...no, singing.  I heard singing.

The lay line I called began to pool around me.  The red power I was draining was flowing into the limited power grid but it was gumming up the works pooling back to the floor.  The hair on my arms were standing on end.  If I had any hair on the back of my neck that would be up too.  I was at my limit.  I was trying to figure out how to get the lay line to work against the red stone when the golden glitter of innate power leapt on the interloper.

I shrieked. 

It burned into my being focusing in on that small red stone forcing it to hiss as it was attacked.  I felt it when it cracked open then I was soothed with warmth of my native land as it wrapped around me.  My colour of power remained a pure blue. 

Expose them, King Nicholas.  We will eliminate the foreigner.

That was the same voice that had spoken to me at the coronation.  I was unsettled.  Should that have followed me this far from home? The drain faltered for a moment and the red haze lurched forward crawling back up into the peacock blue light.  Damn it.  Dagger lights slashed through the red mist searching for the next power glyph.  I went for the root on the next one I encountered.  The golden light swept past me ridding me of the need to dig  All I had to do was expose a portion and the golden light eradicated the pebble.  This field of Mags power was strewn with these stones.  I hacked and slashed and it seemed another ten came into view.  I was growing exhausted.  The stream of energy that I had to divert was smaller but it was still enough to send me to my grave.

“Enough…”  Mags voice growled into my ear the same time a being of peacock blue light knelt before me.  Warmth enveloped the arm of light, my arm of light…my physical arm?  “Leave it alone now, Neko.”

“But I can still see more.”

“Those I can handle.  Back out of me now…”

“But…”

“You need to stop before you injure yourself.”

“I have to save you.”

“Nicky.  You already did.  Not get the fuck out of my magic.”

Shutting down the draw on Mags was a slow and body numbing experience.  If I suddenly just wrenched the connection closed, it hurt and there was a residual blow back that could shatter shields and leave the unprepared locked in a permanent Fade.  As I pulled back, the golden flow of the natural world lapped around me like a frolicking pet. My limbs were like lead yet they were quivering under the strain, even after the strain was over.  Grim had my head on his shoulder and an arm anchoring me against his side.  Looking past his neck, I could see Mags laying against him in the same way.  His complexion was ashen.

I tried to move my arm to touch him it just lay there on my legs.  “Mags.”

One sleepy lid opened taking it’s time to focus in. the he looked over at me.  “Nicky…”  His arm moved in slow motion reaching out to me.  The way both of us were feeling there was no way we were going to hook up.  Grim easily manhandled me onto Mags then eased our heads down to the floor.   

“You guys are going to be the death of me.”  My hair got ruffled over my face as Grim climbed back to his feet.  “Release Hard Blackout.  Repeat Release Hard Blackout.  Run a system diagnostic before locking online.”

Just listening to Grim bark out orders, how the hell could I have missed this military connection?  Mags took my arm and dragged me up and over until I was laying on him.  I was panting as if I had just done a run through the woods in front of a wild burra.  I couldn’t lay there and let it go.  There was a reason Mags went all overload and I deserved an answer.  I was no one’s whore.  I wasn’t then at the lowest point in my life and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be now.

Mags hand gently brushed my hair off my forehead, away from my eyes.  “I have never failed at anything I have ever tried.  I mastered things easily…so easily.  Everyone all round you is improving, growing becoming something more than what they were.  Grant is at a level two Tiger now.  Eight year old children are progressing quicker than I.  How can I stay by your side if I have nothing to offer?”

The honest sincerity in his voice bruised my heart.

“Children beat me.  It’s humiliating.  I can’t light a candle.  Those children who I started with have already moved on to other studies.”

“How does that lead to be being treated a rentboy?”

“Grasping at straws and the only thing that came to mind was that I could satisfy you in bed then Seagarent Pepper shows up.”

“What did he say?”

“Does it matter?”

“Fuck yeah, it matters.  Sit me up.  I’m not arguing with you while I’m laying on your chest like a...”

“Rent boy.”  Mags had a slight mocking tone in his voice.

“This isn’t a joke!”  Mags sat me up then lowered his head.  The gold of his hair seemed to sparkle as the lights came back on.  I blinked.  I was sure that I would have burnt out the place.

“What I did, I meant to give you pleasure because I thought that is all I was to you...”

“What?”

“I haven’t heard anything from you.  No words of encouragement, not even censure.  That day when the Elder Witch dressed me down in the courtyard, even though I’m king tiger and worlds quake to hear my title I wanted you out there in front of me.”

I stilled.  “I wanted to especially when he bounced that bucket off your skull.”

“You saw that?”

“I think everyone saw that.  The Witch’s Council asked me not to interfere.  When you got hit with that bucket I was ready to jump out the window.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Mom.”

“Ah.  At least you thought about it.”

Grim moved over to the door. “Why don’t you teach him how to catch?”

“You weren’t helping Grim.”

“Of course I’m helping.  I won’t say anything to anyone about whatever the hell it was that just happened in here.  By the way, what the hell did happen in here?”

“King Nicholas saved my life.”  Softly Mags moved in telegraphing a kiss that I could have avoided if that was what I wanted to do.

“That’s another thing you are going to have to explain to me.” Grim pointed back at us.  “And, I don’t know who the hell was spreading rumours, I ain’t out to get you back.”

Hmmmmm.  Kissing the mage of my heart was something that just came so naturally. 

“Nicky...” Mags nibbled on my ear.

There was a lightness about him. “You’re a peacock.” 

“Huh?”

I let loose a laugh was started deep inside me.  He was safe.  I wasn’t chipped.  Now, we could go back to the wild and start to live together.