Arrest, Search and Séance : Book 1 of the Fringe Society, R.D. Hunter [good english books to read txt] 📗

I shot him the bird and watched as the fury inside Hawkins ignited into a raging inferno. He made a choked sound that was somewhere between a bellow and a swear, then charged straight for me, his hands outstretched and ready to wrap around my neck. I’d poked the bull, and the bull was coming. I turned and ran.

The nearest door didn’t lead to outside, but deeper into the warehouse, which was actually several storage areas under one roof. While the room hosting the Gilded Moon’s celebration was empty, I found that the next one was piled high with crates, pallets and loading and unloading equipment. I darted between the stacks of good, vaulting over those I could while never breaking stride. One significant advantage of wearing an amulet that reduces pain to almost nothing is that I could really motor. I didn’t have to worry about twisting an ankle or stubbing a toe. I’d pay for it later, with interest, but right now I just had to focus on getting as much distance between myself and Hawkins as possible.

I heard the doors behind me crash open and fall off their hinges as Hawkins stalked into the room. I didn’t bother looking back. Now that the coven was safe, I knew Isabelle wouldn’t stick around and Lacey could take care of herself. All I had to do was focus on pulling my own fat out of the fryer. A prospect that seemed to shrink to nothing when the warm amulet around my neck suddenly grew cold, and a fresh wave of pain assaulted my body with such force that I went down in a tumbling heap.

I lay there, unable to move or breathe. My chest was on fire, probably from the broken ribs I’d suffered. I hoped I didn’t have a punctured lung. My left ankle and leg were on fire, and there was a cold numbness spreading up to my shoulder on that side. My head felt like someone was hitting it with a sledgehammer and my vision was so blurred and swimming. In short, I was screwed.

In desperation, I tried raising my power. It took every amount of concentration and force of will I possessed to break through the blanket of agony that made every moment torturous, but I did it. I forced it into the amulet, which again became warm against my skin and the pain faded to a passable level. It wasn’t completely gone, as it had been before, but I could move and, best of all, I could think.

I rose to a crouch, wincing a little as my leg protested the movement. Hawkins had stopped. I could make out his hulking form a few yards away, his breathing coarse and ragged. He’d lost me. It wouldn’t last. I’d have to move at some point, then he’d hone in on the sound and that would be the end. I needed another option.

There were two pallets of bottled water stacked in front of me, and a crate of canned goods to my left. Close by, there was a few large containers marked “SELF RISING FLOUR.” Great, I could make Hawkins a meal when he spotted me. I’d always been told my cooking was lethal.

To my right, though, offered more promise. Sitting just a couple feet away was one of the forklifts they used to move and stack heavy products. Those things had some serious power packed into a small space, and would be more than enough to make life painful for Hawkins, if I could only figure out how to use it.

Driving it was out of the question. Even if I could figure out how to work it in record time, Hawkins would be on me before I got the key turned in the ignition. And even if he wasn’t, I had no idea how to operate one of those things. I was just as likely to injure myself as I was my enemy. Which left me with only one card left to play; more magic.

I knew there was a spell where I could temporarily transfer my consciousness into an inanimate object, but it required the thing being covered in runes and sigils, encased in a magic circle, and a butt load of power to boot, so that was off the table. But maybe I’d make it obey a simple command, like go from Point A to Point C. And if Hawkins happened to be standing at Point B, so much the better.

I raised more power, already feeling the reserves deep in my soul growing low. The constant trickle to the pain amulet that kept me barely functioning was a tax on my resources. But I could do this. I had to do this.

Once I felt I had enough, I wet the tip of my finger and traced a rune on the cold metal of the forklift. I couldn’t remember the one to signify control, so I had to make do with a simple power marking that would better accept and channel my magic with less runoff. Gods knew I had little enough to spare. After mapping the route, I wanted the machine to take in my mind, I released the gathered energy with a single word,

“GO!”

No time for a fancy incantation. The words didn’t matter that much anyways, as long as I wasn’t calling on a spirit or divine presence for assistance. And I wasn’t. This was all me.

The forklift came to life, lurching forward with more speed than I’d have given such a bulky machine credit for. It wheeled around a stack of boxes, threatened to tip over, then righted itself. Hawkins heard it coming and whirled to face it, but he was too slow. The crystals that were slowly killing him had begun impeding his movements as they replaced his flesh, bit by bit.

The forklift hit him square in the center as it continued on its