Aberrant Magic 7: Durance, chapter 13 (Patreon)

I already wrote a chapter 13, but I spent the last week rereading and editing Aberrant Magic 7, and my old chapter 13 was bad.  Really bad.  I deleted the whole thing and started over on the chapter. So this picks up after Darren and Kavon had sex in the hospital the night before.  Darren had been injured in their first battle with the evil ifrit (the durance), and this is the morning after Kavon and Bennu healed him.

Darren woke alone. The hospital felt muted. Distant. Someone had a privacy spell on the place. “Bennu?” Darren called softly. Seeing Bennu’s magical attacks bounce off the durance as ineffectually as paper airplanes had shaken Darren. For the last decade, he’d seen Kavon as the ultimate in power. When Bennu had chosen him, Darren had added him to the list of all-powerful creatures, but he had never expected Bennu to be so hopeless against another guide.

For the first time since this all started, Darren felt bone-deep fear. Bennu appeared in the room with a warbling cry. “You’re okay. I knew you were, but it’s good to see you,” Darren said. Bennu flew to the rail at the end of the bed and perched there.

“I am glad you're not hurt. You worried me there.” Bennu fluffed up his feathers and then sank down into himself so he appeared smaller. “So that's one of the bad guys. As bad guys go, he's pretty impressive. I think I expected…” Darren couldn’t find the words. “I don't know what I expected.” Somewhere in the back of Darren's head, he'd assumed that Bennu and Pochi would be able to handle it. He hadn't expected them to get their asses kicked.

Pochi blinked into existence, hovering between the IV stand and the deactivated heart rate monitor. Guilt. Shame. An image of blood being washed away by torrents of water. It all slammed into Darren so hard that he gasped. 

Bennu screamed in anger and threw his wings out to either side. Instead of controlling his emotions, Pochi doubled down on the guilt and anguish until the pressure made Darren's skin the ache.

“Stop it!” Darren pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “Stop it!” Bennu flapped his wings, and the emotions were brushed away like leaves in a fall breeze. When Darren opened his eyes, Bennu had morphed into his ancient form. He stood next to the hospital bed, his wings outstretched to shield Darren and his beak clicking as he tried to bite Pochi. Pochi’s aerial acrobatics easily evaded the attacks.

Darren rested his hand against Bennu’s fluffy butt. “Stop,” he ordered. Bennu shook his head and fluttered his wings, but he stopped snapping.

Pochi continued to dart about the room as if taking evasive maneuvers. “Both of you, stop it!” Darren swung his legs around and sat on the edge of the bed. “Look, I know what makes Bennu feel guilty,” he told Pozzi. “If you are even thinking about the purge, stop it. It didn't solve the problem last time, and if your guilt is about something you’re considering doing again, you should know it won’t work this time. So stop. We have other solutions.”

Darren just couldn’t think of one now. For all of their preparations, so far the only thing they'd managed to accomplish was to get their asses kicked. 

Pochi landed on the IV pole and puffed up his chest. “Can we maybe acknowledge that you guys are not great with plans? Let us do some of the planning this time. Kavon and I have gone up against a lot of criminals, so we might have a few insights on how to stop a bad guy.”

Bennu folded his wings and slowly started to sink down into his smaller form, and Pochi’s feathers started to smooth out. Pochi’s debilitating waves of guilt and regret had vanished, but he also wasn't projecting anything reassuring.

“Just give us time,” Darren said. He had the uncomfortable feeling that he was arguing for the lives of every shaman and every adept and maybe even every magic user on earth. The stress of it was giving him a massive headache. “Just give us time. Selma is it back and we haven't even researched the enemy. If you guys had your own version of the FBI or law enforcement, you would know that bad guys always have a weakness. One way or another, there's always a way to take them down, even if it's only for tax evasion. We can research this guy and figure out who he is and what he wants.”

Pozzi darted straight up into the air and blasted out a sense of incredulity. Pochi was clearly questioning Darren's grip on reality.

“I really need to call Detective Johnson and tell him to calm his bird down,” Darren said softly. Bennu gave a soft cry and then vanished.

“Great,” Darren said softly. At least Kavon had healed him, and that meant it was time to get back to work. Darren headed for the closet, but instead of finding the grubby weekend clothes he’d been wearing during the accident, he found one of his suits on a hanger. Perfect. There was nothing Darren liked better than wearing a damn suit on his day off.

Darren was straightening his tie when Kavon came into the room. “You’re up,” Kavon said.

“And feeling very healthy for someone who had an up close and personal encounter with a building,” Darren said. He finished his tie and buttoned his jacket. He was ready to get back to the investigation. “You have some mad healing skills.”

Kavon blushed so intensely that Darren could see the color in the mirror. Darren turned around. “Kavon?”

Kavon wasn’t meeting Darren’s gaze. “We healed people one floor above and two below us,” he said in a guilty tone. “I think Bennu must have been providing a little too much energy.”

Darren could only stare at Kavon and blink. “Seriously?” he finally asked. It was a strange subject for a joke, but Darren couldn’t image the sort of power that would have taken.

Kavon shrugged. “The staff have asked that we not share energies at the Center in the future.”

“You’d think they’d thank us.” Darren picked up his keys and put them in his pocket. “Where is my weapon?”

“I secured it back at the office. Are you sure you’re feeling up to working the case?”

A cowardly part of Darren wanted to claim post-traumatic stress or something—anything to avoid the wrath of the higher ups. He couldn’t even imagine what sort of disaster that fight had left behind.  “Why are they upset about us healing people?”

Kavon sat on the edge of the bed and held out a hand toward Darren. “Some people come here to pass quietly into the next world without traumatizing whoever finds the body.” He kept his hand out, and Darren turned and took it. Kavon had the bond wide open, and both love and worry flowed through the open connection.

“We didn’t do that to someone, did we?” Taking someone’s life was horrifying, but forcing a shaman to stay on Earth when they were ready to move on seemed equally horrific.

Kavon pulled him close and then wrapped his arms around Darren’s waist. “No, but the concern is that we don’t have great control.”

“That might be true.”

“I know. That’s why I left and did some chores this morning. I definitely wanted to lose control again.”

Darren leaned into Kavon. He was so strong that it was easy to pretend that he could hold off the darkness. Sometimes Darren wondered if he wouldn’t be happier living in ignorance. However, that wasn’t his fate.

“What’s wrong?” Kavon asked. “You’re projecting more fear now than you did out on the street.” Kavon loosened his hold and leaned back so they were looking at each other’s faces.

“Pochi.”

“Is he hurt?” Kavon allowed his worry to stain the bond.

“He’s projecting guilty and the image of blood. I think he’s considering contingency plans.”

Kavon closed his eyes. “Fuck.”

In all the years Darren had known Kavon, he had heard the other man curse a handful of times. That’s it. But this did seem like the appropriate time for a little profanity. “I told him to stop—to give us time to try to solve the problem.”

“And did he listen?”

Darren sat on the bed next to Kavon. “I think so. Bennu was ready to fight him over it, and they were both relatively calm when they vanished.”

“Relatively.” Kavon looked up at the ceiling and the bond went silent. “That’s not reassuring.”

“I know. I told him he needed to wait for us to work our magic. We’ve caught bader bad guys than this.” Darren tried for humor, but he couldn’t suppress the fear that events were spiraling out of control. If Pochi didn’t trust them to win, he would just pull the plug on the whole investigation by killing him and Kavon and all the shamans in the world. The Anti-Talent churches would build a statue to him.

“We have,” Kavon said. “This durance doesn’t know Earth. He doesn’t understand how much we’ve developed since the last time he was here. Humans aren’t primitive tribes building our first cities and worshipping him because he looks so alien.”

“That’s rather specific.” Darren scooted around so he was facing Kavon. Kavon definitely had a smug expression. “What do you know?” Darren demanded.

“I spirit walked and had a conversation with Salma. The second I shared the memory of the durance, she recognized him. Our first durance is Anzu. He’s a monster from ancient Mesopotamia. Mythology says he stole the book of destiny so he could rewrite reality. According to Salma, the Egyptian lore has him as one of the first ifrit to reject contact with other ifrit and to set himself and his partner up as warlords. Mythology has him breathing fire and water, but Egyptian texts say he’s particularly skilled with any nature Talent.”

“Like storms,” Darren said. It made sense. As far as he could tell, the durance hadn’t been on Earth long enough for his human partner to train. Most days Darren’s control was shaky at best, and he’d been training with Bennu for years. So if Anzu had his own Talents, that would explain why the durance and not the shaman was attacking. “Is Salma coming back?”

“I tried to convince her to stay in California, but she’ll be here in about seven hours.”

“You didn’t think she’d stay to work on Djedi Center budgets while her demons wreaked havoc on DC, did you?” Darren asked. He understood Kavon’s concerns about equal access to funds and avoiding infighting between the Djedi Centers, but Salma’s first concern was always going to be the ifrit war. She was arranging for funding and additional training only to keep them happy. She didn’t care if the American shamanic community pulled apart at the seams over perceptions of injustice. Well, she did care, but she would never care about that nearly as much as the ifrit war.

“I hoped,” Kavon said. “She is vulnerable because she expects her ifrit and her god to protect her. I would rather she stay well away from any battlefield.” Kavon’s worry filled the bond.

“You think she’s a danger to herself?” Darren asked. He would never want Salma to pick up a weapon and cover his six during a shoot out, but she could handle her own when it came to Talent. Where most adepts had limited power, she had trained to work with hundreds of guides at once, and she had some impressive tricks in her bag.

Kavon sighed. “Anita was in the Army. Our people got through FBI training. We all know how to handle pressure.”

“So does Salma.”

The look Kavon gave Darren made his doubt pretty damn clear.

“Do you really think she’s a liability?”

“What did Thuya say about her?” Kavon asked. “She’s superstitious. She puts too much faith in Allah and the good ifrit to fix this. But if what you said is right, the good ifrit might be planning another slaughter.”

“Pochi is thinking about it,” Darren admitted. He wasn’t sure how Salma would handle that piece of information. She tended to idolize the ifrit she believed were righteous. Kavon might be right about her posing a danger in the field. “However, Bennu seems to firmly reject the plan to burn magic out of the world.”

“I know he will,” Kavon said. “After all, he chose you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kavon stood. “Dave thought Bennu picked me, and maybe I was the first human to stick my foot in the deep well of magic. Maybe Bennu noticed me first. But he never partnered with me. He rode around on my guide and used that connection to watch the world until he saw you. You’re the one he chose.”

“And?” Darren had no idea where Kavon was going.

“You are my devil’s advocate. You bring the crazy plans to the table and make everyone see a case through a new lens.” Kavon smiled, and the bond reflected a fond sort of amusement and exasperation.

“And at least half the time I’m wrong.”

“And the other half, we solve cases we never would have without your insight,” Kavon said. “Bennu picked a partner who would bring new ideas to the table. He doesn’t know how to stop the durance and he is clearly not a fighter among his people.”

Darren snorted. That was an understatement. He was next to useless, and considering how much raw power he possessed, that had shocked Darren.

Kavon pulled Darren to his feet and rested a palm on Darren’s cheek. “Bennu trusts you to do what you’ve always done for me—find impossible solutions.”

“Yeah, no stress there.” Even though Kavon meant his words as reassurance, Darren felt the weight of them. All he had to do was save the world. Yeah. No problem.

“And we have to do it before Pochi gets impatient and decides to kill us all,” Kavon added. “So, let’s get out there and figure out how to kill a mythological monster.”