Blood of the covenant, p.1
Blood of the Covenant, page 1
part #2 of The Chaos Mages Series
Blood of the Covenant
The Chaos Mages II
Alex Steele
Steel Fox Media LLC
Blood of the Covenant
All rights reserved.
No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental. All inquiries can be sent to info@steelfoxmedia.com.
First edition, September 2018
Version 1.0, September 2018
ISBN 978-1-7324518-3-4
Copyright © 2018 Alex Steele
Cover © Steel Fox Media LLC
Cover by Deranged Doctor Design
Character illustrations by Zhivko Zhelev
The Chaos Mages Series (along with the plot / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-18 Alex Steele and Steel Fox Media LLC
“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.”
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Thank you for reading!
Cast
Glossary of Places & Foreign Words
Acknowledgments
Follow me
About the Author
Recommendations from Alex
One
Fire rained down from above, streaking across the sky like fireworks. Glass shattered overhead. A man and a woman ran from the shrieking monster that loomed above the city. We were running out of time – and out of options.
I sheathed my katana and raced forward, weaving through smoldering cars and craters the size of a bus. Swift was a few meters ahead of me, her red trench coat trailing behind her like a matador’s cape.
The phoenix leaped into the sky, its wings unfurling in a blaze of oranges and reds. It was huge. The wings’ tips crashed through skyscrapers, searing glass and metal with the unbearable heat. Protective runes flared but were burned through instantly, shattering the glass.
Whoever had resurrected it wanted anarchy. They wanted to destroy –– nothing more, nothing less. A phoenix couldn’t be controlled, no matter how strong the mage. It was a weapon of mass destruction that would kill the summoner as soon as a random passerby.
We were not prepared for this.
I picked up my pace, jumping up onto the back of a half-crushed car and hop-stepping my way onto the precariously leaning roof of a liquor store. Chief Bradley was supposed to have given us the weekend off, but no. He had to send us after some idiot that stole the ashes of a phoenix, then summoned the monster. I should have been sleeping like a baby right now, not fighting for my life and the fate of New York City. Technically, I was still banned after that unfortunate incident where I blew up part of the Met, but the mayor was desperate, and we were the only mages available for such an emergency.
“Come and get me, you ugly ass carpet bird!” Swift shouted, waving her mace like a baton. Carpet bird didn’t even make sense. She must be getting tired.
The phoenix shrieked, insulted nonetheless, and dove at Swift. She swung her mace, pink magic flaring all around her. It hit the creature square on the beak, but didn’t stop the phoenix’s momentum. It shoved her back, crumpling the ground beneath her feet as she tried to resist the onslaught.
I took a running leap and aimed for its back, drawing my katana as I flew through the air. This thing was the size of a teenage Godzilla. It couldn’t fully extend its wings in the street, but it could rear up straight. When it did, the plumage on the top of its head made it taller than the ten-story building across from us. I wrapped both hands around the handle of my sword and stabbed down as my feet hit slippery feathers. The blade sank into the phoenix’s meaty shoulder.
The phoenix reared back with an angry shriek, and my feet flew out from under me. It twisted its head around, snapping at the unwanted passenger currently stabbing it in the neck. The back of the wing smacked me, almost breaking my grip on the katana.
“Distract it!” I shouted down to Swift.
“I’m trying!” Swift shouted back. “But you shouldn’t have jumped on its back, you idiot!”
I ground my teeth together and tried to drag myself farther up, but the bird twisted and shook. I caught a glimpse of its fury in one beady, black eye. This thing had seriously woken up on the wrong side of the nest.
A sudden burst of pink light blazed up underneath the bird. It shrieked in pain and launched upward, twisting in the air until my feet were dangling over the city. The katana slipped once, then tore free, and we both fell.
I’m not saying I screamed, but the noise that came out of my throat wasn’t manly.
Slapping my hand against the runes engraved on my katana, I cast a shield rune just in time to avoid splattering my brains all over the asphalt. The magic protected me, but the sudden stop was still jarring. I hastily canceled the rune and climbed out of the small crater. My suit was singed, my head was pounding, and the acidic blood of the phoenix had burned my hands.
The phoenix dove at Swift. She swung her mace upward, catching it on the beak like an uppercut. I ran toward them, frantically trying to come up with another plan of attack. What we were doing wasn’t even slowing it down.
I sheathed my sword. It was time to fight fire…with ice. Pulling on the magic churning inside me, I focused it, shaping it to my will. With a deep breath, I thrust my palms toward the phoenix. Bright, white magic soared toward it, hitting its vulnerable underbelly. Ice flowed over the bird, creeping along its wings and up over its face.
Swift charged in immediately, hitting its leg and knocking it off balance. The phoenix shrieked in anger, and fire erupted from its beak. The pillar of flame shot up into the sky.
The ice immediately began melting, running off the fiery, piece-of-shit pigeon like a waterfall. Swift leaped forward, but her foot slipped on a half-melted chunk of ice, and she fell face first on the pavement. Her mace slid just out of reach.
I raced toward them, jumping over her just in time to deflect a blow from the phoenix’s clawed foot. It flapped its wings furiously, sending ice and water everywhere, blinding me.
“Dammit, Blackwell!” Swift shouted, dodging under the wing as she tried to get back to her mace.
I sliced through a feather and narrowly dodged a spray of blood. “Let’s see you come up with a better idea! Just hitting it with your mace isn’t actually doing anything,” I yelled back.
I dodged left, but something hard hit the back of my knees and swept my legs out from underneath me. My back hit the pavement, and my katana clattered out of my hands. Swift looked down at me, half-apologetic, half-annoyed.
“Watch where you’re going!” she said, exasperated.
“How about you watch where you’re swinging that thing!” I snapped, rolling through the slush to grab my sword.
The asphalt rolled under our feet.
Swift looked at me, her eyes wide. This wasn’t the phoenix. They could breathe fire and were nearly indestructible, but they did not cause earthquakes.
I grabbed my sword and ran after Swift. The asphalt cracked right under her feet, widening slowly. She leaped onto a car to avoid being swallowed up. This was all wrong.
Behind us, the ground split open, and green fire erupted from the crevice. It swallowed cars and a deluge of melted ice. Steam poured out like a fog as the cold water hit the hot air.
The phoenix fell halfway in and screamed, fire erupting from its beak. Its massive wings beat in a panic, sending debris and steam flying in every direction. Whatever was coming out of the earth was hotter than even the phoenix could stand.
Dark magic shuddered in t
“You feel that, right?”
Swift nodded, adjusting her grip on her mace and searching the area around us. She froze. “Who the hell is that?”
A cloaked figure stepped into view.
Two
“Blessed be the sacrifices,” a deep, grating voice boomed across the space. He lifted one hand, holding something I couldn’t quite see from here.
I did know one thing, though. The magic that I felt pouring out of this guy had to be a warlock’s magic. They were evil and power-hungry. Unsatisfied with the magic all mages were born with, they sought to gain even more, no matter the cost. If he was a warlock, our bad day was about to get worse.
The phoenix let out a shriek, flailing wildly as the fire consuming it suddenly blazed even higher. The bright feathers turned to ash, falling like snow on the wind that whipped around us.
A bright red light flew out of the phoenix and connected with whatever the warlock held. He cackled as the strange device glowed in his hand.
“What the hell is this guy’s issue?” Swift muttered. “I’m all for roasting the phoenix, but I don’t like where this is going.”
“Me neither. I think he’s a warlock, and I’m a little worried we might be the sacrifices.”
“Should we stop him?” she asked, eyes still burning bright with berserker rage.
“Hey! You in the cloak!” I shouted over the noise. His head turned toward me slowly. “Are you about to kill us?”
His face was barely visible under the hood of his cloak, but I could still see the chilling smile I received in response to my question.
“Yeah, that’s a warlock,” I said uneasily. “We have to stop him. He’s probably the one that summoned the phoenix in the first place.”
“Let’s go then,” Swift said, charging in.
“Wait—”
It was too late. She raised her mace overhead with a battle cry.
I ran after her; there was no other option. The warlock lifted his other hand. Black and green fire poured from his palm. It twisted together and raced toward us. Lifting my katana, I invoked the shield rune at the same time that Swift swung her mace at the magical attack. All three hit simultaneously. A shockwave exploded outward, slinging us back like rag dolls.
I hit a car, my back shattering the window, and slid down into a heap on the ground. My vision swam and I couldn’t hear anything other than my own heart pounding. I pushed up onto my knees, but a second blast wave hit me in the side, knocking me right back down as it tossed me further down the street.
There were people screaming behind me. The prosaic police had tried to get the area evacuated while we fought, and now they were running too. I couldn’t blame them.
A whisper, dark and evil, passed through my mind, but I couldn’t hear what it said. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and dragged myself back up to my feet.
This guy was pissing me off. I let go of everything I had been holding back. This city block was already toast, might as well destroy a little more of it and stop this warlock. Dark mayhem magic swirled around me, then raced toward him.
Releasing this much, this fast, was impossible for me to completely control. The magic lashed out as it flew towards him, ripping through a building the phoenix had already damaged and reducing it to rubble. I ground my teeth together and yanked the mayhem back toward the warlock.
A dark grin split his face, and he lifted up a strange golden amulet. The mayhem magic smashed into it and … didn’t destroy it.
My eyes went wide as I felt the thing sucking my magic out of me. It stretched between us in a line of pitch black, twisting and rolling like a river. I fell to my knees, pain coursing through every nerve. It felt like I was being turned inside out. Or my soul was being ripped away from my body.
A shout cut through the roar of magic. Swift ran toward the warlock, wielding her mace. He swiped his hand at her, and a blast of green fire hit her like a battering ram.
“No!” I yelled, attempting to physically wrest control of my magic away from the warlock and the strange amulet, but my muscles wouldn't respond. My fingers twitched slightly as I struggled against whatever had me frozen in place.
Swift screamed under the onslaught of magic. It forced her backward along the asphalt. She lifted her palms and the familiar pink glow pushed back against the warlock’s attack. A shield formed in her hand, deflecting the magic around her like a fiery river.
She looked at me, sweat dripping from her forehead, her teeth bared in a grimace. He was overpowering her. She couldn’t hold him back for much longer.
I lifted my hand slowly. My limbs felt like they weighed hundreds of pounds. My fingers grasped at the magic flowing out of me, but the magic simply burned my fingers. I couldn’t hold onto it.
My vision wavered and I fell to my knees. Swift tried to stand, but the warlock simply pushed a little harder and she faltered. Her shield cracked.
I struggled to breathe as my lungs spasmed in my chest. The amulet tore the magic from my very cells, leaving emptiness behind.
A blazing streak of white and gold shot over me, landing right in the stream of magic being sucked from my body.
A presence warmed me, easing some of the dizziness that had overtaken me. A snow-white leg appeared in the corner of my vision. I looked up as best I could and saw a giant fox at least four meters tall, with teeth as long as the blade of my katana. She advanced on the warlock.
It was Yui, the kitsune. Her coat was pure white, though her two tails were tipped in bright, fiery red.
With a low growl, she bit the stream of magic pouring out of me and wrenched her head from side to side, snapping it like a rope. The remaining magic rushed back into me, leaving me breathless from the impact.
“No!” the warlock bellowed, his voice cracking with rage. He abandoned his attack on Swift and thrust both hands toward the kitsune.
Yui jumped out of the way and turned toward me instead. For a brief moment, I thought she was about to eat me, but instead, she picked me up gently with her mouth and darted out of the way of another attack.
“We have to get Swift!” I shouted as she began to turn like she was about to just run away.
She huffed, hot breath blasting me in the face, but bounded toward my partner. Each jump rattled me painfully. I didn’t have much to hold onto unless I wanted to cling to a tooth. It was already really slimy in her mouth, which I didn’t want to think about.
I reached my arm down as the kitsune passed over Swift. She jumped up, grabbing my arm and almost pulling it out of its socket.
“This is not finished,” the warlock shouted behind us.
Yui turned her head to face him, swinging us around. I almost lost my grip on Swift, but she managed to pull herself up to hang onto the kitsune’s teeth.
“You will not consume the child I guard,” Yui said. Her mouth didn’t move, but her voice echoed all around us.
The warlock stepped closer and lifted the device. “I will consume everything,” he growled.
The device flared to life and Yui shuddered. White magic drained from her for a moment, but she jerked away, snapping the connection.
Without waiting for another attack, she turned and ran.
Three
