The Warlock Pt. 08

We had three days before we went on our "family" vacation. Chloe was loving the limo ride with her brothers as we went shopping for everything they needed. She wanted to try everything so we found ourselves at a dive shop. I had hired a personal shopper and tipped her and extra 500 bucks to shield me from most purchases. She was going to be worth her weight in gold if she could get me out of swimsuit shopping. Chloe had decided that we were all going to be certified to SCUBA dive while we were down in the Bahamas. She was so excited I couldn't burst her bubble and tell her that our magic would allow us to breathe underwater and adjust any pressure differentials so we could basically free dive anywhere in the world. Also she had kept her supernatural abilities hidden from her brothers so even if I did let her know, she would want the gear to keep up appearances. Which led me to buying five sets of SCUBA equipment to the tune of 9800 bucks. Did I mention Gwydion was going with us?

Gwydion was staying at the tower while the Paladins investigated his shooting. I had met with their head inquisitor Lucas and was asked to stand down on my own investigation. He didn't even blink when I told him to blow it out his ass. We did agree to share information though. Chloe's wraith was still tracking the shooter. Since she worked most of her magic on instinct she couldn't quite explain how she had tagged the shooter or transferred the knowledge to her wraith. The net effect of her summoning and command was an incorporeal undead chasing an arcane caster across the world. The quarry wouldn't be able to stay in one place too long because her Wraith would be able to lock in and zip to his location within a couple of hours. I wasn't sure what would happen if the sniper was talented enough or had powerful enough friends to plane hop but if he did then he was entering my realm. I had worked up a few nasty surprises for any arcane caster trying to leave the Prime Material plane. The arcane council was currently determining whether they could officially censure me for that trick but I had them buried under past practice edicts going back to the time of Hammurabi. Even with the extra hands looking at my defense it would take them a month before they could make a ruling. Things will have shaken out by then.

As for Gwydion, he was on extended leave for recuperation even though he checked out fine after Raphael did his thing. There was a little bit of mental anguish from the whole near death experience thing but he looked to be shaking it off pretty easy. He claimed to have moved to the light when he felt arms holding him in place telling him about love and pain. He waxed poetic about the soul he entwined with that held him and the care and love he felt as she placed him back in his body. It made me rather sick. I am all about romance and all that crap but he really seemed to lay it on thick. Then he couldn't even talk to Chloe when he saw her. I swear I was back in junior high with those two. And just like junior high the female was in charge. He had decided to tag along with us to "stretch his legs" but so far he had only managed to carry shopping bags for Chloe. Her brothers seemed to dig him and he seemed to like them so that looked like it was going okay. When conversation would slow down I noticed he would look at her until she looked at him then they would both blush and look away. I mentally cursed Xandra.

Can't respond to that right now boss. Sophia wanted to join the mile high club so we are trying to 69 in an airplane bathroom. I LIKE her. She sent.

That just sounded uncomfortable.

And how did she turn Sofie into a lesbian so quick?

Sex Demon boss ... don't worry ... she will still like your cock ... now I am busy. She sent.

I felt her shut out our shared thoughts.

Since I wanted some real conversation I figured I should take the boys and let Chloe and Gwydion go off with the shopper. She stayed totally professional and didn't even flinch when I told her to make sure that Chloe bought swimsuits and any other girl stuff that would be needed for a two week beach trip. I dropped those three at the mall and sat back in the limo with Chloe's two brothers.

And it turned into a staring contest.

"So I will be honest and tell you guys I have no idea how to relate to a 15 and 13 year old so throw me a bone here and tell me what you guys like." I said into the silence.

"Are you fucking my my sister?" Jack asked

"Nope. I thought you would think more of your sister than her being a whore." I responded.

These kids were direct and spoke their mind. I could get to like them.

"So what does she do for you? She doesn't have a degree but she tells us she works for you. You obviously have money and she has no special skills that we know of. She is attractive and young so it makes sense that you are paying her to screw you. I don't think she would do so willingly so you are probably being nice to us to facilitate your agreement." Jack replied.

For a 15 year old kid this guy was pretty astute. That was a solid line of reasoning.

"How would you feel about it if I was just using her?" I asked.

"I would not like it at all. I would take the scholarship you are offering us and use it to learn how best to take you down. I realize you have more money than you need so I would wait until you figured I wasn't a threat then I would destroy you financially and emotionally, even if I had to wait until you were on your deathbed." he replied calmly.

DAMN me and this kid were gonna get along great. Jeremiah piped up at this point.

"I would bring child molestation charges against you and try to off you before you realized I was a threat. As long as it happened before I was 18 I could have my record sealed and get off with minimal sentencing." he said as he glared at me.

I couldn't help it. I laughed. These guys were fucking great! They looked at me like I was crazy.

"I love this! I have only one question, why tell me now? You guys could have kept below my notice and sprung your respective plans on me. Now I can take counter measures, possibly even arrange for accidents for both of you. I would be sad of course but I could use the emotional distress to bind Chloe to me tighter." I pointed out.

"For you to do that you would have to be a psychopath or sociopath, I am not sure what the difference is really, but I don't think you are. Besides I would wager that our sister would be inclined to stop whatever deal she had with you if anything were to happen to us. We are the ticket to your continued whatever so I ask you again, are you fucking my sister?" Jack asked.

"Sorry to break it to you pal but I am not. Your sister does have a special skill set that I am using but it has nothing to do with sex. I have to tell you I appreciate the thought you both have put into protecting your sister. Also I think it is awesome that you have contingency plans to bring me down. Frankly I would go with a dark web search to try and put child porn on my computer then call the FBI. You would have to break through some serious internet security but the resulting backlash would be terrible for my business even if I could prove my innocence." I said.

I could see both of them thinking about it, weighing the pros and cons.

"Two things wrong with your plan." Jeremiah said. "First, one of us would have to be internet savvy enough to deal with a dark web search and break your firewalls to put it on your computer. Second you have enough money and trial knowledge that you could probably beat even a child porn case unless they found Polaroids in your house somewhere. The low tech option would be for Jack to photograph me in compromising positions naked and leave them for the feds to find."

Goddamn these kids were scary good! I would have thought they were sociopaths themselves if it weren't for the fact that they were only looking out for their sister's wellbeing. I decided then and there they were going on my payroll. Maybe even within the next few days. All of a sudden I had one of those really strong hunches. You know the one where you are so sure of something even though you have no data to back it up? I knocked on the privacy window and gave the driver an address to take us to. I was positive I knew what would happen.

After 20 minutes of Detroit traffic we ended up in an abandoned field downtown. I know what you are thinking, but if you roll up in a stretch limo south of 8 Mile Road the gangs will most likely leave you alone. I helps when the driver and his companion step out of the car with Mac 10's at the ready. Besides, there wasn't a single gang in Detroit that didn't know not to mess with a car bearing the WARLK vanity plate. I had defended a major player of every gang in Detroit. I got out and motioned for the two boys to follow me. It was a bright sunshiny day and we were going to hang out in what looked to be an abandoned park.

"Ok guys I want you to chill here for a moment and tell me what you feel." I said

Both of them looked like I was crazy but kind of wandered around a bit. All of a sudden I noticed Jeremiah stopped and had a quizzical look on his face. Jack Jr. noticed and walked over to where Jeremiah was. He also got a strange look on his face and seemed to reach down until he almost touched the ground.

I overheard them talking.

"Why does it feel weird here?" Jeremiah asked.

"It almost feels like there should be more ... SOMETHING here." Jack responded.

"Do you see that?" the younger brother asked.

"Yeah, It almost feels like there is a block further up the stream." the older one said

"I got it I think" Jeremiah said.

"Yup, there is the blockage. I'll bet if I could just bore a couple of slight holes here and ... Here." Jack said thoughtfully.

All of a sudden the entire area filled with power. If I had my mage sight up I probably would have been blinded for a bit.

HOLY SHIT!

These two boys and just revived a dead ley line into the heart of Detroit.

My suspicions were confirmed as I could see both boys starting to gain power. I switched to my mage sight and saw that Jack was going to be a powerful Earth Wizard and Jeremiah was going to be a scary good Fire Wizard. This was both awesome and terrible.

"What the fuck is going on?" Jack yelled as his arms and fists started to turn to stone.

"AHHHHHH" was the only thing Jeremiah could make out as his hands and fist burst into flames.

They turned to look at me and I saw them considering.

"You guys aren't ready to mess with me quite yet but you are now getting an idea of what I need your sister for." I replied cautiously.

I raised a shield just in case and went through the steps for fighting two wizards at once. I couldn't tell how big this revived ley line was but if it was significant I was going to have to put them down hard and quick.

"Welcome to the supernatural community boys. I guess I have some explaining to do. For now though could you guys take hold of this ley line while I start some defensive tricks? What you just did will get the attention of every Wizard within a 500 mile radius. If you guys establish control first it will be a lot tougher for anyone to take it from you."

They looked at each other and grinned. I saw the earth ripple as a humanoid shape of rock and dirt formed next to Jack. Jeremiah channeled the flame from his arms into a woman with big tits and a prominent ass. I suppose 13 year old boys will never change.

I fished out my cell phone and texted Gwydion and Chloe the address of where we were. I used the code word "pumpernickel" to get Gwydion to hustle. This was the first time I used the code word and now realized how stupid it was. I summoned 4 hell hounds and 6 rage demons. I had them standing at attention for the inevitable onslaught. Sure enough within ten minutes the air started popping with wizards teleporting in.

=======================

Unfortunately the first wizard to pop in was wearing the eye of Osiris on his shoulder. These guys were the baddest of the bad when it came to wizards. The Order of Osiris are wizards that have banded together for one thing only ... power. Pretty much every other wizard order was in it for the knowledge or the money but these guys just wanted control. The order drew the most powerful wizards who had no desire to play nice with others. Things were going to get interesting.

"I have no desire to kill two younglings such as yourselves." the newcomer addressed them. "Give me control of the node and I will let you be on your way."

"These two have established control and are probably loathe to relinquish it." I interjected. The boys stayed silent but their body language showed they did not like the treatment they were getting from this asshat.

"Yeah we are just messing around you know. We will let you have any control you want when we are done here." Jack replied with false bravado.

The Osiris Wizard looked at them and then looked at me. I could tell he was examining everyone with mage sight.

"This is a Wizard matter, there is no need for a Warlock to get involved. Go summon a sex demon and leave the discussion to the pertinent players."

He had me there. Control of ley lines and nodes were the exclusive rights of Wizards. For me to intervene would be the equivalent of a Wizard trying to tell me how to summon a demon. Unwanted, unnecessary, and probably fucked up. I couldn't let these guys go it alone however.

"You have a point , however these two could easily ask for an alliance with me which would make me a pertinent player. And if they WERE to offer an alliance I am pretty sure you would want to check in with your boss to make sure you wanted to fight for this." I replied calmly.

I was really hoping these boys would pick up on the hint. If they went toe to toe with this guy they were going to die and I would have to explain to Chloe how I let her brothers get killed the second they learned about their powers. Even if these guys didn't formally extend the offer I knew I was going to clean this Osiris wizards clock. It would start a war I could ill afford to fight but I would do it. Thankfully they understood the situation enough to offer the alliance.

"Martin Melshimabar, would you please officially ally with us until such time as we deem you unnecessary?" Jack asked formally. Jerimiah was a split second behind with the same question.

"Damn right boys. Consider yourselves allied with the premier Warlock in this or preceding generations." I replied with a grin on my face.

"May I take the lead in negotiations for this node?" I asked the boys.

"By all means. Better the devil I know." replied Jack.

I am really liking this kid. By this time there had been 7 other Wizards that popped in. Everyone had been watching us and when the offer of an alliance was accepted the crowd groaned. Things got very interesting when the next Wizard to pop in was the current head of the Arcane Council himself, Xath.

Xath was an interesting study. He was not the most powerful Wizard by a long shot. His natural talents and studies made him a fairly good aquamancer but really nothing to write home about. If I were to describe his dueling style when it came to fighting it would be shifty. I have never seen anyone score a direct hit on the guy. Where his real talents lie is in the politics. He has a unique ability to keep his cool and see the big picture while arguing the petty stuff with assholes like me. My other impression was that he would do what he felt was best for arcane community as a whole. Generally when a council head is appointed personal agendas seem to become the norm. Xath really thought he was serving the community. I would never admit it in a million years but I kinda liked the guy. I was probably pretty high on his shit list right now.

Everyone watched as he started walking towards me. He paused as an angel like figure carrying a small brown haired form landed in front of me.

Gwydion had gone into angel persona which meant he was ready for a fight. Chloe hopped out of his arms and ran over to her brothers.

"What are you guys doing?" she screamed at them.

Gwydion had stepped away and drawn his sword. He put the point in the ground and stood at attention.

The two boy looked at their sister and quickly looked to me.

"Chloe I need you to stand down and be quiet. I will explain as soon as I can. Things are really dicey right now." I yelled to her.

That shut her up but earned me a glare that should have peeled the flesh from my bones. No time to worry about that now. I couldn't help but notice that she had taken a defensive stance between her brothers and the Osirion Wizard. She seemed to have good instincts.

"Ok Martin, talk to me. I can't spare the time from looking over your past practice bullshit to get involved in another incident." Xath said as he approached me. I noticed the Osirion had walked to within earshot of us also.

"Just the facts then. In talking to these two boys I felt they may have a touch of arcane ability. I knew this ley node had been dead for quite a while but I brought them here to see if they could feel any resonance. Not only did they feel it, they were somehow able to track and remove a blockage that restored it. I urged them to establish control of the node before any other wizard could which they did. A bunch of opportunistic Wizards starting showing up and they asked me for a formal alliance to help continue their control." I replied as succinctly as I could.

The Osirion spoke up.

"The offer of alliance was extended only after the Warlock suggested it. It may have been made under coercion."

Damn I hate these armchair lawyers. If an offer of any protection or alliance is made under coercion the ancient magics would kick in and I would be at half strength. Thankfully I knew it wasn't but I was going to have to make my case to Xath so he didn't inflict any power restrictions on me.

"I merely explained the option of an alliance to two newbies, they chose to take me up on it." I replied.

Xath had his eyes closed and I knew he was thinking of how to handle this. I knew he could tangle me up in litigation if he gave credence to this coercion accusation. He probably wanted to since I was burying him on paperwork for my Material Plane lockdown. I knew what I would do. I was hoping he was a better person than I was.

"What was your plan here Martin? Straight answers only!" he said in an even voice.

"Honestly Xath, There was no bigger plan. Sometimes things get away from people, even me. I am reacting right now. These kids did something I have never even heard of. All I want is to make sure they don't get run over. If you want to impute a wrong motive to me you can say I want to keep my apprentice happy and am looking out for her brothers best interest."

He looked over to the three of them and I saw him slip into his mage sight.

"Damn she is strong. And those two aren't that far behind." he muttered to himself.

"So what happens now Martin?." he asked

"Put control of this node into a form of trust with the Arcane Council as the executors. In payment the council will enroll the two in the Academy and subsidize all aspects of their training. For the next 5 years the council will be able to examine this node and what the boys did to it. They will get a great education and be safe under the umbrella of the council. Frankly the less they are associated with me the better. I will leave them alone and only Chloe will contact them as their sister."

I could probably have worked a better deal for myself out of this but frankly I had no idea anything was going to happen today and I have too many irons in the fire right now.