Evan

Kae hung limp on Evan’s shoulder. He watched the dark silhouettes of the three home invaders pointing their weapons at him. The two who had taken a metal folding chair to the face came stumbling out of the master bedroom.

“I’m not going to ask you again, tell me where the Root is, or I’ll split your sister open like I did that filthy animal.” The blonde-haired Sov hissed.

“Fuck you!” Evan yelled. “You piece of trash, leave her alone.” As scared as he was, he couldn’t imagine helping them in any way. He was going to protect Kae.

“Oh, very well.” The blonde-haired Sov said, firing his rifle. Evan instinctively covered Kae with his body. The blasts hit him to no effect. The Sovs gasped. Two more fired, and then another, but to the same result.

“Kae, wake up, please.” Evan shook her, hoping she would regain consciousness while they kept firing. The blonde-haired Sov dropped his rifle and fired a blast of black ESH from his only hand striking Evan in the side of his head, but still nothing happened.

“Enough!” the blonde-haired Sov yelled. “I can get what I need the old-fashioned way.” He stormed over and grabbed Evan by the arm, twisting him backwards. Evan struggled to break free, but his grasp was too strong. In the struggle, a hand grabbed the blonde-haired Sov’s arm.

“Get your filthy hand off my brother!” Kae said, with a fierce snarl. His arm started to melt into a pile of organic stew on the floor. He screamed, trying to break free of her grasp, only succeeding once his arm had liquified and the bones in his arm broke with a crackle, like Styrofoam being torn apart. The other Sovs again fired their weapons. One shot grazed Kae’s other shoulder. She replied with a pulse of energy from her hand. This sent the closest Sov’s rifle flying into the face of Sov next to him. The Sovs, probably realizing the pointlessness of their attack, pulled knives out and charged.

Evan then saw something that made no sense to him. The cute girl who was starting the recycling petition, Kristin, emerged from the kitchen. She fired blast after blast of ESH striking the remaining Sovs downstairs. They fell backwards, flames bursting out of their chests. She turned and sent several attacks upstairs. One Sov came tumbling down the stairs and a second one fell from balcony overlooking the living room into the coffee table.

Kristin approached them and examined Kae’s arm. “It’s pretty bad, but you’ll survive. Look, more will come, we have to set up a defense of some kind before—”

“The basement, we need to get to the basement.” Kae grunted in obvious pain.

Kristin’s face twisted in confusion. “Basement?”

“Follow me.” Evan said, helping his sister up and through the closet door which led to the basement.

“Wait, take my hand” Kae reached out taking Kristin’s hand. “Unless you want to die passing through the death barrier.”

“Can’t say that I do,” She replied as they made their way down the stairs.

“Zarg!” Evan yelled. He ran to Zarg who lay a few feet from the foot of the stairs, motionless in a pool of blood. He had a gaping wound on his side where he had been hit and was having difficulty breathing. Just the sight of him made his chest knot up. What could he do? He turned to Kristin, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes. “Is there anything you can do? Can you magically heal him or something?”

She looked down at the poor creature “I have one field bandage, but we should use it on your sister’s shoulder.” She put a gentle hand on Evan as he leaned over Zarg.

Kae came over to get a closer look and winced. “No, he needs that more than me.”

Kristin shook her head. “Look I get it. I love dogs too. But I am going to need you at full strength if we are going to get out of here alive.”

Evan wiped the tears back. “But he saved my life!”

Kae stepped back. “Yeah, did you see him? He was like a blur. He probably helped you more than me.”

“I’m sorry,” Kristin stood up. “But I have to use it on you over a dog.”

Kae snapped, “Wrong answer. I’m not letting you use it on me. Use it on Zarg. End of discussion.”

Kristin shook her head, but she smiled. “Alright.” She pulled out a grey tube and twisted the top off. She squeezed a white paste out of the tube onto Zarg’s wound. She put her hand over it causing it to glow. After a few seconds the paste melted into the wound to reveal newly grown pink skin.

“Thank you, Kristin!” Evan said, sitting down next to Zarg to give him some soft pets. The knot in Evan’s chest started to ease with every pet.

“It’s Nina, actually. Nice to meet you.” She gave Evan a little wave. “Uh, let me take a look at that shoulder, I might be able to at least stop the bleeding. Kae, right?”

“Wait, how did you…” Kae said, with some suspicion.

“Yeah sorry, kind of my job.” Nina said, now looking at her shoulder. “This is going to sting.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Kae grimaced as Nina put her hand firmly into the open wound. “Fuck!” Kae grunted as a waxy scab formed.

Nina sat down on the ground, a little dizzy. “Sorry, that’s the best I can do, any bio manipulation like that takes a lot of energy.”

“What job?” Evan said, still petting Zarg.

“I’m with the Wrecht Order, I’ve been on stake out to find the wizard that lives here, and the good news is I am not here to kill you.” She smiled a cute little smile at Evan causing him to blush. “The bad news is my organization is kind of trying to kill you, or wait, neutralize you, so you don’t help the Sovs. But what I am hoping is that with what happened here today, we can convince them that, you know, you two are alright. By the way, the way you melted his arm off, I must say, I am already a huge fan of yours.”

Then it hit Evan. Kae knew magic. He started to get excited. “Oh my god Kae, that was amazing. Where did you learn that?” Evan realized the answer to his own question. “He taught you, didn’t he? Even though Dad said not to.”

Kae gave Evan a ridiculous grin. “Yeah, sorry, we’re talking evil wizards and shit, I’m not going to sit around and be a victim. Screw that.”

Nina nodded. “Not bad for a noob.”

“And while we are clearing the air.” Kae’s grin grew even bigger. “Remember that jerk at the game who kept taking beer baths?”

Evan started laughing at the realization of what his sister had been up to. “Wait, seriously? That was you?”

An evil grin crossed her face. “He had it coming.”

Damn it. Kae was alright after all.

Zarg let out a little whimper as he lifted his head. “Zargy, feeling better already?” Evan said, continuing to give him soothing pats on his head.

Kae reached down and gave Zarg some much appreciated scrubs on his side. “And what about Zarg, did you see him rip into those Sovs like a vicious pit bull?”

“I know, right?!” Evan got excited. “How did you take those two down? I mean, you were a blur.” Then it slowly dawned on him. Kae and Zarg had been spending a lot of time in Adelfried’s lab while the Root was out of its enclosure, which would mean direct exposure. Zarg looked up at Evan with his seemingly extra-large glassy eyes. As Evan stared into them, the warm feeling of gratitude spread across Evan. He could sense Zarg’s emtions. He could feel Zarg’s appreciation for saving his life.

“This explains why I knew what Zarg had been thinking when he was barking earlier.” Evan said, excitedly. “I think I can sense what he’s thinking. I think he is like putting out his emotions or something.”

“What?” Kae said, giving Evan a look of disbelief. “Seriously?”

“It’s entirely possible.” Nina added. “ESH affects different species differently, hell it affects people differently.”

Kae started to chortle. “Great, I can hear it now, it’s going to be more chicken please, hey chicken, give me more chicken. That’s all he’s going to say to you. You know, that right?”

Evan gave Zarg a kiss on his head. “He can have all the chicken he wants from now on as far as I am concerned, he earned it.”

Chicken? Evan swore he sensed that feeling from Zarg.

“Oh my god, she’s right.” Evan patted his good boy on the head. “No, I don’t have any chicken, right now.” This was followed by a slight sense of disappointment in Zarg as he put his head down.

They heard the faintest buzz like a bug colliding with a bug zapper. This was followed by a man tumbling down the stairs, limp and motionless. His eyes were cold and lifeless.

Nina stepped away from the dead body. “I guess the death shield is working, so thanks again for holding my hand through that. Okay, so first order of business, we need to try to figure out a way past their barrier.”

“Huh?” Evan said, a little confused.

“Sorry, yeah, do you remember that loud sound?”

“Oh, you mean when the lights went out?”

“Yep, the Sovs erected a reinforced shield around the house. They’re nearly impossible to take down from the outside, but from the inside we might have a chance. The only problem is we need a really big blast, like really big. And I’m not sure I have enough juice left in me. I don’t suppose you have any food laying around? Candy or anything with a lot of sugar would be best.

“Unfortunately, that would be in the kitchen, upstairs.” Kae said, sitting at the foot of the stairs examining the scab on her shoulder. “You know it’s funny, now that you mention it, I’m really hungry.”

“Yeah, wielding ESH is hard, you have to keep your calories up.”

“Hold on!” Kae said, popping back up. “Are you saying that when I melted that guy’s arm off, I burned calories?” Evan was somehow not surprised by this comment.

Nina smirked. “A lot of calories. I am always eating just so I don’t look like a skeleton.”

“This is amazing!” Kae said, as she started to float her cell phone around the room. “Ha, I’m losing weight.”

He was still pissed he couldn’t use magic. He huffed, “So, now what?”

Nina twisted her lip. Damn she was even cuter now that she was a badass magician. “Okay, assuming we survive the, you know, army of Sov’s that want to kill you, and I’ll be honest, the Wreckies too, then you hide.” She walked them through the current situation and how their only chance was to take down the shield and escape before Mistress Kreeg inevitably came and finished the job. They had hidden this long, after all, and hopefully with Nina’s help they could escape.

“But what about our mom and dad? How will they find us if we—” The sounds of footsteps cut Evan off. His eyes fixated on the person at the top of the stairs but he wasn’t quite able to comprehend how his mother, who was, just a few hours ago, on the other side of the planet, was now here, never mind the shield and army of Sovs waiting outside. “Mom?”

“We need to hurry.” She said, rushing down the stairs. “Adelfried has them tied up, but he won’t last long against so many.” She looked at Nina with a dour look. “Who’s this?”

Evan got up from petting Zarg. “This is Nina, a friend. Where’s Dad?”

“He’s upstairs, we just need to get the Root and get out of here as fast as we can.” Ying said, setting off towards Adelfried’s lab.

Kae grabbed her before she could make it there and wrapped her up in a big hug. “Mom, I’m scared.” The tears started to flow as she squeezed her. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

“We are going to make it out of here, okay?” Ying squeezed her daughter. “Don’t be scared, I saw what you did to that Sov, I am so proud of you for protecting your little brother.”

Evan came over to join the hug, but Ying broke free from Kae’s grasp before Evan could reach her. “We can hug later. We have to hurry.” Evan felt a little dejected but tried to understand the need to rush as they followed their mom towards Adelfried’s lab only to find Nina standing in the doorway.

“Ma’am, I need see your eyes first.” Nina said, in a very official tone.

“We don’t have time for this, out of my way.” Ying moved to step around Nina, but she didn’t give her a path through the doorway.

Nina persisted. “Eyes first, please.”

“What’s going on?” Kae said, looking back and forth between Nina and her mom.

Ying shook her head. “She just wants to make sure I’m not a Sov.” She turned to Nina and looked her straight in the eye. “Satisfied?”

Nina squinted as she looked into Ying’s eyes. “Kae, does your mom normally wear contact lenses?”

“What? No, she—"

Ying sent a blast of ESH at Nina. She tried to block it but was still sent tumbling backwards. Nina’s head slammed into the concrete wall in the lab. She slumped to the ground and didn't move.