The door to the bedroom exploded.

Stilas rolled out of bed and ducked behind it. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, followed by the sound of whoever had triggered the trap hitting a wall. The Dark Elf reached into his pocket and pulled out the pen. He thought about using his staff, but he was sure that his “friend” would get very upset if anyone saw a staff-wielding mage.

Stilas twisted the pen in front of him. Tendrils of black magic leaked out of the pen and hardened into a shield in front of him. Once the tendrils had merged into a solid shield he turned it transparent. He stood up and jumped on the back of the dresser and headed to the door. In the hallway, his fear was realized. The smoking body of a human dressed in military camouflage was lying in a twisted pile at the foot of the three doors.

Stilas peaked into the living room, but when he didn’t see anything he walked over and knelt next to the body of the soldier. He ran his right hand over the body. The power stone sucked up drying blood. He turned over his hand. The power stone was swirled with red and blue. His eyes widened. Dual elements were incredibly rare. He couldn’t believe his luck.

“Get away from him.” A female voice behind Stilas ordered

Stilas thought about spinning around, but the cock of a shotgun gave him goosebumps.

“Hands up.” The voice ordered

Stilas fanned his fingers as he raised his hands. The pen fell from his palm down the sleeve of his left arm.

The cold steel of the shotgun rested against the nape of his neck.

“Stand up.”

Stilas started to stand up. That was when he noticed it. A small tremor in the arm of the dead soldier. If he didn’t do something soon this soldier’s elemental was going to awaken. Uncontrolled Elementals are very dangerous, but that wasn’t what he was worried about. It was a lot harder to subdue an awakened Elemental than it was to seal one before it awakened.

A man’s hand closed around his right wrist. His right arm was roughly pulled into the small of his back. A plastic cable tie was slipped over his hand and tightened around his wrist.

Stilas twisted to his left and threw out his left arm. The shotgun blew a hole in the door in front of him. Gun powder burned the left of his face. He ignored the pain on his cheek and caught the pen in his hand. Magic flowed down his arm as he pointed it at the woman holding the shotgun. She was pretty, even though she was very slender for a soldier. Curly red locks were pulled through the back of her black hat. Her five-six frame was covered in the same camouflage uniform as her counterparts, but it looked like it had been made specifically for her. Freckles were scattered on every piece of skin that he could see. Bright green eyes bored into his soul.

The male was a different story. He was over six feet tall and had bulging muscles. His black hair was cut short and his face was sporting a bad shave. From the scars that littered his face, it was clear that the guy had seen his share of fights.

Stilas let out a single breath and a bolt of force hit the woman. She dropped the shotgun as she was knocked backward into the air. Her boots caught the back of the couch behind her and flipped her over onto the coffee table. He turned his attention to the man. The man tackled him and drove him on top of the body of their former companion. Three quick punches to his face left his ears ringing.

Stilas brought up his knee and caught the man in the hip. The miss didn’t faze the man at all.

The man grabbed the Dark Elf by the shoulders and banged the back of his head into the door.

Stars flashed across his vision as Stilas tucked his knees into his chest and kicked the man off of him. The man flew back into the room where Stilas had taken a nap. The satisfactory crash that came from the room let him know that the man had landed on something. He reached for the pen when he heard the snap of a handgun firing.

Twelve bullets stopped in a tight circle in front of his chest. The air around the bullets cracked and the bullets fell to the ground. Stilas looked up at the woman glaring at him from behind the couch. She dropped the clip out of her pistol and reached to reload it.

The smell of burning fabric got Stilas to scoot off of the body. He rolled forward and grabbed the shotgun as he ducked behind the couch. He popped up, swinging the barrel of the shotgun like a club. He knocked the gun out of the woman’s hands and pointed it at the man, who had just come out of the bedroom.

The man was panting and leaning against the door frame when he noticed that there was a gun pointed at him.

“Don’t move.” Stilas backed over to the body.

The Elemental was pulling out of the body. In a few more minutes it would be free and would start attacking anything that moved.

Stilas transferred the shotgun to his left hand and placed his right hand on the soldier’s forehead.

“What are you doing?” The woman asked.

Stilas glared at her as he drew an X on the soldier’s forehead. He snapped his fingers and the body disappeared.

“ARG!!!” The male yelled as he charged

Stilas whipped the butt of the gun up and caught the male in the head. He stepped to his right as the male collapsed at his feet.

“Don’t.” Stilas pointed the barrel at the woman.

She held up her hands and moved back behind the couch.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Stilas turned to his left as he bent down to wipe some of the male’s blood on his palm.

“How many more are there?”

The woman bit her lip, “There are ten more outside.”

Stilas looked at his palm. The stone was silver and gold. He couldn’t believe his luck. He kept his gaze on the woman as he gripped the male’s forehead. Black tendrils crawled off of the tattoo and bit into the male’s skull. The tendrils pulsed as they began draining the male’s magic and feeding it to Stilas.

“You’re lying.” Stilas couldn’t believe how the magic felt. It was like a sugar rush. “Don’t lie to me.”

The woman nervously reached towards her belt.

“Hands.” An involuntary shiver coursed through Stilas’ body.

The woman’s hands shot up, “Just kill me.”

Stilas flexed his hand as the tendrils finished draining magic and shrank back into the tattoo. He traced a black X on the male’s forehead and then sent the body to the dimensional pocket.

“You want me to kill you?” Stilas stood up and walked over to the woman.

She trembled as he ran the back of his hand down her cheek.

“How did one so beautiful get such a job?” Stilas muttered. He gently brushed some rebellious bangs from her eyes. A small gash on her forehead had leaked some blood into her hair. The power stone drank in the blood.

Stilas stepped away and turned over his hand. The stone was still white. He smiled and looked at her. “You get to live.”

He dropped the shotgun on top of the pistol and waved his pen over them. The metal popped as it melted into the gray carpet. He traced the pen in front of him a few extra times and wove a new shield. This time he wove it with invisible lines. He was curious about something.

“You’re going to let me go?” The woman’s voice cracked

Stilas turned his back to her as he headed for the door, “You have no power. Or weapons. There’s no reason to kill such a beautiful creature.”

She didn’t attack him as he walked through the front door. Stilas made it to the lawn before he heard the door open. He turned slowly to face her.

“You’re not human.” She said,

“You’re not stupid.” Stilas replied.

The woman put her hands on her hips. “Are you going to murder more people?”

“Murder?” Stilas raised his eyebrow, “I was attacked first.”

“They vanished.” The woman eyed Stilas, “How did you do that?”

“Magic.” Stilas put the pen in his pocket.

“Can you teach me?” The woman asked

Stilas shook his head, “You have no magic.”

The woman nodded slowly, “Could you teach me anything else?”

“You want power?” Stilas smirked

“No,” The woman shrugged, “I want…” She gestured and did a half spin, “To understand this.”

Stilas watched a tear roll down her cheek. He motioned up the road, “Walk with me.”

The woman fell into step beside him. She stuck out her hand, “I’m Bethany Grace.”

Stilas looked at the hand, “You can call me Stilas.”

Bethany took her hand back, “Stilas. No last name?”

Stilas kept looking around at the houses. Debris had carved holes into the road. Small trees were knocked over. Broken glass seeded lawns.

“I lost my family name years ago.” Stilas paused, trying not to think of the trial. “I don’t have a last name anymore.”

“That’s so sad.” Bethany put her hand on Stilas’ shoulder

Stilas fought the urge to attack her and shrugged out of her hand.

“What happened?” Bethany asked

“It doesn’t matter.” Stilas looked away from her.

Bethany twisted around in front of him, “Tell me.” She took both of his hands in hers, “I want to know.”

Stilas tried to think. Genuine interest was programmed out of Elves before they were ten. Everything had to have a logical baseline for why it happened. There was cause and effect. There was no reason that this woman should show any interest in his story at all. He had just killed her friends. He had been murdering humans across the western coast of America for two days. She shouldn’t trust him and he shouldn’t trust her. But there was a softness in her eyes that he couldn’t shake. A yearning desire to truly know. It was strange, foreign, and yet welcoming at the same time.

Stilas looked over the rooftops. There was still plenty of daylight left. He motioned towards a red brick house with a broken For Sale sign in the front yard.

Stilas walked across the lawn. He kicked in the red door and took stock of the empty living room. He took out his pen and drew a circle on the empty wooden wall to his right.

Bethany walked inside, “What are you doing?”

“Moving.” Stilas said as he finished the circle. He pushed magic into the circle to activate the portal. The blue magic swirled within the circle, casting light into the empty room.

“Where does it go?” Bethany asked

Stilas tapped the edge of the circle and the blue disappeared. Out of the circle flowed a bird’s cheerful song.

“Louisiana.” Stilas motioned for her to step through, “I need to get away from your backup.”

Bethany nodded and cautiously stepped through the circle.

Stilas walked through and tapped the edge of the portal on the other side with his pen. The portal vanished like it had never been there.

Stilas looked around at the pine trees. He had picked a wooded area to minimize anyone seeing them. They would have to move later, but for now, he was intrigued with Bethany.

“That was amazing!” Bethany exclaimed as she felt her face. She patted herself down, “You really just took us from Washington to Louisiana?”

Stilas sat down by the base of a large pine tree. The afternoon sky on the west coast was an evening sky in the middle USA. “That’s nothing.” He suddenly felt like showing off, “Watch this.”

Stilas pointed the pen at the ground. He coaxed the pen up with a few small jerks. A rock the size of a large plate rose out of the ground under the pen. He began mumbling and touched the pen to the middle of the rock. The inside of the rock sagged and left an indention. He twirled the pen in the air above the indention and black magic dripped from the tattoo on his right hand down the pen and swirled its way through the air. Once the black ink filled the indention he tapped the fluid. It popped and turned clear.

“What do you want to see?” Stilas asked,

“You mean like Paris or Niagara falls?” Bethany crossed her legs as she sat down next to Stilas

“No,” Stilas shook his head, “Think larger.” He tapped the rock and it showed a towering building decorated with flashing lights.

“This is a Goblin Casino.” He tapped the rock again. A series of half-moon-shaped waterfalls that fed each other in quick succession appeared. With a twist of his pen, the view zoomed out and showed that there were thousands of waterfalls. Every one of them emptying down into a large river.

“This is on Sortocs.” Stilas smiled, “The mountains are said to be the most beautiful in the entire universe.”

“That’s amazing.” Bethany breathed, “What else is there?”

“What else do you want to see?” Stilas asked

Bethany scooted next to Stilas, “Everything.”