Jenna decided that she won’t try to free Teodore from the police. The little jerk only got what he was asking for, and she knew that Don Sebastiano would bail him out anyway. Despite the fact that he only was the Don’s nephew, he somehow managed to become the favourite child in the Carano family.
The girl made her shadow hound disappear then closed the zipper of her leather jacket to cover her bare chest. Her missing shirt was the other reason why she was so annoyed: when the fight started, she was enjoying the company of a beautiful, although virtually brainless young man. The whole activity was promised to be a very good stress-relief after a long, long week, and things just started to be more interesting when Teodore ripped the back door of the car open, even though it was locked.
‘If you are done with your toy, we need your help. The Montgomery fuckers are here,’ he said with a bland expression on his face.
‘I’m not done yet!’ hissed Jenna angrily, ‘I am so f****** far from done!’
It didn’t really matter anymore. The young, pretty boy opened the other door, lept out and started to run barefoot, only in his underpants, trying to hide his very visible enthusiasm.
‘Hey, Whatsyourname, come back!’ cried Jenna after him, but the boy already reached a corner and went out of sight. She huffed, like an angry cat. ‘Do you have any idea how long I haven’t been…’
‘Don’t know, don’t care,’ cut in Teodore, ‘Time to go.’
And indeed, spells started to rain from every direction, shaking the car, breaking its windshields. Jenna grabbed her jacket from the floor, but she couldn’t find her shirt in the dark, so left without it.
Now, a long half an hour later she was crouching in the doorway of some jewellery shop, bending shadows and noises to hide herself, her ears were ringing and hurt, she had a bad headache and worst of all, a heavy, empty feeling in her lower stomach. She was angry at everyone from that annoying, pretentious redhead Robert Montgomery to Teodore and her father, but mostly at Teodore: Jenna might have missed the beginning of the fight but had no doubt who started it.
She knew that she couldn’t stay there for much longer. Policemen, despite the common urban legend, could not see through cloaking spells, but they were able to literally smell someone and even follow a scent like a bloodhound. Especially if the target was bleeding, that being their speciality, and Jenna had some scratches from the fight. They had another strength, though, which the girl could use against them: their hearing. She touched the Rune of Voice on her silver bracelet and imagined the noise of fleeing steps, getting further through the alley on the other side of the food court and going away. She even made them quieter and quieter as they went away, and added some quick heartbeat and panting to make it more believable.
The policemen were fooled by the beat; they moved silently, in creepy sync. Jenna started to sneak to the opposite direction, where she knew she would find a side entrance off the court. Luckily, it wasn’t guarded so she went out and turned to the narrow, cobblestoned walk bridge across the canal which was ended almost in the front door of a Starbucks. Only then she noticed the officer standing right on top of the bridge, facing the other way. It was a woman, her all-black uniform tried and failed to hide her figure. She was tall and dark-haired. She had her whip out, a weapon which, Jenna knew that only too well, caused unbearable pain and paralysis even with a gentle, slight touch. And the whip wasn’t even the worst thing they carried: every officer of the Special Response Unit, funded and trained by the Commissioner himself, had the tool called the Signum. It was a stamp, sunk in permanent, uncleanable ink, with the Runes of Denial, Forbid, Body and Power, forming a strong spell which made for the bearer impossible to use magic. The worst thing was, the victim powered it with their own magic every time they tried to use it, and it lasted too long: the sign needed weeks to wear off. Not that the members of SRU needed any of those things to stop anyone breaching the peace of the Queen.
For all of these reasons Jenna seriously considered to go back and hide, but that wasn’t a real option: she knew that the other two officers she managed to mislead will be back soon. There was a walking path along the canal, but it didn’t do any good to the girl, because the policewoman on the bridge would spot her the moment she started to walk on it.
Fight wasn’t the right decision either. Jenna knew that she could take her, and probably her two fellow officers as well, but there was no point to it and held the danger of getting herself recognised. No, her way out definitely wasn’t through power, but deception.
Three silhouettes started to run at once, one back to the market, one was speeding down on the bank of the canal and one was already on the other side, going around the coffee shop. All of them looked the same, short girl with a lot of curly hair, a leather jacket and somehow blurred unrecognisable face. The SRU officer hesitated for a second, then smiled like a hungry lion as she made after the only one which had a faint smell of perfume, smoke and sweat. The real Jenna was particularly proud of this idea as she stepped out of the shadows, walked over the now empty bridge, towards the Underground station. She wanted to be as far as possible from disappointing dates and relatives and Montgomerys and wanted to sleep for a couple of days.
***
It was almost six in the morning when Robert finally made it home. After he escaped from the police, at his car he found Rose, Benjamin, and a kid named Martin, who was a tall, muscular boy in his early twenties, with grey eyes and undying adoration towards Robert. They all were very excited and high on adrenaline and God knows on what else.
‘What the hell was all this, then?’ he asked his brother opening the car ‘I thought we had an understanding about all this f******.’
‘They started it,’ said Benjamin defensively.
‘But you were the one who set half of Camden Market on fire!’ snapped Robert.
‘It was self-defence, bro. And I only wanted to lit up that creepy Carano bitch anyway.’
‘Yeah, it was her fault,’ said Robert sarcastically ‘If only she would like to be burned alive…’
Benjamin gave an offended look to his older brother, who couldn’t care less. ‘Get in the car,’ he said, and the three of them did so.
‘So… What happened?’ asked Rose, after the engine coughed itself alive ‘Did you beat her?’
‘No,’ answered Robert honestly, taking a turn from the back street to the main road ‘She got me this time, but then the police showed up so we ran away.’
‘You will get her next time, boss,’ said Martin ‘She was lucky, that’s all.’
‘She is an extremely powerful sorceress,’ told him Robert ‘You all should stay away from her.’
‘But you jump on every opportunity to fight her,’ pointed out Rose, with a shade of jealousy in her voice.
‘I am extremely powerful as well,’ shrugged Robert ‘And someone has to save your arse every now and then.’
‘Poser,’ coughed Benjamin ‘Hey, can we stop at that Tesco? I want an ice cream.’
Robert sighed and draw the car aside, so his brother could get out. Benjamin walked in the shop, and Robert decided it was more than enough family time for a day, so off he went, leaving his annoying brother behind. Martin laughed, and Rose shook her head.
The traffic was still light as Robert gave a lift home to Martin, and only began to get heavier when they reached the tall tower almost back at Camden Town, where Rose lived. The girl took off Robert’s coat and smiled as she caught his glimpse at her chest in the rearview mirror.
‘Do you wanna come up?’ she asked ‘You know… For a coffee…?’
Robert shook his head. Rose looked sober enough to make her own decisions and it wouldn’t be the first time they helped out each other when in need, but somehow he wasn’t in the mood. His arm was still hurting where the bloody dog bit him, and he was exhausted.
‘I’m going to take a rain check on that, sorry,’ he said ‘I have a very long day ahead and it’s starting way too soon.’
‘Your loss, sweetie,’ answered Rose, then leaned forward between the seats and gave a kiss on his cheek. ‘Thanks for the saving, by the way.’
‘Yeah…’ he muttered ‘My pleasure.’
Then he went home and took a long, hot shower because that’s what every character would have done after a fight in the books and movies he liked. It didn’t help though, as he realised he’s not in one. He hoped that a big, strong coffee would help, and it didn’t make things worse, which was a small victory on a morning like this.
He gave a longing look to his warm and inviting bed, but he knew that if he closes his eyes even for just a minute, he won’t be able to get out of bed for the next twelve hours. So he brewed another coffee instead and was happy that his couch was terribly uncomfortable. The pain pulsing in his arm helped a bit as well.
After he finished the second cup, he got up to take a look at his arm. The bite of the shadow hound wasn’t deep and it stopped bleeding a long time ago, but Robert still wanted to do something about it. He was fairly sure that not-really-existing dogs cannot carry any diseases but poured some antiseptic over the tooth marks nevertheless. Then he wrapped his arm with bandages. They were magically enhanced and made the injuries heal faster, but Robert wasn’t sure how exactly, as it was some kind of potion they were dipped in, and that was out of his area of expertise.
Not long after seven, he had to start to get ready for work. Putting on clothes was painful as he had a lot of bruises from the falling and Teodore, so he went with a pair of jeans and a white shirt instead of one of his suits. He found a spare wand in his coat, which he put into his jeans pocket, and picked up his phone, surprisingly not broken, and he was good to go. Well, goodish, he thought.
The city was awake by the time Robert got in his car again, and the traffic was about to shape up to be a real Monday morning nightmare. There was a lot of waiting and honking and breaking at the very last second behind some idiot who thought taking a U-turn in the middle of the road is a good idea. In a word, it was a usual morning in London. Robert wondered, while waiting at the red signal, that he might be better off using public transport, but as always, talked himself out of it. He knew about all the unspeakable horrors lurking under the city, and he was sure there were monsters, too.
He couldn’t understand how he wasn’t late, because he tried to be really hard. Even stopped at a deli for a full breakfast and another coffee, but it wasn’t enough: at five minutes before nine, he was in the lecture hall, saying a lot of “good morning” for the arrival youth, who looked even more tired than him. They slowly occupied more and more seats in the descending viewing area.
Five minutes after nine Robert decided to start, so he sat up onto his desk, which hurt badly, took a sip of coffee and looked at his students.
‘First of all, if any of you actually wrote the paper on poltergeist that I asked last week, well, keep them for next time. I don’t feel like grading them and you could do a better job anyway.’
There was a couple of smiles, a few pissed off faces and at least two people whispering to the one next to them that ‘What paper? There was a paper?’
‘Right,’ Robert continued ‘The second topic. The dean asked me to tell you all, again: do not use magic to fly the books to yourself in the library. There were accidents. Magic isn’t a toy. Etcetera, etcetera. Apparently, we need to redo the class on aiming…’
Robert’s original plan for the day was to get up early and write up some notes for the lessons he was about to give today, but Benjamin ruined everything, as per usual. Still, he didn’t arrive empty-handed.
‘Today, due to the aforementioned laziness, I have a brain teaser for you. Whoever gives an answer I like, will have an “A” for this semester, therefore, can skip all the papers and exams until the next one.’
The undergraduates got instantly excited, at least those who weren’t sleeping behind their opened laptops.
‘So my question is: how do you create an actual, physically existing dog with its own will, seemingly only out of shadows?’
Pensive faces, some snoring from the higher seats. Then a hand moved into the air.
‘Yes, Bartek?’ said Robert.
‘The most obvious explanation is that the dog was a demon,’ said the boy with a strong eastern-European accent. Robert took a few second to think about it, then shook his head. He knew demons very well and was sure about he could tell when one of them was close. Besides, summoning magic was very old fashioned and ethically questionable, something Jenna Carano probably wouldn’t use.
‘Let’s say it wasn’t a demon,’ he answered ‘What else you’ve got?’
Bartek shrugged but an Indian girl two rows behind him put her hand up.
‘Yes… Alisha…?’
‘Adhira,’ corrected him the girl ‘If it’s not a demon, then it could be an actual dog. Some rare mixed thing maybe.’
‘No,’ said Robert ‘it looked like if it was actually made from shadows, there was no real resemblance with anything that could exist in nature.’
Adhira took a moment to think, then her face lit up.
‘Maybe it was a real dog, but covered in some kind of illusion,’ she said proudly. Robert pondered on the idea. It was a promising one, yet somehow didn’t feel right.
‘Not bad,’ he said ‘but the dog was bigger than any other dog I’ve ever seen. Almost as big as a bear.’
‘Small dog, big illusion?’ offered someone. Robert shook his head again and finished off his coffee. Then he hopped down on the floor and walked behind his table to sit down.
‘An idea worth an instant “A” for both of you when the next paper is due,’ he said ‘but not the idea I was looking for. Keep thinking, ladies and gentlemen.’
And they did. The next guess came from a boy called Jabir, who stuck to the “real dog”-theory and claimed size can be altered by magic.
‘But not on a living thing,’ pointed out an Asian girl from the first row.
‘Theoretically speaking, it is possible,’ objected Jabir ‘although it would require more than one sorcerer. Or an extremely powerful energy source, like a nuclear power plant or a thunderbolt.’
‘And even in that case,’ retrieved the word Robert ‘the procedure would most likely lead to the sorcerer or sorcerers’ death. The human body can channel only so much magic, as you know, and not even the most talented of us could handle this amount.’
‘Not even you, professor?’ asked Adhira.
‘I’m nowhere close to that,’ he laughed ‘Okay, so let’s assume the spell has been done by only one person, in the limitations of what humanly possible, and without the help of Thor and his thunderbolts.’
For the next couple of minutes, the only noise was the quiet clanking of the keyboards as the students used the Internet to find something useful.
‘It could be a bad omen,’ said a Romanian girl, named Andreea, with two “e” for some reason ‘back at home there were tales of a big, black dog, often seen in cemeteries. The elders said it means death.’
‘Also, in folktales, I think vampires could take the shape of a dog or wolf, sir,’ added someone else.
‘Perhaps there is a link, as Romania is the home of the most famous, or should I say, infamous vampire ever lived… Or undead…ed?’ explained Robert ‘Also there are several mythological dogs associated with death, such as Cerberus, the guard of the dead in Greek mythology. But as you can see, I’m not dead, and in real life, vampires cannot shapeshift.’
‘So you have seen this thing, professor? For real? Where?’
He realised that he might have said too much, but being the teacher means you don’t have to answer questions if you don’t want to, and he chose not to. Instead, he gave the word to an Australian guy, who stated, with his lazy accent that ‘He just jokin’ round, mates, s*** cannot be done. Can I have the “A” now?’
This, rather unsurprisingly, wasn’t the right answer.
