Foretold: Necromancer's Blight: Book 1 Read online

  Not that I thought that was what George was doing. I meant for me.

  George gave me a surprised look, maybe because I took wingman last time, and then said, “I’m going to grab lunch and hit class, see you later?”

  I just nodded, I’d already started typing my latest assignment out on my laptop…

  Chapter Two

  The bar was packed with students as George and I made our way inside. It was laid out in three different areas. There was the front which had the main bar, tables, restrooms, and the entrance to the kitchen, a second large room where live bands played with a bunch of tables, but there was no one on a Monday night, just the jukebox. The music was loud, but not to the point we couldn’t talk to people.

  The last part was actually outside, a fenced in patio.

  I felt a buzz of energy and looked over to the left, and with a thought and a burst of energy banished the ghost. I didn’t exactly go out of my way to banish them all, wherever I sent them when I did that, but I made it a point to send away all the ones that fed on human energy.

  They might not have been evil, but they were at least assholes.

  The ones that just haunted cemeteries and buildings I generally left alone if they kept their distance. They weren’t hurting anyone after all, so there was no need to mess with them.

  I caught a glance of the victim’s face as she turned, and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it was Christina. I’d just taken care of a ghost on her less than eight hours ago. I looked away before she caught me staring again, but not before I noticed the big guy sitting with her. He looked like a professional weight lifter and model. For some reason, I felt a stab of disappointment, even though I didn’t know anything about her.

  I supposed it wasn’t a surprise she was with someone already. She was gorgeous.

  I shook that off as ridiculous, it was just my hormones talking. Of course, that would have been enough for me to want to get to know her better. George and I got some drinks at the bar. I got a long island iced tea, and George got a beer. My drink was pretty strong, so I’d make it last. I just for some reason, really hated beer.

  Either because it reminded me of that day, or because it tasted disgusting.

  Or both.

  We just relaxed for a few minutes and tried to absorb the atmosphere. Or at least, that’s what I was doing. George looked like a hunter scanning for prey out of a deer blind. He was a good enough guy I supposed, followed the roommate code and everything, but…

  I really missed my old roommate.

  Maybe I was just too serious about things. When a person knows for sure there’s an afterlife and ghosts, a person’s perspective kind of changes, and a whole slew of other questions come up. Instead of is there a god, it’s more like what was god thinking? And where do the ghosts go anyway? Why don’t they come back? Why am I a necromancer, and what does that really mean, because I’m fairly sure google is full of shit.

  George asked, “What do you think?”

  I glanced around, and saw the blonde mountain leave, without Christina. Maybe she wasn’t dating after all?

  Right, my roommate’s quest, I looked around some more.

  “The blonde and the redhead, far table, blonde is mine.”

  George said, “But the redhead looks more conservative to me.”

  The redhead was wearing a tight pencil skirt, and a crop top with a loose blouse over it. The blonde had on short jean shorts, and a very tight top that advertised her every curve. Going off that, George would be right.

  I smiled, “Don’t look at their clothes George, look at their body language and faces. The blonde looks uncomfortable. I bet you twenty bucks the redhead not only dragged her here, but dressed her in those clothes as well. Red is on a hunt to get caught, and the blonde is her safety valve. Trust me.”

  I also knew Red would make a good friend, if not a good girlfriend. I was hardly judgmental of her lifestyle, it just wasn’t for me.

  I don’t know why, but I’ve always been good at picking out intentions and judging people. The blonde dead girl from my youth obviously being an exception. I didn’t get those feelings from the dead. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the necromancer thing, but I’m a fairly good judge of character. Like I know George will be a decently good roomy, except he’s a little too obsessed with partying, and sleeping with every woman he can get his hands on.

  Not judging his lifestyle either, but his lifestyle unlike red’s, will have an effect on me, so…

  It’s mostly situational though, people aren’t pigeonholed that easily, but in that moment, I knew their intentions for the evening. Call it a gut feeling. If it was something extra, maybe I was evil using my powers to pick up women. I grinned.

  George shook his head, “I won’t take that bet, let’s go.”

  I let him lead, as a good wingman should…

  Things were going pretty well so far, for red and George anyway. The redhead was very outgoing, and her name was Stacey, but her nickname in my mind was still red. The blonde’s name was Amy, and she was as painfully shy as I’d expected, despite being extremely attractive and dressed the way she was.

  I let George and Stacey dominate the conversation, while every once in a while I tried to talk Amy out of her shell. If nothing else, it was a fun challenge.

  It was about fifteen minutes in when I felt a buzzing again. It wasn’t like when a ghost got close to me though, it was different. The buzz was loud, and vibrated against my skin. Like the difference between the buzzing of a bee, and that of a power transformer. Not only did my hair stand up on my arms and on the back of my neck, but my goosebumps got goosebumps.

  My heart beat faster, and I just sensed danger.

  I’d never felt anything like it before, and it was most certainly not a ghost, or at least not a normal one. The only time I’d felt something similar was when I was thirteen, that cute dead girl that had suckered me and feasted on all my energy, so much energy that she’d manifested, been visible to normal people. That had been almost as strong as this, but not quite.

  I looked in the direction it was coming from, and decided it was outside, in the alley behind the kitchen. Dark wavy but shiny hair caught my peripheral vision, and I turned in time to see Christina run out the front door, and lost sight of her as she turned toward the alley.

  What in the hell?

  “Umm, excuse me a moment,” I said absently to Amy, and I got up to follow.

  I was already scolding myself for being stupid, and a sucker, before I even made it to the door. But far beyond her good looks, I was obsessed with the idea of finding out what Christina’s story was. I knew she wasn’t a necromancer like me, but she was something different. Call it another gut feeling, though I couldn’t explain it past that.

  Plus, there was the matter of the eight ghosts I’d banished that had connected to her, one for each time I’d laid eyes on her. I’d never seen a human have more than one before.

  There was also a puerile part of me that thought she might be in real danger, and that she needed my help. I did have a bit of a hero complex on occasion, and I was almost positive being a necromancer wasn’t responsible for that. No, that lay squarely on the sucker born every minute thing.

  Of course, google ascribed necromancy to dark magic, I wasn’t sure I believed in magic. Magic was simply energy that modern science doesn’t have an explanation for yet. I was almost sure anyway. After all, my magic, felt a little bit like standing too close to a bug zapper. For some reason, most humans couldn’t even perceive that energy, yet I could see, hear, feel, and command it.

  And I’d never once had to chant a spell, it was all intentions, and force of will.

  I got outside and turned toward the alley, and stopped at the corner, frozen in disbelief.

  Okay, I totally lost credibility as a necromancer, when I saw my very first vampire. All I can say in my defense, was I grew up in a small town.

  The buzzing turned out to be a slavering red eyed undead cre
ature, with long fangs. The second part of my shock, was that Christina was kicking its ass. I just stood there and watched, as the lithe gorgeous woman kicked, punched, and threw the vampire against the wall.

  Then she pulled out an eight-inch dagger from a hidden boot sheath, that looked too shiny to be steel, it looked more like silver.

  I felt the second buzzing moving quickly from the other direction, and before she could stab the first one, the second was going to arrive.

  I cried out, “Look out Christina.”

  Of course, she looked toward me.

  Before I could fix my mistake and say behind you, the second one tacked her from behind, and she did a nose dive into the cement.

  I cringed at the crunching noise of cartilage, that had to hurt.

  The first one got up and crawled on all fours, in a really creepy way, right toward her. It was like something out of a horror flick.

  She was stunned, and the second one climbed up her body, and was about to munch on her neck.

  So much for saving her, I was working on getting her killed with my idiocy.

  I gathered the energy inside me and shot it out, like I would with a ghost, and nothing happened. I’d stunned them for a moment, but then they kept coming.

  I gathered more energy and shot it out into them, and yelled, “Stop!”

  They stopped, and I could feel the energy I put inside them, connected with my mind and will. I probably could have sucked their necromantic energy dry and banished them at that point, but I was in shock at what I’d done.

  It figures, that the first time I ever commanded the undead, it would be for a pretty face.

  Christina had recovered, and rolled to the left, and jabbed the dagger into the first vampire’s chest, while she pinned the other one down by the neck with her left arm. The buzzing energy must have been in its heart, because I felt the energy, both mine and the energy that had possessed him run through the dagger, and into Christina before it dissipated.

  Did she just kill a ghost?

  She immediately pulled it out, and did a repeat performance for the one underneath her, and the energy dissipated. This time I felt it, the ghost bound inside the undead vampire body, or soul, or spirit, whatever it was, was just banished when the energy holding it to this plane was removed. Kind of the same way I banished ghosts.

  She stood up and walked toward me, her dagger disappeared into a boot in one smooth movement.

  “Did you just control those vampires? To save me?”

  She sounded confused. Really confused.

  I didn’t see the point in denying it, “Only after I accidentally distracted you from the second one. It was the least I could do.”

  She furrowed her brow in confusion, “You don’t feel like one of them. What are you?”

  I heard a deep voice behind me, “He’s a bloody necromancer, are you blind Chris?”

  I hadn’t even heard his approach, I’d been too busy staring into her vivid blue eyes, wondering what to tell her, and wondering what to ask. It had never occurred to me that I might be in danger from the young woman I’d just saved.

  I turned my head in time to see the built guy from earlier. Specifically, his fist, as it thundered toward my face. After that, nothing but darkness.

  Chapter Three

  Ouch. I was still a sucker. No good deed and all that. I groaned, as I woke up with a damned headache. I’d never been hit so hard in my life. Not that I’d been in a lot of scraps, but I’d seen a few in high school. They weren’t necromancers, but they were clearly not normal either. I tried to move but couldn’t, my arms and legs were tied down.

  I opened my eyes, and tried not to panic as I took in my surroundings. I seemed to be in some type of metal chair, the kind that evokes thoughts of torture, with leather straps wrapped tightly around my arms and legs. They were reinforced with metal that looked suspiciously like silver. This couldn’t be good, not good at all. The room looked like an empty bedroom in a house, except no windows. Just plaster walls, moldings, white paint, and a sturdy looking wood door.

  I wondered if my roomy had looked for me, or called the police. Pessimistically, I decided not if he managed to score a night with red. I frowned, I didn’t know what time it was either, was it still Monday night?

  They must have been monitoring me somehow, because a door opened and three people walked in. The first was an older man, with a grim face, salt and pepper hair, and vivid blue eyes that matched Christina’s. So, father maybe? Some older family member.

  Christina came in after that, with an upset look on her face. I took that to mean things didn’t bode well for my continued health.

  The last in was the guy who hit me. He had blonde hair, gray eyes, and looked angry.

  “Who are you,” said the older man.

  “Tom Daniels, who are you?”

  He said, “I’m asking the questions here, where is Macy?”

  “Who’s Macy?” I asked.

  Christina said, “He doesn’t know anything about our world, much less where Macy is, can’t you see that. And he doesn’t have the taint. He saved my life.”

  He frowned, “It doesn’t make sense, then why was he in the alley?”

  She looked at me curiously, “Why did you follow me?”

  I shrugged, or would have if my arms could move, I was able to roll my eyes in annoyance though.

  “I’ve banished eight ghosts attached to you since the new semester started just over two weeks ago. Every time I see you, you’ve had a passenger. I was curious why, I’d never seen a person haunted like that time and time again. Plus, when I felt those… vampires?”

  She nodded.

  “I’d never felt anything like that before, only ghosts, and it was clear you could feel it too. I never known anyone that was like me, or was more than human, I was curious. Then I almost got you killed with that warning, so…”

  I trailed off.

  The jerk looked disgusted, “Macy must be using them to spy on us. No wonder she’s stayed a step ahead of us.”

  “Who’s Macy?”

  Christina replied, “A necromancer, we hunt them.”

  Oh, that’s just perfect. Google never said anything about necromancer hunters. Sure, villagers with torches and pitchforks, but supernatural hunters, not a thing.

  Muscles said, “If he knows nothing we should just kill him now.”

  Christina frowned, “But Matt, he doesn’t have the taint, he’s never raised the dead. There’s something different about him too, he almost feels like one of us. Use your judgement.”

  Well, at least I had a name for meathead now. It was also clear to me that she’d meant the word judgement, to mean more than it would to a human. I also learned that taint is bad, whatever the hell that is.

  Matt snorted, “He’s a necromancer Chris, that’s all I need to know,” he said through gritted teeth, and he stormed out.

  She said, “Dad?”

  “What is judgement?”

  She frowned at me, but answered anyway, “We can gauge a person’s… intentions and if their good or bad.”

  Oh. What the hell was I? That sounded a lot like what I can do.

  The man gazed at me for a long time.

  “I need to check on something, don’t get close to him,” he ordered, and then he walked out.

  I asked, “So, what are you?”

  She shook her head, “There’s a whole world out there you know nothing about. How is that even possible?”

  I shrugged, or at least tried to again, “I was raised in a small town, I was adopted, and outside of UIC I haven’t really gone anywhere. I can also do that judgement thing. Oh, and I’d like to not die, if you’re taking requests.”

  She smirked, “That last one is usually a given. We’re… the supernatural police? We are descended from the Nephilim.”

  “Nephilim? Half angels?”

  She nodded, “We aren’t that, we have trace amounts of angelic blood. The Nephilim could be classed as minor gods, we’
re just faster, stronger, and longer lived than humans. We can also use judgement.”

  “Good metabolisms, hardly have to work out to maintain your physique, heal about three times faster than humans?”

  She tilted her head, “Yes.”

  I sighed, “Then I don’t know what the hell I am, because I can do all that shit too, not just ghosts.”

  She bit her lip, and I swear I was a sucker, because even though I might be dead soon I was tempted to ask her out. I also couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t quite panicking, shouldn’t I be climbing the walls in my mind at this point? Nope, calm as a cucumber, which was really strange. Not that I was given to panic often, but I normally had the same amount of healthy fear that every other human did. This situation definitely called for panic, or at the very least mild concern.

  “So, vampires…” I prompted.

  She said, “Not like the books, no sparkles. They are created by necromancers, and are pretty much slaves. There are a few independent ones, we call them wild vampires, if the necromancer that created them dies they can live on by consuming the blood of the living. They’re all abominations, and we kill them on sight.”

  “What else is there?”

  She sighed, “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Let’s see, witches, Shifters, and Fae, along with us and Necromancers are the five magical races. Necromancers are the only natural race that we kill on sight because of the taint.

  “Vampires, Wight’s, and Zombies, are the unnatural races created by Necromancers. Half-demons are an evil Witch thing. Those we all kill on sight as well.”

  I asked, “So… Witches, Shifters, Fae, and your race are given the benefit of the doubt, and a trial?”

  She nodded, “Yes, welcome to the real world.”

  I asked, “So, what time is it?”

  She smiled, and despite being tied down I returned it. Weird.