Maggie Sinclair - The Hounds of War

[Nathan Caroland]

Ever have one of those days where you wonder just why you bother to get up in the morning? How things just never seem to go your way? To date, I've been wondering that for just a little over a year now.

Crime seems to have come to a head in the last couple of years, its like the world is turning in on itself, and all the spite, hatred and ugly meanness in people is coming to the forefront and sure enough, us police officers are bearing the brunt of it.

My name is Maggie Sinclair. I'm with the Department of Supernatural Investigations and Security, called the SIS for short, and I am the departmental liaison with the San Francisco Police Department. I'm a Witch.

I joined the force almost three years ago when the government decided to put witches on the payroll due to the amount of crimes that were being committed with the workings of the Wyrd. Robberies by magical compulsion, kidnapping by summoned entities and murder through some of the darker arts such as voodoo.

I thought I could make a difference. I'm not sure now.

__

It was a day like any other, meaning, it was crap before I even managed to make it out of bed properly. I was awoken by my beeper which had an emergency code flashing. Pulling on a robe I quickly stumbled across the cold floor and punched in the number on my cell phone. Rex, my Saint Bernard, padded into the room and greeted me with an enthusiastic push and a glob of slobber on my bare toes as I scratched his broad head.

Still wiping my foot across the hem of my robe the line connected after three rings and a harsh voice answered, "Detective Komers."

"This is Maggie Sinclair with the SIS, I was paged," I answered quickly and from the background noise I could hear someone on a mega-phone before the Detective spoke, he sounded a bit put out.

"Get your gear together, I have a cruiser coming to pick you up right now. We've got a situation ..." for a moment I could hear the disgust in his voice, "that requires your type of finesse." I started to ask him for details but the sound of prolonged gunfire cut off anything I could say. "Get your ass down here now!" he practically roared into the phone before hanging up.

For a moment I just held the phone to my ears as if willing it to divulge secrets to me and with a sigh I flipped the phone close. As I started to get dressed Rex jumped up into the bed and found the warm spot that I was so rudely woken from. At least one of us would have a good day.

Being part of the SIS had some perks, as I wasn't required to dress like the average officer as technically I held the same rank as a Detective, which allowed me a bit more leeway, which of course I took full advantage of. Being in a bit of a hurry I just grabbed up the clothes I was wearing the night before, a black pair of jeans and a white half shirt. It was at that time that someone knocked on my door. "In a minute!"

Pulling on a pair of well worn steel toed combat boots and leather jacket, I quickly put my badge in the armband so that I wouldn't have to have it dangling around my neck. As I was expecting more than a bit of trouble I decided to break out the full arsenal.

Three charms of protection, a hex hammer for breaking wards, my SIS issued grimoire and a 9mm glock which I quickly strapped to my leg holster, each bullet in the clip inscribed with a rune of harm. Oh, and my trusty pair of knuckle dusters, a girl can't have too much protection.

The knocking had become more insistent and with a quick word to Rex to be good I opened the door to find an impatient officer with the name tag 'Lampert' on his chest. "Officer Lampert, lead the way!" He just stared at me for a moment and I knew why.

Oh, don't think me vain, but to be honest, I'm damn good looking, and of course wearing what I was, with my midriff showing and the shirt just a tad tight across the chest, I knew exactly what he was looking at. I'm 5'6", blond, blue eyed, have honey cream skin and look damn good in a bathing suit.

Aaaah ... the wonders of magic.

You would never have guessed I used to be a brown eyed dirty blonde, rather frumpy looking and the victim of a bad case of acme scars from my childhood. But then again, no one else knew either. I've burned every picture of me that there ever was and my own mother, if she were alive, wouldn't be able to recognize me, thank the Powers.

Clearing my throat slightly I get the officers attention and smile slightly, "We have somewhere to go?" That got his attention. He colored slightly, "Ummm .. yes ma'am. Uh .. follow me please." Rolling my eyes slightly I follow the young officer.

As we jump in the cruiser I quickly tune into the scanner and listen in on what is happening and quickly hear the dispatcher calling in a triple six distress call, alerting the police officers. I still secretly laughed sometimes when I heard them call in a magical disturbance. Triple six. 666. Sign of the Beast. Someone needed an imagination.

It took just a little over ten minutes to make from the south side to downtown with the sirens and lights blaring the whole way. In the mean time, I was able to glean from the radio and Officer Lampert that apparently a drug raid went bad, and what was supposed to be a few minor players turned out to be some seriously armed dealers with at least one of them being a level two practitioner.

That's why I was called. I'm a level three practioner and odds are, I can take him on, spell for spell. There are five levels of Wyrd-craft. Level one is the lowest - parlor tricks, create some fire, small stuff. Level two is where the magic starts to get a bit dangerous if used improperly, protective spells and wyrding that can kill someone easily. Level three, that's me, takes it a step further, summoning, binding, the real freaky and fun stuff. Level four practioners are real scary bastards. I've only ever met one level four caster and he killed over a forty armed men and three witches before he was taken down. And level five ... I've never met one.

Hope I never do.

We finally pulled up to the area where the action was going down and I saw that an office building was completely surrounded and from inside the sound of gunfire could be heard. I also felt the distinct tremor of offensive magic as one of my charms alerted me to it. Jumping out of the car, I followed Lampert over to Detective Komers who was busy yelling into a radio. More gunshots, followed by a what sounded to be a small bomb, echoed over the radio. Moments later smoke began rolling out of the windows on the second floor.

Glancing over Detective Komers looked me over for a moment and I could see that he didn't really like what he saw. Probably one of those that hated the Wyrd, no matter who or what used it. Simpleton. "You're Sinclair I take it," at my nod he ran a hand through his thinning hair for a moment. "We've got at least five individuals holed up in that office building there, all armed and at least one that can cast magic. I've had three officers shot and one killed by magic when his eyes were boiled from his head before being shot through the head." Real anger was being held in check I noticed. Barely.

"Right, what do you want from me," I asked politely and professionally now that I was about to go toe to toe with another practitioner. He looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Stop them for shits sake!" he yelled, his words punctuated by another explosion from the building. "Lampert, escort her in," he said before turned away from me and back to the radio in hand.

Lampert looked like he was going to fall over, but I smiled and sure enough, he sucked in his gut, squared his shoulders and we started running for the building. Hah, men!

Once we entered the building you could immediately see signs of a gunfight as many of the walls were shot up and there was a splattering of blood across one wall near the entrance, presumably where one of the officers was shot. Dashing up a side stairwell past heavily armed officers in riot gear, we reached the second floor.

Peeking out through the mass of bodies I saw that several of our men were pinned down on the opposite side of the hallway, one or more of them wounded as a puddle of blood was slowly spreading across the waxed floor. More bullets shattered through the wall where the men where huddled as I watched.

Acting quickly, I pulled a charm from my pocket and set it to spinning, sending a tickle of magic into the charm as I sought out the assailants, a small line of energy darting from the charm and down the hallway, bringing to my minds eye the scene down the hallway where three gunman and the warlock were barricaded. On the floor, there was a fifth body, riddled with bullets. With a snarl, I watched the warlock snare my far vision spell and shred it mercilessly, causing me to cry out momentarily as a blinding pain erupted behind my eyes. It took some moments before I was able to function.

In the mean time, the warlock cast another spell, and suddenly the pooling blood from the wounded men that had seeped into the hallway rose up and formed into the semblance of a man. The wounded men began screaming as the creature pulled the blood from their very bodies in order to form itself.

Level two practitioner my ass! That bastard just summoned a flippin' Blood Horror!

Pulling the hex hammer from my pouch I ran across the corridor in order to get to the summoned creature. If I didn't do something quick, we were all in trouble. Of course, I realized I had forgotten about the bullets by the time I made it halfway across the hall as suddenly there were more shots fired and I found myself diving across the floor, bullets whizzing past me as I slid across the, thankfully, newly waxed floor. Of course, as luck would have it, I happened to go right through the growing Blood Horror as well.

That was unpleasant to say the least.

The hex hammer did its work though as I willed the proper ritual through it and it collapsed, literally, around me. I looked like a freakish Blood Horror myself though as I was now covered head to foot in blood, and the two police officers whose scarlet life the creature was forming from, were quite dead, little more than husks really. The remaining officer looked to be in shock and wouldn't budge when I tried to get him up. Little wonder. Workings of the Wyrd can do that to some people.

Weaving a shield of air, I dashed back across the hallway, bullets bouncing off the defense that I wove, though something hit it with enough force that I put the imprint of my upper body into the sheet rock wall as I bounced off of it before falling into the arms of the awaiting officers back on the other side of the hallway.

Actually, they really had no choice, though I noticed a few of them tried to get out of the way so as to not get blood all over them. I'm sure I made quite the ghastly appearance as I blinked several times, bright white eyes looking out from a mask of blood. I think my date potential dropped several steps with this group.

If I didn't stop this, things were going to get bad.

Taking a breath, which wasn't easy believe me, I looked to the Sergent near the stairwell, "I saw two K-9 Units outside - have the officers bring them in." He didn't question me, but I did hear someone ask over the radio "whats that crazy bitch want with them?" thankfully the Sergent wasn't taking any gruff though as he just repeated the order.

Nice to be appreciated.

In less than two minutes, the officers arrived with the K-9's, both of them with questioning looks, obviously not eager to loose their partners into what they considered sure death. I agreed with them, but it was us or them at this point and I quickly knelt down and gave both of the animals a quick pat, each of them growling at me, or more importantly, at the blood covering me.

"Sorry pooches," I said before I began casting a spell, one not in my SIS issued grimoire. I was going to get in trouble, but I think the results would keep the shit from hitting the fan too badly. Grabbing both of the animals, I spoke the last word of the spell before either of them could bite me or before the officers could pull them back.

The effect was immediate, as the animals began to spasm and grow, the sound of bones splintering and muscles popping filled the air along with their pained whimpers as they were turned into 'War Hounds'.

When the spell was done, the collars around their necks had snapped and the hallway became all the more cramped as each of the animals now stood easily five feet tall, a mouth full of razored fangs, bony spikes protruding from their backs and scythe-like nails on each paw. I noticed gouges in the floor already from where the two had spasmed in their changes. Blood red eyes gazed balefully at me as I mentally ordered them to 'kill' and directed them down the hallway. With deep growls the two beasts charged down the hallway and around the corner.

Gunfire immediately filled the hallway along with the panicked screams of the men and the warlock as well as the sound of ripping flesh and howls of the animals. This lasted for less than a minute before there was a heavy detonation and smoke began to fill the hallway. And everything was quiet.

The animals had done their job we came to find out, perhaps a bit too well. There wasn't much left of the four men after the creatures were done with them. Both of the War Hounds were dead as well, one filled with so much lead that its whole torso was literally torn open, its head hanging by muscles barely attached to meat that looked like so much hamburger. The second one, was done for by the Warlock, who actually died in the jaws of the beast, but not before enacting his revenge, as little remained of the animal other than the parts of it splattered across the wall.

"You BITCH!" someone screamed behind me and I turned just in time to avoid a fist from one of the K-9 officers, Taggert I think his name was. The other officers quickly subdued him and removed him from the area, though it was clear that more than a few of them were unhappy with me as well. K-9's were well trained animals, but were considered by many to be officers as well. I felt sorry for them as well, but the alternative was worse, they just didn't know it.

I don't think Officer Taggert ever forgave me.

__

I was right of course, I was in trouble for using the War Hounds spell, but when the results came back on just who the warlock was, I was more than forgiven.

Justin Wong, known as 'The Blaze' for his rather dramatic use of the Wyrd to summon fire and other destructive magic. Also a member of the Triad, a heavy hitter in slavery and drugs. He was also as close as you could get to being a Level 4 practitioner as you could get without actually being one. If he wasn't so hyped up on his own drugs that he could have thought clearly, I would have been dead in a very messy way.

I was damn lucky.

That night, when I got back to the apartment, I was greeted at the door by Rex. I cried for a long time as I held him before I fell to sleep.

[cdukino]

Wow, I seriously love this. Had a great time reading it at my leasure. Good atmosphere (felt a bit underworld like without being that somehow) and nice phrase of words. Would make a good base for a movie or commic too.

[Nathan Caroland]

Thanks Cindy, now if I can just figure out a way to make money off it (laughing).

Seriously though, I have considered trying to write for a living (or more to the point, work on something for a year or more and try and have it published) but I still don't have the 'knack' of it down overall and would need a seriously good editor should I ever attempt it.

That being said, I plan on exploring writing here in the future with a tad more seriousness. I've been published in some magazines, but nothing really special. I hope to flesh out Maggie a bit more, and some other characters, and have a bit of fun writing about them here.

Thanks again.

[Pinocchio]

Wow, that was awesome!

Just an idea (forgive me if it has been mentioned X amount of times already), what about a book with all the fluff from Malifaux and the Wyrd Chronicles, or even like GW with the Black Library, have another section of Wyrd dealing with fiction?

The fiction that definitely grabs me is the audio fan fiction (I.e. from the Aethervox), i can see that being used either as downloads or CDs, to listen whilst you paint, etc.

Again this is an idea thrown into the air, but out of all honesty, the fiction i have been hearing/reading so far, both online and in the books, have me hooked!

[dgraz]

Way cool Nathan. Reminds me a bit of the Dresden Files but different enough to be unique. I like the use of 'wyrd'.

I hope you find the time to do a lot more with Maggie....you were able to develop her character so much in that small amount that I already want to know more about her.

I'd buy that book.

Edit: With the way the E-books are now, you could pretty much publish it yourself.....if you can get the editing bit worked out. Even my mom has one of those E-books up for sale. With just the Wyrd following that you have I'm sure you would sell a few thousand copies and become a more established author.

Edited August 17, 2012 by dgraz

[Absolution Black]

Very nice! And have you considered joining in the Iron Quill when it starts again?

Its quite good fun, and hopefully encourages more people to try the writing lark!?

Theres info on here somewhere, or just PM Edonil lol..

[Nathan Caroland]

Heh, wow ... talk about a post from the past. I had forgotten about this to be honest.

I wrote this just a few months before I got serious about Wyrd, the miniatures and developing a game (which was still a couple years out from then even). I did take the time to go back through and read it again though and found I missed Maggie.

Might have to dig deep again and find some time for writing when things aren't as crazy.