Chapter 7: Violence on Tap

The glass Tessa threw was the first shot, but it didn’t stop there. Drunk Jack had quite a few buddies in the joint, and they, as one, jumped to his defense. They outnumbered us, but Tessa had the home field advantage. She pulled a pair of clubs out from under the bar. They were old and battered, with their metal surfaces dented and dinged, but they didn’t have to be pretty to work. She took one in each hand and jumped on the bar-top, daring someone to try her.

For my part, I kicked my feet up and over the bar to put my back to the wall and an obstacle between me and the ravenous drunkards. I was almost never the root cause for violent outbursts like this, but they happened around me, regardless. I was an easy scapegoat, and all it took was for one of them to say Necromancer, and they’d instantly outnumber me, like right now.

Tessa swung both the clubs around in the air in front of her like she knew how to use them. “Come on. You want to play stupid games? I’m gonna give you some stupid prizes. Maybe you should take a look at all the damage these puppies have taken and do the smart thing. Let someone else go first.”

“I know this isn’t the best time for this,” I said, grabbing an almost empty bottle of liquor from the counter. “But seeing as I probably won’t get another shot at this, Can I get your number?”

By the stars, what has gotten into me? Can I please stop thinking with my nethers for one second?

In a shocking turn of events, Tessa threw me one of the clubs. It was shaped close to an ancient baseball bat like you saw in museums, but with a little more heft to it. She took the liquor bottle from me, took a swig of it and threw the glass at Drunk Jack. This broke the surface tension, and violence boiled over.

Jack stepped back to wipe at the small bloody cuts on his face from the glassy debris, but two of his friends charged Tessa. Four hands reached up, trying to pull her from her perch, but I wasn’t having any of that. I reared back and took a swing at one of them, bashing their knuckles aside. The man let out an unmanly yelp of pain, and Tessa kicked the other man in the nose. There was a crunch and he, too, howled in pain and rage.

Jack got himself under control and picked up his empty stool. The drunk jerk flung it at Tessa, and she easily batted it aside with her club. That wasn’t the real threat, however. He followed up the throw with a lunge. Jack grabbed a hold of Tessa’s ankle and pulled her down from atop the bar. She grunted with pain as the landing knocked the air from her lungs.

Then, there were five fat, ugly men descending on her. For Tessa’s part, I could still see the club swinging and more than one of her attackers recoiled after receiving the business end of one of her strikes, but she was now on the ground. Fists raised and legs cocked back, ready to deliver a series of blows that were sure to send her home in a box.

The only problem with the drunkards’ strategy was they had forgotten all about the pissed off necromancer behind the bar. Most people thought of necromancers as disgusting magic-slinging abominations that played with the dead. While I did play with the dead, that wasn’t the extent of my power. You could control your risen minions without also being a skilled mental dominator. I tried hard not to use that power on the living because, besides being morally questionable, it also made it hard to walk down the street without getting attacked on sight.

Normally, I would have just walked away, slipped out the back and hidden out on Bradley’s ship, waiting to leave port. I’d make a mental note not to come back to the Revaulo Space Port for a few months, and that would be that. If you can’t tell, I’m not a hero, and I’m generally not a nice person. Nice necromancers don’t last long. The world ejects them into the black abyss.

However, all of that was in a normal situation. This was not normal. Not only was Tessa defending me, but she was doing it while knowing full-well what I was. Nevermind that she was hot, and knew where the Valraiths liked to hide out at. Reaching into my cloak’s pocket, I pulled the focusing crystal free. I had prepped a full charge earlier, just in case of trouble. I wouldn’t have to gather power slowly. Instead, all I did was direct the energy into the mental image of the effect I wanted, and pulled the metaphorical trigger.

There was a blast of energy and I felt my consciousness split into five replicated shards, each attacking a different drunk. There were a few who I froze immediately. Their little brains tried to wrestle control of their muscles back from me, but I had a lot more practice at mental domination than they could ever have had being a local bully. Others took a heartbeat, but I poured all my pissed off fury and worry about Tessa into the crystal, pumping up to near bursting with the energy. After a second, I had them all in my thrall. I couldn’t hold that many minds at once for long, especially since they were all still quite alive and actively resisting me, but it gave Tessa the chance she needed to get up.

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My hand shook, holding the crystal as it glowed and pulsed with my power. Tessa clubbed each of the idiots on the back of the head and I felt a distinct snap as the resistance lessened. It became noticeably easier to hold the remaining ones as she moved around them in a circle. Finally, Drunk Jack was the last one. Tessa motioned for me to release him. I dropped the power and the shards of my mind raced back to me in a dizzying rush.

“Get your ass out of my bar. Take your stupid buddies and tell the Valraithi they aren’t welcome here anymore.”

Uh, timeout. Drunk Jack is a Valraith Pirate?

Jack got to his feet and gave me a vile glare, but he said nothing as he started pulling his friends from the bar. Tessa turned back to me. “You need to lie low. These jerks are well-connected around here.”

Just then, of all the people who could have walked through the door, it was Bradley. “Looks like I missed the party,” he said with a grin and a wink.

“I thought we weren’t going to meet until tomorrow.”

“Yeah, well, negotiations turned a little sour. We’re leaving now.”

At least I’m not the only one having a weird day.

Before I could respond, Tessa grabbed me by the front of my cloak and planted her mouth on mine. My eyes were wide and wild, and when she released me, I stood there, stunned for a moment. She pulled a small tablet out of her back pocket and tapped it on my chest, which was still heaving. My brain finally kicked in and I took my tablet out and tapped it on hers.

“Call me. Now get out of here before the scaly bastards show up,” she said.

“Do you mean us?” a gravely lizard voice answered from the doorway. Behind him stood the bloodied and pissed Jack with his newly reawakened Valraithi buddies.

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