Dark Enchantment (Elvis Presley Story)

Chapter 22

What the hell!

Disbelief froze Elvis in place. A high-pitched whine and the echos of machine-gun blasts ricocheted from the walls of the Department where he was about to drop off Sophia.  He counted four men with M4s. Not great odds. Bullets whipped past his ears through the open windows of his car. The puff of an exploding white pellet blew off a fender. The hell. They were packing salt!

Sophia had just bent to retrieve her purse from the floor at her feet. "Stay down!" Elvis shouted at her, throwing up a quick deflection spell around their bodies. Magic wouldn't protect him against the salt bullets Marcolf and his goons used in their demon-killer M4s, but it would help slow down the normal metal bullets belting off the car.

"Is someone shooting at us?" Shock stained Sophia's astonished face.

Elvis gathered a fireball in his fists and hurled it at one of the attackers. The man screamed. Better odds. But still not great. Elvis slammed his foot down to beat a retreat. "It's me they want. I doubt they even saw you." Alone, he would have stayed and fought them, but he didn't want Sophia hurt.

She popped up on her seat, glancing around. "My God!" She exclaimed.

"Damn it, Sophia!" Elvis shoved her back down as far down as she would go. "Would you stay down!"

"I should show myself so they stop shooting!"

"No!" He jerked the car back on to the road and threw another fireball. Another scream. "Marcolf would probably consider killing you a bonus."

A ferocious volley of gunfire splattered across his cars sleek front, leaving gaping holes in the metal and cracking the passenger side of the wind screen like a spiderweb.

"Now they've just gone to damn far," Elvis hissed, ripping the safety glass from the frame so he could see.

Clenching his jaw in fury, he pointed the car straight at an officer who'd run into the middle of the road blasting his M4. More high-pitched whining, then a headlight exploded In a puff of salt. With an oath, Elvis reached out with his power, jerking the machine gun from the man's hands and pitching it over the roof of the Department. Momentarily frozen in suprise, the officer glanced up just as Elvis bore down on him. The idiot jumped away and landed with a rolling crash on the sidewalk.

Elvis whipped the car around the next corner getting the hell out of there. The pop-pop-pop of shots faded in the distance. He probably should have just grabbed Sophia and apported far away, but he loved the car too much to abandon it.

Driving at an alarming speed he took the streets at random to be sure no one was on their tail. What the hell had all that been about? Marcolf was targeting him deliberately. Why? Elvis needed information, fast. Unfortunately, he could think of only one place to get it. Making a quick decision, he turned the car back towards his place.

Sophia slid back up onto the seat. Her eyes widened at the missing chunk of wind screen and the bullet ridden bonnet. "Oh, my god! Elvis! They really were trying to kill us!"

"Me," he corrected. Still mystified over why.

Sophia's face went pale and troubled.  "Elvis, why are they doing this to you?"

He shook his head "I wish to hell I knew."

A broad daylight execution on a public thoroughfare was a rarity even for the government. The involvement of the Deputy Director himself meant it had to have been an officially sanctioned action. But there was definitely something not right here....

Marcolf was infamous for his shoot-first-and-ask-questions never policy, but they usually had a fairly obvious reason for specifically targeting an actual individual. A vampire, a sadistic blood demon, a child-killing werewolf, anything that murdered or mutilated humans. Demi-beings of any kind that plotted to upset the balance between the mortal and the dark realms. That was more Marcolf's style. Those things quickly put you at the top of the government most wanted list.

Elvis was just a vengeance demon, hardly meriting the kind of deliberate fireworks displayed back there.

"Are you sure you haven't done anything to piss off Marcolf?" Sophia asked. "Personally I mean?"

"Not that I can think of." He glanced at her and raised a brow. "Unless, of course, he's attracted to you." That could do it. Marcolf was a man, wasn't he? Sophia was an incredibly attractive woman.

She actually looked horrified. "You have got to be kidding. Besides, that wouldn't explain it. They couldn't possibly know you and I are...together."

Elvis pursed his lips. "True. If they did, they probably would have waited for me at your house instead of the Department."

"Or yours. Which means they don't know where you live."

"The one bit of good news."

"Maybe it's just a mix-up," She suggested, "and they're not after you at all, but some other demon they expected for whatever reason to show up at the Department."

"Maybe," he said but he doubted it. The government generally didn't make that kind of mistake, which reemphasized that the first thing on his agenda must be to find out exactly what was going on-and why.

And that brought him around to his current destination and dilemma. "I'm taking you back to my place," he told her firmly. "And I want you to stay there until I come for you."

She regarded him suspiciously for several long seconds. "Not likely." She shook her head. "Your upto something dangerous. I can feel it."

Shit. He'd forgotten that the mind-reading thing eventually started working both ways. "Nonsense," he bluffed, banking his anger at Marcolf and making his mind a blank.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! And thanks for reading! xoxo