We faced off, Chaos Wizard and Shamrock Samurai.

Emotionless, Nehemiah spoke. “I don’t want to fight you, Sean.”

The image of my helpless dad revealed from inside the recesses of Nehemiah’s mind reminded me what I had to do. No one should have to watch their father beg for his life. Especially at the feet of a so-called friend.

I charged the wizard sprinting the length of the bus, launching a flying Bruce Lee kick at him. He backpedaled off of the bus, standing in midair. My kick missed him by a mile. I front flipped and used some parkour moves to plan my trajectory to the bottom of the junkyard pile.

The wizard levitated high in the air, eyes aglow with amethyst light, like some kind of weird offspring of Luke Cage and Magneto.

“Fight me!” I commanded.

Nehemiah shook his head, floating out of reach.

I shot a Good Luck blast at him.

He deflected it. “This won’t be a repeat of last time. Leave Sean, before I break you.”

I didn’t like his arrogant threat. My pride wouldn’t stand for it, and neither would I.

My hand found Jade and hefted her like a spear. He moved to the side and my katana planted itself in the bus. My Luck tendrils shot out and knotted around Jade’s hilt. I pumped the magic connection like a whip. Jade snapped back to me but sliced through Nehemiah’s trench coat on the recoil, biting into his upper arm. He winced as blood stained his coat.

“Fine then. Have it your way, white boy!”

Nehemiah drew his .357 magnum revolver and primed the gun. Then he reached into the depths of his trench coat and pulled forth that stupid Birchwood wand.

With the .357 magnum he fired shots at my legs and shoulders, but never my chest or my head.

Good Luck coursed through me. Even still, I moved only as much as I needed to. I felt like showing off. I challenged him. “If you’re gonna shoot me, shoot to kill.”

“Why waste the bullets?”

His left hand moved like an orchestra conductor as he flicked the wand to and fro. He siphoned Chaos from the wreckage around, all the vehicles in various stages of decay.

When we were here last, Nehemiah was staffless, and he still was. But he had opted not to use the wand either, so as to not accidentally kill Charice. Without enough practice the Birch wand combined with his Bad Luck was lethal. But he had no reason to hold back now. All around me, cars creaked. Metal scraped against metal as Nehemiah telekinetically lifted them into the air.

“Ah snap!”

Spinning cars tumbled headlong at me like I was caught up in a twister. I summoned my Good Luck and channeled it through Jade. I severed right through a car, both halves falling to either side of me. I smiled for a moment, but realization swallowed up my brief victory. I spent a decent amount of my Good Luck in the Between. Here, Nehemiah was in his element, his playground, and a whole Hot Wheels collection lay at his disposal.

With so much decay around, not only was I unable to draw much Order to fuel my Good Luck, but the area put a dampener on my power level. I’d realized that earlier when I was fighting the vampire’s, but I didn’t think for a second that I’d be fighting Nehemiah anytime soon.

Nehemiah scoffed at the truth displayed on my face. “You’re still a young magic user, Sean. You’re only a threat when you’re emotionally charged. But what about when you’re not? What if you’re just not as good as me?”

The wizard’s words bit deep. What if I didn’t have what it took to fight Nehemiah? What if I was outclassed?

Slender hands gripped my arm. Charice tugged on me trying to pull me away. “Don’t do this Sean.”

Good Luck warned me just in time. I shoved my girlfriend away from me. An old taxi flew through the space we had just occupied.

In my heart of hearts, I knew he wasn’t trying to hurt Charice, but my anger burned against him just the same. He’d almost hurt another person I loved. “I’m not gonna leave this fight like a coward. You’re distracting me. We’ll both get hurt. Just get Tain and Rob out of here.”

She was torn, deciding whether to stay and convince me, or let me be, but this wasn’t her fight.

Tears streamed down her face. “He helped you save me, Sean. And he helped us save you. That has to mean something.”

I ducked under a VW Bug. “He only did that to appease his guilt.”

When she understood nothing she could say would stop me, amethyst wings burst from her back and she alighted to the sky.

Rob huddled in a corner shaking. A sad look on his face.

“Get out of here, Rob!”

He shook his head, sobbing because he didn’t want to see former friends fight.

I didn’t want to either, which is why I had to finish the wizard, for what he did to my dad, for how he backstabbed me and my whole family.

“That’s an order Rob.”

Tain barked at me, making me flinch.

My head spun on a swivel trying to find the wizard, but he’d vanished.

Coward. He’d retreated. I guess he was all talk.

Out of an invisibility orb Nehemiah emerged. His purple fist uppercut me. I flew through the air like a human shot out of a circus cannon. I headed right towards the side of the bus. Pointing my feet first, I wrapped my arms tight around my chest and pencil dove right through the glass landing in the very back double-length seat.

All around me metal lurched.

I scrambled to my feet. Crossing my blades, I cut an X in the roof then blasted a hole through it with my Luck. I shot through the hole as Nehemiah brought two trucks slamming together on either side of the bus, exploding in a shower of glass and twisted metal. I would have been sandwiched had I not escaped.

Tain hadn’t left and barked at Nehemiah. Foam dripped from his mouth like a mad wolf. My dog bit the wizard’s trench coat, trying to drag him away from the fight. The wizard kicked at him.

“Don’t touch my dog!”

I launched an orb of Good Luck at him, but he dodged.

The magic collided with Tain.

Emerald ribbons raced around my dog intertwining him in glowing green knots. For the second time in the junkyard, my dog writhed on the ground in agony, his body undergoing a series of transformations as he shifted from German shepherd to werewolf, back to German Shepherd.

Tain rose up on his hind legs with his back to me, and for a moment he shifted into an almost manlike form and let out a cry, then shifted back into a werewolf, scurrying away. In his confusion he collided with an unsteady pile of cars that toppled onto him.

I dashed to the pile, my fight with Nehemiah all but forgotten.

I tried to lift the cars by myself. Veins popped out of my neck and temples while I strained to get them off my dog.

Hot tears ran down my face.

Nehemiah appeared at my side. He easily lifted the cars with his wand. I didn’t object.

Tain couldn’t be dead.

Not my dog.

But I wasn’t met with the shape of my German shepherd, or the shape of werewolf Tain.

Instead, a man lay there, eyes closed, panting heavily. Tattered pants clung to his legs and he wore no shirt to speak of.

Even in the dark I could tell his hair burned as red-orange as mine. His face hid behind a scruffy beard that ran almost halfway down his chest. He looked like a man who hadn’t bathed in a while.

“Tain?”

Gently I turned the man over and looked into the face of my father.