Free Reality Bites by Nicola Rhodes Page B

sooner.)  In some way, its possession conferred demonic powers; this was, he now understood, how demons obtained magic powers.  The Athame was designed to steal powers from others.  The power it gave him was not the all-encompassing power that Tamar had.  Compared to hers, it was quite limited.  Limited, in fact, to the powers of the one who had forged it, or rather, whoever he had stolen them from,  but still pretty impressive all the same.
    ‘Well,’ he thought, ‘this wasn’t in any of the books.’ but then, the fact that an Athame could be used to slice through iron bars (and probably battleships too) had never been mentioned either.
     ‘This is so cool,’he thought.  ‘I wonder what else I can do?’He was already thinking of the power as his own.  He took it out; he could feel its power now; it almost hummed in his hand; he was surprised he had not noticed it before. 
    ‘I wonder if I can teleport like Tamar?’He concentrated on his flat – on being there. He was enveloped in a whirlwind which set him down gently seconds later in his own living room.
    ‘Whoa! Whey hey.’ He did a little tap dance and mugged a huge grin at himself in the mirror. ‘ Smokin, ’ he whooped. 
    ‘This is so much cooler than the way Tamar does it,’ he thought.
     ‘Tamar! Oh God, I have to find her.’
    ‘Well, so,’ he said aloud, ‘I wish I knew where Tamar is.’  Nothing, no inspiration, no answers. Damn.
    Well he knew where she had been headed; he just did not know where she was now.  Oh to hell with it; back to the original plan, only this time he would not take the train. 
    But first – he drew out the Athame and grinned. ‘Let’s see what this baby can do.’
    He felt a small pang of guilt about Tamar, but he banished it.  She could take care of herself. 
    ‘Poor, useless Denny and all-powerful Tamar,’ he thought, with a sudden surge of bitter resentment.  ‘Stay at home Denny – stay out of danger, I can handle it. Well, just look at me now!’  He took a deep breath and unclenched his hands and forced himself to calm down. 
    Where the hell, he wondered, had that come from?
     
    Denny was enjoying himself. He had discovered that he could “glamour” – that is a fancy, magic way to disguise yourself, far more effective than anything Sherlock Holmes ever managed. This could be useful although it was temporary; he had to concentrate to keep it up, which would take practice, and his imagination limited him to taking on the appearance of people he had seen and could picture clearly.  Well, Denny was not vain, but if you’re going to disguise yourself, it might as well be as a handsome film star. 
    Your own good sense will tell you why this was not a particularly bright idea in actual fact, at least not in public.
    He had also discovered that he was substantially stronger physically than he had been before and that he could manifest certain objects just by thinking of them, mostly weapons it seemed, but he already knew this.  His injuries had not healed, but they were bothering him far less.  And when he tried to fix the broken front door he found he could not.  This caused him a moment’s irritation, but then he realised that he did not really care very much.
    He was having so much fun that he had not noticed that, although it was only noon, outside the sky was pitch black.
     
    He still had not noticed an hour later, when he decided it was time to go and find Tamar.  He thought he might as well road test his new powers, besides he owed her and she might be in trouble.
    ‘Oh God,’ he thought, ‘what am I doing ? I have to go.’  He brought out a map and stabbed a finger at it.  ‘Might as well land in the right place,’ concentrated and the man-sized tornado picked him up.
    He landed in a (fortunately) deserted street laughing.  My God that was fun.
    ‘Auntie Em,’ he hooted. ‘Auntie Em – you know what Toto? I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.’ 
    ‘Tamar