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  Misfit Mage

  Fledgling God

  Book 1

  Written by Michael Taggart

  Copyright © 2019 by Michael Taggart

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business, companies, events, or locals is entirely coincidental.

  Cover by George Long. Link

  Editing by Beth Dorward. Link

  For Amazon, Google and any social media.

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  Acknowledgments

  This book exists because of the encouragement and support of one person – Judi. She listens like a wise monk on a mountain top and encourages like a mother duck. If everyone had a friend like her, then the world would feel loved, safe, and emboldened to be all they can be.

  Judi, thank you for laughing at all my jokes and pretending all the book ideas I had were good ones. In short, You Rock!

  To my nephew Shane, thank you for listening to all the mechanics of magic in this world. It’s a much better place with your input and support! It’s also been a lot more fun.

  To my editor Beth Dorward, thanks for taking a chance on a new author! This book is sooooo much more readable with your help.

  To my cover artist George Long, you nailed it! It is everything I wanted and more.

  To Bermuda Moses, you are my furry muse! All the loving looks, purrs, standing on the keyboard, sleeping on the keyboard and bird watching has somehow gained a life in these pages. Love you little fella.

  To my husband Harold, you are the soundtrack to my world! You give me the life that lets me follow me dreams. Here’s too many more happy years together!

  Table of Contents

  01 Run for Your Life

  02 Death Experience

  03 Cocoon

  04 Gotta Pee

  05 Orientation

  06 First Magic

  07 Losing Soul

  08 Snuggle

  09 Walk in the Park

  10 Perfect Morning

  11 Saving Penny

  12 Few Drinks with John

  13 Painted to Circle

  14 Annabeth’s Apartment

  15 Third Time’s the Charm

  16 Rumble in the Park

  17 Recovery

  18 Matrix

  19 Hold the Shields

  20 Penny Is Back

  21 Celebration

  22 Magic Assessment

  23 Busting Shields

  24 Fairy Godmothers

  25 Time for the Claws

  Thank You!

  01 Run for Your Life

  Sprinting while naked is not an easy thing. I’ve seen streakers before, and while I’ve admired their desire for mischief, I’ve never thought of it as a painful undertaking.

  I was running for my life down the hall, and despite the motivation to maintain top speed, Captain Winky and his two first mates were voicing a loud, painful protest of their mistreatment.

  The human body is a wonderful thing and normally it would have responded to a fight-or-flight situation by compacting all members. A tight package makes for minimal jostling and I think I could have even enjoyed the feeling of air flowing over my nether regions. However, I had been interrupted in the middle of some fine sex—having almost been at that happy moment—and nothing about my rather upbeat member was compacted.

  Instead, my hefty shaft was slapping back and forth in reckless abandon, causing a painful undertone to my dash for freedom.

  Two men in black suits pounded down the hotel hallway behind me. They were built like ass kickers, and as such they would surely give me a hurting if they caught me. However, I’m lean and nimble and I was able to put some distance between us.

  I wasn’t sure why they were after me—neither one was acting like a jilted lover. Getting away right now seemed a good use of my mental powers. I’d leave figuring out why for later.

  It’s hard to create an escape plan when you start from “Oh baby, that feels good!” but I had the beginnings of one. I figured I’d get to the stairway and either take them to the bottom floor and out an emergency exit, or maybe duck onto one of the other floors and hide. It wasn’t much of a plan, but a chase is fluid and quick. Hopefully it would be enough.

  I made it to the end of the hall with a good lead on my pursuers, burst through the door to the stairway, and right into the arms of another big, suited ass-kicker.

  It startled the heck out of me, and I think it startled him too. He was expecting to catch me, but he wasn’t expecting me to be naked. He must have been a straight guy because he did what all straight men do when suddenly holding a piece of man ass: he backed off.

  That gave me enough room to maneuver, and I hit him with everything I had. I had about six seconds, ten tops, before Thing One and Thing Two came through the door after me.

  I went into hyper mode, punching him three, maybe four times at full speed, which ended up being a mistake. His training kicked in and I went from “naked dude, back off” to “hostile dude, maim and destroy.”

  I weigh about 150, and although I’m mostly lean, hard muscle, I still lack the power of a more massive frame.

  Mass wasn’t a problem for my opponent; he must have weighed in at a good 250 pounds, and he shrugged off my punches. I’d fought bullies as a kid so I knew to aim for his chin or nose. A chin shot would stun him and a nose shot would hurt like hell, making his eyes water. Either one would let me slip past him. He had good training though, ducking his head and raising his shoulder.

  He was close, really close, and I knew I wouldn’t have time to sprint up the stairs before he grabbed me. Wrestling with this guy would be a bad idea. Instead, I did the unexpected, and slightly insane move of jumping toward him, grabbing him around the head and neck and throwing myself over the railing.

  My 160 pounds might not be enough mass to knock him out, but with a gravity assist it’s plenty of mass to whip his head around—and where the head goes, the body goes. He toppled over the railing after me.

  The stairs were like most flights you find in hotels: they go back and forth between floors so he didn’t have that far to fall. However, they were made of concrete and that is a rough landing. It also didn’t help him that we continued to rotate in the air and I landed on top. He hit with a crunch, and I rode his body as it thumped down the steps onto the landing.

  For a second, I thought he might be dead—I didn’t want to be a killer—but then I saw him breathe.

  I hopped off him and flew down the next flight of stairs. I just reached the next floor when I heard Thing One and Two burst through the stairwell door a few floors above. I checked out the floor I was on, eleven, and made a quick decision that I was still too high to make a mad dash for the ground floor.

  I’m sure they would hear me if I stayed on the stairs so I took the door onto the eleventh floor. Nobody was in the long hallway, so I started jogging to the other end. There should be another stairwell at that end; hopefu
lly I could use that to escape. I really needed some clothes, though. I couldn’t move around the city and blend in the way I was.

  At that moment two thugs appeared at the end of the hall.

  My god! How many guys are after me?

  One or two meant I just ticked someone off. Five bruisers meant this was a full hunt by someone with resources. My smart mouth and easy loving were always getting me into trouble, so this wasn’t the first time I’d had to run to save my hide. This was my first manhunt, though, and it was starting to scare me.

  At least the two guys on this floor weren’t as big or professional as the other guys. Thing One and Two looked like professional hit men or mob enforcers. These two looked like smaller sidekicks that were trying way too hard to look tough. One had a shaggy mop of hair that was supposed to be casual cool but instead just looked unwashed and greasy. The other had a tiny goatee—classic villain style—that he probably stroked while saying “I will keel you aaand your leetle friend!”

  I couldn’t go back to the stairwell behind me and I didn’t want to try getting through Shaggy and The Villain ahead, so I cast out my senses looking for another way.

  For as long as I can remember I’ve always been able to do things that were special. Not short-bus special—magical special. Maybe magical isn’t the right word. I don’t mutter incantations or call on gods or anything like that. Rather I have talents and insights most people don’t.

  Anyway, I needed a way out of here, and I could see what looked like another hallway branching off to the right. My extra senses told me it wasn’t another hallway; instead, it was a small area containing a vending machine and two elevators.

  Escape by elevator works great in the movies, but in real life the timing usually sucks and it ends up being a trap. I didn’t have much choice in this case. I needed to call an elevator to this floor now. Delicate magic was beyond my concentration at this point, but I’d used my little Punch Rocket many times before and the image came to me easily.

  I pictured the base first—four fins sitting against my chest, ready to use it as a launching pad. The body was fire-engine red in the traditional rocket shape topped off by a white fist. It was more cartoon than NASA, but the magic didn’t care, and it was a lot more fun to visualize.

  I fed it power and my little rocket blasted off, trailing perfect puffs of white smoke. It flew down the hallway, turned right with a cartoon skreeeeee, and wooshed off again. The little white fist smacked into the elevator call button going up, then the punch rocket backed up and smacked into the down button. Both call lights lit up as the feisty little spell gave a toot and was gone.

  Now I just needed an elevator to stop. I didn’t care if it was going up or down, I just needed to get off this floor.

  The two thugs at the other end of the hall were walking toward me. I guess they figured they didn’t need to hurry—I was running toward them after all—and they couldn’t see my magic. I slowed down a bit. I could see with my magic sight that an elevator hadn’t arrived yet. The closer I got the more nervous I felt. If an elevator didn’t show I was going to be trapped in a small space with two guys that were a lot bigger than me.

  Ok, make that four guys. The stairwell door slammed open behind me and Thing One and Thing Two barreled through. I was screwed!

  I sprinted toward the little hallway, arriving just as the elevator dinged and the door slid open. The arrow said it was going up so I slipped inside, punched a button for one of the top floors, and held down the “close door” button.

  I heard shouts out in the hallway and the sound of running feet. The Things and their sidekicks were coming to get me.

  The elevator stayed open for what seemed like forever, but it finally slid closed and I slumped back against the wall in relief. That’s when I realized I wasn’t alone.

  A tall older lady in a blue dress watched me, and by watched me, I mean she was enjoying the heck out of my naked show. She kind of reminded me of Blanche Devereaux from The Golden Girls.

  “Is that what all the kids are wearing these days?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

  “Umm, no,” I said intelligently, as I tried to cover up with both hands. I found out very quickly two hands don’t cover up much.

  “Oh don’t bother trying to hide the naughty bits. It isn’t anything I haven’t seen before.” She smiled, then cocked her head to the side.

  “Although, you are definitely the nicest looking man I have seen in a long time!” She gestured at my abs. “Those are especially nice.”

  I started blushing. Then I tried not to blush, which only made me blush even more. I had always thought blushing just happened in your face, but I was managing to do it all over.

  “Oh dear! Now I’ve gone and made you all nervous. How on earth did you end up like this?”

  For a moment I almost opened my mouth and told her everything. I’d met this cute guy in an exclusive game of poker, and afterward we had gotten a room. I was discovering he was way better at shagging than he was at poker—what he could do with his real hands was divine. His poker hands? Not so much—when the door flew open and two guys jumped me. Now I’m here, running for my life, and doing a one-man stripper act.

  “I’m being pranked by my roommates, ma’am. They think it’s hysterical I’m running the halls naked.”

  “Well, you tell them that is not nice! It is kind of funny but you could get into trouble running around like this.” She thought for a moment. “Do you want to wait in my room while I call housekeeping and get all this straightened out?"

  I was tempted, but I don’t think the presence of an older lady was going to stop these guys. They would just deal with me and then deal with her too.

  “Thank you very much but I think we can work it out.” I gave her a smile as the elevator slowed down.

  “Oh, I need a picture!” She was quick. She had her cell phone out and clicked away before I could tell her not to. “Bridge club would never believe me without this!” The doors slid open and she gave my butt a friendly pat on the way out.

  “You be careful!”

  She cheerfully waved as she disappeared down the hall and the doors slid closed.

  The elevator started ascending to its next stop, floor 23, and I only had a few moments to figure out what I was going to do. They knew I was on the elevator, so I couldn’t ride it down to the first floor. They also had both stairwells covered so going down that way wasn’t an option. What I needed to do was hide out for a while. Hopefully they would get tired of the chase and just leave.

  The elevator arrived at floor 23. I pressed a bunch of the buttons for the other floors—might as well confuse the trail a bit more—then stepped out and just listened. Everything was quiet—no sounds of running feet—so I peeked into the hallway. It was empty.

  What I needed was a vacant room that would stay unrented for the rest of the night. Rooms with a view were given out first so I picked a room at random that was facing the back of the building.

  I put my hand on the door and let my awareness seep into the room. Using my talent to look through things is really difficult. It took a few moments before the room started to form in my mind. Since I wanted to make sure the room was empty, I just needed to scan for large human-sized forms. It would have been really challenging to see anything smaller than that.

  Nobody was inside, so I switched my attention to the latch. No matter how you lock a door—and this hotel had those fancy card readers—the actual part that keeps the door shut is the latch. It’s the spring-loaded piece of metal that fits into the door frame, and it’s impossible for most people to mess with without tearing it apart.

  However, I can do things most people can’t. I gathered my energy and flicked the latch. I could hear it bounce back, but it wasn’t enough to open the door. The hotel had good locks with strong springs. I gathered my energy and flicked it again. I did better, but it still wasn’t enough.

  I put both hands over the lock. Sometimes it seems to help being as cl
ose as possible to what I’m manipulating. I gathered all my energy, held it, took a deep breath, gathered some more energy, and FLICKED.

  This time the door opened and I stepped inside the room just as I heard the ding of the elevator. I closed the door quickly, softly, and stood in the dark with my heart racing.

  How in the hell were they finding me so quickly? It just didn’t seem fair. I’ve been chased before and, contrary to what the movies show, it’s actually pretty easy to lose someone if they aren’t right on your tail.

  Of course, the elevator could be bringing anyone to this floor, not just my hunters.

  The room had a deadbolt, which I set, as well as one of those metal catches you use to keep everyone out, even the maid. I set that as well, then put my hands on the door and looked into the hallway.

  It felt empty but I stayed there, letting my awareness expand. It had enlarged to include a sizable chunk of the hallway and I was about to let it go, when this being of pure power stepped off the elevator.

  I say it was a being because the power was so bright I couldn’t tell anything about it. I didn’t know if it was a guy, a girl, or even human.

  I do know I’d never seen or felt anything like this before and I wanted to squeak and cower in fear. I jumped away from the door, hoping that whatever it was hadn’t sensed me.

  I was suddenly aware I was shaking. All that adrenaline and emotion was starting to catch up to me.

  What the hell had I gotten myself into? How did I get chased by five guys who looked like bouncers and now there was this being with god-like power out there? I didn’t know this god dude was after me, but I didn’t know he wasn’t either. (I decided to call him God Dude as that is a lot less scary than Giant Powerful God thing That Can Squish You Like A Bug. It’s also much shorter too.)

  The smart-ass voice in my head was still making jokes but I was starting to get scared, really scared.

  I took a deep breath, and started walking up and down the room, swinging my arms, letting the fear out. Runaway emotions were not going to change the situation I was in. Instead they might make me do something stupid.