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Owen fell to the ground, clutching his injured shoulder. Blood flowed from between his fingers. Merlin immobilized the creature, which must have lost its veil when I stunned it. Owen got to his feet shakily, then let go of his shoulder and pointed a bloody hand toward Idris. Now he looked mad, really and truly angry, and I understood at last why he was held in awe. He was the nicest guy in the world, but you did not want him as your enemy. The air around Idris glowed, trapping him in a magical field. He struggled, then finally collapsed, and the field dropped. He raised his hand like he was going to try another spell, but I didn't feel any surge of power along with it.
Then he took off running along the pier. Owen moved as though to chase him, but then swayed. Ethan leapt into action, giving chase. Before long he brought Idris down with a flying tackle that would have made any football coach proud.
It appeared to be over.
Merlin, Owen, and I made our way over to where Ethan had Idris pinned. Merlin looked exhausted, but he managed an impish grin as he said, "Mr. Idris, have you met our attorney? Now, Mr. Wainwright, if you're through sitting on Mr. Idris, I'll need you to draw up some documents. Miss Chandler, please see to Mr. Palmer."
We made an odd procession on our way back to Ethan's Mercedes, with Ethan frog-marching Idris, a very smug-looking Merlin alongside them. Owen, increasingly pale and shaky, followed, me supporting him. His left sleeve was now soaked in blood, and it appeared that he'd used up all his power resources and had tapped into his physical strength as well.
Ethan spread his legal documents out on the trunk of his car, while I made Owen sit on the backseat. I listened to all the legal mumbo jumbo while I peeled the bloody layers of coat, suit coat, shirt, and undershirt away from his injured shoulder.
"You're lucky you went with the power suit today," I told him. "Otherwise, this would have gone a lot deeper." The claw marks weren't deep enough to cause serious damage, just enough to be painful and draw blood.
"It was one of my favorite suits," he said plaintively. I tried to ignore the fact that the suit covered a very nice build. He hadn't been lying about his gym habit.
From the back of the car I heard Ethan's voice in lawyer mode. "So, what you're agreeing to is that you will cease marketing any products based on your work done as an employee of Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Incorporated. That removes any products you have already released from the market, as well as affecting any future products you may produce. Now, if you'll just sign here and initial here."
"Use this pen," Merlin said. "It makes the contract binding in more than a legal sense."
"You're kidding," Ethan said. "Could I get a set of those for my practice?"
Owen winced as I dabbed the claw marks with disinfectant from the first-aid kit Ethan had in his trunk. "Sorry about that," I said. "But you have no idea where those claws have been, and you don't want an infection."
"No, I don't. Go on, do what you have to."
He gritted his teeth as I finished cleaning the wounds, then bandaged them and pulled his bloody clothes back up over his shoulder. I took off my own overcoat and wrapped it around his legs. He looked a little shocky, and I didn't want to leave him exposed.
"Now, if you're quite through humiliating me, could you release my people?" Idris asked.
"It's worn off by now," Owen told him.
"This isn't over, you know, Palmer. I'm perfectly capable of creating my own spells."
Owen didn't rise to his bait. "I'm sure you are."
"You're just lucky your girlfriend here has a good arm."
Owen turned pink in spite of his ashy pallor, but his voice remained even. "She also has a good eye."
"And a nice ass, but you're going to need a lot more than that next time. I have things up my sleeve you haven't begun to imagine." He gave us a mocking bow and salute. "Until next time." Then he turned and stalked away, back to the boardwalk.
"What an asshole," I said before I realized I'd said it out loud.
"That's putting it mildly," Ethan chimed in. "He's even worse than some of the lawyers I know, and that's really saying something."
"Do you really think he'll come up with something else?" I asked nervously.
"I'm sure of it," Merlin said. "That type doesn't give up easily. And worst of all, I believe he's out more for a sense of power than for material riches. He'd thoroughly enjoy being the one to trigger a magical war."
"Then we'll have to find a way to stop him."
"It'll take him a while to develop something on his own," Owen said. "He was never the most original thinker. That should buy us some time to prepare."
"We'll have to rally our people once more. We've grown complacent, from what I can tell," Merlin said. "The last challenge of this magnitude was about thirty years ago, according to the archives I've seen. I'll have to study how, exactly, that challenge was met."
"So this sort of thing happens often?" I asked.
"About once a generation seems standard. There's always someone willing to try to cause widespread trouble, and then the good people have to find the will to fight it."
