Chapter One

Caiden Tate looked at the letter in his hands and cursed under his breath, the letter read,

Mr Caiden Tate,

Something has arisen at the Guild that we would like you to take a look at; the address is on the back.

Kind Regards, Guild Master Nevada of the Magicians Guild of Britain.

Caiden scowled, not at the letter itself but at who had signed it, the Guild Master himself, this was obviously important.

Caiden put the letter back on the table and grabbed a box of cereal, he poured and cursed.

"Of all people, why me, and why now?" he muttered to himself.

He hadn't had a case for a while and was beginning to settle into the easy routine of doing nothing all day, he found it very relaxing and he was beginning to get used to it, it in itself was relaxing.

Caiden grabbed the milk and poured, he couldn't believe he got called in at this time, on this day. He'd planned a wonderful evening of lounging on the sofa and watching rubbish American cop shows on the TV. He began to munch on his cereal when the responsibility in his life strode in and announced himself to the world.

"Good morning life!" announced Emerson, Caiden's younger brother. Emerson was 24, six full years younger than his older brother. With his blonde hair and blue eyes he was the spitting image of his brother. In fact, the only way you could tell them apart was by what they wore, while Caiden wore a simple jacket and jeans, Emerson wore a suit. Of course he wore the normal, black jacket, black trousers, white shirt, black, laced shoes and a simple black tie.

"Here we go…" Caiden muttered.

"Oi!" retorted Emerson and Caiden laughed.

"Ooooohhh, what's this?" Emerson asked as he plucked the letter out of Caiden's hand.

"Oi, gimme it back!" Caiden snapped back angrily and tried grabbing it back.

"Oh, that's nice. A letter signed by the great holiness Nevada himself, that must be important!"

"Give it back and I'll tell you what it is!" Caiden snapped and Emerson handed him back the letter.

"There's something the Guild needs my help with." Caiden explained.

"Oh, cool, when are we leaving?"

"We?" asked Caiden.

"Well obviously I'm coming too; I haven't been to this new Guild yet."

"I guess I have no say in the matter then…" sighed Caiden.

"Nope none at all."

"Well, I guess we're both going to check out the new Magicians Guild then, this should be fun."

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" asked Emerson 5 hours later as they stood in a field.

"This is where it said." Caiden answered doubtfully.

"Do you even know where we are?"

"Not a clue, but it said it would pick us up near Beckendale Farm." Caiden answered, indicating the farm house that was standing near 500 metres away.

"I guess the Guild being a huge airship means that it could pick us up anywhere, and this is completely out of the way so it wouldn't be seen by any mortals." Emerson thought for a moment, and then said, "It can't be very subtle though, can it?"

"What?"

"The Guild, if it's a huge airship surely it would be really easy to notice."

"Yeah, I guess." Caiden agreed.

"They should make it invisible; that would be awesome!" decided Emerson.

"Yeah, it would be pretty cool, you should suggest that to them."

"Yeah, I might."

They heard a deafening noise and Caiden muttered, "Here we go."

They looked up and there it was, the new British Magicians Guild, they stared in horror.

"It's bright green!" Emerson grimaced.

"Indeed." Caiden agreed.

"It's horrible!"

"Indeed." Caiden repeated.

"Now I really wish it was invisible." Emerson muttered and Caiden grinned.

As the airship landed a piercing high pitched screech reverberated across the field and a ramp slowly slid out.

"Are they gonna come out to meet us?" Emerson wondered.

"Good question." Caiden answered.

"Shall we go in?"

"They'll probably come out to meet us." Caiden said hopefully.

After a good two minutes, Caiden muttered something along the lines of, "Screw the lazy…" and he led the way onto the airship.

The man that met them inside was a small, spiteful, middle aged man, who had somehow got the job as the Guild Masters' adviser probably after years of grovelling.

"Mr Caiden Tate, you're expected, and… Emerson" Ernest Green spat.

"Hello there Mr Green, we're both here to see our good old holiness Nevada." Emerson said cheerfully and he barged straight past the smaller man and continued on. Green fumed and grabbed his arm.

"You will wait until the Guild Master is ready to see you, he is extremely busy." Green snapped.

"It's fine Ernest, I'm sure old Nevo won't mind if we come in."

"You should address Guild Master Nevada by his full title, as you should me…" he stopped when Emerson grabbed his arm and twisted till he could feel the bone almost snapping and Green yelped like a puppy.

"Of course Ernest, I'll keep that in mind." Emerson said and released his arm. Green jerked backwards and hit his head on the floor; he didn't try to get up.

"So then Caiden, shall we go say hi to Nevo now?" he didn't wait for an answer he just strode off down the corridor. Caiden shrugged and followed, carefully stepping over the small whimpering heap on the floor that was crying and clutching his arm. He was muttering something like, "It's ok, the pain will go." Over and over again, he'd never been much of a fighter, Caiden thought.

"It's a left, not a right." Caiden shouted down the corridor and Emerson turned and continued walking.

"Mr Tate, you're here." Guild Master Nevada stated.

"Yes, I believe I am." Caiden agreed.

"What up Nevo?" Emerson interrupted as he strode into the room grinning.

"Ah, it's you…" Nevada muttered quietly.

"Oh yes, Guild Master, this is my younger brother Emerson, I don't believe you've met."

"Oh, no, we have…" Nevada grimaced, obviously remembering a not so fond memory and Emerson's grin widened.

"Anyway, let us get on to the matter at hand." Nevada began. "There have been reports of over 15 deaths, both in and out of this country, including an American Guild Member, Oliver Laecent, Doctor Norman Percival, who I believe works for the Australian Guild and the Commander of our very own Combat Mages, Damien Flynn.

"How did they all die?" asked Caiden.

"Murder we assume, I mean over 15 deaths in the space of a week, that can't be a coincidence."

"What were the causes of death?"

"They varied, some were shot in the head, others looked as if they had been stabbed maybe by a smaller weapon of some sort and others had simply been ripped apart." Emerson grimaced at the thought.

"Do we have any idea who killed them?" He asked.

"Actually yes, we do. The killers have been making no attempt to hide or even be subtle in the slightest."

"Who was it then?" Emerson asked.

"See for yourselves." Nevada said as he brought out a tablet. On the screen, there was a reasonable clear picture, he pressed play and the video started.

In the video, there was a man running, no, being chased down an alleyway. Behind the man there were three people; Caiden could just make them out. There was a man, of average height, who looked just like he was out of a wild western movie; he seemed to be barely even jogging and full of energy, while the victim seemed to be nearly out of breath. One of the other people was a punkish woman, with a belt at her waist that was filled with all manner of small nasty weapons, who was grinning crazily and obviously enjoying the thrill of the hunt. The last person was a huge man who was lumbering after the victim and like the others he was barely out of breath. Caiden gasped, he recognised all three of those people.

The victim stumbled and fell to the ground and so the three chasers attacked him. It was a horrific sight, the huge man and the punkish women grabbed the victim and yanked him to his feet. The wild western man seemed to be asking the victim questions, but the man was covered in sweat and blood and seemed barely able to move his mouth. When the victim didn't talk, the wild western man laid into him with punches and even on the video, Caiden could see that the victim was being beaten to death.

The huge man grabbed the victim and launched him into a wall; Caiden could almost feel the man's bones crack and snap. The huge man grabbed him again and held him while the woman pulled a large knife from her belt and thrust it into the man's arm; it went through as if it was butter and Caiden could see the man scream. What happened next was wrong; the woman gripped the knife that was still lodged in the man's arm and slowly began to pull it down. The man stopped screaming and instead just writhed silently in agony. Caiden wanted to look away, but couldn't, his eyes seemed to be fixed on the dreadful torture. The woman yanked her knife out, but only after having ripped it all the way down to the victim's wrist. The victim went limp and the western man pulled out his revolver and shot him in the head.

Angelo Scraper turned and winked at the camera, and then it went black. The room was silent for a while, until Emerson broke the silence,

"Who were those people?" he asked, horrified.

"The Scraper twins, Angelo and Angela, you can guess which is which." Caiden started.

"Which ones, the punkish lady and the cowboy dude?" Emerson asked.

"Yeah, and the big guy was Archie Bellows."

"I've never heard of any of them." Emerson complained.

"There three of the five members of the Bloody Murderers." Caiden explained.

"The what now?" Emerson asked.

"They're a gang of notorious serial killers."

"You said there are five of them, who are the other two?" asked Emerson.

"Sickening…" Caiden began.

"I'm sorry what?" asked Emerson.

"He's a unique creature whose profession is… Yep, you've guessed it a serial killer."

"Oh joy!" Emerson muttered.

"There's also their leader, Maelicen Villainous."

"Sounds like a lovely chap." Emerson joked and Caiden rolled his eyes.

"Anyway…" Nevada interjected. "There's one thing that we don't know, how are these deaths all connected?"

"Knowing Angelo and Angela Scraper, It's quite possible that they just got bored and started killing people." Caiden suggested.

Nevada shook his head, "No, if they were just killing people for the fun of it, why take the time in going to different countries."

"Fair enough." Caiden agreed.

"Just think, what do the deaths have in common?" Nevada probed them and there was silence.

"It might be the people?" Emerson suggested.

"What?" Caiden asked, confused.

"It might be something the people have in common."

Caiden thought for a moment, and then his face lit up.

"That's it, Emerson, you're a genius!" Caiden exclaimed.

"I know, wait, why?"

"It's the people!" Caiden stated as if it was obvious. "Nevada, what countries were all the victims from?"

"All either Australia, Britain or…"

"America!" Emerson completed, who'd cottoned on to Caiden's idea now.

"How did you know?" Nevada asked.

"They're the three major magical communities." Caiden answered for him.

"Oh yeah, ok we have something." Nevada concluded.

"But what's their motive?" Caiden wondered. "And what exactly are we going to do about it?"

"That's where you come in." Nevada answered. "I need you to bring a group of people together; I assume you're going to want your brother with you?"

Caiden looked at Emerson, "Well duh!" Emerson replied.

"Ok then, get three more people together, I'm relying on you to take them down."

"We'll do our best." Caiden assured him.

"Do better Mr Tate."

Caiden hesitated, "Of course Guild Master."

"Good, well off you go then. Also, one more thing, I sent Green out to meet you, did you not see him?" Nevada asked. Emerson cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Well, we did, he just…" Caiden started.

"He just what?" Nevada prompted.

There was a moment of silence until Emerson replied, "Got in the way."

"I hope he isn't too badly injured." Nevada said doubtfully.

"Not really, he just made a lot of noise." Emerson said helpfully.

"Go on then, before assault charges are pressed." Nevada grumbled somewhat humourless.

Emerson grinned, "See ya Nevo, good luck with the whole being in charge business." And the two brothers left the Guild Master muttering to himself, "Do you know how hard it is to get a good, hard-working assistant these days? Granted he may not be very good, or hard-working for that matter, but that's not my point."