The medic made a gesture and one of the others opened up a locked and insulated impact-resistant chest. Kyle could see from the glow that reflected off the soldier’s face that it must have contained very high-quality potions. He rustled around and pulled out a mana potion, a stamina potion, and a healing potion.

Kyle began shaking his head. There were so many reasons wrong with that, not the least of which was that it was too much potion for a person to take at once on an empty stomach. Not at that high a magic concentration in this level of AMD. But he chose to focus on the most important aspect.

“No mana potion.” He insisted and the medic nodded in approval. “I’ve channeled too much magic today.”

“He’s right.” The medic must have been using some kind of passive appraisal or examination spell on Kyle. “Grab him another healing potion, put the mana potion back.” The medic smiled kindly as he took the bottles. When he handed them to Kyle, he took the warlock’s hands and cast a diagnostic spell on him.

“It’s rude to cast spells on people without their permission.” Cocking his head to the side, Kyle sighed in resignation even as the medic’s eyes widened into big round orbs. “Are you more surprised by what you read or by the fact that I could tell you were doing it?”

“Ahem. Sorry.” He blushed in a way that probably got him a lot of attention from girls and pulled back with a wince. “Just wanted to make sure I was giving you the right things and could recommend a dose.”

“What’s my prescription doc?” Kyle croaked while uncorking the healing potion without waiting.

“A bottle and a half of healing potion now, the rest in six hours or after your next major injury. Two cc’s of stamina potion every hour as long as you need to stay up and functioning.” He paused, seemed to consider adding something else to it, then changed his mind.

Within minutes Kyle was feeling more like himself. He was still tired, but the blisters on his lips were healing quickly while the raw flesh of his seared throat smoothed. He hadn’t even been aware that his breathing was being interfered with from all the damage he’d done casting powerful spells.

“That’s my stop,” Kyle called out as he realized they’d almost passed the intersection he needed to head for his parents’ place. The jeep stopped and Kyle hopped out easily. The aches and pains in his body were almost entirely gone. Almost being the keyword there. He was still in pain, but it was far more manageable.

“You sure you’re okay?” One asked.

“I’m fine.” He replied at the same time as the medic answered for him.

“He’ll be fine.” Kyle waved and started off towards his parents then thought of something.

“Hey,” He shouted to the jeep before it took off again. “When you see Camina tell her that Anna was ‘evacuated to her home out of the city’ by some Army officials. But I’m looking for her.” He’d made air quotes so that the soldiers understood he was quoting someone. “Say it just like that with the air quotes. That had been all he’d intended to say but one of the soldiers shouted back at him.

“Camina? You mean, The Morning Star?” Kyle nodded.

“Yeah. You’ll run into her if you keep going straight and then make a right turn when you hit the monsters.”

“Right. Yeah.” There was some muttering among the Magicorps soldiers as they took off again. They were discussing publicly known information about Camina Wattkins' family and they knew that Camina’s family lived in New York City. From the sound of it, they’d figured out the message he was trying to send his mother and it was good enough.

He trudged on until he hit his parents' building, one home in a row of many. It was an expensive home. Not because it was particularly nice, just because Manhattan was a pricy place to live. Luckily, Camina and Lance Wattkins had decent salaries. More importantly, they were both from long warlock lineages and generational wealth had accumulated through centuries of service.

Kyle had nothing with him but his wand and his book. His keys were with the rest of his belongings wandering around the city in the museum vehicle he and Jones had lost the first time they went out on a call unsupervised. That was fine. He whispered a spell to unlock the door and the tumblers turned with soft snicking sounds.

Within three minutes of entering the house, Kyle had ascertained that not only was Anna not there, no one had been in the home since she and their dad had left for work and school that morning. Fine. Back the way he came to check his place.

He worked his way around the city hitching rides with various squads of soldiers working monster suppression. First to his home, then to the museum proper where he was unable to enter while the building was in lockdown because his museum ID was in the vehicle with everything else, he’d put in there for safe keeping while he was playing with too much magic.

Then he headed to his dad’s office, hoping to at least find Lance Wattkins there. But no. Not only was Kyle’s father nowhere to be found, the spell he whispered from the glowing pages before him told him that no one had been there since hours before the shit hit the fan. His dad hadn’t been at work when the school called him that morning about Anna.

Dejected and trying not to assume the worst about his dad, Kyle returned to the street with a sigh. All the magical creatures in the city were starting to come out of hiding to take advantage of the high ambient magic density now that they realized that the humans were staying inside. A herd of prisms were basking in moonlight. Something that was rarely seen in New York City.

It was late and dark already. He’d been participating in search and rescue efforts as well as suppression efforts for hours. So many hours. It was only by virtue of the stamina potion he’d been given that he was still able to function. Yet he still hadn’t been able to find Anna nor anyone who could give him a hint of where she was. Taking a deep calming breath while he watched the prisms, Kyle made the rational decision to go home and start the search again after a few hours of rest.

Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Chapter 59