Orders of Magnitude (The Genie and the Engineer Series Book 2) by Glenn Michaels Page A

roof, waited two seconds and then opened a small
portal only a few inches in diameter. He aimed the airsoft rifle and fired
through it…
    The BBs emerged through the other end of the small portal,
not far behind the flying Oni.
    It turned, roaring in anger as it tried to intercept the
BBs.
    But they exploded first. All ten of them.
    The explosions swept the Oni from the sky, like a swatted
house fly, knocking it all the way to the Midway Plaisance Park and into the branches
of the top of a tall tree, where it came to rest, unconscious and critically
injured.
    Ignoring the pain in his leg, Paul quickly flew back to the
hospital, smashing though a window on the fourth floor on the southwest wing
and into the corridor.
    And was instantly frozen by a magical spell.
    “Well, well, what do we have here?” a sadistic sarcastic
voice said.
    Open eyed, Paul stared at the man. There was little else he
could do since none of his muscles would move.
    Of medium height, the newcomer was young, blond, and of
muscular build. And the face! Far more handsome than any movie star that Paul had
ever heard of. The man was wearing tight fitting pants, a very loose open necked
white shirt and a midnight blue cloak that reached down to mid-calf. On top of
his head the curly locks of his blonde hair poked out from under a black Bowler
hat with a conical crown.
    He looked so totally out of place in the hospital that Paul
knew instantly that the man was a wizard of Errabêlu.
    The wizard slowly strolled up the corridor to get a closer
look at Paul, eyeing him closely.
    “Yes, you match the description and the photo,” the
individual said. “Paul Thomas Armstead. Well, it is indeed a pleasure to meet a
myth. At least, I thought you were one, but Ruggiero and Celeste were so
insistent and Clarke…well, he thought it was best to check it out. After all,
there was the unexplained talisman in the Karakoram Mountains and the
disappearance of several Oni. All of which is why I am here.”
    Paul noted that there was another Oni standing nearby,
occasionally growling softly at Paul.
    The wizard waved a nonchalant hand. “In a minute, Kenzo, and
I’ll let you go see after your brethren.”
    Turning back to Paul, he said, “My name is Kenneth William
McDougall. I am the one who set the trap for you here at the hospital.” McDougall
smiled cruelly. “I hadn’t realized it might be such a challenge. I was in the
process of investigating that rather large explosion, the one that rattled the
entire hospital,” and he turned to point to the huge hole in the floor and at
the Oni lying sprawled on top of a pile of rubble below them and then at the
other devastation around them, “when you showed up. This is going to take a bit
of effort to explain to the Normies, all this damage, but I’m sure Clarke can
manage.”
    The wizard waved a hand and the Oni talisman that Paul had taken
earlier was forcibly seized from him, flying through the air into McDougall’s
hand.
    “I see that you’ve been hard on at least one other of my
Oni. Shame on you, Paul. Now, as soon as you tell me where your handicapped
wife is located, I can gather up my Oni and we can leave.”
    • • • •
    A general sense of pain and discomfort kept nattering away
at the edges of the darkness encompassing her. Plus, there was a buzzing sound
around her, like that of ten thousand angry bees.
    She opened her eyes, blinking in surprise at the bits of
concrete lying only inches away.
    On her side. Yes. She was definitely lying on her side. And
on the floor too, of all places. And there was more debris visible too. Why was
that? Where was she?
    Voices. Well, one voice anyway, chattering like a conceited
magpie several yards away. Not Paul. Oh, yeah, Paul, right. She knew that name.
He was her husband, the sexy, lucky man. But the voice wasn’t his.
    Slowly, she raised her head slightly.
    In front of her were the backs of two people. Oh, wrong
again. One was an Oni. The other…
    Her vision