Dark Magic Enforcer

I watched in horror as dark magic sprang from my hand faster than an imp after your socks. I didn't know my name, let alone that I had such power. The man was dead. I panicked. I ran. How was I to know I was a dark magic enforcer, tasked with keeping magic hidden from the world? Yeah, total noob move, I know. But my memory is returning, and the Hidden have given me twenty-four hours to make amends. Cover it up. Finish the job I was given, or else. Failure isn't an option. Well, it is, but I like me, and I like being alive. The clock is ticking as I battle to make things right and exact revenge on those that took so much from me. Easier said than done as I deal with angry mages, bitey zombies, oversexed imps, creepy necromancers, and grumpy trolls-and those are just my friends!-all while trying to stop myself falling in love with my best friend, Kate, who just so happens to be a hot vampire. I'm Faz Pound, a.k.a. Black Spark, Dark Magic Enforcer, and time is running out. At least I have my looks. For now.

I'd had less than a week to recover from an incident that left me half-dead. My body was battered and bruised in ways I can't even begin to describe. Dark magic use had consumed me, spat me out a husk of a man. I was little more than flesh and bone, weary to my very soul. So, of course, there was a knock at the door. My smile faded, happy face turning to tears, as Kate-a gorgeous vampire and the woman I lust over at every available opportunity-told me the news. Dark magic came to me as my eyes snapped to black and my tattoos felt fit to burst with the energy they channeled. I'm Faz Pound, a.k.a. Black Spark, Dark Magic Enforcer, and a goddamn wizard! I'll tear apart hell itself to get at anyone or anything that dares hurt the people I care about. Nobody messes with me or mine and lives. Nobody. Things are about to get nasty.

Take one wizard-that's me-add a hot female vampire, give them a nice place in the country and what do you get? Paradise. Heaven on earth. So, of course, someone decided to go spoil it. No, it wasn't me, not this time. The Hidden world is in chaos, and apparently I'm the one that's supposed to deal with it! Smart trolls, even smarter vampires-and not the nice ones like Kate-witches on the rampage, inebriated gremlins, and imps intent on causing nuclear Armageddon, they have all combined to ruin my perfect life. I'm not even going to mention the chicken. Well, I'm Faz Pound... Okay, you know the rest by now! If they want trouble I'll give it to them. Honest, I just want to live a quiet life. Although, you know, not too quiet.

I'd been gone for a year, incarcerated in a Hidden prison. The verdict was guilty; the punishment, death. Invoking the Law, I've got my freedom until my sentence is carried out. Three days, then I'm history. Gone, not even a memory. Wiped from the collective consciousness of those that knew, even loved me. Magic drives me on as I try to right so many wrongs committed in the name of justice. The vamps are mad, everyone's acting weird, I've got to clear my name, and nobody seems to believe I don't know what to do. Panic makes me act irrationally as the hours slip away and I become increasingly frantic. If it wasn't for Kate, and the need to help my nearest and dearest, I'd have let the Council put me out of my misery. But I'm alive, and I uncover information that ensures I'll do whatever it takes to remain that way. I just have to avoid getting crushed, bitten, beaten, eaten, or zapped with the dark arts. I should have stayed in prison. At least in there nobody tried to stomp me.

A hundred years I've waited for this, my chance for revenge. To confront and kill the person who murdered my parents and caused such unbearable heartache. Tokyo has other ideas. As neon burns my retinas, and bizarre, utterly foreign Hidden try to thwart me at every turn, I lose control. Obsessed, single-minded, and utterly deranged, I sink deeper and deeper into a desperate madness as I chase across the megalopolis seeking vengeance. They torture me, they blast me, they try to eat me, and they threaten my very soul, but they don't know what they're dealing with, and neither do I any longer. Strange powers stir inside my battered body, forces I have little control over, and it isn't long before this fury will explode and rain down bloody hell on all who stand in my way. I'm not called Black Spark for nothing, and my nemesis is going to pay for her crimes even if it costs me my life. I'll show her; I'll show them all. Look out, Tokyo-the gaijin's in town.

I'd had it with magic. Me and it were no longer friends. This addict went cold turkey. Five years I'd been clean for, not even a taste of the good stuff. No longer a space cadet. Life was quiet, life was good. Life was as boring as a conference on boring hosted by Professor Boring McBoring from Boringsville University. So, I have to admit, that when I got drawn back into the Hidden world I wasn't as reluctant as I made out. What I wasn't expecting was having to deal with a dragon holding the dwarves' gold hostage, accidentally unleashing a maniac on the city, and fighting for my life as everything goes into free fall. Oh, plus I've got myself lumbered with a rather keen wizard-in-training. Now I'm almost out of time, certainly out of luck, but I have responsibilities and I will fight until the bitter end. Problem being, the end is looking decidedly nasty, and a blast from our collective past threatens to leave the entire world a barren wasteland. Hi, I'm Faz Pound, and once again you can call me Black Spark, Dark Magic Enforcer. I'm also considering swearing off the magic again. Maybe.

The zombie venom entered my bloodstream, the Council HQ was ready to blow, and I was tapped out of magic. With the hunger already on me, wyrmlings closing in, and my body shutting down, I was almost defeated. But where there's life, there's hope. I had a family, I had friends, and I had the chance at a future. All I had to do was find a cure before I became one of the undead, destroy the maniacs after me and my boss, and life would be peachy, right? Wrong. The need to feed becomes irresistible, family get dragged into my mess, and then a new set of problems present themselves that test me to my limits, and beyond. I gotta admit, I'm this close to just jacking it all in and letting this infection win. At least then there will be peace. No pain. No hurt. No disappointment. Hi, I'm Faz Pound, and I'm having a bad life.

Guess what? I got married! One dark magic enforcer and his hot vampire wife are swapping the madness of this Hidden life for a week's honeymoon in Paris. Here's the plan: Lots of sexy times, some fine dining, and a little sightseeing. No beasties, no wizards, no witches, no zombies, no work. Just us. What could possibly go wrong?