The book was The Complete Works of Dr. John Dee: Volume I - Monas Hieroglyphica and the Enochian Conversations. He'd bought it from a rare book dealer in Portland three years ago and spent a substantial amount on it.

  Now he stared at the frontispiece, with a woodcut of his ancestor, stern-faced, bearded, holding a compass, and wondered if the old man was laughing at him from whatever afterlife wizards went to.

  Chris hadn't moved from the couch, aside from his eyes tracking the ceiling, following sounds.

  Alexander forced himself to focus on the text. The Enochian alphabet stared back at him from the page, with those angular, alien letters that Dee claimed angels had taught him.

  He went through the words of that allegedly angelic language revealed to Dee. The language of creation. He remembered terms used for binding, for banishing, for summoning.

  His phone buzzed.

  Marion: We got delayed. We’ll get there in 45 minutes. Are you hurt?

  Me: A cut, but I'm alright; I treated it. I killed three of them.

  Marion: Three??? My Goddess…

  Marion: Don't touch anything else until I get there. Don't try to speak any of the words you're seeing. Don't draw ANY circles or symbols. Promise me.

  At that very moment, a roar echoed outside, like the bark of a pit bull with a sore throat.

  Me: I promise.

  He set the phone down and stood, moving to the window. Seattle burned.

  Sirens wailed, screams, guns went off, and even helicopters. Alex thought he saw something flying, something… vaguely human, so his first instinct was to stand out of the window. “We should go somewhere else,” Chris said in a flat tone.

  “Any ideas?” Alexander asked.

  “I don't know. Away from the city. The mountains. Somewhere without... without those things. But first… man, my wife is out there, with my daughter.”

  “Sorry for that, man, but if she’s with other people, I’m sure someone must have been able to kill the creatures like we did. They must have security out there. But for us, the roads are probably blocked. And we have no idea if it's any better out there.” He pulled the curtain closed. No point in watching the end of the world. “Marion is coming. She knows what's happening. Take the big butcher knife if any of those things come through.”

  “Marion is... the hot old lady? Your client?”

  “She's not that old. Maybe fifty-five.” Alexander moved back to his desk and picked up his notebook. “And I think she's more than just a client.”

  “I didn't know you had a thing for older women.”

  “That's not what I meant,” Alex said with a chuckle. For being shocked and worried out of his mind, Chris still had a sense of humor.

  The building shook. Plaster dust drifted down from the ceiling, and something roared outside, close enough that Alexander felt it in his chest.

  Chris stepped back toward the couch.

  Alexander forced himself to breathe. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. The way he taught clients to breathe through heavy lifts. Control the breath, control the body, control the panic.

  It was time to know what was actually going on.

  He sat at his desk and opened his laptop. The internet was still up. Social media was chaotic, with news reports plaguing every feed. And it was not just Seattle, but Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco. News anchors reminded the public not to go out.

  A clip went viral of a TV studio getting attacked by shoggoths and other creatures. One looked like a huge raccoon with spikes on its back and oversized muscles. People ran in absolute panic, and the video cut out right before the raccoon tackled a producer and was about to bite him in the eyes.

  Alex clicked on a video from downtown Seattle. Someone had filmed from a high-rise, pointing their phone at the street below. The things weren't all the same. Some were even humanoid, or more like orcs or goblin-like, some like human skeletons, others like flying Lovecraftian horrors with an uneven number of limbs and orb-like eyes... if they were even eyes.

  Something flew past the camera, like a human-sized bat with leathery wings and yellow eyes like lanterns, and a single horn on the head. It resembled a living gargoyle. Alex thought it was just like the thing he’d just seen from the window.

  This brought him more questions than answers.

  Alexander closed the laptop, and his phone buzzed again.

  Marion: I'll be there in 30 minutes. I'm bringing four others. We need to set a ward around your building before anything worse finds you.

  Me: Worse? What do you mean? Worse than what I already killed?

  Marion: Much worse. You killed a few shoggoths, I'm guessing. That's the bottom of the hierarchy. The real threats are still getting oriented. Give it a few hours and you'll see Dukes, not just their pets.

  Alexander blinked. Those things were pets?

  Me: So... What do I do if something attacks before you get here?

  Marion: Run and hide. Do NOT try to fight anything bigger than what you've already killed. And for Goddess’s sake, don't try any magic. Your bloodline is active but untrained. You could burn yourself out or worse.

  Me: Worse?

  The three dots appeared, then disappeared. They appeared again. Finally:

  Marion: You could open yourself to possession or tear a hole in your own soul trying to channel power you can't control. Just wait for me.

  But even if he wasn't trying a ritual... he could perhaps familiarize himself with magic.

  He took a deep breath and opened the book again. He skimmed through the book, finding a section that talked about binding.

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  That was what Solomonic magic was supposed to be about, wasn't it?

  He spoke a word in Enochian: Gohia. “Speak" or “Call forth.”

  The second ward: Od. A modifier that indicated spiritual action.

  The third word was longer, more complex. He could make out the root, and it was something about binding, containing, controlling.

  Marion's warning echoed in his mind: Don't try any magic.

  But what if something came through the door before she arrived? What if one of those things climbed the stairs, broke through his locks, came for him and Chris?

  “Crap,” he whispered.

  A crash from below made him freeze. Something had gotten into the gym.

  Chris sat up, eyes wide. “What was that?”

  “I think this door might not survive very long. Let's turn this into a fortress.”

  Alex changed his gauze, and told Chris to help him lift the dresser and shove it against the apartment door. Then, they did the same with the sofa and one of the bookshelves.

  The sounds from below grew clearer. Something was moving across the gym and slamming against the door to the staircase. Slamming hard. Alex knew it wouldn't last.

  But the impact against the door grew harder. Something creaked. He could tell what was about to happen. The door below had finally broken.

  “Alexander,” Chris gasped. “That sounds bigger than before.”

  He kept staring at the door as if it might dissolve.

  Alex could hear steps and jagged breathing. Whatever it was, the creature was crawling up the staircase, and began slamming its body against the door to his apartment. Impact vibrated through the door.

  There was something canine about the way it breathed and sounded. Not… quite a dog. But Alex could tell. It did not sound like one of the shoggoths, but the system did not give him any information yet.

  The creature pulled back, then slammed against the door, harder, making it rattle. The hinges strained, and the door shifted inward. Alexander took a deep breath and set his stance, axe ready. This creature sounded fast and agile. He'd probably have to sacrifice an arm and use that to distract it and snap its eye and skull.

  As he strategized, another push echoed, and the frame cracked. A seam split near the hinges, widening under pressure.

  The creature pushed against it like a sledgehammer until part of the door gave way.

  A snout forced through the break, dog-like, long and marked with twisted fangs that popped over its closed mouth, each of them as sharp as knives. Two eyes followed, set deep in a stretched skull, both locked on him.

  It looked like a wolf only at a glance. Every detail broke that illusion the longer he watched.

  The creature pressed harder, widening the gap. Wood fibers snapped.

  The door was already gone.

  The creature exhaled, like a hot furnace. Warm air pushed through the gap at the door, and it stank like death itself.

  Alexander tightened his grip on the axe.

  “Stay behind me,” he said to Chris.

  Chris didn't answer. He didn't move either.

  The doorframe groaned again.

  The next hit would bring it through, and Alex doubted the furniture wall would do much.

  Perhaps if he could use magic against it...

  “No,” he muttered to himself. Marion had been clear. Don't use magic. Don't try. Wait.

  The door shook again.

  And suddenly, text pulsed ahead of him.

  [WOLF MORPH]

  [HP: 84/84]

  Chris backed toward the bathroom, clutching a kitchen knife he must have grabbed. “Alex—”

  “Get ready.”

  Then, Alexander's phone buzzed. He kept an eye on the snarling snout while he pulled out his phone and watched the notifications.

  Marion: 15 minutes. Hold on.

  Fifteen minutes. The barricade wouldn't last one.

  The text pulsed:

  He didn't want to get eaten by a wolf.

  How did one even do magic?

  As if in answer to his question, letters pulsed over his head.

  [ESSENTIAL CLASS SKILLS: DEMON BINDING]

  [MP USE (FOR ENTITIES BELOW 100 HP): 150]

  Alexander closed his eyes. The door cracked. The top hinge tore free from the frame.

  How did that thing even work? He gritted his teeth, eyeing the text. There was something about binding.

  He was supposed to be part of some sort of video game now. Was there no tutorial?

  He spoke the words out loud, the words of Enochian that he barely remembered, the ones that came out the easiest.

  “Gohia od graa nazpsad. Pidiai coraxo.”

  His [MP] suddenly went down.

  [MP 200 → (50]

  Power surged through him, from inside, from somewhere deep in his chest where he'd never known anything existed.

  The air in the apartment thickened. Chris gasped, feeling it.

  The creature slammed into the door again and suddenly stopped.

  It was working.

  Alexander spoke a second phrase, his voice steady despite his shaking hands:

  “Od zodakara eka. I will contain you.”

  His mana went down again and hit 10.

  And he suddenly felt like he had just lifted a truck. The room spun and his knees buckled. He pressed his hand against the bookshelf to stay up.

  He heard a whimper, like a massive wolf taking a hit, weight pressing down against stone.

  Then it went silent.

  Chris stared at him. “What did you just do?”

  “Magic, I guess.” Alexander's voice was hoarse. “I spoke to it.”

  “In what language?”

  “Enochian.” Alexander pushed himself upright. His legs felt like water. “The language of angels. Or maybe demons. Nobody's ever been sure which.”

  He moved to the door and slightly slid the dresser away from it. Chris finally came closer to the door and grabbed his arm.

  “Wait,” Chris exclaimed. “What are you doing? That thing is still out there.”

  “I'm just trying to see if it's down.”

  “Are you insane? Did you see the size of that—”

  Alex stretched a hand and leaned through the broken door.

  The creature sat on the landing, head pressed against the stairs. It had stopped moving, stopped thrashing, but its eyes were fixed on Alexander. Waiting.

  The text in his vision pulsed:

  BINDING INCOMPLETE

  ENTITY SUBDUED BUT NOT BOUND

  WARNING: EFFECT TEMPORARY - 27 MINUTES REMAINING

  Alexander stared at the creature. It stared back, and Alex didn't break eye contact.

  “Stay,” he said in English.

  The creature settled lower, its body compressing.

  Yeah, the HUD or whatever it was had just said that it was temporary, but he definitely...

  “Holy crap,” Alexander whispered.

  His phone buzzed.

  Marion: 10 minutes. I felt that. What did you DO?

  He typed back:

  Me: I think I just cast my first spell.

  Marion: WHAT??? I told you not to.

  Marion: Is it bound? Sealed? Tell me you at least completed the binding.

  Alexander looked at the timer in his vision. Twenty-six minutes now.

  Me: It says it's temporary. Listen, I don't know how to make it permanent. Should I stab it?

  Marion: You attempted to bind it and partially subdued it. There is still a link between you two. Attacking it now could backfire. Don't touch it. Don't speak to it again. I'm almost there. We'll fix this.

  Marion: And Alexander? If your mana is strong enough to subdue an entity without training, without a circle, without preparation... you're going to be very dangerous. Or very dead. Possibly both.

  From below, in the ruined gym, more of those wet sliding sounds. More creatures, drawn by the noise or the smell or some sense that humans couldn't perceive.

  The timer ticked down. He had twenty-four minutes until this one broke free.