She pulled out her sword with a grim smile, so I pulled mine and took a guarded stance.
Then she lunged and came at me aggressively. The first ten minutes or so weren’t bad, I managed to block everything but two slaps from the flat of her blade. I was actually stupid enough to feel confident and cocky, and thought maybe I didn’t have as much to learn as my mother suggested. But in reality, she’d just been taking an initial measure of my skills, using nothing but the basic sword moves which I was familiar with.
Then followed almost a full hour of hell, as she totally kicked my ass. An hour of sword fighting at the speeds a Nephilim fought, had as many strikes, parries, dodges, and blocks as two humans fighting for days. I was in shape, and had the stamina, strength, and speed of a Nephilim, but I still felt like I might throw up and then pass out in exhaustion by the time she called a halt. My body was also bruised and in pain, even pulling her hits and using the flat sides of our blades, she’d beaten me black and blue.
I didn’t even hit her once. Turns out mom was right, I was good enough to face a succubus maybe, but an angelic warrior? Not even close.
Korinna said, “Not bad. Better than I expected, your mother did a good job grounding you in the basics. I want you back in this room at six, so get up earlier and get something to eat. Tomorrow we begin our training in earnest. Oh, and no healing spells.”
“No healing?” I asked in disbelief, I felt like tenderized meat.
I also wondered what she’d meant by earnest, no doubt she thought our hour sparring was too short? I’d thought my parents were tough with instilling self-discipline, turns out they were coddling me. I pushed down all the whiny feelings, time to suck it up. This wasn’t a game, and all the bruises were a stark reminder that if I’d been facing an angelic warrior, every bruise would be true wound. The supernatural world was a dangerous place, even for one of my power.
Korinna shook her head, “You’ll learn faster, and retain more muscle memory and stronger rebuilding of muscle if you heal naturally. We heal fast as Nephilim, even without spells, when you wake up you’ll feel great. Plus, pain is the best teacher.”
Right, pain was the best teacher, this wasn’t going to be fun at all. She teleported out, and I went to take a hot bath, then went straight to bed after I set the alarm for five-thirty. I’d need to eat a big breakfast, I had the feeling I’d be burning a lot of energy tomorrow. I was sore even after a hot bath, but I was also exhausted and had no problems finding sleep.
I dreamed of dark blue eyes.
Chapter Ten – Portia
The darkness wasn’t a problem, and since my wings were mostly energy they weren’t sore, holding my concealment spells wasn’t a problem either, I regenerated magic from my home plane faster than I could spend it, but after flying in a grid search pattern for almost fourteen hours I was mentally exhausted. Chances were the rogue had moved on, but my intuition said he was still in the area, not in Piedmont’s city limits, but in the surrounding wilderness.
When it happened, my mind was in a fog and I almost missed it, a flicker of shifter magic to my right side. Piedmont was about thirty miles northwest of there, and it was good to know my intuition hadn’t failed me. I flew in a tight circle to dump most of my speed, and soared in the direction I’d felt the magic. When I felt it again, I took a moment to make sure it matched the magic at the house. Chances were this was my rogue, but assumptions led to mistakes and got innocent people killed, something I’d rather not see happen.
I wasn’t surprised it was a perfect match to the residual magic I’d felt at the site, but what was a surprise was the residual Fae magic I felt inside the shifter. I frowned and landed a few feet away from the sleeping bear without making a sound, and sent my mind into the bear’s.
He was an old rogue, with a taste for human flesh. Most shifters abhorred that idea, much like most humans abhorred the idea of cannibalism, but there were always the sick and twisted among every race. Not even my race was an exception, if anything the fallen were, or at least could be, much worse.
Sadly, he’d been hunting humans for many years, but had been careful, cautious, and respected the secret, which was why he’d never shown up on my radar, or the human tracking systems. Until he ran into a Fae, who’d screwed around in his mind. No doubt his previous victims were simply missing as far as the human authorities could determine.
I could feel the residual Fae magic, which would completely fade in another thirty-six to forty-eight hours. Usually residual magic only lasted three days. Which meant this bear shifter was recently enslaved to a Fae. There was no memory of the Fae in his mind, the Fae must have removed it when letting the bear go. Even stranger, I saw another face I knew in the bear’s mind, the vampire the Nephilim had taken down last night, he was a slave to the same Fae as well. There were images in his mind of a tent, with the vampire in a cage next to his.
Of course, the vampire had been loose and killing one human woman a week for over a month, so the Fae’s residual magic would have faded long before I’d felt his aura, which explains why I hadn’t figured this out before now. It was very rare that I caught an exposure risk so quickly out of the gate.
All of which led me to a scary conclusion, there was a Fae out there who was taking violent rogues as slaves, and conditioning them to be sloppier about it, and risking humanity finding proof of the supernatural. It made no sense, why would a Fae be doing that?
It also sent a cold shiver down my spine, as I remembered the numbers had been going up steadily the last twenty years, on rogues I’d had to put down. How long has the Fae been doing this and laughing at me? If my database search hadn’t tripped on this one heinous crime so quickly, I’d have still been in the dark about Fae involvement.
It was also boggling, the Fae were heartless tricksters, but they knew better than to endanger the secret of the supernatural races, of all the races they at least feared the angels if nothing else. In all my years on this world, I’ve never once had to take down a Fae for endangering the secret. Which was annoying in one way, because I’d love to stop their practices of enslaving and experimenting on the other races, but I had no right to. My mission was to keep the secret, not right wrongs, sometimes free will was a bitch, even for me.
How many of the rogues that I’d killed the last twenty years was because of this Fae? Worse, although the residual signature of Fae magic was there, it was already decayed. Which meant I knew there was a Fae, but I wouldn’t be able to match the magic to him or her, and I had no idea what he or she looked like, or where they even were.
The bear snuffled and stirred, and I drew my sword and took his head before he fully woke. Then I destroyed his corpse with holy fire, pure glowing white flames devoured the body. I sighed. Now what? The Fae were also accomplished at closing their minds, I could hardly search Fae to Fae and force them to open up to me until I found the right one. It was impractical, and wrong besides.
That wasn’t the only issue either. One on one a Fae wouldn’t have a chance against me, their magic was strong, but mine was stronger. Except, they were cruel tricksters, I couldn’t expect a straight fight. My enemy would come at me sideways, or perhaps flee.
The Fae also built weapons of power, which could be a real problem if they could hit me with it. There were also rumors of items that could trap and ensnare souls, I wasn’t sure if they were true or not, but I didn’t want to end up as the power source for a magical sword, or stuck in a soul trap for eternity. They might not be able to kill me permanently, but they could enslave me if those stories were true.
I’d have to be extremely careful, because there was only one realistic plan. The Fae had twenty-three enclaves scattered about the United States alone, all in remote places that humans rarely tread. It was probably safe to assume the Fae responsible was at least from around here, somewhere. I’d have to visit all the enclaves one at a time, and then read the minds of the supernatural slaves. Hopefully, there was one or two that would know the vampire or bear shi
fter I’d just taken down, or at least have the same kind of programming in their minds, then I could question the Fae that owned those slaves, and then kill the bastard.
I frowned, not really liking the plan, it would be hard to ignore their depredations. Just because it wasn’t my job, didn’t mean I liked what the Fae were up to. It would be hard to walk among their camps, and not judge them, but I couldn’t think of another way to find the Fae responsible for this, at least not one that had a chance of success. When I found him, or her, I’d be very happy to remove them from this life.
But first, I needed a few hours of sleep. I teleported straight to my bedroom, and formed and released a spell to conjure my clothing clean and into my closet. Another spell and I felt clean, and I slipped naked between the sheets. I’d start my search tomorrow.
I sighed, as my last waking thought was of hazel eyes, something else I’d have to deal with eventually. I wondered if my facial search had come back, but before I went to check I needed to track down the Fae who was making my job a lot harder.
Chapter Eleven – Jason
The front door opened, waking me up with a groan, but I ignored it as I laid on the couch. Nephilim brutality was what it was, I felt like one giant sore the following late afternoon. Hopefully it wasn’t an enemy, I was too tired to move.
Korinna had a dubious method of training. She came at me again and again that first morning, with the same exact attack sequence for the first two hours. The first, second, and third time she’d hit me ten times. The fourth time I knew what was coming, so she’d only hit me eight times. It took me sixty minutes to be able to block the full sequence, but it was ugly and uncoordinated. The second hour I experimented, got hit some more, but even managed to come up with a few nasty counter attacks and look slightly more graceful.
Then of course, it was still only eight in the morning, and she’d come at me with an entirely new attack sequence, half the strikes getting through again. I knew what she was doing, she was forcing me to develop my own advanced style, defenses, and counter attacks. I’d even hit her once, sometime around noon. It wasn’t until two in the afternoon, eight hours and four separate attack sequences later, that were all evil, before she’d called it a day, and left me. It might have also been because I couldn’t even stand anymore.
She’d also given me faint praise, not hopeless she’d said, and told me if I stuck to her training I’d be slightly competent in a week. Awesome.
The best news was she said after a week the intense training would end, and I’d only have to start coming once a week to keep my edge, and slowly develop even further. It seemed after a week, the initial fast progress would slow significantly.
I’d been lying on the couch ever since, and it was about four in the afternoon. The only reason I’d made it down the stairs and into the living room was the levitation spell. I wasn’t allowed to use healing magic. It had been a bit tricky too, levitation was only an up and down thing, so I’d also used telekinesis, and kind of pulled at the walls, which pulled me along.
A bright smile, light blonde hair, and green eyes looked down on me. She looked to be about twenty-two, which probably made her one of my aunts, and not a cousin. Slow aging or no aging in the supernatural world was a thing. She had a pixie face which gave her a mischievous look.
“Wow, Korinna put you through the ringer. I’m your Aunt April, not sure if you remember me or not. I went to Seattle once, but you were only four at the time.”
I attempted a smile, at least my face didn’t hurt.
“Nice to see you, I should get up to greet you properly, but I don’t think I can. You look familiar, but I’m not sure?”
April smirked, “You have six aunts who are mages, and all of us have the same blonde hair and green eyes from our mother Karen. You might be remembering one of them from when you were a bit older. Your grandfather and my mother are rather… prolific. Our family is a bit non-standard.”
That was true enough, and quite an understatement. My grandfather had eight mates, and he’d had six daughters and two sons with just one of them, plus children from the others with one exception. Liliana was my grandfather’s mate and family guardian, she was also a vampire, which meant no kids. I had a ton of aunts and uncles, and enough cousins to fill a small town. It was almost impossible to keep track. The family tree looked less like a tree, and more like the organizational chart of a corporation.
Similarly, my father had six mates, although he’s only had children with four of them. It was a warlock and succubus thing really, that led to that kind of thing. Which meant I also had a bunch of half-sibs. My ambitions in that area were confined to finding one mate, which as a Nephilim was easier said than done. Women did like a strong man, but they didn’t like to be completely eclipsed either. Probably why I couldn’t get the angel out of my head, but I’d fucked that up good and well.
“So, what brings you by?”
April laughed, “You of course. I volunteered to come early and cook dinner, more of your Chicago family will be coming in a couple of hours.”
I sat up a bit unsteadily, “I might be recovered enough by then to move around without magic.”
She laughed, “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that, just magic training for me when I was growing up.”
Yeah, mages had the physical strength and speed of a human, just access to magic set them apart. They also didn’t have sword wielding angels to worry about, unless they tried to reveal our existence to humanity that is.
She said, “Anyway, I’m going to get started on dinner.”
I nodded, “I’m going to soak in hot water, and then I’ll be down to keep you company?”
She smiled, “Sounds like a plan, welcome to Chicago.”
Yep, my family was evil, aunts laughing at my pain. I waited until she was downstairs before I got up to my feet, and it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, Nephilim did heal fast. My legs were crying, but they could already support my weight again. I used a little levitation to make myself lighter, and made it up the stairs and into the hallway bathroom, where I ran some hot water.
The bath was painful at first, but the heat and steam did soothe my muscle aches and sores. The black and blues on my bodies already looked like a human would after a couple of days, which meant Nephilim heal about twenty times faster. It was something I knew but hadn’t experienced, I’d been hit with healing magic all my life, after the smallest scrape. I really wasn’t used to pain, but I’d get over it.
As usual lately, while I soaked and my mind rested, ageless dark blue eyes and golden blonde hair filled my thoughts. I wished a bit wistfully that I knew her name. I was intrigued by her, and by the possibilities of finding an equal partnership with a woman who didn’t fear me. Chances were that it wouldn’t have worked out anyway, despite the incredibly strong initial and superficial attraction I’d felt, but the loss of the opportunity of learning that for sure bugged me. I’d be in for a long lonely life if I couldn’t find a woman that was my equal, and the only other ones I knew were family.
I pushed that all out of my mind as I got out of the water a half hour later, and got ready to head downstairs and entertain company. My body felt a bit better, hopefully it would be a lot better in ninety minutes when they got here…
Chapter Twelve – Interlude
Drake smiled in anticipation, it was just a matter of time now. He was committed, and his prey was on the hunt.
Drake was ancient, had been ancient and lost count of the years of his existence before they’d crossed here to this world, fleeing a war back on their own world. He’d been delighted to find a whole new world filled with new life to study, humans, many types of shifters, and elemental mages. There’d been some trouble when they first got here, and another inter-dimensional race called angels had given them a lot of grief, until attacking or trying to enslave an angel was outlawed by all the clan leaders.
It had slightly annoyed him at the time, but he had plenty of other races to learn about
, from, and to play his games with. Not all Fae enslaved or researched other races, it was a hobby only some partook in. Not out of any sense of morality, it was just that some of the Fae had no interest in it, and had other pursuits. Art, dance, drugs, crops, assassination, sex worker, it was all the same to the Fae, there was no right or wrong, just power and what caught their interest. Like humans, the Fae had different hobbies, just no morality.
Point was, Drake was happy in his research for thousands of years in this new playground. He was invigorated, and had a new lease on life with all there was to learn.
Then things changed over the last few hundred years, when he’d once again grown dreadfully bored with life. He’d researched every race, tried every experiment, and had learned how to enslave them all to his will, and sculpt their minds and bodies to his whims. They were no longer a challenge, and just throwaway toys that aged and died so quickly.
Angels though, they were as immortal as he was, and he knew very little about them. He was… insatiably curious. Of course, to attack one or capture one would have his clan ruler calling for his death, it was one of the few banned activities, not out of morality, but to prevent a war with angels which they couldn’t possibly win. So… Drake had come up with a plan.
Technically, self-defense wouldn’t be a violation of the rules, if an angel attacked him, he’d be well within his rights to enslave it despite the current laws. It hadn’t taken him long to come up with a plan at that point, the angels were terribly predictable, and would come after anyone who threatened the secret existence of supernatural races. So… he’d caught some sick twisted individuals, not that he’d cared or even noticed, and removed their inhibitions that made them hide the evidence of their kills, and their supernatural natures.
Then he’d set them free to cause havoc.
He’d been fooling the Angel in this country for twenty years, with a purpose. When he released the shifter two days ago, he knew the angel would be incensed when she found out the truth of the last twenty years. He wanted her angry, and furious enough to fall for a trap. It wouldn’t do, to go through all that effort, only to have his head separated from his shoulders by her sword.
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