by Mary Buckham
Right then he was standing in the middle of the dojo floor, hands fisted on his hips, barely breaking a sweat. Then the door opened.
All gazes shifted left, including Stone’s whose eyes narrowed.
Stone spoke first, “Princess, the beauty pageant is over for the day. Come back later.”
Damn, sweat and sarcasm rolled together in a way that made what my brothers dished out seem benign.
Who was this woman who looked like she walked fashion runways in her spare time? Either that or she really was some kind of royalty as she stared down her nose at M.T. Stone as if barely aware of his existence.
I sat up straighter. Not that I liked blood drawn, but a small bout of fireworks would give all us recruits a chance to catch our breath. Something M.T. Stone frowned upon.
“Vaughn Monroe,” announced the woman in tones that promised hot, sweaty sex and lots of it to anyone who could keep up. I could have sworn Stone swallowed.
“Bet you a twenty she wraps him around her finger before end of day,” Amazon woman from last night whispered, leaning close to me as she moved from stretched out to sitting straight up. The first words she’d spoken to me all day.
“You think it’ll take her that long?” I countered, wondering if I should push for fifty.
“Nah, but Stone’s no lightweight.”
I took another glance at the newcomer and the cut of her clothes, not that Mud Lake, Idaho had ever seen such a suit. The cost of her hair highlights alone gave her away. This woman was born to wealth and pampering. The high life with a capital H.
Could she take Stone? Yeah, eventually. But Stone had more riding on the outcome of the sparks flying between him and this Vaughn Monroe. Fighter with the most to lose always fought with more heart.
“I’ll take your twenty and raise you twenty.”
Amazon arched her brows. “You a gambler?”
I shook my head.
“Your gift telling you something?” she air-quoted the word gift. So far no one had admitted to any uniqueness, though I could scent a few shifters and one Cambion, a half-human offspring of an incubus and a succubus who always smelt strongly of musk, in the group.
Let Amazon guess or play it straight? I caught Kelly glancing at me out of the corner of my eye. I shook my head again. “Just experience.”
Amazon shot Stone and the newcomer, both still frozen in place, a good once over before she turned back to me. “Done. Forty says Stone caves first.”
“And he caves today,” I clarified. “You’re on.”
Amazon scooted away, allying with Chiquita who’d done nothing but give me the stink-eye all morning.
But now I had something more interesting to distract me from burning muscles and squeezed lungs.
“Don’t let me down, big guy,” I said under my breath as I staggered to my feet.
“You say something Noziak?” Stone pounced on me, ignoring the bigger threat right in front of him. “Why don’t you and Princess here go a few rounds? Show us prep school versus . . .”
He didn’t say it. Prep school versus prison but he and I both knew what he was thinking.
Fine M.T. Must-be Terminal Stone. Going up against a Prom Queen wasn’t my style, but kept me away from Amazon and Chiquita gal, both who’d go for blood.
I glanced at the newcomer. “You want to suit up or fight in those heels?”
She actually smiled. Not a smarmy get-real one like I expected but the unholy gleam of someone who was looking forward to a challenge.
“I’ll be back in a nanosecond,” she said in Brahmin tones.
I almost grinned. What pampered princess could change out of posh clothes in a second? Taking her down was going to be a piece of cake. I only hoped I didn’t hurt her too badly in the process.
But damn if the woman wasn’t true to her word, returning to the dojo before I could catch my breath. She wore a fresh gi which looked tailor-made for her. My own gi was so soaked with sweat it was more wet then dry, but if Princess was ready, so was I.
“Go, Alex,” Kelly cheered as the rest of the group backed away, giving Monroe and I a circle around us. Stone didn’t wave anyone back to their own sparring partners so I guessed there was more going on here then I first suspected.
A test? Winner take all, or Stone giving the loser an opportunity to be booted?
Opening my senses a little I tried to guess what this Vaughn Monroe might be. Succubus? Fae? Part-demon? But I didn’t get any sense of her being a non-human, only a scowl from Stone, as if he guessed what I was doing.
But only a fool waltzed into an uneven match, training session or not.
Stone had been teaching us elements of Krav Maga, the noncompetitive martial art self-defense system that came out of Israel. So far from what I’d seen it included everything and anything, a little karate, some kickboxing, wrestling, crap, even some grappling techniques. My kind of hand-to-hand, down and dirty fighting. Sort of an Idaho free-for-all.
“Come on, Princess,” I murmured, loud enough for her to hear my taunt. “Show me what you’ve got.”
But evidently royalty were no more fools than Noziaks, or this one wasn’t about to be prodded into making a stupid first move.
So we knelt on the mats, bowed to each other, guessing at the other’s potential strengths and weaknesses. She was about my height, almost five-ten, and her leanness looked stronger than gym-created muscles. But I doubted she’d ever sparred with a partner like me, trained by four shifter brothers.
Not taking our eyes off one another we rose to our feet, the people around us disappearing into the background, our focus one hundred percent on the other.
We stepped toward one another and she lunged first, so fast her leg cut beneath mine as she twisted, slamming me down on the mat before I knew what had smacked me.
Lord love a duck, she was fast. Wicked fast and not afraid to show it.
I flipped to my knees, rising slowly as if hurt and waited for her to make her first mistake. She did, extending her hand as one equal to another.
This time I struck. My right hand grabbing her right hand to immobilize it, I used her kindness to pull myself up and toward her, twisting to the left, my left elbow cracking into her jaw in a pivoting movement that earned groans and catcalls from the sidelines. Yeah, it was sneaky and cheap but this wasn’t beauty pageant practice. On second thought, from what I’d heard about many of those competitions they were pretty brutal.
Vaughn Monroe must have learned from the best as she barely hit the mat before she flipped her legs up with a scissor kick motion that wrapped them around my neck, twirled me, and we were both on the mat.
Now I was pissed. No princess beat a Noziak.
She scrambled to her knees at about the same time I did so I rolled backwards, thrusting upward with my leg to her chin as she leaned forward. Smack.
But no way was she out as she pivoted away and came back with her leg sweeping my knees out from under me then pounced with an arm thrust to my neck.
Wolf-calls whistled around us as I lay there panting, pinned and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do unless she moved. Not unless I wanted a broken neck.
“So they taught you a few things in charm school,” Stone growled, sounding as P.O’d as I was. “Get to your feet.”
Even as she released her hold, allowing me a much-needed breath, she kept her eyes glued to mine. Smart cookie never, ever trust an opponent until they were knocked out or dead.
My opinion of her improved and I noticed she didn’t extend her hand to me this time as we rose and backed away from one another. Stone hadn’t ended the session. Not by a long shot.
But as I was dancing on my feet to keep my momentum up I felt a jolt ricochet up my right arm like a lightening singe just as Monroe grabbed for my raised left arm, pulled me toward her, and used an upper cut of her knee to my chest to collapse me.
This time as I curled to my knees I wasn’t half as agile or fast to respond, my right arm vibrating like a funny bone
on crack. Damn. Had she hit a nerve?
She must have sensed I’d pulled away mentally so she zeroed in for the kill strike. Very smart cookie. Take every opportunity you could in a fight.
Cradling my right arm with my left I didn’t give her anything to grab onto so she came in low, using the power of her shoulder bone coming up against my chin to send me flying backwards.
Thank heavens I smashed into the nearest cheering section who broke my fall, though I doubted they meant to be live sandbags. By the time I scrambled to my feet one leg wasn’t working. Not numb from the fall but tingling, as if electricity streamed through it. A high jolt of juice.
What the . . .? I glanced around. A blur of faces. Monroe across from me, hands braced on her legs, chugging air. Stone acting as referee, his face blank, his eyes shifting to high-alert wariness. Something was happening, but I was too focused on not getting the stuffing beaten out of me to realize what it was at first.
Then as hard as Monroe’s last kick, it hit me. Magic. I could almost sniff it in the air. Someone was hamstringing me by weakening my limbs.
A quick heated glance at Monroe only earned a frown. Not her. But who?
By this time Stone figured something was up. He raised an arm, calling. “Play is over ladies, back to work.”
The circle broke up with a few groans, but I wasn’t paying them any mind. Not with the twisting starting low in my belly and tightening.
By this time a wary Monroe and a focused Stone sidled up to me asking in a low voice, “What’s up?”
I barely bit out the words, “Black magic.”
Then the room spiraled into darkness.
CHAPTER 7
The new girl Monroe was the one with enough smarts to grab me before I toppled. For that alone I’d kiss her feet, nothing more humiliating than doing a face plant on your first day of proving yourself.
Stone grabbed my other arm and between the two of them dragged me to the side while I fought to keep from upchucking all over them.
“You hurt?” Stone asked, looking at Monroe as if she’d hit me harder than he’d suspected.
I shook my head, repeating, “Black magic. Someone’s using.”
Stone glanced over my shoulder, doing a quick scan of the room as the women were pairing off, some dragging their feet more than others. But he must not have noticed anything out of place as his attention snapped back to me almost immediately.
“Not seeing anything.”
That had me biting back a groan. Of course he wouldn’t see anything; it wasn’t like a bolt of black magic emitted a colored energy wave. At least not to someone not trained to see it. Even I wasn’t that strong a practitioner, especially as rusty as I was, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t smell and feel the dark magic.
Monroe rolled her eyes at Stone as she asked, “What can we do?”
I’d promised myself I wouldn’t embrace my magic except for survival. Damn, if this wasn’t just that. Do nothing and the magic attack still washing over me was going to weaken me to the point I was out of the program. Or dead.
Besides, once I or any witch started using magic, I left myself wide open to physical attack.
“Got salt?” I croaked. Problem with a hex spell, especially a black magic one, was that the three easiest ways to neutralize it didn’t work without a lot of set-up and ingredients. Some spells needed the leaves of ash trees, others a mixture of dragon blood and blessed oils. Uncrossing spells assumed no wicked intention was meant by the original spell caster, and given the knots tightening in my stomach, I didn’t believe that for a second.
“Salt?” Monroe glanced at Stone as if she’d never heard of the item.
“Out the door, second door on the left. Upper cupboard,” Stone replied, and bless her heart, Monroe beat feet.
“What’re you going to do with the salt?” Stone asked, as he leaned me against the nearest wall. All I wanted to do was slide to the floor and moan, but that meant some SOB black magic witch would win.
“Protection spell,” I murmured.
“White or black?” he asked, surprising me.
I shot him a quick glance that had him shrugging. It was a damned astute question, especially for a human.
“Black to black,” I bit out between clenched teeth. Unfortunately it was too hard to counter a lot of black or dark magic with the more benign white magic. Think of going up against a tank with a garland of flowers and sparkle dust. Sometimes it could work, but today wasn’t the time. Someone was doing their damnedest to hurt me and I didn’t have a lot of options to fight back. But I’d hold off using the blackest, or blood magic, if at all possible.
Without the right ingredients to truly fight black magic I’d take what I could and see if it helped ease the hex.
I closed my eyes, fighting nausea swimming through me, when I felt something squeezed into my hand. I looked up to see Monroe bending over me, curling my fingers around a saltshaker.
Worked for me.
“Thanks,” I whispered, bracing my legs to stand. I needed a small circle of space around me. I stepped forward to put a hand’s length between the wall and myself, and between where Monroe and Stone hovered near me.
I didn’t like using my magic in public, didn’t like using it at all, but if I didn’t counter the hex, I might not walk out of here. With hope the other recruits would just think I was crazy acting, tossing around some salt while I mumbled.
I poured about a teaspoon of ordinary table salt in my right palm and closed it. This time when I shut my eyes it was to visualize a circle of bright light twining around me. It took a little focus, but the image came. Murmuring low I started the chant.
“Light come forth. Clear the darkness. Guide and protect. Light to dark.”
I turned counter clockwise, repeating,
“Clear and guide. Light to dark. Protect.”
By the time I had turned half circle the pressure in my chest began to ease.
I kept going, releasing a little of the salt in the four directions as I turned.
"East to the morning light. North to the warrior spirits. West to the waning light. South to the heat. Beat back the darkness. Scatter and protect.”
By the time I reached a full circle I could breathe, and think. Snapping my eyes open I followed the protection spell with a guiding one. A cast of the remaining salt in my hand toward the gym spread before me was the first step.
“Dark to dark, seek thy home.”
It wasn’t the strongest spell, and unlike what I’d told Stone it wasn’t true black magic. For that you needed evil intention and human blood.
I sensed whoever tried to hurt me meant harm more than true evil. Like unto like. No way could I bring a semi-automatic assault rifle to a squirt gun fight and using true black magic was very potent and could be very deadly. But I still wanted to see who had cast the harming hex.
But the salt, or I, wasn’t strong enough. Instead of a trail of light leading from me, the recipient of the hex, back to the caster, all that happened was a small flurry of salt sweeping across the floor. And I hadn’t noticed anyone paying particular attention to what I was doing either. That might have been a nice lead.
“Damn,” I whispered, not realizing I’d said it aloud until both Stone and Monroe looked at me.
“No luck?” Stone jumped to the heart of the problem.
I shook my head, still feeling wiped from the attack, small as it was. It wasn’t the residual tingle of pain remaining but more the unspoken threat behind the action. Someone able to use magic wanted to hurt me. Maybe not kill me but take me out of the lineup of potential Invisible Recruits. If I hadn’t caught on to what was swirling around me, or Monroe had been more aggressive and Stone less astute, I’d simply be a potential agent who couldn’t hack the grade because I had failed a sparring match.
But who wanted me gone? And why? Except for Ling Mai and Stone I hadn’t met any of these people before last night. Amazon Woman and the Chiquita? Yeah, I’d butted heads with them at d
inner but was that enough to have one, or both of them, hunting for me? What about Kelly Kindergarten Teacher? I’d sooner believe the Energizer Bunny was after me before I could see her spell casting.
So who did that leave?
“Watch your back,” Monroe murmured next to me.
I snorted. “As if I needed that reminder.”
She countered with a smile. The first non-threat here, except for cheerleader Kelly.
“If we’re done pampering,” Stone growled, though it held more bark than bite and was directed at Monroe more than me. “Let’s get back to work.”
Monroe moved off and as I started to follow her at a much slower pace, Stone nodded toward a side bench. “Not you, Noziak. Sit this one out.”
Great. A Princess took me down in Krav Maga and now I got to be a bench warmer. Keep this up and I’d be on the fast express back to prison.
Except it looked like Stone had other ideas as he slid down next to me and asked, “Given you’re the only known witch on the roster present this morning, who’s sending out the magic?”
I glanced at him, not worried about hiding my surprise. I’d assumed the magic had been witch generated. It held that taint, but then I hadn’t practiced a lot of witchcraft lately; killing someone with magic tended to have that side effect. At least for me.
“You have any part witches?” I asked, wondering where this was leading.
“Not that anyone’s admitted to,” came the terse reply.
I held my tongue for a moment, weighing the possibilities, but in the end there were only two options. I cleared my throat, looking straight ahead as I murmured for Stone’s ears alone. “Then someone is either lying to you about what they can do or . . .“
“Or?”
“Or someone is intentionally messing with you.”
And me, too.
CHAPTER 8
I made it through the rest of the martial arts drills intact and upright until we broke for lunch, where I sagged a lot as I was joined by Kelly, and to my surprise, Vaughn Monroe.