Oculus

by S. E. Akers

  I sprang to my feet and dove for cover behind a tall rack stocked with bows. I didn’t give them a second-thought; even I wasn’t delusional enough to risk a missed-shot launched out of one of those. So instead, I quickly reached into my pocket and pulled out a gold morning star fused with Lotan venom. The seven-headed sea serpent’s toxin would serve to slow down those muscles of his quite nicely since it turned whatever area it struck to jelly. Cautiously, I rose up to scope out the scene. I’d just starting scanning the room when Tanner’s vapor-form whirled around my body with a fast and furious swirl, and in the process, stripped me of all the Veil weapons I’d collected — right down to the daggone morning star I was holding in my hand. He soon rematerialized beside a rack of spears roughly twenty feet away, his head swaying with disapproval as he held up the acid-orb. I glanced down at my shirt feeling full-on pissed. I had actually tucked that thing in my bra.

  My head shot straight up as I fastened my button back in place. “I’m not surprised,” I groused.

  “Well don’t hurt yourself trying to look too appalled,” Tanner laughed. “If you’d been wearing that wetsuit from yesterday, I wouldn’t have had to reach in at all.”

  My jaw clenched so tightly I could literally feel its force fueling my trembling fists.

  Tanner placed the acid-orb up on a shelf to his left. “You weren’t seriously going to use that on me, were you?” he questioned, his head still shaking. “That’s the nastiest one in here.”

  I gave my head a blasé toss. “Kamya told me to make her proud.”

  “Oh, I see,” he sang with an astute glare and then like a shot hurled the morning star I’d meant to use on him straight into my right arm.

  My bicep fell limp in an instant, and then just as I started to turn, he pegged me with two more shurikens—one in the side of my abdomen and one in the thigh—both kissed with the stinging temperatures of the Arctic. And though my muscles didn’t fizzle out, the freezing burn they were reeling with made them feel just as useless as if they had.

  I fell to floor praying that the fire in my belly would melt the icy sensation away since my moonstone could only work so fast. My eyes fell on my ruby cuff furiously right after I’d yanked out the last of the shurikens. I started focusing on its vibe, trying to ignite its protective abilities. Even though I still didn’t know exactly what it could do, Kamya had promised it packed a punch. Though no matter how hard I focused or how “special” she’d claimed it to be, nothing ever happened. I gave my wrist several shakes in hopes of jump-starting it, but its fiery engine still wouldn’t crank.

  “If you’re trying to surrender, you’re missing your white flag,” Tanner teased.

  I scowled and held up my wrist. “Why won’t this ruby do ANYTHING?” I growled.

  “A ruby will only birth a flame when it feels a real threat,” he scoffed. “Even it knows I could never cause you any harm.” And with that said, the bastard then hurled another shuriken and hit my other leg — the one I’d snatched that contained the blaze of a lava ball.

  I erupted in a growl and then slammed my heel against a nearby rack, trying to fight off the wicked scorch.

  I plucked the shuriken out of my leg. “You’ve sure got a funny way of showing it!” I raged and then slung it back his way, only for him to dodge it effortlessly. I leaned to brace myself on the floor to get up, now that my muscles had regained a little more feeling. That’s when my hand fell on a chakram that had fallen out of the rack I’d kicked. Once I’d secured the sharp and sleek throwing circle, I swiftly sent it whirling his way without the slightest pause to take aim. Tanner may have shirked enough to clear the chakram’s spinning path, however it collided with the acid-orb he’d placed on the shelf and sent him jumping like a jackrabbit, desperate to clear its corrosive spray when it cracked.

  “Someone once told me that weapons were made to be used,” I snarked, repeating word-for-word what he’d declared my first time in here. I rose to my feet. “Does that answer your question about my intentions for that orb?” I posed and then went right back to secretly thanking the cosmos for helping me make one heck of a lucky shot.

  With the heat of his stare solely focused on me, Tanner quickly yanked a longbow out of its rack. “Unequivocally,” he said, eyes gritty, and then pulled out the first arrow from a random quiver without checking what stone tip it held.

  I leaped behind a long bank of shelves as soon as I noticed the black obsidian shaping its point when he drew his bow. He’d missed—thankfully—but only because I’d shooed it away with some wind the second before it hit. The last thing I needed was some maddening screams rattling my head to go with the crazy illusions that particular stone yielded. And I didn’t want to think about how much of a chuckle he would have over that one.

  I peered through a narrow opening between the shelves to see Tanner heading for the rack of spears. I quickly searched the shelves around me for something to use. All that lay in them were protective items like bracers, gauntlets, and guards. My eyes sparked when I spied a pair of gloves I’d been shown—hellcat gloves—but hadn’t had the pleasure of getting my hands dirty in yet.

  Right now is as good a time as any, I smiled and slipped them on. Invisibly, I crept out from behind my cover and hurried to sneak up on him before he could sense me. He abruptly turned as I was making my approach and then shifted into his vapory-form again (yet another reason why I HATED his element). The next thing I knew, a wicked-hot jolt smacked my ass with a stinging “CRACK”. Eyes bugging, I lowered my veil and whirled around to see Tanner back in his human form swinging a leather whip laced with tourmalines.

  NO, HE DIDN’T, lit up my face like a neon-sign. I stepped back, rubbing the bite of my backside and reeling with bitterness. If he didn’t know how ticked-off I was from my glare, he sure-fire got the hint when I kicked the daggone thing straight out of his hand like I was punching Silas’ iron wall. The Son-of-a-Bitch had actually “spanked me”—HARD—and no chick in their right mind would stand for that crap!

  This “little girl” included, I fumed silently.

  Tanner cocked his head. “Someone just said a minute ago that weapons are made to be used,” he reminded, looking ten-percent regretful and ninety-percent unabashed.

  I glanced at the whip thoughtfully. “THEY ARE,” I assured, with a hair-raising glare. After a heated and tense pause, the two of us dove towards the punishing device — me, desperate for my own crack and Tanner determined not to let me get it.

  I tackled Tanner before he could get to the whip and then our locked frames went rolling across the room. He was on top of me when we came to a stop, pressing his chest against mine and driving my back into the floor. Since pushing against him was getting me nowhere, I wiggled my hands around and then summoned the razor-sharp tips of the hellcat gloves to emerge and unleash the worst of their wrath. With a growling hiss, Tanner arched his torso high in the air just as soon the claws dug into his flesh and raked a long path down the sides of his bare back. I tried to wrestle myself out from underneath him, but he dragged me back to where I was no sooner than he’d caught his breath.

  He pinned my hands over my head. “Playtime’s over!” Tanner rumbled, his eyes dark and stormy. “It’s time we get this over with.” Then he secured his grip and ripped off my gloves, one at a time. “So do you have anything else you’re hiding?”

  “No,” I groused, still trying to twist free. “You’ve officially picked me clean.”

  “Good,” he smirked. “This is going to be a fair fight — just our blades.”

  “Then you can only use one,” I insisted.

  “Not a problem,” he assured, grinning.

  “And you need to empty your pockets as well,” I ordered.

  “I promise you, I’m not hiding a thing,” he countered.

  “Yes — You are!” I argued with a firm huff and a shrewd glare. My eyes darted down towards his lower torso. “I can feel—” My words came to an awkward halt just as swiftly as my breaths. Then my ch
eeks flushed not a rock-hard second later when I twisted my hips. Nope… That wasn’t a bound pair of metal nunchuks like I’d originally thought.

  I’d barely shot him a glance before I maneuvered out from under him and nervously rose to my feet. Though the roguish look I’d spied in his eyes during that split-second left my head whirling the same way it did every other time a confusing instance between us arose. Even now I couldn’t decipher anything conclusive from the “bulk of the evidence”. We were in his weapons vault fighting our butts off. What warrior wouldn’t get turned on?

  I grumbled a silent sigh. Especially him?

  Slowly, I slipped my hilt out of its holster and gave it a few mindful squeezes. I thought shipping all the monsters back to The Darklands would be my crowning feat with respect to my time here, but the feeling was nothing compared to wanting to drive my diamond straight through one of his shoulders. I could feel the breadth of my fury churning deep down inside me, and I feared what release it was going to take unless I got some answers. And I wanted them today — like right now.

  I looked down and eyed my hilt vehemently. One way or another…

  “Aren’t you tired of this?” Tanner demanded, breaking me out of my daze and calling out my yet-to-be-drawn weapon. He lifted his head and brandished his amethyst blade. “I know I am.” His handsome face had an underlying ache of weary shadowing it that rubbed me painfully raw. “So draw that sword of yours so this matter can finally end.”

  I swallowed a lump out of my throat as I stared into his thunderous eyes. I’d never seen them radiating so much sincerity.

  “And I’ll up my offer,” he added. “Even if you don’t best me, you’re free to leave.”

  A bitter chill coursed through my body that ended in the palm of my hand. So what I’d overheard in the hall actually did hold some truth — at least a little of it.

  I gave my hilt a resolute whirl and extended the diamond in an instant. “Good,” I snapped and leaned into an aggressive stance.

  Our blades connected with a crash not a second later, sending sparks flying in all directions. Between the relentless nature of our strikes and my escalating emotions, I felt like I was rocketing towards the sun my need for answers burned so fiercely. I couldn’t have cared less that we were fighting; this might be the last chance I could get them.

  I dodged his thrust and snapped back into an attack stance. “For the record, not letting Silas tell me that he was all right was cruel,” I scolded and then drove my diamond blade fiercely towards his chest.

  He backed up and knocked the tip of my weapon away with a heated push of his sword. “I agree,” he admitted. “And you would have received an apology if you’d accepted my invitation to speak . . . But you didn’t, and now look where we are.”

  We circled each other vigilantly, each of us angling for our optimum striking positions. With the help of a small gust, I quickly whirled my sword towards his chest like a spinning fan-blade, only for Tanner to flip backward and out of its path. However I did manage to mar his glistening skin with a noticeable red line. I quickly steered my weapon back into my anxious hands, waiting for him to call me out on my sneaky move. But in my defense, Bea would have done it too.

  Tanner swiped his fingers through the faint trickle of blood striping his chest and then pointed the tip of his blade straight at me. “Fair fight means, no wind.”

  “That’s not what my other mentor taught me,” I contended.

  “And which one would that be?” he cracked and charged towards me with a heated thrust.

  I turned invisible and casually stepped out of his path. “That one,” I announced.

  His sword fell to his side with a testy twirl. “I’d turn those lights back on if I were you,” he warned. “You don’t want that fifty-percent of body water doing you in.”

  I could totally see him doing it too, and I doubted my blade would come close to hitting our set match-point…at least not until he’d taken the liberty of a few practice-pokes first.

  “It won’t happen again,” I assured, now visible and my eyes watching his every move.

  “Good,” Tanner said and then resumed his guard. “Now stop talking and let’s finish this.”

  My eyes narrowed into a wiseass glare on the spot. He would have better luck cutting off my tongue if he wanted me to shut up. I motioned my sword towards his chest. “You know, shirting-up might have offered you some protection.” Then I lunged abruptly, sword strong and true, hoping for a clean shot at his shoulder.

  His amethyst blade blocked my strike and then came down hard on my right thigh, notching a deep trench roughly the length of my hand. “I’ve fought in a lot less back in my day,” Tanner smirked. “I’m quite comfortable.”

  I stepped back with a sharp wince, my leg throbbing and gushing blood. Furiously, I fought through the pain and came back at him hard with a speedy slice to his arm. I sprang out of his sword’s length at the sight of blood drenching my diamond blade. “So that’s why you prefer naked?” I jabbed.

  We charged at each other not a second later, only to find our swords halted in a heated cross under our faces. “I told you that I didn’t look,” Tanner assured, his brow clearly furrowed with exhaustion.

  “YES,” I hissed. “You made that perfectly clear.” I pushed out of our lock and started circling him. “But that doesn’t explain why you never told me about them or why I couldn’t find any other recordings in the library.”

  “Why would there be any additional accounts when the Sapphire Talisman was locked away centuries ago? The only recording I lay claim to is the one in that journal.”

  I backed up, feeling my focus starting to go askew. “Then why didn’t your journal explain what it could do?”

  “It did,” Tanner reaffirmed. “It clearly states the stone breaks through mental and physical barriers. I even told you that myself . . . and you’re well aware that all The Guild’s air stones revolve around the eyes.” Then he abruptly charged towards me with several swings.

  I parried every one of them and then sent him back several steps with a heated swing of my blade. “It should have said, ‘X-Ray vision’!” I fussed.

  Tanner abruptly thrust forward, knocking my sword away. The tip of his blade caught the knuckles of my free hand when I jumped back. “Not when the journal was written centuries before the term ‘X-Ray’ was coined,” he affirmed, sounding as assured as the bold flourish he’d just issued his sword.

  A cool rush of air charged into my mouth while I clenched my sore hand. Logic and facts considered, I still wasn’t letting this one slide, especially with him now looking so damn cocky — and my fingers throbbing and bloody!

  Tanner shook his head. “This is why I never elaborated on it after that first day. I knew what you would think.”

  “Who wouldn’t think what I’m thinking?” I argued. “You were always smiling when one was in your hands!”

  The wary guide of the Amethyst Talisman’s feet came to a sudden halt, and then he breathed out a compliant sigh. “Knowing that I could look is what made me grin.”

  My cheeks were heavy, trying to fight off a pout. “So you thought it was funny?” I questioned. “Like a private little joke?”

  Tanner’s stance relaxed on the spot. “I didn’t say that,” he insisted.

  A wave of humiliation swiftly drove my diamond blade across his forearm, ripping his flesh with a noticeable gash. “Was the ruby another one of your JOKES?” I blasted.

  Tanner’s focus remained solely on me, never giving the pain of my last hack the courtesy of even a flinch. “No. That was a necessity.”

  “My emotions hanging out there like wet laundry for you to see was a necessity?” I raged. “All of them? All the time?” My stomach was getting queasy from its incessant churn. “How do you figure THAT?”

  “I made a vow to Adamas,” Tanner began, “I pledged that I would mentor the Diamond Talisman and let nothing stand in the way of their success. I knew you were bound to encounter some aggr
avating obstacles. We’ve all experienced our share over the years. I thought it would be best if I knew exactly how you were coping with everything so that I could make any necessary adjustments . . . And I honestly didn’t think you would tell me the truth if I asked.” Tanner’s stare fell to the floor, his brow tense. “I asked Kamya not to give you that ruby until after you’d finished with your training, but she wouldn’t hear of it.” His eyes lifted to mine. “I don’t think you realize how frustrated and discouraged you were this summer . . . even when you had a smile lighting your face.” Tanner clenched his jaw, bolstering his resolute stance. “So I did it because I needed to have full access to them,” he professed. “All of them.”

  I took a couple staggering steps back. “That’s what YOU needed?” I parroted. “What about what I needed?” I could feel my knuckles turning white-hot. “The only person in this house that truly gave me what I needed the entire summer was Silas — good or bad! You didn’t even have enough confidence in my skills to let me face the chimera alone!” I took a deep breath, my stare nothing less than scorching. “And something tells me you NEVER WILL!”

  Tanner lowered his blade and stepped towards me. “That’s not true,” he protested with a rasp.

  I could feel the angry tears trying to surface. “And as far as my frustration,” I began, “The way I see it, frustration comes across to you all the same. You have no idea why I’m feeling that way. You can’t read my mind.” I honed my glare. “Did you ever think for one second that some of my frustration was smoke from another fire?” I demanded. “Something besides my training?”

  I wasn’t sure exactly what happened after that. Whether it was the scratch I’d heard in his voice seconds ago or seeing that bemusing lavender hue now flooding his irises, but something inside me just kind of snapped. I couldn’t take any more of these moments, and right now I wished I’d arrived to the foyer this morning five minutes earlier so I could have already been good and gone. Then the next thing I knew, I’d retracted my blade and was shoving my hilt into its holster.