by brett hicks
“Why indeed daughter, that is a very good question.”
Maris was gone in the next moment as if he had been smoke.
“Your cryptic act is getting very annoying!”
I muttered a few choice explicative words and I played with the mists and began to work them into small shapes and objects. Mist magic seemed to be something I did have some natural talent with.
Eleven:
Playing with the mists had been more peaceful than I had imagined possible. Even though, according to my dad, the mists derived from the fragments of all life that has ceased to exist physically. That was almost insane to try to fathom, but it also made sense as to how and why the mists would wish to work with us. That they would long for touch and to remember the lives they once led.
It was the early evening when the classes were finally finished for the day. Apparently, school begins after twelve in the afternoon for Cambridge Academy, mostly due to the more nocturnal lifestyles and natures of most supernatural beings. That also went a long way to explaining why I had been so darn groggy this morning.
Now I was following Casey’s map out to the summer fields. Apparently, the Cambridge Academy has tryouts the entire first week of school before the coaches solidify their rosters for the season. I was hell-bent on being out on that soccer—football—field for tryouts. I might question motives and dread classes, but I would be damned if I am going to lose my favorite sports activity!
To my supreme surprise, the entire back of the castle was like any other well-groomed high school sports stadium. Everything looked modern, except for the notable lack of anything iron or steel. The stadium was wood, plastic and several materials I had no name to describe. They looked metallic, but they pulsed with the mists. Power seemed to permeate them, similar to how the oceanic tide seemed to flow through the blade in my pocket.
Dozens of students were moving towards the massive entrance archway. I was so distracted by the beauty and the otherness of the building; I didn’t sense the approaching cluster of faereys.
A masculine hand ripped my sleeve and thrust me directly under one of the first rows of bleachers. I hit the stone ground with my back and my body went white with the agony of the impact.
There were three of them, all were Moch Sidhe from the appearance and all looked pissed. The closest male sneered at me, he was tall and raven-haired. His eyes were glinting like silver pools of liquid mercury.
“This is what bloodied Lady Dory?”
He asked with a thick tone full of disgust and outrage. I struggled to my feet and I felt a sharp pain jab into my side just above my hipbone. I staggered back a step and I bit back a scream in the white-hot pain. Something crystal and blue protruded from my side, ice, but razor-sharp. The three sneered as one, enjoying my agony.
“What’s wrong little flea? Did you really believe you would be allowed to live after defying your betters?!”
He snarled at me and his silver eyes glowed with icy power. Blue mists swirled around him, fueling his power further and I felt my breath freezing in my chest. My lungs burned inside my body and I gagged and clawed at my throat.
“Pathetic, this is no challenge.”
I felt the ripping and burning of icy pain as the blade was torn from my wet and bloody side. My vision was doubled and blurry and I could barely maintain my balance. I wanted to reach for the blade in my pocket, but something in my mind screamed at me to stop like I knew that revealing the blade would be the wrong move.
What if it’s the only way to survive this?
No, I have to endure.
Another fist connected with my left cheek and pain shot down my left side as the bones broke in one resounding crash. Icy fists withdrew and laughter rang out around me. They seemed to derive pleasure from my suffering. Anyone who believes faereys are pleasant creatures would now be rudely awakened. The beautiful masks pulled back to reveal the monsters housed just below the surface.
My heart thudded like a double-bass-pedal from a metal rock drummer. My body was awash with agony and I barely held myself upright.
They are cowards, they will come again, be ready, Amy!
I limped a step back and I held one hand over the wound in my left side. My eyes were barely working correctly now. I held my other hand out ahead of me at the ready. I wasn’t a karate master or anything like that, but my father has shown me basic self-defense and sparing since I was a little girl. I had never understood his obsession with my need to defend myself. I had just assumed he was the world’s most overprotective dad. Part of me hoped that was still the truth, even now, but the rest knew that he knew I would be faced with conflicts like this one day.
“Look at her, the mongrel is trying to raise her guard!”
The skinny one with the longer ears and the brown-red hair said.
“Remember to use your opponent’s shortcomings against them. When you are weak, twist their vulnerability, and when you are strong strike everywhere to set them off balance, Amy.”
My father’s words seemed to rattle around my skull. I laughed, more out of the humor of his statement, like he had foreseen all of this than I was laughing at the brown-haired boy. He didn’t see it that way and he rushed forward raising a glinting icy spike in his right hand.
“Remember most people do not know how to hold a blade, Amy. If a man tried to approach you with a knife, you want to turn his force against him. In two fast motions, his blade becomes your blade and his gut becomes your sheath.”
Yeah, I should have known something was off about my daddy, what human talks like that?!
I mused to myself as the raging youth threw himself at me. It hurt to move but I bit back the pain and reminded my body that it was about to have a bunch of new holes if I did not do something.
I stepped forward and I guided my hand across the back of the boy’s speeding wrist and I turned it and adjusted his blade backward and I thrust my left hand up. The boy came to a screeching halt as the blade flew back and rammed through his upper belly. I felt the heat of his blood on my hands now and I pulled the blade from his chest and I staggered free just as the second one came in for a killing strike with another icy blade.
The pain made my steps falter and I felt a jarring impact as the lead boy kicked out with magnum force. My back slammed into the solid alloy wall and my vision darkened.
Dammit, this is a high school; they just let people kill each other here?!
My body felt deep vibrations rumbling through it. I heard the powerful rumbling growls as fur flew past my face and red slashed on my forehead and cheek. Snapping and growling resounded around me and the dog-like snarls suddenly stopped.
I heard bones breaking and snapping like kindling in front of me. My vision cleared enough to make out a large masculine form with glowing yellow eyes and inhuman slits in the pupils.
“Leave and take your cronies to the doctor, before I finish my work.”
The voice was beyond deep, it was almost sub-sonic it was so low. Power spilled from every articulated word and every suggestion sounded more like a thundering command.
“You dare to interfere in faerey business, wolf?”
The large masculine form roared and the next moment I lost track of his movements for a split second before he reappeared with his hand around the lead faereys’ throat.
“This is my land: your kind seems to forget themselves far too frequently in Cambridge! I have told your kind that I will not tolerate such violence towards females when it is unwarranted!”
The lead one choked out, “She dared hurt our lady!”
The much larger man laughed at him and his yellow eyes danced with some lupine form of humor.
“She was provoked and challenged on her first day of self-awakening. She handled the challenge with honor and spared the life of her defeated enemy. She proved herself the more dominant female, nothing more and certainly nothing deserving of three older more seasoned boys, to sulk in the shadows and lay in wait for her. Have I missed anything?”
The f
aerey glared balefully at the wolf-man and he was very reluctant to give the wolf an inch of submission. The wolf roared in his face again and his canines began to elongate, threatening to snap at the boy’s throat, he finally said, “Fine, you win. I will leave her alone, wolf.”
The boy’s look said it all, “For now.” It went unsaid, but I was still breathing, even if that seemed to cause me very real pain now. The wolf threw the almost-two hundred pounds six-foot late teen in his right hand like he was lobbing a softball.
“Go, and do not risk a second brush with death, boy.”
He turned slowly and I looked at him, he was deeply tanned and he looked like a mix between Native-American and Anglo. His hair was brown with a mix of red and blonde woven into it. His eyes were bright yellow, too bright to be called gold. He was about a whole foot taller than me and he was currently wearing only a black speedo.
If not for the deep puncture in my side, I might have derived more pleasure from the sight of the young man’s eight-pack abs and golden sculpted flesh. He was roguishly handsome and his feral eyes spoke of danger and sensuality ever intertwined together.
He looked down at me and I felt his gaze almost pinning me to the wall. His power was different than the faeries, but not less, more. He was more than anyone else I had met since I woke up to learn of the new reality of my life.
“Interesting, you hold my gaze like my equal.”
His tone was amused and rough, but the wolfish look to his feral eyes spoke of his ever readiness. He would kill me as soon as look at me if he was given half a reason. I knew where he stood with me. I knew he was dangerous, there was no beautiful lie covering up the fresh death he promised to unleash upon a lupine whim.
I was caught in his gaze; his wildness was something that was marvelous and terrifying.
“Alpha sire, why did you bother to interfere?”
He turned and snarled at the nearly equally burly older man. He jerked his head towards me and his eyes brokered no room for arguments.
“James, she was set upon by cowards. She has only just awakened. I will not let them harm females, even faerey females, in my land without a just reason!”
His jaw tightened and the other person, James, dipped his head in submission.
“With all due respect alpha, please remember that your grandfather still commands the pack. I doubt he would approve of your involvement.”
The alpha rushed forward and he stopped just short of the other man and he clamped his hand down like a vice on the other man’s shoulder. He bowed and grunted in pain.
“Do not question me on this, James. I know she is a faerey, yet she was innocent. I will stand before our mutual leader and speak this truth with my head held high and my eyes directly upon his. If he would have blood for this, then I will offer mine. Either way, the girl lives and she is not our enemy. She is unaligned with the Imperium.”
I felt myself fade and my vision blacked out. Unconsciousness found me very suddenly.
Twelve:
I woke up in a sea of red and my memories rushed back to me in a flash.
I had been bleeding out of my side at the back of the stadium bleachers! Three Sidhe with ice powers attacked me. Did I actually stab someone with an ice dagger?!
I swore and I rolled off a small futon and thumped on a hardwood floor. I looked around in the dimly lit room. It was plastered with several shades of Pepto-Bismol-pink and white trim.
“Jace, I think she’s awake!”
A subdued feminine voice announced from just outside the door. I heard growling sounds and I began to remember the rest of my fleeting time wake. Wolves, werewolves, one of them they kept calling “alpha.” I read enough fantasy novels to know the meaning of that term in its context to wolves. The tall and delicious nearly naked one, he was their leader, or at least he was one of their leaders.
My mind swam with the unseen threat. Power seemed to radiate off the walls as someone headed towards the door of the ugly pink room I was currently occupying. Whatever was headed towards me now was extremely powerful and extremely dangerous. My spine was ramrod stiff and my arms broke out with fresh chills.
“Jace, dial back the alpha aura, I can feel her fear spiking. I doubt she’s going to be very friendly if you just strut in there like a supernova of lupine magic.”
A male voice lightly chided this unseen person. I heard deep bass rumbling, so powerful the floor shook underneath me. I felt my hand sliding towards the dagger on my hip and I swore lowly.
The door swung open and I felt myself crouch lo on my feet ready to leap and do whatever I could to survive.
“Jesus wept, man! Look at this, she’s all bloody riled up and ready to fight again! I told you to dial it back!”
Yellow eyes transfixed with feral lupine slits narrowed as the now clothed man strode into the small dorm-style room. If the pink-white room bothered this powerhouse of a wolf, it didn’t show on his features. In fact, all I could see was a feral inquisition. He was watching me, searching, and looking to see what I would do next.
He saved me…
I raised my hand slowly and I spoke evenly, or at least I think I did.
“Where am I and what’s going to happen to me now?”
I didn’t take my eyes off the glowing yellow suns probing me for weakness. His growl was still rumbling almost below my auditory range. Heat and magic rushed off him with a yellow swirl of mists.
“I see you’ve managed to heal your wounds, little faerey girl.”
The massive young man spoke calmly and he seemed to be appraising my powers.
“You reek of faerey magic.”
His tone was part accusation and part question. I managed to shrug casually. I cleared the lump forming in my throat and I rose to my not so impressive height. I held my head high and I had to crane my neck to look into his yellow gaze.
“I’m a Moch Sidhe, so of course I smell of power and faerey magic. You reek of lupine magic, I’m new and I know this already.”
A male sounding laugh broke in from behind the massive young alpha werewolf.
“I believe she’s got you there, boss.”
The tone was sarcastic and full of good humor. The alpha narrowed his eyes and he didn’t break his penetrating gaze for a split second, neither did he blink. I was sure I hadn’t blinked either, because my eyes itched in annoyance now. There was something primal and savage about this exchange, something that screamed to my senses to act of their own accord.
“Thank you for saving me, you really didn’t have to.”
I felt the weight of debt exchange between us and I almost swore to myself. The other wolves seemed to suck down a breath in unison. The alpha arched his brow in question.
“You place yourself in my debt?”
I managed to shrug and make the act look casual as I licked my lips.
“I’m grateful to be alive to even have this conversation.”
Even though, I am still slightly worried about my continued survival now.
“Come, you are hungry, we will share a meal and talk.”
His tone didn’t broker for any wiggle room. I owed this alpha for my life, so I really had very little choice right now. I nodded and I felt tense, still instinctively on edge.
“Jace, she looks like she’s either about to attack or bolt.”
His lips quirked into a sardonic smile and his eyes softened slightly.
“I would wager the former of those two, judging by her past behavior.”
The alpha—Jace—stepped aside and I saw the six-one lanky form right behind him. He was redheaded and had light-blue eyes. Even if his accent did not announce his Irish heritage, it was easy to spot on every one of his physical features and his Casper-white complexion.
The slightly shorter and skinnier of the two waved at me and a small girl about my size and height peeked in curiously. She was also redheaded and blue-eyed, siblings, or very close relatives of some sort.
“I’m Patrick Vaughn and this is my little siste
r Naomi, nice to meet you, lass.”
His tone was buttery-smooth and silky for someone about a year or two older than me. By contrast, these two males seemed to make me feel absolutely childish. I was tiny and I sounded like a little girl and they sounded more like sexy gods of some Celtic origin.
I managed a weak wave of my right hand.
“Hi, I’m Amy.”
The girl waved to me shyly. She had the same canine wild look in her eyes as the other two, but it seemed somehow subdued in contrast to the boys—men, or whatever one calls a pair of young men that look this abnormally mature!
Jace turned and waved his hand in a casual gesture for me to follow him.
“Come, let’s eat and then we can speak.”
Without much choice and a pit-empty stomach rumbling in an audible complaint at me, I chose to follow them through the narrow polished wood hallway.
I looked down and realized my shirt had been changed to a pink Hello Kitty t-shirt. Thankfully, my jeans were still intact, if slightly bloodstained. My sword still pulsed against my hip, reminding me the short-sword was still there; ready to be drawn if needed. As if he could read my mind, Jace said, “You won’t need your blade, little faerey. I seldom save people only to kill them later.”
The other one looked back and gave me a reassuring smile.
“What he means to say, is that he means no harm. Jace just sucks at telling jokes other people outside the pack can get.”
I blinked and nodded dumbly at the lanky ginger guy. The girl looked back a few times, but she hadn’t spoken yet. She seemed meek and very subservient. I noticed her posture and her body language seemed to broadcast “weak.” I could still feel lupine magic and yellow mist crowded her like the others, but she was far more docile by comparison.
I doubted this was a sex thing and more of a dominant and submissive thing in pack structure if I had to hazard a guess. I noticed how both the tall guys seemed to be extra watchful of her as we moved through the halls. Like they were on guard in case someone decided to pounce out of a shadow and make a suicide run at her. There was something extremely defensive and instinctive about the relationships of the three wolves.