by K. F. Breene
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don’t you think I’ve thought of that?”
“I’ll just remind you who is in the cell,” Rudy said dismissively, turning.
Grating laughter followed him out of the dungeon.
He needed to kill off that male and capture the black. If he had to, he’d capture her male as well. Fear and pain were powerful persuaders. After that, everything would fall into place beautifully. The American and European Councils would both be his before long. He was in the home stretch, now.
Chapter 7
“Hey loser.”
I looked up as Ann slapped Charles in the back of the head.
Charles, Jessie and I had been sitting in front of empty plates for five minutes. It looked like we were hiding from challenges, which was obviously true, but what people didn’t know was that we were waiting for the shifters to meet us so we could all go to the Council meeting.
“Damn it—” Charles rubbed his head as Ann sat down in front of him. “I liked you better before I knew you.”
“Oh, clever.” Ann bit into a piece of bread. She winked at me. “Hey She-ra.”
“You’re late. Where’s Tim?” I glanced back at the empty doorway.
“He’s coming. He wanted to stop and talk to Dominicous. Don’t stress, though. You can’t get challenges when you’re on official business, and this counts as official business.”
“Does everyone know you guys are official business, though?” Because if not I’d still get a fire-ball hurled at my head.
Ann shrugged. “But we’ve been cooped up for days, yo. Any excuse to beat some ass to protect our girl is a good one.”
“Lazy.” Charles drummed the desk. “Let’s get moving. I hate just sitting here like a chick.”
“What does being a chick have to do with sitting at the table?” Ann gave him crazy eyes. “Do guys only like to eat on rocks with their hands?”
Charles gave her a mocking grin. “Chicks have nothing to do with it. But it pisses you off. Score to me.”
Ann threw a wadded-up napkin at him as a grin threatened her glower. He laughed and ducked away.
“Okay, seriously you guys, you’re embarrassing me.” I threw a pleading glance at Jessie. “Is this not embarrassing?”
Jessie’s disinterested squint took everyone in. “You’re a human, he’s a child, and she’s a dog. This behavior fits my expectation level.”
Charles and Ann slowly straightened up and turned to Jessie at the same time. Ann’s mouth was open in outraged shock, where Charles’ was grinning madly.
“You do have a personality,” Charles exclaimed. “I don’t like it, but I’m glad to see you have one!”
“And this is my entourage,” I observed in dry tones.
“Ann!” The bark of command had everyone in the breakfast area glancing at the door. It was Tim standing in the center of the door’s arch. His sharp eyes beat down on Ann while his face remained stoic and expressionless. She got up immediately. More than one person, regardless of race, shifted in their seats. His gaze softened as it settled on me. “Sasha, it’s time.”
I filled my lungs with air. I stood with Jessie as I said, “She’s a mountain lion, not a dog. And she’s going to get you back for saying that. Just so you know.”
Judging by the lack of acknowledgement, he didn’t care. Or he didn’t think she could do much. Obviously he hadn’t spoken to Charles.
We filed out of the breakfast area into the hall where the rest of the shifters were waiting patiently. I threw John a high-five as I passed, making a grin peek through his stony façade. Being sports fans, most of these guys could not resist a little high-five action. I loved it.
“Sasha,” Tim said by way of greeting. “Has Ann filled you in on our role as we go to this meeting?”
“You can kick ass even if I am solely challenged because this is official business.”
“We haven’t been able to do much for you here, but we’re always at your back. If we have to rip you away from this place and hide you, we are prepared to do that. Hopefully this meeting will lighten your struggles.”
I bumped his shoulder as we walked. “Thanks.”
We walked in twos through the halls, people more or less stopping to stare at the oddity in their midst. For the first time, it wasn’t me. I may’ve been the first human with any real role, but the others were the first group of shifters to hang around.
“One of these things is not like the others…” I sang softly.
“It’s been a trip, here.” Tim’s eyes scanned the halls in front of us, hard and mean. His body moved gracefully but with an unmistakable power. “I feel like a circus performer.”
“Uh huh. Just waiting for the next bit.”
I got a glance.
“The part where you say Jonas was right…” I pushed.
He snorted. “He isn’t. Not yet. We’re odd, but we’re not picked-on or badgered.”
“Yet,” Charles’ voice drifted up to us. “No one is bothered until after their first meeting.”
“I doubt they want a bunch of animals running around.” That from Jessie.
“Bro, take it easy,” Charles mumbled. “You don’t have Jonas’ charm. You have to go easy with that stuff.”
Tim shook his head in annoyance. “Small-mindedness. Why you hang out with these guys at all, Sasha, befuddles me.”
“Oh, befuddles. Good word,” I hedged.
He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, but left it at that.
Turning the corner into a hallway, I saw the ends of a gruesome battle in front of us. Three huge guys lay on the ground, eyes closed, with blood dripping out of various places on their bodies. A fourth was pinned up against the wall, slouching. A tattooed arm, swirling in orange, used clawed fingers to rip a chunk of skin from the guy’s chest.
Tim put his hand in front of me to stop my progress.
Beyond them a body slammed up against the wall, bounced off, and fell to the floor in a boneless slide. His eyes remained open, staring at the ceiling unfixed.
Stefan straightened with wild eyes. Gashes marred his arms and across his chest. Blood splattered his face. Bruises peeked through rips in his clothing, violent purples and blues. He put a hand to the wall to brace himself, panting with fatigue.
I lost sight of him as Jonas straightened up, too. Then wavered.
“Holy shit,” Charles said, pushing past Tim with Jessie close behind.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t step forward. Stefan was in a battle for his life. Literally, it had progressed to people trying to kill him. And judging by the outcome, he’d had to kill them first.
“No,” I heard myself say, pushing Tim’s hand away. “This has to end.”
I made it to the throng with numb feet. Tim helped me over the bodies, most breathing, one not. Stefan waited, leaning roughly against the wall. His gaze found mine apologetically. “I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
“Like what?” I asked with a flash of rage. “Tired, barely able to stand, with just one other guy to help you? Where are all the people you brought?”
He shook his head, trying not to let it bow. “They’re healing.”
I stepped up to him quickly, putting my hand against his cheek. “Let’s go. Let’s leave. We don’t need this, Stefan. I’ve been given the green light for mage. That’s all we care about, right? Let’s get out of here.”
He wouldn’t let himself lean into my hand—not with his men around. He gently took my wrist and moved it beside his leg. His fingers entwined with mine. “I’m not confident they won’t come for you, Sasha. There have been whispers…”
Tim spoke up immediately. “We’ll protect her. We have safe houses all over the country. I have a huge network of shifters organized and under my rule. Any of them would house kin.”
“You can’t claim a hundred percent loyalty. None of us can. This place isn’t what it was. The people here have lost touch. Leadership has fallen to the side and those greedy with power have s
tepped up. I don’t trust the things I hear anymore.”
Tim shifted. “Will you take some of my men?”
Stefan eyed Jonas, resting against the wall with his eyes closed. Jonas said, “Can’t have a bunch of wild animals running around this place. They’d shit all over the floor.”
Ann cracked a smile.
“Take some energy, baby,” I whispered to Stefan.
He shook his head, his eyes delving into mine. My heart banged against my chest, begging to be closer. Wanting to cross that small distance to him. “You’ll need it.”
“I have plenty. Seriously, they’re not after me like they are you.”
“Incoming.” Jonas’ growl almost sounded like a groan. He straightened up from the wall. Blood oozed down his arm.
Four giant guys stalked down the hall with hard eyes and tense muscles. Gazes hit Stefan, and then scanned those around him. Not one made a facial expression, but their complete disregard of more people around their prey didn’t seem to faze them. They’d come to finish off the job.
“No. No way.” I clenched my hands into fists and stepped forward. Tim put his hand out to stop me, but Charles was there first. Only, he escorted me. He was obviously thinking the same way I was. This had to stop.
“Get out of here, Sasha. This doesn’t concern you.” Stefan’s step was off-balance. He tried to hide a wince.
I got a pang in my heart as tears sprang to my eyes. He was so strong, so tough. He was trying to take on all of this so I didn’t have to. He was the love of my life, and if he thought I wouldn’t protect him, like he was trying to protect me, he was daft.
“No, baby. Not anymore. No more Miss Nice Gal. Time to finally make the example Toa trained me to make. Time to show them not to fuck with a human.”
“Atta girl—let those balls fly.” Jonas nodded and let himself sag back against the wall. He’d been there when Toa taught me the more intense spells. He knew the kind of example I was fixing to make.
The large guys had stopped about ten paces away. They waited silently while I stepped to the front of our crew. The shifters filed in at my back, sealing off the wounded. Charles cracked his knuckles as he stepped up to my side.
“A bunch of animals for protection? That right?” The largest guy sporting a bulldog-looking face smirked.
“They don’t know who you are,” Charles whispered.
“Wouldn’t matter if they did.”
I linked with Stefan as I pulled in more magic. With him leveling me out, I filled up to bursting. My skin started to prickle in warning. More power tried to rush into me. The flow battered at my control.
If they thrived on brutality, I’d give them what they wanted.
I mixed the elements in an extremely complex formula. Everything was perfectly balanced. Each element rested precariously beside the other. Once done, I urged the spell out into small, fast moving orbs. With green power, it would appear I sent out shocking balls. Those were amateur.
These were not.
“Wait, can shifters have this kind of magic?” the man on the far right with a busted tooth asked. He studied my face.
“I thought his mage wasn’t due in this corridor for another half-hour?” The guy beside the leader with platinum, spiky hair watched the orbs race toward them with wide, worried eyes.
“It’s green—this is a nothing of a spell,” the leader assured them, already working on the first orb.
But as he worked, his forehead started to wrinkle. His face drained of color. And when the guy to his side said in a furious whisper, “I hear she can work in all different colors!”, the leader had clued in to who I really was.
Too late.
Pop.
“What the—”
“Oww. Ow. Ow! Oh shit! Oh shit!” The guy with the busted tooth slapped at his skin. Like a hive of insects biting his flesh all over his body, he wriggled and writhed.
Pop. Pop pop pop.
“They’re sparking!” The platinum blond shielded his face.
“I’m trying to kill it! It’s too complex,” the leader yelled.
I sent shots of pure black fashioned in strings. The magic wrapped around the chests and arms of the challengers. At first it just secured them as the popping spell blasted them with balls of fire. After that, though, the fire started to seep in. Magical acid coated their body and burned away their clothes. Their screams drowned out the sizzle of their skin.
“What is that?” Ann asked quietly.
“It’ll eat through their skin for a while. It’ll never heal, either. They’ll scar badly, but it won’t kill them. Then it’ll switch to cold and turn to ice. They may get magical frost bite. Then back to heat. It’s a revolving spell and truly nasty. It messes with the mind as well as causing intense pain. Not only does it send a message to those wanting to challenge that I have the balls to use a gruesome spell, it also lets the experienced mages know just what I’m capable of. That wasn’t the most complex spell I know, but Toa assured me there are only a handful of people here that could duplicate it. I am either ending the feud, or starting a war.”
“We are,” Tim said in a firm voice. “We stand with you. And with Stefan. These guys were sent here to finish Stefan off right before you walked down this corridor. They wanted you to see him dead. That shit is just wrong.”
“What were you doing down here anyway, bro?” Charles asked, turning to Stefan.
“Got a summons from Dominicous. Said he’d been in a meeting here. When we got here, and asked about it, we learned that the time wasn’t right. The challenge came immediately.”
“I bet Dominicous doesn’t make it to this meeting.” Tim set his jaw.
“Bet not.” Stefan took a steadying breath. To me he said, “Put them in a box and tie them off. If you’re sending a message, let everyone see it.”
After I took care of it, we walked slowly down the rest of the corridor until we got to the door at the end. This was the side entrance Tim was told to use. The others would enter through the front, which was around the hall.
Tricky.
I wondered who knew about this. Who was in on it.
“I’ll wait outside,” Stefan said with a tight jaw. “Call me if you need help.”
Jonas had left a line of blood on the wall where he’d dragged himself along. And while Stefan stood straight and tall, with the strength and power he was known for, I could tell he was hurting. The pain in his eyes, and the will it took him not to fall, was etched clearly in the stress lines on his face.
“We stick together,” I said in a firm voice.
“They won’t let me stay in there, Sasha,” Stefan said in a soft voice. “I’ll be okay out here.”
“We can walk you back to your room,” Tim said. “Screw this Council—we can be late. They need me more than I need them.”
“Just—you guys, shush for a minute.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and thought back to that invisibility spell I’d unraveled. It wasn’t all that much different than a concealment spell—a bit more solid, and a bit more complex, but the principles were the same. Unfortunately, there was a great many places I could actually invert my magic and blow the spell up, but by now I had a pretty good handle on that side of things. I can do this!
“Okay,” I put out my hands as if to steady Stefan. “Stay still. I’m going to make you disappear.”
“Don’t blow me up, sweetie,” Stefan chuckled, completely unafraid of his crazy girlfriend trying something she’d never done before. Hell, Toa always got nervous in these situations.
“What is she doing?” Charles peered around Jessie to hone in on me. “What are you trying, Sasha?”
“Making him invisible,” I opened up to my magic again, immediately bombarded with the rush. Stefan was there immediately, having unmasked the link and stepped in. I staggered with the rampant pain lancing his body, so fierce I didn’t know how he was standing. Tears filled my eyes.
“Maybe just don’t try this, Sasha.” Charles shifted so he could see.
“She’s got this. She never fails when it really matters.” Jonas closed his eyes and let his head drop against the wall.
I pushed away Stefan’s pain. I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering the feel of the spell I picked apart. Remembering that lazy structure. The way certain parts held hands with other parts. The way it looped under and around each other.
One last breath to still my head. I mixed the elements, letting intuition guide me when things got sticky. I worked the spell together, needing a chant or two when things got dicey, and threw a little wrench in there for anyone trying to rip this spell off of Stefan. “Charles, link with Stefan.”
A boost of energy flowed through the link to me, and then directly into the spell. I tied it off, settled it onto Stefan’s frame, and held my breath. I opened my eyes… to emptiness.
“Oh good. That’s a relief.” I braced my hands on my hips. I turned to Jonas’ grim face and raised my eyebrows.
His eyes were still shut. So I just went ahead. The spell, easier to work this time, fell around him, settling in, and locking on. “Okay. Not as easy as pie. Kind of hard, actually. But I did it!”
Ann grinned at me, giving me an air fist-bump.
“All right, let’s get this show on the road. These guys need a bed.” Tim stepped toward the meeting room.
“Can people see me with magic?” Stefan asked in a low hum. Squinted eyes glanced in his direction.
“Some will,” I answered honestly. “Toa would be able to see you, I’m sure. But the other guys hanging around with a similar spell went unnoticed most of the time, so probably only the higher level people can.”
He probably nodded, but since I wasn’t trying to see him with my magic, and had actually kind of tucked it away for now since I’d probably need my energy later, I didn’t know for sure. With a glance back toward where Jonas may or may not have been, I winked at thin-air and followed Tim and John to the meeting room.
The large room had a surprisingly lot of people seated around the table. I expected the eight Council members and a mage or two. Instead, the large oval table was full. All the Council members, the Clutch, and a great many others, including my new best friend the green-eyed bastard, sat chair-to-chair. In addition there were people loitering around the room, standing against walls or resting on the couch or chairs.