On the Verge (A Charmed Life Book 1)

by Joseph Bonis

  Tracy shook her head. “No,” she replied, “I've never seen this happen before, and I've been riding this route every week for a couple years now.”

  He nodded solemnly. “All right, then,” he said, his voice calm and distant - resigned and determined. He pulled a hat and scarf out of his pockets, wrapping them around his head and face until only his eyes peeked out. A pair of sunglasses took care of the eyes, until only patches of skin were left visible, though lost in the shadows caused by his garb and some stray buildings.

  Tracy stared at him in shock. He was sitting there, all right, and looked perfectly normal, but his presence had completely disappeared from her mind. “I thought you couldn't do anything about that headache!”

  “I couldn't then,” he replied. “I have to use my shadow token to hide from our sixth sense, and it has its drawbacks.” To illuminate his statement, he pulled down on his scarf a little. Underneath the thick fabric, Tracy could barely see him through a thick, almost tangible shadow that clung to his skin. It shifted like some black, alien goo, unsettling to watch, then he pulled the scarf back up to hide the visual effect.

  “Plus,” he continued, “I can't do this if I'm doing anything else with my token - like shadowstepping.”

  The last person stepped off the bus, and it started again with a lurch. Now that she was paying attention, Tracy noticed that the street, too, was empty, except for the bus - all the people who just had gotten off the bus were hurrying into buildings, or away from the direction they were going.

  “So what's happening?” she asked.

  “It's probably a mind wall,” Jacob responded, “Someone's fighting - or expects a fight - so he used a mind token to create a diversion that keeps out the civvies. But since the bus driver's taking us into the area, I'm guessing it's a trap for one of us.”

  “You get that just from everyone getting off the bus?” Tracy asked.

  He shrugged. “Perhaps,” he demurred. “It's a possibility. But it's best to be prepared.”

  Tracy looked ahead, as if she could see who was lying in wait. She noticed that the windows of the streets were dark, even the store windows. Every store they passed had a 'back in 15 minutes' sign up in the window, or something very similar.

  “I can't hide,” she reminded him.

  “No,” he agreed, “You can't. But it's hard to differentiate between individuals, and he'll think there's only one of us. He won't expect two. That's a small advantage we might be able to use.”

  Tracy nodded approvingly. “Good thinking,” she said. “What do I do?”

  Jacob let out a faint groan. “Try to use your bracelet as best you can. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to teach you yet, so you'll have to go on instinct.”

  A faint sense of nervousness touched Tracy. “I left it at home…”

  “Of course you did,” Jacob said, paused to take a breath, then continued, “That would have been too easy.” He pondered for a few moments. “Look,” he said, “You're new to this. If it doesn't injure your pride too much, you might want to just take cover and stay out of the way while I fight. If you want to try to help, then try to summon your bracelet.”

  Tracy perked up a little. “I can summon it?” she asked. “How?”

  Jacob nodded. “Remember,” he said, “How I was calling my knife to me, last night, before you disrupted it? You can do that with your bracelet, too. Just try to call to it, picture it on your wrist, and will it to be.”

  Tracy nodded as well, licking her lips and then biting the lower one as she looked at her wrist. Picture it there, she thought to herself. Visualize it happening. She tried to press with her mind, tried to remember that thrill that had run through her last night when she had called the mists to disrupt the shadow knife.

  “It's like tying your shoes,” Jacob said. “It's easy to do by instinct. As soon as you think about it, then you can't do it anymore.”

  Tracy nodded. “Just do it,” she murmured, under her breath. She took a breath, let it out slowly. “Come,” she said, looking at her wrist. Nothing happened.

  The bus was pulling to a stop. “Look,” said Jacob, “Just keep out of the way. Run back to your apartment, if you can. Take cover, so you can't be attacked - I'll distract whoever it is.”

  Tracy nodded, pushing down a feeling of intense frustration. It sounded like it should be so easy. Why couldn't she do it? She stood up with Jacob and walked towards the front of the bus.

  “Can't we stay on the bus?” she asked. “Run away?”

  “This trap was set for us. Best to let him think we've stepped into it and know when we'll fight him rather than having him chasing us and ambushing us later. Besides, it's good manners.”

  Tracy nodded - uselessly, since he was in front of her and couldn't see her, but he took her silence for agreement.

  They stepped off the bus, and the door closed so fast it nearly caught Tracy's bag in it. The engine protested loudly as the driver floored it, taking an illegal turn as it hurried away.

  “Does the driver know?” asked Tracy. “He couldn't … why'd he seem so scared?”

  “No,” responded Jacob, looking around. “He doesn't know. Not exactly, anyway. The mind wall impresses on him that this is a bad neighborhood … he just wants to get out of here.”

  Tracy saw Jacob's eyes flicking from doorway to doorway, window to window. “Where is he?” she asked, “Can he just jump us?”

  He shook his head. “No,” he replied, “I mean, yes, they could, but – can't you feel where he is?”

  With that, Tracy remembered how she'd been able to tell that Jacob was outside the dojong. She could feel it in her mind, a new pressure - at first she hadn't noticed it because she was getting used to Jacob's by now, and then she was surprised that she had already become used to it, just like that. The new pressure was down the street, right towards her apartment.

  “Why here?” she asked. “Is this because of me? Is someone after me?”

  “I don't know,” replied Jacob. “It's possible. I won't know until I see who it is.”

  Tracy nodded, looking around some more as they walked down the street towards the sensation in their minds. The windows were empty, dark. The streets were deserted. Even in a deserted street, though, there was usually some distant, muffled noise of music, of televisions on a hundred different channels, of people talking - or occasionally shouting. Now, though, it was pure silence.

  It was creepy. Tracy couldn't shake the unreal sensation that they had walked into a horror movie.

  A man stepped out of a recessed doorway ahead of them and walked to the middle of the street. He wasn't terribly tall, but powerfully built. He was dressed only in long denim cargo shorts and a t-shirt - despite the unseasonal warmness of the day; that was unusual, though Tracy herself had her winter jacket thrown over one shoulder. His short, messy hair was bleached blond, but Tracy could see a faint base of black underneath it. A black soul-patch decorated his lower lip, looking rather dirty. Few people could really pull off a soul-patch properly, and he wasn't one of them.

  “Crap,” groaned Jacob. “It's Craig.”

  “Who's Craig?” asked Tracy.

  “He used to be a Hunter for Lord Brin, like me. He hated me.”

  The man stood there, smirking, as they muttered together, enjoying their discomfort.

  Tracy felt a chill run down her back. “Lord Brin? The unbeatable tyrant you mentioned? Are we doomed?”

  “Naw, Hunters aren't allowed to attack normal people…”

  “Really? Not allowed to abuse their power? What kind of weak tyrant do you have here?”

  Jacob gave a soft sigh. “Really not the time,” he growled back. “Anyway, the good news is that as of yesterday, he was a hunter - and when he left Lord Brin's service, he would have been stripped of all tokens except his own. But Craig has a fire token …”

  Tracy finished Jacob's thought. “So where'd he get a mind charm?”

  Jacob shrugged. “All the nobles that own a mind t
oken would never lose against him, not at this level of power. And newbies with mind tokens don't keep them long. So I have no idea.”

  “Jacob Nightfox!” called the man from down the block. “Are you going to talk all day long, or are you going to be a man about things and come fight me?”

  Jacob straightened up. She could feel the pressure of his presence re-enter her mind as he stripped off hat and scarf, the Native American man looking normal once more, with no hint of the solid shadow that had colored his skin earlier. “Run,” he said to her, as he shed his overcoat, looking quite comfortable in jeans and flannel shirt underneath. “I'll distract him.”

  Tracy noticed a squirm of movement in the corner of her eye, and looking down, she saw that Jacob's shadow had a long, slightly curved knife in its hand. Moments later, the dark blade lifted from his shadow to flow up along his leg and arm, gathering into a steel blade in his own hand.

  The man at the other end of the block - Craig - adjusted the fingerless gloves he was wearing, and grabbed one of the two small metal charms hanging from the wrist of the gloves. His hands promptly burst into flames, an event neither Craig nor Jacob seemed to find all too surprising or concerning.

  The unreality of it finally spurred Tracy to movement. She turned to run up the side street, her heart pounding furiously in her chest.

  “Dammit!” she swore, a couple dozen yards down the way. She stopped and ducked into the recessed doorway there, her fist smacking against the cold stone as she leaned against the wall. “I should be able to do something!”

  She looked down at her wrist, eyes narrowing. “I should … have control.”

  Craig and Jacob stood half a block apart, walking slowly towards each other.

  “Where'd you get a mind token?” Jacob called, “Did a new one make itself?”

  Craig laughed. “Nah, Nightfox, I got friends. See, that's the difference between you and me - you treated it like some college cram, then got out fast as you could. Me - I took advantage of things, I made friends. Lord Pax was quite kind in loaning me the use of his mind rune … as long as I gave him your shadow rune when I was done.”

  “Leaving what for you, Craig?” Jacob laughed. “Leaves you doing a lot of work for no reward.”

  The blond-haired man laughed dryly. “Oh, no, Nightfox, this is a personal reward for me. You kept showing me up, selling me out. Getting me in trouble. This has been a long time coming, Nightfox - all year long.”

  Jacob let out a quick bark of laughter. “Wait, you mean, you get your hands on a mind token, just so you can get revenge on me … and you waste it on a mind wall, instead of challenging me in a stadium match so you can use it to psiblast me?”

  “No, no,” scoffed Craig, “See, I used some of that planning you're so fond of talking about. Sun's high in the sky - not a lot of shadows to power those tricks of yours. But my fire'll burn just as strongly.”

  With that, Craig lifted his burning hand and threw a ball of fire a foot across at Jacob.

  Jacob dove out of the way, the flames splashing briefly over the hissing pavement behind him before dying out. He came up to one knee, knife at the guard - as if he could block fire with a knife - waiting for the next attack.

  Craig was enjoying himself, though. He tossed a small ball of flame from hand to hand, grinning broadly at Jacob's nervous expression. He waited until Jacob tried to dart forward, then threw another ball of flame at him. Jacob threw himself to the side once more, rolling along the cold concrete that hissed ominously as the fire splashed against the ground where he had been standing - the licking flames getting much closer to him that time. Tracy could see his hand actually inside the splash of flame for a moment. Craig was laughing as Jacob took a brief moment to inspect his hand, make sure he was all right – he seemed all right. His hand was working, he wasn't on fire.

  “Keeping up all right, Nightfox?” he asked merrily. “What's the matter? Where's all those plans you love to make? How are you going to get close enough to me to do something?”

  Jacob stayed silent, back to his feet now and slowly stalking his way to the sidewalk, where there was more cover in the form of recessed doorways, mail boxes, newspaper stands, and lamp posts.

  “Oh, no!” cried Craig, merrily. “You want to dodge your way up to me? Let's put a stop to that, then!” He gestured, flame leaping from his fingers to the pavement ten feet in front of Jacob, where it spread to either side and formed a wall of fire to keep them separate.

  Jacob stepped back to reconsider.

  “Oh no!” Craig's voice was entirely too cheerful as he repeated the mocking phrase. “Now I've wasted my fire rune on a wall! How foolish of me! Unless, of course, I already went and defeated someone earlier today, and took their fire rune too!”

  His gloves and hands ignited into flame once more, and Craig laughed as he let out a long, easy stream from his fingers, as if from a flame thrower. Jacob scrambled in a panic back into the street mere inches ahead of the roaring flames, barely keeping his footing as he raced away from the chasing inferno.

  Craig was laughing wildly. “Who's thinking ahead now, Nightfox? Where's your self-righteous lectures now?” The stream of flame shifted to splash in front of Jacob and chase him in the other direction, not letting him get to the shelter of either side, keeping him in the middle of the street. “Time to end this, before you think of something clever!” He raised his hands, and the flamethrower animated itself, curling around behind Jacob and circling him, sealing him in a ring of flame that then started to contract around him.

  A brief glimpse was his only warning. Craig ducked and raised a hand defensively as half a brick flew at him from the side street, catching most of the blow on his palm, deflecting the brick enough that it just barely glanced off his shoulder. His laughter changed into a shout of pain and fury as he clutched his hand to his chest.

  “Leave him alone!” Tracy cried, her skirts and blouse billowing around her small form as a wind blew for her alone, the silver charm bracelet shining on her wrist. Mist wisped from between her lips as she grinned confidently.

  “You bitch!” Craig snarled, “You broke my hand!” He lifted his good hand to fling fire, an uncontrolled blob of flame that roared angrily as it flew at her.

  Tracy smiled and caught the flame on the back of her hand, her feet shifting lightly, dancing on her toes as she spun out of the way, casually tossing the fire to the street behind her. Her skirt flared around her as she dropped easily into a pose that was half Aikido and half Tai Chi. Around her hand shone a hazy, protective aura of mist glistening in the light, flaring briefly orange from the flame splashing against the pavement behind her. She exhaled slowly, a long wisp of mist streaming out on her breath.

  Just for style, she turned her hand palm-up before her and made the classic 'bring it' gesture, a confident smirk on her face.

  Craig let out a growl of pure frustration. “So, that's how you want it?” he asked. “I was going to let you go, girl. You I didn't have an interest in. But now, I'll destroy you.” Forgetting about his injury, he raised both hands and then started throwing fireballs, one after the other, in a barrage of flaming blobs.

  Tracy took another deep breath and let it out, seeing the cool mist wafting before her, gathering around each of her forearms and protecting them from the heat of the flames. Calmly, she reached up to each fireball as it reached her, pulling it to the side while leaning in the opposite direction, nudging each flame so that they sailed past her harmlessly. The roar of the flames filled her ears, but seemed far away. The stench of ozone filled her nose, mixed with the hot smell she usually associated with a hot summer day as the street baked outside. One after another the fireballs came in, and one after another she brushed them to the side easily, her feet dancing lightly over the street in simple circular motions to keep her balance. As strange and unnatural as these fireballs might be, they were slow compared to Grandmaster Lee's attacks.

  She wasn't sure how long it went on. She lost count of the fireba
lls, and of the time. All that mattered was the next fireball, and then the next. A faint hint of worry started rising in her mind, however. She had no plan past distracting him - she didn't know how to attack him, only how to defend herself. He could make a hundred mistakes in aiming without worry, but if she made just one mistake in defending herself, she'd be done for.

  Well, she wouldn't end this by staying at range. As she caught and deflected the next fireball, her footfalls brought her a little bit closer, and the same with the next. Fireball by fireball, attack by attack, she moved step by step closer. Her world was rather narrow - nothing existed except a line of endless fireballs and the man at the end of them.

  Craig's shadow stretched and bulged, and Jacob leaped right out of Craig's back with knife drawn. Twisting around swiftly, Jacob cut Craig from hip to armpit, then darkened to shadow and disappeared again.

  Craig roared with pain, dropping to one knee and clutching at his suddenly bloodied side. The barrage of fireballs ended, and the wall of flame flickered and died with a hiss and a crackle as an inferno wreathed Craig's entire form. Craig seemed unharmed by the fires, kneeling there as he tried to recover from the intense pain of the knife wound, then he fell further down, cradling his broken hand to his chest as the flames raged on.

  Jacob stepped out from a shadowed doorway to Tracy's side, red glinting from his blade. “That was fairly impressive,” he said quietly to her.

  “Thanks,” she responded, shielding her eyes with her hand from the bright fire in the intersection before them. She was mildly surprised when the mists left her forearms and lifted a wall of mist between Craig and themselves, both dimming the light and dulling the flash of heat that had washed across them. “What's he doing now?”

  “It's a protective barrier. If I tried that move again, I'd be crispy before I ever managed to land a blow.”

  “If you could do that, why didn't you do it before?” Tracy asked.

  Jacob shrugged. “I only had one chance. He thought the noon sun neutralized my shadow powers - superstitious idiot - but if he saw me disappear into shadow, he'd know what to expect, and block me. He's seen me do it enough times before. I needed to keep the element of surprise.”