The information about why just didn’t seem to be out there either, maybe because I was one of a kind, or possibly it was still just blocked to me until I got more powerful? My guess was that it was because I’m some kind of hybrid, because elementals of air could feel earth magic as well, I was pretty sure of that anyway. Something about being both human, and elemental, had given me a hell of a blind spot along with my advantage.
With the introductions and drama past, Derik got straight to business, “What exactly do you need from us?”
Tara replied, “I need time to prepare some spells to fight off a dark coven that is attacking me, either Ben can do it, or, I can tie one of your mystics into my own wards, to power them while I work. I need time to recover and then make the spells, maybe twenty-four hours.”
Derik asked, “You can fight off a whole dark coven by yourself?”
Tara sighed, “It’s a long story, but yes, because I have personal items for each of them, I’ll be binding their powers one by one if I can.”
Derik looked suspicious, “How did you manage that?”
Tara frowned and seemed to gather her strength, “You owe me a service, and I owe you nothing more than what I already paid for it. Are you turning your back on the debt you owe alpha?” she asked challengingly.
Derik scowled, “No, I will honor my debt, but I won’t be involved with a dark witch, if you don’t explain to my satisfaction we won’t be trading favors again in the future, at all.”
Tara narrowed her eyes dangerously, I felt the need to take a step back but held my ground.
“I am not a dark witch, and I don’t recall me asking questions about why you were targeted by another pack. But fine, here is the truth alpha, the coven after me is my mother’s, she was a dark witch, I left when I came into my powers.”
I asked, “Was?”
Tara’s anger seemed to soften when she looked at me, which made Sierra tense. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. Still, overall a less angry witch was a less scary one.
Tara nodded, “The coven decided on new leadership and killed my mother, the new coven head, Cyndy, left me alive so they could strip and absorb my powers when I came into them at sixteen. That’s why I hate dark magic so much, and why I left the coven. I not only gathered a personal possession of each, but I also took the grimoire containing the spells necessary to drain another, and destroyed it.
“I’d hoped that would be enough for them to let me go, I am… rather powerful, and stronger than my mother was, which was why they wanted my power so badly to begin with. But they underestimated me. It’s been… ten years now, I suppose I’d gotten lax on keeping a tab on them, I’d believed they had forgotten me or moved on from it. They attacked me out of the blue, and hard, but I’ve been strengthening these wards for a long time and their first strike failed. I can only assume they’re here to finish the job, maybe they rediscovered the spells or another grimoire?
“Or perhaps they just fear I will one day decide to go back and take my revenge, either way, they somehow found me,” she turned to Derik and a little bit of steel reentered her voice, “Does that satisfy you alpha?”
Derik sighed, “Forgive me for jumping to conclusions Tara, and if it makes a difference, the pack that attacked me was also my past coming back to haunt me. We will support your shield, and if a confrontation comes before the binding we will assist in that as well.”
Tara looked surprised for a moment but smoothed her features over and nodded in agreement.
Derik asked, “Who gets first shift?”
I shrugged, “I can take over tomorrow morning if Carrie is free tonight? Sierra and I are supposed to be at my aunt’s house in a little over an hour, but we can cancel if we have to, this is more important.”
Carrie shrugged and nodded, “That works for me.”
Derik cleared his throat, “Alright, Gerald and Carrie will stay for now. Todd, I want you to shadow for a few hours, then crash at Ben’s and shadow him and Sierra tomorrow, any questions?”
Everyone shook their heads, and Tara said to me, “Just give me a minute to add Carrie to the wards before you go anywhere.”
She held out her hands towards Carrie, and after a moment Carrie stepped forward and the clasped their hands together. She chanted a short spell and something felt different but I couldn’t say what exactly. When she nodded at me, I slowly took down my shield of air surrounding the store. Carrie winced once it fell, but looked fine after a moment. She should be able to power the wards just fine.
Tara didn’t waste any time, she murmured a thank you as she left and went in the back room to take a nap. I wondered how long it would take for her to recharge and start binding her old coven. I was also kind of curious just how powerful she was, and I didn’t know all that much about witch magic outside of the basics she’d told me months ago. Maybe I’d have to take a closer look at that in the future. All the knowledge couldn’t be blocked after all.
Derik asked, “Would you mind sending Selene, Katie, and myself home. I don’t want to take advantage but…”
I laughed, “But you will anyway? Ready to go?”
I was joking of course, any of them would jump to my assistance if I needed it, things worked both ways.
He nodded, and the ladies did as well, so I gathered the magic and sent them home before Sierra and I left for the apartment. She was still acting very possessive of me even though we’d left sight of Tara, and I found I didn’t mind it at all, especially when she decided we should shower together, we were almost late to my aunt’s house as a result…
Chapter 6
Thursday, June 2nd, 2016, 6:53 AM
My uncle was working, which as far as I was concerned was good enough for me. We had an understanding, he hated but tolerated me while lying to my face about how good it was to see me whenever I stopped by. Actually, maybe I was the only one with the understanding, I’d never let him know I could feel the lies, but regardless I was happy he was stuck working tonight.
Amy and Aunt Mary had met Sierra over a week ago, a couple of days after the full moon ally ritual, and things seemed to go well. They had liked her, but I could also tell a part of them was uneasy, their hind brains could sense the predator within Sierra. I also wasn’t looking forward to telling them I was moving in with Sierra and the rest of her family. In the human world, it was all too fast, without a proper context, I wasn’t sure it would go over very well added to that uneasiness.
I was more worried about my Aunt though, since Amy was still a self-absorbed sixteen-year-old. She might give me a hard time, but she also wouldn’t pick up on the subtle things that wouldn’t appear to fit. My cousin was far from stupid, and I had no doubt she’d be perceptive enough in a few years once she got over her egocentric phase.
We just made it to the house before seven, and we’d hardly finished the obligatory family hugs and greetings before my aunt hustled us into the dining room to eat. I usually tried to get there early to talk and spend time, but… between the impromptu meeting at Tara’s store, and Sierra and Ben time in the shower had taken a blessedly long time, we came in too late for that.
My aunt asked, “So how is everything?”
I took a moment to really think about that instead of reply with the kneejerk programmed response of fine, and I realized I had a lot better stuff going on in my life than my troubles with my friend Mike, and the tentative friendship I’d forged with Diana taking two steps back.
“Great actually. The business is doing better than ever, thanks in part to that interview I did, maybe reporters aren’t so bad after all. I also have good news about Sierra and I, I’m going to move in with her.”
I left off the part about my magic, knowledge, and understanding growing by leaps and bounds. The last week or so I’d taken time to just absorb information about things that interested me, as well as the magic practice I’d done in both fire and air, both separately and combined. Medicine, physics, botany, computer science, business, and a more complet
e understanding of the races outside of my own.
As far as sorcerers and the elementals, well those were still mostly blocked, although some small stuff came through on occasion.
But vampires, werewolves, the cat shifters who I hadn’t met yet at all, and witches I was gaining a good handle on, beyond the basics that Diana had taught me.
Sierra gave me a sideways panicked glance at the casual way I’d dropped that conversation bomb, but seemed to relax when my aunt just looked thoughtful.
Mary asked, “Congrats, though I’m surprised your moving out of the city, and into her family’s house? Didn’t you just say things were going well?”
I wasn’t all that surprised by the question, how could I explain that I couldn’t make Sierra move from her pack. For a human it would make sense for Sierra to move out and in with her independent boyfriend, and be more independent of her family. After all, I left my house for similar reasons when I was eighteen, it had been time to get out and be independent. She was twenty-four now, and successful in her family’s business. Any excuse I could think of to explain it away would make my aunt think it was a cult of some kind, now that I thought it out better.
Amy was caught halfway between shock and delight. Surprised her older brother who she depended on but thought of as a geek was moving in with the beautiful woman next to me, and delighted that I was probably about to get the third degree. Sisters…
I shrugged and knew I was reaching when I said, “I don’t have to be in my office every day, and she’s quite involved with her family’s businesses. It seemed to make more sense for me to commute. We may get a separate place built eventually, but it seemed like the best way in the short term. Her family are very welcoming of me as well.”
Aitheria chuckled in my mind, she wasn’t helping very much. I still hadn’t figured out what it meant when she showed me her true self, the information was blocked and she wasn’t talking. Not that I’d asked her about it, but we seemed even closer than ever. Connected somehow, beyond the close ties of family and friendship we’d had previously. The only reason I worried about that was because I knew she was… upset that I didn’t, although she didn’t take it out on me.
I’d come to the conclusion ten days ago that Aitheria’s presence was to protect me from my enemies gaining knowledge of me. It was her primary task. It made me think about why she wasn’t able to tell me anything about other stuff. It occurred to me that for the element of air, knowledge was power, and power needed to be earned. If she just told me everything I wouldn’t have the wisdom or power to truly understand, and in the long run it would probably just get me killed.
When I was strong enough to face those enemies, I would be able to get the information on my own. Maybe then I’d also find out why I was important enough to have her as a guardian, because I really didn’t have a guess for that part. I realized my mind had gone off on quite a tangent, and got back to the conversation about my moving plans.
Sierra nodded, “I realize it’s a little fast.”
Amy blurted, “Am I going to be an aunt?”
I glared at her. My aunt Mary looked scandalized, I was speechless, and Sierra just laughed.
Sierra winked, “Not yet. I know this seems fast, and we’ve only been dating what… eleven or twelve days now, but we’ve known each other a lot longer than that. But no, we haven’t even discussed that or marriage yet.”
Not yet? I didn’t want to think about that right now, so I stuffed it to the back of my mind. The rest of what she said was an excellent answer, even if for most of the time that we knew each other we hadn’t been in contact, but it still wasn’t a lie, even if misleading. Still, it might calm my aunt’s worries a little.
It was quiet for a while after that, and we all ate our meals in a silence that wasn’t exactly comfortable, but was far less awkward than I’d feared. Dinner was good, leg of lamb, new potatoes, and asparagus spears. I was sure I hadn’t escaped my aunt’s interrogation at this reveal, she was just too much of a good hostess to do it in front of Sierra.
After dinner Amy took off to a friend’s house, and the three of us had an after dinner drink. I could tell my aunt was bursting with questions, but she kept them in well enough. I supposed there would always be things about my life that didn’t make sense to them, the supernatural world was just different that way…
We were walking out the door when the vision hit me, all of it at once, like a memory. I was in shock for moment, both Ceara and Diana had seemingly burned to ash before my eyes right in the alley behind Spirits, even worse it was going to happen in just under a minute from right now.
“Sierra,” I said in a tentative voice, “Diana and Ceara are about to die.”
She gripped my hand, and although from the wolves’ point of view, they owed the vampires nothing, she knew I was friends with Diana, and worked for Ceara and the rest of the council on occasion.
She said, “Let’s go.”
I hesitated a moment at the idea of putting her in front of something that could turn Ceara, a nineteen-hundred-year old vampire, into ash, but I knew she would kill me if I left her behind. It wasn’t even an option.
Aitheria sent, “This is it, the bad feeling from this morning, be on your guard.”
We practically ran around the corner to where no one could see us, and I raised a shield of fire and air over the both of us, and then surrounded us and the shield in the power of air, I also slightly increased my body’s speed, perception, and reflexes, and then moved us to the back of spirits.
I opened my eyes and took it in.
Ceara, with her bright red hair and wearing tight fitted leather pants and a jacket, was faced off with a laughing male vampire, dressed in jeans and a light shirt, who kept dodging and jumping around. I doubted he could take her, but he was managing to stay just out of her grasp and was purely on the defensive. Diana was there, and kept trying to help block him in so Ceara could take him out, but she kept failing, Ceara and Christopher were just too fast for her to keep up with.
Diana was incredibly strong compared to a newborn rogue, but one that was close to the age of the council? She didn’t have a chance and I felt a twinge of annoyance at Ceara for even bringing her along. Then I both felt and saw the other presence appear, I couldn’t have missed it actually.
The man appeared in a flashing pillar of fire, he was in his late thirties or early forties, he was dressed in a gray business suit with a red tie and shiny black shoes, and he was surrounded by a shield of pure fire that made mine look ridiculously weak by comparison. I realized then just how far behind I really was, someday I was supposed to dwarf his power with air, and perhaps match it with fire?
I was frozen in the moment, not sure what to do. Surely this sorcerer was who would burn Ceara and Diana to ash, but attacking him directly seemed like a completely futile idea. It would be like trying to take down an air force jet with a nerf ball launcher, I wondered if he would even notice if I attacked him.
The man raised his hands and a blast of fire shot at Ceara which freed me from my moment of indecision. There was no way I could block it, but I called up a powerful wind gust. His fire ignored the gust of wind, ripped right through it, but his fire hadn’t been my target. Ceara was blown to the side by about ten feet, and the fire completely missed her, splashing against the wall. I could see the bricks start to burn.
He turned to me and raised an eyebrow, as if to say who the hell are you. Suddenly I was filled with an overwhelming rage, such that I couldn’t even see straight. I was in shock at the strength of the fury raging through me, and it felt a lot like being set on fire. I gathered fire and air in my mindless rage, as much of it as I could and sent it at him in a torrent of destruction that would have ripped apart the stone wall behind him if it had hit.
His shield simply ate it, and I screamed in rage and started to build another one, as he raised fire to send at me. I felt two little cooling hands against my cheek, and the rage fell flat, and I was filled with dread. I
hadn’t even noticed, but somehow he’d gotten through my shields like they weren’t even there, and had manipulated my emotions, making me angry and stupid enough to get myself and everyone else killed.
He launched the fire at me, and I jumped straight up, letting the wind carry me and Sierra a hundred feet straight up in a second at the same time as I released the futile storm of fire and air I’d gathered. He looked up at me and growled in annoyance. Then he launched fire at Diana, in my panic of the remembered vision of her turning to ash, I surrounded Ceara, Diana, Sierra, and myself with power, and took us to my office, fleeing the fight.
Ceara growled at me, “What the hell!”
I frowned, “It was a trap, and we were off balance, and outclassed. We’ll get them both, just not right now.”
Diana looked shaken, “Do you think they can track us?”
I shook my head, “I doubt it, unless he can sense my magic from miles away. Looks like you were set up though, I’m thinking the whole reason Christopher is here, is to take out the council itself, and he hired a bad ass fire sorcerer to help. The reason I came was I saw you both burned to ash, so… your welcome,” I added a little angrily at Ceara, who was still pissed.
Ceara took a deep breath and nodded briskly. She still looked angry as hell, but I didn’t get the sense she wanted to tear my throat out anymore. Yay for small favors.
“Will you return with us, we must discuss it with Alexios and Charis.”
I nodded reluctantly, and looked at Sierra with a question in my eyes, I wasn’t sure if she’d want to come or not.
She said, “Go ahead, I’ll be at the apartment, I have no wish to meet the rest of the council.”
She kissed me then, a little more thoroughly than was warranted, and I wondered if she was sending Diana a message by doing it…
Chapter 7
Thursday, June 2nd, 2016, 8:12 PM
Sorcerer: Witch's Woes: Power of Air (Book 3) Page 4