Concealed Influence

by V. M. Marsh

While cracking my knuckles, an idea came to me. Stretching, I watched Lars stare at my exposed midriff. Perfect.

  Grasping the hem of my shirt, I whipped it off and threw it to the ground. Standing before him in a black sports bra contrasting with my hot pink leggings, his mouth fell open.

  While he was frozen in shock and ogling me, I cartwheeled to him and kicked him in the chest. Still stunned, he didn’t even try to catch himself. A plume of dust rose as he fell on his ass. Not missing a beat, I followed him down to push him onto his back and straddle him.

  I was the one surprised and thrown off my game when he let me punch him in the face without trying to block. I would have gone for his nose, but I didn’t want to break it while only training. Still, he shouldn’t have let me make contact like that.

  I frowned at him. “Hello. I know I look smoking hot, but you are supposed to fight back.”

  Charlie choked on a coughing chuckle, and I scowled at him. “What?”

  As Lars grasped my hips to pin me in place, Charlie looked uncomfortably away as his cheeks grew pink. “Look at the position you’re in and what you’re wearing. Why the hell would he want to fight that off? That was the ultimate dirty move-he would have let you kill him ten times over for it.”

  My shot flew to Lars and the smug grin of satisfaction he wore. Growing warm and pink myself when I realized the compromising position we were in, I tried to stand.

  Only then did I understand why Lars had his hands on my hips; he wasn’t going to let me go. His grin spread as he watched that little realization dawn on my face.

  “He’s right. I would have let you beat the hell out of me as long as you stayed right there.”

  Rolling my eyes, I smacked his hands away and rose. Embarrassed and turned on, I crossed my arms only to let them fall to my sides when Lars’s eyes widened in appreciation.

  Gesturing frustrated at Charlie, I grumbled, “It’s your turn. You two spar, so I can see what you’ve got.”

  Charlie and Lars didn’t waste any time. After one shared look, they immediately ran at each other, like two bulls about to butt heads. As they clashed, they grasped each other’s arms and tried to wrestle the other one down to the ground.

  I smiled when Charlie hooked his foot behind Lars’s an ankle and pushed. Surprise splashed across Lars’s face as he fell backwards.

  When Lars jumped to his feet, Charlie danced away. Charlie’s fists rose as if ready to box, but Lars tossed flames at him. After dodging them, Charlie grinned. Lars responded with more fireballs, which made Charlie’s smile fall as he struggled to avoid the fire.

  It was obvious Lars did not expect Charlie’s forward roll towards him. I giggled as Charlie took Lars out, like a bowling ball does to pins. Lars tumbled forward while Charlie sprang to his feet.

  Lars caught himself on the ground with his hands, but Charlie was waiting with a back kick to Lars’s ass. Lars twisted to catch Charlie’s foot and pulled him off balance before his foot made contact.

  As Charlie fell, he pulled his foot from Lars’s grasp and tucked into a forward roll. At the end of the roll, he untucked and jumped to his feet.

  Lars was waiting with his fists. He struck out with an uppercut Charlie barely managed to dodge.

  Both breathing heavily by now, they circled each other in a boxing dance light on their feet. I assumed Lars would launch more fire at Charlie. However, nothing I had seen from Lars before would have allowed me to expect what came next.

  As they advanced, Charlie looked into Lars’s eyes and began his cadence. “You need to relax, man. You look pretty tired and like you need a break.”

  As Lars began to relax and his shoulders slumped, he wiggled his fingers. I thought he was going to shoot sparks at Charlie, but instead, Charlie’s lulling voice commands seemed to affect him too. And then, they didn’t appear to affect Lars at all as Charlie drooped.

  Frowning, I leaned forward with narrowed eyes trying to figure out how Charlie was being affected by his own voice magic. I especially wanted to know how it was no longer working on Lars. Nothing looked out of the ordinary to me.

  “What the hell is going on?” I yelled. Lars looked at me sporting a small smile.

  “You didn’t know that I could do that, did you? I told you I had grown in my powers. I just didn’t tell you that in addition to strengthening my fire magic, I also discovered I have a second one.”

  My mouth fell open in shock, but Charlie was still in a daze from his magic being used against him. “What kind of magic can do that?”

  He smirked at me. “I can affect space and perception, like what they do at the mall to make it seem never ending. I just bent the space around us to make his voice circle back to him before it reached me.”

  “Holy shit! That is freaking amazing. You are amazing.”

  Glancing at Charlie, I became concerned. “We have to get him out of that trance. Normally, he brings someone out of it. How are we going to get him to do that for himself?”

  Lars rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I wonder if we can convince him to say the words that would cancel his trance while I reflect them back to him.”

  I shrugged. “We should at least try. I don’t have any better ideas.”

  Cautiously approaching Charlie, I whispered in his ear. I didn’t want what I was telling him to interfere with the magic affecting him. “Come back to normal. Everything is fine. Say that to Lars.”

  As Charlie repeated my words, Lars distorted space so the magic surrounded Charlie. Slowly, Charlie’s eyes became alert until he shook himself fully present. “Does someone want to explain what the hell just happened?”

  I nodded at Lars to give him the go ahead. We were on the same team, so we all needed to be in the loop about things that could defeat Bradley.

  Lars cleared his throat and shrugged. “Well, I have magic I didn’t tell you about before.”

  “I think we’re done for today. Let’s talk about this on the way back.” I suggested.

  Charlie nodded absently, and we walked briskly on the trail towards the lodge.

  After glancing at me, Lars proudly proclaimed, “I have two powers. Obviously, I am a Fire Mage, but I am also a Perception and Space Bending Mage.”

  Charlie missed a step before recovering from his surprise. He chuckled. “It seems we all have secrets. Yours should prove most useful in this battle we find ourselves in.”

  A smile spread wide across Charlie’s face as he clapped Lars on the back. “I’m very glad to have you on our team.”

  Chapter Ten

  Hobbling through the front door of my cabin, I kicked off my flats. My feet hurt after a long day at work and training this morning. After reaching the couch, I lay down and ignored my grumbling stomach. I was too tired and sore to do anything about it.

  That’s when Lars chose to enter the room with a bowl of soup. The answer to my prayers. The soup, that is.

  “Is that for me?” I asked.

  “It wasn’t, but you can have it. I’ll get myself another bowl.” He answered.

  Sitting up, I gratefully accepted it and closed my eyes with the first bite. Lars went back into the kitchen for another bow while rich gravy melted on my tongue mixing with savory flavors of beef, carrots, and potatoes. This tasted way better than canned soup when I heated it.

  Lars returned with his own bowl and sat in the winged backed chair near the couch.

  “What did you do to the soup?” I asked curiously.

  “What do you mean? Don’t you like it?”

  “It’s delicious. How did you make it taste this good?”

  He cocked his head. “I made it. I put it in the crockpot after training this morning before I went to work with your dad.”

  My jaw fell. Scooping another spoonful into my mouth since it was already open, I couldn’t believe he made this himself. It appeared Lars had more than one hidden talent. Before my mind could wander along those lines in an inappropriate direction, I turned my attention back to the flavors exploding on my
tongue.

  In no time at all, my bowl was empty and belly was full. Sighing, I leaned back and closed my eyes. Sitting here with Lars reminded me of the last time I sat in this room with someone. That time with Scarlet seemed like so long.

  I grimaced as melancholy set in. I really missed her and wished my visions would show me a way to mend our friendship.

  Lars set down his bowl on an end table. “What’s wrong? Is my cooking that bad?”

  I didn’t bother to open my eyes. “No, I was just thinking about Scarlet, how much I miss her, and how I messed things up between us.”

  “Tell me what happened, why she is mad at you.”

  “You know I have visions, but she didn’t know for a long time. It had to be that way according to what I’d seen.”

  I finally looked at him with a sardonic smile. “I’d had a vision of her with Bradley before I ever met her. I saw him kill her in many gruesome ways until just before she arrived, that is. That’s when I first saw an alternate version, where she could win in her final fight with him. However, events had to play out a certain way to make that happen.”

  I sighed. “You see, most of my visions were of her dying. And in every single one where I told her about being a seer at the wrong time, she died. Only two visions showed her surviving and both of them required I keep my visions secret until it was time for her to leave the Sanctuary and have her final battle.”

  Propping one foot on my knee, I began to massage it. Frowning at me, Lars scooted his chair to the couch and pulled both my feet onto his lap. As he massaged my sore feet, I purred like a cat.

  “In the two visions of her surviving that I hung everything on, secrecy was necessary about not only my visions but also her training. I think my secrets constantly in her face while we trained combined with indications I had magic I wouldn’t explain created built up resentment on her part.”

  I closed my eyes again in contentment this time as Lars kneaded tight muscles. “By the time I finally revealed my secrets, she felt too betrayed. She knew I had magic, and we were training towards something. However, I don’t think she expected me to have a reason other than friendship for working with her. That revelation made her feel like my friendship was a ruse.”

  “You were trying to help her, though. Did you explain that part to her?”

  “I did, but she didn’t believe me. She thought I only cared about the magic community and the Sanctuary.”

  I sighed. “It’s true that I wanted her to defeat Bradley and protect the magic community. However, that was only one of the visions of her survival I saw. It was the most unlikely outcome, but it is the one I told the circle about so they would let me help her. Really, the vision I was most interested in and had the greatest possibility of success was the one where she just survived. The one that came true.”

  “You should tell her that. Call her and tell her.”

  “She won’t answer. I called to warn her when Bradley escaped, and I had to leave a voicemail. She never called back.”

  Moving to the couch, he placed my legs over his and then continued to rub my feet. “I actually know Scarlet, kind of.”

  My eyes popped open as did my mouth to ask what he was talking about. He held up his hand to silence me.

  “You know I used to work for Bradley. Scarlet and Bradley were in a relationship, so I knew both of them.”

  He gave me a sad look. “Did Scarlet ever tell you how she escaped Bradley’s clutches?”

  I shook my head.

  “I knew he’d beaten her. I hadn’t liked it, but I didn’t know what to do about it. It’s not like I was reputable myself.”

  Tugging on my hand, he pulled me into his arms. “That last time, it wasn’t the worst, but it was one of the worst beatings he had given her. I had come over for business that day after it had happened. He was extremely angry and ranting about her flirting with some waiter when he had been planning on proposing.”

  He chuckled softly in disbelief. “I couldn’t believe he’d thought she would marry him when he beat and controlled her the way he did. I also didn’t believe for one second Scarlet had been flirting with someone else, especially in front of Bradley. That wasn’t in her nature, and she was too terrified of him to do something like that.”

  Squeezing me tightly, he continued. “I have never seen him so furious. It made me concerned for her well-being, so I looked for her after our meeting. I pretended to leave, but hid instead since I knew he had a meeting with someone else to get to.”

  He kissed my head and rubbed my back. “I couldn’t find her in the house. I knew Bradley had a place in the basement that he called the dungeon. He put marks down there sometimes when they wouldn’t pay or to scare them into paying more quickly. However, I never knew he put Scarlet down there too.”

  Shuddering, his voice was scarcely above a whisper. “When I couldn’t find her in the house, I felt sick with worry that he had put her down there. That place was filthy, slimy, and disgusting. There were no toilets, only buckets in the corner of the cells. It was much worse than a jail.”

  I clung to him in both encouragement and for support as I had a feeling I knew what was coming next.

  “I found her down there in one of those cells. At first, I didn’t know it was her. She was unrecognizable as a broken bloody heap of rags in the dim light spilling in from the hall.”

  His eyes filled with tears. “Emma, her eyes were nearly swollen shut. Her entire body was swollen, bruised, and just covered in her blood. She was shackled to the floor in chains. The keys were hanging on a hook outside the door, so I grabbed them. She cried out in unimaginable pain as I unlocked the cuffs.”

  Tears trailed down our cheeks. I kissed him softly on the lips and rested my head on his shoulder. Stroking my hair softly, he pulled me tighter to him.

  “I picked her up as gently as I could, but she still whimpered and screamed in agony from me touching her even a little bit. I carried her to my car and drove her from the Bay Area down to a hospital in Los Angeles. I told them I had found her like that in a park. I could tell they wanted to detain me for questioning because they thought I did that to her.”

  He shook his head in disgust and huffed. “I may have done some shitty things, but I would never do that to a woman. Luckily, they were in too much of a rush to stabilize her to deal with me right then. I was able to sneak out while they were working on her before they could call security.”

  I sobbed into his chest as he held me as close to him as he could. We clung to each other while mourning for what my friend had been through at the hands of that monster. It was no wonder she couldn’t trust or let anyone get close to her. I was shocked she had let Charlie, Cade, Zoey, and me in at all.

  Lars cleared his throat. “That was the last time I saw her, but I spent the next two years protecting her as best as I could. I became Bradley’s right hand man, so that I knew whenever he was getting close to finding her again. I would interfere to keep him from her until she was able to move on to a new hiding place.”

  I peeked at him to see a wry smile on his face. “I’m fairly certain she still doesn’t know I’m the one who got her away from Bradley and was warning her each time he got near her.”

  Pulling me onto his lap, he gently brushed his lips against mine for comfort. Then I laid my head on his shoulder.

  “I came here because he almost killed me the last time I tried to interfere. He caught me texting a warning to the number he’d found for her and shocked me with some sort of electrical power. It was strong enough to stop my heart for a moment. When I retaliated with fire, he started to suck my magic from me.”

  Smoothing his hair from his face, I pecked his temple. Mournful eyes stared into mine.

  “It was excruciating. I have never felt anything that painful, although, losing you comes in close second.”

  I playfully smacked his chest, and he chuckled. “I’m still alive only because a maid chose that moment to clean his hotel room. We had been too preoccupi
ed to hear her knock, so she used her key to let herself in. She had no idea what she was actually witnessing, but she still screamed when she saw me convulsing on the floor. Bradley was startled enough to stop, which allowed me to escape the room and him.”

  He nuzzled my cheek with his nose. “You have no idea how relieved I was to discover Scarlet had survived. I knew he would go after her, and there was nothing to stop him this time. I didn’t have another way to warn her. And since I was half dead at that point, I was of no use to do anything other than come home.”

  My heart swelled with so much love for him I thought it would burst right from my chest. This man was so much better than everyone gave him credit for. I couldn’t think of many who would have gone to those lengths and put themselves in such danger for someone else like he had. Even some of the Circle members wouldn’t go that far.

  Kissing his cheek I knew this was the man I was meant to spend the rest of my life with, regardless of what the Circle thought. I had to find a way to be with him.

  It was late, and I was planning on a busy day tomorrow. Standing, I pulled him up with me. We staggered on unsteady legs up the stairs as we held hands and leaned on each other for support and comfort.

  “Thank you for saving and protecting my friend.” I told him before kissing him softly good night.

  After entering the clearing, I strode to the center and sat among the wildflowers. The Elders would feel someone had entered the meadow, and it was their duty to find out who had crossed the boundaries. The alarm was not only a way to detect intruders, it was also a way for Circle members to gain an impromptu audience with the Council.

  Rubbing my arms to rid myself of the tickling sensation caused by the grass, I hoped this would go well. I knew they wouldn’t like what I had to say, but if Lars could risk everything for my friend, then I could risk everything for him.

  Brownie Elder was the first to arrive, and her brows rose when she saw I was the one to trigger the alarm. Sitting beside me, she pulled her knees to her chest as we waited for the others.

  Shifter Elder joined us next and seemed just as surprised to see me. He prowled the clearing perimeter until Mage Elder came. I hoped his fond smile would work in my favor.