Leesa shivered with delight. “Ha! Don’t I wish. But, no, I’m afraid you’ll have to stay here.”
She grabbed her robe and her toilet kit and headed out the door.
As Leesa expected, Cali’s familiar knock sounded on the door fifteen minutes earlier than usual. Leesa opened the door and stared at her friend in surprise.
“Whoa, where’s the party?” she asked, taking in Cali’s outfit. “I thought we were going to English class.”
Cali had matched the pink highlights in her hair with a tight dark gray sweater that proclaimed “I LOVE PINK” in giant pink letters and a short black leather skirt worn over black leggings decorated with big pink diamond shapes. All of it showed off her petite but shapely figure nicely. Her fingernails were painted with a sparkly pink polish and her shoes were black with pink straps. Draped over her arm was a stylish black leather jacket. The total effect of all the pink and black was a bit out there, even for Cali. And it was definitely not a “going to class” outfit.
Leesa suddenly felt very plain in her red Weston sweatshirt and jeans, but that was okay with her. Never in a million years could she have worn an outfit like the one Cali was sporting, but Cali never minded drawing attention to herself. Of course, Cali wasn’t trying to hide from any deadly evil wizards, either.
Cali swept into the room with a big grin on her face.
“What? This?” she asked innocently, doing a quick pirouette. “I just grabbed the first stuff I could find in my closet. For some reason, I just couldn’t wait to get started to class this morning.” She swiveled her head from Dral to Bain, as if just noticing them. “Oh, hi guys. I forgot you were here.”
“Ha! Right,” Leesa said, laughing. “Of course you did.”
The two volkaanes smiled at Cali. They had met her several times in the past and were used to her flirtatious ways.
“Been kissed by any vampires lately?” Bain asked.
Cali glanced down at the back of her right hand. Stefan had kissed her there several times, and his icy lips had felt pretty delicious.
“Naaah,” she said. “I only go for vampires when there aren’t any gorgeous volkaanes around.” She held out her left hand for Bain to kiss.
Bain glanced at Rave, who just smiled and shrugged. Bain laughed and kissed the back of Cali’s hand.
Cali sighed. “Mmmmmm…so warm.” She held both her hands out in front of her. “Hot?” she said, lifting her left hand. “Or cold?” She lowered her left hand and raised her right. She repeated the process twice more, as if she couldn’t make up her mind which she preferred.
Finally, she dropped her right hand. “I think I’ll go with hot,” she said.
Leesa laughed. “You kill me, Cali. You really do.”
“I’m sorry I mentioned vampires,” Bain said.
Cali just smiled brightly. “Shall we get started for class?” she asked.
English dragged by for Leesa. They were discussing The Great Gatsby, which she found dry and kind of boring. She would much rather be reading Dominic’s book of magic, which was sitting inside her backpack on the floor by her feet. She still had one more class this morning and then Chemistry to get through in the early afternoon before she could do any magic practice. At the pace her day was going, this afternoon was going to take forever to get to.
Knowing Rave was waiting right outside the building didn’t help, either. This class was too small for him to sit in on, the way he had done in Vampire Science back on the day she had first seen him. Vampire Science was one of the most popular classes on campus, so an extra body or two was hardly noticeable. Exactly why Rave had chosen to pop into the amphitheater classroom near the end of her first Vamp Sci session she still wasn’t exactly certain, but she was certainly glad he had.
She still marveled at the path her life had taken—it was truly amazing. If Bradley had not disappeared while attending Weston, she might never have left San Diego and would certainly never have enrolled here. If her mom had not been bitten by the grafhym, Leesa doubted she would have ever taken the Vampire Science class. But her mom had been bitten, and Bradley had disappeared, so here she was, in love with a vampire-hunting volkaane and trying to learn enough control of her magic to help Dominic defeat the Necromancer and the black waziri. She could certainly have done without the latter, but she would never want to do without Rave. Never, ever, ever.
Just like English was too small for Rave to sit in on, it was also much too small to sneak out of early, so she was stuck here until it ended. She tried to force her mind back to what the professor was saying, but Jay Gatsby’s struggles to fit into the upper crust just did not seem all that important right now. Maybe if Fitzgerald had stuck a couple of wizards or zombies into his book, she might have been able to pay better attention.
Finally, mercifully, class ended.
As soon as Professor Shader closed her book and gave the class their homework assignments, Leesa and Cali were on their feet and heading for the door.
Outside, Rave, Dral and Bain were sitting on a concrete ledge alongside the stairway waiting for them. The three volkaanes dropped to their feet when the girls emerged from the building.
“That was fast,” Rave said.
“Ugh,” Leesa grunted. “It seemed like forever to me. I thought Dr. Shader was never going to stop talking.”
“I take it she’s not quite as interesting as Professor Clerval, then,” Rave said, referring to the professor of the Vampire Science class, with whom Leesa shared a close relationship.
“Ha! Not hardly.”
Leesa noticed that almost all the girls leaving the building were having trouble keeping their eyes off the three sexy volkaanes. Not that she could blame them. She linked her arm possessively inside Rave’s.
“Actually, Dr. Shader’s not too bad. I’m just kind of anxious today, I guess.”
“And Gatsby is not the best book we’ve discussed, either,” Cali added. “Although I think Myrtle is kind of cool.”
“So, where to next?” Rave asked.
“History,” Leesa replied. “It’s just a couple of blocks.”
“I wish I had History with you,” Cali said, obviously reluctant to leave the volkaanes. “Do you think I could sit in?”
Leesa grinned. “Sorry. History’s just as small as English. Besides, don’t you have Biology now?”
Cali shrugged. “Who cares?” She looked at Bain and flashed him an exaggerated wink. “I’ve got all the biology I need right here.”
“Incorrigible,” Leesa said, shaking her head. “We’ve got to get going. See you later.”
“You bet you will,” Cali said, grinning widely.
5. MAGIC LIGHTS
Finally, Leesa’s classes were over for the day. She had thought English with The Great Gatsby had been slow, but that was before she had to slog through equation after complex equation in Chemistry. Somehow she survived, though, and now she was heading back to her dorm with Rave and his volkaane friends.
The first thing she noticed when they neared the dorm was that the damaged Blazer was gone. She had been planning to call about it when she got home, but Security must have decided the wreck wasn’t going anywhere unless they towed it themselves. Leesa was pleased—it was one less thing she had to worry about, and she hadn’t needed to involve herself at all in its removal. Whatever happened to the car now was between Security and the guy she and Dominic had bought it from. And if the black waziri could sense any magic remaining on the Blazer from Dominic’s shield spell, at least the car wasn’t sitting right in front of her dorm like a big sign flashing “Wizard Lives Here.” She knew the evil wizards would still be able to sense that Dominic had employed magic here, but at least it wouldn’t be tied to anything as specific as a car.
Without pausing at all, she limped past the spot where the Blazer had been parked and entered the dorm. Rave and Dral followed her inside, while Bain stayed behind, hanging around in front of the dorm as an early warning system. Leesa headed toward the stairs. No el
evator for this group—volkaane energy and elevators would definitely not mix. She was pretty sure Rave could probably pop the top off a stalled elevator car and hoist her up easily via the cable, but they would have a tough time explaining it to anyone who happened to see them emerge from the empty shaft. The stairs were just fine with her—besides, she enjoyed the exercise.
Up in Leesa’s room, Dral took up his familiar position lounging against the wall beside the door while Rave sat down on the bed
“What now?” Rave asked as Leesa pulled off her parka and hung it in her closet.
Leesa grabbed her backpack and pulled out Dominic’s book.
“Now this,” she said. She sat down next to Rave and opened the book on her lap. Once again, she was surprised by how little the oversized book weighed.
Now that she was finally about to do what she’d been waiting all day for, Leesa wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. She had practiced magic by herself before, of course, but she had never attempted to learn anything new without Dominic there to teach her. Remembering the wizard’s advice to warm up with something familiar, she reluctantly put the book onto the mattress beside her. She decided to do start with some easy telekinesis.
She felt herself grinning at the thought of “easy” telekinesis, recalling how hard she had struggled at the beginning to move something as simple and light as a tennis ball. The can of balls she and Dominic had practiced with was on a shelf in her closet—a tennis ball would probably be a good thing to start with. She was about to get up to retrieve the balls when her eyes alighted on the straw wastebasket by her desk.
She flashed back to the sight of the basket flying across the room a few months ago, before Dominic had even arrived and revealed that she possessed magic. She had kicked at the basket in anger and frustration—she couldn’t even remember now what she’d been angry about. Her foot had missed the basket, but somehow it had still flown across the room and crashed into the wall. At the time, she had been astounded and disbelieving.
Forgetting about the tennis balls for the moment, she crossed the room and picked up the basket. Visuals were important when trying to move stuff with her mind, and the image of the basket soaring across the room was still vivid in her mind.
There was nothing inside the wastebasket except a couple of wadded up balls of paper, so she left them in there and set the basket near the edge of the desk. The last time she had practiced with the basket, she had simply caused it to fall off the desk. She had gained much more control of her power since then, so she decided to try something a little bit more impressive. Closing her eyes for a moment, she drew in a slow deep breath and focused on her trigger word. When she opened her eyes, she pictured the wastebasket flying off the desk across to the opposite wall—and that’s exactly what happened.
The basket hit the wall and fell to the floor. The balls of paper rolled out onto the rug.
Dral had no idea what Leesa had been going to do when she put the basket onto her desk, but he knew he had just witnessed magic. Rave had told him and Bain a little about Leesa’s magic, but this was the first time Dral had seen any of it.
“Your girlfriend is quite impressive,” he said to Rave.
Rave grinned. “In more ways than you know,” he said proudly.
Leesa limped across the room and kissed Rave on the cheek.
“Thank you,” she said.
She decided to move one more thing before returning to Dominic’s book. Once again, she wanted something familiar, so she crossed to her mini fridge and pulled out a can of Red Bull, the other item she had somehow moved back before she even knew what was happening. Taking it to her desk, she stood it up near the edge.
When she had first tried to practice with a Red Bull, she had to lay it on its side or balance it half over the edge of the desk to move it, but she was more skilled now. Still, this was a warm-up, and she wanted to make sure she succeeded. She grabbed the can and slid it slowly across the desk, mimicking what she was about to do, then moved it back to its original place.
Ready now, she focused on the Red Bull. On its own, the can slid slowly to the other side of the desk. She let it sit there for just a moment before using her mind to move it back. When she turned around, both Rave and Dral were smiling at her. Moving a wastebasket and sliding cans of Red Bull were probably not going to be much used against the black waziri, she realized, but she had thought the same thing about the plant growth spell and that had proved handy. Besides, the things she had just done were simply building blocks, and she knew there were many, many more blocks ahead of her.
Now it was time to finally dig into Dominic’s book of magic.
She sat back down on the bed beside Rave and picked up the book. Resting it on her lap, she opened it and began thumbing carefully through the pages. The first spell was the plant growth one, so she moved past it. The second was the air shield, a very difficult spell she had tried unsuccessfully a few times with Dominic. The wizard said he had ordered the spells in the book by ease of learning and usefulness. The air shield thing definitely failed the easy test, but she guessed Dominic had placed it second because she had already tried it. She decided she would give it another try or two today, but first she wanted to try something new and easier, so the flipped the page to the third spell.
This one was an illumination spell, used primarily for lighting one’s way in the dark, but with a notation that used at full power, it could be employed to distract and even repel light sensitive creatures such as vampires. Leesa read the page carefully several times, making sure to miss no detail. When she was certain she understood the spell and its incantation completely, she closed the book.
“So, what’s next?” Rave asked.
“An illumination spell. I need a visual first, though. Could you grab that candle from my desk, please?” She pointed to a thick red candle sitting on the corner of her desk.
Leesa had been tempted to try to bring the candle to her by telekinesis, but she had no visual for the candle floating across the room and didn’t want to risk a failure experience before trying her new spell.
Rave got up and crossed to the desk. He picked up the candle.
“There are some matches in the drawer,” Leesa told him.
Rave grinned and placed his index finger softly against the blackened wick. A small blue flame flickered from his fingertip and ignited the candle, which burned with the same blue flame.
“Ha! Very nice,” Leesa said, smiling. “But that’s not really what I need.”
Rave feigned a pout. “What, you have something against blue fire?”
“You know I love blue fire—it’s the visual I use to keep warm in the cold, remember? Blue fire in my belly? But I don’t think the illumination spell is about magical blue light.” Leesa thought for a moment, wondering if she could adapt the spell to blue. She loved the idea—it would be very cool to be able to create a light that matched Rave’s fire. She pushed the thought aside. Maybe when she got more skilled at magic she would be able to do it. For now, she knew she had better stick to the way the spell was described in the book.
“I need yellow light, not blue,” she told Rave. “Sorry.”
Raved moved across the room and sat down beside Leesa.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It doesn’t stay blue. Look.”
Rave held the candle out in front of Leesa. Already, the flame was a flickering golden yellow.
“That’s better,” Leesa said. “Dral, could you close the curtains, please. I want it to be darker in here.”
Dral pulled the curtains closed in the window near the door and then crossed to the back window and did the same. Some afternoon light still filtered in through the material, but the room was now very dim, if not completely dark. Dim was all Leesa needed.
She didn’t look directly at the candle flame. Instead, she concentrated on the way the candle lit up the area around it. According to the book, the spell would produce a glowing orb, not a flame. Since she didn’t have an orb available
, she had decided to try candlelight.
After about two minutes of studying the light, she thought she was ready for her first try. She held out her hand, palm up.
“Illuminati verdus,” she said.
Nothing happened.
“Illuminati verdus,” she repeated, a bit more loudly. The result was the same.
“Rave, blow out the candle, please.”
Leesa hoped that trying the spell in deeper dimness, without the distraction of the flickering candlelight might help, but several more attempts produced no light. She was disappointed, but reminded herself failure was the normal result at the beginning, even when she was working with Dominic. On her own, she had to be ready to accept even more failure. Even so, she was not ready to give up just yet. She wondered if a different visual might help. An idea came to her.
She got up and limped over to her dresser.
“Rave, would you bring the candle over here?” she asked.
Rave did as she requested. By the light of the candle, she unscrewed and removed the lampshade from the small lamp on the dresser. She was going to try using the unshielded light bulb for her visual, and she wanted to see the bulb light up. When the shade was off, she turned toward Rave and blew out the candle. The room became very dim.
Keeping her eyes on the bulb, she switched on the light. The sudden brightness caused her to blink, but she kept her eyes fastened on the bulb, letting its bright glow imprint itself on her retinas. When she felt she was ready, she turned off the light and held out her palm again.
“Illuminati verdus,” she said. “Illuminati verdus.”
With the afterimage of the light bulb still on her eyes, Leesa couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw a very faint glow appear and quickly disappear just above her hand.
“Did you see anything?” she asked Rave hopefully. “Or did I just imagine it.”
Rave smiled. “If you mean that little flicker of light above your palm, yeah, I saw it. It was real—you didn’t imagine it.”
A surge of elation passed through Leesa. She had done it! The light hadn’t been very bright, and it had disappeared almost as soon as it appeared, but she had created light out of nowhere. Now that she knew she could do it, all she had to do was practice and practice, until she could do it as well as she could do the plant growth spell or telekinesis.
Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) Page 4