I wasn’t surprised she was willing, her and Todd were still going pretty strong and she’d spent more than a few nights here over the last month. Todd was a goner, but Aiya seemed to be holding back a bit, and not rushing things. I wouldn’t judge, after all, it had taken me seven months to even realize there was a thing between Sierra and I.
Mike nodded in agreement with Aiya, “Us too.”
Mike seemed to be taking it all in stride rather well. I also wasn’t overly surprised he’d want Jenna here where it was marginally safer. He wasn’t going to argue about it either.
I nodded, it was close to six thirty, it had taken a long time to go over everything, or most things anyway. I’d kept Aitheria a secret, and was rather vague about the details of what I could do, and how.
I stood up, “I need to get a few more winks if I’m to be ready for anything else, the fight took a lot out of me.”
Sierra came with me. We shared a quick shower, unfortunately I was too tired to do anything else but get cleaned up, and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I woke up around nine, and stretched. Sierra was gone, no doubt to work and I took a moment to review what the fire sorcerer had known and I hadn’t.
Fire walking was what he called it. Weird name for teleporting, but it wasn’t really teleporting anyway. For one, it still wasn’t faster than air could move me, and it was limited in distance, perhaps fifty miles or so. The reason for that is I’d have to hold my breath.
The way it worked is I’d have to cover myself in flames of elemental fire, as a shield. Then use normal fire over that, completely covered, to build a gateway into the elemental plane of fire, through which all the movement took place before spitting me back out onto our plane of existence.
It was why he’d always appeared to go up in flames when he’d disappeared.
The greatest advantage that it held over air travel, despite the severe limitations of no way to breath during the moving, or the restriction of how far I could go, was that the travel happened on another plane of existence. That meant even heavily vaulted rooms couldn’t contain or deny a fire sorcerer who knew the technique. That barrier wouldn’t exist on the other plane, as opposed to the air magic which could only get past more simply barricades.
It was also why the fire sorcerer was so badly affected by my trap. Air couldn’t exist on the elemental plane of fire, so all the air around him inside the shield was left behind, with the exception of what was in his body. That meant when he appeared in the vacuum, all that appeared was himself. Even worse, because of the inherent limitation he’d been holding a deep breath, probably a habit when using that ability to travel a mile or two to maximize the oxygen taken along with him.
The absolutely worst thing a person could do when exposed to vacuum, is to try and hold their breath, it would have a devastating effect on the human body. It tore his lungs apart as soon as he’d come back through. Granted, it wasn’t much of a worry for the most part, unless I was facing another air sorcerer it wouldn’t come up very often.
I got up and headed downstairs, and went straight for the kitchen for more coffee. I was also giving serious thought to not going into the city today. The kitchen had Aunt Marge, Amy, Jenna, Clint, Katie, Suzy, and Selene around the table. Honestly it was really strange, like my two separate worlds had collided. Okay, not like that, it was exactly that.
“Feeling better?” Katie asked, “You looked like hell this earlier this morning.”
I grinned, “Smelled like it too? Yeah, I’m much better. Where did everyone go, I figured I’d be woken up when it was time for them to hit work.”
Jenna shook her head, “Sierra was worried about you and made us all let you sleep, she took Aiya and Mike to the train on the way to work, and Derik gave your uncle a ride home to get his own car to go to work.”
I guess life goes on, but it felt wrong not hunkering down in the house. Except in that situation it would be a lot easier to wait us out, than the other way around. My enemies were patient.
My aunt asked, “How are you doing?”
I shrugged, “Me? I’m used to the craziness that is my life. How about you and Amy?”
Amy gave me a dirty look, “I’m fine. So what’s the real scoop between you and Sierra?”
“Werewolves are like wolf packs in that they stay together as an extended family. That’s the real reason I moved in here, instead of the other way around. We are mates, for life.”
Amy looked at me as if that was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard. I’d have to watch out for her. She seemed a little too enamored of magic. She couldn’t get in any trouble around here I supposed, but she did have one option to join our world. Luckily she was too young though, and I doubted there was a vampire in the city dumb enough to turn my cousin. At least, not for a few years.
Well, either she’d grow out of it, or… she wouldn’t. It was only my job as a big brother to make sure she grew up all the way before deciding something like that, and maybe I was just overreacting. I also hadn’t forgotten that her and I still needed to talk. I owed her an apology, at the very least.
I’d just taken my first sip of coffee when Caroline’s spelled jewelry went off. Damnit, Anise was truly a dark being of the blackest evil, couldn’t she have waited before launching another attack, at least until after I’d had my first coffee of the day? I put the cup down and traced our connection through elemental fire, not even bothering to try for the information I knew I’d be denied. I waved while I said Caroline’s name as an explanation, and then the magic took me away before they could respond.
I appeared in a conference room on the fourth floor of the building I owned after inheriting it from Charis. Caroline, and a couple of other vampires, were pinned to the wall with air magic. It wasn’t Anise though, it was another flunky.
I could tell because his power was slightly greater than mine in air, when I met my true enemy I was sure they’d dwarf my power. Especially after what I’d learned from the fire sorcerer. Plus, the air sorcerer was male, which was of course, the biggest clue..
“Well that didn’t take long. Surrender, and I’ll let the…”
He cut off as I gave him both barrels. I was too annoyed to talk, or even listen. I put all my anger and frustration into the flames, along with feeding the light, heat, and gases it gave off back into it, and I surrounded it with air to feed the black flames as the combined might of my elemental air and fire struck him right in the face.
Or it would have, if he wasn’t shielded, and powerful enough to hold it against my attack.
Still, it had enough impact to toss him back into the wall, and was disorienting enough to loosen his grip on the vampires in the room. I reached out and grabbed Caroline and the other two with my power, and wrested them from his grasp and moved us toward the Lake with a thought. I felt him follow, along with Aitheria, and about ten other elementals of air as I moved out above the water, up the Illinois coast, and then circled back over land and back down towards the city.
He may have been more powerful but only slightly, and at the speeds we were going his power couldn’t grasp onto me, or my passengers. Of course, I couldn’t attack him either. Instead, I led him in a merry chase through the city streets, along the El lines, and around the city while I tried to figure out what to do.
It was my third battle within twenty-four hours, and my third sorcerer. All I hadn’t faced yet was an earth sorcerer, and I hoped I wouldn’t have to. Melody had turned down their offer, hopefully they hadn’t found a replacement. Of course, I was getting ahead of myself, I still hadn’t come up with a plan to kill the latest one yet. A sorcerer of air, like me.
I’d like to say the idea of plumbing his mind for his knowledge and power wasn’t tempting at all, but I’d be lying. Then again, my power was limited because of experience and practice, not knowledge. It was very possible that I could actually know more than he did. Although I did realize there was a lot I still didn’t know yet, my knowledge was
miniscule next to Aitheria’s for instance.
But this guy was no Aitheria.
I turned my head and looked. The guy was almost bored, he couldn’t stop me at this speed, but he was also having no trouble keeping up. He looked like he wasn’t paying much attention, like his mind was elsewhere.
I pondered that for a moment, and wondered if he would fall for something obvious.
I headed straight up over the city, and then rocketed down to Tara’s store, and to the back room, inside her wards.
The sorcerer followed me.
Before he even realized his mistake, and that he was cut off from the power of air inside Tara’s wards, I hit his shield with everything I had to quickly drain what power he had left in his grip. Then I seized his mind, ruthlessly stripped it, and crushed his mind to dust.
“Don’t you knock?” asked a familiar voice.
I looked over at Tara, who’s lips were twitching with amusement. I took a moment to shield the dead sorcerer in air, and used fire to turn him to ash, and then sent the ash away with a thought.
“Sorry, I was in a hurry.”
The two vamps I didn’t really know ran for it at that point, and Caroline laughed.
“I think once word gets around of what just happened, they’ll be even more scared of you.”
I sighed. I suppose it was a good thing, but I would have liked respect more. Still, in the supernatural world the more powerful ruled the weaker, in that case being feared wasn’t a bad thing.
Caroline added in a more serious tone, “Thanks for the rescue.”
I nodded, “You’re very welcome. He was actually stronger than I was, it was Tara’s wards which made the difference.”
I quickly flipped through his memories, he didn’t know anything about elemental air that I didn’t. He knew less in fact. He didn’t know that elemental magic was actually controlled through the soul, he’d believed it was all brain power. Since sorcerers of air or fire couldn’t really examine or feel their own souls, just direct them, I suppose that made sense.
If it wasn’t for my connection to Aitheria, through my soul, I probably wouldn’t have figured that out either.
Still, it wasn’t a complete waste of time to strip his memories, I finally had some interesting Intel on Anise, although the information was still rather thin.
Tara winked and said teasingly, “Try to call ahead the next time you have a life and death battle. Any idea what they’re up to? Why didn’t they just send all three at once at you?”
I frowned, that was a good question.
“She might just be testing me? Umm, the leader is a very old air sorceress named Anise. The guy I just killed was one of her followers for the last twenty years. Apparently he worked for her for the occasional tidbit of knowledge. She has just two others with her, sorcerers I mean. Both Air sorcerers, Raymond and Manny. Apparently they’re all much more powerful than this guy was, but those two have been followers of Anise for hundreds of years.”
Which means, I was probably screwed. Okay, scratch the probably part.
“I can only speculate as to why they didn’t just all come for me, based on the fact that she seems to like to make others do the dirty work. That won’t stop her from coming for me though. It also doesn’t explain the one at a time thing.”
Tara shrugged, “Sorcerers, present company excepted, don’t play well with others for the most part. My guess is sending a water, fire, and air sorcerer to work together would result in chaos.”
Caroline asked, “So what now, how can we beat them if that’s all true?”
“Witches are scary,” I said with humor.
Tara raised an eyebrow.
I shrugged, “It’s true. I’m mostly depending on the warding at the house. If they don’t fall for that I’m pretty screwed. The only other thing I know is Anise is obsessed with me for some reason. The sorcerer I just killed had no idea why, but she acts like her life depends on taking me down. He doesn’t know why the elements of air share information with her either, which I’d love to know.”
Aitheria sent, “I can’t tell you, which must be very frustrating.”
I replied via mind speech, “Oh, it is. But I forgive you. Mostly because your small, adorably cute, and lovable.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, but I knew she didn’t really mean it.
“I don’t suppose either of you want to hang out at the pack house?”
Caroline gave me a hug, which surprised me, we weren’t very touchy feely with each other. Maybe she’d been more shaken than she showed?
“No, but I’ll call if something happens again. I need to watch the company, and keep a bunch of older vampires in line. It’s like herding cats, even with the threat of you behind me. You be careful though, if you need me call, although I can’t imagine what I could do against a sorcerer.”
She let go of me and smiled, and then took off before I could respond.
I looked over at Tara.
“Don’t look at me,” she said softly, “I have a store to watch. I can’t do much more to help either, even if I did join you there, the wards are solid.”
I smiled, “Thanks again. Sorry I just dropped in during a fight.”
She waved that away, “We are allies, I was teasing earlier. Plus, without the knowledge you gave me I wouldn’t have known how to exclude you from the anti-air wards at all. It is the least I could do.”
“I better go, I left everyone back at the house with no explanation when Caroline called.”
I wrapped myself in air and went back to the kitchen at home.
Chapter 9
Thursday, July 7th, 2016, 9:39 AM
Amy squeaked, startled as I appeared, “You didn’t tell us you could teleport!”
I shook my head, “Nope,” but then I remembered I kind of could with fire magic now, “well… sort of. But I just moved very fast just now. I didn’t teleport.”
Yeah, that had been clear. Still, I didn’t explain it any further.
I filled them in quickly on the latest attack instead. I completely downplayed just how powerful Anise, Raymond, and Manny were. I used phrases like more powerful, instead of explaining I was a mere bug to their shoe.
I wasn’t unused to fighting more powerful people, and depending on others simply to have a chance of survival. I’d beaten Jaben by simply avoiding his attacks, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’d beaten someone with enough power that my shields were meaningless. Still, I kind of got the idea I should be happy they’d been sending the second stringers at me so far. Unfortunately, Anise has run out of those.
I wasn’t sure if a clever ploy would be enough to get me through the next fight. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
Amy gave me one of those looks only a teenager could pull off, it was a little angry and petulant.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I hadn’t been looking forward to this conversation. It also didn’t help that she was confronting me in front of the others. I briefly considered taking her in the backyard, but that was pointless with werewolf hearing. Plus, I had nothing to hide from my new family.
“This world,” I waved my hands around, “is dangerous for a human to know about. Originally, the vampire council was in charge of secrecy here in Chicago. I might have been able to get permission to tell you about me and only me. Which would have meant half-truth’s, and lies. It’s only been the last few weeks or so I could have told you everything, and to be honest it never occurred to me to do so.
“My enemies found me at the same time, and I’ve been too busy trying to plan for that and keep everyone alive. I suppose I also didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid of how you’d react.”
She frowned, “What else haven’t you told me?”
I peered at her, “Spirits is a vampire club.”
Her eyes widened and then she shot a surreptitious look at her mom. Lucky for her, my aunt didn’t notice, being deeply engaged in a conversation with Suzy.
She blushed as she realized the truth, and mouthed at me, “You weren’t in any danger were you?”
I smiled, “No, but I appreciated the rescue anyway.”
She sighed, “I suppose I forgive you, but don’t you dare take my memories away.”
My aunt asked, “Rescue? What rescue?”
I shrugged, “Long story.”
Amy looked at me gratefully when my aunt turned back to Suzy…
The rest of the morning was rather tense. I didn’t feel the need to be in the city today at all, and leaving the dubious protection of Tara’s wards felt rather foolhardy if I didn’t have to. So I stayed in the house, and worried about everyone else that had to go to work. Still, it wracked my nerves to a certain extent. I was down to three enemies, the ones that had truly been searching for me my whole life. Or at least, three mortal enemies. As for the elementals, I had no idea.
The point was, I kept expecting their attack to come at any moment. Why wait? But my expectations were not met. I also wasn’t very busy, which meant I had a lot of time to worry about all the people caught up in my problems. It got to the point where I even considered hunting them down just to get it over with, but that would have been suicidal and foolhardy, and I resisted the urge.
I suppose even my subconscious got tired of my fretting, because it was just before noon when I got hit with a vision.
I was James Cross. Eleven years old. I knew my… his whole life. I was James Cross.
We were on a camping trip with a few of my friends and hiking out in the wilderness. Carl’s father had told us not to go far, but we were having fun, an adventure. Until I slipped and fell, and rolled down a hill into the rocks. I screamed as my leg broke…
I looked up at the rising sun, long ago having lost track of the time. Carl and my other friends had gone back to the campsite to get help, but they’d never come back. I felt hot, and hungry. My mouth was dry and dusty…
I came out of the vision and I could still taste the grit in my mouth, and the helplessness as James Cross slowly died from exposure, and complications from a broken leg, six days, twelve hours, and forty-one minutes from now.
Sorcerer: Elemental: Power of Air (Book 5) Page 5