That sounded welcome. “I’ve never been much good at reading people.”
Tess nodded. “That was before. You’re becoming a new man. We’re going to ramp up your training to take advantage. Now that you can create a defense, we’ll focus on attack spells.”
We rode the rest of the way to the trailhead in silence. I couldn’t get past the realization that I had so much to learn. To her, I must’ve seemed like a baby—and her eagerness for more training told me babies didn’t last long in her world.
-o-o-o-
Brigid’s Community Ranch, Boulder County, Colorado
AFTER WE’D GROOMED THE horses and put them out to pasture, Tess and I met Laura on the patio. I explained my breakthrough with wards, and Laura insisted that I show her. Despite the craziness of a dozen kids zooming around us, I had no trouble conjuring a spell to protect myself.
The chuck of limestone was sitting on the table, but I hadn’t looked at it.
Laura was as supportive as ever. “Amazing! I can feel it. So strong and manly.”
Tess groaned. “As further training, I’m thinking of taking him to Desperado’s Hole.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You really think he’s ready?” Laura asked Tess.
She nodded. “It’s a seedy bar northeast of Boulder, in Longmont. That’s where the lowest grade of sorcerer scum tends to hang out. If we can find a suitable target, you’ll get great practice fighting. My dad told me about the place years ago, and I go by every so often to pick up a new slave for Diana.”
I marveled at her. “You drop by a derelict bar to goad a bad sorcerer into a fight?”
“Yeah.” She grinned. “Problem? I don’t make them battle me. I just offer some bait. They can’t seem to resist attacking women.”
“How do you know which ones are weaker?” I asked. “I’d love to kick a few sorcerers’ asses, but I’m not crazy about becoming a slave.”
She patted my arm. “I know. By the way, if you do lose a fight, you’re likely to be turned into a gladiator and forced to fight for your master. You’re the right size for the arenas.”
“Good to know, but you didn’t answer my question.”
“It’s easy to spot the weaker ones. It’s a sixth sense you’ll develop. Part of that insight we talked about. Are you interested?”
I had to trust her. “Yep, definitely.”
“We’ll try a little bareknuckle sparring in the training room to see if you’re ready for a street fight. These jerks don’t follow the Marquis of Queensberry rules.”
I hadn’t been in a fistfight since elementary school, but she didn’t need to know that.
In the training room, Tess began the lesson by giving me a couple of bare-knuckled shots to the face. I quickly learned to keep my hands up. And, just like fighting with staffs, I had to keep my feet moving.
After a half-hour, she said, “You’re not great, but neither are these bastards. You know enough to beat some of them.”
“Gosh, I’m all giddy inside. That extravagant praise has gone to my head.”
She boxed my left ear in. “That should reduce your swollen head.”
-o-o-o-
Desperado’s Hole Cantina, Longmont, Colorado
TESS AND I WERE sitting in a car with tinted windows two hundred feet from the entrance to the bar, waiting. A couple of men came and went, but she wasn’t interested in them. She kept saying, “I want to be sure you can beat the bastard.”
Finally, a twenty-something guy with a crewcut and several tattoos on his face strode out the door and headed toward the parking lot. He was carrying a staff seven feet long.
“Try him on for size,” Tess said. “Remember to start calm and visualize Carter Pass to create your ward. Then get pissed so you’re ready for a good stun, and punch his lights out every chance you get. If he does by some chance beat you, I’ll take him on and get you out of slavery. I hope.”
With that less-than-stirring sendoff, I grabbed my staff from the back seat and exited the car.
Before I’d made it five steps toward him, he stared at me.
“Hey, prick,” I said. “Your kind isn’t welcome here anymore.”
He leered back, a twisted grin covering his barbaric face.
Are those prison tats?
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my skin crawled. Something was definitely not right about this weirdo. I brought up my memory of Sheriff Cantor to get a good mad going.
The sorcerer swerved to close in on me. “Run, pussy,” he said, “or you’re toast.”
I held my staff in front of me, and it vibrated. It was definitely up for a battle.
Before I could come up with a good comeback, he said, “I challenge you for magical power.” Then he froze in place.
Someone walked past us in the parking lot but didn’t seem to notice either of us.
What next? I stood erect and braced myself. Fight smart. This asshole was going to regret taking me on. I remembered standing on the wall at Carter Pass and thought, Holar, protège.
The ward formed around me.
When he flinched, a low buzzing sound started. I went for full fury. “Hey, piece of shit, somebody needs to teach you all a lesson!”
My magical core filled the center of my mind. It pulsed like mad, and I churned up all my anger, letting it swirl in my head. Time to make him pay for the sins of all of his kind.
I pointed the top of my staff at him and screamed, “HOLAN, ASSOMME!”
At almost the same instant, he yelled back in a guttural language I didn’t understand.
Too late, I realized I’d mispronounced Holar’s name, but a jolt of energy still burst from my staff. The force of the spell rocked me backwards, as if I’d fired my dad’s .44 Magnum revolver. But I kept my balance by leaning against the side of a bus stop shed.
A stream of what looked like red lightning flowed from his right hand. It hissed as it hit my ward and surrounded me. Acrid smoke formed, but my protection seemed to hold.
The sorcerer screamed as my shot hit his ward, and part of the electricity got through. His body convulsed once and went rigid. His mouth stayed open, and his face turned white. This jerk wouldn’t fight witches anymore!
I sucked in a deep breath and tried to remember what to do next. Tess had said something about punching his lights out.
The sorcerer’s body jerked back to life. His mouth closed with his lips protruding, like a carp’s. A guttural scream exploded out of him. He was shaking off my spell and ran behind a red minivan.
His right hand came around the front of the windshield to point at me, and I knew what that meant. No way was I giving him a second chance at me. I backed up to keep the minivan between us.
It worked, but I wasn’t going to win by hiding. So I took a few seconds to reform my ward before letting him come into sight again.
He seemed to realize my plan because he waited for a couple with a stroller to walk by, and then he kept them between us. They chatted with each other about some party coming up, and he kept circling them to stay out of my line of fire.
What a cowardly chickenshit!
The couple walked for at least fifty yards before they came to the door of a Mexican restaurant. As they entered, they passed a large man coming out. No room for the sorcerer to squeeze in between, so I caught him and grabbed his arm. Then I flung him sideways onto the sidewalk.
Before he could get up, I hit him in the face with the end of my staff.
The asshole’s arms flailed in the air, trying to block another blow. I dropped my weapon and punched with both fists. The sorcerer’s eyes seemed to bulge out as I pounded him.
He scrambled, trying to get around two men walking by on the sidewalk as though we weren’t beating the hell out of each other.
I grabbed him by one leg of his pants to keep him close. He spun on me, kicking at my head. The dude got in a few good licks in, but I was too mad to ca
re—until he flattened my nose.
Blood gushed out, but I fought through the pain. I kicked him with full force in his crotch, and his whole body shuddered as he screamed. Then he rolled on the pavement, moaning.
His foot smeared blood from my nose across my face into my eyes, blinding me. But nothing was going to stop me now, though. I kicked harder at the spot where his head should be.
I hit something bigger, probably his chest, and now I could tell where he was, and I drove my knee hard against his groin.
Something cracked, and he howled.
“Bet that hurt!”
He kept screaming but didn’t give up.
Still mostly blind, I felt for his torso and twisted around. His fists pounded me in the chest, but he didn’t reach my face. I used both my hands to knock his head against the asphalt, but my reach wasn’t long enough.
With his left arm, he rolled me over.
I hit a light pole or something of that kind with my kneecap, and a stabbing pain shot down my leg. That really pissed me off.
Enough with the screwing around! With my right hand, I reached for his head and caught the side of it as I yelled, “HOLAR, ASSOMME!”
A bolt of electricity ran up my arm, straight into him. He convulsed several times, but then lay motionless.
The buzzing stopped.
Chapter 13
I DREW IN SEVERAL deep breaths, suddenly on the edge of passing out myself. What little blood that wasn’t pissing out of my nose was pounding in my ears like beating drums.
When my head cleared, Tess was wiping blood out of my eyes.
She cleaned me up, and I glanced around. Nobody else came by. I knelt over the inert sorcerer.
Tess kicked his foot to get a reaction and then his head. Nothing happened.
I kept gasping for air and wondered, if he woke up, could he fight again? I really needed to learn the damned rules for this business.
Tess gave me a huge grin. “Fantastic win! I’ll run for the car.
Lucky for us, nobody walked by to see two thugs lounging on the sidewalk. She pulled the car up next to us and picked up both staffs.
I carried the unconscious sorcerer over my shoulder and shoved him into the car’s back seat on top of a tarp she laid down to keep him from messing up the upholstery. Then I sat next to him, my nose still dripping with blood. Tess tore out of there, and I rolled down my window to get some air.
She parked again a mile away in an empty lot next to a vacant store.
“He’s still out cold,” I said.
“Check to make sure he’s breathing.”
For the next few seconds, I worried that I might’ve killed him. I would have been happy to rip Cantor’s head off, or Escobar’s but this asshole was different. He hadn’t murdered anyone—not that I knew of, anyway.
He blinked a couple of times.
“Yep, still ticking.”
“Do you think you can wait for a half-hour for medical help?” I asked.
“Yes, Master.”
Tess said, “Do you remember the magic words? You’ll receive all the power both of you had at the start of the fight, so now you’ll be much stronger.”
I remembered the right phrase and turned to look at the barely conscious sorcerer. “I claim the spoils of victory.”
Once again, a blast of heat rushed through me as I received all his magic, and I felt perfectly at peace. Such sweet joy. Now I’d be able to use this power for good instead of evil.
After savoring the feeling for a minute, I leaned back in the seat.
Tess turned around and handed me a rag and a bottle of water. “You’d better wipe your face more. You’re a mess.”
As I finished cleaning up, I heard a mewing sound off to the side. A small kitten was approaching our car from behind a pile of trash. His dark gray coat was matted and covered with dirt. He ran up to me, and, as he got closer, I realized that he smelled like rotting garbage. His dull blue eyes stared into mine, almost hopeless.
I knew it was stupid, but I opened the door and picked him up. He mewed several more times.
Then I realized he wasn’t a kitten. He was a full-grown teacup cat who’d apparently gone feral. I wasn’t sure what to do with him, but at least I could wash him and maybe fix his broken tail.
When I turned to sit facing forward again, Tess asked, “What the hell is that? It stinks.”
I checked to make sure he was a male. “It’s a he, and he needs help. I’m not leaving him here to starve or get chomped on.”
“You’re not the kind who’s constantly picking up strays, are you?”
I couldn’t help but grin. “That’s me. If you don’t like the smell, open your window.”
She headed back to the ranch with her window rolled down.
“I’m sure he’s a great little guy when he’s clean,” I said.
Her only reply was, “Call Laura and tell her we have incoming.”
I did, and I explained that I’d won my latest fight.
Laura said, “Congratulations. I wasn’t sure about Tess’s idea, but wow! Are you okay?”
“I took a pretty hard shot to the nose,” I said. “He’s not too frisky, either. Could you look at both of us?”
“Happy to,” she replied.
The cat curled up on my lap and purred loudly. He probably hadn’t received any human kindness for a long time.
Thinking ahead, I asked Laura, “Do you have a blow dryer I could borrow?”
“Of course. Why?”
I told her about the cat and his stench. “Once I’ve cleaned him up, you’ll see what a handsome little devil he is.”
“I already believe the devil part,” she replied and hung up.
-o-o-o-
WHEN WE GOT TO the garage, a small group, including Laura and Amber, was there to greet us. I went through the routine of turning my slave over to Amber. Laura cast a few healing spells to ease the worst of his injuries, and then Diana’s assistant led him away.
Laura spent more time working on me, particularly my nose and knee. I then took off my blood-soaked shirt, and she healed my bruises.
When I felt as good as new, Laura asked me, “What’s that terrible smell?”
I pointed at the cat sleeping on the tarp covering the back seat. “I have a new buddy, a stray. He needs a bath.”
Laura patted me on the back. “I’ll say. Do that next.” She handed me her keys so I could get her blow dryer.
I hurried through the commons and passed through to the dining hall. People were already celebrating in the lounge area. A cheer rose up, and I waved to everyone, still half-naked. “Be right back!”
In my apartment, I ran warm water in the bathroom sink and half-filled it. I was worried that he might hate water, so I set the cat in gently.
No problem. I thoroughly soaped his coat and rinsed him off. That got rid of the stink, but the bad news was, he was little more than skin and bones. No wonder his mews had been so pitiful.
I ran the blow dryer over him. His coat fluffed up beautifully. That concealed how gaunt he was, but I reminded myself to get him some food quickly.
He purred as I hurried back with him to the dining room. There, I grabbed a large plate for myself and a saucer so I could share with him. Plus a beer.
Laura had saved me a seat next to her in the lounge, and I kissed her on the cheek. “Doesn’t the cat look terrific now?”
Her forehead wrinkled, but she stuck out a finger to stroke his long, soft fur. “I hope you’re not thinking he’s living with us?”
She and I had been together for such a short time that we hadn’t sorted out who was living where.
“Aw, Mom, can’t I keep him? He won’t eat hardly anything. Christina will love him.”
Tess snickered.
Laura tried, with little success, to keep a grin off her face. “He’s all yours.”
I set the cat on the coffee table and put some food on his sauce
r. He ate voraciously.
Most of the people who came by ignored the animal and bombarded me with questions about the fight. I kept saying over and over, “Tess’s stunning spell worked great. She’s an incredible teacher.”
Luckily, I hadn’t freaked out like I’d half-expected. She’d made me practice enough that I could conjure spells quickly. I didn’t tell them that I’d screwed up Holar’s name, and nobody asked why I was too stupid to cast a spell properly.
Laura hugged me. “Tess says you were fantastic. You ran him over with your Corvette. Bastard didn’t know what hit him. Luckily, you got your ward up when you did. If his burning electricity had hit you, you would’ve been toast, literally.”
I nodded. “Tess picked the right target, and she gave me the right reminders.”
No doubt about it, Maggie had done me a huge favor by inviting Tess and Laura to meet me a week ago. “Can’t say enough good things about Maggie or our master of arms.”
-o-o-o-
AFTER MOST OF THE hubbub had died down, I whispered to Laura, “I’m still feeling uncomfortable about this whole slavery business. Sorcerers deserve to be punished, but I’m not sure if the guy I just fought deserves life in prison at hard labor.”
She shook her head. “Who said he’s here for life? The council decides the length of each slave’s sentence, and they take everything into consideration. Plus, it’s not your problem. After you give him to Diana, she’ll take care of all the muss and fuss. Your hands can stay all pure and holy. By the way, I think the Indians on the Great Plains owned slaves they collected during their various war parties. I expect some Oklahoma pioneers probably owned Indian slaves, too, not so long ago.”
That all might have been true, but that didn’t make it right. On the other hand, it sounded like the sorcerers I’d enslaved would get some kind of due process. Which was a helluva lot more than they probably gave to the witches they beat.
I seem to be surrounded by people who seemed delighted by every word I said. How quickly the crowd’s feelings changed. Some of them mentioned how much they liked the cat. I agreed that he was quite the guy.
When Tess got up to get another drink, I followed her.
“What’s the deal now on the Warrior’s Kiss?”
Lone Survivor: The Sorcerers' Scourge Series: Book One Page 14