I thought about that for a second, and it made sense. If I had anchored to the spiritual plane as a child, I might have just followed that sense of peace to my death. I had lacked discipline, and perspective. Since I’d been too young to handle it, I could only use my magic out there in the forest, where the human souls wouldn’t drag my mind into chaos without that anchor.
Suddenly I felt a lot better about being here in the city, I truly didn’t belong in the forest anymore. Not that I wouldn’t go for a visit, if only to change and hunt on occasion in my true form, and enjoy a little peace from time to time.
I replied, “I do understand. Thanks.”
I finished up my last few bites, and got up to return my tray and plates. I wanted to think positively as I followed Melody to the elevator, which we took up to the third floor. Seemed earth sorcerers don’t like using stairs. Point was, I had a bad feeling about what she had to tell me, and why shouldn’t I, I’d gotten a lot of crap, along with a lot of crappy news the last three days.
Barely over a hundred, and I was already turning into a cynic.
She led me through the desks on the third floor, and I paid more attention to the people around me this time. I saw Daniel and gave him a nod, I also picked out Ethel who was ignoring me so hard it was obvious she was snubbing me. There were just ten other people down here.
Then we were passed, and Melody took me into a conference room and closed the door. I could immediately tell it was soundproofed, even for vampire hearing.
We took a seat across from each other, “What’s up?” I asked cautiously.
Melody sighed, “Normally I wouldn’t get involved, but I owe your mother this much. You said your father died in an accident, and your mother just left you and followed him. Were you being honest, is that what you believe?”
I frowned and crossed my arms, “It’s not what I think, I was there, it’s what I know.”
She raised an eyebrow, “Really, so you read your father’s soul then?”
I shook my head, “I left it for my mother to do. She was his mate.”
She looked me in the eye, “And she gave up and died while you slept. Let me ask you something, her aura of power, her shields were all over the place right, and so were yours?”
I shrugged, “So?” I said with a little attitude, “We were grieving. So yes.”
Melody said, “I’m sorry, but you should know. You felt your uncle last night.”
I gaped, a third time for this morning, “No I don’t have an uncle.”
Melody gave me a look, “Yes you do.”
“Where is he? Why don’t I know about him?”
Melody gave me a look of pity, and I trembled, I didn’t want to hear this.
“Your mother was fairly young, just five hundred when she died. Did you ever wonder why she moved to the west coast? Did you ever wonder where your grandparents were?”
I shook my head.
She continued, “Her brother, your uncle turned against Inari and the tenets. He left home and did whatever he wanted. Abused people, used his power to gain wealth and manipulate people. Eventually he got paranoid, afraid his parents would hunt him down and stop him as they should have but didn’t, so he snuck home and killed them. Killed his own parents, your grandparents, in the middle of the night as they slept.
“Your mother fled, went west where we met. I found out about the tenets simply because she needed someone to talk to about what happened. She should have killed him, but she loved him as your grandparents did, he was her brother, and she fled instead of staying to hunt him down and fight. Eventually, she moved passed it, got passed the guilt, and then met your father.”
“Why are you telling me this?” my voice was empty, I felt like sobbing, but my face was dry. It was too much, too much had happened the last three days. I didn’t know what to do with this information.
“Do you know anything about the elemental power of earth?” she asked.
I shook my head, “Outside of manipulating dirt, rocks, the ground, not really.”
She took a deep breath, “Air gets its information from the ether, that contains a kind of… combined memory of what everyone currently living knows. I know spirit as well, from your mother, you get your information from one soul at a time. If you want to learn surgery, you find a surgeon and read his soul. Earth magic is different, we get our information from locations. We take the memories from the very earth where it happened, not from a person, or a soul.
“For instance, I know what you had for dinner last night, and where you sat in the cafeteria. The concrete floor in the floor below us holds a record of everyone that ate in that dining room since the building was built.”
She paused a moment, allowing me to process that information.
“I’m sorry Miku, but when you said your mother abandoned you, I went to the cabin. I didn’t believe it of her, I knew she would have given up everything else before she gave up you. She didn’t abandon you, and your father’s death was no accident. Your uncle killed them, and I don’t know why he left you alive.”
I shook my head again, denial was failing me though, I knew she wasn’t lying, and my voice cracked, “How?”
Melody took a sip of coffee, her eyes were miles away, and I wondered what thought had pulled her away. I had never known my mother as a woman, not really, just as a parent, and I felt suddenly jealous of this woman that sat across from me.
“Your uncle, Jiro, he manipulated your father from a distance, made him lose control of his body and fall. When your mother found him, she lost it, as you said, her shields were shot. Jiro… took advantage of that. He was in fact, counting on it happening. The stones tell me he killed her, as to how I can only guess, the stone doesn’t record spirit magic. Most likely he breached her shields, and while you thought she was catatonic, she was probably fighting for her life.”
I shuddered and the tears finally came. My mother hadn’t left me, it was all my fault, I’d failed her. Somehow my uncle had killed her while I’d been watching over her. All I’d have had to do was reach out and touch her soul myself, and I’d have known what was happening. Of course, I’d been told not to ever read her, had it drummed into me. Still, I should’ve ignored that, I should have known it was more than my father’s death.
“Where is he?” my normally soft pleasant voice sounded like grinding gravel.
She shook her head, “You can’t. I’m not even sure your mother at her best could have taken him down. That he struck her at a time of weakness shows his cowardice more than his lack of power. You need to grow. Besides, he left the city last night, I have no idea where he went.”
My body went limp in the chair as I separated from it. Spirit walking was fairly easy, although I didn’t do it often. I also had my full power this way, since my power was the element of spirit. I sped through the walls and around the city, not wishing to believe he was out of my reach. I searched the city in seconds, as fast as a thought my spirit moved through up and down the streets like a mile-wide spotlight. But no other spirit sorcerer was present in Seattle. I returned to my body with a thought, and gasped a breath of air.
I nodded angrily, “He’s gone. Why let me live? That makes no sense.”
She shrugged, “Who knows how people like that think. Maybe he’s lonely, and you’re his last family member. Could be he wants you to be like him?”
I gasped out, “That’s insane!”
She nodded, “I believe that was our point. He’s nuts. I’m sorry for bringing you such news but felt you ought to know. If you want to talk about it, or your mother, I’ll be around.”
She got up and left, I stayed for a while longer trying to pull myself together. The news wasn’t all bad, it had a bittersweet flavor to it. My mother hadn’t just left me after all, not on purpose anyway. It was a small comfort, but it meant everything to me at that moment.
Chapter 16
The third floor was painfully boring.
This was where all the paperwork and book
keeping happened for all the businesses. Only the two night clubs, bar, and pool hall had a physical presence. The rest of the business was wall street trading, corporate real estate, banking, accounts payable and receivable for the businesses. The coven also owned non-controlling shares in hundreds of other companies. There was even a computer guru type guy that did all the websites.
Bartending was fun right? I’d get to meet new people… yeah, I wasn’t sure I bought that. Actually it didn’t sound that bad, I was just still in a funk from earlier. I was definitely leaning that way though, since office work definitely wasn’t holding any appeal to me. Eustice came in and I could tell he was in a bad mood too.
Misery loves company.
“What’s up Ice?”
Eustice grimaced, “The pool hall, there was a fight there, late last night. Some idiots broke the bar, knocked a hole in the wall, and cracked the large front window.”
I frowned, “I see? Does that happen a lot?”
He shook his head, “No, but now I have to go down there and deal with mutts.”
I tilted my head, “Mutts?”
He sighed, “Yeah, damned werewolves.”
I was lost, my mind wasn’t making the connection, “Why?”
He scowled and said reluctantly, “Because they’re the best damned contractors in the city. I’ll give them that much, damned mutts can build crap like no one else. It also helps that we don’t have to explain to some human how some skinny guy gouged wood out of a bar made of finished oak with his fingers.”
I don’t know why I said it. Maybe I liked to be kicked, maybe I wanted to torture myself with what I couldn’t have, maybe I was just a masochist, but it just slipped out, and rather eagerly at that.
“If you’re busy I could go, I just need to let them in right, and collect an estimate?”
I was so pathetic.
He smiled at me as if I’d invented sunglasses, and trust me that was high praise for a vampire. Sunglasses for the vampire race was the best invention since… ever. It was when the vampires were able to come out of the dark and live in the light of day again.
“Good, be there at two. I’ll have the security guys add your access to the building. There’s a thumb scanner on the back door,” he pulled me close and kissed my forehead, “You are the best,” and then he ran out of there before I could change my mind.
Crap. I sighed, I was such an idiot.
I ran out to a cell phone store, and picked up one of the iPhones, just so I’d have a phone number. I worried that my future not mate wouldn’t even show up, it was a big pack after all, but just in case he was there, and didn’t spit on me in disgust, I was prepared. Actually, I was kind of pathetic, and grew a little manic. By the time one in the afternoon rolled around, my bed was covered by clothes I’d tried on and rejected.
I knew it was impossible, might as well be the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, but a part of me built up hope anyway. I was such a fool.
However, I’d finally decided on a pair of jean shorts, a clingy light pink tee, and a pair of casual open toed sandals. It wasn’t professional, but then I’d seen how they dressed the other day, they were contractors, so not in suits. I took a deep breath, and went downstairs to eat. I was able to finish about half my meal, and luckily no one else was around this late to see my freak out. Then I got out of there.
Billiards and Beer. I know, it was descriptive, but a terrible name for a pool hall. But then what did I know, I grew up in a forest, and was a three-day old baby vamp in the big city for the first time. Really, I wasn’t ignorant, I’d been around a long while and knew how things worked. We’d even had internet out there in the cabin, and my mother had a hundred years to teach me. That was a lot of learning.
Just not… about dealing with people. For all I knew, it was brilliant advertising. I walked around back and my thumb opened the door as promised. The smell of stale beer and other alcohol made me feel a little queasy after last night, but I fought it off. It was a few minutes to two, so I went ahead and unlocked the front door.
I felt the three of them as they pulled in, their souls. The same ones from before, at the restaurant that Lisa showed me last night. I felt excited, and not a little sick to my stomach, all at the same time.
I closed my eyes and took another deep breath and calmed down, or tried to at least. They were here for an estimate for repair work, and I was acting like it was my first date. Really, I knew it was absurd, but it was hard.
I used to dream about meeting my soul mate, but I knew this would be more nightmare than dream. Still, I had to know. My chest started to hurt and I gasped in a breath. Right, breathing, important. I gave a moment’s thought to grounding to the spiritual plane to calm myself, but that seemed like an amazingly bad idea. It would be dangerous to use it as a crutch except for when I used my full power in the mortal plane.
The door banged twice, and then pulled open. Three of the biggest men I’d ever seen walked in. They were all tall, broad, and had amazing muscular definition, at least, as much of it as I could see. I looked at the one that should have been mine, he was six foot three, strong jaw, short black hair, and blue eyes. Right, talking. I should be doing that.
“I’m Miku…”
His voice was deep, “Jared. This is,” he hit the guy on the right with brown hair and eyes, “my beta, Ted. And this guy here is my wet nurse, Bob.”
His beta? Inari save me, my soul mate was the alpha. Wait, wet nurse? Bob was even taller, at least six foot four, maybe five.
Bob growled, “Don’t call me that.”
Jared shrugged, “He never lets me go anywhere without him. So what’s the damage?”
Oh, probably his enforcer then, protector.
“The large window is cracked, over there by the bar… hmm. There’s a hole in the wall somewhere, I haven’t seen it yet.”
Jared turned toward the large window next to the door and took a look. Bob didn’t take his eyes off me, like I might be rabid and attack his alpha at any moment, and Ted had a look of distaste in his eyes. Well, it was going better than I expected actually.
Jared shook his head, “That’s a loss, it’ll have to replaced,” he started walking toward the bar.
I followed him, along with Bob, and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought that Bob would’ve come along even if it had been a date, that must be awkward. I looked around and spotted the hole in the wall, Ted had gone that way and was examining it.
Bob rumbled, “You’ve got to be the smallest vampire I’ve ever seen.”
I glared, my nerves suddenly gone, “Well, you’re the biggest anything I’ve ever seen.”
Jared laughed, and it made me smile despite myself through my annoyance.
“This one’s got spunk Bob, better watch out.”
Jared examined the bar and said, “We’ll have to swap out this whole piece. Ted?”
Ted replied from across the room, “Simple fix on the wall, just some basic drywall repair.”
Jared nodded, “Alright, let Ice know I’ll email him an estimate, and when we can do it. I’ll have to build or order the bar piece; the window I might have in stock. I don’t need measurements; I have them from last time.”
Last time? Why was I not surprised?
He turned and looked at me with intense eyes, it made me feel like prey, it also made my stomach flutter. It took a concerted effort to keep my heart rate from running away. As it was, I was hoping he thought I was nervous. I really wasn’t, I was insanely attracted to him.
“Unless, am I dealing with you now? Should I send it to you?” he asked.
That was such a bad idea, not a chance I could put myself through this again. I’d just wanted to meet him.
Nope, never, not happening.
“Yes,” my mouth betrayed me.
I pulled out my phone and typed something out, “Number?”
He gave it to me, and I sent the text with my email address. Dear Inari, I was a masochist. Worse, being around him would sabotage any
efforts I could make to settle for someone else. Of course, how often would this even come up?
We said polite words as they left, except Ted couldn’t help but sneer as the empty words left his lips. As if I didn’t have enough problems. I almost collapsed as they left the building, and I was a little disgusted with myself, but also a little pleased. I locked the front door, the place was closed until four today, and I went back out the back door.
Now, I just had to explain to Eustice that I’d usurped part of his job. I wasn’t too worried he’d be upset, because from what I could tell he despised working with the pack.
Chapter 17
After getting back to the coven, I tracked down Eustice, then Daniel, and finally Karen who was in accounts payable to learn how things worked when dealing with the pack. I was right about Eustice, since he didn’t even question his good fortune at me taking over dealing with the mutts, as he called them. I also took the time to fill up my contacts on my phone with all of them, and Lisa.
Then I fortified myself and went down the hall. It was time to have that talk with Ceara. She’d given me a couple of days, and a new home. I hoped she wasn’t too disappointed I didn’t choose to be a guard. It was just something I couldn’t do. I’d tried to find a way to justify it, but I couldn’t. The tenets were strict, I couldn’t stretch coven into family, although it was very close it would still be sophistry to try.
The world was the way it was, and I couldn’t bend it into the shape I wished to see. I wouldn’t become like my uncle, the Nogitsune of legend, or what he was in truth, a rogue spirit sorcerer.
Lisa was outside the door and I smiled as I walked up.
“Hey, is now a good time?”
Lisa nodded and gave me a wink as she opened the door, and I walked in. Ceara was sitting on the same couch, and I went and joined her on the same couch I sat at last time. There was no one else in the room except one other guard. I knew she was trying to create a somewhat relaxed atmosphere, but it was so intense. The power just poured off the ancient vampire.
Spirit Sorceress: Spirit Sorceress: Book 1 Page 9