She ignored that, and said, “I think I’ve decided to look into IT security classes for college. It’s pretty important for us to stay hidden, last thing we need is to get hacked by some human, and my mom’s been teaching me some things.”
Wow, didn’t see that coming. She’ll be the sexiest computer geek ever.
I nodded, “You do that, I’ll cover the business side.”
She asked, “How many kids do you want?”
Deep subject, I guess our relationship really had advanced.
“What were you thinking.”
She pouted up at me, “I asked you first.”
I smiled and replied, “Two or three?”
She nodded in agreement, “More than one for sure, we can see after that what we want to do. I want a bigger family, but might change my mind after two.”
“Tom!” I heard George’s voice call out.
Serena and I stopped and looked in that direction, and saw George approaching. He was with a woman I’d never met, maybe his girlfriend? I supposed it didn’t matter.
George asked, “Where have you been, I was starting to wonder if you’d disappeared.”
I felt immediately guilty, I should’ve at least left a note I wouldn’t be around.
Serena said, “He’s living with me for now.”
George’s eyes widened a bit at that as he looked at her, and Serena blushed as she realized what she’d just implied. She also didn’t bother to correct his misperception.
“Serena, this is my dorm mate George. George, my girlfriend Serena.”
George said, “Nice to meet you, this is Tina, we’ve been seeing each other a while now.”
Tina was a cute and petite brunette. She nodded with a smile in greeting, as she hung on George’s arm.
We chatted few more minutes about nothing in particular until they made their excuses, and headed off for some party.
“Living with you huh?”
She giggled, “Shut up.”
I laughed, and said, “Yes maam.”
She pinched me, and then squeezed my hand.
I changed the subject, “I know we have to patrol, to keep humans safe and all, but I feel like we’re sticking our necks out for the Fae’s assassins.”
She nodded, “That’s why we work so hard, and let our elders torture us.”
“You mean train.”
She smirked, “Train, torture, it’s all the same.”
She had a good point there.
“So, careers, and children, anything else of import on your mind?”
She shrugged, “We have where we’re going to live figured out, it’ll be a long time before things get to the point we can move out of headquarters, if ever.”
That was true enough. A lot of serious decisions that human couples had to go through were already made for us through circumstance. I almost told her then, how I felt, but decided a date rather than on patrol would be better. I didn’t want to just throw it out there haphazardly, I wanted the first time I said it to be a memorable and sweet moment for us both. While we were on patrol, we had to stay alert and watchful anyway.
So, I either had a romantic streak, or maybe I was just chicken.
No, I’m pretty sure it was the first one. We were having a good time together but patrolling among a bunch of party minded college kids, while staying alert for supernatural problems, was not a romantic atmosphere.
The moon rose in the sky and the college students thinned out as the chill night breeze took over from the warmth of the sunny cool day. I was more than warm enough, in the long leather coat, and walking closely with Serena. The later in the evening it got, the tenser and more focused on our surroundings we became.
I imagined after two failures, the Fae weren’t happy and probably getting impatient. We couldn’t prove it was them of course, but despite the unlikelihood of them sending an insane necromancer I thought it wasn’t all that paranoid to think it was them. It also meant I wasn’t ruling anything out, if they had contact with rogues to our society in some way, that wasn’t a good thing.
Serena said, “Maybe they’re waiting to ambush us on the way back to headquarters.”
I nodded, “If there is something tonight, I’d have to agree. Also, not another necromancer, they wouldn’t bother avoiding the crowds.”
Serena smirked, “So rogue shifter, witch, or half-demon then?”
I nodded, “Doesn’t narrow it down much but… it could also be an actual Fae. Have you ever met one?”
Serena shook her head, “They avoid the cities, and outside of our trip to the forest Tuesday night I’ve never left Chicago.”
I nodded, “I never left my small town until I came to college here either. One day we’ll travel.”
Serena raised an eyebrow.
“We’ll make demands of the council, play nice with necromancers, and better vacation opportunities.”
Serena snickered, “That would be nice, see to it.”
I smirked down at her, “I will. Besides wanting to see us both on a beach relaxing, and in a tropical climate, the Blood leadership needs to loosen their leash on the rest of us. Necromancers may be in hiding, but they’re living like humans, and they won’t be thrilled living in a bunker, even if it’s a nice one. Everything will change, eventually. Except maybe, that we’ll still have rogues of all the races to deal with.”
Serena nodded thoughtfully, “It’s… intimidating. At the same time, I can’t wait, for everything.”
She got on her tip toes and stole a kiss, and I held her for a moment, then we turned toward headquarters to start the trek home.
Home? Is that how I thought of the place now? Or is that how I thought about Serena?
After we left the main part of campus, she released my hand and we both unbuttoned our coats, just the two buttons near our waist to give us better access to our swords. Better safe than sorry, and we could afford to look a little out of place and conspicuous without a crowd around us.
When the attack came, it arrived quickly. I felt three different types of magic at once.
“Witch, half-demon, and something I haven’t felt before, about twenty yards up and to the right.”
There was an unlit building there, and not a human in sight.
I strengthened my shield, increasing the flow of power around me, and also embraced Serena with a shield of death magic to keep us safe. Our bond felt good, as the power ran both ways, making me tingle. It also kept the fear at bay, so I was sharp, focused, and ready as I slid the sword out of my sheath.
Serena said, “The third one could be a demon, I think you’ve met everything else there is, unless it’s a Fae?”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side, “Don’t get too close to trees.”
Remembering what Jo did in the forest, I didn’t argue. Anything living could be a weapon in the hands of a witch, including us which is why I was shielding so hard.
An eight foot being walked out of the alley, it had alabaster skin, and red hair on its body, head, and face. The claws were twice as large as a half-demon’s claws, and its face was rather angular and alien looking. This was a demon?
My second immediate thought was, rogue dark witches got busy with these things?
That… was a serious craving for power, and… disgusting.
Lightning shot down from the top of the two-story building, as the large demon charged. I hadn’t realized the half-demon was at altitude, and we still hadn’t seen the witch as we dodged at least part of the lightning, my shields attenuated the rest of it.
The large demon moved faster than I expected, his giant hand slapped away my sloppy swing with the sword, and then backhanded me which sent me flying. So not good. I landed on my back and rolled, pushing up with one hand and using the momentum to spring up in a backflip to my feet. My head felt like it’d been smashed with a metal bat, and my shoulder hurt.
Serena yelled, “Distract him,” and ran off into the alley.
Right, distract him. I had n
o idea what her plan was, but I trusted her with my life. I reached down to my boot and pulled my dagger with my left hand, and then had to dodge and roll to the side to avoid the demon’s charge. Clearly, demons didn’t believe in anything but brute force, but I had to say it was working for him, as I rolled to my feet only to dodge a clawed kick from hell. Quite possibly literally from hell.
His magic was extremely strong, but so far he hadn’t used it. I managed a few swings at the bastard, but he just slapped them away. I was sure it was more to do with my inexperience than his prowess against a man with a sword, killing vampires hadn’t been hard because all I’d had to do was point the thing or swing it like a bat. That wasn’t going to work here.
The whole time, I’d also been dodging lightning bolts. So far as I could tell, the witch hadn’t done shit yet.
He was predictable though, and the next time I swung, and he knocked the sword away as expected, I ducked under his backhand and slashed his gut with the silver dagger. His roar of pain made me feel flush with success, for about a half a second, then his clawed foot nailed my stomach and sent me flying again. If it hadn’t been for the thick leather jacket, I’d have probably been disemboweled.
And then my back hit. Unfortunately, not the ground, the damned tree. I felt the witches power flow and tried to lunge out from under it, but my feet were grabbed by roots. I was so screwed, and about to become the demon’s stationary punching bag.
Wait, no I wasn’t. I was an idiot.
The demon was closing, and I fed the roots around my feet my magic, which caused them to die, dry out, and turn brittle. The roots cracked and broke apart as I jumped to the side as powerfully as I could, to dodge the demon.
A moment later I heard a shrill feminine scream which drew both my and the demon’s gazes toward the alley next to the building. The witches magic disappeared from my senses. The demon roared in anger and hate, and then exploded in fire. I ducked and covered my face, a little singed but mostly unharmed behind my magic. My eyes watered as I wondered just what the hell had happened.
But, the scream of rage and lightning from the roof woke me up to the fact the fight wasn’t over yet. I returned the favor with a piton of death magic, which failed to penetrate the half-demon’s coruscating lightning shield. I looked around and couldn’t see a way up there, so I ran for the alley. I sighed as I saw a fire escape, which Serena was already halfway up. I hurried to catch her, put up my dagger for the moment for a free hand, and jumped up to grab the ladder.
I climbed, and had barely started when Serena was already leaping up to the roof. I went faster. I felt lightning against my magic surrounding Serena, and pushed more energy through the bond and into the shield. I was just climbing up the last few rungs when I felt the half demon die.
I jumped up onto the roof, to see Serena smirking at me.
“Slow night Tom? I got all three.”
She sounded so smug, that I started to laugh, and once I started I couldn’t stop. She giggled in return, and that led to a laugh as well. Soon we were both howling with laughter, so much that we had to sit down.
We were both a little crazy, silly, and very happy to be alive. I pulled her over into my lap, and we looked up in the sky and enjoyed the view for a while, as the laughter slowly died down. Finally, I claimed a long tender kiss.
“Who’s the greedy one?”
Serena giggled, and raised her hand.
“So, you got all three? I held back the demon, mostly by running away by the way.”
Serena smirked, “Demons don’t belong here. If the witch that summoned it dies, it gets banished back to hell. That’s why it exploded, it exploded right?”
I nodded, “Yes, thanks for the warning.”
I snuck my hands around her waist, and tickled her.
She started to squirm and tried to escape, but I wrapped my legs around her.
She shrieked with laughter, and the squirming was a lot of fun too, but it set my laughter back off which let her escape.
She glared at me, but the effect was ruined by her flushed cheeks, and her smoldering eyes.
I teased, “Maybe a warning next time? I’m lucky to still have eyebrows.”
She snickered, and warily sat back down and leaned against my chest.
“I thought you knew, dad should have covered that in one of your lessons.”
Oh, well I suppose that was okay then.
I wrapped my arms around her again, and she tensed at first, but settled when I didn’t tickle her. She sighed in pleasure, tilted her head to give me greater access, and melted back against me, when I started to kiss the side of her neck from behind.
I stopped, before I drove us both too crazy, and we watched the night sky for a while. Eventually though, we got up and headed back home…
Chapter Twelve
Sword boot camp was fun, but a hell of a lot of work.
The first day there was no sparring at all, and the first two hours was all about how to care for a blade. Never mind that the enchanted silver swords would never lose their edges, never need to be sharpened, or never be wiped down and oiled, or really anything else. Didn’t matter, Timothy taught us how to take care of swords which included all of the above.
The rest of that Saturday, or most of it, we learned all the basic sword movements, stances, and foot work. How to hold our bodies, from our heads to our feet for each sword movement. We were taught how to properly parry or block a strike from the sides of the sword rather than the edge, and how to stay balanced and never overextend. The sword needed to be included in our bodies center of gravity at all times, and treated as an extension of our bodies. Off balance meant dead in most cases, so it was a good lesson to learn.
With our proprioception, it didn’t take long for our bodies to master the simple movements.
The last couple of hours of the first day he taught us which movements lent itself to flow into which other movements, which was a bit more complicated, there were several movements for each movement, and then we did the same for blocking and parrying, as he explained what movements were best, to either return to a guarded position, or to counterattack. Of course, that depended on the parry, block, and where they happened, and what movement the attacker had been using.
A relatively short list of basic sword movements, became a combination and flowing attack and defense movements of almost infinite variety. I realized quite quickly it would take a lot of practice, and a lot of experience, to get where we needed to be.
That Saturday night, there were no normal rogues or assassins, although we both felt a little more confident about the weapons we carried, no one challenged us.
Sunday, Timothy broke out the practice swords, and Leda joined us. She faced off with me, while Timothy faced Serena, and they pushed us hard to see how well we’d absorbed the intense lesson of Saturday. It was a lot of fun, but it was hard, and Leda made sure I knew it when I made an error. I lost count of the times she’d whapped me somewhere with her wooden sword to teach me a lesson. I was thankful we were using wooden practice swords, but those things still hurt, they just didn’t cut off limbs.
Both of us increased in speed and confidence as the day wore on, and as usual Timothy had heartwarming words of support and encouragement at the end of it. We naturally basked in his effusive praise.
Timothy said, “Adequate, barely, for a ten-year-old. At least you won’t cut off your own legs now, and you could probably fight your way out of a wet paper bag. You’ll need a lot more practice and experience, I’d suggest adding it to your afternoon sparring workouts.”
Right, did I say encouraging? There was nothing quite like a reality check from Timothy.
My body was sore and bruised all over that night from the sparring, as Serena and I patrolled. Nothing happened that night either, and I wondered if Fae assassins took off weekends, or if they’d just run out of nearby resources to send against us. Or maybe they were trying to decide what to do next, after failing three times in a row. Either wa
y, it was a pretty quiet weekend outside of the sword boot camp…
“Hi Tom.”
“Happy Monday Jo.”
She looked at me suspiciously. I suppose I couldn’t blame her. Who said that?
“Just in a good mood, how was your weekend?”
She smiled, “Good.”
I asked, “Have you ever considered what a witch and necromancer might do in concert?”
Jo narrowed her eyes in thought, “No. But I will be now.”
We continued the small talk, and even limited banter until the professor came in. Being friends with jo, at arms length, would be interesting. Neither of us said anything of worth though, she wasn’t talking about her coven and what they were up to, and I wasn’t spilling any beans either.
Still, I kind of liked her. She was opportunistic, a bit mercenary, but she was honest about it. No one was perfect after all, and beneath that she was rather kind. We’d never be close friends, but we were friends and respected each other. Either way, I’d take it.
Her sitting next to me and chatting, also brought Matt and Christina into my thoughts. They were still in NYC as far as I knew, and I truly wished them well. They were in the muck, and stuck together, but I hoped they both crawled out of it. I… forgave them both, I wouldn’t trust them again, not easily, but I let it go.
Honestly, it was kind of simple, and easy to do. I just let it go. I wasn’t one to hold a grudge, and in the end not forgiving would only make me miserable. Which would be stupid. It also got rid of some of the reservations with Serena that had been holding me back. I hadn’t thought it fair, or wise, to let things grow too serious between us when I still had emotional issues about Christina. Things had gotten more serious much faster than I intended anyway, but at least that perceived roadblock was now gone. Now when I thought about Christina’s face, about her, all I felt was faint regret, and some compassion for the hole she’d dug herself into.
After class, I headed back to headquarters where Leda gathered us all together for updates…
Leda said, “We’re at eighty percent of the Blood locations being secretly in the know. The last twenty percent should all see your debriefing by lunch tomorrow. The council is still deadlocked, the Shifters and Fae firmly on opposite sides, while the Witches and Blood waffle back and forth like a ship in the ocean.”
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