by Amber Lynn
After a few minutes, the vehicle came to a stop and I heard Liam putting it in park. I was so ready for a fight after how worked up the guys got me about Ettie. They only had to mention her name, and the fact that they were going to let her die, to get me in a fighting mode.
“What are you feeling, Liam?” Rick asked.
“We have a lot of our people around, so it interferes a little. I think there are five energy sources currently coming from inside,” he replied.
Joseph laughed. “The people in this car alone should be able to handle that. I would’ve thought they’d have come a little better equipped. Sorry, Avery dear, but I don’t think you’re going to be able to work out your aggressions with us just yet.”
There were times I broadcasted what I was feeling a little too much. I was stuck not being able to talk, so I couldn’t point out how brainless most of the warlocks we’d met were. It was like not only their souls were taken, but half of their I.Q.s went missing as well. I’d have to test my theory at some point.
I heard doors open and a couple of seconds later I was being shifted so Nate could carry me out bridal style. I did my best to make my limbs like noodles, and just flowed with his movements. It was really hard for me, when I loved being in control of everything.
“He said he’d be in the suite directly behind home plate, so start heading in that direction,” Nate instructed. “Keep us up-to-date on any movements, Liam. I don’t want any surprises while I’m carrying the precious cargo.”
“We have you covered, Nate, don’t worry,” I heard Elan tell him. “You just hold on tight to her and we’ll take care of the rest.”
It took a lot of walking, but we finally reached a stopping point. It could’ve been that Nate needed to rest after lugging me around, but I was hoping we were done walking. I decided that I hated not knowing where I was going. I’d been getting nauseous with my eyes closed while moving for so long.
“The five energy signals are inside this room,” Liam whispered. “I hate to say this, but I’m not picking up a human signature. I don’t think they have the girl with them.”
That made it sound like it was a wasted trip. It was just like a dang warlock to trick you into showing up on their playing field. Too bad they didn’t have enough mental capacity to use that to their advantage. At least they hadn’t in the past, there was always a chance it would be a first time.
“Maybe they’re masking her somehow,” Kyle said.
I liked where his mind was going. I really wanted to be able to find and rescue her without having to jump through a bunch of hoops. If we defeated the warlock, only to have to go find her in some hiding place, that could take a while.
“We aren’t getting any younger, let’s do this,” I broadcasted mentally to anyone who could hear me, hoping the warlock wasn’t in that list.
“Let’s go in,” Nate said, either tired of standing around himself, or actually following my command.
We started moving again, and I was still cursing the whole eyes closed thing. The curses got worse when I realized I could’ve tried looking out any of the guys’ eyes. I hated that I didn’t always immediately think to use my abilities. I zoned in on Nate, so I could see what was going on.
The guys fanned out to give us a visual of every square inch of the place. The suite we entered was pretty much what I expected. A nice climate controlled way to watch a baseball game. Personally, if I was going to a game, I wanted the full experience, and you can’t get that in a suite, so I wasn’t impressed. What most concerned me were the people standing across from us. I saw five people that match the energy signatures Liam picked up, and it was a little difficult to hold still based on what I saw.
“I take it there isn’t anyone here who needs rescued,” Nate said.
“It was a trap all along,” Rick said. “I knew we should’ve kept her home and safe. Believing a warlock is capable of keeping their word has to be one of the stupidest things we’ve done.”
“We would’ve come and retrieved her eventually,” the warlock standing in the middle of the group said. I recognized him from the arena, so I decided he was the leader.
“I highly doubt you would’ve gotten through our defenses,” Joseph said, taking pride in the army he’d helped build.
“Maybe not, but we couldn’t just leave her lying around forever, now could we. You had two months thanks to your negotiator and the fact that you never really got close to finding me. Oh, I know you thought you did a few times, with the doppelganger Kapre and your other ploys, but they were all carefully crafted situations on my part,” he informed the group.
“We’re here now, so why don’t we start this fight?” Liam said.
I heard some knuckles popping as the guys stretched like they were getting ready to run a marathon or something. I believed in limbering up, but they were doing it a little late in the game.
“We don’t have to fight. You can just hand the queen over and everyone can leave happy,” one of the warlock’s buddies said. It was nice to see they had tongues, too bad about the whole I.Q. issue.
“You know damn well that isn’t going to happen,” Rick said. “Let’s just get this over with.”
I could see in Nate’s peripheral that Rick pointed a large nozzle-looking thing at the warlocks. Holy crap, when did he put the flamethrower on? I totally missed that, and so much for the nonlethal approach. I thought anyone not fireproof was going to need to leave the building if he decided to use it.
“Don’t be so hasty, son. You aren’t going to shoot that thing off in here with all your friends in the way,” the head warlock said. The idea that he could read my mind worried me a little.
“If you try to take my sister, you’ll see how worried I am about anyone being in the way. They’ll only take a couple of days to heal,” Rick replied in his tough guy voice.
It was a cross between a couple of famous cowboy actors. He didn’t specifically sound like either one, but if you combined their voices, it got pretty close.
At that point, I didn’t see a reason for me to keep pretending I was still out. There wasn’t going to be any kind of prisoner exchange, so it seemed silly. It was impossible to exchange a human for a phoenix when the human didn’t exist anymore, or potentially never did.
I opened my eyes and ended up staring straight at Ettie, which freaked me out for a second. Before the fighting was through, I was going to have words with her. I didn’t understand what was going on, but she didn’t look to be in a bit of trouble. I’d probably end up smacking her a time or two as well. I wiggled out of Nate’s arms and planted my feet next to him.
“I’m not sure who I want to fight first,” I said, producing a fireball and hurling it the lead warlock.
Talking time was done and I had the fireball setting to hurt people, not room, so there was no chance of me burning the baseball field to the ground. The fireball makes it to him easily in the confined space.
“Ouch, that stung a little. Let’s see how you like it,” he said, hurling an energy ball back at me. With that the fight was on, our twenty guys to their five.
I lost track of what everyone else was doing as I tried to continue my battle with the biggest threat. Well, at least the biggest threat I perceived. I was guessing the other warlocks weren’t as old as that one, and really the fight wasn’t going to take more than a few seconds. They lost the element of surprise when we didn’t freak out that Ettie had joined the warlocks’ ranks.
I moved in close to try for my chopsticks. I grabbed one out, hit the button and had it in his arm before he could say banana. The berserker reaction time training had been going way too well.
His arm was raised to punch me, but the neurotoxin went to work fast and he froze, then crumpled to the floor. It tended to last twenty minutes, so I had time to help the others, but as I looked around, the fighting was all done. Even Ettie was down, so I wouldn’t get a chance to slap her around immediately.
The quick and simple fights against the warlocks were get
ting boring. I remembered my first fight went on a lot longer, and there were more tricks used to try to defeat me. I didn’t have any zip ties to restrain the prisoners, so I went ahead and said my magic removal spell to make it safe for the others.
Grabbing my right-side pocket knife, which didn’t even get a chance to see action, I pricked my finger. “Blood I give to pay the price; remove the soulless ones’ powers for choosing bad advice.” I changed the spell up a little each time. It got a little tedious otherwise.
“So, I guess we’re done here. You want to take them back to the holding cell here in Chicago or have them shipped elsewhere?” Nate asked.
“I’ve decided this was way more fun when we didn’t have all this training. I mean, it lasted all of what, five minutes? Talk about dull,” I said, sighing. “I don’t feel like having them shipped; let’s just leave them at the local drunk tank. Vinnie can draw the blood and stuff he wants for his research, and then we can get home.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. Do you mind if I sit in with you on the interrogation I know you want to hold?” he asked.
“She has a lot to answer for. I have so many questions, but I know where I’ll start and I’m sure they’ll start flowing like lava after that,” I replied, grabbing his hand and intertwining our fingers.
We made our way through the ballpark, with Nate leading the way. I didn’t pay much attention to my surroundings. Chances were smoke trailed out of my ears as we walked. I couldn’t believe I’d misjudged Ettie so badly.
“Just so you know, I have no problems with how easy these missions have become. The warlocks are easy targets now. When we get to the demons who make them, I think we’re going to have a tougher fight.”
“Good. If all this war and battle talk ends up leading to another Anglo-Zanzibar War, I’m going to be upset,” I told him.
“Wow, I’m kind of shocked you even know of that war,” he replied.
“If you’re in a war, it’s good to do research on past wars. That particular war was over in less than an hour, so it sticks out in my mind. You might not notice, but I don’t spend every last second in the gym training.”
There were times I wished I could, but I knew there was more to fighting a battle than being physically prepared. Having lived most of my remembered years as a shy girl behind a computer, I had a lot to learn, and I turned to the Internet for help.
“Well, rest assured we’ve gone well over the time limit on that one. I’m sure you’ll get your grand battle one of these days, killer,” he said as he pinched my cheek.
The warlocks were loaded up and we were free to head back to our compound. I was getting a little hungry, but I wanted to make sense of what had just happened, so food was going to have to wait. My stomach grumbling told me my priorities were liable to change.
CHAPTER 22
Casanova, I think not