Chalice of Life

by R. A. Rock

  But no. It would be a bad idea to get involved with Ethan—a bad idea in so many ways.

  Especially now.

  She had bigger problems.

  Good, she thought. It’s decided then.

  She would ignore any other long, lingering stares that Ethan threw her way and keep working on ending the Severance and healing her broken heart. The Great Hunter was off limits and she would discourage any attempts he made to seduce her.

  She gave a firm little nod to emphasize her decision.

  After another block, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Ethan was walking beside her, hands in his blue jean pockets, and looking sexier than a man had any right to.

  “You sense that?” she said, her voice soft.

  “Yep,” he answered, his voice low and a little rough.

  “I’m assuming you can fight,” she said.

  “I hunted rogues all over the Earth for thousands of years. What do you think?”

  “I think we’re being followed.”

  “I’d say you’re right.”

  “Finn and Jayde.”

  Ethan gave a nod. “We protect them.”

  “Finn,” Tess said. Then she focused only on him so that the universal translator spell would allow her to speak in the Fae tongue, instead of translating her words into English for Ethan and Jayde. That way if it was Hunters following them, they wouldn’t know what Tess was saying.

  “We’re being followed,” she told him. “Get Jayde back to her apartment. Ethan and I will take care of them.”

  “Got it,” he said, his tone curt. He took Jayde’s arm, whispering to her and they walked quickly ahead. If Tess had to guess, she’d say that he was probably annoyed that he couldn’t fight too, but he knew that his Starlight was already too low to risk it.

  In her peripheral vision, she saw a dark figure appear and then disappear again.

  “There’s a park up there in that secluded area,” she suggested.

  Ethan didn’t say anything, just headed in that direction. The small triangular field was made by the back sides of a bunch of yards. Each lot had a high fence and there were trees planted all around the perimeter.

  They went in, headed for one of the fences, and got their back to it. It seemed like they were immediately facing ten or twelve men and women in black with their faces covered.

  “Shadows,” Ethan whispered.

  “They do look like the same group that attacked us when we went to see Melisende.”

  They waited, slightly facing each other, their arms still relaxed at their sides. Tess had a thought. “Why don’t you just blast them with your power?”

  “How long do you think I would last in human society if I went around using my powers willy nilly where any human can see me?”

  “Good point.”

  The Shadows seemed to be waiting for something.

  “I’ve lived among them for years. I know how to keep a low profile, and using my powers is never a good thing. There was this one cult that tried to worship me for a few hundred years. That was a nightmare.”

  “Okay. So, hand to hand combat it is.”

  “I’m pretty good with my hands,” he said, and Tess met Ethan’s gaze. Was that sexual innuendo? He grinned at her with an amused twinkle in his eye.

  Yep. That was sexual innuendo. No question.

  Ethan winked at her and she felt her face flush.

  Great Hunter off limits, she reminded her traitorous body.

  “I’m technically still Joined with Finn,” she told him as one of the Shadows made a hand gesture for them to move in.

  “And emotionally entangled as well,” Ethan pointed out.

  No kidding.

  “So, what are you saying, Stars?” he said, not looking at her but keeping his eyes on the Shadows.

  “I’m saying that I’m not interested, Hunter.”

  They looked at each other.

  “In a relationship? Me neither.” Ethan winked again. “Now. Am I attracted to you, Stars? That’s another matter entirely.”

  What?

  The Shadows were moving slowly, assessing what sort of threat Ethan and Tess would be, no doubt.

  “Anyway, I’m a little busy trying to save the world,” Tess reminded him. “I mean, Ahlenerra. Not this world. That’s just what the translator gave me.”

  “I get it, Tess,” Ethan said with an indifferent shrug. “It’s no skin off my nose. How’s that for a funny English expression? I’ve got women falling over me. I don’t need to work for it. I was just joking around.”

  “Yeah, of course,” Tess said. But why did she feel like he wasn’t quite telling the truth? And why was she the tiniest bit disappointed that he wasn’t interested? Especially since she had just decided that she definitely wasn’t interested.

  “Here they come.”

  Tess readied herself as the Shadows stepped toward them on silent feet. Ethan moved so they were side to side and Tess found that the smallest bit comforting. He might be a lady’s man and a bit of a flake. But clearly, he knew how to fight and he was willing to help when things got serious. She liked that about him.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a couple Shadows holding guns on Jayde and Finn. The four of them entered the playground area and stood to the side. The Shadows kept the guns on her friends.

  “They’ve got Jayde and Finn,” Tess said.

  “I see that,” Ethan said. “But nothing has changed. We fight these assholes, protect Jayde and Finn, and get out of here.”

  “Copy that,” Tess said, using Finn’s favorite new phrase from TV.

  Three of the Shadows approached, while the others held back. One of the three stepped forward and began circling his hands around each other, the same way he had before.

  And like before, a cloud of darkness began to grow.

  “So much for keeping a low profile around the humans,” Ethan said in a resigned tone. “A magical battle it is.”

  Chapter 34

  Ethan barely had time to react when the first clouds of darkness came at them. This time, the Shadow had gathered two small clouds and thrown them sooner than he had expected. Ethan put up his hands and deflected each one, as if he was playing tennis and his hands were the racket.

  The Shadows standing behind the one slinging Dark Magic ducked as the clouds of darkness came back their way and exploded behind them, setting the fence and trees on fire. The Shadow using Dark Magic frowned when Ethan began defending and picked up the pace, lobbing cloud after cloud at Ethan and Tess—faster and faster.

  “Get behind me, Stars,” he ordered. “This time, I really can protect you.”

  She didn’t argue, only stepped behind him, for which he was grateful. Small blessings, he supposed.

  As the clouds came at him, one after the other, they got denser, turning into balls of darkness. And Ethan focused intensely, hitting them all back in their direction.

  Then he sensed something odd. When he hit the last one, he could sense Light Magic. What the heck? That didn’t make sense.

  But he had no time to contemplate what was going on. The Shadow throwing the balls of darkness was pitching them one after the other, so fast, he could hardly keep up. He needed to take this person out.

  So, he started moving toward the Shadow. He could feel Tess moving with him. The fire was getting bad and the smoke was starting to blind him, stinging his eyes and making them water. He saw some of the other Shadows coughing since they were closer to the blaze.

  When he was close enough to the Shadow that was flinging Dark Magic, he pulled a ton of energy into a big ball in his hands and filled it as full as he could with magic. The light was as bright as one of the spotlights that he used in his concerts. He couldn’t even bear to look at its radiance. The balls of darkness that the Shadow was still throwing simply dissolved when they touched it.

  Then Ethan started building up magic behind it, the energy pushed against the ball of light, but he held it back, his muscles strai
ning until he couldn’t hold it anymore.

  He released the ball of light and it hit the Shadow, emitting a shockwave when it hit that spread out and blasted the other Shadows—and him and Tess—knocking them all to the ground.

  Ethan recovered first, coughing from the thick smoke, and helped Tess get up. His lungs and throat burned and he knew they needed to get out of there.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, that was super cool,” she said, her voice hoarse. Seemed a little in awe of him. Then they both listened as a siren wail was heard in the distance.

  “And that’s why I don’t use my powers around the humans,” he said, resigned. “You feel like being arrested for having illegal explosives and setting them off within the city limits?”

  “No,” Tess said, her forehead wrinkling in worry.

  “Then let’s go.”

  Finn and Jayde were already gone. They had probably gotten free of the Shadows when they were distracted or unconscious from the Light Magic bomb.

  The Shadows were getting up and Ethan took off running. He looked back once for Tess but she waved him on.

  “Go. I’m right behind you.”

  He nodded and faced forward again, running fast. The sound of his own footsteps loud in his ears. After a few seconds, though, something didn’t feel right and he twisted his head to look back again.

  “Damn it,” he said, putting on the brakes and changing direction.

  Tessa lay on the ground on her back where one of the Shadows must have tackled her right after they had started running. And Ethan knew that Tess could take a punch but this guy had her pinned and was pounding her with both fists over and over. She was struggling but couldn’t get up, bruises and cuts blooming all over her face.

  Ethan tore back in her direction, feeling terrible that he hadn’t been there to protect her this time. When he zoomed in his vision so he could see the face up close, he was sure it was the big guy who Tessa had bested at Melisende’s house. No doubt, he had a grudge against her and was getting back at her.

  Ethan put on a burst of speed but was thrown back a second later as Tessa suddenly arched her back up and created a magical blast of white light that threw the guy across the playground and once more knocked all the Shadows down.

  “What the hell?” Ethan said as he stumbled back a little as the magic hit him.

  Tess scrambled to her feet and took off in his direction. He joined her without saying a word and they ran side by side this time until they were far enough away. No doubt they needed to talk about all this. But not until they were safe.

  “Are you okay?” he said, concerned. Her face looked like she had been hit by a truck.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Was that magical blast you?”

  “I think so,” she said tersely.

  “I didn’t know Faeries could do that,” he said.

  “We can’t,” Tess told him. “Or at least, I’ve never been able to do anything like that before.”

  Then they stopped talking and just ran.

  Tessa led them around and through the neighborhood on a zigzag path, darting in and out of yards to make sure she lost any of the Shadows who thought to follow them.

  Finally, they climbed the stairs in Jayde’s building and knocked on the door.

  “Who’s there?” Jayde’s voice came through the door.

  “It’s us.”

  “How do I know it’s you?”

  Tess heard Finn’s voice faintly in the background.

  “Finn says to ask what the most expensive present he ever got you cost.”

  Tess spoke into the door, leaning her forehead against it. “A present you gave me almost cost you all your Starlight. It almost cost your life.”

  “What present?” Jayde said, repeating Finn.

  “An Otherworld sheath.”

  “Who almost killed Finn?”

  “Izzie. By accident. Come on, Jayde. It’s us. Open up.”

  Finn said something she couldn’t hear. The door opened a crack and Jayde’s eye appeared.

  “Oh jeez,” she said, her voice anxious. “What happened, Tess?”

  There was the sound of bolts sliding and various locks being undone. Finally, she pulled the door open.

  “We fought some people that attacked us. That’s all.”

  “That’s all?” Jayde said, her eyebrows nearly hitting her hairline.

  As they walked through the doorway, Tess sensed magic.

  “What was that?” she said, glancing at Finn where he was lying on the couch.

  “A ward,” he said, his voice weak. He hadn’t seen her yet.

  “Where did you get a warding spell?”

  “She had it. Didn’t even know.” Finn was lying on the couch. “I was looking at some of her artifacts on the shelf and I felt the magic in it.”

  “Seriously?” Tess said, staring at Jayde.

  Ethan perched on the arm of a chair.

  “Obviously, magic follows this woman. It’s not that surprising,” he said. “How did you two get away?”

  “When you started making that ball of light, the Shadows were distracted and Finn hit them. We ran,” Jayde told Tess and Ethan. “Then the explosion happened and we were far enough away that we were okay. But they were closer and got knocked down. That’s when we got away. They didn’t follow us that we know of. Then Finn found the ward and put it over the door to protect us in case any of them had followed us.”

  “The ward was easy to set up,” Finn said. Then his eyes cut over to Jayde, who was frowning at him.

  “Let me guess,” Tess said. “It took some of your Starlight to set up, I bet.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think of that.” Finn grimaced and then scowled at her. “What the hell happened to you?”

  “I fought some of those Shadows,” she said. “It’s fine.”

  “Come here, I can heal you,” Ethan said, indicating she should sit on the chair he was perched on.

  Tess came. He put his hands near her face and she felt the pain disappearing. She drew a breath of relief.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Oh yes, thank you,” Jayde said. “You looked really terrible, Tess.”

  “I bet,” Tess said.

  “Not as bad as him, though,” Jayde said, jerking her thumb at Finn, who opened his eyes and made a face at her.

  “What do you mean?” Tess asked.

  Finn closed his eyes again as Jayde explained.

  “He collapsed,” Jayde said, fussing with something on the table. Then she looked up and met Tessa’s eyes. “And he wouldn’t wake up.”

  Chapter 35

  “I ordered supper from the Vietnamese place off of Macleod. They have amazing soup. There’s pho for everyone. Come and eat.” Jayde unpacked various containers from a bag while Tess and Ethan washed their hands. They sat at the small dining room table in her apartment that was just big enough for the four of them.

  Ethan thought about what Jayde had said about Finn as he walked over to the table. The guy was on his last legs. And he wasn’t even being careful about conserving his magic. Maybe Ethan should talk to him about being more cautious. Nobody wanted Finn to get himself killed.

  He watched as Tess helped Finn up. The Fae man was walking but Ethan could tell he was leaning heavily on Tess until she dumped him on his chair.

  Jayde had poured their soup from the takeout containers into pretty china bowls with vivid red roses on them. At each place was a large bowl, a soup spoon, and chopsticks. She cleared away the bags and plastic containers and sat down with them.

  Ethan took a spoon of the clear broth and savored the salty flavor. There was a platter in the middle with bean sprouts, lime wedges, and basil, and Ethan grabbed a handful of bean sprouts, dropping them unceremoniously on top of his soup.

  Jayde finally spoke.

  “So, who were those guys?” she said. “Ninja Hunters?”

  “There’s no such thing,” Ethan said, though maybe they ought to trai
n the Hunters more like ninja. He was willing to admit that, at times, the Hunters needed less brash, in-your-face attacks and more subtlety.

  Unable to wait until he had finished his additions, he broke the wooden chopsticks apart and used them to pick up one of the many thin slices of beef in the soup. He put the piece in his mouth, and chewed. The meat was tender and perfectly cooked. Next, he took a stalk of basil and stripped the leaves off of it, tearing them and putting them in his bowl as well.

  “We're not sure,” Tess said, answering Jayde’s question as she watched Ethan pick up a lime wedge and squeeze the juice into his bowl. He set the used lime on a plate Jayde had placed on the table for that purpose and picked up his napkin to wipe the juice off his hand.

  “You have to add these things to the soup,” Ethan told Tess and Finn. “It’s really good.”

  The two Fae did as Ethan and Jayde had, and soon, everyone had made their additions and were eating, alternating between using their spoons for the broth and their chopsticks—or in the case of the Fae, forks—to pick up the things in the soup. Ethan was starving and it was delicious, the fresh flavors combining with the hot beefy broth. Jayde made a good choice for supper. He loved pho.

  “In case I haven’t made it clear,” Ethan said, setting his soup spoon down, “those were not Hunters.”

  “Got it,” Jayde said, clacking her chopsticks at him. “Not Hunters.”

  “We fought them before,” Tess told Jayde

  “So you know who they are?”

  Tess shook her head.

  “You know who they remind me of?” Jayde said. “This group of relic hunters that steal archeological artifacts and sell them on the black market. They’re called the Shadows.”

  “So you’ve heard of them?” Ethan said. “Someone told us about them.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of them. Everyone in archeological circles knows about them. They dress in black. And they either beat the archeologists to the find, or they walk in after them and just take whatever they’ve found. It doesn’t happen that often. But it happens. They’re dangerous. That’s for sure. This year, they’ve stolen more than any other, I heard. It’s almost as if they’re looking for something.”