“And what if the mayor is already working with Namen?” Jaxson asks.
“Then, when Zara gets back, she glamours him for information before I kill him.”
“You aren’t the type to champion all this death. What’s gotten into you?” he asks quietly.
I pace back and forth in my basement, waiting for Selene to join me so that we can spar.
“These are things that must be done Jaxson. Even when we finish with Namen, the world is still going to be changing. This can be our city. It can be a safe place for us if we do what needs to be done now. That means that we have to get out there and let some of these people in charge know that we’re here and their best bet is to work with us. It’ll keep us all alive longer in the long run.” I have to start thinking three steps ahead of Namen’s two.
Selene comes down to the basement a few seconds later and sits in the middle of the floor, getting ready to meditate. I continue to focus on the phone conversation. Jaxson growls but otherwise remains silent as he thinks this over. I stand there patiently, breathing into the phone.
“Someone on the force took Anubis’s body. They’re not innocent. They arrested you for Namen. They probably helped Namen use that abandoned university building for his experiments on those kids. They’re not innocent.” His voice now has more resolve.
“I know that you don’t want to purposely out yourself to any human, but this will work Jaxson. We will be in a better position. They have to know that death or enslavement is what awaits them with Namen. Even if we have to kill a few to make our case, it’ll be worth the sacrifice. As you said, they’re not innocent.”
“I trusted you with Anubis’s life and now you ask this of me after you did not keep your promise. Please, Rayne, do not make a fool of me this time. I want to trust your judgment, but I am the alpha now and I have more to protect than ever before.”
“If I fail you again, Jaxson, you can consider my life forfeit. You may do to me as you see fit. That is my oath,” I promise. I learned from the immortals that oaths are not to be given lightly. I mean this one with all that I am. I will not cause him any more pain without paying for it.
“As you speak it, it is done. On your oath as my second, as my pack, as my friend. I accept this,” Jaxson responds sadly. He doesn’t want to, but he knows now that I mean it.
I glance over to Selene who is sitting there, unmoving. I wonder what’s going through her mind right now. She doesn’t say a word and I want to take that as her having complete faith in me, not fear of my failure. She’ll speak up when she feels that it is necessary.
“Now, tell me, how many wolves have fled the city?” I’m curious if any of them have taken the threat to heart.
“Only two so far. One has come to me saying that he will join. He is a seventeen year old. His birthday was just last week and his father had been keeping him away from all things supernatural until now. Strong boy, not very bright, but ambitious nonetheless. I don’t want to bring any of our children into this. There are five of our pack’s children that are between fifteen and eighteen. I may have no choice though,” Jaxson admits.
“We’ll give them other jobs, away from the battle if at all possible. They do need to be ready, but for now, I think we’re safe. We need to find them a location to go to, if in the end we fail, for them to hide, to start over or at least get away to find others that may be able to stop Namen if we don’t,” I say, trying to think ahead some more.
“We have time to think. It won’t come to that. What we need to do is find out just what it is Namen has promised the demons that have them working for him. Taking out as many of his most powerful followers will cripple him.”
“And we will. I don’t think that we need to rush. There hasn’t been anything in the recent news about an eclipse coming any time soon, so we have a couple months at least. Let’s build up a strategy and our own army,” I respond. There has to be a way that I can convince the immortals to help, at the very least, Lawrence, my teacher may change his mind.
“Okay. Do what you have to do. I’ll tell Jun that she’s going to have to prove herself really soon here,” Jaxson declares.
“She had better be up for the task,” I say.
“Rayne,” Jaxson begins. “I don’t know her well, but I think her ass is up for just about anything.”
We both laugh and then say our goodbyes. Then, I turn to Selene. Her body is pulsing with energy. Tiny electrical surges dance off of her skin as she focuses on her meditation. It seems that ever since she’s seen Santos, her power has been growing. I don’t doubt it. Supernatural twin connection and all. Instead of disturbing her trance, I decide to get my stretching out of the way. Minutes tick by and Selene finally stands, her green eyes alight with power. It’s awe inspiring watching the magic dance behind her eyes like a tiny flame.
How did I not see her for what she was before I became awakened?
Selene is wearing spandex shorts and a royal blue tank top. Her hair is tied back into a loose ponytail and she looks rather eager to get started. I lift my eyebrows and give her an eager look in return before drawing a three foot circle around her in chalk. She stands in the middle of the circle, arms crossed, waiting.
“We’ll start with you, okay. You have to knock me on my ass three times without moving out of the circle. I’m going to be trying to do just that to you while you make sure that it doesn’t happen,” I explain.
“Fine, but let’s up the ante if you will.”
“I’m listening.”
“You have three minutes to knock me out of the circle. For every minute that you don’t, you lose a limb that you can fight with,” Selene suggests, smirking.
“Now you know that I can’t turn down a challenge, love. Let’s do this.”
“Good. And after this is over, I’m going to show you how pissed off I am about that oath that you just made to Jaxson,” Selene warns, already in a fighting stance.
“It’s an oath that I won’t break,” I swear. I root myself further into the floor as if I am a tree firmly planted into the earth. Two deep breaths later, my tattoo glows in response to my power being stirred awake.
“I will kill him before he ever touches you,” Selene snaps before unleashing a wave of water onto the ground. I stand there for a half second before the electricity from her next attack slices through the water, directly toward me.
Jumping against the wall and away from the attack, I say, incredulously, “You’re trying to electrocute me, really?”
“Stop being a baby, it wouldn’t have hurt that bad. Now, let us continue, meu guerreiro.”
“Sure, clock is ticking after all.”
I go to my secret box of weapons that I’ve been keeping on the low and reach inside and pull out my second favorite toy, one that will be perfect for keeping Selene off guard. I pull out the kusarigama, a scythe-like weapon with a weighted chain on the end. The main objective with this weapon is to throw your opponent off-guard, entangle their weapon or limbs, and then get close enough to deliver a finishing blow. I plan to test the speed and defense of my witch. She beat me once and I can’t have it happen again. Plus, with her little bet, if I can’t get her out of the circle within a minute, the weapon will no longer be effective with just one hand.
Selene eyes my toy and smiles, tilting her head to the side. Quickly, much quicker than I expect, she weaves a spell with her hands. As quickly as I can, I throw the weighted chain at her. It wraps around her arm and I pull hard, attempting to pull her out of the circle, but something grips onto my legs and freezes me in place. I look down and see that the water has crept around me and turned to ice. I didn’t even realize that she finished her spell in time. Damn.
Using the scythe, I break the ice only to block a stream of magic just in time. Absorbing the blow pushes me back a few feet. I use my own chakra as I had in the fight with the witches when I was with Zara to volley the magic back to her. The understanding of the power comes naturally and I use that to my advantage.
“I’m improving, love,” I respond, sending an extra amount of chakra flow to my legs so that I gain a burst of speed.
She recovers just like I know she will, and weaves a spell creating a shimmering invisible wall between us. Or so she thinks. A fraction of a second that I gained with my speed burst sends the weight wrapping around her legs just as I pull hard, knocking her off of her feet. Her foot is almost out of the circle when she laughs.
“That’s one minute down.”
I smirk, but narrow my eyes at her. “Cheater.”
“Move faster next time.”
I put my left hand behind my back and motion with my right hand to continue. She unwraps her leg and throws my kusarigama across the room. I immediately run and breech the circle. With swings and kicks, I have her on the ropes, so to speak. She’s ducking and dodging as best she can, but even with only one hand, I’m the better fighter. A quick sweep knocks Selene off of her feet again, but as she catches herself, still in the circle somehow, I see the look of magic dance in her eyes.
Suddenly, her aura explodes around her and then there are bright green arms and hands whipping out of everywhere. I’m too in awe to properly defend myself as one grabs me and throws me across the room. From my back, I flick Selene off.
“I’ve improved too,” she tells me. Then, she’s weaving sign after sign -fingers lacing and unlacing in a specific pattern- and I know that once again, I’m screwed.
I pop up and dive straight in once again, like I did when I fought Jaxson and Zara in the woods. Soon, I’m dodging magical limbs that are giving me a run for my money. My dance background makes for beautiful moves as I weave and spin, blocking and jabbing. I know that my second minute is nearly up, so I try to push my chakra out once again. It gives me the leverage I need, by knocking Selene back just a couple inches. There’s a lapse in her spell and with that, I land a solid kick to her midsection, causing her to stumble just over the line.
I feel triumphant for only a second before exhaustion hits me like a bus. I fall to my knees, coughing up a tiny bit of blood. Selene wastes no time in dropping her magical octopus arms and running to my side.
“Baby, are you okay?” she asks, pulling me close and examining my hazel eyes.
“I’m fine, really. I just used too much power at once. Pushing out my chakra like that is a bitch. It’s definitely not battle ready yet,” I try to joke. I feel like I have a hangover.
“Well, two is your limit for now. Don’t exceed it. I’m feeling tired myself. But, I think we should keep going. I want to try to restore some of your energy and then, we need to work on some of my hand to hand, okay. I’m not a healer, but this I think I can do.” Selene takes my hands without waiting for a response and whispers something in Latin. “Restaurationem deperditi. Hoc fragmen accipio me.” She repeats it three times and finally I feel slightly better.
She lets go of my hands and I observe her breathing. I wipe some sweat off of her forehead and smile. She’s pushing herself to become an even greater witch, but I don’t know if I’m keeping up with her or if she’s keeping up with me. Who knows how long she’s going to have to keep spelling in a battle. I know that she’s forcing herself to do more complex spells to challenge herself, but what is her skill level compared to Namen’s? He inserted himself inside my head with nothing more than a thought and his natural ability is that of a necromancer. I don’t even want to know how capable he is with that power.
Then, it hits me and I nearly faint at the thought. Gripping Selene’s arm tightly, I pull her closer to me, knowing I probably look frantic. I don’t know how we didn’t see it before. Maybe we did, but none of us wanted to say it.
“Namen has Anubis and probably the other wolves. He’s probably going to bring them back with necromancy to control them,” I say, feeling hollow inside.
Chapter Twenty Eight
I did this.
I gave him Anubis.
But why? I thought that it would be just to screw with our morale, to make a point, but he has to have a plan. I don’t know how necromancy works, but I was assuming that Namen would just be able to see and speak to ghosts, but now, now I hope to God that he isn’t making a zombie army or something like that. What if that werewolf/vampire is what he gets turned into? I gag a little at the thought of rotting bodies marching toward us.
“Maybe he’s using his body to host a demon,” Selene says.
“That is not good. Not fucking good at all. I need to call Jaxson,” I say, standing up.
“Wait,” Selene says, pulling me back down. I look at her pointedly, and then sigh in defeat.
“Let’s just wait until Zara gets back. She may have news for us first. If not, then we’ll tell him. If he does have him and uses his body for whatever reason, there’s nothing we can do about it right now,” she urges.
“It’ll be my fault. I made this happen. We gave Namen everything he wanted.”
“No, you didn’t make that happen. You chose to do something. You chose to fight and keep those lamia from kidnapping children. Namen felt threatened and he responded. Anubis knew what he was getting into. For the short time that he knew you, I think that you gave him hope. Be proud of that. You’ve sparked something in us. Anything beyond that is not on you. If we aren’t strong enough, then you are not to blame,” Selene tells me passionately.
“I know it, but deep inside my heart I don’t believe it. I still have doubts.”
“Then doubt, but just don’t quit trying.”
I smile at her. “Okay. Let’s get on with this then. I’ll worry about what Namen may have done later. There are some things I want to teach you.”
“I’m ready,” Selene says in her sexy voice. She didn’t mean to, but it definitely makes me feel some type of way.
“We’ll just go over a few combos. I think that we should create a whole new style so that you don’t waste energy between possible close combat situations and magical combat. I can help you begin to get it flowing, but Zara is going to be your best bet. She has the most experience,” I tell her.
“Of course it would be her.”
“Is… that going to be an issue?” I ask warily.
“No. I couldn’t dislike her if I tried. She’s just much more amazing than should be allowed.”
I sense the insecurity coming from Selene and I pull her close. “If you think for a second that I think that she is better than you, that this is a competition, please stop. It’s my fault anyway for kissing her. Diana had been trying to teach me a lesson when I was with the immortals, and I didn’t listen.”
“Why is it that you didn’t feel that pull with Diana the way you did with Zara? Because, she tried to seduce you every step of the way. It’s like she wanted you to taste her power.”
“She wanted me as property, a collector’s item. That’s why she tried. She wanted me to be power hungry, to crave what she was offering like a drug addict. I think that my power is driven by balance and pure emotion. Your emotions don’t get much more heightened than with great sex. With Diana, I never saw myself as an equal. I knew she wanted to claim me. That’s not attractive to me. Zara, she-,” I say before Selene interrupts me.
“Do I want to hear this?” Selene laughs jokingly, but I still hear the slight tremor in her voice.
“I think you should. I need to be honest with you, especially about this. Is that alright?”
“I don’t like feeling like you don’t love me as much as I love you.”
“Don’t ever worry about that. Please believe me. Zara is deeply intriguing and much more complex than I would have guessed. Her emotions can go from one to ten in half a second, but it’s so honest that she makes you question your own existence, the way you see the world. I want to know more about her. I want her in my life; no, I think I need her in my life. Just like you are my greatest love, she could be my greatest friend. Our
bond runs deep and I allowed that to be tainted by lust, attraction, hurt, and fear.”
Selene leans up against the wall rubbing her arms as goose bumps form against her skin. Her mouth is set in a tiny frown, but I know that as painful as it may be to hear, she needs to. I knew that the conversation would come up again because hey, that’s what happens in relationships.
I continue. “I acted on my desire that was amplified by our blood bond. Vampires don’t blood bond lightly and never with non-lovers. Our mistake. Zara’s mistake. Maybe she did know, but I don’t think she really thought it through. We kissed and it was like the world exploded inside of me. It was terrifying, consuming, and not what I expected. It wasn’t what my power was expecting either. It was dangerous. Her vampiric nature wanted to claim me. It could’ve been seeking out something close to how Sage made her feel. It was like she recognized my power and wanted to take it all.” I shiver as I remember it.
“Zara is a very powerful being. As much as I don’t want to admit it, she is sexy. Vampires know how to pull you in without even trying. It is part of their nature. That’s why I can’t fault you for the second kiss. If she was out of control when she bit you, then once she pushed those pheromones into you, you were hers. But, it isn’t real.”
“I figured that out. That’s why I pushed her away. It didn’t even feel the same as the first kiss. I felt compelled.”
“In a way you were. But, any type of power play involving you guys will have to be done in my presence. I don’t know if it’s really over. Sometimes, things are just out of our control. You may need more of her power one day,” Selene warns.
“I’ll need you much more,” I say.
Selene chuckles. “You may need us both. But I’ll tell you what. No more female friends, Rayne.”
“What about Jun?” I ask.
Selene narrows her eyes. “I want to meet her by the way.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Killer Rayne Page 17