It’s not long before I find out he’s telling the truth. I let up for just a second, and it’s all he needed to throw me off him and pin me to the ground. I’ve never been in the position to find out if I’m ticklish or not, but as it turns out, I am very ticklish...
I scream and squirm under him, the sensation of needing to pee torturing me.
“Okay, okay, enough. I regret it,” I shout and laugh at the same time.
Tavis steps back from me, and pulls me from the ground. He’s smiling, and while there’s still heartbreak in his eyes, it’s a sight to behold.
“Are you up for a go around?” I ask him. “I’m too awake to sleep…”
My body is physically exhausted, and it’s still dark out, but I would stay up all night if that’s what it took to keep him happy.
“Sure…” His smile widens as he bounces on the balls of his feet and dances around me. I snort, putting my fists up; ready to block his attacks.
A thin layer of sweat glistens on his skin and reflects with the moonlight shining through the floor length window as he moves; making him almost sparkle. His thick brown hair is wildly dishevelled, and there’s a small amount of stubble decorating his jawline that makes him look older than he is. Somehow, that makes him infinitely more attractive to me.
I could list his physical attributes for a whole hundred years and still not be done, but none of it beats the playful look he gets in his eyes when we train…
It’s breath-taking to me how beautiful he is.
I swallow the drool in my mouth and do my best to keep my eyes trained on his face and not check out his abs… but there they are, in all of their glory.
I’m unfocused, and I pay the price. A punch is aimed directly at my recently-healed shoulder. I groan, and then I laugh and duck the second punch.
Aiming a kick to the parts of him that I was ogling, I strike out. But unlike me, he’s completely concentrated and easily catches my leg. Twisting it, he floors me, and I’m pinned for the second time.
I tap out, and we’re up on our feet. I open myself up to his energy, and once again, it makes me stumble back. I discern focus, humour, amusement, and a tinge of joy… but they’re all just masks for a black hole of despair, trying to claw its way to the surface.
“Just hit me,” he says, a sad smirk at his lips.
I nod, and lunge out. I land a blow to his chest and he stumbles back, and comes at me full force. I step to the side, my legs out straight and my toes pointed. I jump from one foot to the other. He rushes at me, again, and I jump for him. He catches me in his arms, and throws me in the air. His hands are on my back as he lifts me above his head and tries to throw me to the ground, but I refuse to let my skin leave his. I use my newfound flexibility to fold myself in half, backwards, and lock my arms around his neck. I use just a little bit of magic to keep him still and our eyes connect like meteors crashing to earth.
I smile, and slowly bring my legs down, wrapping them around his waist. His hands move to the tops of my thighs, keeping me up. Our noses touch, and I still, unable to breathe.
They say, the eyes are a window to the soul, and it’s true. I see his soul – it’s bright, good, beautiful, and fractured.
In one quick motion, I lock my thighs around him and throw myself back, pulling him with me. My palms press flat into the mat. I use this position, and apply power, to hurl him through the air.
He ducks and rolls, landing upright on one knee. I spin on the pads of my feet and rush for him, landing on his back.
His muscles tense and he tries to stand up, but I wrap my arms and legs around him and go limp, forcing him to stay down.
“Stop fighting the weight,” I whisper in his ear. “Let yourself feel it.”
“Theo…” His whole body softly tremors beneath me. “Please… Don’t.”
“Tavis,” I keep my voice low.
He fights against me; shaking, and trying to throw me off. It takes a lot of power, both physical and magical, to keep him down.
“Just let it out,” I tell him. “It’s okay… just let it swallow you whole. I’ll be here to pull you back out.”
He shakes again, refusing me. I open myself up to him, and feel his power blocking me. Its intricate how our energies are touching and vibrating together. I close my eyes and imagine our magic like strings. Long, soft cords of gold and silver, woven together and begin unravelling. It’s not hard to push myself in, almost as if he’s not really trying to keep me out, at all.
It’s overwhelming how fast his thoughts flood my mind.
He wants to feel the grief of losing his friend, and pummel his way through it. He wants to say ‘screw the rules’ and bring Mateo back, but he knows he can’t… And the thought of never seeing him never again breaks his heart. The emotions are so achingly raw, like lacerating cuts. He’s standing at the edge of a bleak oblivion, refusing to jump.
His greatest fear is that if he does, he won’t have the strength to pull himself back.
“I’ll be your anchor,” I tell him. “Just let go…”
The flood gates open, and the pain is excruciating. Images of Mateo; smiling, laughing, training, studying, and all of the questions he’d asked about being a leader – it all comes rushing at once.
Like a montage, I see his life over the past year and feel like I’m being gutted.
Tavis’ body wracks with tears underneath me. He’s finally letting himself feel the grief he’s fought off since Matt’s death.
I bind my arms tighter around his neck, as his sobs get louder. His voice cracks and he lifts his hand up, wrapping it around mine.
My lip quivers and I chew on it, to keep myself from crying out. I am his anchor, and I have to remain strong for him.
Without undoing our hands, I make my way around his body, until I’m facing him. I’m on both knees, staring up into his blood-shot eyes.
I don’t know what to say, and so I place my forehead on his, and listen to him cry.
The day he met Mateo is playing out in his head.
It was the first raid he and Knox had ever been on, just the two of them, and they were scared, anxious, and so full of adrenaline that they felt unstoppable. It was that confidence that got them in the academy, and to where the hostages were kept. Like a lot of academy’s, this one had a dungeon underneath it, and there, in the wrought-iron cages, stood four terrified teenagers.
Amalie, Ben, Mateo and Alma – Mateo’s younger sister.
The jail break was easy, but the getting out wasn’t. They battled through a crowd of witches, and almost made it with everyone intact, but in the last few moments, Alma was pulled back by her superior, and Mateo watched as she was torn, limb-from-limb. He fought his way to the front, ready to die with his sister, but Tavis wouldn’t let that happen. He came behind Mateo, and ripped him back, holding him in his arms until he stopped struggling.
“We have to go, kid. You need to survive, and then you can have your revenge…”
Mateo nodded, and together, they ran from the academy.
The scene changes to an abandoned warehouse, with a leaky roof and broken windows.
“Are you doing okay?” Tavis knelt down, offering Mateo some of his food.
He nodded, taking some. “Can you teach me something?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know… I’m just so used to having classes at this time.”
“Come on.” Tavis smiled.
He stood, pulling Mateo from the ground, and took him outside, around the back of the building.
Standing upright on a long wall was a line of empty bottles.
“What is this?” Mateo asked, with a slight snort.
“Shooting practice,” he replied, holding up a hand. Closing his eyes, he focused on a blue bottle at the far left end of the wall. Without much effort, the bottle exploded.
“Wow…” Mateo exclaimed, childlike wonder in his eyes. “I could never do that!”
“Sure you can, kid. It’s all about practice.�
�� Tavis smiled. “Go ahead, close your eyes and give it a go!”
Mateo closed his eyes, and held out his right palm. A crease appeared in his forehead and his eyes wrinkled. He was really trying.
“Imagine the glass as something soft,” Tavis told him.
A slight crack formed in the rim of the middle bottle.
“See?” Mateo pouted. “I can’t do it!”
“Yes you can,” Tavis promised.
“Alma was the one with all the power.” He sighed. “I was older, but she was more of a natural witch.” His eyes coated over with tears. “I miss her so much.”
Tavis nodded. “I know, kid. Channel that emotion into your power... Try again.”
Mateo once again closed his eyes and raised his palm, aimed at the bottle in the middle.
The crack seemed to be getting bigger, but it was by no means ready to shatter. The crease in Mateo’s head deepened as his concentration increased.
He was trying so hard that Tavis felt sorry for him. The glass still stood, as solid as ever.
Biting his lip, Tavis squeezed his eyes shut and caressed his power. He lifted his hand, and focused on the middle bottle.
Within seconds, he heard a pop and rushed his hand to his side.
Mateo’s face lit up as he opened his eyes and beamed at the space between the bottles.
“Whoa! Did I do that?”
“Yup, pretty damn cool, kid… See? You do have power!”
Mateo’s grin widened. “Maybe I do… And maybe someday I’ll have enough to go back and –”
“One thing at a time, okay?” Tavis cut him off, not letting the idea take him over.
“In the meantime, are you in need of an assistant?” Mateo asked. “I want to learn everything I can from you! I’ll do anything, man. I swear!”
“You want to be an assistant?” Tavis snorted at the thought. “This isn’t an office situation, Mateo.”
“Fine, a student then…”
He mulled it over in his head. The kid was eager to be taught, and had an enthusiasm he hadn’t seen so far in the others. Knox was lazy, entitled – from his years spent in boarding school, he’d wager – and he wasn’t interested in training or using his power at all. Ben was a self-obsessed, scared, child. Amalie showed some promise, but she hadn’t stopped mooning over him long enough to practice anything…
None of them were ready or willing to learn.
But Mateo was practically begging for Tavis to mentor him, more than that, he could sense a desire in the kid that screamed he wanted to be to be just like him.
“Student sounds so… blah,” Tavis said, with a sly grin, and Mateo’s face fell. “How about being my protégé?”
Hope shone in the kid’s eyes and his cheeks lifted up, revealing a straight set of teeth. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, kid. But in return, I need you to have my back if things get bad! With your power and learning curve, I could really use someone like you around… So, what do you say?”
The scene shifts again, into a series of fast moving memories, before settling on one.
“Tav, man did I tell you about the new girl?” He whistled, walking through a cobbled back alley with brown paper bags filled with groceries. “She’s so sweet, and funny too. Not to mention… muy caliente! Her name is Jess. I think she likes me. What should I do?”
“Sorry, kid, but I’m not the one to ask about girls,” he said, with a laugh.
“But I ask you about everything…”
“I went to an academy different than yours, kid … Until we saved Amalie, I hadn’t even spoken to a girl who wasn’t a teacher or my mother.”
“So, who at the bank should I ask about the Chica’s?”
“I don’t know, Matt… Knox, I guess.”
“See?” Mateo beamed. “You do always have the answers!”
The memory fades away, and is replaced by a short show of Mateo and Jess, holding hands and kissing in the main room.
Tavis smiled and shook his head.
“I gave the kid some stellar advice,” Knox said, appearing at his side. “I could give you some too, dude. I know Amalie is –”
“I’m good,” he said with a snort. “Mateo, stop smooching and get your ass to practice!”
Matt pulled back from Jess with a small smirk. “You got it, boss.”
The kid scampered off, but he took his girlfriend with him, telling Tavis all he needed to know about how much ‘practice’ he’d be doing.
“Want me to go after them?” Knox asked with a smirk.
He thought about it for a second and shook his head with a smile. “Nah… Let em live.”
Tavis tries his best to keep the next memory at bay, but it’s too powerful.
“Pull back, we’re outnumbered!” He shouted. “Mateo, get Amalie and Jess out of here, kid!”
Mateo jumped to it, staying out of the way of the power-shoot-out. He ducked direct attacks, his only goal was getting to the girl he’d so readily fallen in love with.
There was a witch, hot on her trail, and Mateo had to get to her quickly otherwise –
His fingers just grazed hers before she was hit by harsh magic. She screamed out as her body twitched painfully and her bones snapped one-by-one, ending with her neck. She dropped to the ground, and once again, Mateo’s heart was broken before Tavis’ eyes.
“He never really recovered after that,” Tavis tells me, wiping his wet face and bringing us both back to the present. “He really did love her, and what happened to Jess was my fault.”
“How was it your fault?”
“It had been about ten or eleven months since we formed the underground, and we had saved around twenty or so recruits. There was a rumour that Jameson’s – my parent’s old alma mater – would be sacrificing sixteen witches on the night of a full moon. Up until that point, our inside people, they were thorough in their Intel. They told us weeks before when something was being planned so we had time to come up with a strategy…”
Again, he wiped his falling tears. “Knox and I had just gotten back from our trip to recruit a wild witch who’d just taken out a High Priestess and teamed up with a mortal…”
My mouth lifts into a small smile as he continues. “One of my insiders called. He said there was a surprise sacrifice, two days later. We didn’t have time to think of a plan… Mateo, he said something felt wrong about it, but I trusted this guy, and no matter how many times Matt tried to tell me that something was off, I insisted because the lives of sixteen witches were on the line.”
I suck my lip into my mouth, and let it out with a pop. “What happened?”
“It was a trap… Jameson’s had heard of the underground, and that I was running it. They got my cousin to call me under the threat of death and pass on false info. We lost so many people before you got here, including Jess… That’s why – “
“That’s why when I came to about the knife, you were so adamant about not going…”
“I didn’t want to risk another massacre. What if someone had planted that vision in your head? What if they’d kidnapped a witch and used their power to lure you to them? I couldn’t take that chance…”
“But I did anyway, and it got Mateo killed,” I whisper. “What happened to your cousin? Did they – “
“Yeah...” He sighs. “They waited until I got there, and they snapped his neck in front of me.”
“I’m sorry,” I say because I can feel how much guilt he carries, over his cousin and Jess. It’s the same guilt I feel over Mateo…
“Show me,” he says. “Show me how he died, please.”
“Are you sure?”
He nods, and strengthens the connection between us. I open up my mind for him – not all of it, just enough to show him that night.
I’m back at the Hunters mansion, with the box in my hand. Its power is too addictive for me to drop it. I’m running, ducking all of the gun shots and watching Maeve and Zhavia tear apart the big, brutish Hunter.
I shout for
the second defence to stay put, but I see Amalie and Mateo exit the bus out of the corner of my eye and they join the fight.
Amalie gets stabbed and dropped to the ground, and Mateo is at my side. The shot rings out close to me, and I duck. I feel the relief that pours into me as I realize I’m not hit. The adrenaline is pumping through me, and my mouth turns up into a smile, and I then I see Mateo.
The blood-soaked shirt, and his last words that were trying to be: “Tell Tavis, I’m sorry…” before he dropped to the ground and died in my arms.
I pull out of the memory, and find Tavis’ weak, defeated face so close to mine that I can feel his laboured breath.
“If I had of just been there… I might have been able to save him. I might have –” He stops himself, and his breathing pace rapidly increases. “I should have been at his –”
He heaves another deep breath and shakes.
My mouth gapes. I’ve never seen anybody else like this, and I barely know how to handle it when it happens to me.
“Tavis, stop! You’re having a panic attack, you need to slow your breathing.”
As though my words warped somehow, his breathing becomes rapid. He’s taking deeper breaths, and through the bond, I feel his need for oxygen and the anxiety he feels because he doesn’t think he’s getting enough.
I demonstrate how slow he should be breathing, and then try to calm him down.
“You’re going to be okay. You couldn’t have done anything, even if you were there. It happened so quickly… It’s not your fault.”
It’s not working. His eyes are fading out, and I can feel his nausea and dizziness. His ears are ringing so loud, I doubt he heard a thing I said.
I need to do something to slow his breathing… but what?
One thing flashes in my head, which is to make him stop breathing completely. I could do it with magic, but the risk is too great, and I’m far too on edge to be able to control my power in the way I would need to.
No, I need to do it the other way… like I saw on TV.
Licking my lips, and closing my eyes, I don’t give myself enough time to rethink it. I lean in, pressing my lips against his. His shock radiates through the bond, but it only lasts seconds before his hands entangle in my hair, I’m pulled to him. He keeps my head in place, pushing harder against my lips. I open my mouth slightly, and our tongues meet.
SACRIFICIUM (THE UNDERGROUND Book 1) Page 20