by K. F. Breene
“Virus race?” I glowered at Charles. “Really? And congratulations on being able to do math. I suppose you’ll have to go take a nap now to recuperate.”
“I will admit that the one whole human is way bitchier than everyone else put together. Trials of the species.”
“I’ll show you bitchy.” Willing calm, I turned back to Emmy. Disbelief had replaced the confusion. “Can you get us there?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“Then let’s do this. We’re wasting time.” Jonas glanced at Paulie. “You’re shit with that sword. What else you got?”
“Just my winning personality.”
“Magic?”
“I’m linked with Sasha to give her energy, so she holds the magical focus.”
Jonas glanced at Emmy’s knives and then her whips. “Then work with Emmy. She’ll stun people while you poke them. Otherwise, you won’t last much longer, human.”
“Why do you call everyone human?” Emmy asked quietly.
Jonas face melted into one of concern as he looked down on her.
“Because he is a rotten ol’ bastard without a nice bone in his body. Get used to it,” I said as I moved to the door. “If he starts using my name, I won’t know who he is. Okay, we need to end this fight. Enough stalling.”
“I am not in a hurry to face that mage again, though.” Charles stepped in closer.
“Me either, but we have to. No one should be allowed to be that good.”
Paulie opened the door a crack and then closed it immediately. He took a deep breath and moved away from the door. Jonas took his place in a swirl of orange power. Everyone braced.
Jonas ripped the door open and burst out. Charles went next followed by me, magic spell to kill at the ready. Charles stabbed someone in the back as Jonas ripped someone else off the ground and threw him. I burst through with a spell and ran smack into Stefan, Jameson, and the huge bear that was Tim. They knew we were in there and were coming for us.
I probably should’ve felt that, but I was just a bit off my game…
When Stefan saw me emerge, he ripped me toward him and crushed me to his chest. “I thought he had you. Jesus, Sasha, I thought he had you.”
I gave myself five full seconds of his tight embrace, feeling his warmth and safety hugged around me. Feeling our hearts beating rapidly together. Then I pushed away and composed myself. “Oh ye of little faith.”
His dark eyes stared down at me, touching the deep part of me no one else could get to. A fog of desire enveloped me.
“Not the time, human,” Jonas growled.
“Right.” I sighed and tore my eyes away from my love. Battle still raged around us, kept away for the moment by Tim’s crew of snarling, ravaging shifters.
I looked back up at Stefan. “I gotta go.”
“I know. We’re going with you. We’re dominating in battle, but losing in magic. Cato is on his knees. We don’t have much time.”
A shock of guilt and adrenaline both pierced me. I turned back to Emmy, who had melted against the door. She really didn’t seem to like the presence of Stefan’s race, especially those in the leadership role.
Time to get over that ridiculousness. “Okay, Emmy, you’re up. And don’t worry about, like, social stuff. Okay? We’re all equals, here.”
“Hardly.” Charles lifted his eyebrows when he saw mine and Jonas’ glare. “We pride those with more talent over those without. That’s all I meant!”
Jonas held out his hand. Emmy grasped it, immediately. Jameson and Stefan’s eyes both went completely round. I snickered. Jonas had found lurve. How cute.
Charles and I would totally bust his balls!
In the next moment, as Emmy began to move with purpose, my smile melted back into my mask of determination. With the shifters shadowing her sides, and rushing ahead to clear a path, and the rest of us directly behind, we all moved as a unit through a wide hallway to the middle of the building.
“We can trust her, right, bro?” Charles muttered in a low tone.
If Jonas answered, I couldn’t hear. Screaming drowned out my thoughts as we passed an intersecting corridor in view of a wide set of stairs. A mage had some of our guys on the ground, blasting them with a spell that caused convulsions and the blistering of skin. The mage in question was completely calm as he tortured those on the floor at his feet.
My stomach turned as I whipped out a circular array of electric current. As the spell was released, the mage turned toward us to hurl something. He never got the chance. A crack had a sickening line of red opening on his throat. The skin seemed to blister as it turned away from the whip slash. He gurgled out a scream and clutched at his throat as my spell hit, electrocuting him on the spot and stopping all his vitals.
“You learned some nasty spells, human,” Jonas said as we pushed forward.
“There are a lot of them here. I’ve made mine at least kill quickly.”
“The group elected to come to this compound are the best. The best at fighting, and the best at offensive spells.” Emmy took the stairs two at a time. “They intended to take the Council. I don’t think they expected the Council to come to them. They usually underestimate Americans. Always have.”
“Well, good for us,” I said.
We found an empty hallway at the top of the stairs, which immediately had me grabbing Emmy by the back of the gown (odd choice of clothes) to slow her. I veered to the side. Stefan and Jameson stepped in front of us. Jonas walked lightly to the other side. The shifters, one and all, put their noses to the ground.
“Nathanial is too good to leave his back unguarded,” I whispered as my magic drifted down the hall in front of us. “Which way is it?”
“Straight down the hall to the middle, left through a door, down a hall, and then up a few steps and over to the ledge.”
“Do you know who guards him in battle?” Stefan asked softly.
“The man you just killed is one. He probably descended from the top of the stairs. Then Nathanial will have five with swords, and I don’t know how many magical people.”
“Cato said four, but we took two down,” I said.
Emmy shook her head. “He has replacements always ready. He can only hold a certain power level in a link, so when someone falters, he brings on someone else in their place.
“Do you have a blood bond?” Stefan looked at her keenly. “Will he know you’re coming?”
Emmy shook her head again, a look of pure disgust crossing her face. “If the black mage took off the tracker, then no. I have never taken his blood—he has only taken mine.”
Stefan nodded and glanced at Jonas. We were all wondering if Emmy could be trusted. Being kept was a funny thing—you might hate your captor, but if that was all you knew, change could be scary. And fear made a person do irrational things. I trusted Jonas, but Emmy was very pretty, and very good with Jonas’ sexual pleasure of choice. It would be easy for his male anatomy to make decisions his brain never would.
We didn’t have much choice, though. The best course of action now was to keep her close. Keep her where we could see her.
Stefan glanced at me, wariness bleeding through the link. I nodded slightly, letting him know I followed his thinking, before we took off again. Toward the middle of the corridor my magic fizzled and sparked. I pulled it back enough to lighten my perception—using heavy magic could be like stepping on a land mine for some traps. If you hit it and then pulled it away, the bomb went boom. Thankfully, Toa made me learn this the hard way. And the lesson had hurt. A lot.
I walked forward softly. Everyone else shadowed, trusting my lead. Toward the middle of the corridor, I once again felt. It was the only way I could decipher this lunatic’s spells. The normal twirly-swirly was there, making unraveling extremely time-consuming. The crude foundation was, indeed, an explosion. Also, a marker. When it went boom, it would alert the owner that someone was coming.
I let my balanced magic seep into his spell, changing certain characteristics, while extendin
g my feelers beyond the door. Another trap waited. Luckily, the same one.
“Tim, can you smell anyone beyond the door? Bears are supposed to have one of the best olfactory systems, right?” I whispered as sweat beaded my brow. I cut my link from a couple more people. Energy was starting to be a factor.
Tim gave a deep huff as his large, shaggy body stepped even with me. He sniffed next to the wall, higher, and then to the ground. He swung his head from side to side.
“No, you can’t get a reading at all, or no, no one is there?”
He stared at me. This was the problem with shifters—communication outside of their crew was kind of a pain.
“Okay, so, two shakes for the first, one shake for the second…” I helped.
I got one shake. Fine.
Another minute had the spells giving a wonderful light show, and then springing into a tiny plant monster. “Why do I always make plant monsters?”
Charles stepped forward and slashed it to pieces. “Because of the inverted magic, remember?”
“But plant monsters? Why not a Carebear or something else?” I opened the door and quickly moved aside so Charles could take out mini-plant-monster number two.
“You are extraordinarily advanced for being able to work with Nathanial’s magic. But yet, you seem so naïve…” Emmy ducked through the corridor at Jonas’ beckoning.
“You can say it. I don’t know what I’m doing. Go ahead. I’m not offended.” I scowled as I followed the others, spreading out my magic in front of me. Everybody’s a critic.
“You should’ve been around when she was first learning,” Charles whispered with a smile.
I punched him. And it made me feel better that he grunted and rubbed his side.
“The nature of their fighting relationship takes some getting used to,” Jameson said in a soft voice.
Tim huffed.
We continued down the hall in near-silence. In fact, I got constant looks because I was the loudest one. Even Paulie had the absolute stealth down. Emmy, too. And how a giant bear, who nearly took up the corridor on his own, could be silent I had no idea. But none of this was making me look good.
“The final door is up here at the top of the stairs. It will open up into a large square room. He’ll have all his linked mages with him, probably.” Emmy chewed her lip. “I don’t know about the guards. I would assume some would be with him, but some should be guarding the door…”
Another trap lay in wait, this one much more advanced than the others. Still the same construction, though. These were all laid by Nathanial. “He doesn’t like delegating, huh?”
“He links and always works the majority of the important spells. He doesn’t trust others to do it.”
I could barely hear her whisper. Her body was starting to shake and her hands gripped her whips tightly. Worse, Jonas was getting very edgy. His thick cords of muscles were flexed up and down his body and his arms had come away from his sides. Signs that he was about to lose his shit. Charles took a step away.
“You know a lot about him,” Jameson said lightly. I wasn’t fooled. He sensed a trap.
Stefan blasted wariness and uncertainty through our link.
“I was kept as his prisoner. I know a great deal,” she said in a hush, trembling all over.
And she was treated abominably, I’d bet. My heart went out to the girl. Facing a tormentor took the greatest of courage. I hoped she had it, and didn’t, instead, cower and give us away. I didn’t want Jonas to have to lose the one woman he’d let himself love. Because there would never be another. Not for him. He wasn’t the type of guy to move on from deep anguish and torment. He owned his misery like a cloak, constantly overcoming it when it threatened to take him over. He didn’t move on all that easily.
Clearing my mind, because there was nothing I could do, I worked at that spell as I crept forward. I put my hand on Tim’s shoulder and moved him up with me. When I stopped, he did likewise. “Can you smell anyone?”
His big head nodded yes. And then he bristled.
“One nod per different smell,” Stefan murmured.
Ten nods. We had more people, but less magic workers. I knew it.
“I wonder if Cato is still active.” I focused on our link and tried to trace it to him. It was a partnership, so that didn’t work. But I did know he was alive. And that’s all I knew.
“The man in the white cloak was taking out our guys while dueling Cato,” Jameson said softly. “If it was a full attack on only Cato, he would be long since dead. As it is, he probably isn’t far away.”
“That mage is shot, though. That’ll slow him down,” Paulie said.
A normal man, yes, but not this guy. I had every belief he’d rule pain like he ruled his people—not much would slow that mage down. He didn’t get as good as he was without constant diligence and complete focus on the matter at hand.
Urgency squeezed my chest as the last trap turned into a puddle of magic and drifted away. “Hmm. That was the best yet. I’m learning.”
The door burst open. Three men poured out with swords drawn.
Spoke too soon!
Stefan pushed me to the side and took my place at the top. But we had a bear. A really big, angry, alpha bear.
Tim lumbered forward with a roar that shook the walls. I heard a yell from the battlefield below. Our guys knew what that sound meant.
Tim stood, taking up most of the corridor from side-to-side and top-to-bottom. He swung his massive paw and swiped the face off of the first guy. Jonas jetted under another huge swipe and stabbed an enemy in the gut as Tim took the guts out of someone else then pushed forward, stepping on squirming bodies and getting a chop in the neck from a man trying to get out to the fray. The huge bear roared again with anger and determination.
I blasted the whole wall, knocking rubble into the room and a hole in the ceiling. Tiles and plaster rained down on us as our guys forced their way into the room behind and to the sides of Tim. I was crowded with Emmy between Charles, Jonas and Paulie as the three pushed us in after the others.
The room opened up like Emmy had said. One figure stood at the ledge on the far side. Crimson leaked down his arm and the tail-end of a really nasty spell left the circling of his arms. A sword came at my head as the robed man turned around slowly.
At that moment the world went dizzy. My stomach heaved. And then the perfect balance, the harmony of magic, eroded away. I was left without the other half. With just my own.
Someone fell dead at my feet, but I didn’t even notice. A sob ripped out of my throat as I met the cold, calculating eyes of the man who’d just killed Cato. Nathanial now had all his attention on me.
Chapter Eleven
“No!” I screamed.
“A human. To challenge me? Why-o-why did they bother to let you out of your cage?” His smile became placating. “What will you do without your puppet-master, little puppet?”
Faster than thought, a blast of white came at me. I plunged into it with my opposite magic and imploded the damn thing. I knew what he was about. I might be a human hack, but I was a destructive one.
“Puppet-master? That is so cliché,” I said with a sneer as I took a step forward and blended two of Toa’s really, really nasty spells. I added my own flourish—a bunch of jumbled, magical crap all heaped on top with little zings and blasts of magic. No pretty wrapping that he’d be used to, no. A bunch of spare parts and forgotten bits that would affront this sensibilities. So suck it!
Tim roared and attacked one of the mages huddling against the wall. “Let me disengage!” the man screamed as the bear descended.
Stefan dodged a swinging sword, stepped over a wolf, and plunged his sword into an enemy’s gut as Jonas launched himself at another mage running toward the door.
“But I need your magic,” Nathanial sneered as his face clouded with my spell. “How ab-solutely revolting is this spell?”
“I hate how you all drag out the word absolutely. It drives me nuts.” Another spell came at me
as mine fell away. And then Nathanial glanced at Tim and flicked his wrist.
“Did you know, stupid human, that the mastery of magic can force a shifter into his own body? A lesser species, to be sure.” Another spell came at me and exploded halfway to me as Tim erupted in a cloud of green. In the place of the bear lay a naked and shocked human.
Nathanial laughed as I wrestled with the next spell. Even just blowing things up or changing them, he was too good. Too experienced. Too fast. I was flying by the seat of my pants, and he knew it. He devised his spells accordingly. He aimed to take time. To make me think. He was the best mage in the world against, arguably, the most new and naïve. I didn’t stand a chance.
Spells zipped off toward Stefan and Jameson as the rest of the shifters were forced to change into their human, expending massive amounts of energy to do so. The shock of blue hair in the corner meant Ann was alive, but not much use.
“Paulie, do you have your gun?” I asked in desperation as shimmery light bathed Stefan’s face. I zipped off another spell as I wrestled with the creation aimed for Jonas.
“No. It’s no good.”
“Emmy.” Jonas’ voice was gruff, but the tone was pleading.
“Emmy is mine. That’s the wonderful thing with fear and humans. They only have so much courage. And then they just wait to be led.” Nathanial’s voice was cold and grating.
I could barely see Emmy huddled against the wall. She held her whips to her chest. Her body racked in sobs.
“I overcame my fear, Emmy,” I said with strain in my voice as I quelled the burns against Jameson’s skin. Stefan tried to rush forward to physically kill Nathanial, but a singeing spell had him grabbing his eyes and staggering back.
“I am still terrified most of the time, but fuck it, you know? I’d rather be free in this life then caged in my old life. He only has the power over you that you give him. I’ve set you free—now you just have to keep your freedom.”
I panted with fatigue. One of the mages in the corner passed out. Energy was scarce, even for Nathanial. The spells got more brutal. Wilder. More vicious.
