Sorcerer: Trouble with Werewolves: Power of Air Book 2

by Harrison, D. L.

  I’d have to play around, and hope I didn’t kill myself in the process. I had no doubts Aitheria was serious, if I didn’t risk it I’d wind up dead anyway when my enemies caught up to me. I could think of a few things I needed to know right off, one was transporting, the other was healing. I also needed to learn to control my core, the few times I’d done it while in danger I’d connected with the air from a lot farther than just a hundred feet around me. Maybe those things would come more instinctively than I thought they would… after that I’d have to see.

  I smiled at my full sized friend who was looking at me intently, or perhaps she was right, and I was shrunken in this dream. I supposed it didn’t matter which and trying to figure it out would just give me a headache.

  “I’ll do my best to figure stuff out, the hardest part though will be figuring out even what I can accomplish. Thank you for showing me… your real body is beautiful Ria, indescribably so.”

  She smiled mysteriously at me and silently cuddled back into my side. She kissed my cheek, it felt like a warm breeze in the shape of lips, and then I fell back into a deep sleep.

  Chapter 11

  Friday, May 20th, 2016, 07:18 AM

  I woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon. With my connection to air, it was easy to feel who was in the kitchen. I supposed it was slightly disturbing Aiya could just walk around cooking in my apartment without me waking up, but I knew Aitheria would wake me if someone less than trustworthy broke in. I rolled out of bed and took a shower while I thought about what I could do to understand my power better on my own.

  It was tempting to just leave it until things slowed down, I still had quite a bit going on, and it felt like it was going to be another busy day. But if I put it off, I knew I’d keep putting it off. Plus, with me heading out to the suburbs for the pack a lot, it would be useful to learn how to travel. The Metra is convenient, but not convenient enough to want to ride it four times a day when we had to go back and forth like that.

  I’d try it in small steps. I pulled the magic to me, from the air I was connected to and tried to transport to the living room, right outside my kitchen. Just down the hall, should be easy right? Or so I told myself. I pictured the spot, even felt it within the range of my own power, and willed myself there.

  I felt foolish as I still stood in my bedroom staring at a mirror. I tried a few more things, but none of it was working, no matter how I framed it in my mind, a request, an order, a plea even, I couldn’t teleport. That made me consider what Diana had told me, it was possible she just believed that air sorcerers could do it, when they were really doing something else.

  It went back to secrets again, just like when Tara had tried to get me to grab the air around me, it was more along the lines of inviting it instead. I tried to think what air would do to get from place to place… well it wouldn’t teleport like on some sci-fi show, it would flow from one place to another, maybe at incredible speeds.

  I drew in the magic again, this time I concentrated on the air moving me to the new location as quickly and stealthily as it could while hoping I arrived in one piece. I felt the air thicken and surround me like a cocoon, all I saw after that was a blur of motion so fast my mind barely registered it, and then I was standing right outside the kitchen, which is when Aiya dropped the spatula and shrieked, and a moment later glared at me with her pretty brown eyes.

  “Umm, oops. Sorry about that, I was trying something new… what did you see?”

  She bent her legs and picked up the spatula and started to wash it, “Nothing, there was nothing there and then you just appeared, did you learn to teleport or something?”

  I smiled at the irony, “Something like that yes…”

  I wasn’t even tired, of course, I’d only moved thirty feet, I’d have to see how it affected me after thirty miles. I’d also have to develop my remote viewing, so I didn’t pop in on innocent unsuspecting humans… like Aiya.

  “Sorry again, so what brings you by this morning? Not that I ever mind,” the scent of the pancakes, bacon, and syrup was making my mouth water.

  Aiya scowled at me, “Why’d you do that interview, the captain saw it last night on the news and called Mike and I. We’re not to work with you anymore, at least until it calms down.”

  I sighed and looked at her helplessly, “I’m not really sure, I think it would have been worse if I dodged and said no comment. It might not have been as positive.”

  She looked thoughtful for a minute, and dropped the subject. I wasn’t really sure that was the truth, but it probably was. I couldn’t think of another reason my power would put me in the path of a reporter like that.

  “Do you know anything about those murders yet? The queries came back positive for the two states you said they would come back on, and the feds are taking it over. Their building a taskforce, your buddy Special Agent Tom Kilmer is going to head it.”

  I scowled, Tom Kilmer had apologized that one time, when the leak was one of his agents, but he was still a pain in the butt. I hoped not to run into him at all, but it was probably unlikely.

  “Yeah, we’re making some progress on it. They’re still hiding though, but we might have a break on that later today.”

  Aiya pulled off the latest run of hot cakes, there was a pretty nice stack of them. I walked over and poured us both coffee.

  Aiya said, “Burns, we can’t find him. He hasn’t used his phone or credit cards,” she smacked my hand as I reached for a piece of bacon, “Not until we’re at the table.”

  I laughed and put my hands behind my back, “Yes ma’am.”

  I tried to reach out for the information, I still had Burns’ key, it was in my radius of air in my bedroom, so I didn’t have to actually touch it. I couldn’t get squat, he felt… missing, exactly the way Cindy had been.

  I shook my head, “Sorry, at a guess he’s holed up in the cities tunnel system somewhere. But I can’t even be positive about that. My abilities don’t do so good with underground.”

  The smell of the food was so good it was torture to wait, but this last run would finish off the batter, so I’d just have to be patient.

  “You look gorgeous this morning Aiya, did you do something new with your hair?”

  She looked at me suspiciously, “No bacon. Sit.”

  I grinned shamelessly, got the butter out of the fridge and sat down. It really didn’t take long and I was happily eating both syrup drowned pancakes made from scratch, and deliciously crispy bacon. About halfway through the meal she cleared her throat.

  “I hope despite Captain Martinez you’d keep helping?” she asked as she put a photo on the table.

  I just looked at it and a rush of information entered my head, finally something simple. The two cases where things were hidden from me weren’t all that fun, challenging, but not fun at all.

  “Douglas Prentice, eleven-year-old runaway. His mom is a good person, but her new boyfriend is verbally abusive when mom isn’t around, although he hasn’t hit the kid yet. His mother didn’t believe Doug when he told her about it, so he ran. He’s been sleeping in an alley just five blocks away from their apartment, and begging for money for food, telling people he needs money for the bus to get home.”

  Her eyes widened, and I realized I’d given her a lot more information than I usually do. Normally I just give a location, she definitely gets passed my guard. Sometimes I wonder if having her as the one person who knows the truth about me is too much of a burden for her, but she’ll keep the knowledge until she asks me to take it away, or pushes too hard for information on other supernatural races. So far, she hasn’t done that.

  She took out her phone and opened the notes app, “You got an address?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  I nodded, and told her where he’d be in two hours.

  She asked reluctantly, “Ben… what do you see when you look at me?”

  I raised an eyebrow, “I see a stunning beautiful young woman, an excellent police officer, and one of my closest friends.”
>
  She frowned, “That isn’t what I meant.”

  I sighed and ate another piece of bacon before I answered.

  “That’s all I see, I could probably find out a lot about your life if I wanted to, but I don’t. You deserve your privacy, and I deserve my sanity. I’m not even sure if it would work anymore on you.”

  She tilted her head, “What do you mean, your sanity, and why wouldn’t it work?”

  I shrugged, “When I looked at that picture, I wanted to know about the kid and where he was so you could go pick him up, so he’d be safe. Sometimes I do get random visions when meeting people, but I don’t try to get them all the time. Could you imagine if I walked down Wabash street and looked at everyone I walked by and learned about their lives? I’d go crazy if I sucked in knowledge all day from the people around me.

  “And it might not work at all, even if I tried to read you now, because it doesn’t work well on the people closest to me. I’m not sure why, but it just doesn’t.”

  She seemed to relax a little and even gave me a light smile, perhaps at my comment of her being close to me, which let me relax as we finished the meal. Someone knocked on the door when I was clearing the table. It was Diana, and I moved to let her in…

  Aiya knew Diana was a part of my supernatural life, but hadn’t seen her in nine months, not since she’d followed us that night. They eyed each other speculatively, but were polite when they greeted each other. Diana was wearing jean shorts and a clingy t-shirt with calf high leather boots. She looked really sexy actually, and I felt that twinge of attraction which didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the fact that I thought of Sierra a little guiltily. I didn’t really have time to work out where my head was at the moment though. We weren’t even dating yet, but apparently somewhere in my head I wanted to make that happen.

  Diana pulled out her phone and showed me a picture, “I can’t stay long, I’m,” she shook her head and picked a different way to say it with Aiya standing right there, I was almost sure she was going to say hunting a rogue, “I need to find this person. The usual amount will be deposited if you can tell me where he is.”

  I looked closely at the picture, “He’s out on the lake, he’ll be coming into Burnham harbor at eleven o’ three this morning. Dock EC. Send me a text if you need help.”

  She grinned and said teasingly, “You just want the bonus. I guess I do have a little time after all, are there any pancakes left?”

  Aiya nodded, “I always make too many. Want a coffee?”

  I guess Aiya decided to play hostess. I had no illusions, she might not ask for information about my world, but she was still a very intelligent police officer, and she’d been observing for nine months. That thought might not be completely fair though, she may have just been being polite. We sat back down at the table and I sipped my coffee as Diana dug in.

  Diana said in an amused voice, “By the way, nice interview, my three older friends absolutely loved it.”

  Well great, now I had to worry about the vampire council.

  I shrugged, “It’s consistent with my cover of hiding in plain sight, not that I had a choice in the matter.”

  She nodded in agreement, she didn’t look all that bothered by it herself. And it was true, I was already well established as a psychic and detective before I got my powers, I really didn’t have much of a choice at all. Plus, I liked the role I played, I was able to do a lot of good with it. Hopefully the press wouldn’t ruin that.

  There was another knock at the door, and I got up to get it. Sierra was standing there in a sexy dark blue sundress, I was surprised to see her so early, it was still only just after eight in the morning.

  “Come in, join the party, I think there might even be some pancakes left,” I quipped, my apartment was grand central this morning, not to mention it now had three beautiful women in it.

  Sierra seemed surprised I had company, but nodded to Diana and Aiya in greeting.

  Aiya was smiling for some reason, probably because it was an opportunity to gather more data. Aiya and Sierra had met of course, yesterday when we’d found Cindy.

  Sierra sat down and grabbed the last of the pancakes while she said shortly, “Thanks,” and dug in. She was obviously uncomfortable with a human here.

  There was some small talk, but everyone was ignoring the forbidden subject which added a bit of awkwardness to things. Or maybe that was just me, I wasn’t really sure.

  Aiya sighed, “Alright, I need to get going before I’m late.”

  She gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before she left, and Diana wasn’t far behind also giving me a light hug on her way out. I couldn’t help but notice Sierra looked annoyed at the other women touching me, and for some reason I was greatly cheered by that…

  Chapter 12

  Friday, May 20th, 2016, 08:21 AM

  “Not that I mind your here early, because I honestly don’t, but Tara probably won’t be ready until late in the afternoon,” I said curiously.

  She replied, “Derik. He’s afraid Karl’s been watching and looking for the right time to strike. As our ally he decided you shouldn’t be alone either,” she paused a moment before she said challengingly, “I volunteered to come and stay with you for the duration, Katie and Clint came with me so I wouldn’t be alone for the trip, and left when we got to your apartment… is that a problem?”

  I shook my head wondering why she got confrontational, “Not a problem. I’m glad you’re here.”

  She nodded shortly and finished off the pancakes.

  I’d been thinking of a way I could learn to heal, if I could heal whatever was wrong with Jenna it would be a good thing. But… I wasn’t about to experiment on her either. I’d thought of going to the hospital, but immediately dismissed that as being just as bad. I knew my own body healed quickly, so I figured I’d start out small, a cut perhaps.

  I got up and went into the kitchen, and picked up a knife from the counter while I held my arm over the sink. I was about to cut it when…

  “What the hell are you doing Ben,” Sierra asked in a growling voice while glaring at me.

  If I thought she was upset earlier, now I knew she was merely slightly annoyed about finding the two women in my apartment eating breakfast. She looked really good to me just then, she looked hot angry, but I kept that to myself… mostly because I just wasn’t that stupid.

  I shrugged sheepishly, “I need to learn how to use my magic better,” I said in an offhand voice.

  Her eyes tightened further so I thought a fuller explanation might be in order, but not everything either. I told her about Mike and Jenna, and how I wanted to heal her, I also mentioned it might be a good thing for me to know as an ally to the pack.

  She didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded, so I sliced into my arm, just a little.

  It took me a few extra moments to concentrate through the sting, which was a problem I’d have to work on another time. I pulled in the air magic and studied what my body was doing, how it was already healing as I simply held it closed. Apparently my core magic was involved, it did it almost instinctually. I studied what it was doing, and fed that process more magic.

  My arm tingled like crazy as I felt and watched the cut slowly disappear.

  I realized right away this wouldn’t help me to heal Jenna, all I’d done was tap into and speed up my body’s natural ability to heal. Obviously whatever was wrong with her, wasn’t being healed naturally by her body, so what I did might help someone that took a serious wound, even myself. But I wouldn’t be healing any permanent bodily injuries or defects that way.

  Sierra grabbed my arm and started to study it, I hadn’t even noticed her move while I was lost in thought. Something else I needed to work on, why bother connecting to the air all around me if I wasn’t paying attention to what it was telling me.

  “I can’t even see a mark. Not even a thin white scar line. Do you think you can heal your friend?” she sounded thoughtful.

  I shook my head, a
nd explained the problem.

  She said, “Let’s see if you can heal others.”

  Before that registered in my mind she’d already grabbed the knife from my hand and sliced into her own arm. My eyes widened in panic for a moment, but she was looking at me impishly and hadn’t even flinched. I supposed it was too late to object.

  I touched her arm by the wound and fed some air magic to examine the cut, which was much deeper than mine had been. Her body was healing it faster than mine would without assistance, but it would still take at least a day for it to close up without help. She was also healing differently. Her body was different, between being a woman, a werewolf, and having different magic I wasn’t sure how to heal it, and was afraid I’d do it wrong.

  I was getting frustrated, what I really needed was knowledge about her body and how it worked. There was a desperate need in me for it, as I helplessly watched her arm bleed.

  My mind opened and flooded with information, so much information that I froze for at least ten seconds. Then I started laughing. I was such an idiot.

  Sierra asked, “Are you okay?” with concern in her voice.

  I smiled at her, she was bleeding into my sink and actually asking me how I was.

  “Yes, I’m fine, I just finally realized the truth of what I am,” I said softly as I released a small bit of magic into her arm, and watched with satisfaction as it knitted as perfectly as mine did.

  It truly was a eureka moment in my life. Despite the knowledge that I’d been tracking down people and saving kids with the power of air as a sorcerer, not as a psychic, I never really thought through what that meant. My own mind was holding me back. I was sure some information was blocked from me, like my enemies, and whatever was protected by other magic, but the true power of a sorcerer of air was information, knowledge and how to apply it.

  My mind and power had been doing what I expected it to, which is continue to find the missing. Sure, I’d keep doing that, I liked doing that, and it was my cover in the human world, hiding in plain sight. But my power had the ability to gather knowledge, not just where someone was, but pretty much everything out there.