Sorcerer: Trouble with Werewolves: Power of Air Book 2

by Harrison, D. L.

  I now knew more about a female shifters body, and how it functioned, than any doctor or surgeon ever could. Simply because I desperately wanted the information from my power and it answered the call. Next time, I would merely take the part I needed, I didn’t need a medical database of everyone I ever healed in my head, but I had no doubt I could heal just about anything on anyone with that ability.

  But the eureka moment was that the healing only scratched the surface. I could pull unprotected knowledge about anything. It was no wonder air sorcerers were arrogant and secretive. After all, knowledge was power, I’d have to make an effort not to become so myself. Of course, I still had the challenge to incorporate that into my life. I also didn’t think that it would help with connecting to and understanding my inner elemental either, but it was a huge step forward.

  Aitheria sent, “It’s about time you figured it out, I was despairing at your thickness,” in an insulting tone.

  Oh good, I’d never get arrogant with her around to poke at me. One less thing for me to worry about anyway, I sent Aitheria a mind caress followed by a pinch.

  Extending my range beyond a hundred feet had been another goal, so I pulled for the information. It came but was disappointing. The range I could reach was a measure of my ability and would extend as I gained more practice and experience. I realized that meant I needed to start practicing my fire magic more as well, or I’d never get better at it.

  As far as my core went, I was right about that, the air elementals protected the information of themselves, I couldn’t pull anything on it and it remained a mystery, despite knowing what it… or rather what I was now.

  I turned on the water and we washed the blood off from our little experiment.

  “Thanks, I think I have what I needed.”

  Sierra squeezed my hand, “Your welcome. So what’s the plan today? I know we don’t have to meet Tara until later.”

  I shrugged, “I’m not sure, my morning seems pretty open. Any ideas?”

  Sierra asked, “Have they found that guy yet, Burns? I heard he ran on the news; it was mentioned in that interview you did last night.”

  I shook my head, “No, and I can’t locate him, which means he’s probably in some hideaway under the city.”

  Sierra grinned at me, and I felt my stomach dropping, “How about we go get him, I promise I won’t kill him… unless I have to,” she finished a little wistfully, as if hoping she’d have to.

  I really couldn’t resist her smile though, and with the fire shield hiding my inner elemental, it would be only claustrophobic and slightly panic inducing.

  “I suppose we can do that. I really don’t like it underground you know, and they’ll catch him eventually.”

  Her smile grew wider and she hugged me tightly, and kissed my cheek, like hunting down Burns was a gift, or perhaps an exciting date. Now how the hell could I say no to that? She felt entirely too good in my arms. Besides, I kind of wanted to get that poor excuse for a human being myself, and my power was silent, as if it knew I didn’t have anything else to do this morning.

  I asked with a grin of my own, “Do you trust me? I learned a new trick this morning.”

  She nodded and I pulled her a little tighter against me, it took me a minute to get over that distraction and focus my mind. I used my ability to find an area free of cameras and people by an entrance to the underground CTA stop. Then I gathered as much magic as I could hold.

  I whispered, “Close your eyes,” and willed the magic to take us there while trusting that my magic could handle the incidentals, such as doors, people, and traffic along the way.

  The world was a blur of light for a few long moments, and then we were there. I should have followed my own advice and closed my eyes, since I was a bit dizzy. I was also a little fatigued, but not fall down tired and I recovered quickly and released the magic I had left over. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when I sped up my own body, outside magic was always easier, even this.

  Sierra had stiffened in my arms, so I held her until she got her bearings and let go herself.

  She asked in amazement, “You learned that this morning?” as she stepped away and took my hand.

  I nodded, “Yes, I was determined after we took the Metra four times yesterday.”

  She tilted her head and smiled, “And did you have to hold me that close?”

  I winked and said shamelessly, “Probably not,” and then I added thoughtfully, “But you were my first passenger and I didn’t want to take any chances.”

  She looked pleased by that answer, and then dragged me out of the alcove and toward the stairs down with a determined look on her face. I wrapped myself up in a shield of fire magic and took a deep breath.

  Chapter 13

  Friday, May 20th, 2016, 09:01 AM

  This time it wasn’t nearly as simple. Cindy had been taken down here against her will, and brought straight to the storage room she was in. There was one clear scent trail leading right to her. Daniel Burns worked for the city of Chicago, and according to Sierra had left scent trails everywhere in the tunnels. Right now we were merely walking around until Sierra crossed a scent trail that was only a day or two old. Needless to say, there were a lot of tunnels, and the entire time we were dodging the workers down here, as well as a few patrols of police that were looking for the fugitive as well.

  I did my best to focus on our surroundings and Sierra, and not on the false feeling of being crushed. It didn’t help that we had to keep our conversation to an absolute minimum. This had seemed like a much better idea when she’d been hugging me. Still, I needed to be able to do things like this, even if it cut me off from my power. I still had fire, and Sierra was a werewolf, we were hardly helpless.

  She stopped and leaned close, her breath tickled my ear as she said, “I think I found the right trail, it’s only a few hours old, he must have been moving around during the night.”

  I nodded in silent acknowledgment and followed her down the corridor, which led to a metal gate blocking a stone stairway leading down, and we discovered it was bolted shut. We looked at each other, both realizing breaking it would be loud enough to reverberate far back through the tunnels and bring people running.

  I considered melting the bolt, but that would bring questions later when the police came, it wasn’t a padlock we could hide, the bolt lock was built into the gate itself. I looked up and she followed my gaze. The gate didn’t cover the entire entrance, there was a couple of feet between the top of the gate and the twelve-foot ceiling.

  She grinned way too maniacally for my comfort and held out her interlaced hands. She was strong enough to rip a metal lock apart, so I had no doubts she could boost me up. I took a deep breath and stepped into her hand, she pushed me up effortlessly, and I was able to grab the top and pull myself over without making too much noise. When I stood she jumped up and pulled herself over, I turned away when I got an eyeful, a sundress was a poor choice for that activity.

  She didn’t seem to mind I’d gotten a good look and seemed amused I’d turned away. She was a werewolf after all, and had even stripped in front of me once before changing into her wolf. Werewolves weren’t exactly body shy as a rule. Between that and their propensity toward physical touching, it made it difficult for me to know if she was really interested in me, but I’d pretty much made up my mind to find out as soon as the time felt right.

  Unfortunately, yesterday with the death, and this morning hunting for a kidnapping rapist, well it was definitely not the right time. Although I was starting to wonder if with our somewhat crazy lives there ever would be a perfect moment for it.

  We went down the stairs and entered a different tunnel system, not related to the MTA, there were a lot of pipes running above us as well as some on the side. It was unquestionably some type of city infrastructure. Her footsteps in her low heel sandals were almost imperceptible as we moved down the hallway, she wasn’t hesitant at all, quickly making turns as his scent led her through a twisted path of crisscrossing
tunnels.

  It was apparent by the intense look on her face, and the way she held herself she was having a lot more fun than I was. Eventually we came up to a door with a few letters and numbers as the only designation, this one didn’t have a lock but it was the same kind of metal door the storage room was. She pushed it open and we flinched when it squeaked with rust.

  I felt him in range of my fire magic, just twenty feet away. We peeked in carefully and saw a number of shelves with wires, replacement pipes, and various tools. I heard a click, and it took a moment for it to register as someone taking off the safety on a gun, and we pulled back for a moment.

  She whispered, “I’ll get him, don’t worry, I’ll leave him alive to become someone’s girlfriend in prison, I did some research last night after you left.”

  I tried to stop her, I had an idea I could heat up the gun so he’d drop it, but she was too quick.

  She winked and then ran quickly into the room and dodged to the right, circling around the shelves to take him from behind almost faster than I could track. If I hadn’t been aware of her location through her body heat, I wouldn’t have even known that much. Without my air magic I couldn’t speed myself up at all, not even my perception. There was a shout, a gunshot, and then silence. Although I knew it had been the best, and safest plan, I felt a little like a coward to be standing out here while Sierra took care of the bastard.

  But then who was I to ruin her fun, and I was quite relieved as I sensed she wasn’t shot, neither was burns.

  She called out, “Come on in Ben. Daniel here is sleeping.”

  I could feel through my power the heat of the bruise forming on his head, she must have popped him pretty good. I walked in and toward the back of the room. Daniel Burns was out cold on the ground, the gun a few feet from his hand. Against the back wall there were a ton of survival packs, water, vitamins, survival meals. There was even a large stack of ammo boxes for his weapon.

  The guy was a rapist, and also appeared to be set up to live through the apocalypse in the depths of Chicago’s tunnel system. He could have lived down here easily long enough for the cops to give up on him, so he could slip out of the city… if he didn’t just stay here. He was a bit dirty and smelly though, and I realized he’d voided his bowels when he was knocked unconscious.

  Sierra prompted, “So… are you going to call Mike?”

  I pondered that a minute, “I don’t know, maybe we should be subtler this time, especially with Kira Downs on my scent so to speak.”

  She raised an eyebrow, “What did you have in mind?”

  “Let’s tie him up, and get out of here, we can call Mike with the location when we get back up top. That way we won’t appear in the reports. Sure, they’ll have a small mystery but…”

  Sierra grinned, “This was fun, I’d never considered helping humans before you know, it was always about the family and pack. I think I understand why you do it. There was something very satisfying in saving those young women, and in catching that slimy bastard.”

  I returned her smile and grabbed some cable off of the shelf, after pulling about ten feet off the spool I used a little heat to melt and break the pieces apart. We trussed him up pretty well, using one end to tie his hands, and the other to tie his feet. He wasn’t going anywhere. We left the gun alone, so far I didn’t think we’d left fingerprints on anything except the door, which I wiped down when we left.

  The trip back up took time, but it went much faster than finding Daniel to begin with. It was a relief to be back where I belonged, above ground, and in hindsight it had been fun. It was close to noon, it had taken three hours to find him and get back out. Aitheria was both relived and glaring, she hated when I went anywhere she couldn’t go.

  I pulled out my phone and realized Mike might have a few questions for me if I sent him to a fugitive already tied up. So I sent the information to Aiya instead, feeling a little guilty that she’d have to cover that with Mike somehow, and put my phone up.

  “Lunch? I was thinking soup and sandwiches?”

  She nodded and looked at me with eyes that still sparkled with mischief from the hunt, and she took my hand.

  “What about our clothes? We don’t exactly smell like roses right now either.”

  She had a point, the tunnel system did have a unique kind of smell to it. And we were both dusty from the top of that gate. I used my magic to get our clothes clean, I also managed to air out the smell, literally.

  “Does that work?”

  She quirked a smile, “For now, but I still want a shower later.”

  We decided to walk, it would be too dangerous exposure wise to flit about everywhere with my power, besides it wasn’t too far, and walking most everywhere around the loop kept me in shape. It was a warm but not hot day in May, and the weather was perfect for it.

  Chapter 14

  Friday, May 20th, 2016, 12:32 PM

  We were eating our food and I was learning about all the different pack businesses, and what she did for them. She did a lot of the paperwork and some sales, although at twenty-two she was just getting introduced to the latter. Right now some others in the pack were covering her duties while she spent her time with me.

  She was just telling me about Suzy, their pack omega who was doing most of her work. A pack’s omega was the wolf with the least dominant nature, about as submissive as a wolf gets, but on the other side of it they usually had the most nurturing personality in the group and was a cherished and protected part of the pack. I vaguely recalled what she looked like, she had a more petite frame although still very much in shape, and was barely above five feet tall.

  I was surprised to find out Sierra fell third in the pack in dominance right behind Clint, in front of the enforcers and even the alpha’s mate Selene. Apparently whatever she’d went through alone as a werewolf growing up in human foster homes had made her extremely dominant, she’d had to take care of herself. One thing I was sure of after the last couple of days, and with this new information, was if I managed to form a relationship with her I’d be constantly on my toes around her. That sounded like fun to me.

  We were interrupted by my cell going off, it was Mike and I answered it.

  Mike asked, “You busy tonight? Jenna and I want to talk to you about something, no setup tonight.”

  I looked up at Sierra in question and she simply nodded in willingness to come along.

  “I think so, and I’ll be bringing my own date tonight if that’s okay. I’ll know for sure in a few hours, what time?”

  He said, “Seven, and that sounds fine. We got Burns by the way, I’ll tell you about it tonight.”

  I suppressed a smile at that, told him I’d call if we couldn’t make it, and got off the phone.

  Sierra looked at me a moment and asked in a sickly sweet tone that set off alarm bells in my mind, “Bringing your own date?”

  I nodded slowly and thought through my answer and tried to figure out what button I’d inadvertently pushed, “Jenna is determined to see me paired off as soon as possible, she’s set me up on more bad blind dates than I can tell you about. It will be nice not to have to worry about that with you there.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her tone darkened, “I see, so… I’m what, simply your shield for the night?”

  I shook my head and tried not to smile at her reaction, “No, I was actually hoping you’d be my date for real, not as some… dodge.”

  Her face relaxed as she thought that through, and then started eating her soup. I had to admit I was a little nervous but did my best not to show it as I continued to eat. Finally, she looked up at me with a small smile and her voice was soft, melodic, and just short of shy.

  “I’d like that, but we may be busy tonight depending on what happens with Tara.”

  I realized, confident werewolf or not, maybe she hadn’t been on all that many dates either.

  “I know, that’s why I told him we might have to cancel.”

  She continued telling me more about the pack, it wa
s apparent age didn’t count for much when it came to authority. At twenty-two she was younger than six of them, the five we had sat with at the table yesterday. Suzy was a few years older as well, and the three men who left, Sam, Carl, and Peter, were still teenagers and too young to really know where they fit as far as dominance in the pack.

  Her family was something she could seemingly talk about endlessly, and it was apparent with a man like Derik as the Alpha and setting the tone for the pack, it was a good life.

  For Karl’s pack… it was a nightmare.

  I asked in a moment of comfortable silence, “So what happens to Karl’s pack, I mean, Karl is the one that needs to die, perhaps slowly and torturously, but what about the others? His second, Billy, is kind of a sick bastard too, but the others are virtual slaves and being forced to do what they normally wouldn’t.”

  Sierra shrugged and said in a matter of fact voice, “Once this is over, Derik will judge them all separately and decide what’s to become of them, I think you know him well enough to know he’ll show mercy if it’s warranted. But at the same time, until Karl is dead, we can’t hold back against the rest of his pack, our first duty is to protect our own, which includes you. I won’t feel any guilt about it either. It’ll be Karl who is to blame for their deaths if they happen, not us.”

  That sounded pretty brutal, but I understood it. It was the downside to living in a world where a werewolf’s self-determination wasn’t always their own. To not fight would be insane.

  I said grimly, “I understand, I can do my best to try and disable, but I won’t hesitate if I have to.”

  We talked quite a bit longer about pack and our personal lives, so lunch wound up going about two hours. I learned a lot, and the more I found out about her, and their lives, the more confident I was in my decision to ally. I was looking forward to the ritual tomorrow evening, though I wasn’t quite sure what was involved in that yet.