by Izzy Shows
Why did you kill me?
How do you reason with a nightmare? I confess, I don’t know.
“All right, so, the Order aside, at least you recognize that I need combat training,” I said, happy to change the topic back to something more pleasant.
He grunted. “Yes, I know. And I know you like it more than anything else, which is why I left it for last.”
My lips stretched into a grin. “It’s just more fun, more exciting. Gets the blood pumping, you know?”
“I do. But it’s not a game, Blair. Combat is serious business.”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to tell me that. I know. I’ve been in fights, and I’ve trained with others before.”
“Oh, really? Who? I was under the impression that you’d been on your own.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I didn’t want to tell him about Mal. I didn’t trust him to keep it to himself; if he learned that I’d been working with a demon... Well, he had a hard enough time getting it through his head that I wasn’t out to kill all the vampires in the world. Throw a demon into the mix, and he was liable to report me to the Order and recommend my execution. No, best to not.
“Just a man I met,” I said. Not entirely a lie. Malphas was a man, after all. “He’s gone now, though, so I’m glad I have you to train with. It’ll keep me sharp.”
He cast a curious expression at me. “How did you meet him?”
“Aidan worked with him. Just once, when we were looking into the necromancer case. Not the best guy to hang around with, but he had information that helped.”
“I didn’t know Aidan had people he worked with.”
“Well, ‘worked with’ is probably a strong phrase. But he had Lillai, too, you know. She’s a shopkeeper, the pillar of the magical community in London. You can’t really get anything done without her approval.”
I hoped that introducing Lillai into the conversation would distract him from the fact that I’d mentioned Mal.
“I’ve heard of her. Tough cookie, eh?”
I grinned. “Yeah, but she’s not so bad underneath it all. She really cares about the community, and she’ll do anything she can to keep them safe. I can get behind that. And she’s not unreasonable, either. She just seems to hold a grudge against me for some reason.”
“Well, you don’t exactly make the best first impression on people. You’re a bit obstinate.”
I glared at him. “Or people have low tolerance.”
“Ah, yes, the common denominator is you, but the fault must be with other people. That makes total sense.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in the seat. He’d blame it all on me.
“You would do well to listen to him, Blair. He can help you expand your perception of the world.”
And now Weylyn was agreeing with him.
“I thought you were supposed to be on my side.”
“I am on your side, but I think he has a point. You could do well to try to soften your approach. What is that saying? You catch more flies with honey?”
“Ugh. Buzz off.” I turned my head to look out the window again.
I just wanted to get home so we could get to the combat magic. Be done with all this talking and get down to the part I really enjoyed. The part that made me feel alive. The part where I could feel my magic most closely and tune in to it without too much effort.
The part where we tried to kill each other.
Ten
I stood in the field with my knees bent and flexed my fingers. I was giddy anticipating the fight. Sure, I’d fought with the vampire just last night, but that hadn’t been much fun. It had been over all too fast, and his friends hadn’t even tried to intervene and help him.
Some friends they were. My friends had my back in the middle of a fight. I could depend on them.
“We’re going to fight with our familiars,” Diego said.
I cast a look at Weylyn, now in his full form. He towered head and shoulders over Desideria. It made me feel a bit smug that my familiar was so big, but I tried not to let it go to my head too much. Potential was one thing; realizing it was another thing altogether. You had to work to get up to it, and I intended to make Weylyn proud.
“How’s that going to work? And why?”
“Because you need to know how to coordinate with Weylyn. He’ll be your biggest asset in a fight, if you can work properly with him without distracting either of you. Desideria and I will attack, and you’ll focus on defending yourself for the moment. Merge your mind with his and let your thoughts flow freely, rather than trying to give him commands. It’ll work better that way.”
Without another word, Diego had called fire magic into his hand and was launching an attack against me.
“Aegis.” I had my shield up just in time to defend myself.
My eyes darted over to the blur that was Desideria. She locked into combat with Weylyn. He was large and fast, but she was lithe and intentionally kept out of his way. She’d dart in and swipe at his hindquarters, then dart away to be safely out of bounds.
“Let her hit you and wait for her retreat. You can get her back leg while she isn’t looking at you.”
I sent the thought without thinking about it too much--but it was the exact opposite of what Diego had told me to do, and the repercussions were obvious when a bolt of pure force slammed me to the ground.
The breath flew from my lungs. I sprawled on the grass, trying to remind myself how to breathe. I was still looking at Weylyn, though, and I had distracted him. His head had turned toward me at the last moment, and Desideria landed a blow to his face.
I was pleased to see that he snapped his teeth into her hind leg a moment later, following the thought that I’d given him.
“You distracted yourself,” Diego said from across the field.
Yeah, well, I didn’t need him to tell me that. I’d figured it out all on my own.
I arched my back, pulled my legs up, and jumped to my feet. Without hesitating, I reached into the well of power inside of me and pulled ice magic out of it. Bolts of ice flew from my hands one after the other, striking Diego’s clothes. I’d intentionally sought not to hit his body but rather to pin him to the ground with shards of ice.
He grunted from his position on the ground, then his body blazed with pure light and he was back on his feet a moment later.
“I told you to defend,” he said.
I bounced my weight from one foot to the other, grinning viciously at him. I didn’t care what his orders were; I couldn’t battle with half my mind focused on not attacking. That just wasn’t me.
I had to give it my all or not engage to begin with. He’d have to learn that about me.
He narrowed his eyes, pulled back one hand, and sent a bolt of energy flying at me. I stepped to the side, lifted up two fingers and concentrated on the bolt. I tuned in to the air around it and sent it flying harmlessly into the ground.
I spun, my eyes closed as I thrilled to the sense of magic beating through me. Oh, yeah, it hurt, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy it. I’d learned to accept the pain, bend to it, and allow it to fuel me.
It sang inside of my veins, searing my nerve endings and driving all feeling from them. But that didn’t stop me. Nothing could stop me.
I sent bolt after bolt of ice at Diego, opening my eyes to see him blasting fire at them to deflect them.
Ah, so he’d figured that out. Ice was my forte. It was where I excelled. I could rely on ice without words, somehow. Everything else required that a spell be spoken, but ice could be pulled from within me and just flow. I didn’t quite understand the why of that, but I didn’t stop to question it. I just accepted it.
It was a part of me, and it worked. Why bother questioning magic that just worked?
Diego advanced across the field, throwing bolts of energy at me. They were like the shield I most frequently conjured--not an elemental magic, but one of pure energy. Designed to hit the target like blunt force.
>
I spent most of my energy defending myself, deflecting the energy into the ground and backing up to keep space between us. But he kept advancing. I growled, digging my feet into the ground.
I swept my arms up and then down in a great arc. “Incendium,” I said, and fire flew from my open palms. Fire burned the worst. It was the hardest magic for me to use, but it did so much damage that it couldn’t be ignored in the middle of a fight. It left me gasping for air, though, as if it had used the air inside my lungs as fuel.
Maybe it had. I didn’t know the physics of magic. I suspected no one did--Wizards didn’t seem the type to be big on science. All the wishy-washy magic bits got in the way of hard science.
Diego managed to shield himself from the worst of it, but I saw the way he cringed. The heat of the flames had gotten through the shield and disrupted him.
“Earth,” I said, raising my hands from my waist up to my face. Vines sprang from the ground, entangled themselves around his limbs and held him steady.
This is too easy, I thought, frowning. I shouldn’t be able to take him out so easily.
And then Desideria pounced on me, driving me to the ground and cutting through my mental focus.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, WEYLYN!” I shouted.
He was there a moment later, his teeth digging into Desideria’s back and dragging her off of me, but not before she had sunk her claws into my shoulders and ripped at them.
I gasped at the pain, biting back the swear that burst to my lips. I hadn’t been expecting Desideria. I’d been so focused on fighting Diego that I’d put the familiars entirely out of my mind.
That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Diego had said to merge my mind with Weylyn’s, but I couldn’t quite get the knack of that.
I took a deep breath and searched for Weylyn’s mind on the link that had been created between us, one that lived there no matter what was going on.
For a moment, the world swam, and I saw it through his eyes. I felt his rage at the mountain lion attacking his precious mage. How dare she? Doesn’t she know how important the girl is? I have to protect her, have to keep her safe. It isn’t time yet...
I shook my head, which jumped me back into my own mind for a moment. That had been so disorienting--and then I was blasted several yards across the field, still on my back.
Diego had taken advantage of my temporary distraction. How was I supposed to learn how to merge with Weylyn in the middle of combat?
But that hadn’t been Diego’s idea. It had been mine. I was supposed to be on the defensive, learning how to deflect spells and attacks while working with Weylyn. It had been my idea to attack in turn, to drive Diego back and put him on the defensive.
It was too much work to keep up at once. I should have known better. I should have listened to Diego when he tried to explain it to me.
I struggled to my feet, breathing heavily as I looked at Diego. He was close now, just a dozen steps or so away from me, and his face was set in fierce determination. He wasn’t taking this lightly, and I figured he wanted to teach me a lesson.
That I couldn’t do it all. That I needed to listen to him and respect him as my teacher.
Everything inside me riled against that implication. I didn’t want to listen to him. I didn’t want to be under anyone’s thumb. I was my own person. I’d lived on my own for too long to blindly follow orders that were given to me by a puffed-up peacock who thought he knew my life better than I did.
I allowed the rage to fuel me as I reached for my magic again. I blasted Diego a moment later with pure energy, but he deflected it without too much effort, and I followed it up with another.
And then another, and another, and another.
Sweat beaded on my brow from the amount of energy I was exerting, and the odd thought drifted in that I should have had a more substantial lunch. I needed to learn to feed my body more energy so that I wouldn’t constantly be caught losing it all in a fight.
I threw a fist forward and sent energy flying out of it, managing to hit Diego square in the gut. He stumbled back a few paces, confusion on his face. He hadn’t been expecting that, for some reason, and that pleased me to no end.
Good. He was underestimating me.
“Ventus,” he said, and a sudden wind battered at me, pushing at me in an attempt to drive me onto my back again. I took a knee, gritting my teeth to keep myself mostly upright.
“Ventus,” I said, glaring back at him. I could use his own spells against him. I turned the wind back on him, letting it fly around me and whip my hair into my face. Standing up, I balled my hands into fists at my sides.
And yet, I had the distinct impression that he wasn’t trying very hard, that he wasn’t giving me his all. Why would he hold back?
I was reminded of another fight, another training session, with Mal, one when he’d told me that he couldn’t ever fight me with all he had, because deep down, he didn’t want to kill me. And yet I’d given my all to the training session, refusing to do anything else. To me, it was a sign of disrespect to hold back in a fight, and I didn’t much like to think that Diego was doing that now.
“Weylyn--” I started to speak to him aloud but thought better of it and sent my mind flying to his. Together, we inhaled the scent of battle and felt it thrum through our veins.
Together, we raced across the field, ignoring Desideria. I felt my own feet smacking into the grass at the same time I felt the strength of his four legs flying over the ground.
“Ventus!” I flung my left hand forward and loosed the chain that was tightened around my wrist and fingers. A gust of wind flew from my wrist, roared through the field and knocked Diego onto his arse. He struggled for a moment, trying to stand, but I didn’t give him that option. I kept the wind battering him, kept pummelling him to the ground.
A moment later, Weylyn was at him, his front legs pinning Diego to the ground at his shoulders. I turned my attention to Desideria, directing the wind to her and sending her flying across the field so she couldn’t help her master.
I was at Weylyn’s side a moment later.
“Glacio,” I said, and a spear of ice appeared in my hand. I pointed it at Diego’s neck, a vicious smile on my face. Weylyn bared his fangs in a snarl.
Diego stared up at me with his eyes wide.
“Don’t you dare underestimate me,” I said.
He gulped. “Deal.”
Eleven
“Well, this is an interesting sight.”
I jerked at the sound of Carmen’s voice and took a step back from Diego, allowing the ice to dissipate from my hands. Weylyn eased off him so Diego could stand, and Desideria appeared a moment later at his side. I’d ceased creating the wind when I called the ice, so she’d been able to run back.
Turning, I saw a car pulled up behind Diego’s, and the vampire was leaning against it. She clapped slowly, laughing.
“Long time, hm, Blair?” She smiled at me.
For the first time, I felt another person’s rage being exuded from them. I turned with surprise to look at Diego, but there was nothing I could do, nothing I could say, the shock was so full inside me.
He must be feeling that rather strongly for me to be able to pick up on it.
Of course that made sense. He hated vampires, and the sight of one who seemed to be on good terms with me... Well, that had to piss him off.
“Hey, Carmen,” I said, my voice soft. I didn’t worry about whether or not she could hear me--vamp hearing would take care of that. She could probably hear my heart beating right now, smell the anxiety pouring out of me. I didn’t want a fight to break out between Carmen and Diego. “Long time, indeed.”
I hadn’t seen her since we’d hunted the three infected vampires together. There hadn’t been a need for it, and we weren’t exactly fast friends. Our coexistence had been bred from necessity and from Dudley commanding her to work with me. She hadn’t been particularly happy about it, either.
Which made it all the weirder for me to see her sm
iling at me as she leaned against the car.
“This vampire is a friend of yours?” Weylyn spoke inside my mind.
“Something like that. Not really, though. We just worked together.”
“I don’t suppose I could have a chance at fighting her instead?” Carmen quipped.
I quirked an eyebrow. “Do you really want to?”
She knew the destruction I was capable of. I didn’t doubt for a second that I could take her in a pure one-on-one situation. I’d fought a lot of vampires on my own in that house, and the infected had been old ones, too. Five new vampires had to equal one old one in pure strength, and I’d managed that just fine.
Carmen lowered her eyes so that her lashes hid them, and a small smile tilted the corners of her lips up. “You haven’t changed, Blair. Somehow, that’s a comfort to me in these times.”
I broke out in a grin at that. I rushed across the yard and wrapped my arms around her in a hug. She stiffened for a moment before she relaxed, wrapping her arms around me in turn.
“It’s good to see you,” I said as I stepped away from her.
Weylyn came charging up then, unwilling to leave me alone. He bumped his head against my leg, nearly knocking me over, then looked up at Carmen. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted.
I took it as a doggy smile.
“And you,” she said. “And who is this beautiful creature?” She hesitated for a moment before offering her hand to Weylyn.
He sniffed it before barking, then sat on his haunches. I checked to see that his tail was wagging. So, he wasn’t going to fight Carmen. That was good; I could only handle one person being antagonistic at a time.
“This is Weylyn,” I said, patting him on the head. “He’s my familiar.”
“Ah. So, you’re advancing in your world, then. That’s good. I have a feeling we’re going to need you at your highest strength.”
I raised my chin. “I’d hoped for the opposite, but it’d seem that you’re right. Things just keep getting worse and worse.”
There’d been a time when I would have wondered why things were falling apart in London, but recent events had changed my tune. I recognized that it had to be the Others tainting people that was making it such a shit show. I wanted to go after them on my own, to take care of the root of the problem rather than treating the symptoms, but it had been made very clear to me that that wasn’t an option.
