Magic Vs. Aliens: Hybrid Sorcerer: Book One - Return of Magic: Book Five

by D. R. Rosier

  She smirked, “Feel better, Ryan?”

  He blushed despite himself, “Be nice, Sadie.”

  She curtseyed, which looked a little silly in a red t-shirt, tight blue jeans, and black boots. Below that he knew, she wore skintight black leather armor that was incredibly supple and comfortable. It was also armor he’d heavily enchanted himself. Magic protected from magic great, but it could also do a great job against physical attacks if used to enhance something else, instead of trying to directly counter physical force. The thin supple leather was better than a full suit of thick steel armor for protection when the enchantments were activated.

  He wore something similar himself, since the two of them were travelling alone. Despite his power, it seemed prudent to take every precaution, and doing so had been drilled into him for as long as he could remember. He was confident, and powerful, but not overconfident or stupidly reckless.

  “Of course, master,” she mocked teasingly, she knew he hated when she called him that.

  Sadie was his one and only human creation, or zombie as his father sometimes called it. He’d gone a different way with his life powers than his father, focusing on small animals and even microbial life forms, which were far less life force intensive to run.

  But Sadie was his family, guardian, and best friend. She was so much more than just a guardian to him. When he’d learned to use his life magic to his father’s satisfaction, he’d been given the choice of taking over one of several of the family guardians, many of which had watched him grow up and even babysat him when his parents were off on emergencies.

  His father had raised an eyebrow when he picked the most beautiful woman in the house, to become his guardian and share his life force. He knew his father probably thought he was banging her, even some of his mothers must think that, but nothing could be further from the truth. That would just be…. weird, no matter how hot she was. She’d helped raise him after all, and probably changed his diapers. He did get a crush on her in his early teens, but he’d grown out of it by the time he’d reached sixteen, and she’d been kind about it.

  The real reason he’d picked her wasn’t about her beauty at all, it’d been how she took care of him, and truly seemed to care. All of father’s zombies would follow his orders to the letter, and took care of him in a decent fashion, but Sadie also liked him as a person. Had become his friend, confidant, someone he could trust beyond the fact of what she was.

  Point was, he wasn’t about to cheapen the deep connection of trust, friendship, affection, and family that had grown between them over his entire lifetime, by ordering her to relax him, or use her to get off and release some of his stress. That would be… wrong on so many levels, which is why he’d just paid for a whore instead.

  So, she’d come with him. She had a good fifty years of life force, and they’d run into a few assholes during their travels. She also wielded an enchanted sword, which allowed her to suck in more life force, and add it to his power, and her lifespan.

  Of course, he had added a lot more life force than that over the last year, but that was gathered in small animals virtually all over the Unites States at that point. He also had some in fish, and even a few microcellular organisms just because he’d been curious if it was possible.

  It was important to spread out his available lifeforce, or if gods forbid Sadie died on him, he’d have lost it all and would have to start from scratch.

  He’d also never once used his power to take a lifeforce directly. He’d never faced the temptation his own father had faced for so many years, before his elven mother had set him straight on the dangers of it. It was simple enough to use his magic to hold the enemy, so Sadie could finish them with the sword. If worse came to worse, he could use a sorcerer spell to obliterate them.

  The truth was he didn’t need an army of sword wielding zombies, mostly because he had no large territory to watch over, and he’d had a good time travelling about and gaining a little independence. Growing up as the eldest son of his father’s territory, which spanned everything west of the Rockies and desert from Southern California to Seattle, was very confining. He’d needed to get out and find his own way, but he liked being able to keep in touch with his family via the magic.

  The main point of advantage with his hybrid status, was magic was controlled with life force, and he had a lot of life force saved up. If the shit ever hit the fan, he had enough power to unleash hell on his enemies. As a rule, he husbanded it, and only used what magic he could use on a daily basis that he regained naturally. It was like a rainy-day fund.

  He also had two bracers that were very similar to his mother’s staff. He could charge them up to twice a day safely without needing to enhance his life force to prevent premature aging, and it gave him enough power to do a whole lot just on their own when casting spells through them and consuming their magic power instead of his life force every time. He hardly ever needed to charge them more than once a day, and sometimes only once every two days.

  There were other synergies involved to being a hybrid of both powers, some of them incredibly convenient even, but that was the major one.

  “What did I do?”

  She tilted her head in question.

  He said, “You only call me master if I did something to annoy you.”

  She may have been technically his creation and servant in any way he wanted, but she was also a fully realized and very complicated woman who meant the world to him. She was fiercely protective, his best friend, and truly did love him like family.

  She smirked, and then huffed playfully, “Everything’s fine.”

  He snorted, “Now I know you’re just fucking with me, never mind.”

  She laughed throatily, “Maybe. Your kind of cute when you’re embarrassed. Does it bother you when I bring up your sex life? Was she not… satisfactory?”

  He shook his head, and he got out of the tub. He wasn’t sure what to say to that. His newly active sex life wasn’t something they’d had to deal with in the past. In fact, he’d been kind of having the whores teach him what pleased a woman, he didn’t want to be an inexperienced selfish ass when he did meet the woman for him. He thought he was doing rather well that way, himself.

  He cheated with a little magic to dry off and a muttered word to launch the spell. Then he pulled on his leather armor, and then his jeans, shirt, and boots. He also strapped on his sword, though he’d never used it outside of training it was there to fall back on, if his magic ever failed him.

  “She was just fine, for what it was.”

  She gave him an unreadable look, then sighed, “Sorry, I won’t do that anymore.”

  He smirked, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Teasing me is your favorite thing.”

  She giggled.

  He sighed, sometimes he was tempted. He wasn’t a saint after all, and in a very real way he loved her already, he just wasn’t in love with her. He also thought it would freak her out, since she’d pretty much raised him, in part. It was just… too weird to seriously contemplate, no matter how sexy she was.

  “Are you happy, just the two of us wandering around taking out the trash?”

  She bit her lip, “I am very happy with you, Ryan.”

  He tilted his head in a certain way, that told Sadie they were no longer in private. Thankfully his mother hadn’t opened an interactive communication spell with him a few minutes ago, when he was in the bath naked, or worse, earlier than that.

  She wasn’t really there, only he could perceive her. It was a telepathic spell in truth, that inserted both audio and visual hallucinations into the brain, to make it feel like a real-life conversation. Meaning that from Sadie’s point of view she’d only see and hear his side of the conversation.

  “Hey mom, what’s up?”

  Cassie replied, “Five alien ships are crash landing around the world. Your father and the rest of us will have our hands full with the one in California. Katie requested help with the one coming down somewhere around the Louisiana a
nd Texas border.”

  He said, “I’ll do it,” without really thinking about it. It was something he had to do, especially after what happened the late afternoon that he’d left Katie’s home and teaching. It… hadn’t been good. Really fucking awkward sums it up, actually. In hindsight as a man, it probably wasn’t that bad, but to the immature fifteen-year-old he’d been at the time, it’d been devastating and quite mortifying.

  Cassie tilted her head, “That was a little fast, are you sure?”

  He nodded, “Tell her I’ll be there in… fifteen minutes?”

  Once he’d been somewhere, it was impossible to forget the magical signature, so he could teleport straight to her door easily. He also had other advantages, hybrid advantages, but he didn’t need them in this case. He did send out a command, to a bird that was in Texas, to follow the fire in the sky to where it landed. As a creature of his making, a zombie, it could fly pretty much forever without landing or getting tired. He had more than a few animals in almost every state after a year of collecting them and sending them off, save Hawaii and Alaska of course.

  Not that the United States was a thing anymore. It was more like thirty territories and a whole lot of no man’s land now. Some styled on the old government, some independent, and some overseen by someone like his father.

  The bird had endless energy, much like his Sadie was as strong as ten men, could run forever at thirty miles an hour, and could even move faster for short bursts in battle.

  Cassie nodded, “I’ll let her know. Your sisters will be helping your father at his insistence, and neither of us believe any of the others are old enough. Love you. Be careful.”

  He said, “Love you too, mom. You be careful too.”

  She smiled, and then disappeared as the spell ended.

  He quickly filled in Sadie.

  Sadie asked, “You never did share that one with me. Everything else, but never that. What happened that evening, when you quit your apprenticeship and came home.”

  He sighed, “You know I went there when I was twelve. You were there for some of it, and my visits home. You know what Katie looks like, right?”

  Sadie laughed, “Oh, this story is already getting good.”

  He wiped his eye, with his middle finger, which had her giggling harder.

  “I had a pretty bad crush on her by the time I was fifteen. I didn’t do anything inappropriate, or anything like that. No creepy shit. But I imagine I was a bit puppy doggish the last year I was there, between fourteen and fifteen. She’d have had to be blind not to notice I thought the sun shone from her ass.”

  He left off the part he’d had a major crush on Sadie at the same time. Of course, his crush for Sadie had faded quickly when he’d turned sixteen, because he knew her so well and their relationship was deeper than that.

  Insane or not, he still kind of had a crush on Katie even then, at nineteen. She was hot, powerful, wise, and did he mention hot? She was painfully beautiful around the face, had the silkiest and lightest lustrous brown hair he’d ever seen, and warm hazel eyes that used to mesmerize him. Her face had a warmth and soft beauty to it that was incredibly alluring. Her body was sumptuously athletic, with soft and sharp curves, generous breasts, and an incredibly sexy and tight ass.

  Point was, unlike Sadie, he really had no idea who the true Katie was. He’d only known her as a teacher. An extremely hot and patiently kind teacher, and from an emotional remove. So, that crush never really died. Not really. It was childish he knew, he was nineteen after all, but he’d figured out if he ever wanted to get over her, he’d need to get to know the real her as an adult to replace that childish impression of her goddess like stature in his mind with the real thing.

  It sort of made sense in his head. The lingering crush should fade once he connected with the real her, and their family friend. By crush, he meant fond memories and wistful thoughts and dreams whenever she came up in his mind. It wasn’t like he pined for her constantly or anything. Not for years now.

  There was also the matter of that embarrassing night, and an explanation he’d never given. Katie was a family friend, strong ally, and someone his family respected. He also wanted to repair their relationship, so it wasn’t hanging over his head anymore.

  What’d happened wasn’t really that big a deal in hindsight, but it was absolutely crushing and mortifying to a fifteen-year-old boy. He was a man now, and he felt the need to repair that relationship.

  So that was two very strong ulterior motives for wanting to help. To get over his crush by truly getting to know her on an adult to adult level, and to repair that relationship that’d been severed four years ago. Of course, he also wanted to go to assist her in keeping the balance, and to help kill off the invading aliens he’d heard about all his life.

  It would be dangerous, but those three reasons were all important enough to him separately to face that danger. He was no coward, and it was time to grow up, and put that childish mistake behind him.

  She interjected, interrupting his thought tangent, “So, what happened?”

  He shook his head and replied, “I was perfecting my transportation spells. You know how sorcerers can only teleport where they’ve been, but I had to modify the basic spells to account for my synergies. Such as teleporting anywhere any of my creatures have been. I was also working on summoning. It’s never come up before, but I could summon you from anywhere in the world, because of our life force connection. I’ll always know where you are.”

  She blushed, and then nodded.

  He said, “Anyway, that’s the spell I was working on, summoning one of my creatures, when I made a rather interesting discovery. I could not only summon someone with a specific life force link to me with that spell, but also anyone that was within the mile radius of my magic and life detection. Even if they don’t have a direct link.”

  She giggled, seeing the punchline coming no doubt.

  His father’s reach was only a hundred yards with life magic, but a sorcerer’s range to feel magic could be a mile or more. He knew Katie’s was about two miles, and she was one of the strongest sorcerers out there. His mother’s range was only slightly smaller, and he’d inherited her strength.

  He seemed to have split the difference with his hybrid powers, he could detect both life and magic out to about a mile.

  “Anyway, I mentioned the crush, right? I was practicing summoning a few small dead animals I’d revived and sent off, but you know how magic works. Focus and intent, then a word or group of words that matches that focus and intent, or group of focuses and intents. It wasn’t all that weird for me during that time for me to lose that focus. I was practicing out in the field right next to the entrance to Katie’s sanctuary.

  “Regardless, my focus slipped onto her at the critical point in the spell, and I summoned her instead. She also may have been showering at the time.”

  Sadie covered her mouth, and he was glad someone found it funny.

  He sighed and blew out a breath, “That horrific timing is not the worst of it. I imagine if I immediately turned away and let out a sincere apology, she’d have brushed it off as a training accident, if a bit embarrassing. Of course, I was fifteen with a major crush, and I just stood there like an idiot. I knew I should look away, but I just drank in all her naked glory in the late afternoon sunlight. I couldn’t even speak and was frozen in awe. Needless to say, she put up a quick illusion of clothing after getting over her own shock, and then let me have it with both barrels, as my father says, whatever that means.

  “I was so mortified that I just packed up and left. I couldn’t face her after that, and she never did try to contact me either. If she ever said anything to my parents, they never told me.”

  Sadie sighed, “Both barrels is a shotgun reference, old world expression. So she doesn’t even know it was an accident, she just what, thought you were perving on her and did it on purpose?”

  He frowned, “I don’t really know what she believes about that day. Anyway, it was four years
ago. I’ll explain and apologize if it comes up, but I imagine we’ll be focused on aliens, not my misspent youthful mistakes.”

  Sadie snorted, “You don’t know women very well. You should apologize and explain as soon as you can realistically bring it up.”

  He nodded, “Alright, time to man up I suppose. You ready?”

  He’d admit all of it if he had to, no matter how uncomfortable that would be. Except, he really didn’t want to tell her he still held that wistful desire, so that wasn’t going to happen. It’d be hard enough to tell her he’d had a childish crush, to admit he still had the remnants of it in his heart and mind would be… humiliating.

  More humiliating? Mortifying as well, and all sorts of other adjectives. Mostly because he wanted Katie to see him as an adult now, and to get to know her on an equal footing. If he admitted he still had a crush, she’d relegate him to the fifteen-year-old kid in her mind. No, it’d be better to show confidence, which he usually had in spades, but in Katie’s case he’d have to fake it till he made it.

  She nodded to indicate she did have everything packed and was ready, and they left the room and headed to the stables as quickly as possible. He’d eaten up most of those fifteen minutes on the explanation, and he saddled his horse as quickly as he could. He also felt a little better admitting his faux pas, even if Sadie did laugh at him over it. He also suspected she’d given him solid advice on the fairer half of the species.