I decided it must be his son. The man was fighting to get back to his son. Memories from my past flooded me, along with a hot rage that shocked me. I struggled and pushed it all down, locked it away, now wasn’t the time.
I stiffened, and Terry stopped.
He asked, “What’s wrong?”
I cursed, fluently and long. We’d only had maybe a half mile to go, just over the next ridge, and we could have radioed for help.
“They’re here,” I said simply.
I had really hoped the rain would wash out our tracks, and maybe our scent, but they’d caught up. There were twelve of them, I could only assume the other three were still recovering from their wounds. We hobbled a little faster until we found a small clearing.
I ordered, “Sit, don’t move.”
He peered up at me and looked me right in the eyes, something he’d avoided over the last day, “Are we dead?”
I shook my head, “Not yet.”
Not a lie really. We would be, just not yet. I’d been trying to worm my power through the elemental air that flowed through and shielded their souls, so I could cut off their power. That might have given me a chance, even against twelve. Only three, maybe four, could attack effectively at once, any more than that and they’ll be more liable to get in each other’s way, and with their abilities dampened they’d be off balance.
I could only get to eight of them though, and even then it was incredibly hard to focus enough on cutting off the flow of their magic, not to mention I’d soon be fighting while doing it. Then there were the other four, one must have been close to a thousand years old, no doubt the leader of this coven. Trying to cut him off was like trying to soak up a pond with a paper towel. The other three I could’ve probably taken one on one, but with my power already split eight ways…
They ghosted out into the small clearing, and surrounded us.
I said with a steady voice, “He’s under my protection, leave in peace with your lives.”
The old one laughed, “Do you think to stop us all?” His smile looked almost genuine, if a little disturbed.
I shook my head, “No, but is this one meal worth some of your lives? Some of you will die by my hand. I promise you that. There’s a million meals that way that won’t kill you, go get it.”
He smiled and said smarmily, “Oh honey, can’t you count? I see two meals.”
Two of the vampires from behind lunged. Thanks to my mother’s training, I didn’t even have to look. I pushed more power in their direction, and stole their speed as I pulled my sword. I had all the time in the world. I spun at the last moment and separated the head from his shoulders on the one that lunged at me. The second tried to drag Terry away, but got a right cross to his face for his trouble, and then a sword stroke into his chest by me.
I knew I was dead, it was just a matter of time. Heck, the old one could do it by himself but he hadn’t moved yet, he just watched. Perhaps he judged his chances as he spent the lives of his people, he’d soon realize I wasn’t much of a threat to him. Despite my imminent death, or maybe because of it, I was calm, centered, and almost relaxed as three more rushed in. Two were slowed with a pulse of my power, the third was able to shrug it off.
If I was going to die, I decided I wasn’t holding anything back.
I lifted my left hand and spirit lightning shot out at the third. There are legends that the Kitsune can shoot lightning or fire, the truth was a little different. Spirit lightning wasn’t an attack on the physical body, it was an attack on the spirit, the soul. But it was visible, and looked remarkably like a lightning strike with a fiery aura.
The lightning struck number three, even if he moved too fast to track his body with my eyes, my senses knew just where his soul was. His body kept coming at me through momentum, his soul however shot backwards, as I blasted it from his body. Spirit lightning could destroy a soul, but intent mattered, so mine didn’t. It merely separated the spirit and body. That was three down, nine left.
I spun and pushed the passing dead body into vampire attacker number two, which knocked him back. The first’s eyes widened as he met mine and saw his death approaching. As I swung for him, I felt the old one move. He was coming right for me, and my power, not even my lightning, would be able to reach his soul fast enough. It was more accurate to say I felt him in one place, and then right behind me, rather than saying I felt him move. I aborted my attack on the first vampire who was dodging back anyway, and tried to turn and meet the old one’s strikes, but he was too fast, or I was too slow.
Pain erupted in my back, then my shoulder, and finally my head felt like someone had hit it with a frying pan. Then darkness followed. At least I was able to take out three of them, but it ultimately wouldn’t matter, I’d failed. Terry wouldn’t ever be seeing his son again…
Chapter 6
I woke screaming, covered in sweat, and my whole body trembled. I’d expected my next turn on the wheel, not this. I screamed, and didn’t stop. My throat turned raw and still I didn’t stop. It was pain beyond imagining, as if every nerve in my body was set on fire and then dipped in acid.
“James, what the hell is this?” I barely heard through my cries and agony.
James replied thoughtfully, “I don’t know. I don’t know what she is either, or what that lightning shit she shot at Cory was, that made him drop dead without a mark on his body. What I do know, is if she turns she’ll be a weapon I can use to regain my place.”
Oh hell, that explained the torture, they were turning me. I imagined for a human turning vampire, it would be mildly painful, but for a spirit sorceress, who is in full touch with her own soul as it’s twisted and ensorcelled by spirit and air magic, it would be torture.
It was torture, and my mind shied away from the pain as I rolled into a ball. Not that it did any good. My hoarse screams, sobs, and cries went on as my soul was slowly mutilated. I didn’t even have the ability to think about trying to resist it with my power, I was in too much pain to think, to do more than wish to die. James, and his lackey’s voices seemed to disappear into the background as nonsense noise.
After what felt like days, but was probably only hours of unmitigated pain, the agony abated and I fell mercifully unconscious…
I woke and wrapped myself in the power of spirit, a shield. If what I heard was right, the old one, James, wanted to use me as a weapon. Good luck to him, I’d never do what he demanded.
The absence of pain seemed odd, made things surreal, and felt almost wrong. More than that, my eyesight was extremely sharp, and the dark room was bright to my new eyes. My hearing was much improved as well, I could feel them throughout the building I was in, a house perhaps? Too far for my old self to hear, but I heard their conversations, and their movements quite easily.
There were twelve of them left and I sighed as I realized I couldn’t feel Terry’s soul within the reach of my magic. I turned my sight inward, to my own soul, and studied it. I couldn’t touch or effect the air magic as I knew all other vampires couldn’t. It was set through spell work, automatically healing me, making me faster, increasing my senses.
I shuddered as I felt the blood thirst for the first time. I was… unnatural. I easily heard my heartbeat pick up in distress and tried to calm it. Too late, I heard the soft footfalls approaching the room I was in. I looked down and rolled my eyes, I was still dressed in the gi, and I saw my sword across the room. Then I thought about it and was relieved instead, I didn’t want to be changed by any of them, that was for sure.
James opened the door before I could decide to lunge for the sword, and smiled at me.
“Don’t move darling, and listen up,” he said as we met eyes.
I scoffed and went to move, but my body didn’t obey. My eyes widened in panic as realization sunk in, and he smiled as he took a seat next to me on the bed.
“Good, I wasn’t sure if that would work. I’m your maker darling, you might be immune to other vamps, but not me. We are… connected.”
I shu
ddered and looked inward again. He was right. My shield covered and protected my soul, but he was already connected. A link left over from when he’d poisoned my soul with vampire magic, a link that couldn’t be shielded.
“What do you want? And please, call me Miku.”
I didn’t really want him calling me by my name either, but I’d take anything over that creepy drawl when he called me darling.
He looked amused, “Fine, and call me James. Now, what the hell are you?”
I struggled, and fought it, but it was useless. He questioned me about everything, and I told him, all of it. Spirit sorcery, spirit lightning, spirit reading, shape changing, manipulating spirit to cut off others magic as well as healing and other effects, see and commune with spirits, all of it.
He even had me tell him the things I couldn’t do yet as a spirit sorcerer but I knew about because of my mother. Spirit shifting which is a bit like teleporting, but by passing through the spirit world. Illusions through spirit, which made people see what I wanted them to see, but only in their own minds. Lastly, accessing the Akashic records and my own past lives.
It was frustrating as hell, and I had tears in my eyes for the violation of it before we were finished. I could feel a simmering rage below my surface. All I wanted to do was reach up and kill this smiling bastard, but I couldn’t move.
His eyes glowed with interest, “I’ve never heard of your kind. Sure, fire, air, earth, and water sorcerers. What other kinds are there?”
I replied reluctantly, “That’s it. There used to be life sorcerers, and creation sorcery, but they either died out or were killed long ago.”
“Well, that’s neither here or there darling, now listen up.”
I glared at him, if I’d been a fire sorcerer he’d be a cinder.
“Fine Miku, listen up. See, I can be reasonable, I’m not a bad guy. You will not try to kill me or bring about the deaths of the rest of my coven. You will obey all orders I give you. You will not attempt to leave the coven or escape. If you can manage to behave and not cause problems, I’ll grant you a certain amount of freedom. And once I have what I want, who knows, maybe I’ll release you.”
I asked, though I already knew the answer, “What happened to Terry?”
James shrugged, “He didn’t survive the last feeding. A shame really. But don’t worry, I’ll have your first meal in here in just a second.”
I flinched at my reaction to those words, as the hunger flared and I felt my fangs drop. It was unnatural, but nothing had ever sounded better to me.
James smiled, clearly enjoying my distress, and I reached out for the spirit and life around me to calm and center myself. I whimpered when all I found was chaos and pulled my power back to the house’s limits.
I understood then, what my mother had tried to tell me two years ago. I was accustomed to using the peace and harmony of the forest as an anchor. Here in the city, I was in danger of being swept up by the hundreds of humans that had been in range of my magic. Humans that were not at peace with themselves.
I needed to find a new anchor, one that would protect me from the turbulence of spirit when I reached out to my limits in this place. I had no idea how to do that, and being turned into a vampire, and surrounded by this evil coven, I’d never felt more alone. The only reason I could even spread my power through the house is the vampires own air magic kept me somewhat separated from their chaotic natures.
James patted my hand in a mocking fatherly gesture as he stood up.
“You can move again, but don’t leave the room until after you’ve fed,” he said as he walked out, shutting the door behind him.
I stood up and went for my sword. I moved faster than I’d expected, but managed not to trip over my own feet. I held it in my hands, sheathed, and I sighed. He’d left it with me to make me feel impotent, to take away any doubts that I was in his power. I was stuck, and I had no idea how to get out, and even my own power of spirit had betrayed me, I couldn’t reach out around me for comfort.
I was alone.
A hot rage swept over me, and the memories of that day two years ago rushed up again, this time I let the tide take me…
Chapter 7
Two Years Ago…
My scream died and the silence echoed loudly as I stared in disbelief at my father’s soul. An animalistic cry of denial and grief left my mother, who rushed forward and pulled his body out of the water.
I just stood there staring at my father, and he looked back at me sadly, and then we both watched my mother desperately try to bring him back. She must have known the truth, she was the one who taught me, his spirit had left the flesh, it was too late.
But she emptied his lungs of water, and started CPR anyway. And I watched as my mother fell apart. Life and death was natural, but that didn’t matter when it came to family. Right now, we were just my father’s wife and daughter, trying to understand how something like this could happen.
I walked over sadly and touched her shoulder, “Mom, he’s gone. We need to say goodbye.”
My mother was only four hundred, and looked about twenty-eight. They should have had another thousand years together, at least. I wondered if she could find him again on his next turn of the wheel, was that done? They were soul mates, so why not? But I wasn’t going to ask that, maybe once per lifetime was all they could have.
Mom started to sob.
The next few hours were painful, as I watched my mother fall apart. She refused to look at dad’s spirit, and I wasn’t going to be the one to release his memories and help him move on. At least, not until mom had said goodbye.
We were spirit sorceresses, but we were also a family. The sense of detachment from mortal life so that we could focus on the bigger picture, the spirit and souls, meant nothing here. I just waited and was there for her if she needed me, what else could I do? I needed her too, I’d just lost my father.
Finally, my mother stopped crying and got up, her face was ashen and drawn as she walked back to the cabin. We followed her, my father’s spirit and I, to the dojo. She sat in a meditation pose and stared at the wall, her eyes unseeing, her spirit magic turbulent and all over the place.
I waited.
I cooked dinner, and tried to get her to eat. I got a little scared when she didn’t even acknowledge me. I was in pain too, I needed my mother. My heart ached with sadness and worry, I needed guidance. I stayed up as long as I could, but eventually I fell asleep, scared, in tears, and unsure of what was happening, what my mother’s withdrawal meant.
I found out, when I woke up several hours later, my neck sore from sleeping in the dojo, and my eyes burned. My back hurt too, I’d fallen asleep in my gi, never having changed, and the sword sheath had dug into my back while I slept.
It took me several minutes to understand what I was seeing. My mother hadn’t moved, but something was off, different, wrong…
I gasped as I realized I couldn’t feel my mother’s spirit, but her body was right in front of me. My father’s spirit was gone as well. It didn’t make sense. My mother left me alone, to follow her husband on the next turn of the wheel. Why would she do that? It didn’t make sense to me, but it was the only explanation.
They didn’t even say goodbye. No last words of advice, no apologies, just… nothing. They were both gone.
I was alone.
Hot rage rose from my chest, as I wondered how they could do this to me? She’d abandoned me. I ran, and shifted, unable to face my anger at my own mother, through the grief, and my confusion…
I had to let go of the memories, accept them. My mother couldn’t handle my dad’s death. That didn’t mean she hadn’t loved me, or cared about me. Although I couldn’t help but wonder. Terry had fought tooth and nail to get back to his son. He’d failed, and I’d failed him, but that was beside the point. He didn’t just lay down and die, he’d fought.
My mother had just given up. Cleansing tears ran down my face as I forgave her, it had been two years that this has poisoned my soul. It was
time to let go, or at least, as much as I could let go. There was a knock at the door, and I looked up as it opened.
It was a young man, maybe nineteen. Brown hair, brown eyes, and he looked like he was in shape and he worked out. His eyes were glazed over, obviously mesmerized heavily. I could hear his strong steady heartbeat, and scented the blood below his skin. It revolted me and smelled like my favorite meal at the same time. My teeth dropped once again, and I gently felt them with my tongue.
I could refuse to eat. I also knew the hunger would grow all-consuming if I didn’t, as the air magic ate away at my body with its constant healing and regenerating. No, if I wanted to die, there were less painful ways. Besides, James would just order me to eat if I didn’t, so that wouldn’t have worked. It probably would have even amused him.
I was an emotional mess, and my spirit was damaged. I needed help figuring out how to center myself without a forest to draw calm from, and I was alone. Always alone. Yet, I was so young for one of my kind, and I wasn’t ready to die. It wasn’t my time for my next turn on the wheel. If James asked me to do something truly evil, then I can take my life.
I don’t know why, but until then, I knew I would cling to hope. If for no other reason than that I hoped to see James and his coven die before I followed them.
If we were close to the city, this guy probably wouldn’t even die, and would be healthier after being released. I looked into his eyes and felt the mesmerizing take effect. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just closed the distance between us and pulled him against me. I took a deep breath through my nose, the delicious fragrance of his blood had my mouth watering.
Spirit Sorceress: Spirit Sorceress: Book 1 Page 3
