Working Through the Weekend

by Amber Lynn

Before I had a chance to open my mouth, the guy shot a blue ball of energy at me, hitting me in the stomach. I wasn't expecting it and it felt like more than a mild tickle.

  "Ouch, you jerk," I said, rubbing my stomach. "That stung."

  There was nothing special about the man standing before me. He was a little on the short side, maybe five-four and wearing a black cloak. He had brown hair and brown eyes. I wouldn't call him attractive, but I lived in a house with Nate and a robot who looked like a movie star, so I was used to pretty boys.

  "It was supposed to do a little bit more than sting, fair queen," he replied. I'd figured as much, but I didn't say the 'duh' I thought in my head out loud.

  "Who are you and what's your issue with me anyway?" I asked.

  "So you don't know. That will make this so much sweeter. The war won't have to happen, because you'll never gain your full powers. Master will stop worrying and our lives can go back to normal," he said. "Oh, and you can call me Alexander if you must. I don't think you'll be around long enough to have to worry about having a proper conversation, though."

  "Alex, I think you and your master are delusional. Why have you been trying to kill the shifters in this area?" I asked.

  Before we got down to really fighting, I wanted to get as much information out of him as possible. I had my mental powers that I'd been practicing and three knives. I was sure some of his powers could limit some of my telekinesis, if he saw it coming, but I was hoping I could get close enough to use the knives.

  "It's Alexander," he said a little testily. "Master sent us out to try to get your attention. If you had your full powers, you would've been able to feel the shifters in distress. From the sounds of it, you don't even have all of your memories back yet. We've been getting reports that you were slowly gaining them. We hoped to have you tracked before you got too many more. Lucky me, I was the one to figure out you were nearby, so that means I get the privilege of killing you."

  "That doesn't sound like much of a privilege to me. What makes you think you can even beat me? It isn't like I'm totally powerless. In fact, there's a rumor that I can't actually be killed."

  He studied me for a while, trying to see through my bluff. I didn't think I was bluffing, but no one really knew whether I could be killed or not, and I liked the idea that I couldn't.

  "Without your full powers, you may be weak enough that it could be possible. That's all that matters. The orders are try to kill you before you get stronger. Master would've loved for one of us to bring you to him alive, so he could do the job himself, but he said he'd settle for your head," he said with a smile.

  Little did he know, I happened to enjoy where my head was currently sitting. I also thought his would look better on fire.

  He threw another one of his energy balls at me, but I ducked out of the way behind a tree. While I tried to think of the best method for dealing with the guy, I grabbed both of my throwing knives out of my front thigh sheaths. Having them in my hands was a bit of a comfort. I had magical abilities, but knife fighting was where I started out, and it was my go to offense.

  I peeked out from behind the tree to see if he had moved. He was walking forward, working his way to try to flank me. I adjusted the knife in my right hand, so I was holding it upside down by the tip. I quickly brought my arm up and back as I hurled the knife in his direction.

  With his body somewhat turned away from me, he wasn't expecting the knife, so it embedded itself into his right side, around where his liver was located. If I didn't presume he was hard to kill, I would've consider it a big victory.

  "Ouch, you filthy hen, that hurts," he said, turning to face me. He didn't worry about taking the knife out, which was a little disappointing. He acted like it was more or less a bee sting.

  "Well, you know what they say about payback. I'm already tired of playing around. Why don't you show me what you got," I said, stepping out from the tree.

  When it came to fighting, I tried to show no fear. Inside, I felt the fear, but it wasn't really for my death. I honestly didn't think Alex could kill me. I didn't know where the fear was coming from, but it was trying to creep out, so I bottled it down.

  "You want it, you got it," he said, shooting a red stream of energy at me. It reminded me of a flamethrower jetting fire at me. Anything similar to fire was a bad idea to bring to a fight against a phoenix. Well, at least against a phoenix who was really good at manipulating fire.

  I was screwed up in a lot of areas, but fire was my toy. I concentrated and redirected the red energy straight up in the air, without moving a muscle. Before long, he realized he needed to change tactics and stopped the flow of energy.

  "I really hope you have something more in your bag of tricks," I taunted.

  "No worries, there's plenty more for me to try," he said as he lowered his hands and the ground started to vibrate.

  Ice daggers began to hover in front of him. It was odd how all of them seemed to be pointed in my direction. I thought they'd look better pointed at him. He started launching them quickly at me. I tried to dodge them, but eventually one hit me in the leg. It didn't embed too deep, so it wouldn't impede me, but it still stung.

  Tired of running, I put a thin heat barrier around me. There wasn't anything visible, but the air around me was at least a hundred degrees, causing the ice daggers to melt before they could get to me. I made note to remember the trick for any future outdoor activities, so I could look cool running around in a t-shirt.

  I'd seen blue energy, red energy and ice, and so far there hadn't been any issues. I thought I was doing way better than anyone expected against the great unknown force. Maybe everyone but Liam, he'd said he knew I had the upper hand in the power department.

  "It seems I'm going to have to bring out the big guns," he told me. Unless he had actual guns, I wasn't too scared.

  I was sick of being on defense. It was time for offense. I tried to concentrate on getting him to levitate off the ground. He didn't seem to cooperate, though. In fact, it looked like he was laughing.

  "That won't work with me," he said.

  I gave him my mean look and shrugged. Like Nate had once done, he laughed when I squinted my eyes and tried to kill him with just the look. I didn't understand why people didn't believe I could hurt them.

  "Fine, try this," I said as I made my own little fireball and launched it at him. He was able to stop it in midair and send it back my way. I put out the fire before it got too close. That pretty much did it for me and magical abilities.

  I realized that I hadn't heard Nate yelling at me, so I assumed the blue circle was also keeping thoughts out. I wanted to get rid of it. Changing tactics a little, I started launching the fireballs towards the wall. I created a giant fireball and launched it into twenty directions. It hit and started making small holes. It was going to take a while if I continued using the method of small balls in every direction.

  I didn't have time to divide my attention, so I refocused back on the warlock. I worked my way closer as he stood watching me. His face lacked any concern, but to me that just indicated he didn't know me very well.

  I had two knives left, one of them already in my hand, and it seemed the magical stuff ended up leaving us at a draw. My plan was to finish things hand-to-hand.

  He tried shooting the blue balls at me as I approached, but I deflected them without a thought. Surprisingly, he never backed up and when I got within touching distance, I curled my right hand into a fist punched him square on the jaw. Ha, bet he didn't see that one coming.

  I launched myself on him and tried to stab him as many times as I could with my knife. I moved it to my right hand for its better stabbing ability. It seemed the warlock was all magic and had no clue how to fight. After about ten stabs, he was able to launch the knife away from my hand and knock me backwards.

  "You'd think your master would teach you how to fight. The world is full of scary people, if you haven't heard, and chances are there's always someone stronger than you," I said, teasi
ng him.

  He tried to take a quick inventory of all his cuts, while I returned to a standing position. He looked like a pissed off cat had used him for a scratching post. His dark clothes covered the blood, but they didn't instantly knit back together to hide my handiwork.

  "There's no need for us to fight in such a prehistoric fashion. The world of the future will bow to our superior fighting methods," he said. Oh goody, it sounded like the "master" had ideas of taking over the world.

  "I really hate to burst your bubble, but you haven't impressed me so far," I said as I tried to find a way to get behind him.

  I had one last knife and I'd been saving it because it was the only one I could possibly take his head with, unless I wanted to spend all day sawing. I assumed a quick beheading was the only kind that would work, so getting a clean hack was important.

  He started with another barrage of energy balls, trying to change it up by having them come from behind me. After that first hit, they weren't effective and I was a little saddened that they seemed to be all he had to offer. The icicle trick had been more amusing, but evidently he was partial to blue.

  I couldn't communicate telepathically outside the circle, but I wondered if I could pick up something from his mind to help me. As I deflected energy balls, I started listening in. Evidently, his barriers to fight against the telekinesis didn't protect his thoughts.

  I really need to end this now, but I'm not sure what else I have to go against her. The spell keeps her telekinesis from being used against me, so I just need to find a way to get my magic through to her.

  I wonder if that spell Master told me would work against her. It's worth a try. He said to only try it if things weren't looking good. Things don't look bad, but this is getting monotonous and I can't wait to carry her head back to Master.

  As he was pondering using the spell, I'd found it in his mind and started to mumble it myself. It was probably the dumbest thing I'd ever done, but I was surprised I was able to actually get it from his mind, so I was going with it. Usually, I could only get active thoughts, and the exact words weren't actively going through his mind.

  I wasn't sure if just thinking it was enough, but on TV they usually said things out loud. I didn't know exactly what the spell would do, but the way I saw it was if he was going to try to use it against me, he deserved whatever he was about to get. When I finished the spell, I felt the energy in our bubble change drastically.

  "What have you done?" he screamed. The energy balls stopped coming and he fell to the ground. "How did you find that spell? The Master created it, you shouldn't have known it. I was supposed to use it against you to give me temporary control of your powers, but I wasn't sure if you were too strong for it to be used against you without it backfiring."

  "Sorry, don't know what to tell you," I said as I tried to figure out exactly what I did.

  The blue wall came crashing down, and not wasting any time since he was weakened, I ran towards him and grabbed the machete that was in my back sheath. When I got to him, he was curled in a ball.

  It seemed a little unfair to kill him, but he mentioned the spell was only temporary. I quickly raised the knife up and brought it down as hard as I could, trying to sever his head from his neck. I didn't have enough force to get it done, but Kyle ran over and snatched the machete from me to finish the job.

  CHAPTER 21

  Son of a bleep, oh wait sorry mom