Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (15 page)

“Princess? From now on, Declan O’Carroll, I
think you should have a bodyguard,” she said.

“Oh? Do you know anyone with advanced
training in
close quarters
protection? Are you volunteering?
Because you’re the only one I want
guarding
my body,” I
replied with a smirk.

She bumped my shoulder. “Maybe I can do some
guarding
right now… unless you have studying to do?” she
said, moving ahead of me and glancing back over her shoulder.

“Fuck the studying,” I said. “I need some
serious guarding.”

“Oh, that reminds me. I’m wondering if I can
have a blood sample?” she asked.

Talk about killing the romantic vibe. “Ah,
why?” I asked. Giving away personal DNA was something every witch
was taught
not
to do from a very early age. Blood topped the
list.

“My Genetics class is karyotyping
chromosomes. We’re supposed to use our own, but I don’t want mine
anywhere near a lab, for obvious reasons. I figured if we used
yours, you could always remotely zap the specimen after I was done
if for some reason I couldn’t destroy it, accidental-like. I
already asked my professor if I could use someone else’s.”

“So you gonna stick me before or after we
ah…” I asked.

“After. Trust me, you’ll need all your blood
for the
guarding
I have planned.”

“Okay, let’s go. My blood is yours,” I said,
following her up the stairs to our floor.

Chapter 14

The sweat dripping off me had begun to sink
into the concrete floor of the hell room, er, gym. Thought I was in
shape. Jenks had quickly kicked that idea in the ass.

He’d started with jumping jacks in groups of
forty, alternated with air squats, also in groups of forty. Then
hindu pushups, burpees, vee ups, flutter kicks, crunches, bear
crawls, before doing something called a click drill where we
started on all fours, hands and feet, body down, rotated one hand
and one foot (opposites) till we were facing up, still on all
fours. We did this four times in one direction, rotating around the
floor till we were back in roughly our starting spot. Then we went
the other way. Back and forth for ten clicks.

Next, he broke us into partners. First, Mack
held my feet while I did handstand pushups, four as it turned out
before I collapsed. Mack did better at six, but the damn werewolf
kids were still going at fifteen when Jenks called a switch. Jenks
had had Caeco demonstrate, then let go of her feet when it was
apparent she could do them unaided, a fact I would have been
quietly in awe of if Delwood hadn’t ooh-haa-ed his appreciation.
Mother-f-ing ape wasn’t even sweating yet. Then he’d shaken off his
own partner and done ten unaided himself, calling everyone’s
attention to it by grunting loudly at each one. When he stood back
up, he’d winked at Caeco before turning a contemptuous look in my
direction. His thunder was stolen a bit by the vampire, Katrina,
who was doing them one handed, pumping them out like a machine.

I took a little solace in the fact that I
wasn’t the worst by far. Maybe top of the middle of the group, but
still nowhere near as good a shape as the weakest of the weres. And
Delwood… well, I was rapidly developing a major hatred for the
biggest dog in the group.

“Okay, enough for now. We’ll go easy today
and ramp it up slowly for you softies,” Jenks said. “Now, I was
going to do some more preparation discussion, but in light of the
recent revelations, Director Velasquez has asked me to fast track
the self-defense portions of the course. So today I’ll be
introducing you to kali, also know as eskrima or sometimes arnis.
These are blanket terms for a host of Philippine martial arts that,
unlike most others, actually start with weapons before progressing
to empty hands. It’s an interesting approach that depends on a
speedy buildup of muscle memory from the weapon usage. So today
we’ll start with eskrima sticks. They’re about two feet long and
made from rattan, which is a tough, fibrous wood that is also very
light.”

He and Caeco handed out pairs of sticks to
each student before he had us all face front and led us through
some basic swings—diagonal overhand from one side to the other,
then same with the opposite hand. Diagonal upswing from low to
high, back swings low-to-high, high-to-low, middle-to-middle.
Twisting the stick in one hand back and forth to hit with each end.
Thrusting jabs with the far end, back fist strikes with the near
hand end.

Caeco walked the group, correcting grips and
swings while Jenks continued to talk us through the loosening up
drills. As she walked, Caeco drew two sets of giant chalk V’s on
the floor at each student’s feet—one V right side up, the other
inverted. As soon as she was done, she nodded to Jenks and he
demonstrated how to step in a pattern either forward and then back
following the inverted V or stepping back then off to an angle
following the regular V. After fifteen minutes of that, he had us
break into pairs and after watching him demonstrate with Caeco, we
began to do paired strike patterns, complicated sets of matching
strikes that required a great deal of partner-to-partner
coordination.

Mack and I were just getting the hang of it
when I heard one of the were kids swear and drop his stick. He was
rubbing his hand and glaring at Delwood, who shrugged.

“Sorry, dude. Just having trouble getting
it,” Delwood said. It happened that Caeco was two people away,
observing two witches who were giggling as they fumbled through it.
Naturally, she turned and moved over to help. Borrowing the bruised
kid’s sticks, she walked Delwood through the pattern slowly,
although I could see that he really had no trouble getting it down,
an impression reinforced by the evil grin he shot my way when she
wasn’t looking.

My preoccupation with his private lesson
caused me to miss a block and Mack’s stick glanced off the top of
my head.

“Dude, sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be sorry, Mr. Sutton. Mr. O’Carroll’s
own lack of focus caused the problem, not anything you did,” Mr.
Jenks said, appearing suddenly by our sides. “I would think that
being in the weakest ranks of energy users would maybe incent you
to develop some additional skills, Mr. O’Carroll. Depending upon
others to protect you will be a serious drag on their energy and
talents. You don’t want to be a drag, now do you?”

“No sir,” I said, seething mad. Caeco’s
disappointed look and Delwood’s sneer added fuel to the fire.

Mack and I went back to the drill and I
focused like a laser beam through the red haze that was clouding my
vision.

Levi had often pushed me to an angry state in
Krav, teaching me how to handle my anger while trusting that I
wouldn’t cheat and draw on my Craft. I never did, but I was always
comforted by the idea that it was there, like a loaded gun, ready
to go off at a thought.

Ten minutes later, Jenks called it quits and
had us place our sticks in a big bin on the floor before leading us
through a set of cool down stretches.

I waited for Caeco by the doorway as she
talked with Jenks for a moment. The were boys went through in a
pack and someone slammed into me so hard I almost lost my
breath.

“Sorry, Duckland. Didn’t see you there.
You’re so small, it’s easy to miss you,” Delwood said.

I smiled and anchored his left foot to the
floor with a thought, which caused him to stumble to one knee. He
jumped up, not realizing I had chosen to release him, instantly
furious. Ready to give him the O’Carroll do-it-yourself uber taser,
I suddenly sensed someone behind us.

Delwood froze, looking behind me. “Leave off,
Mr. Singer. Go on, head out. Mr. O’Carroll, a word please,” Jenks
said.

Caeco was a step behind him, a puzzled look
on her face.

“Mr. O’Carroll, perhaps you weren’t listening
a moment ago, but a warlock against a werewolf is a poor matchup.
Against the son of an Alpha like Singer, it’s even worse. One of
the girls would likely hold her own, but you? Not so much. So do
yourself a favor and stop antagonizing him. A little foot trip
won’t save your ass in a fight, hear me?”

I couldn’t speak for a moment. Couldn’t utter
a word, I was so angry. Caeco was shaking her head at me, eyes wide
in disbelief. Finally, I spoke. “You think me helpless against
them?”

He stared at me a moment. “I think you’d get
killed.”

“You an expert on witches?” I asked, not even
attempting to keep the anger out of my voice.

“I know enough to know male witches are badly
outclassed in the power arena.”

“Really? How much power do you think it would
take to kill someone by internally burning an organ, like, say, a
heart?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Mr. O’Carroll, but I know this
conversation is over. Get out,” he said, pointing at the door.

The building shook once—hard, like a huge
truck had just gone by or something.

“What the hell was that? You two go on about
your day while I check this out,” he said, stepping past us and
into the hall, heading to the guarded entrance.

“What’s the matter with you? You’re acting
all crazy,” Caeco said.

“It’s that fuck Delwood. He’s hitting on you
right in front of me and daring me to stop him,” I said, still
seething.

“What? Delwood? What are you talking about,
Declan? That’s crazy. He hasn’t hit on me,” she said, thoroughly
confused.

“Of course he has; you just don’t see it. Use
your training. He’s paying you complements, demanding your
attention, making comments,” I said.

“You’re being absurd,” she said calmly. “He
knows I’m with you. Everybody does. Now listen, I have to run; I’m
behind schedule a bit. I’ll see you later, right?”

“Yeah, count on it,” I said.

“Okay,” she smiled. “And Declan, no more
shaking the building, okay? It’s old and you’ll just knock it
down.”

Mildly embarrassed that she’d recognized my
temper tantrum, I was also slightly mollified at her
acknowledgement of my power.

Keeping it on the down low was fast becoming
a major drag. The day was coming when the school would learn just
what I could do.

Chapter 15

The rest of the day passed in a blur.
Programming claimed enough of my attention to keep my mind off
Delwood. We were running through lines of code to find errors and
there was no live machine for me to cheat and
ask
with my
magic. Lunch was clear of elvish folk and my calc class was, well,
calc. I did notice some of my fellow Arcane students either moving
in pairs or even groups of three. Some of the psy kids were hanging
with were kids for protection. I noticed that big, quiet Justin had
two young ladies staying close as they walked down the hill. I
stopped and gave all three a ride back to Arcane.

Dinner was another buffet, but the choices
were all completely different and the preparation seemed on par
with my restaurant-trained tastebuds. It was definitely better than
what they served on campus, and even that wasn’t too bad.

Back at Arcane, the kids all seemed a little
nervous, talking animatedly in groups in the lounges and dining
hall. Even my group was a touch subdued.

“Are they really going to come for us?” Ariel
asked her roommate.

“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. It’s just
that three children missing in an area this size all at the same
time is way outside the norm. So it makes me think they’re around.
Plus Eirwen approached Declan at lunch,” Ashley said.

“She’s a princess, right?” T.J. asked. Ashley
just nodded, her mouth full of soup. He turned to me. “Dude, was
she hot?” he asked.

Ashley rolled her eyes, Ariel looked
incredulous, Jetta frowned, and Caeco just looked mildly curious.
Mack and Justin waited for my response with typical male
interest.

“Yeah, but it was fake hot,” I said, dipping
a California roll in some wasabi that Caeco thought I should try.
“She projects some kind of glamour or illusion that makes you
almost lose your mind,” I said, then popped the sushi into my
mouth. Big mistake. Note to self: Don’t rely on Caeco where
culinary spice heat is concerned. Eyes tearing, throat burning, I
drank my entire glass of water and when that failed to impact the
burn, I stole Mack’s glass of milk.

“Hey dude, not cool,” he said, although his
tone was too mild to indicate any real annoyance.

“So she was, like, ugly?” T.J. asked,
disappointed.

I coughed a couple of times and finished the
milk. “No, she’s good looking, but when she’s got the glamour thing
going, she’s crazy hot. You feel this pressure to do anything to
make her happy.”

“Aww, I get that with any hot girl that will
talk to me,” T.J. said with a quick glance at Ashley.

She either failed to notice or chose to
ignore. Instead, she was still looking at me curiously. “The elves
have different abilities; glamour is often one of them. Eirwen is
really strong with it. The way to defeat it is to hold a piece of
iron or steel in your bare hand. But you didn’t fall for it, D,
even without iron. How?”

Wiping the remaining tears from my eyes, I
watched as Caeco casually swiped her own sushi through the
remaining wasabi on my plate, popping it into her mouth without any
visible reaction. I felt myself frown but only pushed my plate in
her direction, noting the glimmer of amusement in her eyes. I
finally addressed Ashley’s question, which had everyone else
curious.