Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (26 page)

A single lightbulb hanging from a long,
cracked wire illuminated the entryway to what must have been a
factory at one time. Most of what was visible appeared to be open
space and wooden support beams holding up the open-rafter second
floor. High above that was a wooden ceiling, obviously the flooring
of the third story. The overall impression was of a building
stripped down for renovations.

“Okay. Not using your powers is bullshit. How
can you learn if you don’t use?” Tanya asked.

“Not very well?” I suggested, glancing from
her to Chris and back again. He was no real help, still grinning at
me like he was loving life or something.

“So, this is my building now… for us to use
as a gym… for you,” she said, tilting her head to study my
reaction—which was likely confused, because that’s how I felt.

“We’re in town for the rest of the week. We
flew back from Europe when we heard how badly Jenks had fucked up.
So today and for the next three days after, we’ll be training you
here at 5:30 sharp. Next Monday, you go back to Jenk’s class, but
for now you’re ours… or hers, if I want to be accurate,” Chris
said.

“Okay,” I said, at a complete loss for words.
“I mean, wow. Thanks.”

“Well, being trained by Tanya is a huge
honor, but you might want to save the thanks. You’re going to hurt,
even with the drop of blood Tanya put in your drink,” Chris said,
still cheerful.

“If it’s going to hurt, then why are you so
happy?” I asked.

“Because this time, I get to be on the
trainer side instead of the trainee,” he said. I looked back to
Tanya but she was gone… vanished, like a ghost.

“First lesson. You have enormous power, but
your reactions and speed are only human, even with your fancy
tattoo things. So you’re going to have to adapt and develop
techniques to deal with beings much faster and stronger than you.
Your goal is to cross each floor, back and forth, till you get to
the far side of the third floor. We, meaning Tanya, Arkady, Stacia,
and myself, will be attacking you at random. Nothing too vicious,
but you best protect yourself. Now, here’s my advice—use your
shields, use those circle things you do to protect yourself from
our speed. Try to develop weapons that don’t require aim… you’ll
never hit us. Ready? Go!” he said and was suddenly gone.

I might have been confused and unsure, but
when the most dangerous man in the world tells me to put up a
shield, I do it. Good thing, as no sooner had I put on imaginary
invisible armor than a length of wood shot out of the darkness and
bounced off me. That one would have left a serious bruise. Okay,
game on.

While we were talking, I had studied the area
around us. The only electrical wire that looked live was the bare
bulb dangling over my head. Some loose wires were strewn about the
floor in the corners, but nothing looked connected except the
light. I sucked it dry, pulling energy till the bulb dimmed and
went out. Then I ran. Behind me, the light came back on.

Immediately, a blurring shape came at me from
the darkness to my left. I threw out a hand and lightning shot out,
smashing into a wooden beam but missing the target. Something hit
me from behind and my feet left the floor, my body smashing into
another upright post. Anyone get the plate number of that truck?
Oww.

My shields either deflect an impact or absorb
it by spreading across a much greater area. Slamming into a beam
across the length of my body was still very bruising, but at least
nothing was broken. This would get old fast.

I started on, but a smack from behind sent me
sprawling forward. I judo rolled forward and came to my feet, but
the giant Arkady was already past me and when I turned toward him,
I stepped right into an open-handed shove that knocked me backward
flat on the floor.

Shields alone weren’t
working. I grabbed chalk from my pocket and scratched a quick
circle. Or tried to. A hand from the rafters above grabbed my
collar and my feet left the floor. A split second later, I found
myself on the second story, lying across open floor joists. A
figure hovered over me and I threw another bolt of electricity at
it but it was long gone, like they could dodge lightning. Which I
didn’t think they actually could. Even Chris and Tanya
weren’t
that
fast,
but they were more than fast enough to read my molasses-slow human
motions and dodge the strike when my arm flung out. So no more open
motions… wait… I remembered something Levi had told me about
kung-fu. Something about a lying hand or distracting hand.
Hah.

I rolled over and let my feet fall through
the rafters, grabbing the wood only long enough to slow my drop a
bit. As soon as I hit the ground, I flung one hand forward but
projected the electricity in an arc that wrapped around my shields.
A loud snap and crack and a sharp Russian word sounded from behind
me. My chalk was lying on the concrete nearby and I grabbed it,
finishing my partial circle and powering it instantly.

A body smashed off the circle, smaller than
Arkady, but bigger than Tanya.

“Hah! Very good, Declan,” Chris said from the
darkness. “You’re learning. Now, how to move forward? You’ll have
to leave the circle sometime.”

Tempering the impulse to waste my borrowed
charge of electricity, I instead used basic telekinesis to grab the
two-by-four that had bounced off me earlier and whip it in his
direction.

“Oh, but I’m not there any more,” he said
from the other side of me. I pulled the wood back till it floated
in front of me. One four-foot piece of wood wasn’t going to work. I
mentally snapped it in two, something I couldn’t have done
physically. Then I snapped both pieces again, and again. Now I had
eight roughly six-inch-long blocks and I swirled them around me in
a continuous weaving circle, speeding them up till they were moving
in a blur. A quick look around didn’t show anyone visible. I broke
the circle and ran forward, the spiraling blocks moving around
me.

“Nice,” Tanya’s voice said from the darkness.
“But wooden blocks aren’t very scary.”

“I thought we were training? If this was for
keeps, I’d make them all wooden spikes or pull up concrete from the
floor, or just flatten the building,” I said, slamming to a stop at
the far end. A short set of unfinished stairs climbed to the second
story and I rushed up them before anything else interfered.

“Breaking my building is a fail,” Tanya
admonished from the dark. Couldn’t tell if she was below or up on
the rafters. I shivered at the thought of making her mad. She was
just playing with me—I’d be a smear of red jelly if she wasn’t.

“But points for out-of-the-box thinking,”
Chris added, his voice echoing. “But how to cross the rafters?
Can’t put a circle down up here, now can you?”

No wiseass, I couldn’t. Not on a broken
floor. A witch would have to bring their own circle with them and
that was impossible… or was it? A piece of bright copper wire, a
grounding cable, hung from a nail on a nearby beam, like an
electrician left it there when he was called off the job. Called
off by a vampiress who wanted the building left rustic.

I grabbed it and held the two ends together,
requesting the metal to bond with itself.

Now I had a circle of copper four feet in
diameter. Too big. I twisted the loop like I’d seen Ashley do with
her infinity scarf, making a doubled two-foot circle. It lay across
the rafters and I stepped into it and powered it up, keeping my
winding rope of spinning blocks outside the circle. The curving
blue wall extended straight down to the concrete floor ten feet
below and straight up to the wooden ceiling ten feet above.

Now to see if it could move. I willed the
copper up an inch, till it floated just off the wooden joists. When
I stepped forward, my circle stepped with me, the wooden blocks
still swirling like a hyperactive nest of giant bees swarming
around me.

Something giant smashed into my circle,
completely ignoring the blocks that pelted it, but bouncing off the
glowing wall of my circle. I snapped out a bolt of electricity
without moving my arms and scored a satisfying yelp from the
massive Russian vampire.

Stepping quickly but as carefully as I could,
I crossed the open floor. A glance back showed Arkady was gone, not
that I expected to actually see him.

I made it to the other side without attack
and found another stair, this one as old as the building. It led up
through the thick planks of the third floor. I took down the
circle, climbed the stairs in a rush, and tossed my wire circle out
onto the rough wood of the third floor. Frankly, this high above
the ground, I wasn’t sure a circle would even work. It was two
short steps ahead of me but before I could move, a god-awful growl
sounded from the darkness nearby. It rattled my spine and ribcage,
instantly sending the hairs on the back of my neck straight up and
shriveling my boy parts.

Enough with the darkness. I cast an orb of
light ahead, letting it hang just below the ceiling. Much of the
vast space was now lit, only the corners in shadow. The light was
plenty bright enough to reveal the source of the growl. An enormous
white wolf, easily over two hundred pounds, stood stiff-legged and
snarling, bright yellow-green eyes locked on me. An even bigger
wolf, this one black and tan, lay on the floor to one side, just
watching. That one was Awasos, so I had no trouble figuring the
white one for Stacia Reynolds.

I long ago got over hitting pretty girls in
fighting practice. And it was much easier to contemplate when they
were shaped like one of Nature’s most efficient killers. She dodged
away from the spinning blocks of wood I sent after her, darting
back and forth. Thought I had her baffled, but she surprised me by
flattening out low to the floor like she was coming under the
blurring ring, then leaped up and over it, coming down, paws
outstretched, jaws open. My reaction was automatic, a burst of
kinetic energy to throw her back, followed by a bolt of
electricity—just about the last of my borrowed power.

She twisted in midair like a cat, but the
mini-bolt caught her and she yelped before hitting the ground in a
white-furred lump. Turning to Awasos, I figured he’d attack next,
but he only yawned and put his head on his forefeet. I glanced back
at the white wolf only to discover she was gone, replaced by
Stacia’s human form… her very naked human form. She lay unmoving
and I worried I’d really hurt her. Mindful of ‘Sos, I moved
cautiously to Stacia, trying to ignore her nakedness. She lay on
one side, breathing but unconscious. Pulling on her shoulder caused
her to roll onto her back, which left her breasts fully exposed. I
was actually successful in keeping my gaze on her face as I
mentally wrestled with the little red-suited fellow on my left
shoulder. He kept demanding that I look at her perfection. But I
didn’t… for a full five seconds, but then his white robed opposite
suggested that her wounds might be lower on her body and red-boy
quickly agreed. So I dropped my gaze, truly intending to check for
wounds—honestly. But I got trapped by her chest. Until a band of
steel closed around my throat and I felt myself lifted off the
ground. Her other hand gripped the hair on the back of my head as
she stood with boneless grace, my body’s weight hardly an
inconvenience. “Snap… your neck is broken,” she said mildly, green
eyes glittering in the pale white light of my orb.

She dropped me, still holding my eyes with
her own. A low chuckle sounded behind me. Turning around, I found
Chris, Tanya, and Arkady standing in the stairway. Chris was
laughing, Arkady grinned, and Tanya just studied me.

“Fooled by the helpless naked female act…
classic,” Chris said. Arkady chuckled, a sound like rocks
tumbling.

“I thought I’d really hurt her,” I said,
wincing at the defensive tone in my voice.

“Do you think ‘Sos would just lie there if
she were really hurt?” Chris asked.

I shrugged. “She got me good. I just don’t
know what will hurt a were and what won’t.”

“Hitting them with a bus is a start,” Tanya
said. “Please feel free to do so with this one.”

“Nice,” a soft feminine voice said behind me.
I was afraid to look, but when she came up next to me, my
peripheral vision picked up green clothing, so I took a quick
glance. Stacia wore black leggings and a bulky green UVM
sweatshirt. Her feet were still bare, but she seemed unconcerned by
the unheated building and the frigid air that clouded with our
breath. “He held back… I could tell. Both the mind blast thingy and
the personal lightning bolt… which stung like hell, by the way. You
should try one, Tanya… you might like it.”

Chris sighed, glancing from one to the other
before coming back to me. “Not shabby for a first try. What do you
think, T?”

“He learns fast, but is very slow,” she said,
turning to me. “You must work like a tank, using your power to
armor yourself from our attacks. Then strike back.”

“He stopped telegraphing his bolts right
away… is good,” Arkady rumbled.

I started to feel better about my
performance. “I wonder if his circle or shields are bulletproof? We
should try them out,” Tanya said, matter-of-fact.

Now I didn’t feel better… now I just felt
terrified.

Chapter 25