Mage of Shadows (29 page)

"We're here." Carmen said quietly. Distracted, I hadn't noticed that we had stopped until she lightly pressed her hand against mine and I sensed the warm familiarity of her presence spread to brush gently against my mind.

We stood in front of an old house, only a few sizes too small to be considered a manor. It was well tended with perfectly trimmed grass and shrubbery, but its architecture, all dark wood and pale shaded glass, made it look dark where it should have looked cheery. The gloom of the sunless day only added to the uncertain feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach as I stared at it with a sense of unshakeable foreboding.

Carmen squeezed my hand, and I turned my head to look at her questioningly. The beautiful girl only smiled at me and let go, moving up the sloping walk to the large empty porch and shadowed door. Confused, I could only follow her, unknowingly walking into the house that I would call my home, very soon.

111

Carmen didn't knock, but used a small silver key to unlock the front door and stepped inside, and then she handed the key to me.

"It's yours now." She said as way of explanation, and then showed me her own identical key which she kept on a ring of various others.

"Thank you," I replied slowly as I took it, "Where are we, exactly?"

"Stratus, took you long enough." We turned to see Vik leaning against a nearby doorway. In the small entrance hall, there were two adjacent doorways and a relatively long hallway that branched off in two directions further along. I noticed that the inside was a lot less menacing than outside, the walls were painted a pale blue, and the wooden floors and doorways were elder oak white. It felt strangely… homey.

Vik gestured from one of the doorways, "Come on, time for you to meet the gang."

Obediently, I walked forward towards Vik, who snaked an arm around my neck in what I supposed was a playful gesture, but felt more like a headlock. The frat leader dragged me into the next room, which looked like a miniature greenhouse more than anything; the ceiling was a tempered glass dome, though there was no sunlight to stream inside. Everything was potted or growing along the walls, but it had a very forest-like feel to it, with the only clear walkway being the cobbled stone path that Vik half-dragged me along, with Carmen following behind us.

"What is this place?" I asked as I was hurried through.

Vik glanced around with disinterest, it was nothing new to him, "Kristen has a gift with plants," He said with a shrug, "Earth magic is more than throwing rocks around, you know."

I didn't have time to think or formulate a response, the next doorway opened up to a less exotic, but equally spacious room. Empty of plants, it was instead filled with people my age, or a bit older.

The room was seemingly divided into two areas by the arrangement of the family of different comfy looking black leather couches that were interspersed accordingly. A large flat-screen took up a portion of the north wall, left from the doorway that we had entered from. The eastern wall, directly across from our entry point, was a blazing open fireplace and another doorway. From my vantage point I could only just see a hint of a stairwell through the open door that wound upwards, apparently to the upper levels of the house.

Every head in the room turned with interest upon our entrance.

None of them really look all that dangerous¸ had been my first thought. It was true, while they held themselves a bit more confidently than one would expect, for the most part it could have easily been a room full of Normals. Not one had a gun, knife, or evil smirk in sight. Then again, Danae wasn't present yet.

I counted nine of them, some faces I knew immediately while I could only guess at the others. Yasmina and Mehdy smiled at me from their spot near the fireplace, both sitting on a furry rug and with books spread out on a low wooden table in front of them. I noticed across from them was Larry Chen, looking to be studying his own material as well.

The only person actually sitting on one of the couches near the fire- a open recliner, I recognized with a surprising jolt as someone I hadn't seen in several months, Kevin Ruark. His eyes were intent on the book in his lap, and he hadn't looked up or acknowledged me in any way when I entered. Considering the fact that he hadn't tried to contact me at all after we last met, I shouldn't have been so disappointed to be ignored. Not mention the fact that he might've been the murderer I've been looking for all this time… but I was trying to keep an open mind and not jump to rash conclusions.

There were a couple more recliners near the large television, which currently displayed some kind of two-person fighting game, paused upon our entry. Other than several recliners near the TV, there was one very long L-shaped couch that was occupied by the other five mages in the room, all of which that were looking at me. From them, I only recognized Hershel from this morning, but they were all faces I had seen before hanging around Vik or Danae.

"Everyone," Vik clapped his hands together cheerfully, "Meet Nicholas Stratus, our new punching bag. Treat him gently, of course, but not too gently… Stratus, this is everyone." He waved a lazy hand out vaguely, and then walked away to collapse on the couch, demanding a controller from Hershel so he could play.

Two people, a boy and a girl, detached themselves from the couch to crowd around me, and I felt very nervous under their combined stare. Carmen's presence at my shoulder was suddenly a very welcome one.

"This is him?" The dark-haired girl smirked at me, and I suddenly recognized her as the third girl from the roof at the hazing, "He looks different with clothes on."

"Doesn't look special to me." The boy next to her commented, his arms crossed. I noticed that they had much of the same features- pointed chins, sharp cheekbones, and very dark brown eyes. Even their hair was similarly colored and styled, though the girl's was much longer, hanging down to her shoulders.

"Nick," Carmen said as way of introduction, "Meet Adam and Kristen Stevenson. They're sophomores like me."

"Hi, nice to meet you." I stuck my hand out to shake.

Adam snorted at the proffered hand and stalked back to his seat on the couch, though his sister took it with feigned politeness and a dark sort of smile.

"Pleasure," Kristen drawled lazily, "I'm sure you'll fit right in here." She gave Carmen a strange smirk that I didn't understand and then walked off to join her brother.

I gave Carmen a questioning glance, but she didn't explain. No one else came to us, so Carmen took me to them. Hershel smiled blandly at me when Carmen introduced us.

"We already met." The black guy, a couple of years older than me, said as he stood to tower over me and shake my hand, nearly crushing it in his grip.

The big mage leaned in and said softly, "I found Max by the way. I pounded him a bit."

"…You beat him up?" I asked blankly.

Hershel just smirked.

"Hershel's a star linebacker on the school's football team." Carmen offered as an interesting tidbit of information as the older mage crushed my hand. She didn't seem to understand our short byplay, and neither of us explained.

"I can see why." I joked weakly; rubbing my pained hand after Hershel was kind enough to release it.

"This is Angela Lin, junior." Carmen gestured to a diminutive, quiet Chinese girl sitting on the couch.

She didn't stand, but nodded softly to me, "Welcome." Her voice was low, almost inaudible over the sound of the fighting on TV and Vik's hoots as he beat up Adam's character.

I nodded back and automatically turned to look at the last person on the couch, and I found that he was already watching me contemplatively, a small grin on stretching his face amiably. I didn't recognize him, though I was sure I had seen him several times with Larry's group. He was Asian as well, but wasn't Chinese like Larry or Angela. He had much darker skin, a healthy bronze similar to Carmen's, rather than Larry or Angela's pale milky complexion. His eyes didn't share their slant either, but were as equally sharp as Larry's.

"This is Les Domingo." Carmen introduced, "Les is a junior, and he'll be your teacher over the next two years."

Les stood, and I found he was shorter than I was by a few inches, but his stocky frame contained a poised balance that I lacked. His build was similar to Mehdy's, well-muscled but thin and lithe, in comparison to Ruark, Hershel, or Vik who were definitely a lot bulkier. Speed, not strength.

"Very nice to finally meet you." Les said as I shook his hand and his grin widened, "I have a feeling we're going to make a good team."

Gulp. For some reason, the way he said it scared me.

Not that I was really afraid or anything, bravery was my middle name. I just said that because if you had been in my shoes and heard him speak and saw the grin, you would be very frightened. I wasn't… like at all.

"Likewise," I replied as he let go and sat back down on the couch, apparently done introducing himself to me, even though we were supposedly stuck with each other for the next two years. Carmen led me off towards the fireplace now, before I could say anything else anyways.

"You already know Yasmina and Mehdy." Carmen said with a smile and a nod, "You met Larry at the rooftop… and this is Kevin."

Yasmina and Mehdy had smiled at me, Larry continued to ignore my existence, and Kevin only looked up at the sound of his name, as if he had been completely oblivious to the fact that anything had occurred at all, until that very moment.

The blue-eyed senior tilted his head at me and toyed with his scruffy goatee, "Nicholas Stratus," He murmured, more to himself than anyone else. The mage was dressed in a black cutoff shirt that displayed the raw definition of his body, and I was pretty sure that since I had last seen him, he had bulked up significantly. Frankly, he put David, Vik, or even linebacker Hershel to shame.

Ruark stood and covered the some five feet or so between us in only a few steps. He inspected me from head to foot, eyes calculating for a moment, before finally holding out his own well-calloused hand for me to grip, "It's a pleasure to see you, as always."

His smile was cheerful, grip strong, and tone suggested none of the previous distress I had sensed in our last meeting, so near after Emily's death. Ruark, for all intents and purposes, seemed over it.

I took his hand, smiling back at the older mage and attempted to hide how nervous I felt. This was the mage who had taken Rodriguez's gun from me, months ago. The very next day, Emily was dead, using the very same weapon.

He must know that I know, I thought anxiously, even as Ruark let go of my hand, still grinning as the muscular User sat back down in his seat to return to the book that he had been reading.

Archanos had significant power. I had been out of jail in less than a day, after being accused as a very likely suspect in two cases, murder and assault. Not only that, the arresting officer and my accuser had been forced to apologize to me. If Carmen knew enough to explain exactly how I had gotten jailed in the first place, than everyone here probably had a similar level of knowledge.

To my surprise, Carmen didn't move to sit down with the others; instead she tugged on my arm again, pulling me towards the far doorway, where I had glimpsed the staircase before.

"Come on," My tour guide said, "We can go see upstairs."

I nodded and followed obediently, still feeling very out of place in this house of mages, who apparently lived together so casually. It was the largest congregation of Users that I had seen in my life, and I distinctly felt out of depth in their presence.

"Dinner soon, don't forget!" Vik called after us as we left, "And don't go in my room, I'll know if you do!"

This next room contained nothing but a darkened staircase that I had glimpsed before, and hallway that appeared to connect to the longer one I had originally seen from the entrance of the house. Carmen ignored it for the stairs, which squawked with aged protest as we climbed them.

"Was that everybody?" I asked her quietly as we ascended, as if afraid that they could hear me even when we were this far out of earshot.

"Pretty much," The girl responded with a shrug, "Your friends aren't here yet, but Danae should be rounding them up. I only had to get you. We don't usually congregate like that except for a meeting, or to greet new members."

Carmen paused for a moment, then admitted, "Not everyone particularly likes each other."

"Cliques within a clique?" I joked halfheartedly.

She smiled at the joke, we had reached the top and stood in another hallway, both sides of it littered with equally interspersed doorways, some closed, some open. I peered into a few and saw an assorted mish-mash of beds and randomly thrown clothes. Other rooms looked immaculate and untouched, and I idly wondered who slept where.

"You aren't wrong about that." The girl said as we strolled down the hallway, "I stick with Danae because I have no choice as her apprentice, and Kristen adores her. If we're with any of the boys, it's with Vik, who usually has Hershel and Adam to order around. Ruark keeps to himself, though he's usually on good terms with Yasmina and Mehdy. Larry taught Les, and they share a lot of the same Normal friends. Angela usually is trailing after Les, I think because she has a crush on him, so she sticks with them, if anyone."

"Pretty divided." I commented with a frown, "I thought fraternities were supposed to be all about bringing people together."

"They are." Carmen said, shrugging, "But we aren't like a normal frat. We accept anyone who has magical ability, we don't discriminate based on whether we like them or not. So you get a lot of different types of personalities that don't necessarily mesh."

"I see."

We stopped outside a closed door at the very end of the hall, near a decorative tinted blue window that faced the direction of campus. I could vaguely see some of the taller campus buildings like RT from here. Carmen dug into her pocket and produced another key and handed it to me; it was a near twin to the front door's key.

"Open it," She said with a smile, gesturing to the door. I was a little confused, but did so. The key slid into the lock easily, a perfect fit. I turned it and heard the door unlock quietly. Carmen was still smiling as I grasped the pale gold doorknob and let the door swing open.