Mistfall (2 page)

“I trained earlier Melissa, don’t you
remember? I made you ghoulash. Get it? Ghoulash?” I couldn’t help
but laugh.

Something hit me in the chest and the next
thing I knew I was airborne. I flew ten feet and landed on my back.
I gasped for air. Instead of getting up, I lay on the ground,
waiting for the feeling of a bear sitting on my chest to go
away.

Melissa looked down at me. “Instead of
wasting energy being a smart ass, why don’t you use some of that
and train?”

“Alright,” I pouted. “Just give me a
minute.”

“You won’t have a minute when you’re being
attacked by the next Aelfadl or Goddess only knows what kind of
demon spawn, so get up off your ass and fight!”

I wasn’t getting out of this training session
until I had beat her.
I miss the ghoul.

Figuring the only way to end this quickly was
to catch her off guard; I got up to a crouched position, magicked
up some fire, and shot it straight at her feet. From there it took
on a life of its own, encircling her, then growing up towards the
ceiling. It gave me the advantage I needed. Melissa had to drop one
of her swords to combat my fire attack.

As she was extinguishing it, I rushed her,
brought my sword up and swung it down towards her neck. She met my
attack, blocking my blow with only one sword. She was just as good
with one sword as she was two.

We kept on for another twenty minutes, each
of us attacking, deflecting, and using every dirty magic trick
there was in the book. I finally got the upper hand when she
stumbled over the words to a spell.

I conjured up a shadow back and to the right
of her. It was in her line of sight and I knew she would look since
her wards had been breached and the monsters had gotten past them.
As soon as she was distracted, I swept her legs out from underneath
her, put my foot on her chest, and brought my blade down, stopping
only millimeters above her neck. I had a big ear to ear grin on my
face.

“Are we done now?” I looked at my watch.
“It’s after nine and we’re supposed to meet your dog at ‘The Lamp.’
I hoped bringing up the subject of her new boyfriend would convince
her to lay off training early.

She gave me a dirty look. “First of all,
would you get that thing away from my neck and secondly, would you
quit calling Owen a dog? He’s really fun to hang out with.”

I dropped my sabre and gave her a hand up.
She was walking towards the stairs when she turned around with a
smile on her face. “AND, he’s not mine, well at least not yet
anyway.” She turned back around and headed up the stairs.

“Make sure you house-train him first!” I
yelled up the stairs at her.

I heard the onion before I saw it and ducked
in just enough time.
I don’t know what she has against this
vegetable.

After a quickie shower I was standing in
front of my closet. There wasn’t anything in there I wanted to put
on, so I put my jinn skills to work. I went with a shimmery,
midnight blue halter top and a pair of boot cut jeans. Skinny jeans
with stiletto boots were what I really wanted to wear, but you
can’t fight in stilettos.
One of these days I’m going to wear
clothes for fashion and not function.
I decided to keep going
with the magic and made my hair curl up into perfect beachy coils.
I kept my make-up simple, with a little black eyeliner and my
favorite lip gloss, Pucker Up Pink.

“Now for the accessories,” I told myself. In
the top drawer of my dresser are a few of my favorite weapons for
concealing. I chose two daggers that I could slip in my boots for
easy access and a few small throwing knives I could carry in a
purse. I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door with
Melissa.

After a ten minute drive and an off-key
rendition of The Beatle’s ‘I Am the Walrus,’ we arrived at our
destination. The Lamp was your typical club. It had an upstairs and
downstairs bar along with a dance floor. The only thing of note was
the sign for the club. Above the lettering was an oil lamp in
bright neon yellow with a ridiculous green cartoon genie coming out
of it. I hated that thing and had, on more than one occasion, used
a little magic to short out the lights on it. Even amongst
Otherworlders, we were stereotyped in the human fashion.

We met Melissa’s boyfriend, Owen, and the
rest of the litter by the front doors. Owen and his pack weren’t
bad guys, I just can’t’ stand werewolves. They can’t go anywhere
without each other, have an insane jealous streak, and their
machismo attitude makes me want to throw up on a good day.

I would have rather stayed home, but it had
been a long week and I could use a drink or four.

Owen wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was tall,
dark, and handsome. Being a werewolf, he was all muscle. There
wasn’t a space on this guy’s body that wasn’t defined.

He put his arm around Melissa’s shoulders in
a way that could only be considered possessive. I was surprised he
hadn’t urinated on her and marked his territory.

“Hey babe,” he greeted Melissa and gave her a
quick peck on the cheek. He then turned to me. “Mags, I want you to
meet a friend of mine.” Owen gestured to his friend, “This is
David.”

Sweet flippin’ Hades, the hound was
setting me up!
If looks could kill, Melissa would be dead. I
was shooting lasers out of my eyes at her. She shrugged as if she
didn’t know anything and gave me an apologetic smile. Left without
a choice, I composed myself and forced out a smile.

I stuck my hand out. “Hi David, it’s nice to
meet you.” I could be civil, well at least I could try. Even if he
wasn’t a werewolf, he wouldn’t have been my type. He was short,
stocky, and ginger. Ginger!

He took my hand in his and brought it to his
lips with a lascivious gleam in his eyes, “The pleasure is all
mine.”

I took every last bit of will power I had not
to roll my eyes. Pretending to shiver, I said “It’s a bit chilly
out here, why don’t we go in?”

I looked to Melissa for support. She knew me
well and picked up at the obvious pleading in my eyes. “Come on
Owen, Mags is right, it is cold out her.”

Instead of relinquishing my hand, David held
onto it as we followed Owen and Melissa to the bouncer outside the
door, with the rest of the dogs behind us.

Vin, the bouncer was a demon and built like a
brick shithouse. He was menacing looking, even more so with black
eyes. No irises, no whites, just pure midnight for eyes. He also
just happened to be a big teddy bear where Melissa and I were
concerned. We had helped him out of a sticky situation involving a
pixie and handcuffs. Don’t ask, you don’t want to know.

“How are my two favorite Witches?” he grinned
and pulled each of us under an arm and gave us a rib cracking
squeeze.

If you didn’t know Vin, his voice alone could
make you pee your pants. He was a demon. Demons have this weird
voice where it sounds like three people talking at once. Sometimes
it even caused me to shudder.

I should mention that to everyone else, I
appear as a Witch. Thanks to a potion of Melissa’s, nothing about
me screams jinn. One part of the potion works like the Mistfall. If
someone was to look at me closely, it diverts their attention. The
other part is glamour, making my eyes blue.

Melissa and I call her potion
brew
in
case company is around. If it comes up, she just explains that I
have some type of weird skin condition, embarrassing yet effective.
I just have to remember to use my hands or make up some mumbo jumbo
that sounds like a spell when I use my magic. I try to keep that at
a minimum in public to lessen my chance of exposure. I owe that
girl my very existence.

“Hi Vin,” we both squeaked under the
mountains this guy had for arms. I swear I heard one of the wolves
growl. Vin narrowed his eyes at them, but let us go. His cute and
cuddly demeanor was replaced with his usual gruff. “I.D.’s,” he
grunted in his creepy demon voice.

Should have asked for their dog tags,
I humored to myself. They handed over their identification to Vin,
albeit reluctantly. Shortly thereafter we walked through the doors,
the rest of the pack dispersing, aside from Owen and David.

“Wow, it crowded in here tonight,” I yelled
to Melissa over the sound of the music. She nodded back in
agreement, while being led by Owen through the masses. The crowd on
the dance floor was pulsating to Skrillex’s ‘Kyoto.’

When we got to the booth, Melissa slid in on
one side and David put his hand on my waist, nudging me to sit down
on the other side. I swatted at his hand but he just laughed,
making some comment about, “liking them feisty.” I could feel one
of the knives in my boot itching to be used.

“We’re going to the bar,” Owen addressed us.
“What do you girls want to drink?”

“Rum and coke for me,” Melissa replied.

“Don’t worry, I got you covered,” David cut
me off as he walked off with Owen.

Maybe I could just stab him a little.

“What the hell?” I admonished Melissa, my
voice rising in decibel. “This guy is a total piece of work and if
he touches me one more time he’s going to find the business end of
my boot!”

She looked sheepishly down at her hands.
“Honestly, I didn’t know Owen was going to set you up, but when he
introduced you to David, I didn’t think you’d mind. He’s usually
pretty laid back. I’m not sure what has him acting so
foolishly.”

She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
“Mags, do you think you could hold it together for one drink?” she
pleaded. “It’s so loud in here you won’t have to talk to him that
much and after were done, we can go and dance without the boys.
Please? I promise I will make it up to you. It’s just that I really
like Owen and I don’t want to end the night early.”

I was purposely avoiding eye contact with
her, entirely way too interested in the invisible lint I was
picking off my pants.
If I didn’t owe this woman my life
…It
took me a few minutes, but I relented and glared back up at her and
nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Thank you. We’ll have fun tonight,” she
assured me.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

The boys returned with our drinks. David sat
down next to me and handed me a martini glass with some mauve
colored liquid that I couldn’t identify, replete with umbrella and
cherries.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“It’s called a Purple People Eater,” he
replied.

Melissa choked on her drink. While Owen was
patting her back, telling her to slow down, I whipped my head up
towards David and looked him straight in the eyes, looking for any
hint of recognition on his face of what I am. Only a cocky grin,
that had nothing to do with my identity, showed on his face. I
turned my attention back to my drink, tossing the frou-frou stuff
aside and downed it in two gulps. Slamming the glass back down on
the table, I grabbed Melissa and we high-tailed it out onto the
dance floor.

We didn’t get far enough into the crowd as I
would’ve liked. Melissa wanted to stay on the outer edges so Owen
could see her dance for him. He was eyeing her like she was his
favorite bone which caused the bile to rise in the back of my
throat. Avoiding the sex-hungry stare David was giving me, I looked
up at the second floor. That’s when I saw him.

Someone was staring at me, at least, that’s
what it seemed like. I grabbed Melissa’s arm and pointed towards
the guy.

“Do you see that guy?” I asked her. “I could
swear he was staring at me.”

She shook her head. “I don’t see anyone.”

I turned to the spot where the man was
moments earlier and saw no one there now. “Maybe he was just
looking at the crowd and it seemed like he was looking at you,”
Melissa shouted over the music that had just gone into a screeching
new decibel level.

I shrugged my shoulders, looked up one more
time to make sure.
Maybe I’m just still keyed up after the ghoul
attack and David’s choice of drink for me.
I gave up and
returned to dancing. Three songs later, I was slightly more
relaxed, having fun dancing with my best friend.

Melissa nudged me with her elbow halfway
through the next song, “Owen and David are headed this way, if
you’re still avoiding him.”

“Thanks girl, I’ll see you in a little
while,” I told her and headed deeper into the crowd on the dance
floor. After the song finished, I was a bit warm, so I headed up
the stairs to the second floor where it was less crowded.

I ordered a real drink from the bar (SoCo on
the rocks) and sat at one of the tables by the railing. I would be
able to see if the dog ever headed in my direction. Melissa and
Owen were still dancing below, gyrating against each other in a way
that only pointed to the eventual outcome of their evening.
Dog-themed sexual innuendos were running rampant through my head.
Have to remember a few of them for tomorrow morning.

I took a nice long drink while scanning the
rest of the crowd when I saw the stranger again, this time staring
up at me. This was not a coincidence. He didn’t look like one of
the monsters Iblis usually sent after me and he couldn’t be one of
the Aelfadl, they don’t play cat and mouse, they just kill first
and ask questions later. I finished my drink and headed down the
stairs to find him.

I weaved my way through the crowd on the
dance floor to where I saw the stranger a few minutes before, but
he was nowhere to be found, again. A set of hands grabbed my waist
from behind me, “You were looking for me?” he asked, his lips next
to my ear. He was so close it was impossible not to smell him. His
scent was earthy, like right after a rain storm, with undertones of
fresh mown grass and pine. He was most certainly an elf. They all
smelled like the forest, making them easy to spot.