Sorcerer: Betrayal: Power of Air (Book 4) (3 page)

Wednesday, June 8
^th
, 2016, 9:42 PM

We arrived in the backyard by the table and chairs in an
embrace.  We didn’t need to travel like that but… I wanted to.  The night air
was still warm and the sky was clear.  We stared into one another’s eyes for a
moment and I could feel a shadow of yearning from her through the ally bond, a
desire that echoed mine, I couldn’t wait to get back to our room.  The idea
that she felt the same for me made it indescribable.

I kissed her softly, but that didn’t last long as she fit
her body to mine and it grew hungry and demanding.  It was a good night, and we
were about to make it much better.

A howl broke out in the woods breaking our kiss, and our
mood, in an instant.  The sound was full of guilt, pain, and loss, and somehow
I knew it was Selene that had made that sound through the ally link.  I could
feel it.

We shared a quick look and Sierra muttered, “Stay here,” as
she pulled off her sundress and shifted, and then she was off like a shot into
the woods.  I would have ignored the stay here part, except I knew they weren’t
in danger, it was grief.

I turned as the back door opened and Derik came out, his
face was stony in an attempt to hide his own emotions.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

He grunted, “Selene is pregnant.”

That didn’t make sense, “Doesn’t she…”

He cut me off, “And, today is our daughter’s birthday.”

Oh. 

I could imagine, sort of.  Being happy at finding out she
was pregnant on her murdered daughter’s birthday had to be a mind screw, and
make things much worse.  Well, maybe I couldn’t imagine, but I was hardly a
stranger to grief or the death of family.

I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it, so we just
stood there outside, both waiting for our mates to come back to the house.  I
wasn’t sure why Derik wasn’t out there, but then he knew what his mate needed,
so I didn’t wonder for very long.  Nothing I could really do or say either,
except stand here and offer my silent support.

I hadn’t even met her, all I knew was she was in college,
and had a human roommate that died along with her.  I almost asked about Debbie,
but decided another time maybe, my curiosity was hardly a reason to tear open
wounds.

It was about twenty minutes later when they came back, and
it wasn’t just Selene and Sierra.  I recognized Carrie and Suzy as well.  I
turned my head as they all shifted, and then walked into the house.  Derik and
I followed them a few minutes later, and I went up to my room.  Sierra was
laying on our bed only half beneath the covers, and she hadn’t bothered getting
dressed.

Sierra smiled, “She’ll be okay.  Can I ask you a question?”

“Anything,” I said, and I meant it, and not just because my
eyes were feasting.

She laughed, “See something you like?”

Two things, but I didn’t say that out loud.  She knew me
though, and gave me a look.  Like it’s my fault I’m a guy?  Talk about
entrapment.  I started to undress myself, to join her.  Although the earlier
mood was gone, I also knew it wouldn’t be a very large effort to get it back.

She shook her head, “That wasn’t the question.  Do you ever
think about having children?”

“Honestly?  I hadn’t given it much thought with everything
going on, and being so young.”

Sierra and her wolf were sure, for me I’d grown up in a
society where breakups were common, and they happened all the time.  I suppose
the idea that this amazing woman was mine, for life, was hard to believe, and
even harder to truly grasp.  I’d never been good at relationships before, and
outside of a few mistakes I’d made early on, it was astonishingly easy to be
Sierra’s mate.

She looked disappointed so I said, “But my first impulse
would be to say I’d be happy if it happened.  Did Selene make you think of
this?”

She shrugged, “Not really.  Selene’s situation made me ask,
but I was already thinking about it.  So should we try?”

She was so beautiful sitting there, her body bared to me,
and that question had been brimming with a vulnerability which also bared her
soul.  I could feel she wanted this more than anything.  I also recognized she
was purposefully stacking the deck in her favor with her presentation.  I was
okay with that though, that meant she didn’t know how much power she actually
held over me, which was much more than she believed.

I waited for the nerves to kick in.  That it would be too
dangerous with my enemies out there, that we were too young, that we weren’t
ready, but none of that happened. 

Actually, the idea of it sounded quite good to me.  I knew
it was a huge responsibility, but then I was responsible, had been for a long
time, and so was Sierra.  I was even making decent money now, not that it would
matter living here.  Plus, we would have the whole pack and my family to help.

I nodded, “We should.  No matter how long it takes.”

She snorted, “So your willing to make the sacrifice?” she
asked archly.

I waggled my eyebrows, “I think we should get started as
soon as possible.”

She stuck her tongue out, “Seriously?”  She obviously wasn’t
sure if I was being serious or not.

I took my time, and greatly enjoyed showing her just how
serious I was…

Thursday, June 9
^th
, 2016, 6:12 AM

I grunted as I stretched over Sierra to grab my phone, still
half asleep.  It was a text from Diana, and when I saw the time was just after
six I groaned.  Clearly the woman was now evil and had to be destroyed.  I
rolled back over on my back and sensed Sierra stirring next to me.  Well, Diana
still wasn’t talking to me, but a text meant the council wanted something.

Aitheria sent, “
Don’t be too mad at her, she’s in pain.
”

I sighed, it wasn’t really my fault, Diana’s the one who
agreed to an immortal lifetime of slavery to the council, gave an oath to do
so.  I
did
feel for her, but I felt no guilt for being with Sierra, or
finding love somewhere else.  I still cared for her of course, but any chance
of anything between us had sailed months ago.

“
Ria, you know I’m not really that mad, just pre coffee
grumps.  Still, she could have waited for a decent hour.”

Aitheria replied, “
Perhaps, but she still keeps our
secrets.  As for coffee grumps, I can’t relate.  I wouldn’t know, I don’t have
a physical body or its frailties,
” she said the last rather smugly.

I shook my head, “
Go ahead, rub it in, traitor.
”

I was also fairly sure Diana was keeping that secret for
Aitheria’s sake, not mine.  But then, maybe I am doing her a disservice.

She looked over at me with amusement and I felt the air
ruffle my hair fondly.  Don’t ask me how air can be caring and affectionate,
but it was.

The text was one word, location, along with a picture of a
male vampire that looked fourteen.  I had a feeling he was old, only the old
vampires were made so young, as fourteen meant an adult back then.  I rolled
out of bed carefully and put on some clothes, no reason to not let Sierra sleep
in another hour.  I went downstairs in search of coffee.

The coffee was already done, and Suzy was already getting
breakfast started.  Maybe there were more benefits in living with the pack than
I’d considered.

I poured a cup and took a sip, “Oh that’s fantastic.  Suzy,
you’re wonderful.  A veritable goddess.”

She laughed, “Thanks.  You’re an easy one to please.”

“I can’t deny that, morning coffee goes a long way.”

Suzy was the omega, which as far as I could figure out meant
the heart of the pack.  She was the least dominant, so could ignore that aspect
of pack life and just be there for everyone.  Or maybe that was just Suzy. 
Regardless, she was always doing something for someone, and she always seemed
happy to be doing it.  I’d heard in a bad pack the omega was the most picked
on, here in Derik’s pack, Suzy was protected by all, and cherished.  Of course,
weakest was relative, she was still a werewolf, which means she could probably
take a human with ease.

I took a few more sips, and with a half of a cup of coffee
in me, I felt awake enough to take another look at the photo, and this time I
reached out with the power of air for the information on the rogue.

Sean North.  He was turned at fourteen, and was just over a
century old.  The really sad part was that he didn’t really do anything wrong. 
He was even a pleasant guy, I could tell.  But he was tired of life in a world
that only saw a kid, even other vampires were guilty of it, especially the
latest generation of them. 

It was my first time finding a situation like this, but now
that I had, I learned through my power it was rather common.  Vampires who grew
tired of life often picked death by council, since they were reluctant to take
their own lives.  They caused a minor stink in the council’s city, and waited
to be taken out.

Damn. 

I put the information into the phone and sent it to Diana,
what else could I do?  The last day or so, with a few exceptions, had been
quite the downer.

“Need help?” I asked, now that the business was done.

Suzy raised an eyebrow, “You can cook?”

I feigned a hurt look, “Of course!”

It was true, I’d used my power a couple of days ago to study
culinary skills, and that included all the secret things chefs knew.  Although
only experience would prove out which of the conflicting ideas were better, and
there was way more of those than I’d have thought possible.

She snorted, “Fine, prove it.”

I shook my head sadly, “You doubt me.  I’m crushed.”

She moved over to give me room, “You’ll survive,” she
teased.

I got started on cracking some eggs.  She was kind enough
not to comment when I had to pick out the shells…

When I got to work, there was someone there waiting for me. 
She looked a little frazzled, although that didn’t detract from the witch’s
beauty a bit.  In fact, the minor flaws on display probably enhanced it.  She
was in a light blue flowing dress with white flower designs on it, and a pair
of high heeled white open toe sandals.  It wasn’t nearly as revealing as most
of the dresses I’d seen her in.  She also looked nervous, and I sensed a bit
of… embarrassment?

I thought about complimenting her, I thought the more
conservative dress was actually more attractive.  But it had only been five
days since that kiss we shared due to Jaben’s attack.  It was a bit complicated
right now and I didn’t want to stir anything up that should be left alone.

I smiled and asked, “How’s my favorite witch this morning?”

Tara scoffed, “I’m the only witch you know, at least the
only one that’s still living,” though she was smiling.

I pointed out, “That doesn’t make it less true,” I unlocked
the door I waved her in.

“Do you want something to drink?”

She shook her head, “No.  Thank you.  I…  I need your help,”
she blushed.

Oh, this should be good.  I might not even tease her that
much.

“With what?” I asked curiously.

She sighed and said really fast, “I have a human stalker.”

I raised an eyebrow, and she glared at me when my lips
twitched.

“I see, and light magic really can’t make him go away, at
least, not without harm.  Do you want me to mesmerize him?”

She sighed and said something under her breath and then
blushed.

“What was that?”

She blushed harder, “Her.  Mesmerize her.”

Oh. 

I was a professional, a fire sorcerer in control of my own
emotions.  It wasn’t enough.  I started to laugh, a full on belly laugh.  It
was less about her stalker being a female than it was seeing her so out of
sorts about it.

She narrowed her eyes dangerously, “It’s not a laughing
matter.  Stalkers are dangerous.  I’m fairly safe of course, but if she decides
to attack me or something it will go badly.”

I coughed and got a hold of myself, “Sorry, it’s just…
sorry.”

I felt a bit bad, but not that much.  I’d needed a good
laugh.

“I’ll walk you to your store, and you can point her out?”

She nodded warily in agreement, “Thanks.”

“Anytime Tara,” I assured her.

When we got outside I asked, “Has everything been good since
Sunday?”

“Yes, shouldn’t it be?  We got them all.”

I shrugged, “Sure, but don’t forget the vampires that
kidnapped you for them.”

She waved dismissively, “They were just mercenaries.  They’d
have no reason to come back without payment.”

“Does she know what you are?”

Tara asked, “No.  She’s a normal human obsessed with the
idea of magic being real.  I guess that’s why she showed up at my occult shop. 
As for what goes on in a mind like hers and how she latched onto me in her
fantasies, I have no idea.”

The obvious response popped into my head, but it was neither
appropriate, or funny.  I was trying to grow a friendship with my new ally, but
I had to make sure I didn’t cross the lines of innocent observations, or even
compliments, and into flirting.  I was feeling that awkwardness again, that I
had mostly shaken off over the last year as I reached for something else to
say.

“I don’t get it either, but I can take a look and see if I
can figure out the problem.  Otherwise she’ll just latch onto someone else.”

Tara looked at me for a moment, “It isn’t your
responsibility to cure the world’s ills.”

I frowned, and I knew that.  I had the potential to go into
a hospital and clean it out, yet it was more than just the need to keep our
world a secret that held me back.  No one could save everyone, even relating to
kidnapping and missing children, which was a personal hot button issue of mine,
I couldn’t save them all.  But that didn’t mean I shouldn’t save any.

I’ve also wondered about the visions more and more as I
learned about the Power of Air.  I saved Christina from two years of rapes, and
other physical and mental abuse by two monsters hiding in human skin, followed
by a painful death.  But why did I have a vision about her?  Things like that,
less severe and even worse were happening to children and teens around the
world.  Why did I have an uncontrollable vision about Christina but not someone
else?

Was it just my subconscious desire to prevent that sort of
thing, along with her being conveniently close by?  A fellow Chicagoan?  Or was
there more to it than that?  God, a higher power, I simply didn’t know.  But
then, I hardly would think a higher power would show me a vision of my aunt
burning my birthday cake, so… grain of salt.  It was probably that first one,
my subconscious desire to prevent it, and at the same time my subconscious
protected me from being overwhelmed by similar visions around the world.

Maybe.

That also said to me I was reading a lot of information from
the ether that I wasn’t consciously aware of.

“I know that, but it’s different when it’s right in front of
me.  I already need to mesmerize her, suppress some memories, and send her on
her way.  She’ll be right there, and I see no harm in it, or danger of
exposure.  Does that make sense?”

Tara sighed and replied as we reached her storefront, “I can
see that.  But most of the people in our world wouldn’t.  They’d just see a
danger to be eliminated.  In my experience, you are unique.  Alright, she’s
about twenty-five, blonde, and is wearing a mauve dress.”

I decided to take being unique as a compliment, and not that
she thought I was a naïve sucker.

Vampires had limitations with mesmerizing, the ability or
magic granted vampires was set up to work through eye contact.  It was more
like an enchantment they could trigger that would then connect their minds
giving control over the memories and thoughts of their target with some
limitations.  I had no such limitation.  I reached out with my power and entranced
the woman without even a glance as I followed Tara into the back, and the woman
followed us.

I didn’t bother explaining myself, there was no point.  She
wouldn’t remember this.  Her name was Andrea and she hadn’t had an easy life.  I
looked for an answer to her problem, and she did have imbalances in her brain
chemistry.  But I couldn’t fix it, because no one in humanity knew what the cause
was, and that meant that I didn’t either.

I had my limits too.

I did what I’d come to do, and instructed her not to come
back here, and removed the dangerous memories that caused her to latch on to
Tara.  Some of her fantasies were quite disturbing, and took what little
amusement I had in the situation away.  The woman was sick.  I was able to fix
her chemical balance, but that would only hold for a short time, maybe only
hours.  So I also pushed her to get medical help.  The medications weren’t
perfect, but it would be better than nothing.  A last few suggestions planted,
and she left out of the back door.

Tara smiled in relief, “Thanks, let me know if there’s
anything I can do for you.”

“I will, and you know where to find me if you need anything
else.”

As I left her store, it occurred to me that the vampire
council was in charge of the city, which amounted to being responsible for
dealing with situations like this, ones that could lead to exposure.  Tara
could have gone to them with this problem.

Maybe I wasn’t the only one that wanted to reach out in
friendship…