Sorcerer: Trouble with Werewolves: Power of Air Book 2 (6 page)

Thursday, May 19
^th
, 2016, 07:32 PM

Instead of going home I found myself walking toward my
office.  I was hungry and it hadn’t been a great day, but I sucked it up,
I was sure there’d be a good reason for me to show up.  In hindsight later
that night I didn’t see how in this situation it was a good thing, but perhaps
it would’ve been worse if it didn’t.  If that makes sense, call it the
lesser of two evils.

I sat behind my desk and waited for some indication of what
to do, but I didn’t feel the urge to do any research, and I was all caught up
on paperwork.  Just when I’d decided someone must be coming to the office
I heard the door open and close.  A few seconds later a woman poked her
head in my office, with a huge smile on her face.  She looked really
familiar but I couldn’t place her at first.

She said in an upbeat voice, “Hi, I’m looking for Ben
Edwards, is that you?”

I smiled tentatively at her friendliness, “Yes, what can I
do for you miss?”

Her smile grew larger, and she walked into my office. 
She had long golden blonde curly hair, a lovely heart shaped face and bright
blue eyes.  Her figure was willowy and she was dressed in a woman’s pants
suit.  I realized who she was a moment before she introduced herself and
saw a camera man edge into the doorway.

“Hi, I’m Kira Downs, nightly news.  I wanted to talk to
you about what happened earlier today.”

Oh, this wasn’t good.  I’d had to dodge reporters
before, I had a pretty good track record as a psychic after all, but in the
past it had always been the sensational columns in the rags at the grocery
checkout, or a couple of times a blogger of some supernatural website. 
Most people didn’t take it seriously since I’d debuted next to an alligator boy
story.  This was the first time someone from a mainstream news station
ever tried to interview me.

I tried to remain calm, and not volunteer any information, a
lot happened today.

“What happened early today?” I asked brilliantly.

Her smile didn’t falter, but her eyes tightened slightly,
“According to our sources, you found and rescued two young women earlier today
that were being held captive, we were also informed you revealed the name of
the man that had taken them.”

I nodded slowly, wondering what made it news this time
around.  Sure, it had been a bit more sensational in nature than usual,
but…

When I didn’t speak she continued cheerfully, “Would you
like to comment?”

I shrugged, “Sometimes I get these feelings, I’ve had some small
success in the past finding lost or kidnapped persons.  I’m hardly unique
in that way, and I’m just happy that both girls are back home with their
families where they belong.”

She walked closer and took a seat, crossing her legs as the
camera man came in.  This couldn’t be a good thing.

She said in a leading voice, “Ben, may I call you Ben?” she
waited until I nodded to continue, “I did some research on you after learning
it was you that located the senator’s daughter…”

My mind froze for a second, I never did figure out who that
second girl was, if I had I would’ve seen this coming.  I shook the
thoughts off and started listening again.

She continued, “It seems you find people for the police
regularly and successfully in almost every case your brought in on, and I’ve
heard that not all of what you do is on the books.  Chicago’s very own
psychic and hero bringing lost children home.  Can you tell us about it?”

I tried to downplay it, “I’m a private detective that will
sometimes get a feeling.  I’m not sure where you’re going with this, a lot
of law enforcement agencies use psychics on occasion.  I do the best I can
and live my life the best I know how.”

She asked, “Did you know the police raided the suspect’s
house, they found evidence but it looked like he’d run.”

I shook my head, “I didn’t know that no.”

Kira continued to try and lock me down trying to find an
angle for her story, I just kept downplaying my abilities and was happy when
she asked me something I couldn’t answer, it would show I didn’t know
everything.  Eventually she stood and offered me a handshake, and left me
in peace.  I sat there for quite a while and wondered how this would play
out, and why my power put me here to be interviewed in the first place.  I
also hoped that would be the last time I’d see the woman, but something in me
doubted it.

I got home around eight-thirty and cooked a late
dinner.  I was in bed an hour later, completely exhausted, and fell asleep
as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I was pretty sure I was dreaming.  I felt like I was
floating on air, and I felt a warm air pressure against my side as if something
was pushed up against me.  It was a weird feeling, because it had no
weight, simply pressure.  Kind of like the light pressure I would feel if
I put my hand out the window while driving around twenty miles an hour.  I
felt light and free, as if the cares of the world couldn’t hold me down.

I opened my eyes and turned my head toward that warm
pressure and looked into two eyes that were beautiful clear skies.  Aitheria’s
lovely face was familiar, as was her light blue skin, wide smile and her curvy
little body.  Except, she wasn’t so little anymore, and her body was
pasted up against mine, the clouds that normally served as her clothes were
doing a very poor job, and I noticed I wasn’t dressed either. 

I felt a deep love for her, she’d always been with me, my
whole life, but despite our intimacy in this moment there was no sexual tension
whatsoever, her body wasn’t real after all, just a… bridge so I could understand
her.  The intimacy we shared was of family, shared experience, and perhaps
spiritual, but not physical love.  Still, this was new for me and I had no
idea what was going on.

“What’s going on, and why are you human sized?”

She grinned, and actually spoke aloud, her voice was like
the wind, choral and sweet, “I pulled you into my dream, how do you know I
didn’t shrink you?”

I snorted, “Good point.”

I took a moment to study my surroundings.  It looked
like my bedroom, sort of.  The bed we were lying on looked like my bed,
but it was made of thick eddy’s of constantly moving air.  My dresser was
a haze of clouds, as well as the other furniture.  The walls were mostly
transparent, and outside was nothing but sky as far as I could see.

“So my dear sweet Ria, why did you pull me into your dream?”
I asked in a soft voice.

She looked shy for a moment, “We… you need to know what you
are, and you need to push yourself harder.”

I frowned, “But you can’t tell me, or teach me, or even tell
me why I need to do either, can you?  Although I can guess the last, I
have enemies and aren’t nearly powerful enough to face them yet, am I?”

She shook her head and storm clouds gathered in her
eyes.  I could feel the frustration rolling off of her. 

“No, you know I can’t tell you what you are, but I can share
with you what I am.  It’s not something I’d do lightly though, and I want
you to understand that.  To do so I must show you the core of what I am,
and I’ll be vulnerable when I do so.  This… false body protects me. 
I love you, and I’m afraid for you,” she spoke with passionate intensity with
her choral voice, and strong winds rose up around us.

I was a little disturbed actually, but at the same time I
felt safe, Aitheria would never hurt me.  I was also a little confused,
how would showing me what she was help?  I also knew by the look in her
eyes she’d been very serious.

She smiled serenely and the storm drained from her eyes, and
then her body broke into wisps of wind revealing the core of my closest
companion.  It’s impossible for me to understand fully what I saw, but I
think I’d have seen even less if I wasn’t in this dream.  Her core was
spherical elemental air, but it was so much more than that.  She existed
in more than just three dimensions, and I knew I’d get a headache if I tried to
figure it out, but in essence she was in more than one plane of existence, all
at the same time.

There was more as well, inside her multi-dimensional body
there was… spirit.  The essence of what she was, perhaps soul is a better
word to describe it.  She was… transcendently beautiful, and there was
something very intimate about me looking at her this way, seeing into her very
soul, and I could feel her love and vulnerability in the moment as if we were
connected somehow.

Her true elemental body also vaguely reminded me of
something else, and I froze in shock when I realized what it was.  I
didn’t want to look away from her, but I had to know.  I closed my eyes
and looked inward at the ball of elemental air in the core of my body, and my
mind shrieked that what I was seeing wasn’t possible, how could it be
possible?  I had a mother who bore me, I had a physical body, yet it was
unmistakable.

I was also an elemental of air.  Somehow.

I opened my eyes and watched Aitheria’s false but familiar
body reform around the core of her being while my mind started making all the
connections.  It was why I couldn’t go underground without freaking out,
the same reason Aitheria couldn’t follow me on the odd times I did.  A
part of me, the nonhuman part of me, literally didn’t belong there. 
That’s why my core always tightened up and tried to hide, it was an air
elemental where such a being didn’t belong at all.

I wasn’t all that sure how knowing that would help me
though, except that maybe it told me my enemies possibly weren’t human
either.  What the hell was I?  And how?  I didn’t bother asking
Aitheria, I knew she couldn’t tell me.  She was right about practicing as
well.  I’d spent time getting a handle on things, then lived my life the
way I used to for the most part, minus an occasional job for the vampire
council, and now aligning myself with the werewolf pack.  I’d learned just
enough to get by and control it.

I needed to truly learn to use my powers, but how could I
outside of experimentation?  I already surpassed what Tara knew about
sorcerers, and from all I’d heard of them, I didn’t want to search one out to
teach me, and put my life in someone’s hands that I’d just met.  Someone
that would no doubt understand what I was moments after meeting me.  It
was a real problem.

I’d have to play around, and hope I didn’t kill myself in
the process.  I had no doubts Aitheria was serious, if I didn’t risk it
I’d wind up dead anyway when my enemies caught up to me.  I could think of
a few things I needed to know right off, one was transporting, the other was
healing.  I also needed to learn to control my core, the few times I’d
done it while in danger I’d connected with the air from a lot farther than just
a hundred feet around me.  Maybe those things would come more instinctively
than I thought they would… after that I’d have to see.

I smiled at my full sized friend who was looking at me
intently, or perhaps she was right, and I was shrunken in this dream.  I
supposed it didn’t matter which and trying to figure it out would just give me
a headache.

“I’ll do my best to figure stuff out, the hardest part
though will be figuring out even what I can accomplish.  Thank you for
showing me… your real body is beautiful Ria, indescribably so.”

She smiled mysteriously at me and silently cuddled back into
my side.  She kissed my cheek, it felt like a warm breeze in the shape of
lips, and then I fell back into a deep sleep.

Friday, May 20
^th
, 2016, 07:18 AM

I woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon.  With my
connection to air, it was easy to feel who was in the kitchen.  I supposed
it was slightly disturbing Aiya could just walk around cooking in my apartment
without me waking up, but I knew Aitheria would wake me if someone less than
trustworthy broke in.  I rolled out of bed and took a shower while I
thought about what I could do to understand my power better on my own.

It was tempting to just leave it until things slowed down, I
still had quite a bit going on, and it felt like it was going to be another
busy day.  But if I put it off, I knew I’d keep putting it off. 
Plus, with me heading out to the suburbs for the pack a lot, it would be useful
to learn how to travel.  The Metra is convenient, but not convenient
enough to want to ride it four times a day when we had to go back and forth
like that.

I’d try it in small steps.  I pulled the magic to me,
from the air I was connected to and tried to transport to the living room,
right outside my kitchen.  Just down the hall, should be easy right? 
Or so I told myself.  I pictured the spot, even felt it within the range
of my own power, and willed myself there.

I felt foolish as I still stood in my bedroom staring at a
mirror.  I tried a few more things, but none of it was working, no matter
how I framed it in my mind, a request, an order, a plea even, I couldn’t
teleport.  That made me consider what Diana had told me, it was possible
she just believed that air sorcerers could do it, when they were really doing
something else.

It went back to secrets again, just like when Tara had tried
to get me to grab the air around me, it was more along the lines of inviting it
instead.  I tried to think what air would do to get from place to place…
well it wouldn’t teleport like on some sci-fi show, it would flow from one
place to another, maybe at incredible speeds.

I drew in the magic again, this time I concentrated on the
air moving me to the new location as quickly and stealthily as it could while
hoping I arrived in one piece.  I felt the air thicken and surround me
like a cocoon, all I saw after that was a blur of motion so fast my mind barely
registered it, and then I was standing right outside the kitchen, which is when
Aiya dropped the spatula and shrieked, and a moment later glared at me with her
pretty brown eyes.

“Umm, oops.  Sorry about that, I was trying something
new… what did you see?”

She bent her legs and picked up the spatula and started to
wash it, “Nothing, there was nothing there and then you just appeared, did you
learn to teleport or something?”

I smiled at the irony, “Something like that yes…”

I wasn’t even tired, of course, I’d only moved thirty feet,
I’d have to see how it affected me after thirty miles.  I’d also have to
develop my remote viewing, so I didn’t pop in on innocent unsuspecting humans…
like Aiya.

“Sorry again, so what brings you by this morning?  Not
that I ever mind,” the scent of the pancakes, bacon, and syrup was making my
mouth water.

Aiya scowled at me, “Why’d you do that interview, the
captain saw it last night on the news and called Mike and I.  We’re not to
work with you anymore, at least until it calms down.”

I sighed and looked at her helplessly, “I’m not really sure,
I think it would have been worse if I dodged and said no comment.  It
might not have been as positive.”

She looked thoughtful for a minute, and dropped the
subject.  I wasn’t really sure that was the truth, but it probably was.
 I couldn’t think of another reason my power would put me in the path of a
reporter like that.

“Do you know anything about those murders yet?  The
queries came back positive for the two states you said they would come back on,
and the feds are taking it over.  Their building a taskforce, your buddy
Special Agent Tom Kilmer is going to head it.”

I scowled, Tom Kilmer had apologized that one time, when the
leak was one of his agents, but he was still a pain in the butt.  I hoped
not to run into him at all, but it was probably unlikely.

“Yeah, we’re making some progress on it.  They’re still
hiding though, but we might have a break on that later today.”

Aiya pulled off the latest run of hot cakes, there was a
pretty nice stack of them.  I walked over and poured us both coffee.

Aiya said, “Burns, we can’t find him.  He hasn’t used
his phone or credit cards,” she smacked my hand as I reached for a piece of
bacon, “Not until we’re at the table.”

I laughed and put my hands behind my back, “Yes ma’am.”

I tried to reach out for the information, I still had Burns’
key, it was in my radius of air in my bedroom, so I didn’t have to actually touch
it.  I couldn’t get squat, he felt… missing, exactly the way Cindy had
been.

I shook my head, “Sorry, at a guess he’s holed up in the
cities tunnel system somewhere.  But I can’t even be positive about
that.  My abilities don’t do so good with underground.”

The smell of the food was so good it was torture to wait,
but this last run would finish off the batter, so I’d just have to be patient.

“You look gorgeous this morning Aiya, did you do something
new with your hair?”

She looked at me suspiciously, “No bacon.  Sit.”

I grinned shamelessly, got the butter out of the fridge and
sat down.  It really didn’t take long and I was happily eating both syrup
drowned pancakes made from scratch, and deliciously crispy bacon.  About
halfway through the meal she cleared her throat.

“I hope despite Captain Martinez you’d keep helping?” she
asked as she put a photo on the table.

I just looked at it and a rush of information entered my
head, finally something simple.  The two cases where things were hidden
from me weren’t all that fun, challenging, but not fun at all.

“Douglas Prentice, eleven-year-old runaway.  His mom is
a good person, but her new boyfriend is verbally abusive when mom isn’t around,
although he hasn’t hit the kid yet.  His mother didn’t believe Doug when
he told her about it, so he ran.  He’s been sleeping in an alley just five
blocks away from their apartment, and begging for money for food, telling
people he needs money for the bus to get home.”

Her eyes widened, and I realized I’d given her a lot more
information than I usually do.  Normally I just give a location, she
definitely gets passed my guard.  Sometimes I wonder if having her as the
one person who knows the truth about me is too much of a burden for her, but
she’ll keep the knowledge until she asks me to take it away, or pushes too hard
for information on other supernatural races.  So far, she hasn’t done
that.

She took out her phone and opened the notes app, “You got an
address?” she asked in a shaky voice.

I nodded, and told her where he’d be in two hours.

She asked reluctantly, “Ben… what do you see when you look
at me?”

I raised an eyebrow, “I see a stunning beautiful young
woman, an excellent police officer, and one of my closest friends.”

She frowned, “That isn’t what I meant.”

I sighed and ate another piece of bacon before I answered.

“That’s all I see, I could probably find out a lot about
your life if I wanted to, but I don’t.  You deserve your privacy, and I
deserve my sanity.  I’m not even sure if it would work anymore on you.”

She tilted her head, “What do you mean, your sanity, and why
wouldn’t it work?”

I shrugged, “When I looked at that picture, I wanted to know
about the kid and where he was so you could go pick him up, so he’d be
safe.  Sometimes I do get random visions when meeting people, but I don’t
try to get them all the time.  Could you imagine if I walked down Wabash
street and looked at everyone I walked by and learned about their lives? 
I’d go crazy if I sucked in knowledge all day from the people around me.

“And it might not work at all, even if I tried to read you
now, because it doesn’t work well on the people closest to me.  I’m not
sure why, but it just doesn’t.”

She seemed to relax a little and even gave me a light smile,
perhaps at my comment of her being close to me, which let me relax as we
finished the meal.  Someone knocked on the door when I was clearing the
table.  It was Diana, and I moved to let her in…

Aiya knew Diana was a part of my supernatural life, but
hadn’t seen her in nine months, not since she’d followed us that night. 
They eyed each other speculatively, but were polite when they greeted each
other.  Diana was wearing jean shorts and a clingy t-shirt with calf high
leather boots.  She looked really sexy actually, and I felt that twinge of
attraction which didn’t surprise me.  What did surprise me was the fact
that I thought of Sierra a little guiltily.  I didn’t really have time to
work out where my head was at the moment though.  We weren’t even dating
yet, but apparently somewhere in my head I wanted to make that happen.

Diana pulled out her phone and showed me a picture, “I can’t
stay long, I’m,” she shook her head and picked a different way to say it with
Aiya standing right there, I was almost sure she was going to say hunting a
rogue, “I need to find this person.  The usual amount will be deposited if
you can tell me where he is.”

I looked closely at the picture, “He’s out on the lake,
he’ll be coming into Burnham harbor at eleven o’ three this morning.  Dock
EC.  Send me a text if you need help.”

She grinned and said teasingly, “You just want the
bonus.  I guess I do have a little time after all, are there any pancakes
left?”

Aiya nodded, “I always make too many.  Want a coffee?”

I guess Aiya decided to play hostess.  I had no
illusions, she might not ask for information about my world, but she was still
a very intelligent police officer, and she’d been observing for nine
months.  That thought might not be completely fair though, she may have
just been being polite.  We sat back down at the table and I sipped my
coffee as Diana dug in.

Diana said in an amused voice, “By the way, nice interview,
my three older friends absolutely loved it.”

Well great, now I had to worry about the vampire council.

I shrugged, “It’s consistent with my cover of hiding in
plain sight, not that I had a choice in the matter.”

She nodded in agreement, she didn’t look all that bothered
by it herself.  And it was true, I was already well established as a
psychic and detective before I got my powers, I really didn’t have much of a
choice at all.  Plus, I liked the role I played, I was able to do a lot of
good with it.  Hopefully the press wouldn’t ruin that.

There was another knock at the door, and I got up to get
it.  Sierra was standing there in a sexy dark blue sundress, I was
surprised to see her so early, it was still only just after eight in the
morning.

“Come in, join the party, I think there might even be some
pancakes left,” I quipped, my apartment was grand central this morning, not to
mention it now had three beautiful women in it.

Sierra seemed surprised I had company, but nodded to Diana
and Aiya in greeting.

Aiya was smiling for some reason, probably because it was an
opportunity to gather more data.  Aiya and Sierra had met of course,
yesterday when we’d found Cindy.

Sierra sat down and grabbed the last of the pancakes while
she said shortly, “Thanks,” and dug in.  She was obviously uncomfortable
with a human here. 

There was some small talk, but everyone was ignoring the
forbidden subject which added a bit of awkwardness to things.  Or maybe
that was just me, I wasn’t really sure.

Aiya sighed, “Alright, I need to get going before I’m late.”

She gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before she
left, and Diana wasn’t far behind also giving me a light hug on her way
out.  I couldn’t help but notice Sierra looked annoyed at the other women
touching me, and for some reason I was greatly cheered by that…