Sorcerer: Trouble with Werewolves: Power of Air Book 2 (7 page)

Friday, May 20
^th
, 2016, 08:21 AM

“Not that I mind your here early, because I honestly don’t,
but Tara probably won’t be ready until late in the afternoon,” I said
curiously.

She replied, “Derik.  He’s afraid Karl’s been watching
and looking for the right time to strike.  As our ally he decided you shouldn’t
be alone either,” she paused a moment before she said challengingly, “I
volunteered to come and stay with you for the duration, Katie and Clint came
with me so I wouldn’t be alone for the trip, and left when we got to your
apartment… is that a problem?”

I shook my head wondering why she got confrontational, “Not
a problem.  I’m glad you’re here.”

She nodded shortly and finished off the pancakes.

I’d been thinking of a way I could learn to heal, if I could
heal whatever was wrong with Jenna it would be a good thing.  But… I
wasn’t about to experiment on her either.  I’d thought of going to the
hospital, but immediately dismissed that as being just as bad.  I knew my
own body healed quickly, so I figured I’d start out small, a cut perhaps.

I got up and went into the kitchen, and picked up a knife
from the counter while I held my arm over the sink.  I was about to cut it
when…

“What the hell are you doing Ben,” Sierra asked in a
growling voice while glaring at me.

If I thought she was upset earlier, now I knew she was
merely slightly annoyed about finding the two women in my apartment eating
breakfast.  She looked really good to me just then, she looked hot angry,
but I kept that to myself… mostly because I just wasn’t that stupid.

I shrugged sheepishly, “I need to learn how to use my magic
better,” I said in an offhand voice.

Her eyes tightened further so I thought a fuller explanation
might be in order, but not everything either.  I told her about Mike and
Jenna, and how I wanted to heal her, I also mentioned it might be a good thing
for me to know as an ally to the pack.

She didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded, so I sliced
into my arm, just a little.

It took me a few extra moments to concentrate through the
sting, which was a problem I’d have to work on another time.  I pulled in
the air magic and studied what my body was doing, how it was already healing as
I simply held it closed.  Apparently my core magic was involved, it did it
almost instinctually.  I studied what it was doing, and fed that process
more magic.

My arm tingled like crazy as I felt and watched the cut
slowly disappear.

I realized right away this wouldn’t help me to heal Jenna,
all I’d done was tap into and speed up my body’s natural ability to heal. 
Obviously whatever was wrong with her, wasn’t being healed naturally by her
body, so what I did might help someone that took a serious wound, even
myself.  But I wouldn’t be healing any permanent bodily injuries or
defects that way.

Sierra grabbed my arm and started to study it, I hadn’t even
noticed her move while I was lost in thought.  Something else I needed to
work on, why bother connecting to the air all around me if I wasn’t paying
attention to what it was telling me.

“I can’t even see a mark.  Not even a thin white scar
line.  Do you think you can heal your friend?” she sounded thoughtful.

I shook my head, and explained the problem.

She said, “Let’s see if you can heal others.”

Before that registered in my mind she’d already grabbed the
knife from my hand and sliced into her own arm.  My eyes widened in panic
for a moment, but she was looking at me impishly and hadn’t even
flinched.  I supposed it was too late to object.

I touched her arm by the wound and fed some air magic to examine
the cut, which was much deeper than mine had been.  Her body was healing
it faster than mine would without assistance, but it would still take at least
a day for it to close up without help.  She was also healing
differently.  Her body was different, between being a woman, a werewolf,
and having different magic I wasn’t sure how to heal it, and was afraid I’d do
it wrong.

I was getting frustrated, what I really needed was knowledge
about her body and how it worked.  There was a desperate need in me for
it, as I helplessly watched her arm bleed.

My mind opened and flooded with information, so much
information that I froze for at least ten seconds.  Then I started
laughing.  I was such an idiot.

Sierra asked, “Are you okay?” with concern in her voice.

I smiled at her, she was bleeding into my sink and actually
asking me how
I
was.

“Yes, I’m fine, I just finally realized the truth of what I
am,” I said softly as I released a small bit of magic into her arm, and watched
with satisfaction as it knitted as perfectly as mine did.

It truly was a eureka moment in my life.  Despite the
knowledge that I’d been tracking down people and saving kids with the power of
air as a sorcerer, not as a psychic, I never really thought through what that
meant.  My own mind was holding me back.  I was sure some information
was blocked from me, like my enemies, and whatever was protected by other
magic, but the true power of a sorcerer of air was information, knowledge and
how to apply it.

My mind and power had been doing what I expected it to,
which is continue to find the missing.  Sure, I’d keep doing that, I liked
doing that, and it was my cover in the human world, hiding in plain
sight.  But my power had the ability to gather knowledge, not just where
someone was, but pretty much everything out there.

I now knew more about a female shifters body, and how it
functioned, than any doctor or surgeon ever could.  Simply because I
desperately wanted the information from my power and it answered the
call.  Next time, I would merely take the part I needed, I didn’t need a
medical database of everyone I ever healed in my head, but I had no doubt I
could heal just about anything on anyone with that ability.

But the eureka moment was that the healing only scratched
the surface.  I could pull unprotected knowledge about anything.  It
was no wonder air sorcerers were arrogant and secretive.  After all,
knowledge was power, I’d have to make an effort not to become so myself. 
Of course, I still had the challenge to incorporate that into my life.  I
also didn’t think that it would help with connecting to and understanding my
inner elemental either, but it was a huge step forward.

Aitheria sent, “
It’s about time you figured it out, I was
despairing at your thickness,”
in an insulting tone.

Oh good, I’d never get arrogant with her around to poke at
me.  One less thing for me to worry about anyway, I sent Aitheria a mind
caress followed by a pinch. 

Extending my range beyond a hundred feet had been another
goal, so I pulled for the information.  It came but was
disappointing.  The range I could reach was a measure of my ability and
would extend as I gained more practice and experience.  I realized that
meant I needed to start practicing my fire magic more as well, or I’d never get
better at it. 

As far as my core went, I was right about that, the air
elementals protected the information of themselves, I couldn’t pull anything on
it and it remained a mystery, despite knowing what it… or rather what I was
now.

I turned on the water and we washed the blood off from our
little experiment.

“Thanks, I think I have what I needed.”

Sierra squeezed my hand, “Your welcome.  So what’s the
plan today?  I know we don’t have to meet Tara until later.”

I shrugged, “I’m not sure, my morning seems pretty
open.  Any ideas?”

Sierra asked, “Have they found that guy yet, Burns?  I
heard he ran on the news; it was mentioned in that interview you did last
night.”

I shook my head, “No, and I can’t locate him, which means
he’s probably in some hideaway under the city.”

Sierra grinned at me, and I felt my stomach dropping, “How
about we go get him, I promise I won’t kill him… unless I have to,” she
finished a little wistfully, as if hoping she’d have to.

I really couldn’t resist her smile though, and with the fire
shield hiding my inner elemental, it would be only claustrophobic and slightly
panic inducing.

“I suppose we can do that.  I really don’t like it
underground you know, and they’ll catch him eventually.”

Her smile grew wider and she hugged me tightly, and kissed
my cheek, like hunting down Burns was a gift, or perhaps an exciting
date.  Now how the hell could I say no to that?  She felt entirely
too good in my arms.  Besides, I kind of wanted to get that poor excuse
for a human being myself, and my power was silent, as if it knew I didn’t have
anything else to do this morning.

I asked with a grin of my own, “Do you trust me?  I
learned a new trick this morning.”

She nodded and I pulled her a little tighter against me, it took
me a minute to get over that distraction and focus my mind.  I used my
ability to find an area free of cameras and people by an entrance to the
underground CTA stop.  Then I gathered as much magic as I could hold.

I whispered, “Close your eyes,” and willed the magic to take
us there while trusting that my magic could handle the incidentals, such as
doors, people, and traffic along the way.

The world was a blur of light for a few long moments, and
then we were there.  I should have followed my own advice and closed my
eyes, since I was a bit dizzy.  I was also a little fatigued, but not fall
down tired and I recovered quickly and released the magic I had left
over.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as when I sped up my own body, outside
magic was always easier, even this.

Sierra had stiffened in my arms, so I held her until she got
her bearings and let go herself.

She asked in amazement, “You learned that this morning?” as
she stepped away and took my hand.

I nodded, “Yes, I was determined after we took the Metra four
times yesterday.”

She tilted her head and smiled, “And did you have to hold me
that close?”

I winked and said shamelessly, “Probably not,” and then I
added thoughtfully, “But you were my first passenger and I didn’t want to take
any chances.”

She looked pleased by that answer, and then dragged me out
of the alcove and toward the stairs down with a determined look on her
face.  I wrapped myself up in a shield of fire magic and took a deep
breath.

Friday, May 20
^th
, 2016, 09:01 AM

This time it wasn’t nearly as simple.  Cindy had been
taken down here against her will, and brought straight to the storage room she
was in.  There was one clear scent trail leading right to her. 
Daniel Burns worked for the city of Chicago, and according to Sierra had left
scent trails everywhere in the tunnels.  Right now we were merely walking
around until Sierra crossed a scent trail that was only a day or two old. 
Needless to say, there were a lot of tunnels, and the entire time we were
dodging the workers down here, as well as a few patrols of police that were
looking for the fugitive as well.

I did my best to focus on our surroundings and Sierra, and
not on the false feeling of being crushed.  It didn’t help that we had to
keep our conversation to an absolute minimum.  This had seemed like a much
better idea when she’d been hugging me.  Still, I needed to be able to do
things like this, even if it cut me off from my power.  I still had fire,
and Sierra was a werewolf, we were hardly helpless.

She stopped and leaned close, her breath tickled my ear as
she said, “I think I found the right trail, it’s only a few hours old, he must
have been moving around during the night.”

I nodded in silent acknowledgment and followed her down the
corridor, which led to a metal gate blocking a stone stairway leading down, and
we discovered it was bolted shut.  We looked at each other, both realizing
breaking it would be loud enough to reverberate far back through the tunnels
and bring people running.

I considered melting the bolt, but that would bring
questions later when the police came, it wasn’t a padlock we could hide, the
bolt lock was built into the gate itself.  I looked up and she followed my
gaze.  The gate didn’t cover the entire entrance, there was a couple of
feet between the top of the gate and the twelve-foot ceiling.

She grinned way too maniacally for my comfort and held out
her interlaced hands.  She was strong enough to rip a metal lock apart, so
I had no doubts she could boost me up.  I took a deep breath and stepped
into her hand, she pushed me up effortlessly, and I was able to grab the top
and pull myself over without making too much noise.  When I stood she
jumped up and pulled herself over, I turned away when I got an eyeful, a
sundress was a poor choice for that activity.

She didn’t seem to mind I’d gotten a good look and seemed
amused I’d turned away.  She was a werewolf after all, and had even
stripped in front of me once before changing into her wolf.  Werewolves
weren’t exactly body shy as a rule.  Between that and their propensity
toward physical touching, it made it difficult for me to know if she was really
interested in me, but I’d pretty much made up my mind to find out as soon as
the time felt right.

Unfortunately, yesterday with the death, and this morning
hunting for a kidnapping rapist, well it was definitely not the right
time.  Although I was starting to wonder if with our somewhat crazy lives
there ever would be a perfect moment for it.

We went down the stairs and entered a different tunnel system,
not related to the MTA, there were a lot of pipes running above us as well as
some on the side.  It was unquestionably some type of city
infrastructure.  Her footsteps in her low heel sandals were almost
imperceptible as we moved down the hallway, she wasn’t hesitant at all, quickly
making turns as his scent led her through a twisted path of crisscrossing
tunnels.

It was apparent by the intense look on her face, and the way
she held herself she was having a lot more fun than I was.  Eventually we
came up to a door with a few letters and numbers as the only designation, this
one didn’t have a lock but it was the same kind of metal door the storage room
was.  She pushed it open and we flinched when it squeaked with rust.

I felt him in range of my fire magic, just twenty feet
away.  We peeked in carefully and saw a number of shelves with wires,
replacement pipes, and various tools.  I heard a click, and it took a
moment for it to register as someone taking off the safety on a gun, and we
pulled back for a moment.

She whispered, “I’ll get him, don’t worry, I’ll leave him
alive to become someone’s girlfriend in prison, I did some research last night
after you left.”

I tried to stop her, I had an idea I could heat up the gun
so he’d drop it, but she was too quick.

She winked and then ran quickly into the room and dodged to
the right, circling around the shelves to take him from behind almost faster
than I could track.  If I hadn’t been aware of her location through her
body heat, I wouldn’t have even known that much.  Without my air magic I
couldn’t speed myself up at all, not even my perception.  There was a
shout, a gunshot, and then silence.  Although I knew it had been the best,
and safest plan, I felt a little like a coward to be standing out here while
Sierra took care of the bastard.

But then who was I to ruin her fun, and I was quite relieved
as I sensed she wasn’t shot, neither was burns.

She called out, “Come on in Ben.  Daniel here is
sleeping.”

I could feel through my power the heat of the bruise forming
on his head, she must have popped him pretty good.  I walked in and toward
the back of the room.  Daniel Burns was out cold on the ground, the gun a
few feet from his hand.  Against the back wall there were a ton of
survival packs, water, vitamins, survival meals.  There was even a large
stack of ammo boxes for his weapon.

The guy was a rapist, and also appeared to be set up to live
through the apocalypse in the depths of Chicago’s tunnel system.  He could
have lived down here easily long enough for the cops to give up on him, so he
could slip out of the city… if he didn’t just stay here.  He was a bit
dirty and smelly though, and I realized he’d voided his bowels when he was
knocked unconscious.

Sierra prompted, “So… are you going to call Mike?”

I pondered that a minute, “I don’t know, maybe we should be
subtler this time, especially with Kira Downs on my scent so to speak.”

She raised an eyebrow, “What did you have in mind?”

“Let’s tie him up, and get out of here, we can call Mike
with the location when we get back up top.  That way we won’t appear in
the reports.  Sure, they’ll have a small mystery but…”

Sierra grinned, “This was fun, I’d never considered helping
humans before you know, it was always about the family and pack.  I think
I understand why you do it.  There was something very satisfying in saving
those young women, and in catching that slimy bastard.”

I returned her smile and grabbed some cable off of the
shelf, after pulling about ten feet off the spool I used a little heat to melt
and break the pieces apart.  We trussed him up pretty well, using one end
to tie his hands, and the other to tie his feet.  He wasn’t going
anywhere.  We left the gun alone, so far I didn’t think we’d left
fingerprints on anything except the door, which I wiped down when we left.

The trip back up took time, but it went much faster than
finding Daniel to begin with.  It was a relief to be back where I
belonged, above ground, and in hindsight it had been fun.  It was close to
noon, it had taken three hours to find him and get back out.  Aitheria was
both relived and glaring, she hated when I went anywhere she couldn’t go.

I pulled out my phone and realized Mike might have a few
questions for me if I sent him to a fugitive already tied up.  So I sent
the information to Aiya instead, feeling a little guilty that she’d have to
cover that with Mike somehow, and put my phone up. 

“Lunch?  I was thinking soup and sandwiches?”

She nodded and looked at me with eyes that still sparkled
with mischief from the hunt, and she took my hand.

“What about our clothes?  We don’t exactly smell like
roses right now either.”

She had a point, the tunnel system did have a unique kind of
smell to it.  And we were both dusty from the top of that gate.  I
used my magic to get our clothes clean, I also managed to air out the smell,
literally.

“Does that work?”

She quirked a smile, “For now, but I still want a shower
later.”

We decided to walk, it would be too dangerous exposure wise
to flit about everywhere with my power, besides it wasn’t too far, and walking
most everywhere around the loop kept me in shape.  It was a warm but not
hot day in May, and the weather was perfect for it.