Sorcerer: Witch's Woes: Power of Air (Book 3) (3 page)

Thursday, June 2
^nd
, 2016, 11:29 AM

We’d picked Italian this time, and when I walked into
Maggiano’s I could already feel her particular aura toward the back and just
headed that way.  Based on her dress, I decided she must not have had any business
meetings today.  Her light blonde hair was up in a tight bun, she had painted
black jeans on with leather boots up to the top of her calves which concealed a
short blade, and a very tight red clingy shirt with a black leather vest over
it. 

It left nothing up to the imagination, and she looked really
good.  Amazingly good, and her gray eyes were twinkling.  I still felt a slight
twinge at the sight of her, and probably always would, but I was also very much
at peace with the fact we wouldn’t be getting together.

I didn’t regret or have any second thoughts about Sierra,
not for a moment.  My only doubts stemmed from fear of change and losing the
other things in my life.  That didn’t mean I liked or condoned the fact the
council basically owned Diana though.

Her form of dress also told me she expected to be hunting
shortly, vampires were fast, and tight clothing and bound hair meant less
places to grip for an enemy.  Hollywood took outrageous advantage of that fact
and made it all about the sexy woman in a tight conforming clothes kicking butt,
but in the real world it was just another edge when someone was fighting with
their life on the line.  I had to admit though, it looked good as well.  I
hadn’t seen her in over a week either.

“Diana,” I said in a low tone as I sat, “You look dangerous
today.”

Diana smiled, “You always say the sweetest things.”

I laughed, but before I could reply the waitress came up and
took our order.  I ordered the lasagna, and she ordered a fettuccini. 

“So how’s the wolf?” she asked and then winced, I’m assuming
because it came out a little hostile.

I raised an eyebrow, “She’s good,” I said neutrally, maybe
she wasn’t so sanguine about me moving on.

She smiled but it was brittle, “Sorry, that was uncalled
for.”

I sighed, I knew this would make whatever it was worse, but
then I wasn’t a coward either, better she hears it from me than someone else.

“I’m actually going to move in with the pack at some point over
the next month or so I think,” I almost cringed at the qualifier I added at the
end to try and soften the blow.  There was no think about it, and as a vampire
she would easily pick that nuance up.

Her eyes flashed, but she took a deep breath.  I hoped she’d
have moved on too, but then her oath to the council wouldn’t really let her
move on, the council was her life, she couldn’t have secondary loyalties, and
that included a relationship.  There would be no one to move on to.  At least,
not while Ceara, Charis, and Alexios lived.  Unfortunately, there continued
health was very much the lesser of two evils, which is why I’d never even
considered taking them down despite how I’d felt about Diana in the past.

She handed me a picture, apparently retreating to business
mode.  For a moment I felt a little sorry for myself, it seemed like I was
losing all of my friends in some way or another.  I felt a sharp annoyance
coming off of Aitheria which snapped me out of it.  I didn’t get to have pity
parties with her around, which to me was a plus.  Life was too short for that
stuff.

Diana said evenly, “Christopher is one of the most elusive
rogues around.  The council believes he’s in town, and most probably for
nothing good.”

I frowned as I took the information into my mind, it wasn’t
blocked at all.

I looked up, “He’s much older than you… over a thousand
years old, not much younger than Ceara.”

Diana was between three and four hundred.  Christopher was
around fourteen hundred, and I knew the Ceara was only nineteen hundred. 
Alexios and Charis were over two thousand.  Her eyes narrowed, but I thought it
was a concern, Diana would be completely outclassed power wise by this rogue. 
Even I would have problems with one that age, though that was only because I
was a baby as a sorcerer of air.

She visibly relaxed and said, “You’re right of course, Ceara
will be hunting with me, all we need from you is a location.”

I frowned as I tried to locate him, “He’ll be in the alley
behind Spirits around eight tonight, I don’t like it though, I can’t see where
he is now or until then, that means I’m being partially blocked, so it might be
a trap.  I don’t like it, do you want more help?”

She shook her head, “We’ll be fine,” she added in an even
tone, “You’ll get the usual amount if he’s there.”

I nodded.  I selfishly wondered if I should have waited and
told her about Sierra and I at the end of the meal.  The next ten minutes or so
were extremely awkward as we sat in silence.  Our business was already done,
and apparently Diana had no desire to discuss anything personal.  I knew it
wasn’t my fault, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel… guilty, which was kind of
stupid.

I wasn’t very surprised when the food got there, and she
asked for a carry out box immediately.  There was nothing I could really do,
she needed to work out her issues on her own.  It seemed like I might run out
of friends at this rate, but I knew that wasn’t really true, just the way I
felt.  Just two of them, so far at any rate… and I hadn’t really lost them yet,
it just felt that way.  In a way I’d already gained eleven other new friends in
the pack.  I just stayed in the restaurant and ate alone, after which I headed
back to the office.

The afternoon went quickly, I checked the news a few times
but saw nothing about the trafficking, so I assumed the judge wouldn’t give
them warrant from the tip I’d given Aiya.  No doubt they’d be staking the place
out tonight.  I tried to pull knowledge of the future, but with both Mike and
Aiya there… I could only get a vague idea that something would go down.

It was close to four when an older man came in.  He must
have been seventy if he was a day, and I gestured for him to take a seat.  He
nodded slightly and took the seat, and he seemed lost in thought, so I gave him
a minute to collect himself.

He said in a respectful tone, “My name is Emil Kaufman.  I’m
hoping you’ll be able to help me find my daughter Margery.”

I nodded slowly, and he seemed done so I pulled at the
information around him.  He was actually seventy-two, his daughter was still
Margery Kaufman, forty-six, living and partnered with a Stacey Browning, her
long term lover of twenty-five years.  Apparently he’d disowned her for her…
orientation, and had decided in his twilight years to try to reconnect and make
up for what he felt was a short sighted decision.  His daughter was living only
fifteen miles from his house, she’d never left the Chicago area.

“My rates are five hundred a day, I’ll e-mail you later
today, or call?”

He nodded and handed me a check, along with a business card,
“Thank you Mr. Edwards,” and saw his way out.

When four-thirty rolled around, I remembered to turn off my
phone and went to pick up Sierra from work.  This time it wasn’t just Carrie in
the room.  Todd, Gerald, Katie, Derik, and Selene were there as well when I
opened the trailer and walked in. 

Selene and Katie gave me a hug, and Sierra just came to my
side and leaned against me, holding my arm.  I could feel her contentment
through the ally bond, and honestly I felt a lot better about life at that
moment as well.  Having her close by always did.  Whatever changes were coming
in my life, they would be worth it, and I pulled her a little into me and
squeezed her waist.

Derik said without preamble, “The witch Tara is calling in
her debt, will you take us to meet her and help?”

I nodded, as I understood it that was part of the ally bond,
I’d help to repay that debt.  I’d have also done it simply because Sierra was
my mate.  It was a strange thought to apply, I’d grown up human and had always
thought of marriage as the bringing together of two people, but I didn’t live
in that world anymore.  That didn’t mean we wouldn’t one day do that, get
married I mean.  The supernatural world was also a lot faster at making those
decisions, her wolf had claimed me, and I was fairly well smitten with her.  I
could also feel a bond growing between us magically, or at least a shadow of
it, in the fire magic anyway, but the earth magic part of it… not so much.

Derik smiled, “Good, Sierra mentioned you moving in as
well?  The pack would be glad to have you, whenever you can make it happen.  I
was glad to hear it.  We also hear there are few months left on your lease?”

I nodded slowly, “I’d hoped you would, Sierra may be mine
but she’s also pack, once I realized that, I wouldn’t dream of keeping you
apart.  It may take a little time, but we wouldn’t have to wait out the lease,
it will give me time to get stuff in storage, or sell it, and get the place
cleaned up.  But I don’t have to live there to do all that.”

Sierra kissed my cheek.

Derik’s smile got wider, “I’m glad to hear it.  Wolves
finding a non-wolf as a mate is rare, and sometimes it doesn’t work out.  Some
people don’t get over the loss of privacy, or that mating with one of us means
gaining a family that knows everything about each other.  Still, in those cases
we can still work around it, a separate house on pack land is an extreme but
acceptable alternative to the pack, so let me know if that option is appealing
to you.  That said, we can get a witch to ward your rooms, so not everything
will be heard if you take my meaning?  Sierra said you were a bit uncomfortable
about that aspect of things although it’s natural to us.”

I looked at her in surprise, and she kissed me, “I can read
you pretty well Ben.”

I had to admit, the idea of them not hearing our
extra-curricular activities was somewhat of a relief.  Sharing a living space
with the others suddenly became a lot more palatable.  Not that they wouldn’t
scent it after the fact, but I didn’t mind that part nearly as much, that they
would know we were together, it was the hearing us while it was going on part
that weirded me out a bit. 

I wondered though, if I could create my own wards.  I didn’t
think so and pulling for knowledge didn’t prove me wrong either, I could do the
personal alarm wards, because I was basically creating a mental connection that
I constantly powered.  I suppose I could add an alarm type ward, but the drain
of trying to shield out sound or scent with air magic would take too much power
for me to fuel from a distance.

That said, I could set up the wards every time we were…
together, or in my case it would be closer to a shield, not a ward, and it would
last until our room got out of range of my sphere of connected air.  It was
worth a try anyway.

“So who is all going to Tara’s?” I asked, getting back to
the other subject.

Derik said, “All of us, Todd is training to be another
enforcer.”

That made sense I suppose, Katie and Gerald were enforcers
already, Carrie was training as a new mystic under Selene, and of course Derik
was the alpha and spoke for the pack.

“We’ll appear in my office, it’s not a far walk to Tara’s
shop from there.  That way we won’t be seen.  You might want to close your eyes,
since it can be disorienting.”

I pulled in magic from the sphere of air that I was
connected to around me, and had it take us all to my office.  Ten dizzying
seconds later, I opened my eyes and we all stood in the new spot.

Thursday, June 2
^nd
, 2016, 4:48 PM

Tara’s store was closed when we got there, and I could feel
her in there through my magic, not to mention her own magical aura.  As I made
a habit of doing, I verified there were no wards that would drain my access to
air or fire.  There were wards there, but nothing that would block my
connection to the elements.  When she answered the door she looked, exhausted. 
She didn’t look bad, on the contrary, she looked like a normal human woman
would after primping for a few hours in preparation for a night out.  But she
was missing that little extra that had always been there, not that she really
needed it.

Her long red curly hair flowed down her back, caressing her
voluptuous curves.  Her bright green eyes sparked with intelligence, though I
could make out a weariness in them at the moment, and her beautiful heart
shaped face was absent the normal mischievous smile.

Tara said, “Come in,” and shut and locked the door as soon
as we were passed her.

Now that I was on the inside, I could feel the wards being
beat down, attacked with magic from outside.  It wasn’t so hard to figure out
why she was so drained once I felt that.  I reached for the knowledge of who it
was, and unsurprisingly was completely blocked, except that I could feel there
was more than one person behind it.

I was moved to do something helpful, and tried to duplicate
my fire and air weave, but quickly realized that wouldn’t work.  My connection
to the fire element only extended twenty-five feet, too small to wrap the
entire store and guarding a portion of her wards would hardly work.  Air
however was a different matter, the store was completely within my sphere of a
hundred and fifty feet, and I slammed up an air shield and pumped power into
it.  It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would completely block earth and less
powerful air attacks, and would lessen the power of fire and water.

I could feel the magic battering against it, but I was more
than strong enough to handle it quite easily. 

Tara faltered at the sudden cessation of attack, and almost
fell over.  Todd caught her, which was a good thing, because I knew Sierra
didn’t like Tara one bit, not really, so it was better I didn’t have to.  We’d
never discussed it, but somehow it was obvious to her that Tara wanted her
mate, me, probably her nose scented it.  Regardless, it was a small point of
awkwardness in the room, at least as far as I was concerned.

It probably didn’t help that Tara was so attractive either,
I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole though for two reasons.  One, because
I wouldn’t cheat on Sierra, and two because of Tara’s and my past, the woman
freaked me out with her one track mind for my sperm, even if that had seemed to
change ten days ago I wasn’t sure if I trusted that.  It could have just been
an adjustment of tactics.  Not that it mattered either way.  The point was
though, I was sure my scent betrayed the base instinctual attraction I had for
the witch.  Nothing I could do about that, the woman was gorgeous and I was a
twenty-one-year-old male.

I could only control my actions, not my natural reactions my
body had to the fairer sex.  Males were just wired that way and there was no
changing it.

Not that a little jealousy was bad, she didn’t look mad at
me, and was pressed up against my side very closely in a possessive manner,
which was distracting in a good way.  No, all the ire she had was directed
toward Tara, more or less.

Tara sighed and looked over at me, “Thanks, goddess it’s
been a long day.”

Everything I’d just thought was the absolute truth, I’d
never even think of cheating on Sierra, especially not with a witch of dubious
morals who may or may not only be after a child with a powerful sorcerer. 
That’s why the vision I got when she locked her eyes with mine was so
shocking.  I shook my head, I didn’t even want to think about it, and for a
moment I felt guilty on top of confused. 

In the vision I’d been kissing Tara, with a burning all
consuming passion, and seemingly very soon, maybe a day from now at most.  It
made no sense.  There had to be another explanation, a spell?  It had to be
deceptive, just like when I saw Aiya in my arms, with her lips at my neck,
nothing else made sense.  But I started to worry about it anyway.  I also
wasn’t sure if I should tell Sierra or not, but if I did it wouldn’t be in the
middle of a large group of people, maybe it would be better to wait until I
discovered why.

Everyone else looked confused by Tara’s thank you, except
Selene and Carrie, who had magic of their own and had probably felt the assault
on the witch’s wards.

Selene filled in the rest of them, “Tara was under attack,
Ben put up a strong shield of air to give her relief.”

It seemed clear to me, since Selene could see all four
elements, even if she could only touch earth and fire, that there was something
different about me.  The core of air inside me made me more powerful in the air
element, more powerful perhaps than any other natural sorcerer of air, or I
would be once I got up to speed anyway. 

But I was sure now, for other reasons as well, there was a
severe drawback.  I didn’t believe that normal air sorcerers were blind to the
earth element at all.  No, they felt it as antagonistic magic.  But… I belonged
to air.  I wasn’t positive of why it was, but for whatever reason or
combination of things, I was completely blind to earth, I could block it out
above ground, but I couldn’t feel it or detect it.

The information about why just didn’t seem to be out there either,
maybe because I was one of a kind, or possibly it was still just blocked to me
until I got more powerful?  My guess was that it was because I’m some kind of
hybrid, because elementals of air could feel earth magic as well, I was pretty
sure of that anyway.  Something about being both human, and elemental, had
given me a hell of a blind spot along with my advantage.

With the introductions and drama past, Derik got straight to
business, “What exactly do you need from us?”

Tara replied, “I need time to prepare some spells to fight
off a dark coven that is attacking me, either Ben can do it, or, I can tie one
of your mystics into my own wards, to power them while I work.  I need time to
recover and then make the spells, maybe twenty-four hours.”

Derik asked, “You can fight off a whole dark coven by
yourself?”

Tara sighed, “It’s a long story, but yes, because I have
personal items for each of them, I’ll be binding their powers one by one if I
can.”

Derik looked suspicious, “How did you manage that?”

Tara frowned and seemed to gather her strength, “You owe me
a service, and I owe you nothing more than what I already paid for it.  Are you
turning your back on the debt you owe alpha?” she asked challengingly.

Derik scowled, “No, I will honor my debt, but I won’t be
involved with a dark witch, if you don’t explain to my satisfaction we won’t be
trading favors again in the future, at all.”

Tara narrowed her eyes dangerously, I felt the need to take
a step back but held my ground.

“I am not a dark witch, and I don’t recall me asking
questions about why you were targeted by another pack.  But fine, here is the
truth alpha, the coven after me is my mother’s, she was a dark witch, I left
when I came into my powers.”

I asked, “Was?”

Tara’s anger seemed to soften when she looked at me, which
made Sierra tense.  Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.  Still, overall a
less angry witch was a less scary one.

Tara nodded, “The coven decided on new leadership and killed
my mother, the new coven head, Cyndy, left me alive so they could strip and
absorb my powers when I came into them at sixteen.  That’s why I hate dark
magic so much, and why I left the coven.  I not only gathered a personal
possession of each, but I also took the grimoire containing the spells
necessary to drain another, and destroyed it.

“I’d hoped that would be enough for them to let me go, I am…
rather powerful, and stronger than my mother was, which was why they wanted my
power so badly to begin with.  But they underestimated me.  It’s been… ten
years now, I suppose I’d gotten lax on keeping a tab on them, I’d believed they
had forgotten me or moved on from it.  They attacked me out of the blue, and
hard, but I’ve been strengthening these wards for a long time and their first
strike failed.  I can only assume they’re here to finish the job, maybe they
rediscovered the spells or another grimoire?

“Or perhaps they just fear I will one day decide to go back
and take my revenge, either way, they somehow found me,” she turned to Derik
and a little bit of steel reentered her voice, “Does that satisfy you alpha?”

Derik sighed, “Forgive me for jumping to conclusions Tara,
and if it makes a difference, the pack that attacked me was also my past coming
back to haunt me.  We will support your shield, and if a confrontation comes
before the binding we will assist in that as well.”

Tara looked surprised for a moment but smoothed her features
over and nodded in agreement.

Derik asked, “Who gets first shift?”

I shrugged, “I can take over tomorrow morning if Carrie is
free tonight?  Sierra and I are supposed to be at my aunt’s house in a little
over an hour, but we can cancel if we have to, this is more important.”

Carrie shrugged and nodded, “That works for me.”

Derik cleared his throat, “Alright, Gerald and Carrie will stay
for now.  Todd, I want you to shadow for a few hours, then crash at Ben’s and
shadow him and Sierra tomorrow, any questions?”

Everyone shook their heads, and Tara said to me, “Just give
me a minute to add Carrie to the wards before you go anywhere.”

She held out her hands towards Carrie, and after a moment
Carrie stepped forward and the clasped their hands together.  She chanted a
short spell and something felt different but I couldn’t say what exactly.  When
she nodded at me, I slowly took down my shield of air surrounding the store. 
Carrie winced once it fell, but looked fine after a moment.  She should be able
to power the wards just fine.

Tara didn’t waste any time, she murmured a thank you as she
left and went in the back room to take a nap.  I wondered how long it would
take for her to recharge and start binding her old coven.  I was also kind of
curious just how powerful she was, and I didn’t know all that much about witch
magic outside of the basics she’d told me months ago.  Maybe I’d have to take a
closer look at that in the future.  All the knowledge couldn’t be blocked after
all.

Derik asked, “Would you mind sending Selene, Katie, and
myself home.  I don’t want to take advantage but…”

I laughed, “But you will anyway?  Ready to go?”

I was joking of course, any of them would jump to my
assistance if I needed it, things worked both ways.

He nodded, and the ladies did as well, so I gathered the
magic and sent them home before Sierra and I left for the apartment.  She was still
acting very possessive of me even though we’d left sight of Tara, and I found I
didn’t mind it at all, especially when she decided we should shower together,
we were almost late to my aunt’s house as a result…