The Problem With Black Magic (17 page)

“Um, Sam didn’t tap into me until time was already frozen. He needed me to st
op a building from collapsing after the earthquake, not to stop time.”

The low murmuring of the hundreds sitting behind Cassie increased in volume, and Cassie thought she determined a hint of panic. From the sound of it, this wasn’t going at all like the audience had expected.

Arrigio sucked in his breath, and turned to Sam. “Sammael, is what your servant says true? Did you stop time in that radius without the help of a familiar?”

“It’s true,” said Sam. Cassie felt his hand tighten around her waist, and tried to fight the ensuing feeling of lightheadedness; she couldn’t afford to be distracted anymore. Some rational part of her, buried deep beneath layers of heat and sensation, regis
tered that while his touch was addling her brain, he was probably touching her to help calm his own nerves.

Arrigio
turned to Serenus on the other end of the dais, a look on his face like he’d just swallowed a lemon. “Examiner, you knew of this?”

Serenus
shrugged. “I knew the chronology of that day’s events; no one asked me for it.”

Some nervous laughter broke out behind Cassie and Sam; it was obvious from
Serenus’ tone that he’d seen this coming.

“You knew we would assume that the familiar had been tapped to provide the power to freeze time, and you said nothing?”
Arrigio continued.

“My job is to offer facts when asked, not to correct whatever assumptions you may have,” said
Serenus pleasantly. The nervous laughter from the audience cut off at the enraged look on Arrigio’s face.

Cassie looked at
Serenus, looking as relaxed up on the dais as if he were in front of the TV watching football, not that she could imagine him doing such a thing. She was certain he had some kind of plan that Arrigio had played right into, but she had no idea what it was, nor why he wouldn’t have simply told them about it.

Arrigio
covered the microphone with his hand and muttered to the Asian man sitting next to him, who nodded in response. As they spoke, Cassie turned to Sam.

“What’s going on?
Serenus is up to something.”

“I don’t know, but I think this stopped being just about you,” he said quietly, barely moving his lips.

Finished with his private conversation, Arrigio addressed the room once again. “It seems like we were ill-prepared going into this hearing. I was expecting to deal with the assignment of a new familiar, but it appears we also have to deal with the issue of a full-blooded demon among us.”

Sam’s fingers, which had been stroking her hip ever so slightly, came to a sudden stop. “I am not full-blooded,” he responded after a pause. “My mother is human, just like the rest of us.”

“The interesting question of your mother aside,” said Arrigio, giving Serenus a sidelong glance that Cassie was sure was significant, “Performing a spell of that caliber without having to tap into a familiar is an indication that you fall into a different category than other half-demons-- making legal precedent virtually worthless,” he grumbled.

Cassie sat back, her mind racing. As far as she could tell, whatever their typical procedure with assigning familiars was, it didn’t apply to Sam because he was considered a full demon, not a half. From
Serenus’ grin, she guessed he’d been counting on that fact.

“He shouldn’t be allowed to walk free,” said a sandy-haired demon with thick glasses on
Arrigio’s other side. “We should drop the question of his familiar and arrange proper custody for him, tonight.” Serenus’ smile wavered.

Arrigio
held up a hand to stop his colleague. “Graellen, one problem at a time. We’re here to deal with the familiar, and so we shall; A separate hearing can be arranged with how to deal with Sammael, if need be. Examiner, I believe you wished to address the court about this case?”

She felt Sam relax next to her; she didn’t think he’d taken a breath since they’d referred to him as a full-blooded demon.

Serenus stood and cleared his throat. “Gentlemen, despite whatever misgivings you may have about what you’ve learned today, your choice in this matter is clear. Section 223c of our charter states that a familiar with potential that exceeds normal levels, and I think we can all agree that’s the case here, must be reassigned to a master who can properly train her, if her original master is incapable.”

“We’ve all read the charter,
Serenus,” said the one called Graellen snidely.

“However, do you know the intent of that subsection?
To keep a young witch from overpowering her master, of course. A weak half-demon, and it pains me to say that many of us are, has no business guiding a witch. How could he teach her to control great power if he’s a stranger to it himself?”

“But in this case, chance has provided Cassandra-
- the most promising potential witch we’ve seen in years, if not decades-- with the finest master available. To create the strongest witch, shouldn’t the strongest of our kind be the one to train her?”

There was a murmuring in the audience as everyone discussed the Examiner’s point. Cassie thought that she now understood what
Serenus had been trying to accomplish: if the intent of the law was to keep powerful witches away from weak masters, the panel was going to look like idiots if they tried to reassign her from Sam mere minutes after the reveal that he was a full demon, in power if not ancestry.

Arrigio
pounded his gavel to quiet the whispers. “We will have silence. A compelling argument Examiner, except you err in one respect; that was not the sole intent of that clause. In addition to ensuring that a promising familiar be placed with a master strong enough to train her as a witch, it was also to ensure her safety. Even a powerful witch is no good to anyone if her master kills her before she can be of use.”

Cassie swallowed, and Sam’s hand tightened around her waist. This was bad; Sam himself admitted that he didn’t have enough control over his powers. Whether they were genuinely concerned for her safety, or just looking for an excuse to reassign her to one of their trusted pawns, it was a legitimate reason to take her away from him.

“Son of Sammael, do you believe your familiar is safe with you? Remember the consequences of lying to this court,” said the Asian demon.

Sam grimaced. “With all due respect, sir, I don’t believe she’s safe with any of us.”

“Answer the question,” Graellen snapped.

Sam removed his hand from her; she was surprised to find that as much as she’d found it
distracting, once he stopped touching her she immediately missed it. “No,” he said quietly, “she’s not safe with me.”

Another murmur went through the audience, and
Arrigio slammed his gavel again. “Silence. Why isn’t she safe with you?”

Sam gritted his teeth, and looked down; Cassie was sure that there was nothing on earth he wouldn’t prefer to having to answer the chairman’s question right now.

“Because she can make me angry; because I don’t think straight when she’s around. Because I don’t know what I’m capable of just by myself, let alone with a familiar or a witch. Because I don’t know what she’s capable of. There are so many reasons; I’ve just been hoping I can get everything under control, fast enough, that she won’t have to spend her life paying for my mistake. That she won’t have to abandon life as she knows it because of my weakness,” he finished quietly.

Graellen
snorted. “And how can we leave her with him after such testimony? He himself admits he’s not up to the task,” he said, gesturing to the rest of the panel.

“Force any one of us
to tell the painful truth, gentleman, and you know we would share many of the same concerns,” said Serenus, his face devoid of emotion. “Is anyone here immune from the emotional highs and lows that would come with raising a strong witch? Anyone who knows the full extent of their capabilities and keeps perfect control at all times? Of course not. If Sam isn’t fit to raise her, then no one here is.”

“Actually, you’re wrong,” said the Asian man. Cassie fervently wished someone would call him by name al
ready so she’d know who he was. “Nathaniel Lewis, please approach the dais.”

Cassie could tell by the look on Serenus’ face that he hadn’t expected the other man to be called to the front, and the prospect of Serenus being surprised made her pulse quicken. Cassie didn’t realize how much she’d counted on the professor knowing everything until it became obvious that he didn’t.

She heard the sound of someone getting up from a chair a few rows behind her and turned to look. Her breath caught in her throat as she laid eyes on quite possibly the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

Nathaniel Lewis was well over six feet tall, with a build somewhere between a swimmer and a gymnast. His eyes were a shocking blue-green color, especially vibrant against his lightly tanned skin. Looking perfectly coiffed in a tailored, pin-striped three-piece suit, his mane of light brown hair slicked back with a careless-looking flair that had to be deliberate, he smiled at her with impossibly white teeth as he made his way to the front of the room. Cassie felt her stomach doing flip flops, something that only intensified when Sam put his hand around her waist again.

She turned to Sam to gauge his reaction; h
e was looking at Nathaniel like he wanted to kill him, but then again that was so close to his normal expression, it was hard to be sure.

Nathaniel stood before the dais about twenty feet away from Cassie and Sam with his hands clasped loosely behind his back, looking as relaxed as though he were standing by the pool. In profile, the ambient light in the room emphasized his sharp cheekbones, and his perfectly formed nose, and the clean, formidable line of his jaw.

Cassie leaned close to Sam. “Does he really look like that, or is that magic?” Not that she didn’t have more important things to worry about, but at the moment, there was nothing she could do but talk to Sam anyway.

“No disguise spells are allowed at court,” Sam said, narrowing his red eyes as he looked at the other demon. Cassie noticed they seemed to be giving off more light than they had before; she was beginning to get the impression that his eyes glowed more when he felt threatened.
Territorial.

“Nathaniel Lewis, is it true that you’ve trained five witches within the last ten years?”

Nathaniel chuckled; as Cassie would have suspected, he had a deep, melodious voice. “I’m afraid your records aren’t up to date; it’s been seven. Although I had my doubts about Melissa,” he said, to scattered laughter from the audience.

Cassie looked at him, squinting: something was bothering her. She knew she’d never seen this man before-
- certainly, she would have remembered a man who looked like that-- but ever since his name was called, she’d felt a vague sense of dread. Like she should know who he was, and every second she couldn’t remember was wasted time.

Graellen
took up the questioning. “And has a witch in your care ever been seriously hurt?”

“No, sir,” said Nathaniel, crisply. “One girl broke a leg, but that was actually from a skiing accident in the Alps; none of my witches have ever been seriously injured, and never suffered any injury from magic.” Some of the members of the board nodded as Nathaniel talked, smiling.

Cassie felt her stomach drop, and this time not at the sight of Nathaniel’s masculine body: this was their plan. They had a hand-picked witch-trainer, safe and loyal to the court, and they were going to make it as clear as possible that she was much safer with him than with Sam; furthermore, it was probably true.

Looking at him though, would that really be so bad?
  She thought, then thanked her lucky stars for the thousandth time that Sam couldn’t read her mind. It was a glib thought, though, not an honest one; somehow, despite his looks and seductive voice, her gut instinct was telling her that she wouldn’t be safe with him. How could she be so sure of that?

“Please explain your method of training witches to the court,” said
Arrigio, and Nathaniel smiled before answering. The light glinted off his teeth when she did and she noticed that, while he didn’t have fangs, his incisors did seem to be unusually sharp….

She stiffened as the memory of the two vampires in the shop came back to her:
I don’t care if she tastes like nectar and ambrosia, it’s not worth pissing Nathan off....

Sam had felt her stiffen at the realization, and leaned in close. “What is it?” he whispered in her ear. Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw members of the court turn their attention away from Nathaniel (or Nathan) to look at her, and realized that it might not even be safe to whisper
what she was about to say. Sam followed her eyes and presumably came to the same conclusion.

Cassie closed her eyes and took a deep breath; dimly, she could hear Nathaniel prattling on in his beautiful voice, something about benchmarking and Universal Casting Standards. Sam could read her emotions, and he had been able to speak directly into her mind when he had called her to his side; obviously, they had some kind of strong mental connection. Just because he insisted he couldn’t read her mind, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hear something that she actually wanted him to hear, did it? At worst, if she tried to communicate with him by mind and failed, her emotions would
at least give him a clue.

She locked eyes with him and began doing the mental equivalent of yelling, trying to push out her own thoughts at the maximum volume possible. 
HE’S THE ONE WHO SENT THE VAMPIRES AFTER ME WHEN YOU WERE GONE! HE’S BEEN AFTER ME ALL THIS TIME.

Sam’s eyes
widened, and he looked at Nathaniel again with a new intensity. Cassie leaned back, exhausted; she wouldn’t have thought thinking out loud would be so tiring, but suddenly she felt like she’d just jogged several miles. Sam had obviously gotten the message, but would it do any good?

Suddenly, she felt a hand caressing her; it took a moment for her to realize she was feeling the calming sensation in her mind, not on her skin
. I see; I’ll take care of this,
said the voice she almost recognized as Sam’s.

She exhaled; he was going to try something. She didn’t know what he could do at this point, but if Nathaniel was the kind of man who sent around vampires to do his bidding, she wanted nothing to do with him; she’d take her chances with her current master, thank you very much.

And next time? Inside voice, please.

Nathaniel trailed off his testimony at the sound of Cassie’s nigh-hysterical laughter; she couldn’t help it. She was so stressed out, Sam’s mild joke about her yelling in his head pushed her into a fit of mirth, and she didn’t even have the energy to be embarrassed anymore.

Arrigio fixed her with one of his disapproving glares, while Nathaniel just looked bewildered, craning his neck to look at her from his place in front of the dais.

“Once again, this is your master’s hearing, miss; I won’t ask you to maintain proper decorum again,” he said. “One more peep out of you, you can stand out in the hall like a child, do you understand?”

Before Cassie could decide how to respond to that, Sam held up a hand and replied for her. “I beg forgiveness for my familiar, chairman; though in fairness to her, if she couldn’t contain her laughter at the thought that this presumptuous half-demon was fit to train her, I can’t hold it against her; I find the idea laughable myself.”

Cassie struggled to keep her face impassive as the members of the court visibly bristled at Sam’s words, while Nathaniel’s mouth dropped open. She flicked her eyes to Sam and then back again; what was he trying to do? Insult them all into submission?

“Excuse me?” said Nathaniel through gritted teeth, turning his body to face Sam. “Is there something you’d like to say, Sammael?” He pronounced Sam’s name like it was a vile curse. For all Cassie knew, maybe it was.

“Yes, thank you,” said Sam. Cassie expected him to stand to address the court, but to her surprise, he
reclined further into his chair. “I’ve no doubt Mr. Lewis here has successfully trained several witches, but what kind of spells could these witches cast when he was finished with them? Weak protection circles? Herbal charms? No wonder he’s had such consistent results; it’s easy to rack up a successful record when you’re training garden witches. Low risk, low reward.”

At his words, the audience behind Cassie exploded into outraged whispers. As little as Cassie knew about the culture of witches and demons, she was pretty sure that what Sam had done was the verbal equivalent of walking up to Nathaniel and kicking him in the groin.

The gorgeous man sputtered, outrage clearly visible in his large turquoise eyes. “And this, coming from someone who’s never trained even one witch successfully? I assure you,“ he said, turning his attention back to the court, “my witches are among the best-trained in the world. They can craft iron-clad defenses for their masters, they can perform upper-tier spellcraft, they can heal-“

“By which you mean, they can cure the sniffles and mend broken arms,” Sam said derisively. “Have you trained a witch to cure life-threatening diseases, heal a body broken beyond mortal repair, and extend liv
es by dozens of years? You know, the things we actually need witches for?”

The murmuring of the crowd intensified, only this time,
Arrigio didn’t bother quieting it with his gavel; he had an expression on his face Cassie couldn’t read. Graellen, however, was red in the face.

“Chairman, I won’t sit here and listen to him insult our witches. You should hold him in contempt-
-“

“No, it’s true,” said
Arrigio quietly. “Sammael raises a valid point, however impetuously. The witches today are nowhere near as powerful as the white witches of yore, and everyone knows it; it’s the elephant in the room. The kind of training Lewis provides, however proficient, may not be what this Cassandra will require.”

“Chairman, I-
-“ began Nathaniel.

“If he has no experience training a true white witch-
- the one we are all hoping Cassandra will become-- does his experience teaching weak witches justify ripping the girl away from her current master, changing her life irrevocably?”

Cassie began to hope that things were going her way; not only was she seeing some of the honor
Serenus had characterized Arrigio with, finally, but she was beginning to understand why the demons were making such a fuss about her. It wasn’t all about a bunch of greedy men hungering for power; if a properly trained witch could cure disease, things beyond what modern medicine could accomplish, then that ability was truly worth fighting for. She wasn’t sure if half-demons suffered from human diseases, but surely they had friends, lovers-- maybe even children-- who did.

Nathaniel shook his h
ead. “Chairman, obviously Cassandra’s potential is a source of concern-- that’s why we’re all here,” he said, indicating the audience. “But to conclude that all of my experience isn’t worth more than that of a demon with none, simply because the nature of the charge is different? That’s insanity!”

There was a pause. “So I’m insane now, Mr. Lewis?” said
Arrigio.

Cassie had to stop herself from whistling.
Hoo-boy, Mr. Handsome had dug himself a hole now. She felt almost giddy.

Nathaniel licked his lips nervously. “Of course not, but sir-
-“

“This is all a waste of time,” said Sam, cutting Nathaniel off; she was amazed how cold he could sound when he wanted to. “The real question is
, can this middling half-demon even handle my familiar? If he can’t, then everything else becomes irrelevant.”

The murmuring of the crowd increased; a few people even whistled.
Arrigio banged his gavel half-heartedly, but seemed too lost in thought to care about the noise level in the room anymore.

Giving up the pretense of civility, Nathaniel turned in Sam’s direction and practically snarled his words at him. “What are you suggesting? That I tap into her right here, at court?!” he spat, his tone implying that such a thing would be more scandalous than urinating on the floor.

“I think that would be an excellent idea,” said the Asian man.
Who the hell are you?
Cassie wondered once again. “I know it’s usually not done, but these are unusual circumstances. If Mr. Lewis cannot handle the flow of magic from her, it will be immediately obvious. Then, the court will have little choice but to award custody to the current master, and we can skip unnecessary dialogue and move forward with the agenda.” Arrigio nodded in approval.

Graellen
turned to the chairman in disbelief. “You’ll allow this?”

“Apparently, I will,” the chairman snapped. “What Mr. Yamanaka says makes perfect sense. Cassandra, are you willing to let Mr. Lewis attempt to tap your magic? It would save a lot of time.”

Cassie raised an eyebrow; after all this time being talked about like a commodity, she was surprised anyone would ask her permission for anything. Apparently Arrigio had some inkling that she should have a say over how her own magic was handled; she was liking him more by the second.

She turned to Sam, who nodded almost imperceptibly; she didn’t know how this was going to play out, but apparently, he had expected this.

“Okay,” she said, and rose from her seat. Feeling awkward, she closed the distance between her and Nathaniel, trying to focus on his collarbone to avoid making eye contact; she didn’t want to give him any openings.