Braving the Elements (4 page)

I really hope she doesn’t punch me in the balls.

As the water wobbling in her eyes threatened to overflow, he scanned his plate for a place to put down his ribs. He had to do something.

Thankfully,
though, a second later she shook out her shoulders and scrunched up her face, thinking again. Charles let out a sigh. She held it together this time, but the woman was a hair’s breath away from losing it. He kind of hoped he wasn’t around when she did. She was unpredictable.

“I can do this,” she muttered.

“Okay, excellent. Let’s practice the fire element one more time before we head to James for weapons. You’re best at that element.”

“Arg
h!” She threw her pencil at a tree. “Don’t you listen? I always pull too much magic.”

Charles knew this, but he loved watching the flame flicker in her fingers. It was neat. Besides, she always reigned herself in eventually. “Just go slow.
And do not make me bald! I don’t need pity sex. Well…yes I do; but I don’t need pity to get sex, is what I meant. Except…”

Her eyes narrowed. “No, Charles, that wouldn’t work with me, either.”

“What the hell did I do to the Boss that he had to pair me with the biggest prude in the world?” He flashed her a grin. “For now.”

Sasha
shook her head and closed her eyes. She dropped her hands to her knees, palms up. For a second, nothing happened, and then a faint blue flame flickered over her fingers. The flame turned green slowly, working toward more power. To red, her default. Lately, she’d stopped there, too nervous to draw more.

His eyes scanned the meat in front of him.
And then swept the ground for the bottle of spicy BBQ sauce. The cooks were getting the hang of BBQ, but they still shied toward bland. He had to up the ante with sauce that would curl his hair.

“Where am I?” Her voice barely rose above a whisper.

Oh yeah.

Orange flame grew along her palm, rising six inches into the sky. He felt his own power stir. She had this awesome ability to coax another person to draw more magic. At least, she could with him. It was excellent and really helpful.

“Orange.
Good job.”

Her breath came in fast pants. “It’s trying…to…force me…”

Charles reached forward to shake her shoulders, but he still had the ribs.
Dang it!
Orange started to morph toward gold. Her eyebrows dipped low over her eyes. If he wasn’t careful, soon he’d get a hairless fog!

Thinking fast, he
leaned forward and slapped her across the face. Her eyes snapped open and the glow winked out. BBQ sauce smeared her cheek.

“It helped, didn’t it?” Charles said with a haughty air
before she had time to berate him. “And it worked way faster. I think we have a winner. No need for thanks.”

Sasha leaned forward very slowly, anger burning in her eyes. She put her
little hand in his palm, the heat making his dick stand on end. Suddenly his body
zinged
with a shock so strong his teeth clamped shut and his eyes bulged. The only sound he could make was, “Ahhhhhhhhheeeeeee.”

She took
back her hand as her smile turned smug. “Well, it helped, didn’t it?”

Rubbing one palm against the other,
his ribs laying on the ground, he said, “How could that have possibly helped me? And how did you do that? And look at my ribs! They have dirt and grass stuck to them.”

“I wasn’t trying to help you.
I was helping me. And it worked—I no longer feel extremely pissed off that you slapped me, you donkey. Although, I did waste a bunch of money on a Taser I no longer need.”

“You reached gold this time,” he said with approval.

“Stefan’s gold?”

Was it just him, or were her eyes twinkling
with something like a challenge? Her goal seemed aimed toward topping the Boss. Huh.

Too bad she hadn’t. “It was a lighter gold. But if you kept going…”

Her sigh deflated her chest. “I don’t know—it gets too…slippery or something. Too hard to control. It’s like the elements all try to rush me. Like I’m walking on a knife blade while juggling fire. I don’t want to get magic shock…”

Good point. Charles hadn’t thought about that.
Usually a person only got magic shock when teamed with two or more other people for a large spell or incantation. The group had to be careful to centralize the flow so no one individual got a larger dump of magic. Since the Boss took power of the clan, though, he usually joined those circles and balanced everything out. It was one of his special, natural abilities that proved advantageous to the clan—they could form larger circles and construct more advanced spells with him involved. Rarely anyone got magic shock anymore.

Only, Sasha could apparently get it
on her own. Charles couldn’t even imagine how frustrating that must be. To constantly have to watch your own back from pulling in too much. Also, that it was possible.

Once again, Charles couldn’t help but wonder what the Boss had found.

Nor could he salvage his dinner.

He chose
to worry about his stomach for the moment. Let the Boss handle the prickly human.

Grumbling, he went back inside to refill his plate.

*****

“That is your dagger. Your dagger is your best friend. You take your dagger everywhere with you. You sleep with your dagger. You know your dagger like the back of your hand. When you are in trouble, your dagger will save you. Do I make myself
understood?”

I raised my hand slowly
from the back of the large, bare room in the basement of the mansion. Weapons of all kinds glittered on the walls in the dim light, screaming violence. A cluster of tall students stood in front of me holding their daggers, gripping them with assurance. With a speech like that, not having a dagger or knife would present a serious problem.

I had a serious problem.

“Yes, the human in the back.” James was a robust man with salt and pepper hair and a grim face. He stood on a platform, his thick arms wound around his back in faux patience as he looked over his troops.

“Umm,” I froze as the students
, older than the elements class but still not quite my age, gawked. More than one snickered. “I haven’t been issued a dagger.”

“Oops.” Charles scratched his nose.

James stared for a moment, his deep brown eyes flat. Finally, he tweaked his head toward the wall o’ death. “Get one.”

“Yup.
Okay.” I hurried over and reached out for a smallish blade—until I noticed a skull on its hilt.

“Yuck,” my hand flinched back.
I scanned the area surrounding it, seeing every type of sharp object in existence. Great, curved blades gleamed against the gray wall, heavy and intense. Not for me. I moved down, noticing a polished wood stick with a chain leading from the tip. At the end of the chain was a ball with spikes. I grimaced again. Finally my eyes settled on a dagger about the length of my forearm with a straight hilt and no frills.

As I grabbed the hilt and pulled it from the wall, the expertly polished handle slipped. The blade went skittering across the floor, straight at the center of the class.

“Crap!” I screeched.

“Great gods, jump!” James shouted.

Barely missing the ankles of a beautiful, redheaded girl, the blade did a pirouette, sparkling for a second in the dim lighting
before it stilled.

“Sorry!” I held up my hand to ward off the death glare from James. “It’s my first day.”

“Have you ever even
held
a dagger, human?” James asked with a mystified voice.

“Or should we call you
pet?”
the redhead asked with a sneer.

The term punched me.
I’d just chosen my new mortal enemy overachiever. I would be better than her at this stuff if it killed me.

I
frowned, but didn’t say anything. I did almost chop the girl’s foot off. I kind of deserved that comment. Still, though…she better look out. I was gunning for her.

“Once,” I answered James quietly. “I used it in the battle not that long ago. Or fight? I don’t know what you guys call it? Before that, I used a letter opener because I didn’t have anything else on me at the time. Besides a whistle. The whistle actually came in handy. Surprisingly…”

Charles
’ forehead hit his palm.

“You were in the battle?
” A sandy haired boy smirked at me, nudging a black haired boy standing next to him. “Doing what? Hiding under your master’s bed?”

He also just made the list.

James clapped, quieting the snickers, but not dislodging the sneers. “Fine, pick up your weapon. You are way behind, but apparently one of the undisclosed higher-powers thought you needed to start this class right now, rather than waiting the few weeks until Mira starts the next one, so I guess we’ll have to do.”

Oh yeah, great
. Thanks, James, for pointing that out. My classmates don’t hate me enough as it is…

Suppressing a grumble, I scooped up my dagger
.

“Showboat,” Charles whispered under his breath, eyeing a lovely blond
e with giant boobs.

“Like I meant to sever toes,” I snapped, trying to pay attention as James spoke about elements and metals and God only knew what.

“Okay, practice.” James clapped again. That must’ve been his thing. Clapping.

It was better than that weird
maw
sound Master Bert made.

“What am I practicing?” I asked Charles out of the side of my mouth.

Charles backed away quickly as James stepped up beside me. “Problem?”

My face
heated. “Oh, no. Not at all, no. I was just…”

James’ eyebrows nudged his hair line.

“Turning the blade a color?” I finished hopefully.

“You are infusing your blade with power. If you are able to do it, your blade will turn a color, yes. Probably a lovely shade of purple, if you’re lucky.”

Ri
iight.

I
glanced around. Everyone else had their blades basically glowing, with only a few still working on it. None of them showed any real strength at it, though. Not like Charles or Stefan—
My groin swelled and my sexy systems started to ache.
Since I’d seen him earlier, the craving had come back in force. His smell, his hard chest, his—
“What is that…
smell…” James glanced around, trying to identify it. “Warm cookies fresh out of the oven. Delicious.”

Two other men looked our way, sniffing.

“Okay, glowing sword, coming right up.” I closed my eyes, belatedly remembering that this was a different exercise than the fire element one I’d just practiced, and tried to shift gears. Too late. A sudden onslaught of power flooded me. It sneaked in from everywhere, boosting my power-level and clawing at my middle. Joy, heat, bliss, lava—
Too much.
I needed brakes!

A large palm
met my cheek with surprising force. My head whipped around, power sizzling through my body and out through my limbs, finding release.

Everyone gasped.

I opened my eyes to a flaming sword. Bright red light streaked out of the tip and zipped into the ceiling above, tearing a shallow hole before soaking into the walls.

“Thank God it was pointing up,” I whispered
with shock.

“Who sent you here, human?” James asked in a suspicious voice. His eyes swiveled to Charles, for the first time realizing I had a guard, not a fellow classmate
. If there was one thing Charles did not need help with, it was operating a sword.

Either of his swords, actually.
Just ask him.

“That’s classified?”
I hedged.

“As you can see,” Charles spoke up, vaguely gesturing
toward the hole in the ceiling, “she is a danger to herself and others. We identified her and had to bring her here until trained.”

“Oh, great, a
dangerous
pet. Who was the idiot who found her?”

I scowled at that sandy haired twerp
who couldn’t keep his yapper shut.

“Me.” Charles straightened dramatically, the tattoos peeking out from under his shirt sleeves. Easily the tallest in the class, and certainly the most filled out,
Charles was a stack of destructive muscle with a dangerous edge. His smoky gray eyes flashed with danger, his striking face drawing eyes. “I was doing my job as the Watch Captain.”

A few girls gasp
ed and more than one guy shifted insecurely. When Charles wanted to put on a show, he stopped traffic.

“Class, class.”
Clap, clap, clap.
“Let’s get back to it. Sasha, you are excused. You are too dangerous for this class. Tell your master you will need to wait for Mira.”

My intestines iced over
. Not only did he assume I had a master, like a slave, but he was sending me away without instruction. If I wasn’t taught, I’d surely fail. If this guy turned me away, the next instructor probably would, too. “But, I need to learn this…”