Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (27 page)

Chris took pity on
me.

“Ah, let’s go back down to the first floor
and we can experiment… very carefully,” he said. “Circles work best
right on the ground, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think activating one this far
up would be useful for physical protection. It might block a
magical attack, but for shielding from objects or direct attack,
touching ground is a must,” I said.

“Wire circle on rafters worked, no?” Arkady
questioned.

“Yeah, but I was desperate, plus I could see
the ground. I think that helped.”

We went back down the steps to the open beam
floor, where they all just dropped through the gaps in the beams to
land lightly on the concrete below. I squatted, grabbed a floor
joist, and lowered myself till I could let go. My wire hoop had
come with me, so I dropped it on the ground and looked up at the
others to see what they were planning.

Arkady was screwing a suppressor onto a
foreign-looking pistol.

“Makarov? Sweet,” Chris commented.

“Dah, spoils of war,” Arkady replied, looking
up from the pistol to me. I gulped. I mean, my Craft was strong,
but shooting my circle with bullets? Never done it.

“Step in circle please,” the giant vampire
requested.

“Ah…” I started.

“Declan, just sit on the ground. Arkady will
shoot at the air above your head so that if it doesn’t work, it
won’t hit you,” Chris said.

“What about ricochets? What if it gets
through one side and bounces down the other?” I asked, really
scared.

A warm hand grabbed mine. “Come on, I’ll sit
in here with you,” Stacia said, pulling me into my circle. “You
won’t let anything hit us, will you?” she asked, head tilted to one
side. I gulped again but followed helplessly. Damn. I hoped like
hell she didn’t ask for my lunch money because I would likely empty
my bank account.

She sat gracefully with her legs crossed in
front of her, patting the ground beside her, feet still bare.

“Now, forcefields on or shields up or
whatever it is you do,” she said with a smile. I touched one finger
to the wire hoop and pushed power into my circle, closing it,
looking anywhere but at the bombshell next to me.

Arkady pinched the slide and
grip of his gun with one massive finger and thumb, peeking into the
minute amount of chamber that this revealed. He grunted, having
most likely seen the brass of cartridge case chambered and ready to
go. He was going to freaking shoot my circle. Granted, he was
aiming over our heads, but shit happens with guns and who knows
where a ricochet might go. With a glance at Stacia, who was smiling
at me with complete confidence, I closed my eyes and
thought,
stop the bullets—stop the
bullets.

There was a sharp snap, followed by the
clatter of the gun’s action cycling and the ping of a brass case on
the concrete floor. Four more pops, like an air rifle going off,
four more cases tinged on the cement right beside me.

“Damn. That’s cool,” Chris said.

I opened my eyes and looked where the others
were looking. Five perfect bullets hung in the outer edge of my
circle, each ringed with a bluish hue. Suspended, not moving, all
clustered in a tight little group.

Stacia patted my hand and popped upright. “Go
ahead, big guy. Empty the mag,” she said, facing the giant vampire
with just my circle protecting her.

Without any hesitation at all, he fired six
more times till the slide on his gun locked back on an empty
magazine. Three bullets hung in front of her face and another three
right where her heart would be.

“Holy shit. You guys don’t play around, do
you?” I asked, stunned by their nonchalance.

“Actually, the rumor is that the one next to
you is all about playing around,” Tanya said from nearby, her arms
crossed.

Stacia’s eyes narrowed for just a second
before she turned to me. “That was awesome, Declan. Now let’s get
out of here before you freeze to death from all the cold, frigid
things in here.”

“It never ends,” Chris muttered. He looked at
me, his expression a combination of embarrassed and annoyed. “How
do you get out?” he asked.

“As soon as either of us touches the circle,
it’ll break,” I said, standing up. I nodded to Stacia and she took
a tentative step forward. Abruptly, all eleven bullets fell to the
ground, pattering about the cold floor.

“So how does that work? I thought circles
were used to keep things in… like, say, demons?” Chris asked.

“Depends on the direction the caster set it
in. If I close a circle from inside, it blocks things out. If I
close it from outside, it locks them in,” I said.

“What about a two-way circle? Both blocking
and locking?” Stacia asked.

“I’ve never heard of that. It’s always
vulnerable from one side,” I said.

“How about shields you put up? They block
bullets too?” Arkady asked, dropping the empty mag from his gun and
slapping in a new one.

“Theoretically,” I said, not at all
interested in trying it.

Chris laughed at my expression, clapping me
on the shoulder lightly. Damn near knocked me over. “We won’t try
it today. You’ve done pretty well, I’d say,” he said, looking
pointedly at Tanya.

Her serious expression disappeared into a
beautiful smile that reached her eyes.

“Yes, a very good first session, Declan. We
will ramp it up a bit tomorrow. What are your thoughts?” she
asked.

I looked at them while I thought about her
question. “I think you all took it very easy on me. I think that
anything I came up with, you would have gotten around, especially
if you worked as a team rather than individual attacks. I don’t
think I realized how very fast you all are,” I said.

“Is good… you are not cocky,” Arkady said.
“What you say is all true, but this is only beginning. You have
much power, need much practice.” He pointed at the scattered
bullets and cases on the floor. “Never seen a witch stop bullets
before.” Then he started to pick them up.

Instantly, I joined him, thinking it was just
like picking up after shooting practice with Darci or Levi. After a
second, Stacia joined in, grabbing the last two bullets.

Arkady held out one giant palm and I dropped
the brass and copper collection I had into it. Stacia shook her
head. “Nope, I’m keeping these. Maybe make earrings out of them,”
she said with a smile, holding a bullet up to each ear.

“Alright, Declan. Same time tomorrow?” Chris
asked. “Meet us here?”

“Sure. Ah, thanks,” I said, realizing I was
dismissed. I headed out into the cold morning air, the sky still
dark but starting to brighten. It was only six-thirty, but it felt
like I’d been up all morning. I jogged back to Arcane thinking that
the most interesting part of my day was already over. Turns out I
was wrong.

Grabbing a breakfast sandwich from the dining
room, I headed upstairs. Mack was still blissfully sleeping as I
got my shower gear and left the room. It was a bit crazy to think
that just minutes ago, I’d been training with the most dangerous
people in the world. Thinking about it, my brain froze on the image
of bullets floating in the air above my head, Stacia sitting next
to me on the freezing floor. Okay, I’m not gonna lie… I also might
have replayed the naked werewolf girl on the floor scene, too. Hey,
I am a guy… it’s how we’re wired.

I also thought about the spinning blocks and
how Arkady had just shoved through them like nothing. The problem
was that the building constrained me. I couldn’t knock it down or
burn it up, and most of the inside was wood. So I was left with
electricity, which was in short supply, except static, ‘cause the
building was so damned cold. A thought hit me. Hmm, static.

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed and
ready. I knocked off some homework and prepped for Website Design,
sitting in the dining room, drinking coffee. Caeco and Jetta came
in and grabbed breakfast, sitting next to me.

“You’re all peppy this morning,” Jetta
commented. “Cut it out.” She didn’t look excited for school. I took
a guess.

“Bio at high school this morning?”

She grimaced and attacked her yogurt like an
enemy.

“You’re speaking again and your bruises are
all gone,” Caeco noted, studying me with raised eyebrows. “What
have you been doing?”

“Training, and I had an unusual energy drink.
It kind of healed me up,” I said. She frowned. I instantly
understood. I hadn’t been training with her. Ooops.

“I got drafted out of bed at five-thirty this
morning,” I said hurriedly.

“By who?” Jetta demanded.

“Tatiana Demidova,” I said as casual as I
could.

“What?” Caeco asked at the same time that
Jetta said, “WTF?” A couple of kids three tables away looked
over.

“Yeah, my reaction, too. You try waking up to
her hand over your mouth. And Chris just standing there laughing at
me,” I said. “Then I drank her blood.”

I had their undivided attention.

“Seems like someone spoke to them about the
whole Delwood situation and so they came back from Europe to train
me for the next few days. Every morning—at five fucking thirty.
Tanya owns an old factory not far from here. I have to get to the
top floor and they all hunt me. She put a drop of her blood into a
Gatorade to get me healthy enough to beat up.”

“Who is ‘they all?’” Caeco asked.

“Chris, Tanya, Arkady, and Stacia. Awasos was
there but he didn’t participate.”

“I’m jealous,” Caeco said, a hungry look on
her face that had nothing to do with breakfast.

“Well, it’s frustrating because they’re so
damned fast. They’re also taking it pretty easy on me, just
attacking one-on-one. And the building is old and full of wood but
I can’t burn anything and earth is useless because it’s all old
hard concrete and I might level the building or something. That
might make her mad and I really, really don’t want to see her
mad.”

“How can you even
defend?
I
beat you
up and they’re way faster than me,” Caeco said. She was
peeved.

“I can’t—not martial arts style. Instead, I
have to use circles and shields and electricity. I’m trying to
think up new weapons and stuff, but it’ll be hard,” I said.

“Which is the point of it,” she said,
expression shifting to thoughtful as she pondered my problem.

“I managed to make a circle out of wire I
found, and it moves with me, but it won’t work up on the top floor.
Also, they shot my regular circle to see if it would stop
bullets.”

“With you in it?” Jetta demanded.

“Well, me and Stacia, but we were sitting on
the floor.” A voice in the back of my head spoke up and pointed out
a potential hazard in that last sentence.

Caeco’s eyes narrowed. “Why was Stacia in the
circle with you?” Yup, that hazard.

“Because I was really unexcited about having
them shoot me and she volunteered for moral support,” I said,
thinking faster than I had all morning.

“Tell me… is she interesting to you?” Caeco
asked, eyes deadly serious.

Hmmm, options? Definitely a no-go on the
whole naked werewolf story. Let’s stick to observations.

“Is she attractive? You know she is. Is she
in love with Chris Gordon? I’m no expert, but even I could see
that,” I said, hoping it was enough.

“What?” they both said, simultaneously and
loud. Other diners looked our way.

“No, it’s pretty glaringly obvious. She’s
super helpful and all, but she watches him, you know, when he’s not
looking. And Tanya and her don’t really get along… I mean, they
work together, but you can tell they don’t like each other. Always
trading insults and not really the friendly kind, either. You can
see it frustrates the crap out of Chris,” I said. “And when we were
back in the silo, do you remember how she looked at him?”

Caeco’s eyes unfocused a bit as she sat back
and thought about my words. Then she nodded. “Yeah, I agree. I
never analyzed it from that direction, but now that you mention it,
all the signs were there. I wasn’t as attuned to social cues as I’m
becoming now.”

“Wow, a super love triangle. That’s really
hot,” Jetta said. She was practically shaking with excitement as
she thought about it. Girls.

“Okay, you’re off the hook, O’Carroll. But
let’s think about weapons. You said there’s electricity?” Caeco
asked.

“Not much. Just one wire at the entrance. I’m
wondering about static, though, because the building is unheated
and cold.”

“Good thought. Wait, you never said if your
circle stopped bullets?” Caeco asked.

“It did. Froze them right in the air over our
heads. Then Stacia stood up and Arkady shot her again. Stopped them
all.”

“How about your shields? Do they stop
bullets?” Caeco asked.

“We didn’t test them yet, thank God,” I
replied.