Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (12 page)

A cold front had moved in overnight, bringing
with it
clear blue skies but biting cold. If it wasn’t below freezing
out here
, Leesa thought, it was close. As the cold air stung her ears and cheeks, she reached instinctively for the dark blue knit ski cap in her parka pocket. She
caught herself and
le
ft the hat where it was,
because she had a much better way to stay warm.

Rave,
Dral
and Bain were
waiting for her
, sitting
on the edge of a circular
stone
fountain
in the plaza in front of the building.
Behind them, a plume of water shot up about five feet into the air. The liquid droplets reflected the midday sunlight like someone was tossing handfuls of diamonds into the air. The sound of the water splashing back down into the shallow pool was peaceful and relaxing.

Off to the side, maybe twenty feet away, a cluster of girls pretended to be interested in what each other had to say, but Leesa could see their attention was really focused on the handsome volkaanes. When Rave and his companions stood up and crossed toward her,
the girls’ eyes followed them hungrily.  Feeling just a bit possessive, Leesa wrapped her arms around Rave and snuggled her face against his chest.
She warmed up immediately, and w
ith her head turned toward the girls, she could see the looks of
jealousy and
disappointment that crossed their faces. She smiled
at them
.

“It’s nice to see you, too,”
Rave said, returning her embrace.

Leesa stepped back, but kept
hold of Rave’s hands. She felt a little bit foolish.

“I did miss you,” she said. “But the big hug was more for those girls. I didn’t like the way they were looking at you three.”

Rave smiled. “Were they looking at us?
Why, d
o we look funny?
”

Leesa shook her head and sighed. “You’re so used to it, you don’t even notice, do you?”

Rave looked at
Dral
and Bain, who both shrugged as if they hadn’t noticed either.

“Let me see if I can put it in terms you’ll understand,” Leesa said. “They were looking at you guys the way a vampire probably looks at an unprotected neck.”

Rave laughed.
“Uh, oh.
That bad, huh?
Should we be worried?”

Leesa grinned.
“Only if I ever catch you looking back.
Then you’d better be real worried.”

Rave pulled Leesa closer.
“Why would I look back when I’ve got you to look at?”
he
asked, gazing directly into her eyes.

Leesa felt her heartbeat quicken and her face grow warm, almost as if Rave had kissed her. She still wasn’t sure how she had ever gotten so lucky, but she certainly wasn’t going to question it.

She sighed. “You’
re
sweet. Thank you.
”

She
resisted the urge to take one more look at the group of girls.

“I’m done with classes for the day,” she said
instead
. “Let’s head home. I need some lunch, and then I should do a little
homework before I practice my
magic.”

“As you wish,” Rave said, smiling.

They walked back toward the dorm hand in hand, with
Dral
and Bain following
close behind
. When they turned the corner onto Leesa’s street, she took three steps and then stopped abruptly.
If
Dral
and Bain had been human, they probably would have crashed into Leesa and Rave, so suddenly had she stopped.
But they were volkaanes,
and human walking speed was little more than
slow motion to them.
They split to either side like water flowing around a rock and stopped beside their companions.

Half
way up the block, right where the wrecked Blazer had been parked, three men were gathered into a cluster.
Leesa
couldn’t see their faces, but their presence gave her a bad feeling.
The men
were dressed normally, wearing
casual pants and dark jackets. They
c
ould have been from
an insurance company
or from the city
,
checking out the scene of a recent accident,
but she didn’t think so. Instinctively, she turned her face away.

“What is it?”
Rav
e asked
.

“We need to cross the street,” Leesa said, pulling on Rave’s hand
.
“Right now.
But don’t hurry
. Walk normal
.”

Leesa led them across the street,
forcing herself to walk
at an unhurried
pace. She continued
far enough down the sidewalk so they were no longer visible from the front of her dorm before stopping.

“Did any of you sense anything?”
she asked when she finally stopped.

The three volkaanes looked at each other. They shook their heads.

“Nothing,” Rave said. He pictured the scene
on the street they had just left
. “Was it the three guys standing by
the
curb
in front of your dorm
?”

Leesa nodded.
“Yeah.
I
know they looked normal, but I
think they might be the black waziri.”

Rave’s features tightened. Ref
lexively, he looked behind them
to make sure they were in no danger.

“
If they are black wizards, we didn’t get
cl
ose enough to sense their magic.
”

Leesa
wasn’t sure what to do. Dominic had said the black waziri would look as ordinary as he did. She wished she had gotten a glimpse of their faces, to see if there was any resemblance to Dominic, but it might be risky to get that close. Was there some other way?

She
remembered how keen volkaane hearing was. “How close wo
uld you need to get
to
be able to
hear them?” she asked.
“Could one of you walk b
y and listen without being near
enough for them to sense you?”

All the time Rave had spent with Dominic while the wizard and Leesa were practicing made
it easy for him to answer Leesa’s questions
.

“Yes.
Easily.
We could hear them from
all the way
across the street
. We’d have to be closer for them to sense us, or we them.”

Leesa thought for a moment. She knew it
still
might be slightly risky, but she had to know if the black waziri were here.

“Will one
of you walk by and listen to them, please
?” she asked.

“I’ll do it,” Rave said.

Dral
put his hand on Rave’s forearm. “I’ll go, Rave. You stay with Leesa.”

“
D
on’t take any chances,” Leesa said. “Don’t stop to listen, or even look at them. Just see
if you can hear anything that’
ll tell us who they are.
Walk around the block and meet us back here.”

Dral
nodded. “I understand.” He turned to leave, but Leesa stopped him.

“Wait,” she said. She pulle
d her knit ski cap f
rom her pocket
. “Put this on. It’ll hide your hair and part of your face. I don’t know how familiar the waziri are with volkaanes, but the less they see of your coloring, the better.”

Dral
pulled the cap down over his ears
and tucked his long dark copper hair up under it.

“That’s better,” Leesa said. “
Now b
e careful.”

Dral
nodded and left. Leesa watch
ed
him
until he rounded the corner
.
With the cap and walking slowly, he looked like any other student on campus.

When
Dral
was out of sight
, Leesa led Rave and Bain farther down the block, putting more distance between them and the black waziri. It would also
bring them back together with
Dral
sooner, when he completed his walk around the block.

The
minutes seemed to drag by for
Leesa
while they
waited. She hoped
Dral
would come back and say the men were talking about collision deductibles or car repairs or something, but she
highly doubted she would be so lucky
.

Dral
appeared a moment later. As he drew nearer, he pulled the ski cap off his head and held it out to Leesa. His expression was grim.

“They are black wizards,” he said. “I heard them mention Dominic and magic.”

Leesa drew a deep breat
h. It was what she had expected, but e
ven so, she felt a chill pass through her body, despite Rave’s warmth.

“Did you hear
anything specific?
Something that might give us an ide
a what they’
re up to?”

Dral
shook his head. “Not too much. I didn’t want to risk drawing any attention. I heard them say something about ‘not much magic here,’ and ‘the place where Dominic killed Josef.’”

Leesa nodded. The black waziri would know Dominic had not defeated Josef in front of the dorm. She guessed they were talking about going to
that site next. What they would
do after that, she wished she knew.