Jar of Souls (3 page)

I tried to stand up, and I was pushed back against the wall. Pain again lanced through my back. Calling on my magic, I worked to heal the damage to my back. Once that was done, I turned my will toward trying to free myself. It took me awhile to find where the spell he had cast was anchored. When I finally did, the spell was easy enough to break. Being able to move again took away some of the crippling fear that had washed over me in Gaston’s presence. There was work to be done before I could head back inside. I needed to get rid of these corpses before anyone else saw them.

I took a moment to ignite the bodies in front of me before walking around the yard to get the rest of the bodies Gaston had left in his wake. People could never know what happened to these men. The only thing the count would know was that they were no longer here, and his lawn had suffered some scorches. Now it was time to see just how bad the damage inside was. I could only hope that no one else had been killed, and better yet, that the count and his court didn’t see any of the dead men walking around.

Looking around inside, I didn’t see anything amiss. I let out a sigh of relief. I would have a lot of explaining to do, but it hadn’t been a total catastrophe. I thought of changing and returning for that second dance, but I was utterly exhausted. Maybe it was better this way, anyway. I was going to need to get as much rest as possible before I had to explain this to the team showing up in the morning, and worse yet, to Adam upon my return.

Opening the door to my suite of rooms, I paused for just a second. I used my magic to expand my senses. Someone was waiting inside. I shielded myself and kept my gift at the ready as I walked into the room. When I saw who was waiting inside, I dropped my shield, and for the second time that night, a genuine smile crossed my face.

“I hope you don’t find my waiting here too presumptuous, my lord.”

“Marie, I can honestly say that seeing you here has been the best part of my night.”

“Come and join me. The bed is warm.”

I stripped off the tatters that were left of my clothes and made my way to the bed. Marie pulled back the covers, and I took in her full glory via the candle on the bedside table. I couldn’t wait to explore more of what I saw there. “Definitely the best part of my night.” She giggled as I climbed on top of her. She wriggled against me, and the simple pleasures of having a woman in my bed helped to erase the horrid memories of the night.

T
he fire washed
over my personal shield, obstructing the view in front of me. A small amount of extra power made the heat of it sweep over me like a cool breeze. I pulled my swords free from the scabbards over my shoulders and started to charge. The flames stopped, and I found myself facing my fiercest foe yet. She stood just over five feet tall and held two swords of her own. She wore a look of determination that let me know I was going to be in for a hell of a fight.

Rain started to fall around us as she rushed forward to meet my charge. I ducked under one strike and blocked another as we spun past each other. We started to warily circle each other, looking for any opening. If anything, my training had taught me to focus on her shoulders—any true swing of her blade would start there. My eyes stayed trained on those slim shoulders, waiting for any hint of movement. She twirled the sword in her right hand and then launched an attack with her left. My blade rose of its own volition to block the strike. Hundreds of hours of training made my defense just a gut reaction. Somehow I was able to parry the next four blows as they came in rapid succession.

I called on my gift to send a gust of air toward her. She blocked it easily, and when I attacked, she was ready for it. When my trick with the air hadn’t worked, I came in off balance, and she made me pay for it. The mud from the rain tasted about how you would expect it to, like failure with just a hint of embarrassment. The sting on my back reminded me that if we had been using real swords, I would probably be dead. When I rolled over, I had just enough time to block a strike aimed at my head.

The blow glanced off of my shoulder. The blade in that hand fell into the mud as my arm went numb. Rolling to the right, I threw up a wall of sand to buy me the seconds I so desperately needed to recover. I turned the sand into a whirlwind, forcing it at my opponent, and dove toward my other blade. Rolling to my feet, I dropped the magic and attacked with both blades coming from different directions. She easily blocked both strikes but failed to block the ball of frozen water I had hurled at her from behind.

This time she did lose a step as the water hit her in the back, and with her footwork out of place, it gave me the advantage I so desperately needed. My sword came at her in a tight quick thrust, driving into her unprotected stomach. The air expelled from her lungs in a scream of rage. I hadn’t followed up with a second strike, still surprised that my first had found its mark, and she used the moment of respite to center herself before rushing at me again. Her red hair stood out in stark contrast to the grey skies, and matched the fury blazing in her eyes. The strikes came faster than I would have thought possible. I was brought to my knees under the intensity of her assault. She raised her blade for the final strike. Her fury turned to surprise as the shield of ice formed above me in an instant. She tried to change the angle of her strike at the last second, but it was too late for that. Her sword bounced harmlessly away.

I swept her leg out from under her and then brought my ice down upon them to trap her. She tried to conjure a flame to melt the ice, but I batted her magic aside with my own. When she struck out, I had all the leverage, and it was easy for me to deflect her blows and disarm her. I held one blade above her heart and watched the fight fade out of her eyes.

“Shit.” The word came out more in a harsh reprimand to herself rather than anything directed at me.

“Yes, that is exactly how I would describe your performance,” I said jokingly.

“Maybe I should have asked you to eat it instead.” She held out a hand.

My blades found their way back into their scabbards, and I grabbed her extended arm, pulling her to her feet. “You would think that I would be able to bask in my victory, since they come so infrequently, but instead I’m told to go eat shit.”

“Well, losing makes me a little angry, but you’re getting better. It might be one day soon that you can beat me more than one out of ten.” She smiled up at me, batting her eyes in the rain. She slid an arm around my waist and gave it a slight squeeze.

It felt good to have a friend, and one that I could joke around with so easily. “Well, when that day comes, I will relish in your demise, April Carpenter.”

“Up all night reading fantasy books again?”

“Whatever do you mean, my good lady? But seriously, you can tell?”

“I can tell when you say things like ‘I shall relish in your demise.’”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, you’re going to have to watch that, or it might dampen your cool factor. You know, bad ass hot dude who uses magic and all that.”

“I prefer to think of it as an added bonus. If anything, it raises my awesome factor by ten.”

“That’s because you’re not the one who has to listen to it.”

I started to laugh and pulled her into a quick hug. “Well, at least with this extra training, I might stand a chance in a real fight.”

“Just remember, if this was a real fight, you died in the first thirty seconds.”

“That’s something to consider, and yet I prefer to remember the part where I won.”

April hit me in the shoulder, sending a wave of pain lancing down my arm. “I’ll remember that for tomorrow.”

“Maybe you could focus on something else, something that might not motivate you as much.”

We walked out of the arena together; the rain was still coming down in sheets. Finally we made it back into one of the tunnels leading off of the arena floor. Our rooms were on opposite sides of the arena, so we started to split up. Before she turned the corner, I shouted, “You still coming to dinner?”

Her momentum carried her around the corner. I saw a tangle of red hair pop back around it before she said, “You know it.”

“See you then.”

* * *

I
t felt
good to get in a shower after being beaten black and blue in the pouring rain. The hot water eased the pain in my muscles somewhat, and the shower had always been a place for me to escape from the world. Getting the muddy sand out of my hair was another story altogether; it was almost as if it was fighting against me to stay there. After my third round of shampoo, I started to feel like maybe I had finally gotten most of it. The rest would have to wait for another day.

Maybe next week I could talk to April about training in our indoor facilities. I knew what she would say, though. “Training in the sand will make it that much easier for you when you have to fight on a flat surface.” I knew what she said was true, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. After spending months training on the arena floor with her, when we had class in the gym, it felt as if I was moving twice as fast. Was the tradeoff worth it? I guess I would find out when we were finally deployed in the field. One more month of solid training and the word was we would get to shadow members of the Ascendancy as they dealt with the Pretenders.

The thought of being out there simultaneously filled me with terror and wonder. I was anxious to see how they worked in the field. It couldn’t really all be slaying monsters, could it? Some of the older members talked about diplomacy when solving problems, but the younger members seemed to only brag about how many of the Pretenders they had slain. It was a wonder that all of the supernatural didn’t band together and hunt us into oblivion, but then, they all had their own problems to deal with.

I talked myself into one more round of shampoo even though I knew it was a losing fight. I could still feel a few pieces of sand in there, but I didn’t have time to wash my hair another four times. I kept telling myself it was ok. I mean, if a little sand fell out of my hair during dinner, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, right? People would just have to learn to deal with it. So what if I had things falling out of my hair? It was exciting to have my friends over for dinner. Shit, I was excited just to have friends again. Life hadn’t been easy for me when my gift was manifesting. I had started to see things, and when it kept getting worse, I pushed everyone I cared about away to keep them safe. Everyone except Alby.

Alby had stayed with me through thick and thin. She had weathered the looks people gave her for hanging out with such a loser, and had even helped to get me a summer job to pay for college. Unfortunately for me, that job was when I noticed that she was different, and when I told her what I saw, I lost her forever. One night we were the best of friends, and the next night I was the bogeyman from her nightmares. I still missed her, but unless something changed drastically, we would never be friends again.

So tonight was special, dinner with my two best friends and the girl I had just fallen head over heels for. Not to mention it was my birthday. I hadn’t told anyone, so I doubt they knew. Just having them over was the best gift I could ask for. Marcus had worked his magic with the kitchen staff yet again, and secured us pretty fancy room service. I still wasn’t sure how he did it, but once a month like clockwork he came through, and we all reaped the benefits.

I grabbed a towel and peeked out into my quarters. Marcus was already there getting things set up. He gave me a quick wave and went back to what he was doing. I went to the closet and grabbed my favorite white T-shirt and a pair of jeans that were well beyond broken in. The last thing I had to think about was shoes. Should I even bother? I decided to go a little bohemian and rock the barefoot look. I ran a quick brush through my hair, tucked my dad’s necklace under my shirt, and headed out to see if Marcus needed any help.

“Damn, bro, the place looks great. Anything I can do to help?”

“Yeah, you can sit down and stay out of the way.”

Apparently my reputation for being a horrible decorator, and even worse in the kitchen, preceded me. “Sitting down is something I can handle, especially after April kicked the crap out of me again.”

“One of these days you might be able to beat her, if you learn to use your magic the right way. Did you even work on using your magic in conjunction with your swords like we talked about?”

“I did.”

“And?”

“And I’m still getting the hang of it,” I said, slightly embarrassed that I hadn’t worked as hard at using both disciplines together as I should have.

“Well, guess what we will be doing during our next training session?”

“You are going to swing that big ass sword of yours at me while you tell me what spells to cast on the fly.”

“Exactly.”

“I hate it when we do that. Can’t we work on something new?”

“Not until you can cast everything I call out without hesitation. Thinking about it is what slows you down. You need to react and let the magic do the work.”

Stupid freaking magic. Nothing put me in my place faster than talking magic with Marcus or swords with April. Marcus may as well have said,
it’s going to take you forever cause you think too much and don’t work hard enough
. Thankfully someone knocked on the door, and I was saved from voicing just how much I hated that plan, even if it would save my life someday. I already had a training class where I was drowning in new information, and then I got to enjoy getting my ass kicked four times a week by my best friends. Damned if it wasn’t worth it, but sometimes it just felt like I was struggling to stay afloat. Not to mention that it cut into the time I wanted to spend with Britta.

Opening the door revealed my favorite person in the world. She launched herself into my arms and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. Yep, that was my Britta, five foot five with black hair that made midnight jealous. From the exuberance of her entrance, she could have also been confused for a bouncing ball of energy. Her enthusiasm for everything always made me feel better. She was one of a kind, and unless I screwed it up, she was mine. She walked past me and gave Marcus a hug, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her body spoke to me; in fact, it did more than that—it called to me. Damn, and I had to wait through an entire dinner to get her alone.

“The place looks awesome,” Britta said.

“Thanks,” Marcus and I said together.

Britta gave a little frown, and then it turned into a smile. “Let me guess, Marcus did all of it, right?”

Marcus gave me the eye from across the room. “Ok, so Marcus did do all of it,” I said. “But he refused to let me help.”

“That’s because the last time you helped, when the lights turned on, it almost burned down your place,” he said with a wink.

“Let’s not exaggerate. My place is carved out of solid rock. It wouldn’t have burned down.”

“No, but all of the people and things inside of it would have.”

“Touché.”

“Well, it looks amazing. Is April still coming?” Britta asked.

“She sure is. If she had the same problems that I did washing sand out of my hair, then she might be a little late.”

“You guys sparred outside. In this weather?”

“Yeah, you know April. It was a golden opportunity to learn.”

“Or to get struck by lightning.” Britta laughed.

I wanted to reply with something witty, but her laugh seemed to have robbed me of all my senses. She bounced over to the couch and took a seat. Finally, I tore my eyes away to see Marcus laughing at me and shaking his head in disbelief. Well, at least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know how I ended up with the girl. When the knock at the door came, it was the perfect opportunity to stop myself from being able to make any further recriminations about my character. I shook the thoughts of Britta’s beautiful body from my head and headed to the door.