M&L03 - SS (9 page)

“I’ve wondered that myself,
but then, I still don’t see why we’re letting any of those filthy bloodsuckers
come here.”

We all had reasons to hate
Travali’s vampires but perhaps Katerina had more than most.

“Katerina, Danarius is not
Travali and though I still wouldn’t trust him to guard my back, I do think he
sincerely wants peace between our people.”

“If it was only Danarius,
that would be one thing, but nothing says the vampires under his control want
peace. They followed Travali for centuries and many of the ones who attacked
our homelands are still alive and kicking, living it up in New Orleans as we
speak.”

I shrugged. “That’s true, but
consider this: Travali never had any control over us, not even the unfortunate
souls he sired himself, because somehow our beasts always protected our minds
even in their sleep. None of the vampires in New Orleans were that lucky, not
even Danarius. He was Travali’s unwilling puppet for centuries. He could have
broken Travali’s psychic leash if he’d been willing to forgo fresh blood, but
he chose not to sell his soul. Honestly, I can’t blame him for that, but I’m
not sure I would have lasted as long as he did under Travali’s control.

Now think about all the other
vampires in New Orleans and compare their psychic strength to that of Danarius.
Most, if not all of them, have gone without fresh blood at one time or another,
yet none of them can even compete with Danarius psychically. What if they were
also unwilling participants in Travali’s plans?”

“Do you really believe none
of them wanted to follow Travali?”

“No. I believe that’s true
for some, but not all of them. That may be exactly why Danarius wants to bring
his people to this tournament. When he’d finally had enough of Travali, he
found a way to lead us right to his back door, which of course allowed Dragon
to finish the bastard off once and for all. I’m sure some of Travali’s faithful
servants would like to see Danarius pay for turning on their Master. Maybe he
thinks we’ll take out some of those vampires before they can pose a real threat
to his new position as Master of the New Orleans vampires. And who knows, maybe
the sorcerer falls into that category as well.

I could be way off of course,
but it seems like an easy way for Danarius to get rid of his enemies without
getting his hands dirty. After all, there’s always a death or two at these
tournaments, and that’s when we only invite our allies. Imagine what could
happen this year with Danarius and his vampires in the mix.”

“How can you be so rational
and even tempered about all this?” Katerina asked clenching her fists at her
sides. She wouldn’t normally let her emotions show like that, but we were alone
and she knew she could trust me not to see it as a loss of control or a
weakness. “Just the thought of Travali, or anyone associated with him makes me
see red. I can handle Danarius because he wasn’t alive during The Great War and
he helped us get to Travali, but I can barely think straight when it comes to
the rest of them. Yet here you sit, logically breaking down their behavior and
possible motives.”

“My father taught me well.” I
smiled sadly remembering the man who meant the world to me. “He always said I
should get to know my enemies, then prepare for the worst and hope for the
best. To do that, he taught me to be patient, to watch and listen and to
suppress the urge to lash out when I’m angry.

He often told me that he
loved shapeshifters, my mother and me in particular, but he believed that too
many of them rushed into battle unprepared, driven by their emotions. He’d
already lost my older brother Ezekiel to what he called senseless violence, so
when I came along he packed up his family and moved far away from the clans and
any other shapeshifters.

If it hadn’t been for The
Great War, we never would have returned to the clans. My mother missed her
people, the foxes have always been a tight knit group, but she understood why
my father wanted to raise me away from the violence. Yet even he couldn’t deny
the call for aid when it came. He told me once that he had no regrets, not even
after we lost my mother in battle. That was why he stayed with the clans after
the war and helped them rebuild while he taught me everything he knew about
magic.”

“Sometimes I still miss your
father even after all these years.” Katerina sighed wistfully, the tension and
anger starting to drain out of her. “It’s a shame he wouldn’t let you sire him
before he died.”

“At that time, most of us
still thought all vampires were evil.” I shrugged, going for a nonchalance I
didn’t really feel. “There wasn’t any gray area like there is now. Besides, he
passed fifty years after he lost my mother and he was looking forward to seeing
her in the afterlife.”

“I don’t remember a lot about
the war, I was simply too young, but I’ve been told your father refused to let
you get anywhere near Sergio. Why was that; did he think you wouldn’t be able
to defeat him?”

“He always gave me vague
explanations when I asked why he wanted me to stay away from Sergio,” I replied
drumming my fingers on the arms of the chair, old frustrations rising to the
surface. “Then right before he died he finally confided in me, and he told me
that Sergio was his apprentice a few decades before I was born.”

Katerina gasped, “No... That
can’t be.”

I nodded. “That was my
initial reaction as well, but it’s true. I think my father would’ve taken his
secret to the grave but he didn’t want me to be caught unawares. The magic we
practice is very rare, so I wouldn’t usually be prepared to defend against it.
If I had faced Sergio without knowing my father trained him, it could have been
disastrous. As it is, knowing the basis of my magic would give him an advantage
against me that none of the other sorcerers would have.”

She sat forward obviously
considering the implications of this information. “Would you be worried if you
had to face him in magical combat?”

“Not worried per se, but
cautious. Was he one of the sorcerers who tried to reopen the portal last
night?”

Her lip curled with disgust.
“No, he hasn’t arrived yet.”

Nodding, I said, “That’s what
I thought. I’d be willing to bet if he couldn’t break the lock I had on the
portal he would have at least known where to start unlike the other sorcerers.”

“He’s that good?”

“It’s not a matter of being
good; it’s a matter of knowledge. The spell I used was a modified version of a
spell my father taught me. Since my father trained Sergio, he would have
recognized the basis for the spell. Could he have figured out what I added to
the spell? That’s anyone’s guess. The other sorcerers simply had no clue where
to start, so they had no hope of undoing what I’d done. Because of the years he
spent training with my father, I would have to be very creative to best Sergio
in magical combat.”

Katerina chuckled. “Well it’s
never been said that you’re not creative. As a matter of fact, I could name
quite a few women who would probably say you’re the most creative man they’ve
ever met.”

Smiling, I said, “I’m sure
you could, but all that’s over for me now. Renee is the only woman in my life.”

“She always has been
Solomon,” Katerina told me seriously. “You may have shared your body with
hundreds of women, but even they knew there was only one woman who has ever
touched your heart.”

I sat up, pressing the
footrest back into the front of the chair and turned to face Katerina with my
forearms resting on my thighs. “If you could see that, and they could see that,
then why couldn’t Renee see that?”

“Despite her feisty
personality, deep down she’s very insecure - at least when it comes to men.
When she looks at herself in a mirror, she sees a short, thin girl with small
breasts and narrow hips. I know she was twenty-three when you changed her over,
but her appearance is that of a sixteen-year-old girl. She can’t believe that
grown men would be interested in her, especially in our world where the
majority of women have long legs and more than ample curves.”

“But she’s beautiful,” I said
running my hands through my hair with frustration. “I’ve told her that at least
a hundred thousand times. Why can’t she believe it?”

“Maybe because you haven’t
shown her that she’s beautiful. You can’t tell a woman she’s beautiful and then
aggressively pursue every woman you meet except for her and expect her to
believe you.”

“That was just sex; it didn’t
mean anything beyond a few moments of pleasure. The relationship I have with
her means so much more to me, and I thought she would see the difference.”

Katerina smiled a little
sadly. “It’s the human in her Solomon. We see what she means to you because we
try to keep emotion out of sex. To us, it was obvious why you never pushed her
very hard for a physical relationship, but she’s still human deep down and to
many of them, sex has meaning beyond the pleasure. By giving your body to so
many women without really going after her, you negated every word you ever said
to her about beauty or romantic feelings.”

I sighed knowing she was
right. Why hadn’t I ever looked at our relationship from Renee’s point of view?
“This would be so much easier to fix if that damn spell wasn’t interfering with
the bond. If she could just feel what she means to me she’d understand that
she’s always been the only woman for me.”

Katerina raised an eyebrow.
“Wouldn’t that be too easy? Maybe this is karma coming back to haunt you for
being so oblivious to her feelings. Now you’ll have to make amends and in the
process hopefully show her how beautiful she is inside and out.”

Grinning I said, “Now who’s
being rational and even tempered?”

“I have my moments,” Katerina
replied, smiling brightly.

A few moments later Grayson
arrived and I was surprised because at six-four with darkly tanned skin and
long black hair he had to be a time demon. I’d never heard of a time demon with
magical abilities, but then, anything was possible. Once the introductions were
out of the way, Katerina left us to get better acquainted. We sat down in the
recliners and I asked him to tell me a little about himself. I wanted to get a
feel for what kind of man he was before I offered to teach him anything about
magic.

Grayson told me that his
family moved around a lot but for the most part, they lived in rural towns and
avoided other supernaturals. He was only about a hundred years old, making him
barely an adult by supernatural standards. His mother was a sorceress but a
group of vampires in Eastern Europe killed her several decades ago. After her
death, he traveled with his father, a time demon, until his death a few years
ago. His father was an unfortunate victim of the corrupt time demon Elders that
Rook recently removed from office. He went on to tell me a little about his
magical training and what he’d been doing since his father’s death.

Grayson’s story turned out to
be so much like my own, that by the time he was finished telling it I offered
to take him on as my apprentice. I’d never had an apprentice before, but I knew
what he was going through having lost my parents around the same age as him.
Unlike him though, I’d had the clans to take me in. He’d had no one since time
demons for the most part avoided other time demons. Their powers had a tendency
to compete with those of other time demons whenever they were nearby. His mother’s
people were human and died out centuries ago just like my father’s. He’d been
dodging some of the more predatory supernatural groups for a few years and
viewed the sanctuary Supernova provided as his last hope for a peaceful
existence.

“How can you offer to take me
on as your apprentice after one short conversation? Aren’t you afraid I might
take what I learn from you and use it for evil?” Grayson asked, his brows drawn
together.

“Will you?” I asked him
seriously.

“No, never,” was his instant
reply.

I nodded. “My instincts tell
me to trust you, but I can’t rely on them alone. You’ll have to swear a blood
oath if you choose to be my apprentice. You won’t be able to share anything I
teach you without suffering dire consequences.”

“What if I have children someday
and want to pass on my knowledge?”

“I can’t make any promises,
but if you prove yourself and your loyalty, perhaps one day I’ll release you
from your oaths. Until then, magic is simply too dangerous for me to take any
chances.”

“I understand, and I would be
honored to be your apprentice. My mother spoke very highly of your father and
often said he’d be proud of the man you’ve become.”

“How did your mother know my
father?” I asked, surprised to hear his mother had known my father.

Grayson shrugged. “She said
they grew up in the same village, but she hadn’t seen him since they were both
very young.”

I stood up and fished my ring
of runic stones out of my pocket. After carefully removing the correct stone, I
held out my hand. I had to confirm my suspicions before I let myself get too
excited. “Take this and hold it in your hand.”

He hesitated for a moment
then stood and stretched his arm out towards me. I dropped the runic stone in
his open palm and asked him to repeat a spell. He did as I asked and we were
immediately transported to an ancient altar.