Sterling (17 page)

“Strong indeed,” he whispered.

Confused, I stepped back, breaking our contact and looked at Justus in panic.

“That is enough, Novis,” Hannah said. He took his position beside Sasha, mouth slightly open and looking at me quizzically before he gave a short nod.

“What did you find?”

“She is strong. As she is yet undeveloped I’m not able to fully measure. There is a shadow I cannot get around that is blocking her light.” He paused turning towards Hannah with slanted brows. “There is something I am not able to reach. But even with that said she is potential.”

Good to know that I
was
potential, not that I had it. Suddenly I was not a person who had abilities, I was now the ability itself.

“Very well,” Hannah said with a bored aristocratic tone. “Justus, you will need to teach her to level down, can’t even control a surge of power from measuring. We require an evaluation six months from now. I advise you to begin tonight, as she will be useless for days if you do not help her to release.” They turned and disappeared into the woods, but not before I caught Merc arguing with one of them.

I dropped to my knees. Ripples of lightning shot through my skin and it was beginning to hurt. A metallic taste on my tongue, and a sense of panic raced through me.

“Why did he do that, why can’t I make it stop?” I was out of breath, struggling to control the monster living within me.

“Learner, look at me.” Justus knelt down on one knee. “Give me your hands. Our power can be pulled, or pushed, or exchanged. But when it is not level within you—like when Novis pulled your strongest energy to the surface—you must learn to push it back down or it will consume you. Since you do not retain this skill you must release the overflow.”

“But what was he measuring?”

“Novis was pulling your power out so he could taste it; it’s a method we use to determine how strong a Mage is. Anytime that your power is increased it becomes a danger to you if you do not control it. It is the most basic thing we learn as a Mage.”

Leaning on my knees, I fell against Justus and he held me upright pulling my hands to his chest. In his eyes were small flashes of light, like fireflies. I stared at his thighs and up to his neck trying to find a focal point.

“Release.”

I scrambled backwards. “What if I don’t?” I argued. I couldn’t help but think of that look he had at the hotel after I did just that.

“Then you will sleep for a long while and be weakened. I will not raise a Learner to be a weakling.”

“What if I just release it into the ground?” I planted my hands on the dirt and he gripped them hard.

“Learner! Do not wield your power as a child. A Mage should never put himself in a situation where they are weak, let alone unconscious.”

His large hands clasped mine firmly and I let the wave take over and gave it free reign. It pulsed like light through my skin and shot out through my hands into Justus, who fell slightly back this time.

I got up and ran back to the car. Hell yeah, he scared me. When I put my energy into him, I didn’t know exactly what he was feeling. I thought about juicers, and how addictive the energy was. Whenever I saw that look on his face, I knew it to be true.

A few minutes later, he returned to the car and settled in the seat. I was shivering relentlessly. Releasing excess power stole the heat from my blood, but I felt better, like I had purged something out of me.

“Let’s get something straight, I’m here to help you. Continue to challenge me and you are only a detriment to yourself. There’s a world out there you don’t understand, one you’re going to soon find out about. Your biggest concern as a human might have been what flavor or coffee to buy, but in the world of Breed it is a completely different dynamic. There are first generation enemies from eons ago; it can be a dangerous world if you are not prepared for it.”

Justus looked tired, and not just from the drive. He rubbed an eye with his fist and yawned. “Look, I’m tired and I don’t feel like talking for the rest of the drive. It won’t be much longer, take a nap or something.”

If Justus had a formula, it would be 1% sensitivity and 99% jackass.

But I wasn’t going to pick that battle to fight, I was exhausted. There was too much I didn’t know. I knew about vampires, wizards, trolls, fairies and all other sorts of fantasy creatures, but no one ever mentioned a group of people who could harness and manipulate pure energy. Then again, he said human definitions were wrong.

Chapter 15

I awoke in a cloud of creamy white sheets in an oversized bed
. There was a sense of relief when I turned over and saw that I was alone; at least I knew it wasn’t that kind of night. The first thing that caught my attention was a candle flickering against a stone wall. Candles were mounted all around, but no lamps.

My toes lifted when they touched the cold floor, and I shuffled over to the wooden door. It was like something out of a medieval castle, with a long handle that clicked open revealing a dimly lit hallway. A gust of air cooled my legs as I peered around the corner.
Who the hell is this guy, Bella Lugosi
?

I tiptoed down the windowless hallway past three closed doors. At the end was a giant archway that opened up to an enormous room with high ceilings and an impressive stone fireplace. No windows in here either, which made me think we were underground. While everything looked medieval, the furniture was comprised of modern black leather and oversized chairs. The same stone flooring and walls as the bedroom ran throughout, and the ambiance of the room was warm and rich with a soft amber glow illuminating the walls from a row of hurricane lamps. A soft brown misshapen rug lay before the fireplace whose hearth glowed with fading embers.

A steady bright light caught my eye coming from a stairwell on my left that spiraled out of view. Next to the stairs was a heavy iron door like I had never seen before. I drifted down the steps and when I reached the bottom I raised an eyebrow or two.

The floor was a high polished marble in uneven shades of grey and beige that stretched across a large open room. The walls were light tan and anchored across the ceiling were several long light panels. One side of the room sported all your basic workout paraphernalia such as punching bags, weights and knives.

Knives? My eyes wandered over the vast collection of various weapons mounted on the wall. As I ran my finger along a sharp blade, I jumped.

“This is where you will train six hours every morning. In here I’ll teach you the basics of channeling, but it’s clearly your physical training that needs the most attention.”

I spun around and put my hands on my hips. A fifteen-minute walk home from the train was one thing, but six hours of Justus as my personal trainer? “So this is your torture chamber, is it?”

Ignoring my comment he continued, “You’ll be strength building and working on flexibility, but you will learn to defend yourself. That is the rule.”

“Defend myself, or fight?”

He lifted his upper lip clearly irritated by the notion. “Women do not fight, but I will teach you to defend against your enemies, Learner.”

“Who are my enemies?”

“Everyone. Many other Breeds are highly respectful to women, but a Mage is your own worst enemy.”

“Women don’t fight back in your world, isn’t that a little Middle Ages?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of ‘the best offence is a good defense’?”

“I think you have that the other way around. Was the quarterback ever chased with an axe?” I glared at the pointed blades on the wall. “Why can’t I just zap them with a ball of light?” I wiggled my fingers only because I knew my mockery annoyed him.

Justus moved towards the punching bag and held it with his hand. “You should never put your power into another Mage. All that does is juice him up.” He lightly pushed at the bag. “You’ll be learning to manipulate energy.”

I didn’t even see him move, one minute Justus was by the punching bag and the next he was two inches in front of me. I jumped back and gasped.

“In time you will learn that you can harness it, and move with it. An experienced Mage would be armed. A Learner cannot mortally damage a Mage of a higher rank, but you can slow them down enough to get away if you are clever.” He turned his back to me and walked back over to the punching bag. “You can borrow light.”

“This is a little confusing. I move things? If energy is in everything then why don’t I just smash him with a couple of trees?”

Justus bent over with his hands on his knees laughing in that rich voice. My eyes studied the tattoo wrapped around his arm which was striking in his tight fitted muscle shirt. I could see every angle of it, all the way up to his shoulder.

“No Learner, you cannot move things, you can only borrow from the sun or the light of other living beings. However...”

“Borrow?” I let roll off my tongue.

“Much to learn. First we’ll start with testing your flexibility and stamina.” Justus peeled off his tank top allowing me an admiring view of his frame before he turned away. I briefly wondered what he meant by testing my flexibility as a smile played across my face and I stared at the defined muscles on his back.
Can’t blame a girl for thinking it.

“I’ll shower up while you dress.”

I so did not need that mental image floating in my head.

He strode to the bench against the far wall and I caught a glimpse of another tattoo on his back before he snatched up a small pile of fabric and turned back around. There was a gleam in his eye and a one-sided smile rose up his cheek. “This will be your training attire.”

I unfolded the bundle as he made his way up the stairs. “I’ll be back in fifteen. Be ready.”

In my hand was a pair of what looked like lycra bicycle shorts, only they covered even less than my underwear. The top was sleeveless and tight enough to accentuate every curve of my chest, which was a little curvier than it used to be.

“Hey wait a minute!” I yelled in protest up at the stairs.

My blood boiled as I heard a chuckle coming from topside.

Three hours later.

I learned a new word: pain. Justus had a tedious routine that involved sit-ups, pull-ups, and weight resistance. Basically, my muscles turned to putty as I staggered across the room falling on the mat; my thighs were screaming.

Justus hovered, ordering me to do more, more, more. I mentally ordered him to
die, die, die
.

The skimpy clothing did allow me to move more freely—but I still wasn’t nimble. My Ghuardian assured that would come in time, yet why he got to wear sweats and a tank top simply irked me. That hardly seemed fair, although I hated to admit that it
was
motivational for a short while to have him as my focal point—Justus was built like a shithouse. Visually his physique was stupendous to look at, but the minute he opened his mouth the thrill was gone.

Finally, I reached my limit as my muscles were trembling and I could no longer continue.

“I’m done, I can’t do anymore,” I panted on the mat.

My cheeks burned, my legs throbbed and my hair was nothing but a sweaty mop halfway attached to my face.

“Are you telling me, Learner, that you have no more energy?” he asked, rubbing the bristles of hair across his scalp.
Justus was a man in love with a razor
.

Beads of sweat rolled down my temple into my hair. I glared.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. In fact I’m not leaving this mat for the rest of the day, I’m going to live here and build a little castle,” I groaned as I covered my face, “so you can just go about your business and leave me alone.”

“Learner, this is your first lesson.”

“What, that you can make my ass cry out in pain? Bravo. Anyone ever tell you that you’d make an excellent drill instructor? The army is always hiring you know.”

He bent over, hands on his knees with a straight back.

“Lesson number 1: there
is
no such thing as tired. What you will learn is that while your body may ache from your residual human limitations, the body of a Mage can replenish. You are a conduit, you channel energy, you can will it in, push it out, and manipulate it. There are limitations, however.”

He stood up, and I winced as a shooting pain ran up my thigh. “When it comes to healing and restoring energy, you can only take that light from a Mage, or sunlight. While you can take light from a human, it might require too much and could hurt or even kill them. And
never
take from another Breed.”

“How do you take it from a Mage?”

“They have to lend it, or be incapacitated enough that you can steal it. The latter isn’t likely, as a strong Mage would have their shields up.”

“So, what happens if you don’t take anything? Wouldn’t you die if you had a stab wound or something?”

“Presuming you are nowhere near sunlight, your body would just heal slowly. Each Mage has a core light; you won’t die from wounds inflicted, but you would suffer immensely. Should your head come away from your shoulders, then that is another matter.”