The Seven (Fist of Light Series) (34 page)

My katana arced through the air, lightning playing off its blade, charged with the energy I provided it. On base instinct, Jas caught the blade by its hilt, holding it out before him as if preparing to have his hand bitten off. I had a hunch that, since our bond had cemented more firmly over the past weeks, Jeeves’ corporeal form would do no harm to him. Admittedly, it was an untested hypothesis, and I was prepared for one of two reactions. Luckily, however, despite the misgivings of the scenario, the sword didn’t blow up in Jas’ hands, and neither did it take a bite out of him. An enormous sigh reached me over the sound of the lightning’s play, and a nasty grin played over my lips.

“Now, I think we should—” I turned to face the direction where I had seen a larger cluster of shadowhounds.

“Oh. Crap,” Jas said, summing up the situation from where he stood in a defensive position with the katana.

Butterflies fluttered around my stomach, and an uncomfortable feeling vaguely recognized as fear dialed my processes up a notch. Before it immobilized me fully, I stuffed the unwanted sensation into the depths of my mind, where it pouted and flooded back reluctantly. A veritable horde had arrived to confront us, attracted or enraged by the presence of lightning. Considering the fact that there weren’t any friendly smiles to go around, I figured it was likely that they weren’t delighted to see me. Darkness seeped around my vision, and a Mexican standoff ensued. No one moved a muscle, except to prepare for the ensuing slaughter.

Tension built upon the air like a hurricane’s waves, moving with the sure steps of the Shadow surrounding us. Noah produced his own rapier from some obscure region on his person and held it at the ready. Sweat trickled down my face and was swiped angrily away. Then, in a concerted effort and with little warning, the entire lot of them charged as one. Greedily, I directed the power at my command, channeling it into me with no regard for my own safety. No one knew better than me that if you weren’t prepared for your adversary, you could do little to stop them. Lightning pulsed and scattered around my body, creating an erratic thunderstorm fashioned from the power being thrown every which way.

Jas slashed with his weapon, taking off the legs of one of the closest hounds. The lightning was obviously not helping with any of the skin diseases that our enemies had procured. Noah was similarly embroiled in his own mêlée, with the exception that the damage he dealt was slightly more involved and less effective. I would have done the same thing for Noah that I had Jas, but there was only the one sword, and it was doubtful that he would be safe from the current running along the blade.

“Little help,” Jas requested, as he brought up the katana to block a vicious swipe at his abdomen.

Concentrating, I tried to come up with an attack that would differentiate between friend and foe. As I studied the gyrating forms of lightning arrayed around my body, a light flickered in my pea brain. I formed spherical wisps out of the lightning, forcing it into the unaccustomed shape with difficulty. It seemed that the force of nature was averse to being told what to do, even by me. Groaning, I forced through the sudden pain expanding in my chest, and relied upon luck. Though often luck hadn’t been sufficient to save me from one plight or another.

This time, it was, but barely. Lightning spread outwards in the dizzying form of balled wisps. The difficulty with the situation I had found myself in was the partitioning of my psyche, to subjectively decide which direction each ball would take. I partially got around that problem by keeping many of the balls in a swirling mass around me. The rest, well, I started shooting them off like a gunslinger in the Old West. My fingers came up in a position that every teenager has used at one point throughout their lifetime. Pistols in the form of fingers directed and propelled the lightning in the chosen direction, which was pretty much anywhere shadowy movement was visible.

I got off shots as fast as I was able to procure the positioning of my enemies. Roars of pain and anger sounded in response. Three of the beings had converged upon Noah, and I took careful aim at the beasts before taking the shots. My breath went from slightly strained to rough and ragged within the space of a few seconds. Stubbornly, I continued my onslaught, taking aim and shooting over and over again. The horde of darkness began to falter, and my second wind came to me. Many of them were maimed with shadow streaming from various wounds across their dark forms. Others were fighting a losing battle and their tenuous hold upon their forms was being relinquished.

Jas was a storm of fury amid the chaos, striking left and right with the sword held lithely in one hand. Shadowhounds fought and fell by his blade, and all the while a fighting grin was affixed firmly on his face. Taking some inspiration from my friend, I continued shaping and firing more of my missiles. When I confronted hounds that got past my blazing guns, the aura of lightning around me provided a shield from the harm that might have been inflicted. Their body parts could not coexist peacefully with the damage imparted by the lightning, and their bodies were torn asunder by my shots. Feeling invincible, if somewhat fatigued, I launched another flurry of shots, and more shadowhounds were taken out of commission. Before, there seemed to be no end to the monsters, but the herd had been visibly thinned. Even better, the fighting was tapering off, and many Were had begun to come to our aid, turning the tide in our favor.

At that point, a few things happened in the span of seconds. My muscles became weary of their burden and began to send a signal that told me of their distaste for my recent actions. They weren’t fans of old westerns,
apparently
. The lightning surrounding me began to fade, which left me vulnerable to physical attack. And Noah took a brutal swipe from one of the hounds, which sent him flying into Jas’ legs. Both of them went down, and our enemies smelled blood. With Air speeding me, I fought through my fatigue in order to protect my friends. By the time I was able to reach them, Jas was beginning to get up, although Noah was motionless upon the ground.

“Jas, behind you!” I warned, as a mass of shadow streaked toward him.

A stream of lightning appeared from my fingers and collided with the fast-moving hound. It clipped its hind legs, and Jas was able to finish the beast as it slid to a tumbling halt. One down, but there appeared an endless amount still prowling, waiting to inflict harm. Truthfully, there were only ten more able to put up a fight, but they were all swarming us as a singular unit. I no longer had time to form complicated structures in my attacks, and so bolts of lightning were my fallback weapons. My strikes became few and far between, as the adrenaline sustaining me began to trickle away. There was a brief moment wherein I wondered where Razor and Hailey were in the scheme of things, but my attention refocused on more important matters such as staying alive and keeping Jas and Noah breathing.

Jas seemed to need little assistance, even though blood was trickling out of wounds exhibited all across his arms. The katana became a blur in his hands. I wasn’t in any shape for such grand performances. But I did know one thing that might allow us to withstand the combined might arrayed against us. After siphoning more power from my stores, I visualized the application of my will then forced it to become a corporeal presence.

“Get close to me,” I advised Jas.

Jas glared but stopped hacking and slashing long enough for me to establish the barrier. Lightning coalesced around us, starting from ground up and extending above our heads. Then I pulled the ends together, creating a dome of protection that would likely hold long enough for the Were to take down the remaining hounds. Considering the beasts were focused solely on us, I hoped our Were friends would be okay. Already, there was an eclectic rallying party, which was already rending and tearing its way through the crowd. Pressure built up on my shield as hounds attempted to breach its crackling berth.

“There are too many of them!” Jas yelled. “You won’t be able to keep them out!”

“Ye of little faith.” I put my palm out, reinforcing my dome. “We can’t fight them all at once and protect your father. This is the only way it can be done.”

Jas threw his hands up in defeat. After several unsuccessful attempts through the venue of head smashing and clawed swipes, things got real. A fast-moving shadow detached itself from the group and threw its shoulder into the effort of bringing down my protections. The foundations of my barrier shook, and I couldn’t help but think that we were about to die a very bloody death. My power wasn’t totally depleted, but implementing such a wide variety of new tricks in a short period of time was taxing. A gargantuan body smashed up against my shield, and spats of lightning sparked and flew away from the retaining wall. The partition was losing some color with each battering by the shadowhounds, becoming less opaque with each collision. Hopefully the shield was hurting the hounds more than they were hurting it.

“They aren’t going to get here in time,” Jas said. His voice was surprisingly calm.

“With that outlook on life, you could really go places.” My hand shook as two more hounds slammed into the barrier.

“Just hear me out. They seem to have an aversion to light. And for some reason your lightning has been packing quite the punch in that division. Your barrier doesn’t seem to be doing a large amount of harm, just stunning and angering them. But what if you extended it rapidly?”

“Then…”

Without conscious thought or action, I attempted to implement the idea without harming any of the Were that were currently hacking their way through the crowd to retrieve us. Another hound collided with the partitioning, shattering off bits of it. After bringing up my left hand, I interlocked it with my right, creating a rough circle with both hands. I figured I might be able to do this with just a mental visualization, but it helped to have a physical representation of my occurrence. My hands exploded outwards, and so did my shield, created and formed out of lightning, the unique power granted to me.

Light and sound detonated outwards. Concerted howling informed me that I had done something right. The blue force field blasted away the hounds, popping them like fruit left to sit too long in the sun. There was no time for them, or whoever led them, to react to my unexpected attack. A concussion blast pummeled the Were out of the way of the explosion, which was a semi-accidental aftereffect. My breath came hot and heavy for a good half minute but returned to normal after some deep breathing. As there wasn’t anything life-threatening to occupy my mind, I permitted myself that small break.

“That. Was. So.
Awesome
!” Jas applauded, leaping up into the air in celebration.

“Watch it!” Jeeves abruptly vanished from view and reemerged in his usual form. “I’m not a toy to be swung around in victory like some bauble.” He attempted to dust off his suit, to no avail.

Jas mimicked my hand movements. “You were like this, and then—blam! Man, I’ve got some good stuff up here.” He tapped his forehead.

Jeeves’ was still under the effects of the liquor that I imbibed, and a chuckle escaped me. “Well, that worked rather splendidly.” I wobbled only slightly in fatigue, stretching to my full height.

“Did you even hear me?” Jas complained.

“Yeah, I heard you. I grinned. “Thanks for the help.”

“And you,” Jeeves accused me, his finger weaving slightly. “Handing me off like some hammy-down piece of equipment, I ought a—”

“I think it would be best that you get some rest, Jeeves.” My hand fell through his body in my attempt to reassure him.

The Were who had been trying so valiantly to get to us were finally gathering their wits enough to shift back into their human forms and get up off the ground. Five male, three female, all in varying stages of drunken and disorderliness. Many of them were only partially clothed, and I held doubts that it was because they lost them on the shift back. I hoped they would be more than happy to overlook the fact that I flipped them ass over teakettle, in the process of taking care of our enemies. Plus, I was in no condition to brawl with drunken shape-shifters. It could only be bad for my recently improved chances of sustained health to do any such thing.

“Jas, are you okay? How’s your dad?”

Jas looked down at his bloodied arms and shrugged. “I’ll be fine. At least until the adrenaline wears off.” Then he crouched down next to his father, checking for wounds. “He seems all right. I think he hit his head when he fell. Some broken ribs, most likely, but we mend fast. He just needs some rest.”

Jas seemed concerned, but leery to show it in present company. I don’t think that weakness was a welcome trait, in the circles that his father played in.

“Craig!” Jas shouted, cupping his hands toward a stumbling Were. “Take him to his rooms. And see if the Healer can attend him there, when he has the chance.”

When two questionably capable men had shouldered Noah’s prone form, I faced down the remainder of the pack. “There’s still more fun to be had, if you’re up for it.”

There was still battle taking place across the field, although there was little in the way of resistance against the Clan. Finally, there had been a change, and the Were had come out on top. The hounds that were healthy enough to retreat were in the process of completing it, although many of them weren’t capable of any such thing. I was surprised at the retreat. Before it seemed like they were fighting as if they were expendable. But obviously their master had misjudged, as they had seen that they were going to lose the battle and withdrew their forces. The remaining maimed and dying shadowhounds were fighting to the last beast, however, and seemed determined to take out as many of the Clan as possible.

“We should try and pick off the stragglers,” Jas said, voicing my thoughts exactly.

“Don’t try to take them alone,” I said for those who were actively listening. “Let’s go,” I replied to Jas, more quietly.

“Right then,” he exhaled. “We doing this the old-fashioned way?”

“What’s that?” I smiled winningly. “Going in with no plan and hoping for the best sounds like the best directive to me. You in?”